Xanth Park

[tjb]

Does anyone know anything about Xanth Park? I'm familiar with the 8-bit and ST demos created by Xanth but know little more. I take it Xanth was some sort of organization (Company?) rather than an individual? Does anyone know what ever happened to Xanth? I'm hoping someone with some affiliation with Xanth might chime in and provide some background.

 

 

tjb

[FastRobPlus]

Does anyone know anything about Xanth Park? I'm familiar with the 8-bit and ST demos created by Xanth but know little more. I take it Xanth was some sort of organization (Company?) rather than an individual? Does anyone know what ever happened to Xanth? I'm hoping someone with some affiliation with Xanth might chime in and provide some background.

 

 

tjb

 

Xanth was a local Atari dealer here in Seattle. They folded around 1989 or so I think. They also developed and/or marketed Atari ST software. The last time I saw them was at World of Atari at the Seattle center flag pavilion in 1988 where they had all the Hybrid Arts stuff on demo.

[+CharlieChaplin]

Hmm,

 

never heard that Xanth was a dealer, the only information I have is that Xanth (maybe the same person, maybe someone else) was Michael A. Park. He programmed the famous CES demos (Swan demo, Robot/Spaceship demo, Fujiboink demo), the Amiga-Boink demo and last not least Midi-Maze for the A8 (not released, thus it only exists as a prototype cart.). He had been interviewed for some Page 6 / New Atari User magazine, but I do not remember which issue...

 

-Andreas Koch.

[FastRobPlus]

They were a dealer in downtown Seattle as well as a developer. They had a storefront.

 

I rarely ventured to Seattle. Allen Sound and Butler's computers were the big Atari dealers very early on in this area.

[bani]

Edited August 8, 2010 by bani

[bani]

xanth computer systems: a computer store in downtown seattle. i used to visit there occasionally. their shop was pretty small.

 

600 First Avenue Seattle, WA 98104

 

the street doesn't really exist anymore, in the >20 years since xanth shut down there has been a lot of construction.

 

michael park worked at xanth and wrote fujiboink and a couple other demos. james yee, the owner of xanth, provided the financial backing to bring michael's midimaze to market.

 

odd data point: i'm pretty sure i'm the one who gave michael park the idea for midimaze

[tjb]

Thanks for all the info. I wonder what Mr. Park is up to these days? I believe the sources for the ST version of the FujiBoink demo were released in an article in START. Does anyone remember?

tjb

[TwiliteZoner]

Thanks for all the info. I wonder what Mr. Park is up to these days? I believe the sources for the ST version of the FujiBoink demo were released in an article in START. Does anyone remember?

tjb

 

I have the STart disk with FujiBoink on it. There were two steps that you had to follow to get a working demo.

 

Here is a link to the Atari Magazines STart article on the demo. I attached the STart disk from their site.

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv1n2/Fujiboink.html

V1N2.zip

Edited August 9, 2010 by TwiliteZoner

[tjb]

Thanks for all the info. I wonder what Mr. Park is up to these days? I believe the sources for the ST version of the FujiBoink demo were released in an article in START. Does anyone remember?

 

 

tjb

 

I have the STart disk with FujiBoink on it. There were two steps that you had to follow to get a working demo.

 

Here is a link to the Atari Magazines STart article on the demo. I attached the STart disk from their site.

 

http://www.atarimaga.../Fujiboink.html

 

Cool! Thanks.

 

tjb

 

 

 

[Umberto]

There was a Xanth computers in Bellevue loosely associated with the one in Seattle. Also there was Cave creek computers in Seattle.

[kiwilove]

I wrote a fan letter to him back in the day - and got a reply back. I've got it somewhere and should dig it out, if I can find it.

 

The Atari Robot and Spaceship demo was not by him - maybe it was assumed to be - because of the same use of Atari logo and rainbow effect, so it appears to be from the same source using that title/logo.

 

Harvey

[Mclaneinc]

You wrote a 'fan' letter to him?

 

Harvey, you had it bad

[lotek_style]

Michael Park was the driving force behind them:

 

https://demozoo.org/groups/66386/