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The Atari interview discussion thread


Savetz

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Glenn the 5200 one was very interesting - about the 5200 vs A8 releases then, did Atari commission 2 sets of people to write the same game e.g. dig Dug / Qix etc? Where they expecting the 5200 guys to make a better game to try and promote the 5200? Perhaps this can be covered in another interview with someone - or has this been covered somewhere?

This was touched on again in the Alan Murphy interview, I think (I've been listening to so many recently!). Was it a deliberate thing to keep more programmers on staff? but isolated? Would be a good line of questioning/investigation perhaps ;)

 

 

The guy who's house I'm decorating was interested in what I was listening to and it turns out he was heavily involved in the "New Brain" Computer; I pointed him to the forums yesterday and today he had an emulator running and had downloaded the games disks for it. Including his wordsearch program from 1982 with his name and old phone number in the listing! Hope he will register here and find some interest :)

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Brad Fuller, Composer

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-97-brad-fuller-composer

 

Brad Fuller started at Atari as audio engineer in the home computer division, where he composed music and sounds for Superman, Donkey Kong, E.T., Robotron, and other games. Then, in the coin-op division he composed music and sounds for Marble Madness, Klax, S.T.U.N. Runner, Rolling Thunder, Paperboy, Xybots, Blasteroids, 720°, and many other arcade games.

This interview took place September 2, 2015.

Teaser quotes:

“You know, you’d map out: OK, we’re going to start developing in September ... then maybe we can play test and beta. And over here, two years from now, it’ll be fun. This is when it’ll be fun. Well, you can’t plan that.”

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This was touched on again in the Alan Murphy interview, I think (I've been listening to so many recently!). Was it a deliberate thing to keep more programmers on staff? but isolated? Would be a good line of questioning/investigation perhaps ;)

 

Personally, I think it's just the result of the teams being so segregated. The console guys were probably looking over the A8's library saying, "we'll use this one, we'll re-write this one..." etc. Two separate QC processes.

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This was touched on again in the Alan Murphy interview, I think (I've been listening to so many recently!). Was it a deliberate thing to keep more programmers on staff? but isolated? Would be a good line of questioning/investigation perhaps ;)

 

 

The guy who's house I'm decorating was interested in what I was listening to and it turns out he was heavily involved in the "New Brain" Computer; I pointed him to the forums yesterday and today he had an emulator running and had downloaded the games disks for it. Including his wordsearch program from 1982 with his name and old phone number in the listing! Hope he will register here and find some interest :)

 

Personally, I think it's just the result of the teams being so segregated. The console guys were probably looking over the A8's library saying, "we'll use this one, we'll re-write this one..." etc. Two separate QC processes.

It was the Keithen Hayenga interview...

Random thoughts:

Atari management didn't know their two systems were so similar they could have used the same guys?

The programmers kept it quiet so they all stayed employed (and half of them went off partying just changed a few graphics before the deadline)

They secretly shared the code - would be interesting to compare the games and see how similar they were

We could have had more games if they worked on separate titles OR better games if they colluded, OR they could have employed less programmers?!!

 

I think there's a danger I might have listened to all episodes in a week or so :)

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Here's one of the most "colorful" interviews I've done. Great stories.

 

Gary Walton, Atari Store Owner and Pirate

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-98-gary-walton-atari-store-owner-and-pirate

 

Gary Walton owned Discount Video And Computers, a large Atari dealership in Fort Pierce, Florida, and was involved in the Atari software piracy scene. Gary is one of the people who helped me find Glenn the 5200 Man, whom I previously interviewed.

This interview took place on September 12, 2015. This interview contains adult language and content.

Teaser quotes:

“One day I call up there and I don’t get ahold of him, instead I get ahold of his mother. And I was like, ‘Yes ma’am, may I please speak with Robert [Jaeger]?’ And she’s like ‘Who are you?!’ ‘I’m a friend of Robert’s.’ ... ‘Are you one of those computer pirates?! You know, these computer pirates are getting Robert in trouble and he’s only 16 years old. He doesn’t need this type of trouble!’ screaming at me.”

“They were accusing him of having robbed more than $150,000 worth of phone services.”

“‘Tell you what we’re going to do. I want you to put your disk collection in one big box. And it better be everything!’ He goes, ‘And I’m going to be by your house in 15 minutes to pick up that box.’”

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ANTIC Interview 99 - Jeff Osorio, Atari Manager of Financial Planning and Cost Accounting

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-99-jeff-osorio-atari-manager-of-financial-planning-and-cost-accounting

Jeff Osorio was Manager of Financial Planning and Cost Accounting at Atari from 1981 through 1984. He was responsible for establishing cost accounting and financial planning functions with a staff of 11 and an annual department budget of more than $1 million.
This interview took place September 22, 2015.
Teaser quotes:
“The one that everybody is always interested in is E.T. And I actually have the distinction of having signed the scrap ticket to write them all off and run them through the crusher.”
“He calls me on Monday morning in a panic, and he goes, ‘Jeffrey, where’s all my stuff? ... I’m at the warehouse and it’s empty. All the stuff is gone.’ ... A 100,000 square foot warehouse that was packed to the gunnels with manufacturing equipment on Friday, and on Monday morning it was empty.”
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I doubt that. Dave Comstock has the only copy of the source code I believe. There's really no point in finishing the game though, it would be better to start over.

 

You never know. After all, Dan Kramer has had the Trak-Ball supporting version of Xari Arena in his possession for years so that means there were 2 of 'em out there. :)

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Alan Murphy, Atari Animator

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-92-alan-murphy-atari-animator

 

Alan Murphy was Senior Animator at Atari, where we worked from 1980 through 1987. Alan created the graphics for the Atari 8-bit versions of Defender, Xevious, Galaxian, Countermeasure, Pac Man for the Atari 5200, Demons to Diamonds for the 2600, and many other games. He also worked with engineers at Atari Research on research projects and prototyping, and designed specs for game art and animation systems.

This interview took place June 15, 2015.

Teaser quotes:

“So I did these animations of Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man going across the screen and then they came back the other way and there were little babies. Namco came along and said 'uh-uh...that's a little too suggestive.'”

“As far as I know, I think that was the first easter egg by an artist.”

 

Did I hear him correctly state he helped write NEOchrome?

 

How's that possible? Was this in some unofficial capacity in helping fellow ex-Atari Inc programmer Dave Staugas write the ST's first paint program? Because it sounds like he was already over at Atari Games at this point and there wasn't exactly official collaboration going on between the two companies.

 

It sounds as if he did the graphics for 7800 Xevious although other online sources report he worked on 5200 Xevious. Either way, both were impressive accomplishments.

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Here's one of the most "colorful" interviews I've done. Great stories.

 

Gary Walton, Atari Store Owner and Pirate

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-98-gary-walton-atari-store-owner-and-pirate

 

That was fun, I know a lot of those guys. That guy "Little Gary" stole my Compuserve account info and ran up a $500 bill. We were having a copy party at my house and he found where I kept my password. I'm a friend of Mark/Wimpy. He and Gary had a few run-ins and were rarely on very good terms. I could get some stories from Mark too. He was one of the first well-stocked/connected pirates I met. Eventually he was running a 4-line BBS (PC) out of his home.

 

Next time I'm in that area, I'm thinking of getting several of the 'Treasure Coast' Atari guys together to recall some of the old stories and just roll tape. Maybe I'll play the Gary interview first to get them thinking.

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Perhaps you can ask Tom Hudson for the disk of that trackball loop game Tacheon? that he couldn't read, and see if someone here can recover it - Fandal perhaps? Would be a great game to play :)

 

Tom told me:

 

"I've been talking to Clay Cowgill (formerly with Supra) and he's going to take a crack at reading that disk -- he has a bunch of equipment for the purpose and I think that if anyone can recover the data, he can. I'll definitely let you know what happens."

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Here's one of the most "colorful" interviews I've done. Great stories.

 

Gary Walton, Atari Store Owner and Pirate

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-98-gary-walton-atari-store-owner-and-pirate

An entertaining interview, I enjoyed listening to it whilst working through the (seemingly endless) number crunching this evening.

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ANTIC Interview 99 - Jeff Osorio, Atari Manager of Financial Planning and Cost Accounting

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-99-jeff-osorio-atari-manager-of-financial-planning-and-cost-accounting

Jeff Osorio was Manager of Financial Planning and Cost Accounting at Atari from 1981 through 1984. He was responsible for establishing cost accounting and financial planning functions with a staff of 11 and an annual department budget of more than $1 million.
This interview took place September 22, 2015.
Teaser quotes:
“The one that everybody is always interested in is E.T. And I actually have the distinction of having signed the scrap ticket to write them all off and run them through the crusher.”
“He calls me on Monday morning in a panic, and he goes, ‘Jeffrey, where’s all my stuff? ... I’m at the warehouse and it’s empty. All the stuff is gone.’ ... A 100,000 square foot warehouse that was packed to the gunnels with manufacturing equipment on Friday, and on Monday morning it was empty.”

 

 

Hmm... around the 10 minute mark, he mentions that Atari never got rights to Donkey Kong. That's not quite how I've heard it elsewhere... http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=987

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Woo!!! Number 100 is available! Thank you for all of your work here.

 

100!!

 

100!!

 

Now you just need to make it to 1000! :)

Pretty amazing, huh!? That doesn't even count the interviews we included in our regular monthly shows before we went to the separate format. I've humbly contributed the best I can over time, but KEVIN IS AN INTERVIEW MACHINE! Thank you, Kevin!

 

Randy

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Tom told me:

 

"I've been talking to Clay Cowgill (formerly with Supra) and he's going to take a crack at reading that disk -- he has a bunch of equipment for the purpose and I think that if anyone can recover the data, he can. I'll definitely let you know what happens."

 

 

Any word back from Gary the 5200 Man yet on all of that software? The thought of him having unreleased 7800 games sitting around somewhere causes uncontrollable salivation. :)

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Any word back from Gary the 5200 Man yet on all of that software? The thought of him having unreleased 7800 games sitting around somewhere causes uncontrollable salivation. :)

 

I haven't heard a peep from him since the interview. Not a word. I just pinged him again.

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Pretty amazing, huh!? That doesn't even count the interviews we included in our regular monthly shows before we went to the separate format. I've humbly contributed the best I can over time, but KEVIN IS AN INTERVIEW MACHINE! Thank you, Kevin!

 

Randy

 

Yeah — it's really like 126. Because we started counting at some random point when 3 interviews per regular episode started getting weird.

 

But it's been fun and there's more to come.

 

—Kevin

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Oh snap... my interview's up! And I got #100! Woot!

 

http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/webpage/2015/11

I just finished listening to Bryan's interview. Bryan sounds like a really great guy.

 

Thank you Bryan for creating Castle Crisis. I enjoyed your stories. Someone really needs to make those led paddles for the game. Thanks again Bryan for you creativity and posts around here.

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I just finished listening to Bryan's interview. Bryan sounds like a really great guy.

 

Thanks for the kind words. :) I can't believe how much Randy was able to remove the rain noise. It's very loud on our tin roof.

 

Thank you Bryan for creating Castle Crisis. I enjoyed your stories. Someone really needs to make those led paddles for the game. Thanks again Bryan for you creativity and posts around here.

 

You're welcome. I've wanted to do the paddles for some time. The problem is you need all new wiring since those wires aren't in the paddle cables. It would be cool to get it running on something I could fit in the actual paddles.

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