ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast
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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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...
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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,...
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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_outlineANTIC Episode 123 - Steampunk Atari
In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… Lots of Holiday Buyer’s Guide action, news of recovered software, FujiNet news galore, and Brad does steampunk Atari…
READY!
Recurring Links
New Atari books scans at archive.org
Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge
Interview index: here
Links for Items Mentioned in Show:
What we’ve been up to
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Nexon Computer Museum (Maplestory) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexon_Computer_Museum
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Air Navigation RNAV for Atari 8-bit manual and source code:
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https://archive.org/details/tims_Air_Navigation_RNAV_for_Atari_8-bit
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HP versions and detailed notes - https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Robert+A.+Tims%22
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JACG Newsletters:
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https://archive.org/details/jerseyataricomputergroup scanned via Mark Knutsen
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here’s what else we need in a spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RkznDDlOL2O_K-RrbkajIuo6DvYof6Ajrn7j9NTcoDM/edit?usp=sharing)
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https://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1989-03
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https://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1985-01
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https://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1985-02
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https://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1984-10
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https://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1984-12
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http://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1984-09
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http://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1984-08
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http://archive.org/details/Jersey_Atari_Computer_Group_newsletter_1984-07
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Amiga 40 Celebration in Atlanta - https://www.facebook.com/events/1961071527788068/
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Invitation to Programming cassette - https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-invitation-to-programming-1-an_11651.html
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Atlanta Historical Computing Society - https://www.atlhcs.org/
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Smith-Corona Electric typewriter module and typewriter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTcWEU2UPgM
News
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Battleship for Atari with FujiNet:
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Atari 8-bit games part of the Namco Legendary Pack for Atari 50: the Anniversary Celebration for Steam, XBox, Playstation - https://atari.com/products/atari-50th-the-anniversary-celebration
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FujiNet-PC build for Mac - Andy Diller:
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Blog post - https://www.atariorbit.org/2025/11/02/fujinet-pc-build-for-osx-download/
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download it here - https://www.atariorbit.org/shared-files/1165/?fn-pc-atari-v151.zip
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Running multiple Atari800/FujiNet - Andy Diller - https://www.atariorbit.org/2025/11/10/build-your-own-atari800/
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Ivop ported BBC BASIC to the Atari XL/XE - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/385621-bbc-basic-for-the-atari-xlxe/
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FiSh - Fujinet Interface Shell - bocianu - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/386043-fish-fujinet-interface-shell/
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Apple II Holiday Collection & Special Edition transferred to Atari Print Shop disks by Michael Sternberg - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/324752-print-shop-atari-related-graphics/#findComment-5757049
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Atari CAS Player by Krystone:
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AtariAge thread - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381594-abbuc-hardware-contest-2025/#comment-5745407
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You can try it directly here - https://krystone.pl/atari/casplay
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updated FujiNet AI SAM chatbot by Mozzwald:
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The disk is up at https://tnfs.fujinet.online/ATARI/FujiNet-Apps/ai-sam-v3.xex which uses fujinet.online for the server
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Source code for the app and server is up at https://github.com/mozzwald/fujinet-ai-sam/
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November and December issues of Atari Insights Newsletter - https://www.ataribasics.com
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http://www.atariprotos.com has 2 new 8-bit things
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Midi Maze custom maze thread on AtariAge - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/386262-hidden-loading-of-mazes-from-disk-in-midi-maze/
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November issue of Compute’s Gazette - https://www.computesgazette.com
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Type-in apps for modern computers - https://boingboing.net/2025/11/24/doctype-magazine-type-in-apps-for-modern-computers.html
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"It May Be The First Video Game About The Beatles" - Before Rock Band, There Was Beat the Beatles - https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/11/random-it-may-be-the-first-video-game-about-the-beatles-before-rock-band-there-was-beat-the-beatles
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tech keyboard for XL/XE - Shawn Johnson - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16U5Pbpr28/
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RM800XL loading a game from tape - https://youtube.com/shorts/3t7LCWEjIY4?si=7dpulvMhsxSzPsII
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RM800XL running Pac-Man cartridge - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TAs9-kRL3L4
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Amiga clone coming? - https://retrogames.biz/products/thea1200/
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Atari 400 mini package on sale at Atari - https://www.atari.com
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ZeroPage Homebrew played all the ABBUC Software Contest 2025 entries on Twitch! - https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/
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Silly Venture 2025 WE Atari XL/XE 16KB Intro competition (20th - 23rd November 2025, Gdańsk, Pomerania, Poland)
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We Like to Party (16KB Intro) - https://demozoo.org/productions/380592/
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Silly Venture 2025 WE: "The biggest ATARI-multi party!" - https://www.sillyventure.eu
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Vintage Computer Christmas Challenge:
Upcoming Shows
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Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/
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Vintage Electronics Expo - Jan. 31, 2026 - Oakland Expo Center, Waterford, MI - https://www.thevee.org/
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Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2026 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com
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Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/
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VCF East - April 17-19 2026 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/
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Midwest Gaming Classic - April 24-26 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
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VCF Southwest - May 29-31, 2026 - Westin Dallas Ft. Worth Airport - https://www.vcfsw.org/
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Retrofest 2026 - May 30-31 - Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon, UK - https://retrofest.uk/
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Southern Fried Gaming Expo & VCF SE - July 31-Aug 2, 2026 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/
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Fujiama - August 26-30 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2026
YouTube Videos
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Immaculate NOS Atari 600XL gets PokeyMAX 4, VBXE and U1MB - FlashJazzCat - https://youtu.be/ybFpYF4R2mY
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My Mom Bought an Atari 800XL - Can I Fix It?! - Sayaka's Digital Attic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZZ6nhgwEDI
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ATARI XL / XE += FIRST AI SHOOTER =+ NEW GAME 2025:
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Atari 8 Bits For Ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KLy0fX0JtY
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Atari Online PL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJie46jwuRA
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Galaxian (800 and 2600) and Galaga (2600) gameplay - Atari - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nmXIqaTCHMo
New at Archive.org
New at GitHub
Feedback
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PRGE's YouTube channel posted the video of Joe Decuir and Hunter Patchett - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhIrTlDkRrM
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video of a "game test day" that Joe’s students were part of - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDYVURUe_7Q
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Link to "proof of concept demonstration" of SuperBug - https://github.com/Atari-Super-Bug-Plus/SuperBug