Antic The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Rick Trow, Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow This is the second interview episode about Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow. Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow was a school assembly, sponsored by Atari, that played at hundreds of middle schools and high schools throughout the United States in 1983 and 1984. In the previous interview episode, I interviewed one of the show's presenters and the filmmaker. In this episode, my interview with Rick Trow. Rick Trow was the president of Rick Trow Productions, the company that created the Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow show -- as well as more than 40 other school assemblies and other productions over the years. Mr. Trow wrote the script for the 40-minute show, which combined two synchronized films with a live actor to teach computer basics to young people. This interview took place on June 5, 2021. ANTIC Interview 417 - Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow The Career Game Rick Trow Productions Employee Newsletters 1983 "Taking the Show on the Road" in Personal Co

ANTIC Episode 78 -  The Extremely Elderly Computer Geeks Club In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We discuss lots of new things you can do with your FujiNet, the differences in FujiNet versions, the Old Computer Geeks Club, and other recent Atari news... READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Interesting conversation with Mike Albaugh - https://twitter.com/KaySavetz/status/1388206215356829696?s=20  2013 Mike Albaugh interview: https://archive.org/details/MikeAlbaughInterview  Brian Manning - Academy on Computers tapes and newsletters https://archive.org/details/@savetz?query=academy+on+computers TIARA - The Internet Archive Research Assistant - https://github.com/savetz/tiara  News  Fuji

ANTIC Interview 417 - Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow Interviews and research by Kay Savetz Imagine this. It's 1983 or 1984. You're drudging through yet another day of middle school or high school. But today, there's a surprise, a break from the monotony. The teacher tells your class to put away their stuff and go to the gym, or the cafeteria, or the auditorium. Today, there will be an assembly. As you and your class -- and all the other classes -- get settled in the uncomfortable folding chairs, or the bleachers, or even the floor, you take in the scene: two large projection screens. Some speakers and audio equipment you haven't seen before. One of your peers is getting ready to run a spotlight. Then, this enthusiastic person -- older than you but really not by much -- explains why you're here. Today, at this assembly, you're going to learn about computers. The lights go down, the spotlight comes up on that energetic host, and you realize this is a different sort of school assembly than you've seen befo

Bob Evans, Capital Children's Museum administrator This is the fourth in our series of interviews about the Atari computers at the Capital Children's Museum. Bob Evans wore many hats at the museum: he was director of special exhibits, where he worked on the museum's exhibit on the history of human communication, which used several computers, both public-facing and behind the scenes. He was administrator of Superboots, the museum's software publishing lab -- it published the computer art program PAINT! but no other software. Bob was administrator of The Future Center, the museum's public computer lab, and administrator of the museum's summer computer camp for disadvantaged youth. This interview took place on April 22, 2021. ANTIC Interview 391 - Tracy Frey, Atari Birthday Girl   ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum ANTIC Interview 415 - Peter Hirshberg, CCM computer center director

Peter Hirshberg, Capital Children's Museum Peter Hirshberg was curator of the communications wing of the Capital Children's Museum in the early 1980s, where he helped build The Future Center, the computer lab outfitted with Atari 800 computers; and museum exhibits, some of which were computer controlled. This interview took place on April 12, 2021. In it, we discuss Ann Lewin-Benham, director of the museum; and Guy Nouri, from the Superboots lab, both of whom I previously interviewed. Compu-tots and Other Joys of Museum Life by Peter Hirshberg, Instructional Innovator, Sept 1981 ANTIC Interview 410 - Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum ANTIC Interview 407 - Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems Finding Home Computer Uses, NY Times article by Andrew Pollack Gray Area art and technology center This interview on YouTube

Bob Puff, Computer Software Services Bob Puff is owner of Computer Software Services, a company that began creating hardware and software for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Bob became president of the company in 1991. He designed a bevy of hardware products for the Atari computers, including The Black Box, a hard drive host adapter; The Multiplexer, a networking system; the UltraSpeed Plus operating system upgrade; upgrades for the XF551 floppy drive; the Super-E Burner EPROM burner; and others. He also created a number of popular utility programs, including the BobTerm terminal program; Disk Communicator, to convert boot disks to a single compressed file for transfer over modem; and MYDOS version 4.53; among other software. This interview took place on April 27, 2021. Computer Software Services legacy site 1993 Computer Software Services catalog scan ANTIC Interview 393 - Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip

Valerie (Atkinson) Manfull, Atari Game Research Group Valerie Atkinson was a member of Atari's Game Research Group. Now named Valerie Manfull, she was on the team that designed and programmed the game Excalibur, along with Chris Crawford and Larry Summers. Excalibur was published by Atari Program Exchange in fall 1983. She is also one of the programmes of Ballsong, along with Douglas Crockford. Ballsong is a music and graphics demo program released by Atari, in which a ball bounces on the screen in response to an improvised tune. She was one of the programmers, with Ann Marion, of TV Fishtank, a demonstration of an artificially intelligent fish. (It's unclear if the fishtank program was released anywhere, though it apparently was shown at the 1984 SIGgraph conference.) This interview took place on April 22, 2021. ANTIC Episode 4 - Chris Crawford ANTIC Interview 240 - Douglas Crockford TV Fishtank at SIGgraph Jim Leiterman describes TV Fishtank Chris Crawford describes the development of Excalibur i

ANTIC Episode 77 - Jason Moore, PhD  In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Jason Moore joins us to discuss his atariprojects.org Web site and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world... READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Ed Fries source code, mac/65 tokenized:  https://github.com/savetz/edfries-seachase https://github.com/savetz/edfries-anteater https://github.com/savetz/edfries-frog https://github.com/savetz/edfries-nitro  https://github.com/savetz/edfries-chess (Xuel got it working at https://atariage.com/forums/topic/318961-assembly-source-code-for-5-programs-by-ed-fries/?do=findComment&comment=4799922  Prentice Associates Classroom Computer News and Apple II source

Linda Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects As I've researched Atari and it's 8-bit computer projects over the years, one name has come up over and over again, attached to the most interesting projects. Linda S. Gordon. Executive Director of Atari Computer Camps. Linda. Executive Producer of The Magic Room, Atari's movie about its camps. Atari's collaboration with Club Med to offer computer labs at vacation destinations — Linda again. Atari Club, the fan group that published Atari Age magazine - Linda launched that. More recently, in my interview with Ann Lewin-Benham of the Capital Children's Museum, Linda's name came up once again -- she was the liaison between Atari and the museum. Linda worked on the most interesting projects. Today, her name is Linda Brownstein. Linda joined Atari in December 1980 as Vice President of Special Projects, where she worked on most of  the projects that I mentioned before. In October 1983 she became Senior Vice President in Atari's  Education group. She left the company in

Mark Simonson, Atari Artist and Font Designer Mark Simonson used his Atari computers who create art that was published in magazines in the 1980s, including a portrait of Nolan Bushnell that was commissioned by TWA Ambassador, an inflight magazine; a colorful street scene for the cover of Minnesota Monthly, the magazine of Minnesota Public Radio; and a juggler for the cover of Credit Union Advantage magazine, among others. Professionally, Mark is a font designer. He created Atari Classic, a free TrueType font family for modern computers that looks like the Atari 8-bit screen font. Today, you'll see Atari Classic used in many Atari emulators, web sites, the WUDSN IDE, and elsewhere. This interview took place on April 15, 2021. Mark's Atari reminisce blog post Mark's Mac/Atari Fusion site Mark's Nolan Bushnell portrait in Hi-Res Magazine Issue 1 A wild Mark appears on AtariAge FujiNet This interview on YouTube

Ann Lewin-Benham, Director of Capital Children's Museum Ann Lewin-Benham was executive director of the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum was home to the first public-access computer center in the nation’s capital, and indeed, one of the first in the United States. In 1981, Atari and Apple each donated dozens of computers to the museum. The exact number is unclear, but 30 is the number I've seen most often for Atari's contribution. The computer lab was called The Future Center. There, the museum offered computer literacy classes for people of all ages, from Compu-Tots for preschoolers, to programming classes for adults, there was even a computer literacy session for members of Congress. It also used the lab for birthday parties. (Last year, I interviewed a woman who had her 8th birthday party at the museum.) The museum used more of its computers in its exhibit on communication. It established a software development laboratory, called Superboots, in which developers created custom softa

Ed Fries: Romox Ant Eater, Princess and Frog, Sea Chase Ed Fries programmed three games for the Atari 8-bit computers, which were published on cartridge by Romox: Sea Chase, Ant Eater, and Princess and Frog. His forth game for Romox, Nitro, was unfinished because the company went out of business before Ed was done coding it. Years later, Ed became vice president of game publishing at Microsoft where he oversaw the creation of the Xbox. In 2010, Ed released Halo 2600, a demake of the Halo video for the Atari 2600. In 2013, he coded an Atari 2600 version of Rally X. This interview took place on March 11, 2021. After the interview, Ed sent me the assembly language source code to five games, which he graciously released as open source. You'll find the code for Sea Chase, Ant Eater, Princess and Frog, the unreleased/finished game Nitro, and a chess game, at GitHub. AtariMania's list of Ed Fries' games 2015 Atari Compendium Interview Ed's Blog Ed on Twitter This interview at Youtube ANTIC Interview 76

ANTIC Episode 76 - The Bill Kendrick Show In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Bill Kendrick gets more mentions than when he’s on the show, Kay discovers he owns more Atari disk drives than the rest of the Atari community combined, and we discuss all the news rocking the Atari 8-bit world. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Worms? Source code archiving - https://github.com/savetz/worms  Atari Speed Reading Receipts - https://archive.org/details/atari-speed-reading-receipts  News  800XL PCB remake: https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-soldering-and-troubleshooting https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-bill-materials-bom https://ezcontents.org/atari-800xl-pcb-remake ATasm, a command-l

ANTIC Interview 408 - David Maynard, Electronic Arts Worms? David Maynard created the game/simulation "Worms?" Published by Electronic Arts in 1983, it was a launch title -- one of the five initial releases from the company. David, one of EA's first employees, wrote Worms? for the Atari 8-bit in FORTH. It was later ported to the Commodore 64. Worms is an interactive version of Paterson's Worms, a family of cellular automata devised in 1971 by Mike Paterson and John Conway. It is an unusual program, in which the player teaches wormlike creatures how to move on a hexagonal grid -- what direction to move in various situations. The worm's goal is to to grow and survive, and to capture more space on the grid than its competitors. Up to four worms could play simultaneously, with any combination of human- and computer-controlled worms. But the program's manual didn't tell you all that straight off. In fact, here's the first thing you saw after opening the package: "You will find detailed instructions enclosed. Do

Guy Nouri, Interactive Picture Systems Guy Nouri was co-founder of Interactive Picture Systems, a company that created software for 8-bit computers from 1982 through 1984. The company's first program was PAINT! for the Atari 8-bits, which was developed at the Superboots software development lab located at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C.. Its next program was Movie Maker, an animation program. Next came three educational titles for the Atari: Trains, a business simulation; Grandma's House, a sort of digital dollhouse; and Aerobics, a fitness program. The company also created Operation Frog, virtual dissection software for the Apple II and Commodore 64; and First Draft, an outline processor that helped kids plan their writing. This interview took place on March 7, 2021. PAINT! manual First Annual IPS Computer Film Show PAINT! in K-Power magazine

Atari at the Science Fair: Michael Fripp: Silent E An article was published in the Daily Press newspaper of Newport News, Virginia on February 13 1985, titled "Best in Show at Science Fair: Computer program helps young readers conquer the 'silent e' challenge'. Two years ago Michael Fripp wanted to make sure his younger brother didn't face a hard time learning how to deal with the "silent e" principle in reading lessons. Putting his own Atari computer to work, Michael developed a fun, educational computer program designed to teach then 6-year-old Daniel how to successfully pronounce words like "cap," "tub" and "man" when an "e" is added to each. "I remember the trouble I had with 'silent e' and didn't want him to have that trouble," says 13-year-old Michael, an eighth grader at Queens Lake Intermediate School. "There are lots of math but few English programs for computers. I hope to bridge that gap." Michael went on to expand the "silent e" program, complete with more detailed instruction and graphics, th

Heidi Brumbaugh, Antic and START Magazines Heidi Brumbaugh worked at Antic Publishing, where she started off as editorial clerk, then was promoted to editorial assistant, for both Antic magazine and START magazine, then was programs editor for START Magazine. She wrote many articles for Antic and START, including three programs for the 8-bits published in Antic: Red, White and Blue, a board game; Hot and Cold, a Master Mind-type game; and Antic Prompter, a teleprompter application. She met her husband through Antic publishing, START author and programmer Jim Kent, who also created the Cyber Paint program for Atari ST. This interview took place on February 28, 2021. List of Antic articles by Heidi Brumbaugh List of START articles by Heidi Brumbaugh Heidi's programs at Atarimania Heidi's review of Linkword Languages Cyber Paint by Jim Kent 2013 Interview with Jim Capparell, Founder of Antic Magazine

Atari at the Science Fair: Scott Ryder: Atari-Controlled Robot Here's an article from The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) dated April 15, 1982: "Science proves Fair game to young minds". "Joseph Paul Ogas, 17, has designed a cheaper way to manipulate material beneath a microscope. Garey Nishimura, 13, has evaluated the relative flammability of several household fabrics. Theirs were the big winners among the 693 projects that filled the Fresno Convention Center Exhibit Hall for this year’s California Central Valley Science and Engineering Fair. "There were other interesting projects that didn’t win big [such as] 'The Effects of Birth Control Pills on Plants,' and 'Determining the Correlation Between Canine Howling, Cockroach Activity and Earthquake Prediction'." And later -- in the article's final paragraph, the reason for this interview: "Runners up [included] Scott Ryder, a sixth-grader at Ayer Elementary School: "Can an Atari 800 Control a Robot With Software?" Can an Atari 800 control a robot with sof

ANTIC Episode 75 - Video Wars In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the merits of Sophia vs. VBXE for video upgrades, kick off the BASIC 10-liners contest, discuss some new games, and talk about numerous hardware upgrades that are coming. READY! 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  Interview index: here  ANTIC Facebook Page  AHCS  Eaten By a Grue  Next Without For  What We’ve Been Up To Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games - https://amzn.to/3k8avzS  Code for Atari8BitBot (https://twitter.com/atari8bitbot) now on GitHub - (https://github.com/savetz/Atari8BitBot)  PC BASIC Bot - https://pcbasicbot.com  ACE80XL cart - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/  Interview with Claus Buckholz and Lance Ward - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-292-claus-buchhoz-lance-ward-ace-80 i

ANTIC Special Episode: My Atari by Suzanne Ciani   Over the years many of the people I've interviewed have generously sent me all different kinds of historical Atari material — including source code, schematics, documentation, books and articles, and design documents — and allowed me to share them. This is the first time someone has sent me a professionally produced song they created for Atari. After I published my interview with Suzanne Ciani, she sent me an email: she had found an unpublished Atari spot in her archives. It's a tune titled "My Atari". She sent it to me and graciously allowed me to share it with you. She wrote "I don't think it is a final. There are a bunch of mixes. Maybe you could shed some light on this as to whether it was ever used." Well, I'd certainly never heard it before, and don't think it was ever used. I suppose it might have been used internally by Atari, but it wasn't released to the public. Suzanne later said that she believes it was a demo for a campaign, but as far as she k