Atarian Tributes (Who/Whom is Yours?)

[gilsaluki]

The recent passing of an Atarian made me think of a person that was a great help to me and to the Atari community at large (mainly in the USA, and in particular the San Antonio, TX area).  Thema Sunvison (Sunvision?).  Anyway, I came to know (through mail and the newsletter) through the Alamo Area Atari User's Association (AAAUA).   I had gotten back into Atari in the early 90s after a 5 year absence.  Somehow I found AAAUA, it was the closest group near me at the time (stationed then in New Mexico, Holloman AFB).   When I wrote the group for info Thema sent me the newsletter and disks full of software.  What a gift!  Having been a solitary Atarian all those years, it was great to hear from other enthusiasts.  She had access to the local Atari store there in S.A. and she would let me in on their sales.  I gathered bunches of goodies in those days for pennies on the dollar.  She helped me in technical ways as well when I would get stuck.  I wrote several short articles for the newsletter.  I really felt like I knew her personally.  My regret is that I never actually met her (or anyone) from AAAUA.  AAAUA did not last much longer after she passed.  I know she served in almost every elected role for the group including as its President.  She was a remarkable person, as was her husband.  Her husband was a hardware guy, would fix anyone's machine.  Those two, and the others with AAAUA, were true treasures.  John Hardie was a member of the Association as well.   

 

The point of this is, if you treasure an Atarian, let them know how much you appreciate their help, dedication, and kinship.  These times on reinforce the fact that we are all brothers and sisters.  Love one another, be thankful for what we DO have.   

[Justin Payne]

Back in the day, I met most of my Atari friends on BBS's. I actually met a bunch of them in person at pirate parties. A few of us hung out individually doing some Atari stuff but also just hanging out as friend. Had some really good times with those guys. Over the years we drifted apart for one reason or another. Recently I found out that one of them died. He wasn't that old but I suspect poor living was a result of this. In any case I contacted one of the other guys to tell him about it and, strangely, he also looked this guy up and discovered the same thing. Funny how that works. In any case, when all of the pandemic is over we're going to get together for a beer. I suspect I haven't seen this guy in probably 20 years even though we're connected on LinkedIn so it will be good to touch base.

[gilsaluki]

I began re-reading my AAAUA newsletters again (I kept them all).  The newsletter was called (FR)Antic.  It was/is a great newsletter full of useful info.  Anyway, the very first issue I got (1991) Thelma Sunvison mentioned getting newsletters from other clubs, associations.  She mentioned great, but heavily technical, articles written in the SLLC newsletter by none other than, Bob Woolley.  Wow!  Talk about full circle.

[+davidcalgary29]

When I first started attending Toronto Atari Federation (TAF) meetings in the mid-'80s, I was regarded as a nuisance and nag. I was usually the only kid under the age of 18 present, and almost everybody was migrating to the ST, and the A8 was treated as an afterthought at that point, so feelings were frosty on all sides. The guy who ran the North York ST section was really very nice, though -- I wish I could remember his name! -- and gave me lots of A8 demos (including MIDIMaze) when he realized that no one else wanted them. 

 

I still am a nuisance and a nag, but everyone on this site has been so much nicer than most of the people I met at the meetings. If I have to pick a "tribute", and it's not going to be in some form of The Hunger Games, then I pick @Gunstar

[Gunstar]

I was also a subscribing member to AAAUA in the early 90's, I cut my teeth writing articles for (F)rantic on pixel art for the 8-bits just before heading out to college in '92 for my art degree, when I lost track of it all, and wasn't back in the scene until 2001 when I first joined AtariAge. Thelma and I had some correspondence regarding AAAUA back then, she was really sweet over the phone. I never heard of her passing until now. 

 

I appreciate the unwarranted tribute from @davidcalgary29 , I just try to be the best member of the community I can in anyway I can, but there are far more deserving here. I wouldn't even know where to begin, and forgive me to all those who have helped me in so many ways with technical support and friendship. But I have to give tribute to @Timothy Kline , who has given me far more in Atari gifts and friendship than everyone else. Honorable mentions to @ClausB , and @bobwoolley for the amazing hardware hacks and mods that I have made use of over the years. If it weren't for guys like these, I still might be using a 130XE instead of upgraded quality hardware like my favorite machine, my 1200XL (with PBI! thanks bob!). I made my dual SIO2PC/1050toPC (RS232) which eventually came to reside inside one of my 1050's and is the same one I still use today, after reading Bob's article about in the January 1991 issue of Atari Interface Magazine (I can't believe my SIO2PC, the first hardware I ever made by myself, is now 28 years old!). I remember when my first article was published in AIM and I was so proud to be published in the same pages as Bob. I only wish I had the money back then to support Bob's company CSS, which I spent hours drooling over his "make your 8-bit a workhorse" ads from AIM, Antic and possibly other magazines. I did the best I could for my part in keeping the 8-bits alive in the last days, via my AIM article 'why you should keep your Atari 8-bit', but nothing compared to Bob and CSS!

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

Just a one *slight* error I need to correct, which includes an addition to my honorable mentions, as I have always confused Bob @bobwoolley and Bob Puff of CSS, and I just remembered I did it again. but my tribute to Bob Woolley was still in earnest too. Sorry Bob's for always mixing you up. ? The SIO2PC bit is @bobwoolley and I'm not sure off the top of my head which Bob I appreciate for the PBI mod, I appreciate you both very much. Everything I said is true for both of them aside from the specifics. Is Robert Puff still with us? I tried doing a search for him but I don't know if he was ever or is a member here...his name came up all over the place, as Bob or Robert, but none were tags.

 

at myself...

Edited July 24, 2020 by Gunstar

[mimo]

Mine would have to be my Mum and Dad's friend that lived locally to us. He worked at Marconi Radar and there was a great bunch of software pirates there . He also did a 48k RAM upgrade on my 400 and a laser upgrade on my 1050
He also helped me pass my maths exams and got me some work experience at Marconi .
Great guy 

[Voxel]

On 4/21/2020 at 7:52 PM, gilsaluki said:

The point of this is, if you treasure an Atarian, let them know how much you appreciate their help, dedication, and kinship.  These times on reinforce the fact that we are all brothers and sisters.  Love one another, be thankful for what we DO have.   

 

@Albert thank you, for all you've done here.

[Mclaneinc]

11 hours ago, Voxel said:

 

@Albert thank you, for all you've done here.

Yes indeed, I've got wonderful friends and comrades here but I would not have them if it was not for the the site....Up standing for Albert...And my friends...

[TGB1718]

When I first started out, there wern't many A8 users, that I knew, just a small club for about 2 years, most

members really just wanted to play/swap games ( I liked that too), but my joy was to push the hardware to

its limits with bespoke hardware and software, I don't think anyone else in the club had the faintest idea

of what I was talking about ?.

 

So most of the time I was pretty much on my own with the A8 and later ST's.

 

But now I find you guys and I love it, your all so helpful and full of great knowledge, just wish I had

known you bitd, I'm back in full swing on A8's and ST's and it's thanks to this forum and all of you guys.

 

So my vote is all of you ?

[gilsaluki]

On 7/24/2020 at 7:07 AM, Gunstar said:

I was also a subscribing member to AAAUA in the early 90's, I cut my teeth writing articles for (F)rantic on pixel art for the 8-bits just before heading out to college in '92 for my art degree, when I lost track of it all, and wasn't back in the scene until 2001 when I first joined AtariAge. Thelma and I had some correspondence regarding AAAUA back then, she was really sweet over the phone. I never heard of her passing until now. 

 

I appreciate the unwarranted tribute from @davidcalgary29 , I just try to be the best member of the community I can in anyway I can, but there are far more deserving here. I wouldn't even know where to begin, and forgive me to all those who have helped me in so many ways with technical support and friendship. But I have to give tribute to @Timothy Kline , who has given me far more in Atari gifts and friendship than everyone else. Honorable mentions to @ClausB , and @bobwoolley for the amazing hardware hacks and mods that I have made use of over the years. If it weren't for guys like these, I still might be using a 130XE instead of upgraded quality hardware like my favorite machine, my 1200XL (with PBI! thanks bob!). I made my dual SIO2PC/1050toPC (RS232) which eventually came to reside inside one of my 1050's and is the same one I still use today, after reading Bob's article about in the January 1991 issue of Atari Interface Magazine (I can't believe my SIO2PC, the first hardware I ever made by myself, is now 28 years old!). I remember when my first article was published in AIM and I was so proud to be published in the same pages as Bob. I only wish I had the money back then to support Bob's company CSS, which I spent hours drooling over his "make your 8-bit a workhorse" ads from AIM, Antic and possibly other magazines. I did the best I could for my part in keeping the 8-bits alive in the last days, via my AIM article 'why you should keep your Atari 8-bit', but nothing compared to Bob and CSS!

 

I think it was Subscribing AAAUA member Mathew Baker that wrote a series for the (FR)antic newsletter covering Art on the Atari in the early 90s.   He too went off to do an art degree.  Are you..him?  And, yes Thelma passed around 2000.  So did a number of others that were involved in the Association and newsletter at that time.  Several of them members were involved with the USAF or the military.  Some had retired.  I guess the bulk of the members were over middle age at that time.  

[Gunstar]

That would be me. I guess it's not surprising so many from AAAUA passed if most were already middle-aged in the 90's. Even us yungons going off to school or service are all well into middle age these days.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Gunstar

[gilsaluki]

45 minutes ago, Gunstar said:

That would be me. I guess it's not surprising so many from AAAUA passed if most were already middle-aged in the 90's. Even us yungons going off to school or service are all well into middle age these days.

I just reread your Art articles a few days ago.  I think you did a four or five part series on the various programs available, Fun with Art, Rambrandt, etc.  I got FWA just about a year ago new in the box; I haven't cracked it open yet to try.  Anyway, your articles were entertaining.  Most of it, like most technical stuff with computers, is over my head.  I hope you have had a great career in Art.  I am certainly glad I kept my FRANTIC newsletters.   Even read (last night) an article I wrote to them about my computer problems.  

[gilsaluki]

....and one more thing from the former AAAUA days.  Once Vice President of AAAUA was John Hardie, a very prolific Atari collector.  He left S.A. to go to New York.  Got married to a gal named, Beverly (from Denver, I believe).  Is he here on this site as well?  

[Gunstar]

34 minutes ago, gilsaluki said:

I just reread your Art articles a few days ago.  I think you did a four or five part series on the various programs available, Fun with Art, Rambrandt, etc.  I got FWA just about a year ago new in the box; I haven't cracked it open yet to try.  Anyway, your articles were entertaining.  Most of it, like most technical stuff with computers, is over my head.  I hope you have had a great career in Art.  I am certainly glad I kept my FRANTIC newsletters.   Even read (last night) an article I wrote to them about my computer problems.  

I intended to do more article submissions to FRANTIC, but once I got to college, all my time was spent studying, partying and with girls, so my Atari life went on about an 8-year hiatus. I still have all the FRANTIC newsletters too, as well as every other old magazine or newsletter that had anything to do with Atari. I still collect missing issues of Antic and Analog too, when ones I don't have pop up from time to time. I reread them all the time. I've had a pretty good life with art involved, I never did turn my degrees (art, English, electronics) into careers per-se, though my education with them has all been put to use. I went into business for myself as a contractor and often lean on my education with certain jobs.

 

It would be nice if all my old graphic art turned up, that I sent in with those articles, some went with the articles and others just to share with the PD library. I lost my copies years ago when I lost all my Atari software moving across country. Does anyone who was an AAAUA member still have any of their PD library archived?

Edited July 27, 2020 by Gunstar

[Mclaneinc]

Its both sweet reading this thread but also sad, I love the reminiscing of the great guys that were about and the stories around them, people like Bob Wooley who I also remember as well as Mr Puff but its all tinged with sadness knowing many of these folk have passed as did my old Atari buddy Bob just recently. It as I hit 59 lets me know I'm firmly headed into the twilight years now and I feel I should making plans for my stuff when I do eventually go. I certainly don't want it to end as landfill.

 

Like others, I don't feel old in mind but the body is telling me otherwise...

 

Moral if there is one, enjoy it all like it's your last day because eventually it will be..

[Max_Chatsworth]

For me, it was a guy named Larry Copenhaver.  A few (very few) of you may have joined the club I started called KC-ACE Reboot which I intended as a rebirth of an old club that was in KC in the 80's.  There was a group in Kansas City when I was in grade school/junior high in the early 80's...KC-ACE(Kansas City - Atari Computer Enthusiasts). It was started , as far as I can tell, by a guy named Larry Copenhaver, who owned *the* local Atari centric shop..The Computer Room over off Wornall Rd and 75th(for any KC area people who may be around).   Anyway, Larry owned that store and was a key member if not always officer of the KC-ACE club and pretty much helped run things. Then, in his shop, he was about as encouraging as you could be to young people like me with the computers.  Many times I'd go into the shop and just hang around and ask questions, and they'd have other Atarians just hanging around and they'd help you with technical stuff, teach you how to mod stuff...you name it. I remember once, a lightning strike that hit our house/tree outside and jumped my surge suppressor and fried my Indus drive and my main chip on my 800XL.  So I go into Larry's shop with my 800XL and my $$$ for him to troubleshoot and repair it if he can.  He takes 10 minutes to troubleshoot, tells me it's the CPU essentially and then says something like "no...keep your money..I've got a drawer of these chips..let me replace it for you real quick" and does it and charges me nothing. I tried my best to buy every retail thing I could from this guy with my paper route money or fast food job because I really appreciated his approach to the entire community.  He just thought that having a kid like me, who was learning on these great machines, being deprived of it due to bad luck was something he didn't like.  Another time I had purchased a game from his shop...took it home and played it....ended up finishing it in like a week or so.  He knew me pretty well at this point after a couple years going there and to KC-ACE meetings and I didn't bring it up, but he just asked "hey, how was that game?" .  I told him it was cool and about some pretty cool screens and a bit about the final level. He exclaimed "You finished that already?! Me and so-and-so couldn't do diddly for like a month!" Then he calls a couple of guys over..one guy who worked/hung out there and another regular and tells them.."Hey remember that game so-and-so....*he* finished in like one week!".  It wasn't a particularly hard game that I remember(if it was, I certainly couldn't have finished), they just were adults and had full time jobs/families/etc and couldn't binge play all week.  But he did that to pump me up as a 12/13 year old and was completely sincere. Then he told me, "If you still have the box, bring it back next time and go pick out another game..that wasn't enough for your money!" .  That was just who this guy was. Anyway..I kind of fell out of the Atari scene as that shop and everyone went to the ST's but I remained on my 800XL until 87 or so and I just didn't have the money to buy and ST and my parents wouldn't buy it for me.  Then graduated and headed off the navy in 89.  I lived away for years in Hawaii after remaining after my sub tour in Pearl Harbor and only recently returned to KC last year. I've been a software engineer since I left the navy in 96 and went to the University of Hawaii.  I tried to google and look up Larry, as of course his Atari shop was long gone..since the mid 90's I think...but no luck. I don't know if he is still alive or even retired in the KC area So, Larry..if you are out there, or if anyone who knew or was familiar with the KC area Atari scene from back in the day and knew him...tell him I said thanks for me.