Floppy Days 104 - Interview with Leonard Tramiel

06/30/21 • 54 min

Welcome to Floppy Days episode 104 for June, 2021. Randy Kindig here again, as your usual host, to talk about vintage computer topics.

For this month, I have another interview for you in which Commodore and Atari fans will have special interest. One of the most iconic figures in vintage computer history, and one who was a big part of the home computer wars back in the late 70’s and into the mid-to-late 80’s was Jack Tramiel. Jack at one time owned Commodore and later Atari, and involved his sons intimately in the business. Although Jack is no longer around there are plenty of interviews available on YouTube and other places where you can see and hear Jack. For this episode, however, I was able to track down one of Jack’s sons, Leonard, and get his perspective on being involved in home computers with his father during that time. Leonard was particularly involved in the development of the Atari ST and much of this interview will revolve around that, but there is a lot of other content here as well.

For this month, I’m going to forgo any other content and just focus on the interview itself.

This interview took place February 2, 2020.

Please enjoy!

Links:

Leonard Tramiel, Computer History Museum profile - https://computerhistory.org/profile/leonard-tramiel/
Interview at Arcade Attack - https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/leonard-tramiel/
The story of Commodore and the 8-bit generation | Leonard Tramiel | TEDxMidAtlantic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBU8pEDWwY
Leonard Tramiel Greets Those at CommVEx 2017 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNGEd7QbLjI

Floppy Days 104 - Interview with Leonard Tramiel

Welcome to Floppy Days episode 104 for June, 2021. Randy Kindig here again, as your usual host, to talk about vintage computer topics.

For this month, I’m going to forgo any other content and just focus on the interview itself.

This interview took place February 2, 2020.

Please enjoy!

Links:

Leonard Tramiel, Computer History Museum profile - https://computerhistory.org/profile/leonard-tramiel/
Interview at Arcade Attack - https://www.arcadeattack.co.uk/leonard-tramiel/
The story of Commodore and the 8-bit generation | Leonard Tramiel | TEDxMidAtlantic - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRBU8pEDWwY
Leonard Tramiel Greets Those at CommVEx 2017 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNGEd7QbLjI

Previous Episode

Floppy Days 103 - Kay Savetz Interviews Mark Englebardt, Wayzata Technology

Mark Englebardt was the founder of Wayzata Technology, a company that was one of the earliest publishers of CD-ROM software. The company was founded in 1991, and produced hundreds of CD-ROM titles before going out of business in 1996. The company's discs were primarily for Macintosh but many worked with all ISO-9660 compatible platforms. Its most popular product was the Wayzata World Factbook, a disc of information about countries and territories around the world.

Downloadable versions of more than 80 of Wayzata CD-ROMs are available at the Internet Archive.

This interview took place on January 26, 2016.

Inc Magazine: Pioneer CD-ROM Maker Hit by Hardball Competition

Downloadable versions of Wayzata CD-ROMs at Internet Archive

Next Episode

Floppy Days 105 - Interview with Joe Decuir about the Amiga

Floppy Days 105 - Joe Decuir - Developing the Amiga

Hello, and welcome to another interview edition of the Floppy Days Podcast for July, 2021. I am Randy Kindig. I am extremely honored to bring to you today an interview with one of the true pioneers of the personal computer, one of the designers of the Amiga 1000, a primary designer of the Atari 8-bit line and Atari 2600, and the developer of modern USB based on his work developing the SIO port for the Atari 8-bit: Mr. Joe Decuir.

I’ve interviewed Joe for Floppy Days before, but that was about his amazing work on the Atari 8-bit line. Joe was able to provide a lot of history around the development of the Atari 8-bits for the shows where I was covering the 400 and 800 computers.

The majority of this interview is around the work he did on the Amiga. Joe worked closely with Jay Miner and others to design a computer in the days when personal computers were just in their infancy. Joe shares with us the thoughts and reasoning that went into the design of the Amiga 1000 and thus brings all of us a little closer to being a part of an amazing time in computer history. Joe also mixes in some Atari 8-bit and Atari 2600 information, talks about the Apple II, has a story involving the TI-99 and numerous other tidbits.

Before diving into the interview, I will cover a few of the new acquisitions that have been added to my ever-growing vintage computer and modern upgrades collection.

I had a great time, as always, talking with Joe and learning more about what it was like back in the 70’s and 80’s as a developer of some of the most incredible hardware developed up to that time. Please enjoy!

Links: