atlas news
    
The Ted Dabney Experience
01  août     13h52
This is The Ted Dabney Experience
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience is a podcast project by Richard May, Paul Drury Retro Gamer magazine and Tony Temple author of Missile Commander A Journey to The Top of an Arcade Classic . We host in depth conversations with the creative leading lights and supporting cast from the Golden Age of coin...
31  juillet     09h57
TDE EP39 - Rob Quinn of Stern
Richard May    Rob Quinn joined Stern just as the company was branching out from it’s core pinball business to explore the brave new world of videogames. Rob talks about his involvement with the company’s early hit, Berzerk, his experiments with laser disc technology and his personal misgivings about how the...
12  juillet     15h39
TDE EP38 - Atari and Bally Midway Game Designer Mark Pierce
Richard May    Mark Pierce was a game designer at Atari and Bally Midway. We talk to him about the protracted development of Escape From The Planet of The Robot Monsters, the axonometric, somewhat baroque B movie arcade adventure, and the conversely swift creation of the tile stacking puzzler classic, KLAX....
13  mai     16h57
TDE EP37 - Jersey Jack Pinball Founder Jack Guarnieri
Richard May    From to present day, Jack Guarnieri has seen and done it all; from servicing mechanical pinball machines in the dive bars and laundrettes of Seventies New York, bearing first hand witness to the inflation and rapid deflation of the video game bubble of popular lore, running his own...
14  mars     14h22
TDE EP36 - Strong Museum Assistant VP Jeremy Saucier
Richard May    Jeremy Saucier is Assistant VP at The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.Jeremy talks to us about the history and evolution of the Strong Museum and its pedagogical remit from American history and Industrialisation to a focus on play and gives us a fascinating insight into the day to...
07  février     17h28
TDE EP35 - Atari Inc Coin-Op Engineer Jeff Bell
Richard May    Jeff Bell was a hardware engineer in Atari Inc’s coin op division and officially the longest serving employee of the company; literally the last person to switch off the lights in . Jeff walks us through his formative years learning the basics of electronics at his father’s desk, the...
08  août     14h29
TDE EP34 - Atari Pong Creator Allan Alcorn
Richard May    For this episode we speak with none other than Allan Alcorn, Atari employee number three after Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, and the engineer of Pong, one of the very first video arcade games.
29  juin     13h55
TDE EP33 - Atari Inc Designer and R&D Manager Roger Hector
Richard May    Senior corporate executive, serial entrepreneur, automotive designer and fine artist. Roger Hector is not only a successful businessman but a bona fide creative polymath. A long time ago, Roger sharpened his pencils at Atari Inc, working alongside co founder Nolan Bushnell and creative director...
01  mai     21h23
TDE EP32 - Eugene Jarvis - Part 2
Richard May    Part : Eugene Jarvis cut his teeth in the Atari pinball division before going on to produce the groundbreaking Defender for Williams Electronics. Also for Williams contracted as Vid Kids, his new company with Defender co creator Larry DeMar was Stargate, Robotron: and Blaster. Jarvis left...
    21h13
TDE EP32 - Eugene Jarvis - Part 1
Richard May    Eugene Jarvis cut his teeth in the Atari pinball division before going on to produce the groundbreaking Defender for Williams Electronics. Also for Williams contracted as Vid Kids, his new company with Defender co creator Larry DeMar was Stargate, Robotron: and Blaster. Jarvis left Vid Kids...
23  février     19h10
TDE EP31 - Arcade Britannia author Dr Alan Meades
Richard May    Dr Alan Meades teaches the undergraduate and post graduate game design courses at Canterbury Christ Church University and is the author of Arcade Britannia, published by MIT Press. After dedicating so many episodes of the show to the mythic American arcade of the late Seventies and early Eighties ...
05  février     12h49
TDE EP30 - Atari Engineer Dave Sherman
Richard May    Dave Sherman joined Atari shortly prior to Nolan Bushnell’s departure and was at the company through its precipitous near collapse and subsequent restructuring during the infamous market crash of ’ and ’ . Sherman worked alongside Dave Theurer on iconic such as I, Robot and Missile Command, and...
08  décembre     21h15
This is The Ted Dabney Experience
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience is a podcast project by Richard May, Paul Drury Retro Gamer magazine and Tony Temple author of Missile Commander . We host long form conversations with the leading lights and supporting cast from the Golden Age of coin op video arcade gaming. Our guests have included...
29  novembre     19h13
TDE EP29 - Crystal Castles programmer Franz Lanzinger
Richard May    Franz Lanzinger programmed the singular Crystal Castles for Atari, Inc. Released in the summer of and housed within a typically eye catching Atari cabinet, the game found modest success as a coin op title and was adapted for numerous home platforms. Franz talks to us about being the person to...
31  octobre     20h58
TDE EP28 - Food Fight programmer Jonathan Hurd
Richard May    Jonathan Hurd coded Food Fight at General Computer Corp for Atari. A decidedly non violent’ game amid a galaxy of shooters, Food Fight was GCC’s first title for a smart thinking Atari after the infamous Super Missile Attack lawsuit was settled for more on Super Missile Attack, listen to our...
16  septembre     21h20
TDE EP27 - Bally Midway graphic artist Paul Niemeyer
Richard May    In any video arcade, especially during the proverbial Golden Age of the Seventies and Eighties, it wasn’t always the games on screen that first caught the eye but the colourful, imposing, sometimes lurid cabinets that housed them. This was bona fide pop art for the coin op kids of America and...
17  juin     16h17
TDE EP26 - Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day
Richard May    We speak with Walter Day, the grandfather of e sports and the inspiration for Wreck it Ralph’s avuncular arcade manager, Mr Litwack. Walter is the founder of the long defunct but world famous Twin Galaxies video arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the international scoreboard of the same name. Day waxes...
07  avril     23h39
TDE EP25 - Centuri coder Lee Feuling
Richard May    Lee Feuling is a retired United States Airforce and American Airlines pilot who, once upon a time, was a coder for Centuri Video Games in Hialeah, Florida. Centuri was best known for its hugely popular licensed releases of Japanese titles such as Track Field and Phoenix, but of far more interest...
18  février     14h45
TDE EP24 - Death Race creator Howell Ivy
Richard May    Howell Ivy is the creator of Exidy’s infamous Death Race. Released in , this was the first arcade game to stir a moral panic over videogame violence in America, leading the company to hire round the clock security in response to many green ink letters and phoned in death threats. Exidy followed...
21  janvier     20h51
TDE EP23 - Atari graphic designer Evelyn Seto
Richard May    Evelyn Seto worked at Atari under creative director George Opperman on some of the company’s most iconic graphic material, including arcade cabinets such as Fire Truck and Soccer, a wealth of arcade game sell sheets and console packaging for the consumer division; not to mention the famous Atari ...
14  décembre     19h34
TDE EP22 - Atari Battlezone and S.T.U.N. Runner programmer Ed Rotberg
Richard May    In accordance with Theurer’s Law named after Missile Command and Tempest programmer Dave Theurer, which states that every programmer’s first game will be a relative failure Ed Rotberg’s first game for Atari, Baseball, didn’t exactly score a home run. However his sophomore title, ’s...
29  novembre     19h11
TDE CLIPS - EP01
Richard May    Excerpts from our interviews with the gentlemen who created Gottlieb’s Golden Age Video Arcade titles Q Bert, Mad Planets and Krull. Featuring Warren Davis, Jeff Lee, Matt Householder and David Thiel.
22  novembre     22h12
This is The Ted Dabney Experience
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience is a podcast project by Richard May, Paul Drury Retro Gamer magazine and Tony Temple author of Missile Commander A Journey to The Top of an Arcade Classic . We host intimate conversations with the leading lights and supporting cast from the Golden Age of coin op Video...
19  novembre     10h47
TDE EP21 - Gravitar and Missile Command programmer Rich Adam
Richard May    Rich Adam joined Atari in , initially working on the company’s pinball games before being assigned the role of Junior Programmer on Dave Thuerer’s Missile Command. Rich went on to take the captain’s chair for the hard as nails Gravitar, arguably the pinnacle of Atari’s vector game output, and...
28  octobre     21h06
TDE EP20 - Gottlieb, Atari and Epyx alumnus Matt Householder
Richard May    Matt Householder co designed Gottlieb’s underrated arcade adaptation of Peter Yates’s ill fated Krull, before going on to join Atari’s consumer division to work on home adaptations of video arcade hits. With his partner Candi Strecker he went on to create and produce the critically acclaimed...
29  septembre     20h33
TDE EP19 - Asteroids, Centipede and Gauntlet programmer Ed Logg
Richard May    Ed Logg, AKA Super Duper Game Guy, is the programmer’s programmer. Cited by his contemporaries as one of the all time greats, Ed designed and co developed arcade smash hits such as Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Super Breakout and Gauntlet. In , Logg was awarded a Pioneer Award by the Academy...
24  août     15h49
TDE EP18 - Former Atari VP Steve Calfee
Richard May    Steve Calfee has rarely gone on record about his time at Atari. His managerial role at the company’s Coin Op division saw him channel the work of well known programmers such as Rich Adam, Dennis Koble, Dave Theurer and Howard Delman into Video Arcade smash hits such as Canyon Bomber, Space Duel and...
21  juillet     11h26
TDE EP17 - Pinball audio engineer and Gottlieb alumnus David Thiel
Richard May    David Thiel is perhaps best known for his pinball audio work on titles such as Tron: Legacy, Alien, Dialed In, Avatar and Family Guy, but he was also responsible for everything aural on all the Golden Age Gottlieb classics Q Bert, Mad Planets, and Reactor to name but a few . From synth salesman to...
17  juin     11h57
TDE EP16 - Art of Atari author Tim Lapetino
Richard May    Tim Lapetino on the underrated yet enduring legacy of Atari creative director George Opperman, and behind the scenes on both The Art of Atari and the forthcoming Pac Man: The Birth of an Icon.
20  mai     18h07
TDE EP15 - Atari Programmer Bob Flanagan
Richard May    Honing his coding skills producing games for the Apple II, Bob Flanagan joined Atari in . It was a difficult time for the company and the industry as a whole, yet Bob still managed to work on some of their best loved releases, including Paperboy, Marble Madness and Gauntlet. Bob tells us about...
16  avril     16h23
TDE EP14 - Q Bert co-creator Jeff Lee
Richard May    Jeff Lee was the original video artist at D. Gottlieb and Company, designing the character Q Bert and working on titles such as Krull, The Three Stooges and the late Kan Yabumoto’s seminal Mad Planets. Jeff talks to The Ted Dabney Experience about his days at Gottlieb later Mylstar and, most...
19  mars     19h09
TDE EP13 - Atari veteran Dennis Koble
Richard May    Recruited by the company in , Dennis Koble was one of Atari’s earliest coin op game designers. Koble stayed with Atari for five years and was responsible for such notable titles as Avalanche, Sprint and Dominos, before leaving to co found Imagic. In Dennis would return to coin op as...
19  février     21h27
TDE EP12 - Atari market researcher Carol Kantor
Richard May   
22  janvier     14h26
TDE EP11 - GCC’s Steve Golson (Ms. Pac-Man, Super Missile Attack)
Richard May    The inimitable Steve Golson reminisces about his days evading Atari’s radar with GCC, subsequently being co opted by the former for arcade classics such as the frantic Food Fight and the singular Quantum, and of course Crazy Otto aka Midway’s Ms. Pac Man .
27  décembre     13h10
The Retro Asylum Interview
Richard May    A brief introduction to The Ted Dabney Experience podcast. Originally released as a segment for the Retro Asylum Christmas Special episode, .
17  décembre     19h10
TDE EP10 - Rampage co-creator Brian Colin
Richard May    We talk with Rampage co creator Brian Colin about the early days at Bally Midway, applying his traditional animation know how to the seminal Discs of Tron and meeting The Rock.
19  novembre     10h21
TDE EP09 - Kevin Hayes of Atari Ireland
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience podcast talks with Kevin Hayes, former Managing Director of Atari Ireland. If you played an Atari arcade game in Europe during the proverbial Golden Age of video games, including popular third party licences such as Cinematronics’ Dragon’s Lair, it bore Kevin’s...
19  octobre     16h58
TDE EP08 - The Pit co-designer Andy Walker
Richard May    TDE Podcast takes you from the North East Yorkshire coastal town of Bridlington to Miami Beach with one of the very few Brits to have developed coin op videogames for the American market during the Golden Age, Mr Andy Walker.
21  septembre     13h23
TDE EP07 - Joust and Sinistar designer John Newcomer
Richard May    An in depth discussion with John Newcomer, designer and lead developer of one of the most unique and enduring arcade games of the Golden Age, Joust. John talks to The Ted Dabney Experience about his influences and inspirations, hits and misses, his design philosophy, videogame violence and working...
04  septembre     15h00
TDE EP06 - Doug Wismer of Canadian monitor manufacturer Electrohome
Richard May    Electrohome supplied CRT monitors to all the big name video arcade game manufacturers of the Golden Age, including Atari, Gremlin and Midway. Doug talks to us about how the company was saved from potential oblivion by arcade gaming; the pen, paper and handshake conception of Atari’s first vector...
23  juillet     11h50
TDE EP05 - Mike Hally of Atari on Lucasfilm, Star Wars, lost classic Akka Arrh and Gravitar
Richard May    Mike Hally devoted a quarter of a century to Atari, from the Sunnyvale years through Time Warner, literally turning off the lights when the company that most of us would recognise closed its doors for good in . The Ted Dabney Experience talks with Mike about the gentleman’s arcade game,...
26  juin     09h35
TDE EP04 - Owen Rubin of Atari on Space Duel and Major Havoc
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience Podcast talks to Space Duel designer Owen Rubin about the frontier days of videogame creation at Atari, the volatility of vector hardware, the original Boss Key, disco dancing, and Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell’s infamous pool parties.
25  mai     21h28
TDE EP03 - ACAM Founder and President Gary Vincent
Richard May    The Ted Dabney Experience Podcast catches up with a long time friend, ACAM’s Gary Vincent. We discuss Gary’s early days at Funspot, NH, his participation in Randy Fromm’s Arcade School, Funspot’s transition from electromechanical to video arcade and the establishment of ACAM. Gary shares his views...
15  mai     16h20
TDE EP02 - Gorf and Robby Roto Developer Jamie Fenton
Richard May    TDE sits down with Jamie Fenton, the developer of the original multi game shooter, Gorf. We dig deep into Jamie’s early life and career with Dave Nutting Associates and Midway, covering transgender issues, Datsun sports cars, Larry Cuba of Star Wars SFX fame, the original US military application of...
06  avril     14h45
TDE EP01 - Q Bert Co-Creator Warren Davis
Richard May    TDE talks to Q Bert co creator Warren Davis about the early days of videogame design at Gottlieb, lost Laserdisc classic Us Vs Them, his time at Williams Electronics working alongside Eugene Jarvis, and hanging out with Aerosmith.