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Savetz last won the day on February 25 2022
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preserving Atari publications at AtariMagazines.com, AtariArchives.org, and Archive.org. Co-host of ANTIC the Atari 8-Bit Podcast.
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Bob Stein, Atari’s Encyclopedia Project Audio version: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-442-bob-stein-atari-research Video version: https://youtu.be/No7MyFafWqU Support Kay's interviews on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/savetz 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.
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Apparently so! I didn't know, and he didn't bring it up in the interview! I guess I'll be turning in my interview license now. Damn. http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/sio2pc.htm -Kay
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Nick Kennedy, Atari Morse Code Keyer Audio: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-441-nick-kennedy-atari-morse-code-keyer Video: https://youtu.be/SoGkbA5tsRk Support Kay's interviews on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/savetz I was adding a batch of ham radio newsletters to the Internet Archive's Digital Library of Amateur Radio And Communications, and I noticed the word "Atari" on one of the pages. In the September 2019 issue of Solid Copy, the newsletter of The CW Operators Club, Nick Kennedy had written: "Few hams who are both CW [morse code] enthusiasts and programmers of microcontrollers have been able to resist trying their hand at a keyer or two. I’ve done several in the past 30+ years, starting with one for the 6502 in an Atari 800 and on through PICs, AVRs and now...the Arduino." So I contacted Nick, amateur radio call sign WA5BDU, to find out what his Atari project was all about. First, a tiny bit of ham radio background: Morse code, that language of dots and dashes, can be sent over the radio waves using a Morse code key. Even if you know nothing about ham radio, I bet you picture a basic Morse code key: when tap the little lever, it makes an electrical connection that makes a sound. That's called a straight key. Avid Morse code enthusiasts may prefer a fancier "paddle" key: with two levers, one for short beeps and one for longer ones. A keyer is a device that is connected between the paddle key and the radio: it allows the sender to control timing of the transmitted signals, and other factors. Nick's software, WA5BDU Computer Keyer, turned his Atari computer into a keyer. He wired his Morse code paddle and his ham radio to joystick port 2. As he sent a message using his paddle, the Atari interpreted the signal, adjusted it as necessary, displayed the outgoing message on the screen, and sent the signal to the radio. Or, Nick could simply type on the Atari's keyboard to send Morse code messages, skipping the paddle key altogether. Nick sent me the keyer program and source code — as well as a packet radio terminal program that he wrote, and a tank game written by his brother. Check the show notes for links to all of those. Our interview took place on January 21, 2023.
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This is a little machine language tank game by Pat Kennedy. It is discussed in the upcoming interview with Nick Kennedy. tank by Pat Kennedy.atr
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Ed Sabo, UltraBASIC Audio: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-440-ed-sabo-ultrabasic Video: https://youtu.be/OXcW1Pm4DQ8 Support Kay's interviews on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/savetz Ed Sabo, with the help of his dad, founded UltraBASIC, a company that produced software for Atari 8-bit computers. UltraBASIC's software for the Atari 8-bits, which was all programmed by Ed, were: Tank Math: "a tutored math exercise plus a bonus roman numeral quiz" FunSpeller: "use your own words or the fifteen word-sets included" SuperFrogs: "the 7 game arcade with over 10,000 variations” … and Track Stack: a program launcher, "stack up to 15 machine language programs on the track stack disk" Ed also created some unpublished software, including a bulletin board system and RC Total, a program to track results of radio controlled car races. The company also operated a commercial coin op route, with video games, pinball machines, jukeboxes, and so on. Ed's UltraBASIC company still exists. Today, the company specializes in transmission rebuilds, custom headers, and other repairs for classic and custom cars. This interview took place on August 8, 2023.
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Dan Kramer sent me even more material, which I have scanned and uploaded to Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/atari-management-recognition-award https://archive.org/details/atari-controller-design-focus-groups-report-1981 https://archive.org/details/a-qualitative-investigation-of-programmable-videogame-controllers https://archive.org/details/atari_silvia https://archive.org/details/cx2800 https://archive.org/details/cx2800-notes https://archive.org/details/atari-direct-video-pcb https://archive.org/details/atari-5200-controller-schematics-kramer-dan
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I posted a document that I've been looking for for a long time: The Superboots business plan. https://archive.org/details/superboots-business-plan Superboots was an educational software development effort sponsored by Atari. The Superboots software development lab was located at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, D.C. The company's first (and only?) program was PAINT!, a drawing program for the Atari 8-bits. (I've interviewed the co-author of this document and many other people associated with Capital Children's Museum on the Antic podcast.) "EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SuperBoots, the software development laboratory of the Capital Children's Museum, is seeking $750,000 equity financing to become a publisher and marketer in the rapidly growing home computer software industry. The firm will develop products that expand the creative, graphic, and educational frontiers of microcomputers. SuperBoots has an impressive record of success. Its first product, PAINT, has been called the "most ambitious graphics and drawing package developed for Atari home computers" by Creative Computing magazine. This program can be used by six year olds after just 10 minutes of instruction. PAINT has won every major software award in the United States, and has received outstanding reviews in many computer publications. The product has been liscenced to Atari, which expects to sell 50,000 units, worth $2,000,000 at retail. Future products will be targeted at children ages 5-16 but can be enjoyed by adults. Computers are now in three million American homes. By 1987, it is projected that more than 30 million households -- one in four--will own one. That year consumer software purchases will approach $4 billion. Education is the fastest growing software category and a prime motive for a family's computer purchase. SuperBoots has the opportunity to leverage its early software development success and reputation into a strong market presence SuperBoots' management team is headed by Ann White Lewin, founder of the Capital Children's Museum, and a noted educator. In five years she has built the Museum into an internationally recognized "hands-on" educational facility for children and created FUTURE CENTER, a leading public access computer environment. SuperBoots's Vice President of Software Development is well known in the microcomputer industry as an innovator in interactive game design and creator of top selling games. He presently has a senior position with a computer manufacturer. The company's Vice President of Marketing has directed educational sales for a major computer manufacturer, and held software marketing responsibilties for another. He has worked closely with software distributers and retailers. SuperBoots' success will result from its ability to attract outstanding software design talent, command the attention of distributors and retailers, and develop software that consumers will purchase. ... Imagine software which is as exciting as an arcade game, yet as thought-provoking as a novel. Programs that are packed with the unlimited creative potential of crayons, finger painting or tinker toys. Activities that give a child the power to make a movie, simulate the economy of a nation, or experiment with physics, all on a computer screen. These are the capabilities of software which will become the main-stay of home computing in the 1980's. Only a handfull of firms possess the creative potential, technological prowess and marketing know-how to exploit opportunities in this field. SuperBoots, the software development arm of the Capital Children's Museum, is a new company organized to develop educational software for use in the home. Its products are distinghished by their ability to absorb the child by providing challenging activities."
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Larry A. Summers worked at Atari in the early 1980s. He worked in Games Design Research Group under Chris Crawford. He wrote the game Excalibur, which was published by Atari Program Exchange. I learned recently that Larry died a couple of years ago. His family sent me a few files, which I have scanned and made available at Internet Archive. Chris Crawford recommendation letter for Larry Summers https://archive.org/details/Chris_Crawford_recommendation_letter_for_Larry_Summers A photocopy of a 1982 San Jose Mercury News article after Chris and Larry were laid off from Atari https://archive.org/details/Out_of_Ataris_Game_San_Jose_Mercury_News_1982-06 "Atari 81" v1n4: an internal Atari publication that I was previously unaware of. (I couldn't find any of these online. Are other issues scanned anywhere?) https://archive.org/details/Atari_81_v1n4_1981-05 Functional Specification for The Arabian Adventures After Atari, Larry (and I believe Crawford, based on statements in the recommendation letter) went to work at Packet Technologies, a company that was building interactive software for cable TV. Videotext. This is the spec for what would have been the company’s first game: Arabian Adventures, a graphical adventure game. It is unclear if this ever saw the light of day. https://archive.org/details/Functional_Specification_for_The_Arabian_Adventures_Packet_Technologies (Following the 60 pages of text, the scans include many graphics, on graph paper!) —Kay
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In 2020 I did an interview with the three creators of The Famous Computer Cafe, a 1980s radio show that did interviews with amazing tech people. All the episodes were lost. In what can only be described as a minor miracle, I just acquired some of the original master tapes, including interviews with Jack Tramiel, Douglas Adams, Bill Gates and others. Want to help me get them digitized? I'm doing a GoFundMe to get the tapes digitized and into Internet Archive. https://gofund.me/87eb1a5b
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Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative
Savetz replied to Farb's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Not that I know of. I do have more disks from Lee to get through. The labels have fallen off of some of them, so they could be anything. But it's slow going because the disks are dirty and the media for each disk needs to be washed. -Kay -
Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative
Savetz replied to Farb's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Here's a fun project for someone — I just dumped Sunday Driver from A.N.A.L.O.G. Software — I think it was unpublished? It may be unfinished? The disk comes from Lee Pappas. I haven't figured out how to run it, if it can even be run. But it seems to include some source code. https://www.atarimania.com/pgesoft.awp?version=6243 attn @Atarimania -Kay ANALOG Sunday Driver.atr ANALOG Sunday Driver - Imaging Log.txt SUNDAY.SRC -
Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative
Savetz replied to Farb's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Here's the development disk for Tom Hudson's "Adventure at Vendenverg A.F.B." It seems to have a couple of different versions as well as some dev tools. Disk courtesy of Lee Pappas and dumped by me. Here's the published version: https://archive.org/details/analog-computing-magazine-27/page/n74/mode/1up Adventure at Vandenberg AFB development disk.ATR -
Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative
Savetz replied to Farb's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Got it! Here's an alternate version. My guess is this is an earlier version, because there are fewer different elements on the ground, and there is no shooting. Attn @Atarimania Titan alt.ATR -
Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative
Savetz replied to Farb's topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Here's Titan (prototype) unpublished by A.N.A.L.O.G. Software, disk courtesy of Lee Pappas and dumped by me. Looks very pretty, semi-playable, but seems to have collision detection or no sound. I may have another version on another disk, but am having trouble with my various disk readers today. https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-titan_6337.html Titan (Prototype).atr -
Dan Kramer sent me another schematic and handwritten notes regarding Silvia. I'm uploaded them to https://archive.org/details/atari_silvia The schematic is also uploaded here. It is labeled 2 of 2 — there was no page 1 in Dan's folder. Silvia 1981-08-12 Schematic 2of2.tif