5200 coverage in magazines from January through March 1983. Plus a special bonus look at a NY Times article about Warner's stunning December 1982 earnings shortfall caused by Atari's massive financial loss.1983Q1 1983 First Quarter P.O.P.

Ep. 33: Dec 1982: Magazines, Part 3

Mar 31st, 2022 1h 29m

Coverage of a few magazines I missed last time. Live plays of two games, tips to speed up disk drive I/O, and articles on how automation has changed TV and film production.MagazinesAtari 8-bit magazinesSoftalkSoftalk Vol 3, #4Assembl

Ep. 32: Dec 1982: Magazines, Part 2

Dec 10th, 2021 1h 57m

Coverage of Atari Connection, APX, Byte, C&VG, Micro, Softside, Page 6 & Atari I/O for Dec 1982. Another Chris Crawford article on game design, a review of Steve Wozniak’s US Festival, and will Forth become the official language of the podcast

Ep. 31: Dec 1982: Magazines, Part 1

Nov 19th, 2021 1h 48m

Coverage of Antic, Compute!, Creative Computing, Dec 1982. Chris Crawford on Legionnaire, first rumors of the IBM PCjr, and two articles predicting the future: Compute! does OK while Creative Computing gets a bunch of whammies. Also: Bullwinkl

Ep. 30: 8-bit vs 5200 Part 1: 1982

Oct 20th, 2021 1h 50m

In a special multi-part series comparing the 8-bit computers to the 5200 console, this first episode focuses on 1982. Scanning the regular magazines for mentions of the 5200, I also scour other magazines for both 8-bit and 5200 coverage. Only

Ep. 29: Nov 1982: Byte, CVG, CGW, Micro, Softline, Softside

Jun 2nd, 2021 1h 29m

Coverage of the remaining magazines for Nov 1982.MagazinesAtari 8-bit magazinesByteByte Vol 7, #11Computer & Video GamesC&VG Issue #13Computer Gaming WorldCGW Vol 2, #6AtariAge forum post on cheat codesLegionnaire gamepl

Ep. 28: Nov 1982: ANALOG, Compute!, Creative Computing

May 7th, 2021 1h 13m

Format experiment: splitting magazine coverage across two episodes and separating game reviews to their own episodes.MagazinesAtari 8-bit magazinesANALOGANALOG Computing #8Inverse ATASCII S4E07: Money ManagerCompute!Compute #30

Ep. 27: Oct 1982: Worm War I

Apr 17th, 2021 1h 59m

A friend gets his first game published in Computers & Video Games! 6 other magazines this episode, and I try to dissect my first kernel game, Worm War I. Or is it 1? It’s a super important distinction.MagazinesAtari 8-bit magazinesAntic

Ep. 26: Sep 1982: Deluxe Invaders

Feb 20th, 2021 2h 34m

Strap yourselves in for coverage of 11 magazine issues including a tiny bit on the large magazine Byte -- there’s an article on Star Raiders strategies that I can’t pass up. Game review is of Deluxe Invaders, which is a high quality Space Inv

Ep. 25: Aug 1982: Rear Guard

Nov 10th, 2020 2h 37m

Adding a new magazine to the coverage: Softline, a games-focused magazine published by the people responsible for Softalk. Also a review of Rear Guard, a game that’s appeared in full-page color ads for many months in magazines.Introduction

Ep. 24: Jul 1982: Typo Attack

Oct 20th, 2020 1h 14m

Just a regular ol’ episode talking about magazines, learning typing during the pandemic, and if we’ve finally seen the end of creepy William Shatner ads for the VIC-20.MagazinesAtari 8-bit magazinesiCompute!Compute #26Fred D’Ignazio

Ep. 23: Jun 1982: Quarxon

Dec 8th, 2019 1h 47m

Phase 2 begins with the usual magazine coverage and a review of Quarxon, a two-player shoot-each-other game with prominent use of Display List Interrupts. In the tech section, I use Omnivore to discover how these DLIs work.IntroductionSte

Ep. 22: Special Episode: Phase 2

Mar 14th, 2019 5m 47s

Introducing Phase 2 of the Player/Missile extended podcastimatic universe. The magazine coverage will stay the same, but instead of a typical game review, I will focus on reverse engineering to discover interesting game programming techniques

Ep. 21: May 1982: Fujirun

Sep 29th, 2017 1h 29m

The hiatus is over. With my new slimmed-down post-production, I now plan to get back to regular episodes. For this one, it's the usual magazine coverage and some talk about the retro-computing projects I've been doing in the last year.Introd

Ep. 20: Apr 1982: Jumpman

Oct 14th, 2016 1h 43m

The culmination of the first "season" of the Player/Missile podcast is a review of my favorite game and the announcement of the project undertaken by Kevin Savetz and myself to reverse engineer the game. We're sponsoring a level design contest

Ep. 19: Mar 1982: Getaway!

Mar 31st, 2016 2h 26m

Game review of Getaway! and interview with the author Mark Reid. The program won the Atari Star Award and the $25,000 prize in 1983. I also introduce Omnivore, the 8-bit binary editor that I've been working on during the hiatus. Kevin Savetz

Ep. 18: Feb 1982: Flight Simulators, Part 2b

Dec 9th, 2015 2h 12m

Part 2b of the flight simulator roundup with Chris Olson, reviewing helicopter sims and the all-time classic F-15 Strike Eagle. Plus: an update on speeding up Star Raiders.IntroductionDan Carlin's Hardcore HistoryPictures from the AtariA

Ep. 17: Jan 1982: Shamus

Oct 19th, 2015 2h 17m

The universe of games really begins to expand in 1982. From here on out we'll have a huge selection of choices to talk about, and Shamus by Cathryn Mataga leads us off. Also, an interview with Michael Portuesi who is both a published author i

Ep. 16: Dec 1981: Flight Simulators, Part 2a

Sep 1st, 2015 2h 39m

The first half of the military flight simulator roundup with Chris Olson. I've included a bonus tech section at the end discussing a clever display list technique used by the MicroProse sims. Guest reviews: Michael Glaser of the XEGS Cart-by-

Ep. 15: Nov 1981: Reversi II

Jul 31st, 2015 1h 50m

Two new magazines for the coverage: Computer Gaming World and my first magazine from the UK: Computer & Video Games, and two guest reviewers of magazines. An overview of KansasFest from the Atari point of view, and a review of the APX game Re

Ep. 14: Special Episode: Game Draft #1

Jun 25th, 2015 1h 34m

Jack Nutting of the Retro Computing Roundtable, Victor Marland of Ten Pence Arcade, Wade Ripkowski of Inverse Atascii and Kevin Savetz of ANTIC join me for a 5 round draft of Atari 8-bit games.ParticipantsJack Nutting of Retro Computing R

Ep. 13: Oct 1981: Missile Command

Jun 3rd, 2015 1h 47m

Summary of Bill Kendrick's Atari Party 2015 and review of the excellent port of Missile Command. In magazine coverage, I've added MICRO: The 6502/6809 Journal, and new contributor Michael Glaser takes over SoftSide Magazine.IntroductionA

Ep. 12: Sep 1981: Flight Simulators, Part 1

May 4th, 2015 2h 10m

Flight simulator roundup where Chris Olson and I review 5 noteworthy civilian aircraft sims on the 8-bits (military sims will be the subject of part 2). Also added Byte to the magazine to the coverage due to the serializiaton of De Re Atari.

Ep. 11: Aug 1981: Interview with James Hague

Apr 11th, 2015 1h 49m

Interview episode with game developer James Hague who was published in ANALOG and Antic magazines, is the author of Halcyon Days & maintainer of the Giant List of Classic Video Game Programmers. Atari Party 2015 is just around the corner!In

Ep. 10: Jul 1981: Interview with Chuck Bueche

Mar 21st, 2015 1h 29m

Interview episode with Chuck Bueche, tech section on Star Raiders and the Atari 8-bit executable format, guest magazine coverage of Softalk, and the Atari Party: Davis CA, May 2, 2015!IntroductionThe Atari 5200 Super PodcastAtari Party i