ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

By: Randy Kindig Kay Savetz Brad Arnold
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  • Summary

  • Retrocomputing podcast about the Atari 8-bit line of personal computers
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Politics & Government
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Episodes
  • ANTIC Interview 442 - Bob Stein, Atari Research

    ANTIC Interview 442 - Bob Stein, Atari Research
    Nov 1 2024
    Bob Stein, Atari’s Encyclopedia Project 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. Video version of this interview at YouTube The Atari Drawings ANTIC Interview 420 - Brenda Laurel, Atari Research Whither The Encyclopedia Project - Atari Encyclopedia Project memos Back to the Future -- In honor of Encyclopedia Britannica giving up its print edition (Wayback machine) Stein Kay Atari Memos Pt 1 Stein Kay Atari Memos Pt 2 Exchange With Steve Weyer And J. David Bolter 1983 Hadley Letter 1980-12-01 Atari...Ifugao Question Journal, Michael Naimark CVD Atari Seminar 20 December 1982 Encyclopedia And The Intellectual Tools Of The Future . . . November 1981 Bob Stein Archives at Stanford The Digital Antiquarian — Bob Stein and Voyager Charles Van Doren in Wikipedia Bob Stein wants to change how people think about the book (2010)
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    57 mins
  • ANTIC Episode 111 - Is Kay Really Funny, or is it Just a Courtesy Snicker?

    ANTIC Episode 111 - Is Kay Really Funny, or is it Just a Courtesy Snicker?
    Oct 27 2024
    ANTIC Episode 111 - “Is Kay Really Funny, or is it Just a Courtesy Snicker?” In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We go over the ABBUC Software Contest winners, we cover PRGE, Kay accelerates his interview publishing schedule, and we ask the question: Is Kay really funny, or are Randy’s snickers simply courtesy? You decide … READY! Recurring Links Floppy Days Podcast AtariArchives.org AtariMagazines.com Kay’s Book “Terrible Nerd” New Atari books scans at archive.org ANTIC feedback at AtariAge Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge Interview index: here ANTIC Facebook Page AHCS Eaten By a Grue Next Without For What we’ve been up to PRGE - https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/ Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution by David and Theresa Welsh - https://amzn.to/40l4vv1 (sponsored link) Recent Interviews ANTIC Interview 439 - Making Modern Atari Hardware ANTIC Interview 440 - Ed Sabo, UltraBASIC ANTIC Interview 441 - Nick Kennedy, Atari Morse Code Keyer News ABBUC 2024 Software Contest: https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2024/10/ruff-in-trouble-ganador-del-abbuc-2024.html https://abbuc.de/2024/10/ergebnis-abbuc-softwarewettbewerb-2024-result-abbuc-software-competition-2024/ ABBUC Magazines - https://abbuc.de 4th ATASCII Compo 2024 - Presentation Pre-Launch for Clear Case for 800XL has begun: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seethruit/injection-molded-clear-case-for-atari-800xl-computer/ https://forums.atariage.com/topic/373926-pre-launch-for-clear-case-for-800xl-has-begun/ Bouncy World Server Available - https://www.atariorbit.org/2024/09/27/bouncy-world-server-available/ Replacement cartridge slot - Screaming at the Radio - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/373896-replacement-cartridge-slot/ Mastertronic Collectors Archive - Atari (8-Bit) Mastertronic Checklist - https://mastertronic.co.uk/atari-mastertronic-checklist/ Upcoming Shows Retro Computer Festival 2024 - November 9-10 - Centre for Computing History, Cambridge, England - https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/72253/Retro-Computer-Festival-2024-Saturday-9th-November/ Silly Venture WE (Winter Edition) - Dec. 5-8 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2024-we Event page on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub YouTube Videos Atari XL/XE -=Go! Tony Go!=- - Saberman RetroNews - Atari XL/XE -=Go! Tony Go!=- LIVE from PRGE 2024 Day 1: AtariAge New Releases & WIP - ZeroPage Homebrew - LIVE from PRGE 2024 Day 1: AtariAge New Releases & WIP (FIXED!) Videos of the ABBUC winners, such as: Atari XL/XE -=Eat Me!=- ABBUC Software Contest 2024 - Saberman RetroNews - Atari XL/XE -=Eat Me!=- ABBUC Software Contest 2024 1K Rainbox - Saberman RetroNews - Atari XL/XE -=1K RainBox=- ABBUC Software Contest 2024 My Atari 800 prints out the news and weather every morning! - Sascha Segan - My Atari 800 prints out the news and weather every morning! New at Archive.org https://archive.org/details/horten-computer-welt-11-85-preise/ https://archive.org/details/brace-bits-vol-3-no-1/BraceBits%20vol1%20no4/ https://archive.org/details/@allan52?query=portland Github https://github.com/marktmiller/atari-8-bit-forth-projects/tree/main/fig-forth1.1/FP%20library https://github.com/ivop/saprtools
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    57 mins
  • ANTIC Interview 441 - Nick Kennedy, Atari Morse Code Keyer

    ANTIC Interview 441 - Nick Kennedy, Atari Morse Code Keyer
    Oct 26 2024
    Nick Kennedy, Atari Morse Code Keyer 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. Video version of this interview Keyer software and source code at Internet Archive Ham Terminal software (with source code) at Internet Archive Various amateur radio software for for Atari 8-bit Nick interviewed by the QSO Today podcast in 2015 Nick's keyer article in Solid Copy Nick's web site Ad Astra magazine Pat Kennedy's tank game Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications Support Kay's interviews on Patreon
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    36 mins

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