Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast


hosts: Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold
email: antic@ataripodcast.com
twitter: @AtariPodcast
Mastodon: @ataripodcast@oldbytes.space
Discord
Facebook
on iTunes, Google PodcastsAmazon Music
Stitcher Radio , TuneIn

 

Oct 18, 2015

Adam Billyard, Chop Suey/ElektraGlide

Adam Billyard's first three games for the Atari 8-bit computers were "Bellum", "Henri", and "Chop Suey,".  Bellum was published through the Atari Program Exchange, although Adam never received any royalty from Atari for it.  "Chop Suey" was one of the first modern-style fighting games for the Atari 800. He followed this up with a pair of three-dimensional games: "ElektraGlide," a racing game for the Atari 8-bit; and "Q-Ball” for the Atari ST.

If you’re not familiar with any of these games, it's probably because you live in the U.S. Three of his five games were originally released by the U.K.-based English Software and received more publicity in Europe than the versions distributed by Mindscape in the States.

This interview took place May 15, 2015.

Teaser Quote:

“Years later they said ‘did you not get the check for $30?’ which I thought was just completely bizarre.”

Links:

Adam’s Polystream, the next generation of fully streamed interactive entertainment

Adam’s Interview at Halcyon Days


Darren Schebek
over eight years ago

ElectraGlide was a terribly impressive piece of work. Very fun to play. I did get a chance to play Q-Ball on the ST and what surprised me was that I expected the 3-D camera to be problematic and yet it was easy to aim/play. Great work, Adam. :)

Along the lines of Adam's stunning realisation that his games were older than everyone in the meeting room, I was recently talking to a fellow programmer who lamented that every single line of code he'd ever written in his entire life wouldn't even fill up the thumb drive on his keychain.