RIP Glenn Botts AKA Glenn the 5200 Man

[Savetz]

I have a couple of reports that Glenn Botts, better known to many of us as Glenn the 5200 Man, has died. I heard he died in November of a heart attack.

 

His 8-bit conversions of Atari 5200 games brought a lot of joy to many of us.

 

I interviewed him in 2015. Since then my only interactions with him was asking him many times to share his unique disks of source code and projects. He never did. He asked me in September about FujiNet, that was the last I heard from him.

-Kay

[Mclaneinc]

Oh damn, another one...

 

Thanks for passing on the news Kay, he sounded so full of life when you interviewed him, but heart attacks are pretty regular come my age, you really have to keep healthy. So sorry to hear he's gone, he did wonders with the ports, him and his work will be remembered..

 

Paul..

 

PS 29th, still 2 days to go, I hope we don't see another Atarian go...

[Sikor]

RIP Too many in short time...

[Vyvyan B.]

Crikey, what the hell is going on?

[Mclaneinc]

 

Seems like Death is booking on for some overtime... Is there ever any good news now..

[+cjherr]

Rest well, Glenn.

 

I hope all this ends with 2022.

[ndary]

RIP Glenn, seeing your hacks when I was a kid inspired my imagination 

[mimo]

No,no,no,no.

 

Such sad news 

[+MrFish]

3 hours ago, Savetz said:

I have a couple of reports that Glenn Botts, better known to many of us as Glenn the 5200 Man, has died. I heard he died in November of a heart attack.

Bye Glenn, and thanks for all the 5200 (and protos) that you helped us have on the machine.

 

Good you were able to interview him, Kevin.

  

3 hours ago, Savetz said:

Since then my only interactions with him was asking him many times to share his unique disks of source code and projects. He never did. He asked me in September about FujiNet, that was the last I heard from him.

I was interested to see those 7800 protos he spoke about in the interview come to light. Hopefully these artifacts will end up in the right hands.

 

[Gunstar]

R.I.P Glenn Botts. 

 

I know most of us are within/close to the same age, 0-15 years of age from each other or about would be my educated guess. But does anyone know how old Glenn was? 

 

How old was Archer Maclean? 

 

It's very sad to see, and I think all of us here are still too young to die. I feel anyone that dies before the average death age (about 77/78 right?) dies too soon. I'm 54 and hoping for at least another 20 years of life or more myself. Or best case scenario reaching over 100 like my Grandfather. I think my Father would have lived that long too, except he died an accidental death of a blood clot after falling and hurting a knee. A week after, he was dead with no warning really. Of course his knee was hurting him, but that doesn't necessarily mean a blood clot, and it certain didn't seem a serious enough injury to him or any of us to go get it checked out. Of course now I know differently and if something similar happens to me, I'll get it checked out. But even my father died a mere week before his 80th birthday, so he lived beyond the average. Both my father and grandfather looked felt and behaved like men 10 years younger than they were, and I seem to be on that track to so far too, as does my older brother who is 5 years my senior. Of course accident or disease/virus could take anyone too soon, regardless of life expectancy, so I could still die, like any one of us at any time. I'm 49 years younger right now than the age my grandfather died, so I'm hoping for that too. I'd only be slightly more than half through my life!

Edited December 29, 2022 by Gunstar

[mimo]

14 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

I'm 54 and hoping for at least another 20 years of life or more myself

I'm also 54, and was clinically dead for 20 minutes in April after a heart attack which led to cardiac arrest.

Seeing stories like this makes me remember how lucky I am to have survived relatively unscathed, and I feel really sorry for those that don't have such a good outcome and the family they leave behind 

[+slx]

21 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

How old was Archer Maclean? 

He was a month shy of 61 and according to one report died after a protracted battle with cancer. 
 

Unless you keep totally clear of health advice and regular checkups it‘s probably rather unlikely these days to die suddenly at age 60 (though it does happen occasionally). But anything beyond 75 must be considered good fortune as much as good genes. 
 

The real difference is probably in how healthy and thus able to live independently and pursue your interests you are in the years before you go. 
 

I take consolation from the thought that my inevitable demise will probably hurt surviving family members more than myself and even if it doesn’t I probably won’t care anymore. 
 

R.I.P. Glenn and thanks for the ports and the interview (and @Savetz for interviewing)!

[_The Doctor__]

Looks like the trend continues, running out of people...

The shear volume of not only friends, family, pets, but also heros and celebrities appears to be skyrocketing. WTF. Something is seriously fubar. Can't find medicines, cancer, clots, heart attacks. F*ck all these. What else can you say. Thanks Glenn, you went far too soon as is the trend these last couple of years. Everyone that had an Atari and a modem seemingly had your handy work. You made short work of it, like a machine. Hope you've got infinite cycles where you are now and that your repository finds it's way to the world so all can share in the fun challenges that you got to enjoy.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Glenn, thank you for all of the 5200 ports.  Never met you, but you made a big impression on me as a kid and it led to some interesting places.  Rest well.

[+Larry]

RIP, Glenn.

 

Jeez... I'm 78 -- living on the edge.  And believe me, when you're 74 (54+20), you'll be saying "well, maybe another 10 years."  Me, I'm shooting for 90.

[Gunstar]

18 minutes ago, Larry said:

RIP, Glenn.

 

Jeez... I'm 78 -- living on the edge.  And believe me, when you're 74 (54+20), you'll be saying "well, maybe another 10 years."  Me, I'm shooting for 90.

That's the minimum I'm hoping for, but I do know from the past 20 years just how fast it will go by! Hopefully you have another decade or even two in you...

 

But with the way things seem to be going in the world right now, I may not want to live another 20 or more years...let's see how the next few years go...

Edited December 30, 2022 by Gunstar

[Grevle]

Sad to learn about his passing, Reminds of another sad story. Bill Wiliams (Author of Salmor Run) passed at 37 years of age in 1998.  i had the Salmon Run game in cassette back in 1983 and enjoyed it, So it felt kinda personal to learn about Bill Williams passing back then. May they all rest i peace. 🌻 

[Mclaneinc]

Same Bill Williams as Alley Cat?

 

To Answer my own question, yes, from the Giant List of Programmers..

 

Salmon Run (1982, 800, APX)

Necromancer (1982, 800, Synapse)

Alley Cat (1984, 800, Synapse)

[N] Relax, w/Kelly Jones (1984, 800, Synapse)

Mind Walker (1986, AMI, Commodore)

Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, w/Steve Quinn, John Cutter (1987, AMI, Cinemaware)

Pioneer Plague (1988, AMI, Terrific)

Knights of the Crystallion (1991, AMI, US Gold) [P] Monopoly (1991, NES, PB)

Bart's Nightmare (1992, SNES, Acclaim)

 

Sad story indeed..

Edited December 30, 2022 by Mclaneinc

[kiwilove]

Sad to hear of these recent and not so recent exits from this life.  You should aim for past 100 if you're on a healthy diet, do some regular exercise and train yourself for high quality sleeping, along with good genes of course.

We all get recycled (like old computer hardware) whether you believe in this concept or not.  See the story about Dorothy Eady which can illustrate this.  Enjoy your hobbies is another driver for a long life as you begin to wonder how far can you travel in time and how small can things get before they cannot shrink even more?

 

Harvey

[flashjazzcat]

13 hours ago, kiwilove said:

how small can things get before they cannot shrink even more

Wow. Sucks to be old, I guess.

[Mclaneinc]

I'm sort of in the same mindset as Gunstar, I was chatting to a mate called Albert, he's a homeless guy who a few of us help at the local supermarket. He's a really nice bloke, but sleeping rough had made him look older than me, so we try and make sure he gets a few nights in hostels when we can. But like Gunstar, he wonders how long he wants to be around this world the way it is. He's not looking to check out, but it's all very hard for him despite what help we give him. My take is that the world is getting harder to be in, and it seems harder to keep your health going.

[Gunstar]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:21 PM, cjherr said:

Rest well, Glenn.

 

I hope all this ends with 2022.

Well, I hope all this is postponed after 2022, but it never ends, until the end of the world, then it ends. But not the way your statement suggests...

Edited December 31, 2022 by Gunstar

[Mclaneinc]

Yup, I think I want a little more time before my clogs pop

[Ecernosoft]

On 12/29/2022 at 10:09 AM, Mclaneinc said:

 

Seems like Death is booking on for some overtime... Is there ever any good news now..

Well, at least you have (young people like me) to remember Atari. Unfortunately, most of GEN Z probably has no idea what an atari is, much less any of the awesome people who were behind it.

 

It's quite sad.

[tjlazer]

I remember Glenn's 5200 ports from back in the day like it was yesterday.  Always enjoyed his conversions especially Mario Bros, Moon Patrol and Gremlins.  RIP Glenn the 5200 man.