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ANTIC Interview 445 - Vince Cate, The Critical Connection

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Release Date: 11/22/2024

ANTIC Interview 462 - Bob Fraser, APX Insomnia, Supersort, De Re Atari show art ANTIC Interview 462 - Bob Fraser, APX Insomnia, Supersort, De Re Atari

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Bob Fraser, APX Insomnia, Supersort, De Re Atari   Bob Fraser worked at Atari for four years: he worked on the early CX70 light pen, helped write the specs for an unreleased database manager for the Atari 8-bits. and later moved into Atari's Games Design Research Group under Alan Kay, where he experimented with 3-D graphics. He wrote a chapter of De Re Atari — chapter 7, all about sound — and two applications that were published by Atari Program Exchange: Supersort, a data sorting routine; and Insomnia, a sound editor. Supersort was APX catalog number 20030, and was for sale starting...

info_outline ANTIC Interview 461 - James W. Burley, APX Data Base/Report System show art ANTIC Interview 461 - James W. Burley, APX Data Base/Report System

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

James W. Burley, APX Data Base/Report System James W. Burley is the programmer of Data Base/Report System, which was sold by Atari Program Exchange beginning with the Summer 1982 APX catalog. It was catalog number 20134 with a price of $22.95. APX sold it for about a year, through the Summer 1983 catalog. APX awarded Data Base/Report System first prize for new software in the "Business & Professional Applications/Personal Finance & Record Keeping" category: for that, James was awarded an Atari Star plaque and $2000 prize. (He received the plaque, but says he never received the...

info_outline ANTIC Interview 460 - Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette show art ANTIC Interview 460 - Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette with an Atari Computer Tim Jenkins is the author of several humorous memoirs: "Missions Accomplished: And some funny business along the way", "More Missions Accomplished: And a lot more funny business", and "Business Missions Accomplished: Silly travel tales on the corporate dime". I wanted to talk to Tim about one chapter in his 2018 book More Missions Accomplished: the chapter is titled "Gaming the System" and it tells the tale of him trying to cheat a roulette using his Atari 800 computer. A brief excerpt from that chapter: "Las Vegas — 1989. Shortly...

info_outline ANTIC Interview 459 - Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II show art ANTIC Interview 459 - Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II Mike Lorenzen worked at Atari, Activision, and Accolade, creating games for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64 computers. At Atari, Mike coded Golf and Circus Atari for the Atari 2600. For the 8-bit computers, he wrote MEDIT (which he told me stands for Mike’s EDITor.) Atari got a lot of mileage from MEDIT, using versions of that text editor in several products: first, in Atari Program-Text Editor (which was bundled with Atari's Macro Assembler), and in two Atari Program Exchange products: APX 20075, Atari Program-Text Editor;...

info_outline ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots show art ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast…Brad plays around with SDX, Kay and Randy bring you news from some vintage computer shows, we drool over all the new hardware news, and we bring you FujiNet news, including FNSlots… READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           What we’ve been up to Box of stuff from Bob Fraser Light pen -   Disks! Six early versions of MEDIT -   Prerelease version of DOS 2.0S -   INIT HELLO at System Source Computer Museum Print...

info_outline ANTIC Interview 458 - Allan Bushman, Atari archivist show art ANTIC Interview 458 - Allan Bushman, Atari archivist

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Allan Bushman, Atari Archivist If you've ever looked up an Atari computer manual at Internet Archive, chances are you've come across some of Allan Bushman's scans. For well over 13 years, Allan has been uploading scans of Atari-related catalogs, manuals, and books to the archive. Before that, since 1995 or before, Allan contributed to and AtariMania. With a particular emphasis on finding and archiving Atari Program Exchange manuals, Allan has helped save the vast majority of the APX library. This interview took place on April 19 2026 at Vintage Computer Festival East. As of this recording,...

info_outline ANTIC Interview 457 - Atari at the Science Fair: Lisa Link Melville, Weather Prediction show art ANTIC Interview 457 - Atari at the Science Fair: Lisa Link Melville, Weather Prediction

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Atari at the Science Fair: Lisa Link Melville, Weather Prediction The Herald Times newspaper, April 17 1984: "March 24 proved to be an exciting day for several area students participating in the South Central Indiana Regional Science Fair which was held in Bloomington. Lisa Link, an Edgewood High School junior, and Maxwell Brothers, a Bloomington North senior, took top honors in the advanced division. Programming an Atari 800 computer to forecast the weather was Link's project. The computer's entire 48K memory system was needed to develop the long and complicated program which predicts...

info_outline ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs show art ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… special guest Rob McMullen (Player/Missile Podcast) joins us to talk about all the Atari 8-bit news; such as new and updated emulators, Jumpman level editor, Club Med and the Atari, and a whole lot more! READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           What we’ve been up to AltirraSDL -   Fujisan -   Jumpman Reverse Engineering:     Player Missile Podcast   Audacity AI noise reduction plugin...

info_outline ANTIC Episode 127 - Brad's 76K Brain show art ANTIC Episode 127 - Brad's 76K Brain

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 127 - Brad’s 76K Brain In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we turn the podcast into more of a multi-media experience, we cover a LOT of new and updated utility software for the Atari 8-bit, and Kay accuses Brad of having a 76K brain! READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           What we’ve been up to pokey stream player -   Fujisan with FastBASIC -   This Week in Retro episode 262 -   Atari lightbox -   Indy Classic Expo -   New & Updated Games  Dodger -...

info_outline ANTIC Episode 126 - All Atari All the Time show art ANTIC Episode 126 - All Atari All the Time

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Episode 126 - All Atari All The Time In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We bring in special guest Paulo Garcia, author of the incredible FujiSan emulator, and bring you all the Atari news we can find. READY! Recurring Links    Interview index:           What we’ve been up to FujiSan version 1.1.8 -   Conversational German -   New & Updated Games European Countries & Capitals Updated -   Text Adventure Homo Sapiens -   FujiNet Maze War - Mozzwald:   Source code available...

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Vince Cate, The Critical Connection
 
In my last interview, I talked with the creator of SIO2PC, which let Atari users use a DOS computer as its disk drive and printer. This interview is with the creator a product which - six years earlier - let Atari users use a CP/M computer as its disk drive and printer (and keyboard.)
 
Vince Cate owned a company called USS Enterprises, with just one product: The Critical Connection. Critical Connection was a combination of a specialized cable and software for connecting an Atari 8-bit to a computer running CP/M. The long cable had an SIO plug on one end and a 25-pin serial plug on the other, and some chips in the middle, allowing the Atari and CP/M box to communicate at 19,200 bps.
 
The Critical Connection was released in 1983, six years before SIO2PC. They shared many similar features: with it you could: use an entire CP/M floppy disk as an emulated 600K Atari disk drive, create 92KB CP/M disk files which emulated Atari 90KB disks, and print from the Atari to the CP/M computer's printer. The CP/M machine even acted as a print spooler. You could also use the CP/M machine's keyboard to type on the Atari.
 
Vince needed to create a file format to store virtual floppy disks on the CP/M machine: the filename extension was .ATR. I don't know positively, but I'm pretty sure it's a different file format from the well-known .ATR format that Nick Kennedy created for SIO2PC six years later... just similar functionality given similar names. Nick Kennedy told me that he had never heard of The Critical Connection.
 
Here's what Jerry Pournelle wrote about Critical Connection in the September 1983 issue of Byte magazine:
 
"Vincent Cate continues to improve his Critical Connection. This gadget makes an Atari think a CP/M computer system is a set of disks. The only requirement is that your CP/M system have an RS-232C serial port operating at 19,200 bps. Given that, you needn't buy disks for an Atari; by using The Critical Connection, you can make the Atari believe you have four disks. The really nice part is that you can use 8-inch as well as 5 1/4 -inch disks.
 
Cate's new software package has automatic installation for a number of CP/M systems, including Kaypro, North Star, Sanyo, CCS, Heath/Zenith, and Morrow. ... Cate's documentation is improved, but it's not what I'd call good. Still, you can puzzle it out, and if you don't want to invest a lot in an Atari system but still want to use disks with it, Cate's Critical Connection is the way to go."
 
This interview took place on November 20, 2024.