ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs

ANTIC Episode 128 - Stepping in a Pile of 800XLs

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… special guest Rob McMullen (Player/Missile Podcast) joins us to talk about all the Atari 8-bit news; such as new and updated emulators, Jumpman level editor, Club Med and the Atari, and a whole lot more!

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 

ANTIC Facebook Page 

AHCS 

Eaten By a Grue 

Next Without For 

What we've been up to

• AltirraSDL - https://github.com/ilmenit/AltirraSDL 

• Fujisan - https://github.com/pedgarcia/fujisan 

• Jumpman Reverse Engineering: 

  •  https://playermissile.com/jumpman/notes.html 

  • Player Missile Podcast https://playermissile.com/ 

• Audacity AI noise reduction plugin (Windows) - https://github.com/intel/openvino-plugins-ai-audacity 

• VCF East - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 

• VCF Pacific Northwest - https://vcfpnw.org/ 

  • Computer Museum Tour - (https://icm.museum/) 

  • Connections Museum in Seattle - (https://www.telcomhistory.org/) 

• Games Computers Play and Fujinet?

  • https://forums.atariage.com/topic/132176-games-computers-play-inc-multiplayer-online-game/page/3/#findComment-5831081 

  • Further discussion on fujinet discord https://discord.gg/7MfFTvD 

• Jumpman Level Editor:

  • https://www.savetz.com/jumpman/ 

  • Discussion - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/252267-jumpman-hacking/page/6/#findComment-5841022 

• The PowerPad by Chalkboard Inc.:

  • Review in Creative Computing - https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n10/52_The_legend_of_the_pad_of_.php 

  • Kay's interview with Robert Leyland, who programmed AtariArtist, KoalaPainter, and MicroIllustrator (along with Steve Dompier) - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-450-robert-leyland-atariartist-koalapainter-microillustrator 

New & Updated Games

• "Drwal": Course 6502 culminates in a full game for Atari 8-bit - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2026/05/drwal-curso-de-6502-culmina-en-un-juego.html 

• "Tetris VBXE" revolutionizes the classic puzzle on Atari 8-bit - https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2026/05/tetris-vbxe-revoluciona-el-puzzle.html 

• Las Vegas Video Poker by Ditto - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/389522-game-las-vegas-video-poker/ 

• Develop your own Scott Adams style Adventure games by Wrathchild -  https://forums.atariage.com/topic/390050-scottfree-adventure-editor-with-atari-interpreter-sources/ 

New & Updated Software

• PocketFuji - Andy Diller - https://www.atariorbit.org/pocketfuji/ 

• CubeDot by Wade Ripkowski - https://unfinishedbitness.info/cubedot/ 

• Also AtariOrbit - https://www.atariorbit.org/2026/05/01/full-ansi-on-atari/ 

• King D/OS - A Modern OS on Retro Hardware - https://www.facebook.com/groups/fujinetusers/posts/4500846133530361/ 

• Google Drive (GDRIVE) Protocol Adapter for All FujiNets! - Thom Cherryhomes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQFKOVu7rA 

• AltirraSDL - ilmenit - pre-release version available for download - 

  • https://forums.atariage.com/topic/389385-altirrasdl-%E2%80%94-bringing-altirra-to-macos-linux-and-android/page/12/ 

  • https://github.com/ilmenit/AltirraSDL 

• AltirraSDL Lobby - Play Atari Games Together Online - ilmenit - https://lobby.atari.org.pl 

• Altirra autosuggest feature - Altirra 4.50 Test10:

  • AtariAge discussion of Altirra - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/387055-altirra-440-released/page/6/#findComment-5835606 

  • Altirra test version - https://www.virtualdub.org/beta/Altirra-4.50-test10.zip 

  • AtariAge discussion of AltirraSDL - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/389385-altirrasdl-%E2%80%94-bringing-altirra-to-macos-linux-and-android/page/12/#findComment-5835770 

• One of Retro Dev's Most Powerful Tools Now Runs Entirely in Your Browser:

  • https://retrogamecoders.com/trse-now-online/ 

  • https://ide.retrogamecoders.com/ 

• AI trained with Atari BASIC:

  • Atariteca -  https://www.atariteca.net.pe/2026/04/polonia-ia-entrenada-con-atari-basic.html 

  • NotebookLM with Atari BASIC - https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/caaad1ba-ba64-4e49-b602-143f6c12ff92 

  • AtariOnline forum discussion - https://atarionline.pl/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=8182&page=1#Item_0 

Publications

• May issue of Atari Insights newsletter - https://ataribasics.com/ 

• April issue of Compute's Gazette - https://www.computesgazette.com 

• Omnibus podcast ep about Nolan Bushnell - https://www.omnibusproject.com/episodes/nolan-bushnell-entry-167ma1323 

• AtariProjects - https://www.atariprojects.org 

The Company That Calls Itself Atari

• https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/05/new-atari-trademark-application-hints-at-hardware-refresh-for-mr-ts-favourite-home-computer 

• Amiga A1200 is delayed until December, 2026:

  • Article - https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/commodore-amiga-emulating-thea1200-retro-computer-delayed-nearly-half-a-year-by-global-chip-shortages-retro-games-ltd-says-it-will-use-the-extra-time-to-finesse-the-software

  • Preorder on amazon - https://amzn.to/49l4Otl 

• Atari buys rights to Wizardry - https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/atari-just-bought-the-rights-to-the-big-daddy-of-pc-rpgs-and-a-reissue-campaign-is-afoot/ 

New & Updated Hardware

• XYAB Joystick Controller Pad (via Bill Kendrick) - review by Stone Age Gamer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP3498i5pHI 

Other

• Virtual OS Museum - https://virtualosmuseum.org 

• When Club Med Met Atari - The Retroist:

  • https://www.retroist.com/p/when-club-med-met-atari 

  • Kay's interview with Linda Brownstein - https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-412-linda-brownstein-atari-vp-special-projects 

• SMARTWATCH BAND from Atari - https://atari.com/products/my-play-watch-arcade-smartwatch-band 

• New Atari sales and service option - A8Renegade:

  • https://forums.atariage.com/topic/389805-atari-service-and-sales/ 

  • https://A8renegade.com 

Upcoming Shows

• VCF Southwest - May 29-31, 2026 - Westin Dallas Ft. Worth Airport - https://www.vcfsw.org/ 

• Retrofest 2026 - May 30-31 - Steam Museum of the Great Western Railway, Swindon, UK - https://retrofest.uk/ 

• CORGSCON - Columbus Ohio Retro Gaming Society - June 6-7 - Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH - https://www.corgscon.com/ 

• Chilliwack & Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo - June 20 - New Westminster, BC, Canada - https://www.vancouvergamingexpo.com/index.html 

• 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 

• Event page on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub 

YouTube Videos

• Inside a 1979 Computer (Atari 800 Teardown) - We Fix Stupid Computers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t05Vg9u_5g 

• Atari 800 Full Reassembly (1979) | Inside a Classic 8-Bit Computer - We Fix Stupid Computers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqK7w7rIhDE 

• Proper Atari 800 HDMI video and audio - FlashJazzCat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqO6leRrDc 

• (short) FujiNet Go 800 for Android - Thom Cherryhomes - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W0u9arc11z8 

• FISH- awesome app for your Atari 8 Bit FujiNet - gorgh Agenda - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCSh3cJGxE 

New at Github

• Port of the BBC Micro REVS Disk Version to the Atari 8-Bits: 

  • https://github.com/WrathchildMGK/A8RevsBBC 

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revs_(video_game) 

• Very Good Atari Remote - https://github.com/tjh1976/VGAR 

• https://github.com/akosela/darkzil 

• https://github.com/owen-rp2a03/atari_antic_switch 

• https://github.com/peterkaczorowski/SAVO 

• Atari 8-bit implementation of Dave Plummer's PDP-11 implementation of the original "ATTN/11 - Paper Tape Is All You Need" - https://github.com/paul-d-carlson/atari-is-all-you-need 

• Multi-Layer Perceptron that runs on an Atari 8-bit computer. Ported from XORTRAN by Damien Boureille" - https://github.com/paul-d-carlson/atari-mlp 

• Implementation of a Hopfield network for the Atari 8 bit computer:

  • https://github.com/paul-d-carlson/atari-hopfield

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopfield_network