ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

ANTIC Interview 460 - Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Jul 19, 2026

Tim Jenkins, Cheating at Roulette with an Atari Computer

Tim Jenkins is the author of several humorous memoirs: "Missions Accomplished: And some funny business along the way", "More Missions Accomplished: And a lot more funny business", and "Business Missions Accomplished: Silly travel tales on the corporate dime".

I wanted to talk to Tim about one chapter in his 2018 book More Missions Accomplished: the chapter is titled "Gaming the System" and it tells the tale of him trying to cheat a roulette using his Atari 800 computer.

A brief excerpt from that chapter:

"Las Vegas — 1989. Shortly after the dawn of the personal computer revolution, opportunity beckoned. Some people wrote software and sold it over retail counters. Others launched services that harnessed the databasing and processing power of the PC to help people find a job, a date, or other people with the same interests. I put my own Atari 800 computer to work simulating roulette. ...

If you kept increasing your bet every time you lost a spin of the wheel, eventually your number would come up: The question was, would you earn back all the money you'd previously lost and make a profit? Yes. That is, you would if you did not first run into the table limit. ... How to get there without hitting the max bet? That's what I set out to simulate on my Atari computer. ... The program showed this to be a winning strategy, if perfectly executed."

This interview took place on May 22, 2025.

More Missions Accomplished at amazon: https://amzn.to/446MrVP

At Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/moremissionsacco0000timj/page/138/mode/2up

Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/EW-pDXlBDQg

ANTIC Interview 459 - Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II

Mike Lorenzen worked at Atari, Activision, and Accolade, creating games for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64 computers.

At Atari, Mike coded Golf and Circus Atari for the Atari 2600. For the 8-bit computers, he wrote MEDIT (which he told me stands for Mike's EDITor.) Atari got a lot of mileage from MEDIT, using versions of that text editor in several products: first, in Atari Program-Text Editor (which was bundled with Atari's Macro Assembler), and in two Atari Program Exchange products: APX 20075, Atari Program-Text Editor; and APX 20076: Word Processing Diskette, where it was bundled with a text formatter.

Both Program-Text Editor and Word Processing Diskette first appeared in the Winter 1981 APX catalog (the second APX catalog) with a price of $39.95 for Program-Text Editor and $49.95 for Word Processing Diskette — relatively hefty prices, considering the median price for software in that catalog was just $17.95.

At Activision, he ported Pitfall and Pitfall II Lost Caverns to the Atari 8-bit — and in that, created the undocumented Easter egg of an additional game inside: Pitfall III, which appears only in the Atari 8-bit version.

At Accolade, Mike developed the game "Psi-5 Trading Company" for the C64, which he called "the most sophisticated Commodore 64 program ever written".

This interview took place on June 4, 2026.

Software mentioned:
Macro Assembler and Program-Text Editor at AtariMania
APX 20075: Atari Program-Text Editor at AtariMania
APX 20076: Word Processing Diskette at AtariMania
Pitfall at AtariMania

Pitfall II Lost Caverns at AtariMania

People mentioned:
Scott Scheiman interview
Dale Yocum interview
Chris Crawford interview
Fred Thorlin interview
Brad Fregger on Lorenzen's overwork

More information:
Inverse ATASCII reviews APX Program-Text Editor
AtariWiki on Program-Text Editor
Psi-5 Trading Company

ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:49:00 +0000

ANTIC Episode 129 - SDX and FNSlots

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast…Brad plays around with SDX, Kay and Randy bring you news from some vintage computer shows, we drool over all the new hardware news, and we bring you FujiNet news, including FNSlots…

READY!

Recurring Links

Floppy Days Podcast

AtariArchives.org

AtariMagazines.com

Kay's Book "Terrible Nerd"

New Atari books scans at archive.org

ANTIC feedback at AtariAge

Atari interview discussion thread on AtariAge

Interview index: here

What we've been up to

Box of stuff from Bob Fraser

Light pen - https://atari8bitads.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-light-pen-is-here-and-now-its-gone.html
Disks! Six early versions of MEDIT - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381770-source-code-for-editorassembler-and-programtext-editor-released/#findComment-5854788
Prerelease version of DOS 2.0S - https://github.com/savetz/ballsong

INIT HELLO https://init-hello.org/ at System Source Computer Museum https://museum.syssrc.com/

Print Slop https://www.savetz.com/print-shop-camera/atari.html discussion at https://forums.atariage.com/topic/324752-print-shop-atari-related-graphics/#comment-5854339

ANTIC Interview Transcripts site - https://www.savetz.com/antic-interviews/
SDX - https://sdx.atari8.info/index.php
VCF SW - https://www.vcfsw.org/
National Videogame Museum - https://www.nvmusa.org
ABBUC - https://www.abbuc.de

Recent Interviews

New & Updated Games

EDGE: Eight-bit D*****! Game Engine - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390906-edge-eight-bit-d-game-engine/
Delete Me Hard by ilmenit:

New & Updated Software

FNSlots: Save and restore your disk slot configurations - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390713-fnslots-save-and-restore-your-disk-slot-configurations/
CrustyBASIC, a BASIC cross-compiler for 1980s machines, including Atari 2600 console and Atari 8bit computers. Runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux - https://telengard.itch.io/crustybasic
TinyBASIC https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390807-back-to-tinybasics-after-50-years-finally-got-around-to-writing-a-tinybasic-for-atari-8-bit/
https://unfinishedbitness.info/2026/05/31/scriptee/ - Wade Ripkowski

Publications

Atari Insights - https://www.ataribasics.com - June, 2026 issue
Compute's Gazette - https://www.computesgazette.com - May, 2026
The download files for ABBUC Issue 164 (1Q2026) and two disk images -

https://abbuc.de/members/download/ABBUC-Magazines/Magazine-164/index.html

Atari Legacy

https://atarilegacy.com
taking preorders now at website - https://retrolemon.co.uk/atari-magazines/280-atari-legacy-01.html

New & Updated Hardware

Revive Machines RM 800XL update - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Co44Q7w9B/
The Atari XT:

Project Thunder:

Blue2Joy - Bluetooth Adapter for Atari 8-bit - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390643-blue2joy-bluetooth-adapter-for-atari-8-bit/
GE IFM Interface Module for cassette recorders to Atari or C64 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/127924405327

The Company That Calls Itself Atari

"This downtown Phoenix radio landmark has been marked for death" - https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts-culture/koy-building-demolition-plan-phoenix-atari-hotel-40671854/
https://gameworldobserver.com/2026/06/01/atari-just-got-bigger-it-has-acquired-the-creators-of-crossy-road

Other

The Brewing Academy Inventory has been SOLD! - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390695-all-brewing-academy-inventory-is-being-sold-please-read-for-details/
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldTech/s/K70gojiubH
https://www.atarinside.com/blog/index.php/atari-france/interview-jean-richen/
Atarium the Atari Encyclopedia:

FujiNet Getting Started Guide for ATARI:

Upcoming Shows

Silly Venture SE (Summer Edition) - July 30-Aug. 2 - Gdansk, Poland - https://www.demoparty.net/silly-venture/silly-venture-2026-se
Southern Fried Gaming Expo and VCF Southeast - July 31-Aug 2, 2026 - Atlanta, GA - https://gameatl.com/
Long Island Retro Gaming Expo - August 7-9, 2026 - Cradle of Aviation, Garden City, NY - https://liretro.com/
Fujiama - August 26-30 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2026
Vintage Computer Festival GB 2026 - September 11-13 - Aintree Racecourse, near Liverpool, United Kingdom - https://www.facebook.com/events/25457837877216829/
Vintage Computer Festival Midwest - September 12-13 - Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - https://vcfmw.org/
Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 9-11 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/
Event page on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub

New at Archive.org

YouTube Videos

Atari 1200XL with DVI/HDMI and digital audio - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd1hY0G29xU
Atari XL/XE with PokeyMax: Tony Montezuma's Gold - DEMO - Piotr D. Kaczorowski - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPbdqkiYUg
RM 800XL. The final countdown… - Serenity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78HOxGcyrsI
Will AI Take Over Retro Game Development? We Play Every Atari AI Made Game! - ZeroPage Homebrew - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MIrI2t1Pec

New at Github

https://github.com/mikolajmikolajczyk/madside

ANTIC Interview 458 - Allan Bushman, Atari archivist

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Jun 21, 2026

Allan Bushman, Atari Archivist

If you've ever looked up an Atari computer manual at Internet Archive, chances are you've come across some of Allan Bushman's scans. For well over 13 years, Allan has been uploading scans of Atari-related catalogs, manuals, and books to the archive. Before that, since 1995 or before, Allan contributed to AtariMagazines.com and AtariMania. With a particular emphasis on finding and archiving Atari Program Exchange manuals, Allan has helped save the vast majority of the APX library.

This interview took place on April 19 2026 at Vintage Computer Festival East.

As of this recording, only 10 or so APX manuals have yet to be found and scanned.

Basic Renumber Utility (Renum)

Character Set Editor

Database/Report System

Diskmenu Home Loan Analysis

Reversi/Roman Checkers

Basic Arithmetic (MECC)

Geography (MECC)

Market Place (MECC)

Gossip (unreleased?)

Dragons Quest or a Twist in the Tail (unreleased?)

Allan's scans at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/@allan52

Computer Shopper magazine Atari Articles: https://archive.org/details/@allan52?query=computer+shopper+atari+articles

Allan on AtariAge: https://forums.atariage.com/profile/187-allan/