mastodon 4.7.2+glitch#Portland #Oregon. #Atari #8bit historian. Special Collections manager at #InternetArchive focusing on #hamradio. Voice on http://ataripodcast.com for #Atari8Bit and http://monsterfeet.com/grue/ for #interactivefiction
A tiny victory: for decades, Allan Bushman and I have been trying to find and scan every Atari Program Exchange (APX) software manual. Today I added one to the done ✅ list: Diskmenu, by Al Harberg, 1982. https://archive.org/details/apx-diskmenu-manual
Now I just need to find Harberg for an interview :)
New Jumpman level editor!
It's been 10 years since Rob @playermissile@oldbytes.space and I began reverse engineering Jumpman. Life's gotten in the way but the project has never been forgotten.
I've built a new Jumpman level editor (for the Atari 8-bit version) that works in your web browser. https://www.savetz.com/jumpman/
You can design a level (from scratch or starting from any of Randy Glover's level layouts), and use custom colors, graphics, sounds, and assembly code. Then download an ATR file to play it in your emulator or on a real Atari.
Watch me create a simple level at https://youtu.be/M_dkTRfgCRs
In 2016 I wrote an article for Pro(c) magazine (RIP) about the process I went through to find Randy Glover, creator of the best game for the best computer (Jumpman on the Atari 8-bit). I'm not sure they ever published it. Here is Finding Randy, online for the first time.
This is the best possible landing place for this material. Great news.
The Strong National Museum of Play Acquires Curt Vendel’s Atari Home Computer and Console Division Collection
I forgot to mention that ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast episode 126 is published. Title: "All Atari All The Time" https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-126-all-atari-all-the-time
Also we've started doing a video version on YouTube, though I'm not sure how I feel about those. #facesforradio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HmQGjkhVC4&feature=youtu.be
Continuing my effort to get my recent written work online for the first time, here's a fun piece I wrote last year: "Chasing the Dragon — In Search of the Tic Tac Dough Dragon". Featuring a popular game show, nine Apple IIs, Bob Bishop, and a scary animated dragon.
I've avoided the Y2K bug 27 years in a row! Whew.
FaxZero, my internet fax service, delivered 1.11 million faxes in 2025! The top elected officials reached via my free Fax Your Reps service were: Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin, and Tammy Duckworth, all Democrats https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php
FaxZero's most-faxed entities of 2025 were: Bank of America, Progressive Insurance, Tempus Unlimited, the IRS, and Texas Health and Human Services. https://faxzero.com
Here's my annual letter taking stock of the computer history archiving work I've done over the past year. Kay's 2025 Wrapped: three interviews, thousands of artifacts, and a surprising amount of computer history rescued one disk, page, and binder at a time.
I've been working to get some articles that I've written in the last few years online for the first time. Here's the first, which I'm proud of — an interview with Ron Jaenisch, a Universal Life minister who used an Apple II computer called "Reverend Apple" to marry people.
https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_reverend-apple
(and the article is now licensed under Creative Commons)
New episode of ANTIC: The Atari 8-Bit Podcast just dropped! Find out the latest news in the world of 8-bit Atari computers! https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-episode-121-dongle-disaster
Getting my recent-ish articles online, continued: my review of The Trail To Oregon by Jeff Blim, performed at Oregon's Chapel Theater in 2024. https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_the-trail-to-oregon-review
Getting my recent-ish articles online, continued: my review of John Romero's DOOM Guy: Life in First Person https://archive.org/details/savetzarticle_doom-guy-review
Look at these beautiful photos, recently digitized from slides, of the 1981 communications exhibit at the Capital Children’s Museum. (Featuring many photos of kids using Atari 8-bit computers!)
https://archive.org/details/ccm-communications
A friend who was an early #Microsoft employee gave me a bunch of stuff to scan, including this wild book meant for employees only: “That Was Then… Celebrating a Decade (at least) at Microsoft.” It must be 200 pages. He called it “a collection of the resumes of employees that had been there over 10 years at some point (would have been post-1993 since my resume is in there.)” Sure enough, it contains dozens of unredacted resumes. (I haven't figured out the best way to scan it yet)
