Real Atari Loyalty -- A Real-World Lottery Winner (Poland)

[gilsaluki]

I was pondering the over subject the loyalty I have had for the Atari brand over the last 35 years. Others have as well. I was reading Antic Magazine, May 1988 Issue. On page 37 is a touching story about how Tadeusz Menert, a Polish English teacher had previously asked for support/help for the Atari community for software, literature, and magazines due to the lack of Atari 8-bit support in his then communist-controlled country. To his surprise, he was overwhelmed by the loads of software and printed matter he received from the giving community. Then his political situation changed and he had to "escape" to West Germany. Being an English teacher, his ultimate destination was the USA, but had no sponsor (a requirement back then). A fellow Atarian provided the needed sponsorship and Tadeusz's family was able to immigrate to the USA. Great story. Now. Where is Mr. Menert today? Has HE, one that gained a new life for his family in the greatest country on the planet, so thankful at the time for the Atari community, remained loyal to Atari? Hummmm. Does Mr. Menert reside on this website? Does he even use an Atari today. Anyone know?

[+mytek]

I'm pretty sure I found him, but it appears he passed away about 8 years ago. Tadeusz Adam Menert Obituary

[+davidcalgary29]

I certainly remember reading this in Antic. Didn’t he pen a thank you note which Antic printed as well?

[gilsaluki]

I'm pretty sure I found him, but it appears he passed away about 8 years ago. Tadeusz Adam Menert Obituary

Oh my gosh! That was definitely Mr. Menert. So, So, sad to hear of his passing. His obituary mentions his son, Michal, whose name and picture also appeared in that issue of antic. And, the article mentioned that he was sponsored by a fellow Atarian in Colorado. Mr. Menert stayed there in that wonderful state. I am so proud of the Atari community coming to his and his family's need back in 1987. What a wonderful story. I think it would make a great movie. All that is right about love and immigration success. Thank you so much for finding out the story of this adventure. I wish we could find his sponsor (his name is mentioned in the article) and thank him for opening up his heart and allowing a fellow human being, a stranger to him at the time, to achieve The American Dream. God bless!

[gilsaluki]

I certainly remember reading this in Antic. Didn’t he pen a thank you note which Antic printed as well?

I remember this article highlighting his journey from Poland to the USA. It started with a plea for support in Antics I/O Section for software and information (magazines, etc.). He did state the material that was shipped to him was still being used in Poland at the time by other teachers (had to abandon his setup when he left Poland). I do not remember a follow up Thank You article after his family immigrated. Just goes to show you how small this world is (Atari World is really small). I love re-reading Antic Magazines. I always learn and pick up new things from time to time. I am so happy I bought the entire collection just before the magazine closed its doors (migrated to START).

[+davidcalgary29]

I should check the I/O section myself. I loved Antic, but that magazine did a real disservice to readers by failing to a) cover anything going on in Europe and b) failing to suggest other (English) A8/Atari periodicals after they closed up shop. I could’ve spent the ‘90s reading Page 6/ Atari User instead of thinking that no one was using A8 machines at all. I only found other active users after I discovered thos site in 2002.

[Gunstar]

I was an avid Antic reader from mid '85 on, after I got my 130XE, but I bought it for years from the bookstore magazine racks. Then in the early 90's the book stores stopped carrying Antic and I finally subscribed in 1990 and received exactly 3 bi-monthly issues and they folded into a small section in the back of START magazine and I was so angry. I had no use for START as I didn't have an ST and 10 pages of content every two months was so lame. I think I ended up with as much content as 4 magazines for my subscription. I only subscribed in the first place because they suggested it so we wouldn't miss an issue as they were sending out less copies to the magazine shops. But that they planned on being around for a while yet as they still had a distribution of like 100K issues a month and like 40-50K were subscribers.

 

It would have been nice to know of English magazines then too. At the time I was just discovering English and European software through pirated menu disks I ordered from a guy in New York City. And I discovered Atari Interface Magazine at the newsstands which had some 8-bit coverage which included games from over-seas and addresses to order from. Ke-soft also advertised their games in AIM and that's how I got games like Techno Ninja. Of course about 75% of the English/European software didn't work on my NTSC Atari...until the Internet came around and I found out about Nir Dary's PAL ANTIC swap trick...then came Atari Age and the rest is history...

 

Now with PDF's I'm finally able to see all of what I missed from Antic and Analog pre-1985 and the English mags like Page 6/Atari User.

[+davidcalgary29]

Okay, I've picked up a copy of the October 1988 issue of Atari User, and it neatly illustrates all of my beefs with the American Atari rags. Atari User managed to cover hot new games (Rampage, Draconus, budget titles), the U.S. "scene", a few new 2600 games, and wrapped it up in an attractive package (sales charts! News items!), while the American magazines entered sleep mode. I didn't hear about a A8 port of Rampage until 2002! I also appreciate the fact that the magazine recognized that computing was expensive and that users' budgets were often limited. I probably would've have bought Red Rat games on tape, too, if they had been sold in Canada for the equivalent of $3! Such a shame that American magazines completely ignored the facts that lots of kids used Ataris, and couldn't afford the five hundred dollar disk drives or didn't care about hundred dollar accounting programs on sale at the time.