ANTIC Episode 124 - Atari 8-bit - The Computer of Love

ANTIC Episode 124

In this episode of ANTIC The Atari 8-Bit Computer Podcast… We have lots of game news and emulator updates, Brad imitates a pirate, and Kay tells us that the Atari 8-bit is the "Computer of Love"!

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

• Kay's 2025 Wrapped - https://www.patreon.com/posts/kays-2025-147182056

• Support Kay's Patreon and support ANTIC! - https://www.patreon.com/savetz

• Annual posting of older articles:

• https://archive.org/details/savetz_articles?sort=-addeddate

• https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_reverend-apple

• https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_finding-randy

• https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_the-making-of-antic

• Interim Computer Museum - https://icm.museum

• Events at https://icm.museum/?events

• Repairing The Atari 8 Bit Astra Big D Disk Drive! by Paul Westphal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIZPgYxfrAU

• Fujisan:

• https://github.com/pedgarcia/fujisan/releases/tag/v1.1.0

• Fujinet Lobby games - http://fujinet.online:8080/

• FastBASIC - https://github.com/dmsc/fastbasic

• Video from Paul Garcia showing Fujinet-PC integration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwd0wwFohso

• Indy Vintage Computer Club -

• XF551 drive - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_XF551

• Commodore 64 Ultimate - https://www.commodore.net

• RM 800XL - https://revive-machines.com/index-en.html

• Stan Veit Podcast:

• David Greelish and Randy read Chapter 13 ("The Atari Story") - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLCoJ-oA_V0

• Stan Veit @ wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Veit

New and Updated Games

• Ultimate Atari Games Database by Philippe Lafortune:

• https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JaKMQio82/?mibextid=wwXIfr

• Invite link - https://airtable.com/invite/r/rhutWb7a

• Atari Party Panic v1.2 by Andy Diller:

• https://forums.atariage.com/topic/386758-atari-party-panic-v12/

• https://massiverobot.itch.io/panic

• New game: Carcer from h4plo:

• You can get it from here - https://h4plo.itch.io/carcer

• Discussion - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/386514-new-game-carcer/

• Overflow Santa - New Christmas game from A/W/A:

• https://forums.atariage.com/topic/386809-overflow-santa-new-christmas-game-from-awa/

• Overflow Santa 8bit.xex(Atari 8-bit binary file)

• Overflow Santa 8bit.rom(Atari 8-bit cartridge)

• KillZone: First Real-Time Multiplayer Gaming - https://www.atariorbit.org/2025/12/13/killzone-v-1-2/

• Street Fighter II Released!:

• https://forums.atariage.com/topic/381129-street-fighter-2-for-atari-xexl/page/25/#findComment-5759887

• https://vega.atari.pl/

• https://vega.atari.pl/main-page/street-fighter-ii/

• Pole Position Now Saves Tracks Over FujiNet (Thom Cherryhomes):

• Discussion - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/387116-sharing-pole-position-race-designer-tracks-over-fujinet/

• Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI0sgh9DGaw

• Atari 8-Bit/5200 Homebrew Games Released/Completed/WIP in 2025 - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/378311-atari-8-bit5200-homebrew-games-releasedcompletedwip-in-2025/

New and Updated Software

• News Years Disk 2026 - https://demozoo.org/productions/384184/

• Altirra 4.40 released from Phaeron:

• https://forums.atariage.com/topic/387055-altirra-440-released/

• https://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html

• New version 7.0 of ASAP, Another Slight Atari Player, the most accurate Atari 8-bit computers tunes player for modern computers and mobile devices - https://asap.sourceforge.net

Publications

• December, 2025 Compute's Gazette with ANTIC article written by Brian Cox - https://shop.computesgazette.com/product/computes-gazette-issue-6-digital-edition/

• AtariProjects - https://atariprojects.org/

• Atari Insights January 2026:

• Newsletters - https://ataribasics.com/newsletter-hub/

• YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@AtariBasics

New and Updated Hardware

• Atari SX212 WiFi Retromodem - https://tempestfpga.com/sx212/

• XL-Expander, a prototype add-on for Atari 800XL machines - https://bsky.app/profile/philsan.bsky.social/post/3ma6ybpxd6s2j

• Custom Casing for the 130XE Pixel Perfect Motherboard - https://forums.atariage.com/topic/383379-new-11-1000dpi-replica-of-atari-xe-motherboard-%E2%80%93-interest-check/page/10/#comment-5772225

• 3D printed joystick Atari XL computers style - https://makerworld.com/en/models/2108894-atari-xl-style-joystick#profileId-2281361

• Atari 400 mini at Atari.com - https://atari.com/products/atari-400-mini-1

Other

• The Magic Room film ebay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/116928122102

• A 'Playable' Atari-Themed Hotel Is Coming - https://people.com/atari-hotel-planned-for-phoenix-interactive-esports-venue-photos-11871760

• Stewart Cheifet died:

• https://obits.goldsteinsfuneral.com/stewart-cheifet

• https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles

Upcoming Shows

• Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/

• Vintage Electronics Expo - Jan. 31, 2026 - Oakland Expo Center, Waterford, MI - https://www.thevee.org/

• Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2026 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/

• VCF East - April 17-19 2026 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/

• Midwest Gaming Classic - April 24-26 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/

• VCF Europe - May 1-3 - Munich, Germany - https://vcfe.org/E/

• Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest 2026 - May 2-3 - Tukwila Community Center, South Tukwila, WA - https://vcfpnw.org

• 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/

YouTube Videos

• FujiNet Battleship now for Atari 8-bit, Apple II, CoCo, and MS-DOS - Thom Cherryhomes - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3BQc3zVl8qk

• How I made an Atari 130XE Laptop Using Original Hardware - Sideburn Studios - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAKrEe_ttOE

• The Atari 8-Bit Second Maturity (A 2025 Deep Dive) - AtariBasics with John Zielke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d3JgZMFZIo

• FujiNet-RetroMate: Online Chess with Atari 8-bit Computers - Greg Gallardo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H53JR2-PBQE

New at Github

• https://github.com/mozzwald/pokeystream

• https://github.com/mozzwald/udp-pokey-sample

• https://github.com/rickcollette/atariforge

• https://github.com/fredlcore/ATASCOIID

• https://youtu.be/g4ffy4TXI-c?si=fihGVG0pGeuSOQqg

• https://github.com/rachel-multiverse/rachel-atari-800

Listener Feedback

• https://github.com/gitGalu/8bitworkshop-mcp