ATARI BYTES

In 1982, there was an epidemic of sides splitting at CBS Electronics due to all the laughing. What was so funny? The programmers were handed a new arcade game to adapt for the Atari.

"Tell me again w…

Remember "Happy Days", the feel good 1970s show about a bunch of teens in 1950s Milwaukee? In the show, break-out popular hoodlum character Fonzie had cut ties with his old gang of trouble-makers "Th…

We're not sure, but we're guessing that in 1978 at Atari HQ, game designer Warren Robinette won an office pool. The bet was who could come up with a game that matched it's title close enough that the…

You know, we here at ATARI BYTES are tired of hearing people whine about video games dumbing down generations and making kids illiterate. We happen to think there's lots of educational value to be ha…

In episode 186, we're playing FLASH GORDON, the 1983 Twentieth Century Fox game inspired by the golden age comic book character. Flash Gordon is a blow-dried, blonde, muscular polo-playing-space-foot…

In episode 185, imagine yourself on an early Sunday morning in a crowded, noisy breakfast joint. The scents of coffee and waffles waft through the air. Your arms are pleasingly sticky from syrup resi…

In 1977, Atari said, "We need a small batch of games to show off this new video console we've got."

Larry Kaplan heard this and was like, "Great! Here's like six of them. Car racing. Skiing. Airplane…

Episode 183 flutters in on cute-as-a-bug little wings with FIRE FLY, a 1983 offering from Mythicon. Is this game where you pilot a metallic humanoid insect in battle against other metallic humanoid i…

It's episode 182, in which I lose my title belt and my podcast pants fall down so I'm left in my gaming skivvies. Aren't you glad this is an audio podcast?

This week, we're playing TITLE MATCH PRO WR…

Everything old is new again...even in podcast land. In episode 181, we're going home to episode 8 with MS. PAC-MAN. Sort of...

You see, this week we time travel to Atari's future with the 7800 port o…

Episode 180 of Atari Bytes is all about giving tanks.

That's not a typo, 'cause we're overjoyed and overrun by tanks this week with Activision's 1983 Battlezone rip-off  tank adventure game ROBOT TAN…

This week, I'm swinging in on a vine as Planet Funk Con sinks into the quicksand below and I land on the other side to record a podcast. The episode, unfortunately, is just me screaming as I am crush…

This week on the podcast we LOCK in episode 178 and CHASE down another game as Intellivision month avoids the Atari cops to continue for another week. 

My surprise co-host and I are playing the Matte…

So, is Intellivision month on ATARI BYTES continuing in episode 177?

You BET it is!

In 1979, Mattel gambled on a game based on the thing kids love most: casino gambling. This week's title is ROULETTE…

YAH, HORSEY! YAH!

ATARI BYTES Episode 176 comes down the stretch with the second entry in our annual "Intellivision Month" - HORSE RACING, Mattel, 1980. Pull off your blinkers, grab hold of your podc…

Do you like gladiator movies?

I only ask because when you watch a gladiator movie, it's astounding how these brave, bold warriors insist on lining up in straight lines and running at each other, expe…

Listen closely...hear that? Right now, as I write and you read this, tiny little plaque jerks are eating away at your tooth enamel. You can hear them, can't you? I can't unfortunately, as the voices …

Dive down deep into episode 173: SUB SCAN, the 1982 port of Deep Scan from Sega. We explore the depths of this submarine v. destroyer ocean battle. 

I hope you don't get the bends coming back up to t…

In 1982, Data Age had a video game concept meeting. "We need a new idea, people," the team leader said. "We gotta get this one out by the end of the day."

It was 4:45 p.m.

The office closed at 5:00

I…

We exist in three dimensions: length, width, height.

This podcast has spanned three types of classic video games: Intellivision, Atari 2600, Atari 7800.

And now, much as H.G. Wells, in his 19th centu…