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ANTIC Interview 442 - Bob Stein, Atari Research

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Release Date: 11/01/2024

ANTIC Episode 114 - Andy Diller Returns! show art ANTIC Episode 114 - Andy Diller Returns!

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 114 - Andy Diller Returns! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we have special guest Andy Diller for a FujiNet update and to let us know about all the great things he’s working on… READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to   Kay’s 2024 wrapped -   Lee Pappas ANALOG disks treasure hunt:     S.T.A.R. newsletter -   Rogul game:     YouTube video -   Installing Altirra on ARM...

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ANTIC Interview 452 - Dean Garraghty, DGS Software show art ANTIC Interview 452 - Dean Garraghty, DGS Software

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Interview 452 - Dean Garraghty Hello, and welcome to this interview-only episode of ANTIC, The Atari 8-bit computer podcast.  I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this episode. Dean Garraghty is the proprietor of DGS Software, which sold, and continues to sell, software for the Atari 8-bit computers since the 80’s.  This is a very low cost, 191-disk set that includes an entire utility pack, games, issues of a disk-based newsletter, a sound and music package, an interesting programming language called Quick, and more.  Dean has been an Atari enthusiast since the 80’s and...

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ANTIC Episode 113 - Feeling Fancy! show art ANTIC Episode 113 - Feeling Fancy!

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 113 - Feeling Fancy! In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… The clear case Kickstarter doesn’t make it, lots of FujiNet news, and we end the year 2024 with a bang by bringing you all the rest of the Atari news; all while Kay is feeling fancy… READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to FASTBASIC on Mac -  ()  10-liner option of FASTBASIC -   Finished archiving Lee Pappas’ disks!! -   Eaten by a Grue is back -   ...

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ANTIC Interview 451 - Daniel Serpell, FastBasic show art ANTIC Interview 451 - Daniel Serpell, FastBasic

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Daniel Serpell (dmsc), Creator of FastBasic   Daniel Serpell (dmsc) is the creator of FastBasic, a modern implementation of the BASIC programming language for the Atari 8-bit computers. He released the first version to the public in 2017. Today, the GPL-licensed language is up to version 4.6, and is a favorite of 10-line BASIC game contest entrants and anyone who wants a speedy, modern take on Atari programming.    I'm going to crib from AtariWiki's description of FastBasic: "It is a complete re-implementation of the BASIC system, using a built-in bytecode compiler rather than a...

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ANTIC Interview 450 - Robert Leyland: AtariArtist, KoalaPainter, MicroIllustrator show art ANTIC Interview 450 - Robert Leyland: AtariArtist, KoalaPainter, MicroIllustrator

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Robert Leyland: AtariArtist, KoalaPainter, MicroIllustrator   Robert Leyland programmed AtariArtist, KoalaPainter, and MicroIllustrator (along with Steve Dompier) - the graphics applications that worked with KoalaPad, Atari Touch Tablet, and Chalk Board PowerPad drawing tablets. Prior to that, he programmed The Dragon's Eye (published by Automated Simulations/EPYX), Murder on the Zinderneuf (published by Electronic Arts) and, with Jaron Lanier, the Atari version of Alien Garden for Automated Simulations.   This interview took place on January 21, 2023.         ...

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ANTIC Interview 449 - Tim Boehlert, Atari's WCI Labs Division show art ANTIC Interview 449 - Tim Boehlert, Atari's WCI Labs Division

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Tim Boehlert, Atari's WCI Labs Division   Tim Boehlert began at Atari in 1982. He worked at WCI Labs, the New York Atari subsidiary, where he worked on the broadboard of the 600XL, robotics projects, and mass storage devices.   This interview took place on June 4, 2022.            

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ANTIC Interview 448 - Frank Foster, Hybrid Arts show art ANTIC Interview 448 - Frank Foster, Hybrid Arts

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Frank Foster, Hybrid Arts   Frank Foster was one of the founders of Hybrid Arts, the company that made MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) hardware and software for Atari 8-bit and Atari ST computers. Frank was in charge of marketing for the company. After Hybrid Arts, Frank headed the music division at Atari, where he build marketing partnerships with Tangerine Dream, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, and other musicians.   I talked with two of the other Hybrid Arts founders, Robert Moore and Paul Rother, in .   This interview took place on February 20, 2024.    ...

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ANTIC Interview 447 - Robert Moore and Paul Rother, Hybrid Arts MIDIMate show art ANTIC Interview 447 - Robert Moore and Paul Rother, Hybrid Arts MIDIMate

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Robert Moore and Paul Rother, Hybrid Arts MIDIMate   Robert Moore and Paul Rother were two of the founders of Hybrid Arts, along with Frank Foster and Alan Hart. Hybrid Arts created the MIDIMate, hardware that added Musical Instrument Digital Interface capability to the the Atari 8-bit computers; and various software for it including MIDITrack. Hybrid Arts continued on to make a wide variety of MIDI and music software for the Atari ST (which has built-in MIDI) including EZ-Track.   Paul was the programmer, Robert the music and sales person, and Frank Foster was the marketing person....

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ANTIC Interview 446 - Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes magazine show art ANTIC Interview 446 - Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes magazine

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Mary Eisenhart, MicroTimes magazine   Mary Eisenhart was editor of MicroTimes magazine, a free, advertising-supported magazine that was distributed in California. The first issue was May 1984, and Mary remained at the magazine until 1998, producing more than 180 issues. MicroTimes provided interviews, computer industry news, rumors, and columns, and - of course - advertising. For most of its run, there were two editions of each issue: Northern California and Southern California.    When she left MicroTimes, Mary took with her a copy or two of every issue, which years later were...

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ANTIC Episode 112 - Keeping Warm with Sweaters and Hot Sauce show art ANTIC Episode 112 - Keeping Warm with Sweaters and Hot Sauce

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 112 In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we have several Christmas ideas for you, we tell you about projects that would allow creating a new reproduction Atari 800XL, and we wet our appetites for the current Atari’s hot sauce while wearing their ugly Christmas sweater … READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           Links for Items Mentioned in Show: What we’ve been up to Vox ex Machina: A Cultural History of Talking Machines by Sarah A. Bell -   Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled...

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Bob Stein, Atari’s Encyclopedia Project
 
Bob Stein worked at Atari Research for 18 months beginning in 1981. He was hired by Alan Kay. He worked almost exclusively on an encyclopedia project, a potential collaboration between Atari and Encyclopaedia Britannica that never went anywhere.
 
I learned about Bob after he uploaded an item called The Atari Drawings to Internet Archive. It's a collection of nine colorful pencil drawings, drawn in 1982 by Disney animator Glen Keane. The drawings depict futuristic scenarios where people use a computerized encyclopedia to get information: for instance, "An earthquake wakes a couple in the middle of the night. The Intelligent Encyclopedia, connected to an online service, informs them of the severity of the earthquake and makes safety tips readily available." and "A mother and her children looking into a tidepool in Laguna ask the Intelligent Encyclopedia about the plants and animals that they see."
 
Bob described the collection of art in his introduction to the document:
 
"In 1982 executives from Warner, Inc., Atari's parent company, were scheduled to visit the Research Lab where the Encyclopedia Project was located. Brenda Laurel and I came up with these scenarios to give the execs a sense of what we were working toward. The drawings were made by Disney animator, Glen Keane.
 
When you look at these, remember they were made 16 years before Google and 12 years before Yahoo, even 8 years before the earliest web-based search engines.
 
That said, one of the most interesting things about these scenarios as seen today, is that with the exception of the image of the architect and the teacher none of them indicated any inkling that the most important element of the web to come was that it would bring people into contact with each other. What we see here is almost entirely people accessing content from a central server, no sense that we would be communicating with each other or uploading our own contributions to the collective culture. My own explanation for this lapse focuses on the print-era mentality that saw readers purely as consumers of content."
 
Bob saved and scanned a large number of materials from his time at Atari, and uploaded them to Internet Archive. In addition to the scans of Keane's Atari Drawings, the documents include memos about the encyclopedia project and a transcript of a 1982 seminar for Atari Research featuring Charles Van Doren. Check the show notes for those links.
 
After Atari, Bob was co-founder of The Criterion Collection, which restores and distributes important classic films; and co-founder of The Voyager Company, the first commercial multimedia CD-ROM publisher. In 2004, he co-founded The Institute for the Future of the Book, a think tank "investigating the evolution of discourse as it shifts from printed pages to networked screens."
 
This interview took place December 16, 2023.