58 episodes
Into The Vertical Blank : Generation Atari Jeff Fulton & Steve Fulton
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- Video Games
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5.0 • 18 Ratings
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A Podcast about growing up In the 70s and 80s, at the dawn of video
games, navigating family strife, punk rock, Star Wars obsessions, and
trying to understand to the world while developing an inexplicable
love for everything “Atari”.
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We are twin brothers who grew up "Atari" or as we call it, in The Vertical Blank. The Vertical Blank is space between the lines.
It's the the second half of Generation X.
It's the where work occurs you never see on screen.
It's the nuances that makes nostalgia real.
It's the transcendental location that holds our best memories, biggest joys, greatest fears, and our most terrible losses.
In this podcast we discuss Atari computers and systems, new and old, review new games we collect, talk about all the systems, and the significance they had in our lives and the lives of others, and even talk about them in an historical context with the backdrop the times they were released, and how they are being used now.
We do all this in an effort to finally understand the answer to this existential question: what does it mean to have grown up "Atari" in the generation of the Vertical blank.
Credits:
Written, Engineered and Produced by Steve Fulton @fultonbot and Jeff Fulton @8bitrocket
Branding by Daryl Litts @daryllitts
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S4:E1 Atari Coin Ops Avalanche, Firetruck, Super Bug and Dominos and games you’ll never see.
To start off the 4th season, we chose four games to play and discuss : Early Atari Coin-ops, Avalanche, Fire Truck, Super Bug, and Dominos. We also discuss a very early Electronic games magazine article on “Games we hope we’ll never see”. They were mostly wrong. Starting with this episode we will also have a companion video with us live discussing the games and items that need more visual evidence.
Live Game Play and discussion video The video for this episode is: https://youtu.be/1Apns1Bq5IU
Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton
Branding by Daryl Litts
Additional music -Tony Longworth’s Fold Your Head" https://tonylongworth.com/
Don’t forget:
http://www.intotheverticalblank.com -
S3:E25: 1981 - Atari VCS Christmas
S3:E25; 1981 - Atari VCS Christmas
For the 2020 Christmas episode we go back 39 years to 1981 and talk about how it felt to want, and ultimately, get, an Atari VCS that year. We have a story from Steve about our twin scheming and planning to get a VCS, and then we have a discussion about our top-10 VCS games available at the end of 1981. We hope these memories and stories help you have a good holiday in 2020 no matter what you celebrate or what your situation might be. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Into The Vertical Blank.
Show Notes:
Written, Edited, Produced by Jeff Fulton and Steve Fulton
Branding by Daryl Litts
Music in “Atari VCS Christmas” story is Crystalline by Tony Longworth from his album “Tinsel And Fire”. Tony’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tonylongworth
XMAS 7800 playable Demo: JS7800: Atari 7800 Emulator (raz0red.github.io)
Top-10 VCS Games available for Xmas 1981
Steve’s List
Asteroids
Space Invaders
Missile Command
Breakout/Super Breakout
Tennis:
Skiing
Adventure
Night Driver
Video Pinball
Outlaw
Jeff’s List
Asteroids
Breakout
Tennis
Laser Blast
Missile Command
Space Invaders
Pele’s Soccer
Video Pinball
Night Driver
Adventure
Some Cool Atari Videos from 1981 -
S3:E24: Three Ghosts From Christmas Past
As we we prepare for the 2020 Chirstmas episode of Into The Vertical Blank, here is a supercut of three Christmas stories from past seasons told for the first tiem, in Chronological order:
-The Best @*#! Christmas Ever (1983)
-Atari 7800 Christmas (1986)
-The Christmas Train (1982-2011) -
S3: E23. Why We Are Thankful for STOS: The Game Creator
S3: E23. Why we are Thankful for STOS: The Game Creator
In this episode the brothers talk about the creation of their one and only completed Atari ST game (“Zamboozal Poker Dice”) and the tools that helped them complete it: the Mandarin / JawX Software products under the STOS banner. Come along for the ride as they discuss the old days of making games on their favorite 16 bit computer.
Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton
Branding by Daryl Litts
Additional music - “Outside The Universe” By Tony Longworth
Mentioned:
Read the full story of Zamboozal Poker Dice here:
https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/20/zamboozal-poker-dice-atari-st-1991/
Atarimania.com Page for the Original Zamboozal Poker Dice: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-zamboozal-poker-dice_37004.html
Atarimania.com Page for the Updated 2020 1.2 version of Zamboozal Poker dice:http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-zamboozal-poker-dice_37016.html
STOS Tutorials on Intotheverticalblank.com
https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/13/stos-tutorial-1-setup-stos-on-hatari-and-the-first-blitter-operations/
https://intotheverticalblank.com/2020/11/16/stos-tutorial-2-brute-force-blitter-sprites-joysticks-and-more/
Orphaned Games Marauder Review
https://orphanedgames.com/articles/Marauder_Review/Marauder_Review%20(Atari%202600).html -
S3:E22: Haunted House and the top 27 Scary Things For Atari Fans
In this episode Steve and Jeff cover the Wii Haunted House port from 2010, and also make their list of the top 27 things that scare Atari Fans (or at least scare Steve and Jeff). They also feature an Easter egg from their past and a fantastic Tony Longworth tune.
Listen here or on all major podcast platforms, including Spotify.
Steam Store Haunted House: https://store.steampowered.com/app/9960/Haunted_House/
Credits
Written, Edited, Produced by Steve Fulton and Jeff Fulton
Branding by Daryl Litts
Tony Longworth: Primal Serenity E.P. : Ostero and Light Of Day.
https://tonylongworth.bandcamp.com/album/primal-serenity
Tony Longworth: Repercussion : https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-music-39166514
Tony Longworth: Repercussion : https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-music-39166514
Stay In Touch
http://www.intotheverticalblank.com
https://twitter.com/Atari_VB_Pod
https://www.facebook.com/intotheverticalblank/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPnyVqBr2glJ-vAcDYDUYYw -
S3E21: News Update! Plus the Top-50 Toys and Products from the 1977 Sears Wish Book
Right before the Atari VCS, Star Wars toys, and Lego hit big in the 70's there was the 1977 Sears Wish Book. It's like an archive of everything "cool" before things got real. Every year in September or October, the Sears Wish Book would arrive in the mail, and our job was to circle the things we wanted for Christmas. In this episode we dive into the top-50 weird and wonderful products from the 1977 Sears Wishbook (plus some extras) You can follow along in the links below:
Wishbook Pages To Follow-along:
60-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-212.html#
59-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-181.html
58-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-198.html#
57- Oops.
56-https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n_PeDI7eu0mTv1T6BVFwyowA-ZFspwJP9Yio-HV-uLk/edit
55-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-562.html#
54-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-604.html#
53-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-599.html#
52-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-479.html
51.http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-530.html#
http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-338.html#
50-http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1977_Sears_Wishbook/files/assets/basic-html/page-575.html#
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Customer Reviews
Second Only to Ferg
Love the stories, love the interviews. But the best thing for me about this amazing, incredibly listenable pod is the presence and continued emphasis on the 7800. As a fan and budding 7800 home brew programmer myself, I can’t wait to hear where this show seems to be headed! Looking forward to it!
Great Retro Gaming Podcast
As an Intellivision junkier back in the day this is one of the best Atari specific gaming podcasts around! Their stories and the great interviews are unmatched. I hope they’ll be around for many years to come!
Awesome podcast!
One of my absolute favorite podcasts. The stories and memories are a joy to listen to. While I did not grow up in California(I was a Midwest kid), I can so easily relate to the stories and nostalgia. Brings back so many fond memories of life in the 80’s, or more accurately, life in the ‘vertical blank’!