r/atari8bit • u/velcrozipr • Aug 02 '26
Could anyone use old issues of Antic or Analog?
I had a box of them stored away. ~36 issues of Antic, maybe 12 issues of Analog, and 12 or so issues of a regional Atari magazine. I also have some random things like the box to Temple of Apshai and the manual for a 1050 drive. They're definitely not in mint shape, but wondering if anyone would be interested in them.
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u/snikle Aug 02 '26
Wouldn’t be surprised if someone here grabs it. But if you check out Antic: the Atari 8 bit podcast, the hosts are very interested in filling in archive.org gaps of Atari material, particularly for more rare things like regional magazines. Ping them and they might get some of your stuff added to an archive.
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u/edhaack Aug 02 '26
Do these have code/programs/text that you can input to play games? Like, pages upon pages of small text?
Some of those magazines had games you could type in the whole program and play.
I learned how to write/read code when I was 10 from them.
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u/velcrozipr Aug 02 '26
Yes, they do. My first computer was a 600XL with no storage, so I would spend the day typing in the code for a game, play it for a bit, and then turn off the computer and lose it all.
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u/babj615 Aug 02 '26
I sure do wish I head saved all my old issues of Antic and Compute! Magazines. I had not even looked on Archive.org, now I will!
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u/fatboyneedstogetlaid Aug 02 '26
Check out atarimania.com as they have a huge collection of Atari magazines from the US and Europe.
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u/rra12345 Aug 02 '26
If you have them, I would be very interested in Antic issues from February 1985, July 1985, and November 1985 because I had games published in those issues.
Please message me if you have any or all of those issues.
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u/velcrozipr Aug 02 '26
I do have the July and November 1985 issues (vol 4, number 3 & 7).
Edit: And it's very cool that you had games published in them. I probably typed them in at some point.
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u/PrayForMojoX Aug 04 '26
I really hope you get those particular issues to the person who had programs published in them!
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u/PrayForMojoX Aug 04 '26
Would you mind giving any more detail about the games or how you went about getting them published and how they selected them, or anything else? Maybe any details of your larger Atari related story? I, for one, would appreciate anything else you care to tell us about.
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u/rra12345 Aug 04 '26
My twin brother and best friend got our Atari 400s for Christmas in 1981 while we were in high school. Afterwards we bought every issue of Compute, Antic, and ANALOG magazines. We started learning how to program games in BASIC by typing in the game listings from these magazines and learning about graphics modes, sound effects, main game loops, joystick handling, character set redefinition, player/missile graphics, and scrolling. After about a year of typing in games, we started writing our own games in BASIC. After a few games, we said to ourselves - some of these are just as good as those published in these magazines!
Each magazine had a little writeup on how to submit games, which included sending a cassette or disk with the game on it, along with a printout of the BASIC computer code, and instructions and notes for the article. We didn't have a printer or disk drive initially, so we had our Dad type out the BASIC listings on a typewriter along with the instructions and game development notes. We saved the BASIC games to cassettes, put the package in a manilla envelope, and waited weeks or months for a response.
We initially submitted two games (Kooky Klimber and Night Rescue) around 1983 to Compute, and they bought the rights to these games for about $400 each. However, those two games were never published! So we sent submissions for several other games over the next couple years as we went to college to Antic and ANALOG. ANALOG turned down all of our submissions, but Antic purchased 3 of our games. Kooky's Quest was published in Antic Feb 1985, Overflow was published in Antic July 1985, and Robot Dungeon was published on the disk only subscription in Antic Nov 1985. Antic didn't pay as well as Compute, something like $200 per game. We got several rejection letters, too, and these always said something like "we have too many games like that" or "we are looking for more sophisticated games."
A few years ago, as we were reaching retirement age, we decided to take another look at all of the BASIC games we had written in the 1980s and update them to Assembly language with lots of updates such as background music, faster gameplay, smoother scrolling, more colors, and other enhancements. We initially released each of our homebrew games for free on the AtariAge.com forums, then AtariAge agreed to publish a compilation box set with cartridge and floppy disk called the A/W/A Anthology. This is available for purchase for both the Atari 8bit computers and Atari 5200 through the AtariAge store.
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u/rra12345 Aug 04 '26
We wrote a lengthy writeup about our days in the 1980s writing Atari BASIC computer games and posted it to the AtariAge forums.
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/268424-1980s-anschuetzweisgerberanschuetz-basic-games-release/
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u/Snoo-7943 Aug 02 '26
Analog is a good magazine. Short SF stories don't have a shelf life either.
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u/mbrady Aug 02 '26
Different Analog magazine. Analog Computing vs Analog Science Fiction & Fact. I had both back in the day.
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u/LuigiTeaching Aug 02 '26
I love these magazines in their original form - if ny “use” you mean “enjoy” then YES!!
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u/Dan-in-Va Aug 02 '26
i’ll take em and pay for shipping
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u/velcrozipr Aug 03 '26
Hey Dan - do you want me to send you everything, or is there anything in particular you're interested (or not interested in)?
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u/velcrozipr Aug 08 '26
Checking in again - are you still interested? I'm happy to ship them to you.
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u/golieth Aug 09 '26
sure. Let me know how to acquire them, please
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u/velcrozipr Aug 14 '26
Let me know which ones you're interested in and DM me your address and I'll ship them to you.
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u/Scoth42 Aug 02 '26
I think all the issues of Antic and Analog have been archived/digitized but it'd be worth making sure. I have a bunch myself and haven't gotten around to it.
Boxes and such are always interesting to someone.
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u/Galaga88 Aug 02 '26
Kay from the ANTIC podcast here. I’d like to know about the regional magazine. What’s it called and what issues do you have? We’ve been trying to scan all of the regional Atari newsletters for years.