Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

David Stoutemyer, The Soft Warehouse David Stoutemyer was co-founder of The Soft Warehouse, a company that specialized in mathematics software for several computer platforms. The company published three programs through Atari Program Exchange. Algicalc and Polycalc first appeared in the summer 1982 APX catalog for $22.95 each. Algicalc was described as a "valuable tool for students and teachers of algebra and calculus and for professionals who want a quick way to perform operations in symbolic algebra and calculus." It won third price in the education category in that catalog. Polycalc was described as "a computational tool for performing symbolic algebra and calculus operations. It differs from ALGICALC in that POLYCALC supports polynomials that are generalized to permit fractional and negative powers of variables, and the program can use many unassigned variables, whereas ALGICALC can use only one. However, POLYCALC is essentially a polynomial system rather than a rational expression system." Their third At

David Crane, Pitfall! and Atari 400/800 OS David Crane started his programming career at Atari, making games for the Atari 2600. He also worked on the operating system for the Atari 800 computer, as well as the games Outlaw and Howitzer, which were sold through APX.  David left Atari in 1979 and co-founded Activision, along with Alan Miller, Jim Levy, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan. While at Activision, he was best known as the designer of Pitfall! This interview took place October 23, 2015 Links “Meet David Crane: Video Games Guru”, HI-RES Vol. 1, No. 2 / January 1984 / page 46 - http://www.atarimagazines.com/hi-res/v1n2/davidcrane.php David Crane Interview at Good Deal Games - http://www.gooddealgames.com/interviews/int_David_Crane.html PRGE 2015 - David Crane (Activision) - Portland Retro Gaming Expo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbinkHyWde8

Bill Rice, HYSYS Bill Rice published one program in the Atari Program Exchange catalog: HYSYS, or Hydraulic Program. It was a tool that did calculations for sizing hydraulic systems and components. HYSYS first appeared winter 1982 APX catalog. This interview took place on January 27, 2016 Teaser quote: "So you can imagine with something like a hydraulic program, they're like 'No we've got our scientific calculators and we look really cool punching in these numbers. We're not going to get a home computer and do that.'"

On this episode of ANTIC the atari 8-bit podcast: I cause a robot invasion in Portland, Bill Kendrick goes ultra-mega-retro gaming with Game ‘N Watch inspired games for the Atari, Randy wraps up the retrochallenge, and we still manage to keep the podcast under 3h 21m. Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kevin’s Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge ANTIC Facebook Page What we’ve been up to “The Atari Book Volume 2” - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BKS5SHU/?tag=ataripodcast-20 BASIC Tenliners Contest 2016 - http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247971-basic-tenliners-contest-2016/ Axlon Andy Robot, ANTIC VOL. 3, NO. 12 / APRIL 1985 - http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n12/profiles.html Interview Discussion Luis Baeza transcribed Glenn the 5200 man - http://computingpioneers.com/index.php/Glenn_The_5200_Man News Atari SuperBowl Ads (article) Atari SuperBowl Ads (video) - https://

Jerry Falkenhan, Finance Software Jerry Falkenhan had three programs published by Atari Program Exchange: Family Cash Flow, Family Budget, and Family Vehicle Expense. Atari bought Family Cash Flow and Family Budget and packaged them as an Atari-branded product, Family Finances. This interview took place on January 26, 2016. Teaser quote: "I get my first royalty check. I'll never forget: $35,000. I go down to Wells Fargo and they wouldn't cash the darn thing." Picture of Jerry during our Skype session: http://i.imgur.com/5y2yFMc.png Inverse ATASCII podcast on Atari Family Finances: http://inverseatascii.info/2015/01/27/s1e9-atari-family-finances/ Inverse ATASCII podcast on Family Vehicle Expense:  http://inverseatascii.info/2015/10/13/s2e02-apx-family-vehicle-expense/

Bill Louden, CompuServe and GEnie Bill Louden was part of the team that built CompuServe, the first consumer online service, where he was director of the computing, games, entertainment, e-mail, chat, and forum products. He went on to be the founder of the GEnie online service (General Electric Network for Information Exchange.) This interview took place October 15, 2015. Teaser quotes: "You know, we expected at CompuServe customers to spend $10 to $15 a month. ... We never expected people to come online and spend $1,200, $2,000 a month playing MegaWars." "We're there to serve the customer so I want [a name] that sort of embodies a service configuration, and it's magical. It's something new. And the best name they came up with was Albert, for Albert Einstein. This cost me $50,000. I literally came home from that meeting crying."

Jerry Jewell, co-founder of Sirius Software Jerry Jewell was co-founder of Sirius Software. Sirius published many Atari titles including Alpha Shield, Capture the Flag, Fast Eddie, Gruds in Space, Sneakers, Wavy Navy, and Wayout. The company was probably best known in the Apple ][ world, but also published software for the Commodore and other platforms - more than 160 titles in all. This interview took place October 15, 2015. Teaser quotes: "In the latter days it got down to where a game would sell for two weeks, three weeks, and then it would die." "It was like the boys hadn't discovered girls yet and my job was to keep them from doing that ... Whatever it took to keep these guys off the streets and away from alcohol and women, it would keep them busy, you know? Keep them programming." On-Line and Sirius Finalize Merge Plans: https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA6 AtariMania's list of Sirius software for Atari: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-400-800-xl-xe-sirius-software_publis

Bob Polaro Bob Polaro was an Atari employee from 1978 through 1984, where he wrote several programs for Atari Program Exchange — very early programs in the APX catalog: Lemonade, Mugwump, Preschool Games, Reversi, Space Trek, and Dice Poker.  He also wrote the States & Capitals and European Countries & Capitals educational programs for the Atari computers, both published by Atari.  He programmed several games for the Atari 2600, including Defender and RealSports Volleyball. This interview took place on January 22, 2016. Teaser quote: “At that time they were starting to request that we put in easter eggs, which kind of took the whole idea away. It was supposed to be hidden, and yet, it ended up being part of the design at some point.” Links: Bob’s web site: http://www.polaro.com Lemonade in Antic magazine: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n6/lemonade.html

Dave Pratt, founder of Digital Vision (ComputerEyes) Dave Pratt was founder of Digital Vision, the company that made ComputerEyes for the Apple //, Commodore 64, and Atari 8-bit computers. ComputerEyes was a slow-scan video digitizer that plugged into the joystick port (on the Atari version). You'd connect a video camera or VCR into the ComputerEyes box, and software on your computer would create a black-and-white or greyscale version of the image on the computer screen. This interview took place October 12, 2015. After we did this interview, Dave set up a nice web site with a history of Digital Vision and photographs of the early products, at www.Digital-Vision-Inc.com. Teaser quotes: "Even just running tight machine language loops, it barely could keep up with that kind of rate pulling samples from the scan lines." "That same signature from the very first scan -- literally the very first scan that was done by the prototype initial product -- literally, that same image was used to sign the company's checks f

Thomas Hudson, Atari sales trainer Thomas Hudson was a trainer for Atari, where he taught computer store owners and others about the Atari 8-bit computer line, and attended trade shows to show off Atari's computer products. Later he became a product manager for three products: light pen, touch tablet, and mouse.  In this interview we discuss Andrew Soderberg, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on January 21, 2016. Teaser quotes: "And one was this little device that you plugged into the thing, and you moved it around to control the cursor. And he said "I don't know what this mouse thing is, but nobody is ever going to use a mouse on a computer.'" "He called me up at work, and in the unmistakable voice said, 'Tom, this is Alan Alda. I've run into a little problem, and I think you're the only person that can help me. ... I've got a bunch of friends coming over tonight, I wanted to show this program off to them...'" Links Tom's web site: http://thehudsons.com/tom-and-patty/ Tom Swift fan fic

Roger Hector, Atari’s Advanced Products Group Roger Hector started at Atari back in 1976.  As a creative designer, he was originally hired by Pete Takaishi (Industrial Design Manager), before working in the Art Department, and then finally for Al Alcorn.  He managed Atari's Advanced Products Group and helped create the Cosmos system before leaving to co-found Videa with Howard Delman and Ed Rotberg. This interview took place September 17, 2015. Teaser Quotes: “There’s a LOT of interesting stories!” “There was an old saying around there, somewhat cynical, but they said ‘hey, we could make money faster than we can piss it away’” “I think Atari was a place that deserved your fandom.” Links: Roger Hector interview for Gamasutra - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3672/a_veteran_with_character_roger_.php?print=1 Roger Hector interview for 2600 Connection - http://www.2600connection.com/interviews/roger_hector/interview_roger_hector.html TopTrack Mobile App for Musicians developed by Roger - www.toptrackarti

Bob C., Software Pirate Bob C. was an Atari software pirate in New York who went by the moniker The Missing Link. This interview took place on January 19, 2016. Teaser quotes: "It's all I wanted to do. I skipped going on vacation with my parents because I wouldn't be able to dial into these bulletin boards and see what was going on and leave messages to my friends. It just got, got like a drug." "Sometimes I say, 'Jesus, that ate up a lost of my life, what the hell was I thinking?' But, they were such fun times."

Peter Langston, LucasArts Peter Langston was a founding employee at the game development company LucasArts, part of the team that created the Atari 8-bit games Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus. Peter composed Song Of The Grid, the memorable theme to Ballblazer. He also created the classic mainframe game Empire, and Oracle, the precursor to the Usenet Oracle (now called Internet Oracle.) Check his web site at langston.com for an interesting collection of papers, scans of LucasArts articles, and related material. This interview took place on January 16, 2016. Teaser quotes: "I remember at one point, some magazine said that LucasFilm has the ... best computer graphics in the game industry. And Alvy Ray Smith said that the games industry had the worst computer graphics that LucasFilm had ever done." Links Peter's Web site: http://langston.com/LFGames/ Internet Oracle: http://internetoracle.org Empire on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Classic Peter Langston on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org

Tom Harker, ICD Tom Harker was co-founder of ICD, a company that created many popular add-ons for the Atari 8-bit computers including P:R: Connection, U.S. Doubler, and SpartaDOS. Later, they created several upgrades for the Atari ST and Amiga computers, and the CatBox networking hardware for the Atari Jaguar. According to a 1987 article in Antic magazine, "Tom Harker started ICD in his basement in Rockford, Illinois, with Mike Gustafson, who then lived in Minneapolis. The company was incorporated in 1984, with Harker as president and Gustafson as vice president in charge of development." This interview took place on January 19, 2016. Teaser quote: “It started out, when we did the U.S. Doublers, I was assembling all of those myself and we were baking them in our oven. We potted them in epoxy so people wouldn’t copy it. ... I remember baking them to cure the epoxy in my oven. My wife loved it.” Links Tom’s ICD memorial site: http://www.icd.com Antic Magazine article about ICD: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n

Jerry White, Atari author and programmer Jerry White was a prolific Atari software developer and writer. He published Player Piano, Bowler's Database, and other software for Atari Program Exchange. He wrote Poker S.A.M. and Chaterbee, two talking programs distributed by Don't Ask Software. He was co-author of the book The Atari User’s Encyclopedia, and wrote dozens of articles for Antic, A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing, Compute! and other magazines. He wrote two lessons in the Tricky Tutorial series, and was the founder of the Professional Atari Programmers Information Exchange (PAPIE). This interview took place on January 1, 2016. Teaser quotes: "Believe it or not, I think I got to like 30 things on the market at one time. I was really hellbelt on quantity rather than shoot-em-up games, because I didn't want to really spend my time trying to develop another game." "My income from the Atari stuff was more than I was making [at my day job.] So I retired from the job I was doing so I could develop software 24 hours a da

Steve Defrisco, H.E.R.O., Wing War Hello and welcome to Antic, The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast.  My name is Randy Kindig.  This is another in the continuing series of Atari 8-bit related interviews.  This time, we talk to a former game developer for the Atari 8-bits, Mr. Steve DeFrisco.  Steve worked for Imagic and Activision, working on porting such titles as H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation) and Wing War as well as developing software for the Intellivision and Atari 2600.  He also is the man doing the juggling in an Imagic video from 1983; link provided in the show notes. Teaser Quote “The next Spring, when my first game Tropical Trouble was done, was when Atari announced their big loss.  So, I put kind of a kibosh on the whole being a millionaire before I was 20.” Links Steve in Imagic Video (he’s the one doing the juggling for a few seconds beginning about 1:17 in) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3x6Idp8oT0 Steve’s Web Site - http://www.stevedefrisco.com

Thomas Newton, Basic/XA and Keypad Controller Thomas Newton, published two programs with Atari Program Exchange: Keypad Controller, software for reading the keypad game controllers from BASIC; and BASIC/XA, a set of add-ons for Atari BASIC programmers. This interview took place December 11, 2015.

Arlan Levitan, writer Arlan Levitan wrote for many computer magazines including Creative Computing and Compute!, where he wrote the Telecomputing Today and Levitations columns. He helped design the menu system and feature set of the AMIS bulletin board system, and hosted the first AMIS BBS at his house. He was heavily involved with MACE, the Michigan Atari Computer Enthusiast user group, and wrote the book The User's Guide to Atari 400, 800, 1200XL Computers, Software & Peripherals. This interview took place on December 10, 2015. Teaser quotes: "They [Atari] were either, depending on how you want to look at it, very generous or very foolish with their money." "It's not so much about the hardware, I think, as the people."  Link: Arlan's articles in Compute!: http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/index/index.php?author=Arlan+R.+Levitan

Sandy Dwiggins, AtariLab manuals Sandy Dwiggins wrote the manuals for AtariLab - both the light and temperature modules - while she was an adjunct professor at Dickinson College, teaching Film Studies. She worked closely with Priscilla Laws, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on October 14, 2015. Teaser quote: “She [Priscilla Laws] found these two programmers who only came out at night and were barefoot all the time ... they didn’t take showers, they didn’t take baths, they didn’t do anything except sit in their nest.” Links AtariLab starter set/temperature module manual: http://www.atarimania.com/documents/AtariLab_Starter_Set.pdf AtariLab light module manual: http://www.atarimania.com/documents/AtariLab_Light_Module.pdf

Andrew Soderberg, Atari Product Manager Andrew Soderberg was a product manager at Atari from 1980 through August 1983. He oversaw projects including the XL line of computers, and De Re Atari. He was also production manager for several of Atari's TV commercials, one of which won a Clio award. He was a member of the team that build the first computer/laserdisc interactive kiosks for use in retail. In this interview we discuss Tandy Trower, whom I previously interviewed. This interview took place on November 18, 2015. Teaser quote: “So here I am, 21 years of age, in New York City, being put up in the junior suite of the Plaza, for a week. It’s all been downhill ever since!” Links: Andrew’s web site: https://about.me/AndrewSoderberg Conversational French commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZN9o7qlWU