The Atari interview discussion thread

[Savetz]

Linda Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-412-linda-brownstein-atari-vp-special-projects

As I've researched Atari and it's 8-bit computer projects over the years, one name has come up over and over again, attached to the most interesting projects. Linda S. Gordon. Executive Director of Atari Computer Camps. Linda. Executive Producer of The Magic Room, Atari's movie about its camps. Atari's collaboration with Club Med to offer computer labs at vacation destinations — Linda again. Atari Club, the fan group that published Atari Age magazine - Linda launched that. More recently, in my interview with Ann Lewin-Benham of the Capital Children's Museum, Linda's name came up once again -- she was the liaison between Atari and the museum. Linda worked on the most interesting projects.

Today, her name is Linda Brownstein. Linda joined Atari in December 1980 as Vice President of Special Projects, where she worked on most of  the projects that I mentioned before. In October 1983 she became Senior Vice President in Atari's  Education group. She left the company in July 1984 after Jack Tramiel took over the company.

This interview took place on April 21, 2021.

 

 

 

[_The Doctor__]

30 minutes ago, Savetz said:

Linda Brownstein, Atari VP Special Projects
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-412-linda-brownstein-atari-vp-special-projects

As I've researched Atari and it's 8-bit computer projects over the years, one name has come up over and over again, attached to the most interesting projects. Linda S. Gordon. Executive Director of Atari Computer Camps. Linda. Executive Producer of The Magic Room, Atari's movie about its camps. Atari's collaboration with Club Med to offer computer labs at vacation destinations — Linda again. Atari Club, the fan group that published Atari Age magazine - Linda launched that. More recently, in my interview with Ann Lewin-Benham of the Capital Children's Museum, Linda's name came up once again -- she was the liaison between Atari and the museum. Linda worked on the most interesting projects.

Today, her name is Linda Brownstein. Linda joined Atari in December 1980 as Vice President of Special Projects, where she worked on most of  the projects that I mentioned before. In October 1983 she became Senior Vice President in Atari's  Education group. She left the company in July 1984 after Jack Tramiel took over the company.

This interview took place on April 21, 2021.

 

 

 

Thank you, If I could have hit the like/love/thanks/trophy icon more than once I would have!

K you've made a wonderful interview with Linda giving insight. Reservedly pointing out the profitable plugs being pulled and by whom. Always the careful speaker, Linda gives qualified answers and hints as to what was what. A good solid synopsis of how it went. Great job, and thank you Linda!

Edited April 24, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[Mclaneinc]

Love all these interviews by Kay, its so interesting to hear things that fill in blanks and also stuff that wasn't interesting to me as a young man with his Atari in sales but now explain why certains things did or didn't happen.

 

Great stuff..

 

Paul..

[Savetz]

Valerie (Atkinson) Manfull, Atari Game Research Group
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-413-valerie-atkinson-manfull-atari-game-research-group
 

Valerie Atkinson was a member of Atari's Game Research Group. Now named Valerie Manfull, she was on the team that designed and programmed the game Excalibur, along with Chris Crawford and Larry Summers. Excalibur was published by Atari Program Exchange in fall 1983. She is also one of the programmes of Ballsong, along with Douglas Crockford. Ballsong is a music and graphics demo program released by Atari, in which a ball bounces on the screen in response to an improvised tune. She was one of the programmers, with Ann Marion, of TV Fishtank, a demonstration of an artificially intelligent fish. (It's unclear if the fishtank program was released anywhere, though it apparently was shown at the 1984 SIGgraph conference.)

This interview took place on April 22, 2021.

 

I bet one of us, a collector or former Atari employee, has the TV Fishtank program. Who's going to be the hero?

[+Stephen]

14 hours ago, Savetz said:

Valerie (Atkinson) Manfull, Atari Game Research Group
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-413-valerie-atkinson-manfull-atari-game-research-group
 

Valerie Atkinson was a member of Atari's Game Research Group. Now named Valerie Manfull, she was on the team that designed and programmed the game Excalibur, along with Chris Crawford and Larry Summers. Excalibur was published by Atari Program Exchange in fall 1983. She is also one of the programmes of Ballsong, along with Douglas Crockford. Ballsong is a music and graphics demo program released by Atari, in which a ball bounces on the screen in response to an improvised tune. She was one of the programmers, with Ann Marion, of TV Fishtank, a demonstration of an artificially intelligent fish. (It's unclear if the fishtank program was released anywhere, though it apparently was shown at the 1984 SIGgraph conference.)

This interview took place on April 22, 2021.

 

I bet one of us, a collector or former Atari employee, has the TV Fishtank program. Who's going to be the hero?

I remember Ballsong - one of my earliest BBS downloads.

[Savetz]

Bob Puff, Computer Software Services

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-414-bob-puff-computer-software-services

 

Bob Puff is owner of Computer Software Services, a company that began creating hardware and software for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Bob became president of the company in 1991. He designed a bevy of hardware products for the Atari computers, including The Black Box, a hard drive host adapter; The Multiplexer, a networking system; the UltraSpeed Plus operating system upgrade; upgrades for the XF551 floppy drive; the Super-E Burner EPROM burner; and others. He also created a number of popular utility programs, including the BobTerm terminal program; Disk Communicator, to convert boot disks to a single compressed file for transfer over modem; and MYDOS version 4.53; among other software.

 

This interview took place on April 27, 2021.

 

So many people have asked me for a Bob Puff interview over the years. 

 

[Albert]

Awesome, I went to school in Rochester and went to Bob's house several times when I was living there. I was big into Atari 8-but computers at the time. Definitely will listen to this!

 

  ..Al

[Quantum Mechanic]

4 hours ago, Savetz said:

Bob Puff, Computer Software Services

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-414-bob-puff-computer-software-services

 

Bob Puff is owner of Computer Software Services, a company that began creating hardware and software for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982. Bob became president of the company in 1991. He designed a bevy of hardware products for the Atari computers, including The Black Box, a hard drive host adapter; The Multiplexer, a networking system; the UltraSpeed Plus operating system upgrade; upgrades for the XF551 floppy drive; the Super-E Burner EPROM burner; and others. He also created a number of popular utility programs, including the BobTerm terminal program; Disk Communicator, to convert boot disks to a single compressed file for transfer over modem; and MYDOS version 4.53; among other software.

 

This interview took place on April 27, 2021.

 

So many people have asked me for a Bob Puff interview over the years. 

 

Ahh, the elusive Bob Puff interview finally comes to fruition.  Great job, @Savetz!  Kay, you're a gentleman and a scholar!

 

So sorry I once complained about the audio quality of an interview way back in the early days.

I've mentally berated myself for that action so many times. I even went to a couple of Bill Kendrick's Atari Party events on the off chance that you might be there so I could apologize in person.

Hopefully it had zero impact and you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.  ?

[Albert]

Listened to the Bob Puff interview yesterday while building games, was great to hear him talking about his 8-bit legacy.

 

@Savetz is this the first time you interviewed him?  Had you previously pursued getting him for an interview?  Bob had his hand in many Atari 8-bit projects that were useful for those running Atari 8-bit BBSs at the time (and of course for those not running BBSs as well).  I wonder how many people are still using his hardware and/or software. 

 

 ..Al

[Savetz]

19 minutes ago, Albert said:

 

@Savetz this the first time you interviewed him?  Had you previously pursued getting him for an interview?  Bob had his hand in many Atari 8-bit projects that were useful for those running Atari 8-bit BBSs at the time (and of course for those not running BBSs as well).  I wonder how many people are still using his hardware and/or software. 

 

 ..Al

 

Yes, it was the first time I interviewed him.

 

Prior to this, I tried for an interview with him in 2015 (he was too busy) and 2017 (no reply.) 

 

-K

[+Stephen]

32 minutes ago, Albert said:

Listened to the Bob Puff interview yesterday while building games, was great to hear him talking about his 8-bit legacy.

 

@Savetz this the first time you interviewed him?  Had you previously pursued getting him for an interview?  Bob had his hand in many Atari 8-bit projects that were useful for those running Atari 8-bit BBSs at the time (and of course for those not running BBSs as well).  I wonder how many people are still using his hardware and/or software. 

 

 ..Al

I'm one!

[Savetz]

Peter Hirshberg, Capital Children's Museum
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-415-peter-hirshberg-capital-childrens-museum

Peter Hirshberg was curator of the communications wing of the Capital Children's Museum in the early 1980s, where he helped build The Future Center, the computer lab outfitted with Atari 800 computers; and museum exhibits, some of which were computer controlled.

This interview took place on April 12, 2021. In it, we discuss Ann Lewin-Benham, director of the museum; and Guy Nouri, from the Superboots lab, both of whom I previously interviewed.

 

 

[Savetz]

Bob Evans, Capital Children's Museum administrator
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-416-bob-evans-capital-childrens-museum-administrator

This is the fourth in our series of interviews about the Atari computers at the Capital Children's Museum.

Bob Evans wore many hats at the museum: he was director of special exhibits, where he worked on the museum's exhibit on the history of human communication, which used several computers, both public-facing and behind the scenes. He was administrator of Superboots, the museum's software publishing lab -- it published the computer art program PAINT! but no other software. Bob was administrator of The Future Center, the museum's public computer lab, and administrator of the museum's summer computer camp for disadvantaged youth.

This interview took place on April 22, 2021.

[Savetz]

Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-417-computers-expressway-to-tomorrow

Imagine this. It's 1983 or 1984. You're drudging through yet another day of middle school or high school. But today, there's a surprise, a break from the monotony. The teacher tells your class to put away their stuff and go to the gym, or the cafeteria, or the auditorium. Today, there will be an assembly.

As you and your class -- and all the other classes -- get settled in the uncomfortable folding chairs, or the bleachers, or even the floor, you take in the scene: two large projection screens. Some speakers and audio equipment you haven't seen before. One of your peers is getting ready to run a spotlight. Then, this enthusiastic person -- older than you but really not by much -- explains why you're here. Today, at this assembly, you're going to learn about computers.

The lights go down, the spotlight comes up on that energetic host, and you realize this is a different sort of school assembly than you've seen before. Two projectors come on, lighting those two big screens -- it's a synchronized wide-screen movie. The presenter -- that not-much-older-than-you person -- talks to the screens, interacting with the movie and talking to the audience too. It's kind of corny, but your peers seem interested so you keep watching.

The show discusses the basics of computer operation, and how computers work differently than the human brain. There's a scene where the computers talk in voices like people. There's a section about robots, and a part where Suzanne Ciani shows how she makes music using computers. It touches on computer art, and the social implications of computers in the world.

40 minutes later, the show is over, and it's back to class. You learned a few things about computers, and talk about the assembly with your friends at lunch. Maybe you'll ask your parents for a computer for your birthday.

This scenario played out more or less exactly that way for more than a million middle school and high school students in 1983 and 1984. The assembly was called "Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow" and it was financed by Atari.

According to a 1983 article in InfoWorld: "Atari has a fleet of ... people traveling around the country giving the Atari multimedia presentation 'Expressway to Tomorrow' to a minimum of 500 people per performance at high-school assemblies."

(Full disclosure, the article claimed "Atari has a fleet of 700 people" putting on the show, but I can't believe that number is accurate. More likely the number was closer to 7.)

The traveling show would visit 2,000 schools in 1983, and was booked a year in advance. With the required minimum attendance of 500 students per show, that's a million kids. More than a million kids saw this assembly. that year.

The September 1983 issue of Personal Computing magazine said: "Since January 1983, nine separate touring units have crisscrossed the United States, presenting the show to nearly 1,400 public and private schools — a total of 1.2 million students to date. Touring begins again this September after the summer break, and will run through December 1984." In reality, I believe the show ended by mid-1984.

According to that article: "The show is a lively one, with the host on stage for the entire presentation. Several film projectors are going at once, filling two huge screens with fast-moving shots. Music is constant throughout. The host is busy either talking to the audience or interacting with characters on screen.  ...The program aims to give people [a] feeling of comfort about computing. The show focuses on the many applications of computers today, from storing recipes to teaching a language, to tutoring."

What survives of this show today? Not much that I know about so far. We don't have the film or the script. Audio tapes were available to help the presenters learn their lines. Informational packets were produced for teachers to hand out after the assembly. So far, I haven't been able to find anyone who has any of those things. (If you do, contact me!) What I do have is two interviews: memories of that project by one of the performers who went from school to school running the assembly, and the filmmaker.

Before we get to the interviews, I want to give some background about the business of producing school assemblies. It turns out that school assemblies are a big business. Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow was one of many shows put on by Rick Trow Productions of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. These shows were often sponsored by corporations, designed to educate kids, but also to get them excited about whatever it was they wanted to promote: taking pictures with Kodak cameras. Going skiing. Buying new music.

According to an article in the Boston Globe from 1972 -- this is 11 years before the Atari show, but some of the few hard stats I could find -- Rick Trow Productions staged 7,000 assemblies in 1971, maintained 23 touring companies offering 16 different shows to schools. They put on educational assemblies that promoted products and services from companies that wanted to reach the "youth market" -- CBS Radio, Air France, Eastman Kodak, and others. Its multimedia productions also included titles such as "The Black Experience", "Environment: Challenge to Action", and "The History of Rock and Roll". At the time, according to the article, the company charged a school just $80 per assembly. But by the time of the Atari show in 1983, the company seemed to have changed its business model to offer the shows to schools for free; earning their money entirely from the companies whose products its shows promoted. The companies got access to an audience of young people who might become eager to buy their product (or to ask their parents to get it.) The schools got free access to (hopefully) an educationally worthwhile presentation that would broaden their students' horizons.

A classified advertisement by Rick Trow Productions seeking presenters stated that in the early 1980s, presenters could expect to receive a salary of $100 per week during rehearsal period, and $500 per week for salary and expenses while on tour.

My first interview is with Veronica Wiseman, who was one of the presenters who traveled from school to school putting on the Atari show. Her name at the time was Ronnie Anastasio. Veronica did three "tours" of Expressway to Tomorrow, from January 1983 through April 1984.

(interview)

Next, my interview with Dr. Chuck Sterin, the filmmaker.

(interview)

The interview with Veronica Wiseman took place on October 23, 2020. The interview with Chuck Sterin took place on June 5, 2020.

Thanks to Chuck Sterin and Veronica Wiseman, and to Tom Bregatta, Bob Barto, and Frank Darby, who were also presenters who provided background information for this episode.

If you remember seeing Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow at a school assembly, I'd love to hear your recollections. If you happen to have any of the materials, such as the script, practice tapes, or the film, please contact me.

Check the show notes for links to magazine articles about the show, as well as scans of material that Veronica Wiseman saved, including Rick Trow Productions employee newsletters, a large collection of thank-you and feedback letters from many schools where she presented, and her photographs from that time.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Savetz

[Savetz]

Rick Trow, Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-418-rick-trow-computers-expressway-to-tomorrow

 

This is the second interview episode about Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow.

 

Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow was a school assembly, sponsored by Atari, that played at hundreds of middle schools and high schools throughout the United States in 1983 and 1984. In the previous interview episode, I interviewed one of the show's presenters and the filmmaker. In this episode, my interview with Rick Trow.

Rick Trow was the president of Rick Trow Productions, the company that created the Computers: Expressway to Tomorrow show -- as well as more than 40 other school assemblies and other productions over the years. Mr. Trow wrote the script for the 40-minute show, which combined two synchronized films with a live actor to teach computer basics to young people.

This interview took place on June 5, 2021.

[Savetz]

Bob gave a GREAT interview and you should listen to it. First watch the movie if you haven't.

 

Bob Elfstrom, The Magic Room
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-419-bob-elfstrom-the-magic-room

From 1982 through 1984, Atari ran summer computer camps at several locations around the United States. I covered the Atari camps extensively in a special episode in 2015. Now it's summer 2021, and we're going back to camp!

That first year of the computer camps, in 1982, Atari commissioned a film about its summer camps, about the kids and teachers who were there, about the process of learning about computers, about kids challenging themselves, and about making friends at summer camp. Atari commissioned filmmaker Bob Elfstrom and his partner Lucy Hilmer to make the film. They shot the 26-minute film at the University of California, San Diego campus in 1982. It would be titled The Magic Room and was released the next year.

There are many scenes in the computer lab: we see close-ups of kids concentrating, thinking about the logic of their programming projects. Their faces light up as they solve their problem. There’s an adorable scene with a robotic, computer controlled turtle running across the floor, racing an actual turtle. There's kids riding horses at magic hour, and singing by the campfire, and finally an epic pillow fight, with feathers flying everywhere in the dorm hallways. The end credits were made with an Atari 800, naturally.

This interview is with the filmmaker, Bob Elfstrom. (Lucy Hilmer was unavailable for an interview.) Bob has a long list of film credits to his name. He is known for his work on Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (1969), and Mysteries of the Sea (1980) -- his IMDB page lists scores of credits.

It's easy to watch The Magic Room (and you should!). It's available at YouTube and Internet Archive.

My interview with Bob took place on June 17 and June 25, 2021.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Savetz
url

[Savetz]

On 6/26/2021 at 9:31 AM, Savetz said:

Bob gave a GREAT interview and you should listen to it. First watch the movie if you haven't.

 

Bob Elfstrom, The Magic Room

 

Lucy Hilmer, the other filmmaker, sent me her collection of production documents for The Magic Room: https://archive.org/details/TheMagicRoomDocuments/

 

It includes contracts, financials, invoices, memos, and a hand-drawn calendar that makes it clear exactly when some of the key scenes were filmed.

 

-Kay
 

[Savetz]

Brenda Laurel, Atari Research
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-420-brenda-laurel-atari-research

Dr. Brenda Laurel worked at Atari from 1980 through 1984. She began as software specialist for educational applications then soon became manager of software strategy for the home computer division. In mid-1982, she joined Atari Corporate Research at the Sunnyvale research laboratory, where she worked with Alan Kay.

After Atari, she worked at Activision as director of software development. Later she founded Purple Moon, a software company focused on creating games for young girls; and co-founded Telepresence Research, a company focused on first-person media and virtual reality.

This interview took place on July 15, 2021. Check the show notes for links to articles she wrote for Atari Connection magazine; her doctoral dissertation, "Toward the Design of a Computer-Based Interactive Fantasy System"; scans of memos on the subject of interactive fantasy that she wrote while at Atari Research; and more.

 

 

 

[Savetz]

Jim Leiterman, Atari Research Group

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-421-jim-leiterman-atari-research-group

 

Jim Leiterman worked at Atari from April 1982 through March 1984 in the research group, under Alan Kay. His various projects included software for Project Puffer, an exercise bike peripheral for the Atari 800; an 8-player Hammurabi game; and an unreleased port of the game Warlords.

He created a symbolic disassembler, which he used to port the game Kangaroo from Atari 5200 to the Atari 800. That version of Kangaroo was released by Atari Program Exchange, in the fall 1983 catalog. Prior to Atari, Jim was a programmer at Horizon Simulations, where he worked on Shadow Hawk One, "a futuristic game of spacefaring piracy."

This interview took place on July 12, 2021. Be sure to check out Jim's web site where he has posted some photos of the hardware and software that we discussed.

This interview at YouTube

 

Jim's Atari page

[Savetz]

Donald Dixon, Robotics R&D at Atari Research
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-422-donald-dixon-robotics-rampd-at-atari-research

Donald Dixon worked at Atari Research from 1983 through 1984, under Dr, Alan Kay. There, he worked in robotics research and development, working on a robotic wheelchair. After Atari, Donald worked at Axlon, Nolan Bushnell's toys and consumer robotics company; and Worlds of Wonder, the company most famous for the animatronic bear toy, Teddy Ruxpin.

This interview took place on July 27, 2021.

 

 

[Savetz]

Tom Halfhill discusses Charles Brannon and SpeedScript
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-423-tom-halfhill-discusses-charles-brannon-and-speedscript

Charles Brannon was program editor at Compute! Publications from 1980 until 1986. He wrote and edited articles for Compute! Magazine and Compute!'s Gazette. His Linkedin profile says that his "primary responsibility was crafting BASIC and assembly language software creations. Secondary was managing other young programmers." Charles' wrote and ported many type-in programs for the Atari 8-bit and other computers. His Atari programs included FontMaker, a character set editor and The Atari Wedge, for adding commands To Atari BASIC.

His most popular and well-known program was SpeedScript, an assembly language word processor that was available first for the Commodore 64 in the March 1985 issue. In subsequent issues -- one month after another -- versions were published for VIC-20, then the Atari 8-bits, then the Apple II. Each version was a type-in listing that -- after excruciating hours of careful entry -- would build a powerful, functional word processor. Charles wrote a couple of books about SpeedScript (one specific to Atari and one specific to the Commodore versions) which contained the manual, type-in program code, and commented assembly language source code.

I've been trying to get an interview with Charles Brannon since 2015, to talk about his time at Compute! in general and SpeedScript specifically. This year, I heard back from his wife Margaret, who told me that Charles suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2016 and no longer feels confident in his memory. I won't be able to interview Charles.

But, Tom Halfhill, Charles' old friend and colleague at Compute!, volunteered to talk to me about Charles. Tom was a supervisor at Compute! when Charles wrote SpeedScript, and often discussed which features to include and the problems he encountered. Tom worked at Compute! Publications from 1982 to 1988, starting as the first Features Editor for Compute! Magazine later becoming Editor. He was the launch editor of Compute!'s Gazette for Commodore, Compute!'s Atari ST Disk and Magazine, Compute!'s PCjr Magazine, and Compute!'s PC Magazine.

This is not the first time I've talked with Tom: I interviewed him about his time at Compute! back in 2016. This time I talk with him with an emphasis on Charles Brannon and SpeedScript. (To be perfectly honest, we stuck to those topics for about 35 minutes. After that, we found other interesting things to talk about, most of which I left in this episode.)

This interview took place on July 22, 2021.

This interview at Youtube

 

My 2016 interview with Tom

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Savetz

[+Stephen]

Sad news about Charles, but thanks for all these interviews!  You're posting way faster than I can listen to these.  Very much appreciated, this is a great asset to the community.

[Savetz]

HOLY COW! This is an amazing find. ↓↓↓

 

Lucy Hilmer found the videotape of the lost 18-minute version of The Magic Room. Frankly, I was unclear if it was ever really created, but it was, and she gave it to me, and I had it professionally digitized, and it looks BEAUTIFUL.

 

Three versions of the film were created by Elfstrom-HIlmer Productions for Atari: a 26-minute version, an 18-minute version, and a 3-minute trailer. The 26-minute and 3-minute versions were digitized years ago and have been available online for some time. It was unclear whether the 18-minute version still existed, or if it had ever existed. The filmmakers' contract with Atari indicated it was created, but the filmmakers couldn't remember for sure. It was unclear, that is, until August 2021, when Lucy Hilmer found the 3/4" videotape.

 

The 18-minute movie isn't just a shortened version of the 26-minute version. It's a substantially different edit, featuring more intimate perspectives on certain campers, and entire scenes lacking in the 27-minute cut. I don't know if this version of the movie was ever shown beyond the walls of Atari, but I do know that for the first time in decades, we have some new views onto that summer in 1982 at Atari computer camp.

 

You can watch it at YouTube — and a ProRes version is available for download from Internet Archive.

 

Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/the-magic-room

YouTube:

 

 

[nonprophet]

On 4/15/2020 at 4:16 PM, Savetz said:

Many times. He has layers of protection around him.

 

-K

In case anyone's interested, the other Kay, Alan Kay, revealed his motivation for joining Atari during a Kids@Play Summit panel that he participated in in 2010.

The "Seymour" he refers to is none other than Seymour Papert. 

[tschak909]

1 hour ago, nonprophet said:

In case anyone's interested, the other Kay, Alan Kay, revealed his motivation for joining Atari during a Kids@Play Summit panel that he participated in in 2010.

The "Seymour" he refers to is none other than Seymour Papert. 

I tried to apply for anything at VPRI just to get around him, was summarily ignored. oh well.

 

-Thom