An Atari-focused podcast has reached the milestone of 200 episodes interviewing computing pioneers.
The retrocomputing podcast ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast was launched in June 2013 and over the course of more than 200 episodes has interviewed people from virtually all aspects of computer history, from game designers to copywriters to corporate executives to attorneys. The subjects were involved in early personal computers such as the Atari 400 and 800 as well the company's home gaming systems. Some hadn't been interviewed since the 1970s or '80s, and many had never before gone on the record about their roles.
Co-hosts Kevin Savetz, Randy Kindig, and Brad Arnold are all longtime Atari enthusiasts, and, in addition to the interviews, have hosted dozens of ANTIC episodes on Atari computer news, hacks, and hardware gadgets.
Savetz said no project of this scope has ever been undertaken in the world of computer history. "Getting these legends on record is not just about the Atari community reminiscing about a computer or gaming system," he said. "Their knowledge of and participation in the industry helped form the groundwork for today's technology."
The interview episodes have covered hardware, software, programming, marketing, publishing, animation, bulletin board systems (BBS) and everything in between. The subjects sometimes touch on other gaming and computing systems as well as arcade games. Many were excited to talk about their Atari-related experiences while others had to be persuaded.
"Some of the people we've interviewed have famous names, such as Pong creator Al Alcorn; 6502 chip co-designer Bill Mensch; and Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari," Savetz said. "But every single person we've talked to is a valuable part of the story."
Among the pioneers the ANTIC hosts spoke to are: David Crane, co-founder of Activision and designer of Pitfall!; Bill Louden, founder of GEnie and before that, part of the team that built the first consumer online service, CompuServe; Peter Langston, founding employee of LucasArts; Steve Mayer and Joe Decuir, who were on the original design team for the Atari 400 and 800 computers; and Ted Richards, editor of the in-house magazine Atari Connection as well as a print and package designer in the Atari communications department in the early '80s. The 200th interview episode, released today, is with John Harris, creator of the best-seller game, Jawbreaker.
Interviewee Glenn Botts, previously known only as "Glenn the 5200 Man," agreed to have his identity revealed on an ANTIC podcast. He was an Atari software cracker who converted 5200 games to run on Atari 8-bit computers. A recent interviewee is David Thiel, the computer musician who did the sound for arcade games such as Q*Bert and Mach 3. The ANTIC team was even able to interview Atari executives such as John Constantine, who served as Atari General Accounting Manager and Executive Director.
An interview with AtariLabs manual author Sandy Dwiggins establishes that today's Silicon Valley startups have nothing on Atari employees. One day at work, her colleague, Priscilla Laws, "found these two programmers who only came out at night and were barefoot all the time ... they didn't take showers, they didn't take baths, they didn't do anything except sit in their nest." In her own interview with ANTIC, physics professor Laws shared how she worked with AtariLab for 400 and 800 computers and has dedicated her career to developing activity-based curricular materials and software. She recounted how, in the mid-1980s, ""I saw somebody dip a thermistor into cold water — ice water — and a real-time cooling curve was appearing on the screen. And it blew me away."
Some of the people interviewed worked toward societal goals, or were active politically. Interview subject Ted Kahn was creator of the Atari Institute for Educational Action research, which awarded grants to individuals, schools and nonprofits. Ursula Wolz was an early innovator in computing and education, working on Apple ][ games for Children's Television Workshop as well as consulting with Atari on educational software. Forrest Mozer was a pioneer in digital speech, interviewed by ANTIC in 2015.
The interviews vary in length and often reveal Atari-related issues that had never before been publicly discussed. Sometimes, the discussions get heated, as people recall arguments with supervisors or the tumultuous times in the Atari/Warner Bros. relationship, various leadership oustings, the Tramiels family ownership era, and times when Atari was seen as growing impossibly fast. In a conversation with Savetz, Alan Henricks, controller at Atari from 1978 through 1983, recounted some especially tense moments in the legal arena. And plant controller Alan Stratton, who was involved in the infamous disposing of game cartridges in a New Mexico dump, had some tales to tell. "If I had an auditor come in, I'd sit him down at an Atari game console or my computer, and have him play some games. Boy that audit went sweet after that."
An excerpt from an interview with Atari magazine columnist Arthur Leyenberger sums up the energy of the era: "If I think about one thing that really captures that era, is that it was exciting. It was exciting, it was fun, it was something new, it was something you could share - you could join a user group, there were all these magazines. ... A lot of information out there, a lot of stuff to learn, a lot of stuff to have fun with and share."
Savetz, who also maintains online libraries of vintage computer magazines at AtariMagazines.com and AtariArchives.org, said, "There are still many Atari enthusiasts around today, reminiscing, collaborating online, and meeting up at conventions."
The podcast has a website at AtariPodcast.com that includes an index to all of the interviews. Besides being available to stream or download over iTunes and other podcast players, each episode can be streamed or downloaded directly in mp3 format at the website.
"Our project is not over," Savetz said. "The ANTIC team will continue to record and share the memories and knowledge of even more Atari legends and behind-the-scenes innovators."
STATS
First interview published August 22, 2013.
200 interview-only episodes published.
Plus 16 other interviews before switching to the interview-only format
For a total of 228 people interviewed.
The most-downloaded interviews include:
David Small, prolific writer and software developer
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-11-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-david-small
Bill Mensch, co-designer of the 6502 Chip
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-96-bill-mensch-6502-chip
Atari Summer Camp episode
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-special-episode-atari-summer-camp
Chuck Peavey, game programmer
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-14-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-chuck-peavey
Paul Laughton, author of Apple DOS 3.1, Atari BASIC, the Atari DOS filesystem
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-the-atari-8-bit-podcast-paul-laughton-interview
A complete list of interviews is here:
http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/inteview-index