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Video: Atari ST Crazy Cars Series
The Titus Crazy Cars series contained three games by the time the 3rd game was released it had morphed from a…
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S4:E5 Discovering the Atari 400: Star Raiders, Caverns Of Mars, Miner 2049er
The Atari 400 was a games machine masked as an entry-level computer computer. When it was released in 1979, it could…
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S4:E4: Rest In Peace Marz
This is not a regular episode. Today we talk about our sister Mari (Marz) who passed away at her home…
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Video: Let’s play Atari 8Bit: X:8 ABBUC Winner 2013
X:8 is a horizonal blaster, probably the best Gradius style game on the 8-bits, with the possible exception of the horizontal…
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Video: Let’s Play Atari STE Upgraded Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (2021)
Lotus STE is an adaptation of the original Lotus 1 game that makes use of the additional hardware in the Atari…
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Atari SA Analysis: Will They Support Or Throttle The Atari Homebrew Community?
Yesterday Atari SA, the holding company that licenses Atari I.P. for stuff like hotels and NFTs, announced a re-organization. You can…
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S4:E3: An In-Depth Interview With David Crane, Garry Kitchen, Dan Kitchen from Audacity Games
Last week we caught up with David Crane, Garry Kitchen and Dan Kitchen from Audacity Games to chat about the old…
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Unboxing VIP Circus Convoy From Audacity Games: New Atari VCS Game (video)
Enjoying a pleasant morning, as my dark roast Starbucks coffee brews, unboxing the a VIP version of the new Atari VCS…
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How The Atari 2600 Almost Killed Me (video)
A few years ago I tried my hand at making an Atari 2600 game. I did not realize how deep I…
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XEGS Carts that Should Have been Vol 2
Games: Operation Blood, Pondering About Max, Mission Shark, The Brundles Volume 1: https://atomic-temporary-177246833.wpcomstaging.com/2020/11/29/xegs-games-carts-that-should-have-been-if-atari-had-decided-to-continue-vol-1/ When Atari Corp dropped support for all 8bit…
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Our Latest Atari 8bit Computer Videos
Jellystone (Yogi) BBS Atari 400/800/XL/XE Games Disk 002 Part 1 (13 games) The Jellystone / Yogi games disks are a USA…
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S4:E2: How The Atari VCS Almost Killed Me. Plus the 9 VCS Launch Games And Circus Convoy
An episode jampacked with Atari VCS goodness! First a story about the allure (and danger) of Atari VCS programming in modern…
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Never Let The Fires Die #26: War and The Alarm Central
After a year break when there was no need for a podcast because The Alarm was basically podcasting 2 hours of…
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S4:E1: 1981 -Atari Coin Ops Avalanche, Firetruck, Super Bug and Dominos and games you’ll never see.
Into The Vertical Blank: Generation AtariAtari Coin Ops Avalanche, Firetruck, Super Bug and Dominos and games you’ll never see. To start…
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Atari 800 Christmas 1983: Newly Scanned Photos
Here are some newly scanned photos of what it looked like to get an Atari 800 computer for Christmas in 1983.
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River Raid 2020: My High Score Finally Arrives
I recently purchased a fresh copy of Activision’s River Raid from eBay with the express purpose of opening it and pretending…
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S3:E25: 1981 – Atari VCS Christmas
For the 2020 Christmas episode we go back 39 years to 1981 and talk about how it felt to want, and…
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The Pitfalls Of Trying To Recreate Atari Christmas 1982 in 2020
This year for Christmas bought myself new copies of River Raid and Vanguard for the VCS so I could open them…
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S3:E24: Three Ghosts From Christmas Past
As we prepare for the 2020 Christmas episode of Into The Vertical Blank, here is a supercut of three Christmas stories…
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Atari ST/E Santa Goes Berzerk #1 Exploring the STOS Standard Feature Set
Watch the companion video. I story explanation follows: A couple weeks ago I started working a little game as a demo…
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Pokey Player Sound Tool (Atari 7800)
Here is a tool I built a tool to help me figure out what pokey sounds on the 7800. It lets me test…
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XEGS Games Carts that should have been – if Atari had decided to continue. Vol 1
When Atari Corp dropped support for all 8bit systems in 1992, they had only produced a couple dozen official game cartridges…
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Atari ST / STE / Mega STE Activision Game Reviews Vol 2: From Galaxy Force 2 to R-Type 2
Atari ST / STE (8mhz) and Mega STE (16mhz) Activision Game Reviews: Action / Arcade Games. In this series we will…
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Into the Vertical Blank: Generation Atari S3:E23 Companion Video
In this video we investigate of the games that we discussed in the episode: S3:E23: Why We Are Thankful for STOS:…
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Using A8bit #fujinet to play “Pet” Galaga from – Homesoft Game Disk 404
By Jeff D. Fulton Today we are going load up Homesoft game Disk #404 and play the only version of Galaga…
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S3:E23: Why We Are Thankful for STOS: The Game Creator
In this episode the brothers talk about the creation of their one and only completed Atari ST game (“Zamboozal Poker Dice”)…
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STOS Tutorial #2: Brute force Blitter Sprites, Joysticks and more.
By Jeff D. Fulton In this, STOS Tutorial #2, we will expand on what we did in Tutorial #1 by using…
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STOS Tutorial #1: Setup STOS On Hatari and Blitter Hello World
By Jeff Fulton In this STOS Tutorial we cover setting up a development environment in the Hatari Emulator, and do a…
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The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me! Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
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S3:E9: One Left Turn: An Atari Mother’s Day Story
A story about the day in 1981 when our mom made a split decision that helped us discover Atari computers. Written,…
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S3:E8 Westworld Redux 1976: Our First Venture In An Arcade
In this episode we discuss the affect the movie Westworld on us as kids, and try to figure out why its’…
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S3:E7 Discussion with Curt Vendel about the Atari 7800 XM Module
Into the Vertical Blank Generation Atari Season 3 Episode 7: Discussion with Curt Vendel about the Atari 7800 XM Module In…
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S3:E6: I Want Candy. Atari’s Biggest Mistake Part 3: A Discussion with Curt Vendel
Subscribe Links Tunes Google Play Player FM Spotify Show Notes Into the Vertical Blank. Generation Atari Season 3, Episode 6. I…
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S3:E5: Monthly News and Notes for those who grew up Atari.
Subscribe Links Tunes Google Play Player FM Spotify Show Notes The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari. Season 3 Episode 5: Monthly News…
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S3:E4: Atari’s Biggest Mistake Part 2: Game Player Non Expandable
Subscribe Links Tunes Google Play Player FM Spotify Show Notes In part 2 of “Atari’s Biggest Mistake” we explore the core…
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S3:E3: Dan Kitchen Interview Part 2: The First “Pro Brew” Game Developer
In the 2nd part of our Dan Kitchen interview, we discuss the ground-breaking title “Garry Kitchen’s Game Maker”, Dan’s new…
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S3:E2 Dan Kitchen Interview Part One: The Rise Of The Kitchen Brothers
Summary In our quest to discover the secrets of programming 8 and 16 bit computers this season, we caught up with…
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S3:E1: Atari’s Biggest Mistake (part 1)
Atari’s Biggest Mistake (part 1): The Day Atari Lost The Video Game War Summary What was Atari’s biggest mistake? To truly…
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S2:E19 : It’s A Clip Show! “Best Of” moments From Season 1 and Season 3 Preview
Remember back in the 70’s, after May sweeps, when in the TV Guide it would say Happy Days had a (New)…
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s2:18 Bonus #2: Pork Chops And Retro Games Sizzle At CES 2020
In this season 2 bonus episode, Steve makes a visit to CES 2020 and looks in all corners for signs of…
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S2:E17: Bonus – Book Review Of Galaga From Boss Fight Books And More!
This episode is a quick apology for mixing an episode of The Alarm podcast into the Into The Vertical Blank Feed. …
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S2:E16 Finale: The Best Atari Christmas Ever
The Season 2 finale of Into The Vertical Blank. In this episode we pull out all the stops and explain exactly…
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Season 2: Episode 15: The Atari 7800 and ST. Our Next Gen Super Systems
Notes: Season 2: Episode 15: The Atari 7800 and ST. Our Next Gen Super Systems In this episode we dig into…
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S2:E14 – Asteroids 40th Anniversary
We salute Asteroids 40th anniversary with a discussion of how things have changed since 1979, and with a rebroadcast of the…
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S2:E13: The Haunting of the Vertical Blank
Into the vertical Blank: Generation Atari Season 2 Episode 13: The Haunting of the Vertical Blank This time the guys discuss…
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S2:E12: Star Wars and Atari In The Vertical Blank : Part 2
Tunes Google Play Player FM Spotify S2:E12: Star Wars and Atari In The Vertical Blank : Part 2 In the follow-up…
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S2:E11: Star Wars and Atari In The Vertical Blank : Part 1
Tunes Google Play Player FM Spotify Read Show Notes Here Watch Video Of The Star Wars “A Nerd Is Born” story…
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S2:E10: Playing Outside in Generation X
To salute the end of summer, w e are re-running a story from last season named “Big Mouse And Little Mouse”…
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Into the vertical blank: Generation Atari: Season 2, Episode 9 DragonStomper
In the episode, Steve and Jeff take a deep look at the Atari 2600 game Dragon Stomper, what it meant to…
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S2:E8 The Exact Moment Nintendo Won the Video Game War
The Exact Moment Nintendo Won The Video game War (A Short, Left Handed Episode) In this short summer bonus episode, Steve…
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S2:E7 Emits a shower of Sparks: Pele’s Soccer
Into the Vertical Blank: Generation Atari – Season 2 Episode 7 : Emits a shower of sparks: How we stopped playing …
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Armageddon In The Morning (The Alarm: “Sigma” Album Review)
(This is a review of the new album “Sigma” by The Alarm by way of a very personal story about one…
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Claw Hammer : Father’s Day Special Edtion
iTunes Google Play Player FM Spotify This is a rebroadcast of the the story ‘Claw Hammer’ from season 1, episode 2.…
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S2:E6: Why We Collect Atari
In this episode, Steve and Jeff have a frank discussion about what they collect and why they collect Atari. Also includes…
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S2: E5 Electronic Games Magazine
In this episode of Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari, Steve and Jeff celebrate the magazine that started it all. The…
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S2:E4: The Top-10 Worst Real-Life Products For Classic Video Gamers
What were some of hidden factors that led to the fall of Atari and the golden age of classic video game…
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The Top-10 (or so) Worst Real-Life Products For Video Gamers (circa 1982) Part 2: Your Future Career In Video Games
By Steve Fulton Last week I posted a story named The Worst Real-Life Products For Video Gamers (circa 1982-1983) . However, that…
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S2:E3 We always wanted to work for Atari
iTunes Google Play Player FM Spotify Into the Vertical Blank: Generation Atari. Season 2: Episode 3. We always wanted to work…
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S2:E2: Going, Going, Gone
iTunes Google Play Player FM Spotify This week we are inspired by one of our all-time a favorite podcasts This American…
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Bonus #2 Friday Display List: Feedback and response
This week, 8bitjeff gets into a some awesome listener feedback and provides some of his own for the Atari 5200 Podcast.…
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S2:E1: The Disappearance Of Charlie Chuck : Atari Food Fight
iTunes Google Play Player FM Spotify S2:E1: The Disappearance Of Charlie Chuck : Atari’s Food Fight In this first episode of…
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Commercial Off-The-Shelf, Dad : Why My Dad Never Joined The Computer Revolution
(Feeling melancholy about my dad’s birthday today. Here’s an old (slightly reworked) story about his aversion to technology. First published October…
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“Perfect!” : Book Review: Galaga By Michael Kimball
Perfect ! A Minimalist Coming Of Age Story By Way Of The Best Golden Age Single Screen Shooter I recently finished…
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Bonus Podcast: A Trip To The Retro City Festival In Pomona, CA
Summary: In this Bonus podcast between Season 1 and Season 2, Steve takes his family to the Retro City Festival in…
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S1:E10 Christmas In The Vertical Blank
S1:E10 Christmas In The Vertical Blank S1:E10: Christmas In The Vertical Blank n this season 1 finale, the Fulton brothers discuss…
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s1:e9: The Weird Family Thanksgiving In the Vertical Blank
s1:e9: The Weird Family Thanksgiving In the Vertical Blank In the penultimate episode of season one of Into The Vertical Blank, travel back…
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Into The Vertical Blank S1:E8: The Bronze Age Of Arcade Games
S1:E8: The Bronze Age of Arcade Video Games In this episode Steve and Jeff discuss their favorite games and memories of…
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Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari S1:E7 – Playing Together, Side By Side
This episode takes a slightly more personal turn as twin brother hosts Jeff and Steve Fulton tell stories and relive memories…
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Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari S1:E6 – Interfaces are where two worlds collide
Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari S1:E6 – Interfaces are where to worlds collide The only thing from the 80’s that…
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Atari Play field – Atari ST games #1 : Michtron.
Note: (This article was originally written by me – Jeff Fulton – in 2009 for the Retrogaming Times online magazine. The…
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S1:E5: All Appointments Life (Asteroids Part 2 )
Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari Season 1, Episode 5: All Appointments Life (Asteroids Part 2 ) This is the second…
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S1:E4: Escape To The Asteroids Zone :Part 1
Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari Season 1, Episode 4: Escape To The Asteroids Zone : Part 1 Into The Vertical…
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S1:E3: Atari Nerd
Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari Season 1, Episode 3: Atari Nerd In this episode we dig up one of our…
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S1: E2: “A Hole Burned In my Pocket: Toys R Us And The Atari 7800″.
Into the Vertical Blank: Growing Up Atari. Season 1 Episode 2: “A hole burned In my Pocket: Toys R Us And…
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S1:E1: All The Scan Lines Have Been Written
Into The Vertical Blank: Growing Up Atari Season 1 Episode 1 – All The Scan Lines Have Been Written In this,…
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Toys R Us at (up to) 40% Liquidation – treasure hunt
Steve and I took on a field trip to record part of the Into the Vertical Blank: Growing Up Atari podcast,…
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S1:E0: Into The Vertical Blank Podcast: Newbie
8bitrocket’s Into The Vertical Blank, Growing Up Atari Ep: 0 This is the test episode of the Into The Vertical Blank,…
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Book Review: The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
When the marketing team at Simon and Schuster were calculating the target demographic for Jason Rekulak’s first novel, The Impossible Fortress,…
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The Christmas Train (An Atari Nerd Memoirs Story)
The Christmas Train (An Atari Nerd Memoirs Story) By Steve Fulton Part 1: H.O. Scale Christmas Train tracks feel like the…
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Fultonbot’s Atari VCS Quest: “I Never Got Into Atari, but…”
“I never got into Atari” I’ve heard this phrase so many times from the owners of used and retro video game…
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Fultonbot Atari VCS Quest: Memories Of The Proper Vintage
Not too long ago I had a sudden realization. I don’t just need the games I had with my Atari VCS…
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Father’s Day Story – A Moment Near Aspen Grove
Note: This story was recorded for “Never Let The fires Die: The Alarm Podcast”, and is available Listen in iTunes or Google…
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Chris Crawford’s Famous Dragon Speech and Interview From 2008
Chris Crawford recently highlighted a “cleaned-up” version of his famous, game industry-defining “Dragon Speech” from GDC 1992. In this speech, Chris…
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Classic Games And CGE at E3 2004 (R.I.P. Keith Robinson)
Note: This is a lost story from before 8bitrocket.com existed. It was published June 1st, 2004 on Andrew Bub’s Gamerdad.com…
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Fultonbot’s Atari VCS Quest: Transmissions From AtariSpot
Soon after I made my first post about my VCS Quest, I got a tweet from another Atari fan named AtariSpot.…
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The King Of Kong: The Sociological Inner-Workings Of The Nerdcore
There is a line near the end of the extraordinary documentary The King Of Kong that carries the weight of the…
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Never Let The Fires Die: The Alarm Podcast : Episode #4
Note: Jeff and I produce and host a podcast for the 80’s band The Alarm. The Alarm are still going…
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Review: Extra Life By David S. Bennahum
The experience of growing up at the dawn of the video and computer game age is one that I know all-to-well.…
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Controlled Chaos and The Meaning in Software Development
I believe that I was born to be a computer programmer. Somewhere, deep in my soul, there is a need to…
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Review: Atari 2600 Dragonstomper.
In 1981 a small company named Arcadia was formed with the purpose of cashing in on the craze that was home…
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Book Review: The Art Of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford
(Note: How great is this book? I wrote this 10 years ago, and all I had to do was change about…
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Never Let The Fire Die (podcast episode #2)
Jeff and I host the official podcast for the band The Alarm. They had a bunch of alternative hits in…
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Review: Why I Loved Raiders Of The Lost Ark for The 2600
Wired posted an article a while back about the worst movie tie-in games of all-time, and , Raiders Of The lost…
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Pac-Man, Electronic Games Magazine, And The Exact Moment Atari Lost The Video Game War
Note: As I discover the 120 or so games on my list of “lost” VCS games from the 80’s, I will…
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S-Town And The Age Of The Binge Podcast
A lot has been written online in the past week about the new podcast “S-Town” from the producers of Serial and…
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8bitrocket Retro-Game And DIY Game Development News Update
New Book About Atari 8-Bit computers! A new book, Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation by veteran tech writer…
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Fultonbot’s 1983 Atari VCS Quest: The Absent Minded Collector
The “pile of stuff” in the photo to the left is a collection of 36 years worth of “absent-minded” Atari 2600/7800…
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De-Motivational Engineering Problem Solving Worksheet from 1989 applies now more than ever
(warning, some adult language is in this post) By Jeff Fulton (8bitjeff) When my dad left his job at Hughes Aircraft…
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Ballad Of Atari: 1982-1984
Ballad Of Atari: 1982 E.T. And Pac-Man Not The Worst, Yet Not The Best The Gamers Notice Ballad…
