ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Latest Episodes:

ANTIC Interview 195 - Kathy and Phil Bergh, I'm Different! Jul 01, 2016

Show notes

Kathy and Phil Bergh, I'm Different!

Kathy and Phil Bergh published one program through Atari Program Exchange: I'm Different!, which first appeared in the inaugural APX catalog, winter 1982-1983. The program won third prize in the Education category in that catalog. It was one of the few commercial programs developed in the PILOT language. Kathy and Phil also wrote three articles — also about PILOT — for ANTIC magazine.

This interview took place on May 24, 2016.

Kathy and Phil's articles in ANTIC

I'm Different in the winter 1982 APX catalog

I'm Different at AtariMania

I'm Different on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCaFpm9LHcE

Teaser quotes:

"'Consumer Reports Tests Educational Software' and so he made a big production of 'Let's see if our game is in it.' ... and it turns out, Consumer Reports did indeed review our game."

"They must have sold a few because I remember getting a check for $12."

ANTIC Interview 194 - David Thiel, musician and interactive audio Jun 29, 2016

Show notes

David Thiel, musician and interactive audio

David Thiel is a musician and interactive audio designer. At Gottlieb, he did the sound for arcade games including Reactor, Q*Bert, and Mach 3. At Action Graphics, David created the sound for Artillery Duel for the Atari 2600, and Beamrider and Pitstop for the Atari computers. And at Free Radical Software/Incredible Technologies, he worked on Winter Games for the Amiga and Atari ST. He has created the sound and music for dozens of other computer games and pinball games.

This interview took place on May 17, 2016.

GDRI's list of David's games: http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/David_Thiel

2013 interview with David: http://www.c64.com/gt_display_interview.php?interview=31

Teaser quotes:

"In coin op, I had a sound board. I had a processor. It's my sandbox, I can do anything I want. But the minute you're doing console work, you're now seen by the programmer as a parasitic element that eats CPU and storage, and poops out sound."

"I think, ultimately, doing the Q*Bert voice was the finest destiny of that technology."

ANTIC Interview 193 - Gary Yost, The Catalog and Cyber Studio Jun 27, 2016

Show notes

Gary Yost, The Catalog and Cyber Studio

Gary Yost worked at Antic magazine, in product development. He was the man behind The Catalog, Antic's catalog of third-party software. When Atari Program Exchange was shut down, he contacted programmers from APX to re-publish their works in's Antic's Catalog.

Gary was instrumental in creating CAD 3-D (written by Tom Hudson), Cybermate, and the Cyber Studio graphics suite — which were all published by Antic — and in commercializing the StereoTek 3D Glasses, which provided a 3-D view of the Atari ST's screen.

After Antic, he went on to form The Yost Group which created and licensed a number of products to Autodesk, including Autodesk Animator, Autodesk 3D Studio, and Autodesk 3DS MAX.

This interview took place on May 16, 2016. In it, we discuss Ted Kahn, Jim Capparell, and Tom Hudson, all of whom I have previously interviewed.

Gary's web site: http://GaryYost.com

Martin Doudoroff's history of the Antic Cyber graphics software: http://doudoroff.com/atari/history1.html

Antic articles by Gary

An issue of The Catalog

ANTIC Interview 192 - Fred Parr, MACE newsletter Jun 25, 2016

Show notes

Fred Parr, MACE newsletter

Fred Parr was a member of MACE — the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiasts group, and the man who printed the club newsletter. You can find scans of the newsletter at archive.org.

This interview took place on April 22, 2016. It in, we discuss Arlan Levitan, whom I previously interviewed.

"And I just marvel that something that crude, in today's perspective, could have actually given is so much enjoyment and hope about the future."

ANTIC Interview 191 - Roland Gustafsson, Print Shop Companion Jun 23, 2016

Show notes

Roland Gustafsson, Print Shop Companion

Roland Gustafsson wrote The Print Shop Companion, an add-on package for Brøderbund's popular Print Shop software, which added a printable calendar, font and page border editors, and other features. He first developed the program for the Apple ][, then ported the software to the Atari 800 and Commodore 64.

In the retro-computing community, however, Roland is best known for his work on the Apple ][, where he specialized in designing copy protection as well as the RWTS18 disk format, which squeezed extra data onto the Apple's floppy disk.

This interview took place on May 17, 2016.

Teaser quotes:

"There was a guy in Switzerland who would hack into a telephone booth ... He would phone me and talk to me and tell me, 'Oh, your copy protection is great. I enjoy breaking your copy protection more than the games.'"

"The same concepts, where you make a good decision on the design work, the framework of what you're working on, the foundation — still applies today for modern software."

Roland on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rolandgust

ANTIC Interview 190 - Chuck Gibke, Air Raid! Jun 21, 2016

Show notes

Chuck Gibke, Air Raid!

Chuck Gibke, published one piece of software for the Atari computer: Air Raid!. The game first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog, where it won second prize in the entertainment category.

This interview took place on April 22, 2016.

"Winning the contest generated a little bit of prizes you could pick from Atari stuff, which was pretty amazing. There was like $2,000 worth of stuff. ... Several boxes of stuff showing up at the house one day and I thought that was just the greatest thing."

Download Air Raid! http://www.atariarchives.org/APX/showinfo.php?cat=20187

Air Raid! in the Winter 1982 APX catalog

ANTIC Interview 189 - Steve Cavin: Minotaur, Juggles' House, Juggles' Rainbow Jun 19, 2016

Show notes

Steve Cavin: Minotaur, Juggles' House, Juggles' Rainbow

Steve Cavin started at Cromenco where he built computer kits and tested hardware. Later he wrote several programs for the Atari 8-bit computers: Minotaur, which was published by Atari Program Exchange — it first appeared in the fall 1981 APX catalog; and the Atari versions of Juggles' House and Juggles' Rainbow, educational games published by The Learning Company. He also wrote "The Five Letters", a hangman-style game that - so far - I haven't been able to find online.

This interview took place April 22, 2016.

"He looked at the screens and said, "Those don't look like the test programs that we normally use," and I said 'Well, they're not. I wrote my own. ... They're better than the other ones.'"

Steve's book, "To Find Out": http://amzn.to/1SBbRCJ

Minotaur in the fall 1981 APX catalog

Steve's games list on AtariMania

ANTIC Interview 188 - Neil Harris: Commodore, Atari, GEnie Jun 17, 2016

Show notes

Neil Harris: Commodore, Atari, GEnie

Neil Harris started at Commodore as a member of the VIC-20 launch team, then continued to be a writer, programmer, and product manager there. He moved to Atari, where he was from 1984 to 1988. There he was hardware products manager, director of communications, and director of publications. He worked on Atari Explorer magazine, and wrote a bit for other publications including Compute!'s First Book of Atari and STart magazine. He later moved on to the GEnie online service.

This interview took place on March 31, 2016. In it, we discuss Bill Louden, whom I previously interviewed.

Teaser quotes:

"The Ataris were really good computers. ... The view inside of Commodore was that the Ataris, especially the 800, was over-engineered."

"Every person in Silicon Valley either had a close family member or a close friend who had been laid off by Jack [Tramiel]. ... You know, we were not the golden children. We were not Apple."

Color Wheel for the Atari: http://www.atariarchives.org/c1ba/page085.php

Atari Base BBS article: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n10/ataribulletinboard.html

ST:1999 article in STart magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n7/st1999.html

ANTIC Interview 187 - Jay Jaeger, APX Space War Jun 15, 2016

Show notes

Jay Jaeger, APX Space War

Jay Jaeger released one program for the Atari computers: Space War, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. It appeared in the fall 1983 APX catalog.

This interview took place on March 16, 2016.

Teaser quote:

"It took a couple revisions back and forth. The program was fine; getting the documentation right, and yet have them be happy with it, was a little frustrating. But managed to get it done."

Space War in the fall 1983 APX catalog

Space War at AtariMania

Space War source code

Creative Computing — the Origin of Space War: http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/creative/SpacewarOrigin.html

Jay's web site: http://webpages.charter.net/thecomputercollection/collect.htm

ANTIC Interview 186 - Joel Gluck: Babel, Attank!, Pushover, Fun-FORTH Jun 13, 2016

Show notes

Joel Gluck: Babel, Attank!, Pushover, Fun-FORTH

Joel Gluck published four programs through Atari Program Exchange: Babel, Attank!, Pushover, and Fun-FORTH. The first, Babel, was published when he was just 16 years old. He later worked at Atari's corporate research under Alan Kay. He also wrote a few articles for A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing magazine.

Babel was available in the first APX catalog, fall 1981, where it won second prize in the Entertainment category. Pushover first appeared in the summer 1982 catalog. Attank! first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 catalog. fun-FORTH was first available in fall 1982, which won third prize in the System Software category.

This interview took place on November 20, 2015. In it, we discuss Jack Palevich, whose interview is already published.

Teaser quotes:

"I wasn't so aware of the royalty checks because, I think, my mom was intercepting them. She told me later that I earned enough from APX royalties to put me through a year at M.I.T."

"I came out wearing a white robe and wearing a very tall plastic garbage bag on my head ... But the kids loved it!"

Links:

Email Joel: joelgluck at yahoo.com

AtariMania's list of Joel's games

Joel in Atari Connection magazine

Babel in APX catalog

Pushover in APX catalog

Attank in APX catalog

fun-FORTH in APX catalog