Bill Lange

Did Atari publish a Field Service Manual for the Atari 822 Thermal Printer? Is there a list anywhere that contains the part numbers for documentation? Regards, Bill

Not bad for a guy who started out writing software on his Atari 8-bit ... http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fab-life-of-billionaire-marc-benioff-2015-6#

I still use a Star Micronics Gemini 10x. It uses standard cheap type-writer ribbons and fan fold paper, both available at Amazon. Th e interface for it is available from Brad at Best Electronics. Bill

I recently picked up one of these "Atari 410 cassette Drive - 3 part Belt Kit 400 600 800 XL XE" on eBay from a seller in the UK. I replaced the "play" belt in one of my non-working 410s. The other two belts were a little bit more work than I wanted to tackle tonight. Once I put the program recorder back together, I was able to load "Kingdom" on one try ... all three stages ... Atari Logo, Instructions, Game. Happy! Of course I don't expect I'll be using the 410 much and the new belt will probably kink again over time. Bill

I had the most comments about how good my standard Atari joystick felt (thanks to the Best Electronic rebuild kit) and the flip-file case that holds about 10 to 12 Atari 8-bit cartridges. Multiple people mentioned that they didn't know there were Atari 8-bit cartridge inserts for the flip-file, they they had only seen those for 5 1/4 floppies. Bill

I enjoyed the Louis Massucci interview. He sounded like he really loved his time in the Atari world. I currently live in Somerset, NJ and the building where the Atari service center was (10 Worlds Fair Dr) is only a couple of miles away. Bill

We had a really good time. In addition to Brian K and Bob F, we met Peter (Fletch) and Ralph (redman) from the AtariAge 8-bit group. We also met and spent a lot of time talking with Boisy Pitre. I also saw Bill Loguidice and I think I saw Jason Scott walking around on Saturday but both times I was engage in conversations with other attendees.

The blue button is a hard reset mod. I replaced the motherboard sometime last year and neither switch works anymore.

On gentleman, Oscar Vermeulen, from Switzerland implemented a Digital PDP-8 on a Raspberry Pi .... a $120,000 ($120,000 in 1970's dollars and $120,000 in today's dollars) computer re-implemented on a $35 computer. Oscar is trying to find 100 people to committee to buying the Raspberry/PDP-8 kits so that he can get the costs down. It is really cool looking. http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.ch/

Sunday morning included a hour long talk by Visicalc co-designer and developer Bob Frankston. I got a picture of him standing in front of my Atari 800 running Visicalc. My wife Lucy also got him to sign a copy of Atari Visicalc for us. Very gracious man.

Saturday morning included a great hour long talk with Unix/C legend Brian Kernighan, as well as past co-worker as both my wife Lucy and I worked at Bell Labs in the 1990s and early 2000s. Brian is a great speaker. It wasn't as much a speech as it was a question and answer session. Lots of great stories.

Here are some pictures from today's sessions at VCF East. I attend five sessions: "8-bit music programming", "Vintage meets micro controllers", "Quarternet committee", "DEC PDP-8" and "Restoring power supplies". The Atari 8-bits were mentioned in the first three and was the main system discussed in "Vintage meets micro controllers". Lots of Commodore and Apple folks. Bill

Here is a preview of my VCF East exhibit. The 10-key handler and Visicalc are being loaded from AspeQt running on the laptop. Lots of beige and lots of natural wood.

Brad, My wife Lucy and I are headed down to Atlanta June 18th - 21st for the Southern Fried Game Room Expo. Maybe we could meet up then. We also plan to take in a Braves game that Friday. We want to get to the stadium before they tear it down at the end of the season. Bill

I'm look forward to seeing a lot of Atari 8-bit users at Vintage Computer Festival East this weekend in Wall, NJ. Stop by and say "hello". Bill

Your website is playing the correct podcast, but my iPhone is playing S1E13 Home Inventory when I try to play S1E15. Bill

I've always enjoyed using the assembly language monitor built into Atari Memo Pad. Excellently designed and built tool. Bill

My brother gave me a couple of classic desktop phones yesterday. Now I can test my 830 since I have a phone that fits. Bill

1702x2

I get it on Amazon.

LOOT CRATE SPOILER AHEAD I was on vacation in Cozumel last week and I read this book. It felt like the author wrote this book just for me! When I got back home, the February 2015 issue of Loot Crate was sitting on my front door step (in the snow). Low and behold, another copy of the book. Bill

I bought a 1000 sheet box on Amazon back in Nov. Its more likely my ink ribbon will dry out before I use the whole box. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027653CK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Bill

I picked up a package of these little clear rubber pads made by Scotch at Home Depot. This fit perfectly on the bottom of the CX-40 joysticks. I scrapped the old black gooey ones off with a screw driver and applied these. Works great. Lets see how long they stick. Bill

Somebody should start a Kickstarter project to get a production line started!

I used a Star Micronics Gemini 10X. First connected with an 850 and then later with an ATR8000. I also had a 1020 plotter that got used rarely. Today the 10X is connected with a MicroPrint Parallel Printer interface. I also have a 1020 and a 1027 boxed up. Bill