ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast
ANTIC Episode 131 - Brad’s 30K Brain In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… we discuss the newly announced THE ATARI800XL and give our opinions, we talk about Hamster power, and Brad now has only 30K for his brain, plus a whole lot more! READY! Recurring Links Interview index: What we’ve been up to FujiGrid - Newsbytes - Updated , , VCF Midwest - Jeri Ellsworth - 1027 printer ribbon - Atari BBS - Thom and Fujinet team - Jason Moore - ...
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John Victor, Program Design Inc. John Victor was founder and president of Program Design Inc., one of the earliest publishers of educational software. Based in Greenwich CT, PDI created dozens of educational software titles and a few not-so-educational games for Atari 8-bit, Commodore PET and 64, TRS-80, Apple II, and Texas Instruments computers. Software marketed by PDI included Moonbase IO, Sammy the Sea Serpent, and Preparing for the SAT (which was probably the first SAT prep software for any home computer). PDI also created "An Invitation to Programming", the casette-based...
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Vince Wu, The Learning Phone (Atari PLATO Terminal) Vince Wu worked at Atari for about two and a half years. He was the programmer of The Learning Phone, the PLATO terminal for Atari 8-bit computers. Before that, he worked with PLATO at the University of Illinois, then in California for Control Data Corporation. PLATO was the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system, a groundbreaking graphical client-server computer system aimed at education. To assist in this interview, I was joined by Thomas Cherryhomes and Michael Sternberg, who were on a road trip to a Vintage...
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Walt Klappert, Atari Advanced Development Group/WCI Labs Walt Klappert worked at Atari's Advanced Development Group/WCI Labs in New York, and later at Take One Enterprises in California. He worked with Nancy and Steve Mayer on a variety of projects with a concentration on creating software for girls. He is credited as Director of "Fisher Price Dance Fantasy", a dance choreography game for small children. He also worked on a system for authoring CD+G, an enhancement to the compact disc spec that allowed graphics and lyrics to be displayed synchronized with music. This interview took place on...
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ANTIC Episode 130 - The Tongue-Twister Episode In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We trip all over our own tongues trying to bring you all the news fit to print in the Atari 8-bit computer world… READY! Recurring Links Interview index: What we’ve been up to Diskmenu manual - 30th anniversary of Classic Computer Magazine Archive - : Discussion - Atari Yahoo Groups archives: Atari Usenet group archive additions - MPP MicroportXL board manual -...
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Steve Bryson, game programmer Steve Bryson was a programmer for EPYX and The Connelley Group, where he ported many games to various 8-bit systems. He ported Dragonriders of Pern, an action/strategy game based on the Anne McCaffrey novels, to Atari and Commodore 64. He ported Jumpman to the Apple II, and Lower Reaches of Apshai, Upper Reaches of Apshai, and Temple of Ra to the C64. This interview took place on August 5, 2026. Video version of this interview: Steve's personal web site: Randy Glover, Jumpman interview: Tom Zimmerman, AMY chip interview: Jon Freeman, Freefall...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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;...
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In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… lots of scanning talk, more new games for the Atari than you can shake a stick at, and how to win a kiss on the forehead…
READY!
Recurring Links
New Atari books scans at archive.org
Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge
Interview index: here
What we’ve been up to
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New scans for documents sent by Aaron Spurlock:
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https://archive.org/details/Mad_Scientist_Software_Hospital_ACLS_Teaching_Series_manual
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https://archive.org/details/Mad_Scientist_Software_Cardiac_Arrest_ACLS_Teaching_Series_manual/
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New scan - https://archive.org/details/donnie-iris-do-you-compute
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New scan - https://archive.org/details/analog-computing-poster
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Wade Ripkowski’s site - https://unfinishedbitness.info/
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In-progress quick reference book by Randy, with Atari 800 complete (for comment) - https://floppydaysqr.my.canva.site/
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Atari 8-bit development episode of Next Without For with Earl Evans and Randy Kindig - https://www.nextwithoutfor.org/2025/05/show-015-atari-8-bit-programming.html
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Artistic disk envelopes and cassette covers - https://ataricovers.com/
News
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Source Code for Atari’s Editor/Assembler and Program/Text Editor RELEASED! - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381770-source-code-for-editorassembler-and-programtext-editor-released/
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ugBASIC 1.17.2 RELEASED - https://ugbasic.iwashere.eu/
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Jerry White's TV Theme Songs - https://www.atarimania.com/demo-atari-400-800-xl-xe-tv-theme-songs_44160.html
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Indus GT Mini (Piotr Bugaj) - https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=9725048287561907&set=gm.1671261500183510&idorvanity=484741565502182
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The FourZeroZero keyboard series - http://www.norths.de/category/a400-design-tastatur/
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new Album called "Power of Myth" by Poison6502 - https://poison6502.bandcamp.com/album/power-of-myth
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New Game Mazy 2 - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2025/05/mazy-2-mas-laberintos-y-estrategia-para.html
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Mikie for Atari XL/XE - physical edition - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381444-mikie-for-atari-xlxe-physical-edition/
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The Best of Grawitacja 2025 for Atari 8-bit:
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https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2025/05/lo-mejor-del-grawitacja-2025-para-atari.html
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Kara T-Rex - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myIQFTLGw28
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Dinodrab - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiIDqf2Kl5g
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Jurassic Spark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0dGyjIkDMY
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ABBUC Software Contest - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381593-abbuc-software-contest-2025/
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ABBUC Hardware Contest - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381594-abbuc-hardware-contest-2025/
Upcoming Shows
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Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 14 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html
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VCF Southwest - June 20-22, 2025 - Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at UT Dallas - https://www.vcfsw.org/
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Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - June 20-22, 2025 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/
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Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 31-Aug. 3 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2025-se
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VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/2025/03/05/vcf-west-2025-save-the-date/
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Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2025/
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VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/
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Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/
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Event page created by Chicago Classic Computing - http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html
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Event page created by Floppy Days on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/
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Event page on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub
YouTube Videos
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FlashJazzCat AVG Cart/Sub Cart review video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQo1kXX0OBA
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Atari's death...by the books - Power of Vintage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUqBL4JHHQ
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Luckyman (new Atari XL/XE game!):
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Atari Online PL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBNeMkT--o
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ZeroPage Homebrew - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA2QtP8ssWs
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The author shares his journey of creating games using Advan Basic (Polish) - Spowiedź autora #14: LukLab i gry w Advan ...
New at Archive.org
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Computer Shopper full issue scans - https://archive.org/details/@tenten10
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https://archive.org/details/the-action-toolkit-reference-manual
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Other The Soft Warehouse math software manuals - https://archive.org/details/TheSoftWarehouseMathSoftwareManuals/AlgicalcManual/
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https://archive.org/details/reference-card-for-the-atari-400-800-microcomputers-nanos-systems-corp
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https://archive.org/details/ace-pocket-reference-card-atari/ACE_Pocket_Reference_Card_Atari/
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Allan Bushman’s scans of Magatar:
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Atari newsletters at Internet Archive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RkznDDlOL2O_K-RrbkajIuo6DvYof6Ajrn7j9NTcoDM/edit?usp=sharing
Feedback
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Critical Connection source code https://github.com/savetz/critical-connection