Jul 16, 2015
Bill Bartlett, Product Support Manager
Bill Bartlett worked at Atari from 1981 through 1984, where he was a product support manager for the Atari home computer division, also did user group support. He also wrote the Diskette Mailing List program which was sold by Atari Program Exchange.
This interview took place on April 16 2015, in person at a supermarket deli in the Portland Oregon area. I apologize for the background noise; recording in this situation is not a mistake I will make again.
Links:
Teaser quote:
“Alan Alda became the spokesman for Atari, and was doing all the TV commercials. He was actually interested in the product set. They sent him all the products. So I was his contact for tech support, me personally. I never talked to him but I talked to his assistants. . . ‘Mr. Alda is on line one!’"
Ugh! This episode is completely un-listenable! As a regular listener who's been very impressed with the evolution and growth of the show quality, I must say I'm really disappointed with what appears to be two rookie mistakes: First, thinking you can record in a noisy environment with a single mic and not pick up every bit of background noise. Second, not making and reviewing a sample recording before starting the interview.
And c'mon, Kevin... This guy probably hasn't thought about Atari products for a few decades, but YOU should know your 825 printers from your 815 dual drives. :)
Despite this terrible mis-step (seriously, I'd have either asked the guy for a do-over session or had someone do a voiceover narrated recording of the interview), I'm still a fan and will keep listening.
FYI, Alphacom made the Alphacom 32 (aka Timex/Sinclair 2040) printer for the Sinclair ZX81, Spectrum and Timex/Sinclair computers (1000, 1500, 2068).