Jump to content
IGNORED

The Atari interview discussion thread


Savetz

Recommended Posts

Henry and Nancy Taitt, Creative Learning Association
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-388-henry-and-nancy-taitt-creative-learning-association


Henry Taitt was founder of the Creative Learning Association, which created books and classes about how to program computers in BASIC. Henry, along with his wife Nancy Taitt, ran the company from 1982-1988.

The book series, TLC For Growing Minds — TLC means Thinking, Learning, Creating — delivered self-paced lessons about the BASIC programming language. Versions of the series were available for Atari 8-bit, Apple II, IBM PC, TRS-80, and other platforms. Each platform series had seven books with color-coded covers: the red cover was level 1, orange for level 2, yellow for level 3, and so on down the rainbow. Another series offered platform-agnostic microcomputer projects.

The material was used as the bases for in-person classes at computer labs around the United States. Creative Learning Association also published a newsletter and a "national registry of computer programers" highlighting students who had progressed in the book series.

I have been able to find and scan some of Creative Learning Association materials and upload them to The Internet Archive. 

This interview took place on April 14, 2020.

TLC for Growing Minds book scans

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/15/2020 at 7:50 PM, Savetz said:

Claudia Cohl, Editor-in-Chief of Family Computing and K-Power Magazine

Thank you!  I read Family Computing for years; my grandfather had a subscription, and I got one myself for a short time during the "Family & Home Office Computing" era.  Looking forward to the interview!

 

On 6/16/2020 at 11:05 AM, tschak909 said:

I have some issues of Family Computing, if people want them. Have been trying to sell them on eBay for two years.

I might take you up on that!  My remaining back issues are in pretty bad shape.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, onlyinajeep said:

Henry and Nacy, charming couple :) Was this episode intended to be published 'un-produced'?

 

 

2 hours ago, Savetz said:

Yikes! Nope. Thanks for letting me know.

 

K

Damn - what did I miss?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brad Stewart, Covox
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-389-brad-stewart-covox


Brad Stewart was the co-founder and chief designer of Covox, the company that created Covox VoiceMaster. VoiceMaster was speech digitizer and voice recognition hardware for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, and Apple II computers. 

This interview took place on May 21, 2020.

 

Aerosynth

Brad's blog post about Covox Voice Master

Kay plays with VoiceMaster in 2014

Covox Voicemaster Demo cassette

A Bionic Approach to Speech Processing

Escape from Planet X at AtariMania

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

David Gedalia, Atari-controlled Telescope
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-390-david-gedalia-atari-controlled-telescope


Listener Paul Somerfeldt sent me a blurb he found in a book titled "The Dobsonian Telescope" by David Kriege and Richard Berry. The book reads: "Computer-controlled Dobsonian telescopes entered amateur astronomy in the late 1980s. An outstanding early example was David Gedalia's 10-inch f/4.5 Dobsonian driven by an Atari 800XL computer, shown at the 1987 Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. With the Atari driving altitude and azimuth stepper-motors, the telescope would move automatically to coordinates entered on the computer’s keyboard. David was a third-year engineering student when he built this telescope."

I sought out David to find out more about his Atari-controlled telescope.

This interview took place on May 29, 2020.

Photos of David with his telescope

The Dobsonian Telescope by David Kriege and Richard Berry

 

New Horizons in Amateur Astronomy by Grant Fjermedal

 

WG2j9rjr.jpg

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


There's an article in the New York Times, dated April 9, 1982: "8-Year-Old's Birthday Party in a Computer Center." The story, written by Barbara Gamareklin, is about the birthday party of Tracey Pizzo — now Tracey Frey — which took place at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, DC.

Quoting the article:

Tracy Pizzo decided that Chunky’s Cheese Pizza Parlor was not the place for her eighth birthday party after all. She chose the Future Center of the Capital Children’s Museum, where her 13 guests were able to try their hand at the video games on 20 Atari 800 microcomputers.

Without waiting to remove their coats and jackets, the girls, most of them 6 to 8 years old, rushed toward the glowing multicolored screens. In no time they were engrossed in computer games — from Asteroids and Find Hurkle to Lemonade Stand.

"Go, Megan, go!" cried 6-year-old Enid Maran, who was still wearing her black kid gloves. "We have to explode those little stars." Megan Thaler worked her control lever and sent a stream of blue and red simulated antiaircraft fire across the screen in the direction of a small green airplane.

Tracy’s mother, Peggy Pizzo, said that Tracy’s older sister, Cara, had been to the Future Center on a school field trip "and Tracy got so excited when she heard about it that she insisted we have a computer birthday party.” ...

"Tracy said the reason she wanted to come was because her friends liked to push buttons," said 11-year-old Cara, who had baked the white birthday cake with pink frosting that had "Eight" spelled out in strawberries.

"What is your name?" the Birthday Banner computer asked. "And how old are you now? Are you a boy or a girl?" As Tracy typed in the answers and her friends serenaded her with “Happy Birthday,” a five-foot computer tape slowly emerged from the machine, reading in letters six inches tall: "Happy Birthday Tracy."...

Tracy, aided by her friends, Katherine Herz and Annamaria Hibbs, tried out her entrepreneurial skills at Lemonade Stand. ... Tracy played Hangman with her father, Dr. Philip Pizzo. She said, "Make it hard, but not too hard," as she closed her eyes and her father entered the word "Christmas" for her to guess, each incorrect guess slowly forming a hangman’s noose on the screen....

Asteroids is the only noneducational game offered in the computer room...

Computer birthday parties cost $5 a person, with a minimum of eight in a party...

As for Tracy Pizzo, as she and her friends filed down the hall to the balloon-festooned party room for ice cream, cake and presents, she pronounced the day "just perfect."
 
(end quote)

In 1981, Atari donated 30 Atari computer systems to the Capital Children's Museum. The contribution allowed the museum to establish the Future Center "computer learning environment", to put computer programs in exhibits, and to create a software development lab.

By the way, the Capital Children's Museum still exists — it's now called the National Children's Museum, but there probably aren't any Atari computers around to play with anymore.

This interview took place on June 26, 2020.

NYT — 8-Year-Old's Birthday Party in a Computer Center:
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/09/style/8-year-old-s-birthday-party-in-a-computer-center.html

Picture of Tracey and her friends: https://imgur.com/a/pD7RTF6

National Children's Museum
https://nationalchildrensmuseum.org
 
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dorothy Siegel, Pioneer in Computer Music

I'm Kay Savetz, and this is ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit podcast. This interview, however, is about events that happened before Atari released its first computers.

This interview is with Dorothy Siegel, a pioneer in computer music. The music she created was on an IMSAI 8080 computer and a clarinet.

The First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival was held August 25, 1978 as part of a show called Personal Computing '78 held at the Philadelphia Civic Center. In 1979, Creative Computing Magazine published a record album, also titled First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival. The 12" 33 RPM record was of music performed at the festival: 18 pieces, including Dorthy's.

Dorothy was co-founder of Newtech, along with her husband Michael Abram and business partner Stuart Newfeld, a company that built add-on music cards for two S-100 bus computers: the IMSAI 8080 and the Southwest Technical Products Corporation 6800. The Newtech Music Cards cost $59.95 each. (Newtech was not the same company as NewTek, the company that sold the Video Toaster in the 1990s.)

Dorothy performed Johann Wanhal's Rondo from Sonata in B-flat for Clarinet and Piano. The IMSAI, with three Newtech music boards, performed the piano part, and Dorothy accompanied it on clarinet.

Regarding Dorothy's song, the album notes read: "Newtech's music card for the S-100 bus is essentially a digital-to-analog converter controlled by an output port on the computer. The analog output is fed into amplifiers to be heard. This approach to computer music synthesis is extremely flexible since hypothetically any possible sound can be created. In actual practice the performance of the music circuitry is somewhat limited by the speed of the host computer. Each card can produce up to three voices output to one channel.

Newtech's music software consists of a BASIC program which converts music into binary tables, and a machine-language interpreter to play the music with three voices and different envelopes. The piece on this record uses three cards each playing one voice."

Check the show notes for an extensive list of links to people that we talk about and the articles that Dorothy wrote for ROM Magazine and Popular Electronics. You can hear the entire First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival at VintageComputerMusic.com or buy the album on a remastered audio CD directly from Dave Ahl of Creative Computing Magazine.

This interview took place January 7, 2014, when I was doing research for a book about the first personal computer magazines. Although I've decided not to write the book, I am publishing the interviews that I did while doing the research.

 

Personal Computing '78 flyer

Popular Electronics magazine, January 1975

Edward Miller's Piece for Clarinet & Tape

Stan Viet

Electro-Harmonix

ANTIC Interview 332 - Mike Matthews, founder of Electro-Harmonix

ANTIC Interview 280 - David and Betsy Ahl, Creative Computing Magazine

Samuel Abram, Dorothy's son

ROM Magazine Issue 4: Scott Joplin on Your Sci-Fi Hi-Fi by Dorothy Siegel

ROM Magazine Issue 5: Make Me More Music, Maestro Micro by Dorothy Siegel

Popular Electronics November 1979: CP/M: The Standard Microcomputer Software Interface by Dorothy Siegel

Listen to/download First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival album

Buy the album on a remastered audio CD from Dave Ahl

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Savetz said:

Dorothy Siegel, Pioneer in Computer Music

I'm Kay Savetz, and this is ANTIC: The Atari 8-bit podcast. This interview, however, is about events that happened before Atari released its first computers.
 

Hi Kay.  I couldn't find a link to the interview on here (this AA post).  I got to it by going to the last podcast and navigating back to the main menu.

 

Here's the link for anyone who can't find it:

https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-392-dorothy-siegel-pioneer-in-computer-music

 

Thanks!  Love the podcast, as always.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/1/2020 at 1:50 AM, nonprophet said:

Hi Randy!

 

Maybe Jay has kept in touch with Jaron through all these years but, in case he hasn't, his current email address on his homepage—which I also provided a link to in my last post—is hello at jaronlanier dot com.

 

Thanks for following up!

It turns out that there's no Atari connection to Jaron Lanier that I can find, although he does have a very interesting past.  Not really pertinent to ANTIC.  However, maybe for Floppy Days....

 

thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/25/2020 at 2:41 PM, rkindig said:

It turns out that there's no Atari connection to Jaron Lanier that I can find, although he does have a very interesting past.  Not really pertinent to ANTIC.  However, maybe for Floppy Days....

 

thanks

 

"1983-1984    Researcher, Atari Labs"

 

http://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/25/2020 at 12:41 PM, rkindig said:

It turns out that there's no Atari connection to Jaron Lanier that I can find, although he does have a very interesting past.  Not really pertinent to ANTIC.  However, maybe for Floppy Days....

 

thanks

Hi Randy,

According to atarimania.com, Jaron Lanier also co-programmed the Atari 400/800 game Alien Garden for Automated Simulations soon after they changed their name to Epyx (the box is branded "EPYX" but lists the publisher as "Automated Simulations") e.g.

Quote
Genre Strategy - Miscellaneous 22px.gif Year 1982
Language Machine Language 22px.gif Publisher Epyx
Controls Joystick 22px.gif Developer [n/a]
Players 1 22px.gif Country USA
Programmer(s)

Lanier, Jaron / Leyland, Robert

22px.gif License Commercial

and he did the sound for the Atari 400/800 game Word Flyer for Electronic Arts (ChildWare) e.g.

Quote
Genre Education - Language Arts 22px.gif Year 1983
Language Machine Language 22px.gif Publisher Electronic Arts
Controls Joystick 22px.gif Developer ChildWare, Inc.
Players 1, 1 vs. 2, 2 (sim.), Demo 22px.gif Country USA
Programmer(s)

Evans, Dave

22px.gif License Commercial
Graphic Artist(s)

Evans, Dave

22px.gif Medium blank24.gif Disk
Sound

Lanier, Jaron

22px.gif Rarity blank24.gif rarity_8.png blank24.gif

BTW, atarimania.com's programmer attribution for Word Flyer might be a mistake because Larry Reed, who was interviewed in ANTIC Interview #109, claimed to have programmed it instead e.g.

Quote

Larry Reed was a programmer for Childware, where he worked on two educational games for the Atari 8-bit computers: Word Flyer and D-Bug, both of which were published by Electronic Arts.

 

Edited by nonprophet
Add additional proof of ANTIC pertinence.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/10/2015 at 5:36 PM, Savetz said:
Jon Freeman: Archon, EPYX, FreeFall Associates
 
Jon Freeman was co-founder of the computer game publisher Automated Simulations, which became EPYX. ... [H]e and his wife Anne Westfall started the game development company FreeFall Associates, where they created ... Murder on the Zinderneuf.

Hi Kay and Randy,

Have you ever sought an interview with Robert Leyland, the programmer of the Atari 400/800 games Murder on the Zinderneuf for Electronic Arts (FreeFall Associates), Dragon's Eye for EPYX and the co-programmer (with Jaron Lanier) of the Atari 400/800 game Alien Garden for Automated Simulations?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, nonprophet said:

Hi Randy,

According to atarimania.com, Jaron Lanier also co-programmed the Atari 400/800 game Alien Garden for Automated Simulations soon after they changed their name to Epyx (the box is branded "EPYX" but lists the publisher as "Automated Simulations") e.g.

and he did the sound for the Atari 400/800 game Word Flyer for Electronic Arts (ChildWare) e.g.

BTW, atarimania.com's programmer attribution for Word Flyer might be a mistake because Larry Reed, who was interviewed in ANTIC Interview #109, claimed to have programmed it instead e.g.

 

thank you for the info!  i've already made an attempt to contact Jaron so we'll see if he responds.

 

Randy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, nonprophet said:

Hi Kay and Randy,

Have you ever sought an interview with Robert Leyland, the programmer of the Atari 400/800 games Murder on the Zinderneuf for Electronic Arts (FreeFall Associates), Dragon's Eye for EPYX and the co-programmer (with Jaron Lanier) of the Atari 400/800 game Alien Garden for Automated Simulations?

Might be a good one to interview concurrently with or near in timing with Jaron.  We can see if Jaron has contact info (if Jaron responds).

 

thank you!

 

Randy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, rkindig said:

Might be a good one to interview concurrently with or near in timing with Jaron.  We can see if Jaron has contact info (if Jaron responds).

 

thank you!

 

Randy

Hi Randy,

You can also try contacting Robert Leyland through his Facebook page (link).

 

I'm pretty sure it's the right one because it's linked to his wife's Facebook page; according to an interview with Paul Reiche III (co-designer of Archon, Archon II and Murder on the Zinderneuf) she's Diane Ascher, the co-founder of Island Graphics which published the first game by FreeFall Associates (Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall), Tax Dodge for the Atari 400/800.

Quote

Robert Leyland joined us to work on Zinderneuf (remember the Leyland Gravity
Whip from Star Control -- he invented it!), but after that he married Diane
Ascher (the co-founder of Island Graphics)...

Jon Freeman, the star of ANTIC Interview #70, might also have contact information for Robert Leyland.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, nonprophet said:

Hi Randy,

You can also try contacting Robert Leyland through his Facebook page (link).

 

I'm pretty sure it's the right one because it's linked to his wife's Facebook page; according to an interview with Paul Reiche III (co-designer of Archon, Archon II and Murder on the Zinderneuf) she's Diane Ascher, the co-founder of Island Graphics which published the first game by FreeFall Associates (Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall), Tax Dodge for the Atari 400/800.

Jon Freeman, the star of ANTIC Interview #70, might also have contact information for Robert Leyland.

Wow, love it when the listeners do all the work to find people to interview!  Thanks much!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Charles Marslett, MYDOS and FastChip
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-393-charles-marslett-mydos-and-fastchip


Charles Marslett wrote floppy disk and hard drive drivers for Percom, and was the creator of MYDOS, a disk operating system for the Atari 8-bit computers that offered support for double density sectors, subdirectories, and hard drives. He also created FastChip, a hardware add-on for the Atari, sold by Newell Industries, that claimed to speed up floating point routines by 300%. He also created the A65 Assembler, a macro assembler. He has released the source code for MYDOS and FastChip.

This interview took place on July 13, 2020.

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/16/2020 at 11:54 AM, Savetz said:

Charles Marslett wrote floppy disk and hard drive drivers for Percom, and was the creator of MYDOS ... He has released the source code for MYDOS and FastChip.

 

Great interview, many thanks. I see he released the source only for the latest version of MyDos. For historical reasons, it would be great to have older versions as well. Would you mind asking him if he still has the source for older versions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
My favorite Antic interviews are the ones that take me down unknown corridors of microcomputer history, when I can learn (and hopefully teach others) about a little-known company or idea. Which is why I'm excited to share today's interview with Michael Darland.
 

Michael Darland was co-founder of Microperipheral Corporation, and president of Sofcast, a system that sent computer data over AM and FM radio.
 
Founded in 1979, Microperipheral Corporation produced 300 BPS modems for several brands of microcomputers, including models compatible with the Atari 8-bit computers. Using telecommunications software called TariTerm, the Atari compatible-modems worked with the Atari 850 interface, or by connecting directly to the SIO bus.

Michael was also co-founder of Sofcast. Launched in August 1984, Sofcast was a system that sent computer programs and other data over traditional AM and FM radio stations. Listeners would use a $70 receive-only modem, called a Shuttle Communicator, to receive the programs that were transmitted over radio waves at up to 4800 bits per second.

According to an article in the June 1986 issue of Modern Electronics magazine, "The software itself actually originates at the radio studio as a tape recording of what is essentially a modem’s output. It’s the same as if you fed an ASCII file through a modem, but recorded the modem’s output instead of sending into a telephone line."

An article in PC Magazine, May 28, 1985, provides more detail:

"The show’s format falls under the bailiwick of Robert E. Lee Hardwick, a veteran radio announcer of 25 years. Harwick’s articulate voice serves as the common thread tying together the distinct parts of the weekly 30-minute show. At the microphone, Hardwick interviews guests like Bob Landware, developer of software for synthesizing music on PCs, or he demonstrates computing curios such as the Ghostbusters theme played over a Commodore computer speaker. ...What separates Hardwick's show from its counterparts, though, is the transmission of software, or sofcasts.

Midway through the show, Hardwick advises the listening audience to ready their equipment for sofcasts. He briefly describes the program or data file to be sent and counts down the sofcast like a rocket launch. A 1-second beep follows, after which the actual software is broadcast. This typically lasts 10 to 12 seconds, terminated by another 1-second beep. Then Hardwick’s voice returns.

To transmit or download software across the air, Hardwick cables a device called a Shuttle Encoder to the serial interface port of his PC. With a program written by Microperipheral, he transfers the file to be sofcast to the Encoder, which converts it to analog signals. These signals can be taped or broadcast directly. ... The show is subsequently played on two AM stations in the Seattle/Tacoma area on Sunday nights, KAMT...and KXA.

...On the receiving end, the audience has an AM radio tuned to the show. Prior to the sofcast, listeners attach a Shuttle Communicator to the radio. A cable coming from the Communicator connects to the radio earphone jack. Another cable connects the battery-powered Communicator with the computer through the serial port.

...A special program, also developed by Microperipheral, is executed on the computer... It accepts a stream of data sent by the Shuttle Communicator to the serial interface and writes the data to a disk file.

Since the show first went on the air in August 1984, Hardwick has sofcast a plethora of programs. The list includes spreadsheets, flight simulators, picture files, and games aimed at Commodore, Atari, Macintosh, Radio Shack, and IBM PC computers, among others. The public-domain programs distributed through the sofcast were initially received by only a few computers because of the limited availability of Shuttle Communicators."

Later in the article, it says: "One of the biggest tasks facing Hardwick and his colleagues is to convince radio stations to air the show. ...Sofcast airs Sunday nights, sandwiched, on one station, between two religious broadcasts, a time when there 'is no revenue possibility at all, and hasn’t been for 20 years.' Yet a computing audience is tuning in, and businesses can reach them through advertising without paying exorbitant rates."

Sofcast would grow to broadcast on 30 radio stations in the United States.

Michael Darland's co-founder for both ventures, Donald L. Stoner, was a world-renowned ham radio operator who died in 1999.

This interview took place on May 24 and May 31, 2020.

"Software Takes To The Air" in PC Magazine 1985-05-28

"Free BASIC programs by Radio" in Modern Electronics 1986-06

"Software On The Air" in Computer Shopper 1985-08

Cable Systems Talk to Computers by Donald L. Stoner

Wave of Future in Computer Software May Come Over The Radio
 
Sofcast receive-only modem

Donald L. Stoner obituary
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...