Episode 17: March 29th, 2003 - OK, so this episode is REALLY late, but believe me, it was worth the wait.

I've had some pretty cool people on this webcast over the years. I have been fortunate to have awesome guests, but this episode is special and "extra cool" for many reasons.

TRON was a movie that shaped the future for many people my age. I don't doubt that it had a part to play with my choice of career.

This episode of Back In Time features one of the stars of that movie. Cindy Morgan played Lora and Yori in TRON, and is also known for other films such as Caddyshack. Cindy was an awesome guest, and I had so much fun talking with her about a motion picture that is near and dear to all gamers hearts.

I had a ton of fun interviewing her, and she seemed to enjoy her appearance at the forth annual PhillyClassic. Cindy was originally scheduled to appear at PhillyClassic for one day. However, she enjoyed it so much, that she stayed around for a second day. How cool is that?

Special thanks go out to Scott Skerchock. Also, a big "thank-you" to the crew at TRON Sector.

To listen to the show, you need a PC or Mac capable of playing .mp3 format audio.

Episode 16: May 31st, 2002 - May has been a busy month. Just a few weeks ago, we recorded from PhillyClassic, and now we have moved on to the Fourth Annual Funspot/Twin Galaxies Classic Pinball & Videogame Championship at Funspot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.

The four-day competition was hosted by the awesome Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, NH. If there's one thing FunSpot is famous for it's games. They are the second largest arcade in the country, and they have the world's largest collection of classic coin-op video games.

For the last four years, Funspot & Twin Galaxies have teamed up for the World Championships in coin-op videogames & pinball. Over 100 hardcore gamers from all over the world came to the town of Weirs Beach, New Hampshire to compete for world records in the biggest & best classic arcade in existence.

I have a number of great guests for this episode, and they are some of the "who's who" of classic coin-op video game players. Some of the people who took some time to talk include:

Walter Day is the founder of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, and has been tracking video game scores since the early 1980's. Walter is also the author of the "Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records" and he is working very hard to complete the second edition of the book.

Episode 15: May 7th, 2002 - Yet another episode on the road!! This time, we are broadcasting from PhillyClassic3 in King of Prussia, PA.

PhillyClassic is dedicated to giving video game fans, both new and old, a great weekend of playing arcade and home console games, competing in tournaments, and buying, selling, and trading classic gaming systems, software, and accessories. PhillyClassic3 is expanding to nearly 15,000 square feet of convention and display space, a 6-fold increase over PhillyClassic 2001!

Back In Time host Mike Stulir poses
with Sid Meier, the Father of Computer Gaming

Episode 12: May 18th, 2001 - After a LONG hiatus, the webcast is back. I wanted to do something big for the return of the webcast, so I scheduled a trip to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in Los Angeles, CA. E3 is the annual trade show for the gaming industry.

The opening of the program will take a look at some of the classic-related titles that were shown at E3 including Spy Hunter & Frogger: The Great Quest.

Guests for the program include Glen Cureton of Namco. Glen will speak a bit about the new Pac-Man World 2 for the Sony PlayStation 2. Glen also speaks a bit about the Namco Museum title & Pac-Man title for the new Nintendo GameBoy Advance.

Also appearing on the program are John Chowanec & Morgan Gray from Cinemaware. John & Morgan talk about the history of Cinemaware, and their recent return to game development. Most of the conversation revolves around the new "Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown" game that Cinemaware is working on. Anyone who was a fan of the Cinemaware games of the late 80's should definitely tune in.

My final guest should be known to all computer gamers. Recognized as the "Father of Computer Gaming", Sid Meier has been honored with virtually every major award in the gaming industry and in 1999, was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's "Hall of Fame." In 1982, Sid co-founded MicroProse Software and created one of the very first combat flight simulators, F-15 Strike Eagle, a title that sold well over one million units worldwide. After F-15, he continued to create thought-provoking, innovative titles such as Silent Service, a submarine simulation and the breakthrough Pirates!, a unique blend of historical simulation, arcade action, strategy and role-playing. By introducing strategy into flight simulation with F-19 Stealth Fighter, he created one of the most popular flight sims ever. And with addictive strategy games like Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon and Sid Meier's Civilization, he ushered a new genre of "God Games" into computer gaming. Civilization, one of the best known games in the industry, with worldwide sales of over 1 million units, was honored as the number one best game of all-time by Computer Gaming World magazine.

Episode 11: June 15th, 2000 - In January, 2000, I recorded an episode of the webcast from the Twin Galaxies "Coronation Day" video game tournament. That episode was so popular, that I have decided to do it again.

This episode of "Back In Time" was recorded at the Twin Galaxies "Classic Pinball & Video Game Championship." Unlike the previous "Coronation Day" tournament, this event focuses on classic coin-op video games from the late 70's through the 80's. The event took place June 1st through June 4th, 2000.

The four-day competition was hosted by the awesome FunSpot arcade in Weirs Beach, NH. If there's one thing FunSpot is famous for it's games. They are the second largest arcade in the country, and they have the world's largest collection of classic coin-op video games.

I have a number of great guests for this episode, and they are some of the "who's who" of classic coin-op video game players. Some of the people who took some time to talk include Billy Mitchell & Chris Ayra, who are probably the two most famous video game players. Other guests include Steve Krogman (Galaga World Record), Dwayne Richard. Also joining me is Bob Lawton, the owner of the incredible FunSpot facility.

The tournament is the brainchild of Walter Day. Walter is the founder of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, and has been tracking video game scores since the early 1980's. Walter is also the author of the "Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records" and he is working very hard to complete the second edition of the book.

There is NO video in this episode.
I shot several rolls of film during the
tournament, and I couldn't squeeze it all into the show.

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Episode 10: April 26th, 2000 - The episode we all have been waiting for.....

Technically, this episode was intended to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of the webcast. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with Nolan & myself, the interview was taped well after the anniversary date. Oh well, I promised an interview with Nolan, and I am pleased to present an interview with Nolan.

Do I really need to introduce this man? Nolan Bushnell is the creator of the first coin-op video game (Computer Space) and he is the man who gave birth to the massive video game industry that we have today. Nolan is the founder of Atari, and another venture that we all know of: Chuck E. Cheese. To date, he has founded over 20 companies that have provided technology that contributes to our everyday lives.

If you do a search on the web, you will find many text & e-mail interviews that Nolan has done over the years. They all look the same, and they all have the same old tired questions. You won't see any ridiculous questions here like "Gee Nolan, is it true that you once blew up your garage?"

This interview is totally fresh & original. In fact, a few of his comments may suprise you. (He had some interesting observations about Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ted Dabney.)

We cover all kinds of topics, including his major accomplishments, his new video game company, the rebirth of classic games, and the state of the video game industry today. We also discuss some of the modern consoles such as the Dreamcast, and the PlayStation 2.

We do spend a bit of time talking about the Atari days, but we cover a lot of new ground with little-known aspects of Atari's early business, such as the pinball machine division.

Episode 9: January 11th, 2000 - I have a TON of great guests crammed into this show. The episode was recorded at the Coronation Day Championship, which was sponsored by Twin Galaxies -- The Official Video Game & Pinball World Records scoreboard. The event was held at Funspot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.

The Twin Galaxies' Coronation Day Tournament, traditionally an "invitation-only" Player-of-the-Year contest, will be open to all players this year. The contest will feature competition between the nation's best superstars on five different coin-op games and five different console games.

The Funspot Family Fun Center, founded in 1952, is the world’s second-largest arcade, with 500 arcade games, miniature golf, 24 lanes of bowling and Bingo facilities. Open year-round, it is the site of the largest annual classic video game and pinball championship in the world. The next event is scheduled for June 1-4, 2000.

The prizes will include $1,000 for first place, $500 for second, $250 for third and $250 for fourth. Midway Home Entertainment will award copies of Ready 2 Rumble and Hydro Thunder to the top five finishers (available on all three platforms) and Funspot will be presenting trophies to the top three champions.

I have a bunch of special guests for this episode, and they are the the "who's who" of video game players. They include Billy Mitchell, the first person to get a perfect score in Pac-Man. Also joining me is Ben Gold, the first winner of an organized video game contest, which was held on the old "That's Incredible" TV series in the early 80's.

I also speak to a few members of the New Hampshire Pro Video Game Team. The team travels around the country competing in video game competitions like the Coronation Day Championship.

There is NO video in this episode. I shot 4 rolls of film during the tournament, and I couldn't squeeze it all into the program.

Episode 8: October 28th, 1999 - I'm back from my summer hiatus. I took the months of August and September off, so I could so my usual summer activities like golf, and a few vacations. I'm back now, and I have a bunch of great episodes lined up for the fall. This is the first of those new episodes.

This episode of Back In Time takes a look at the "New Atari" that Hasbro Interactive has brought to us. Yes, I did visit Hasbro Interactive on a prior episode, but they have some cool new stuff that will be hitting the shelves very soon, so I thought it was time to chat with them again.

My guest is Rich Cleveland, Head of Marketing for the Atari division of Hasbro Interactive. Rich and I take a good long look at some of the new "classic" games that will be arriving in stores over the next few months such as Pong, Missile Command, and The Next Tetris. Rich also previews some new games in development. Can anyone say "Galaga?"

We also take a look at Arena Blast, which is the first completely new game to be released under the Atari name in many years.

Episode 7: July 9th, 1999 - This episode of Back In Time takes a close look at the fastest arcade game emulator available for PC's. My guest is Larry Bank, the author of the High Velocity Emulator, or HiVE. Larry discusses how he discovered video games and computers in his youth, his inspirations for programming arcade emulators, and detailed descriptions of HiVE, and his older emulator CAGE.

Have you ever wondered how these arcade emulator authors make these classic games come to life? Well, Larry talks about the entire process from start to finish. He describes how he is able to start with a ROM dump, and build an entire emulation engine around it.

Lately, Back In Time has been a great source for suprise announcements in the classic gaming & emulation world, and this episode is no exception, as Larry discusses his work to bring arcade emulation technology to the Windows CE operating system. Windows CE is the operating system used in many palmtop computers from manufacturers as Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Casio. Windows CE is also the OS that will be used in the new Sega Dreamcast console that will be released in the US later this year.

Finally, there are some updates from some former guests on what they have been doing since their appearance on Back In Time.

Episode 6: May 31st, 1999 - The encryption situation is finally solved. New products for the Atari Jaguar can finally be released to a hungry and dedicated audience. Earlier this month at E3, Hasbro Interactive announced that it was going to make the Atari Jaguar an "open" platform. That allows software developers to release their products, and Hasbro Interactive will not be standing in the way.

This is the first episode to feature VIDEO. As if that isn't enough, Mike's guest is Carl Forhan of Songbird Productions. Carl has MANY new product announcements for the Atari Lynx and Atari Jaguar. These announcements will blow your mind!!! Carl also talks about his experiences as a game developer.

There is some other gaming news too. I will be taking a a few minutes to talk about my recent trip to New York City for the PGL Tournament.

I also announce an interview that I have lined up for a future broadcast. This interview will be with the man that founded the video gaming industry that we have today. I don't want to give away too much, but his initials are "NB." Listen to the show for details.

Episode 5: May 11th, 1999 - The reaction to the last show was outstanding!!! Thanks for all of the input. I really appreciate all of the listeners, and you all make me feel great.

This episode of Back In Time features Hugh Falk, a "jack of all trades" in the computer gaming industry. He is a writer & reporter for many publications in the mainstream gaming media, including C|Net Gamecenter, Gamepower, and PC Gamer magazine. He has recently entered into the world of gaming software development.

Hugh offers his views on the state of classic gaming, the legalities of posting classic ROM's on web sites, and why software publishers aren't doing enough with the classic gaming titles. He also speaks in-depth on how to start writing articles for gaming publications, and how to start collecting classic video games.

Hugh is often credited with producing the world’s first video-gaming magazine, PongWorld, which debuted in 1974. Unfortunately, an immature gaming market, a total lack of interest in Pong-related news, and the fact that he was six years old doomed the project to failure. Now he works as just another writer in the industry he founded.

Hugh started writing for C|Net Gamecenter in March of 1996. Since that time, usage of the Internet has grown over 500%. Although most people believe these facts are merely coincidental, they have gathered little supporting data.

Hugh first wrote about a Sierra game (Red Baron) in the July, 1993 issue of the TSN Times. Sierra still gets regular requests for back issues, but only from Hugh himself.

Hugh Falk currently owns a TRS-80, TI 99/4A, Apple IIc, Vic-20, C-64, SX-64, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, two networked PCs and several old game systems. His goal is to someday load them all into a balloon and use the heat they generate to circle the globe.

Hugh's classic gaming web site can be found here. The site also contains all of his published articles and reviews.

Episode 4: April 10th, 1999 - The last few months have been difficult for the classic gamers, as the IDSA has been shutting down the sites that contain ROM's from the classic arcade games that we grew up with and love. However, most of the IDSA member companies have been silent as to their stance on emulators, and the classic game emulation scene......until now.

The April episode of Back In Time has been posted, and my guest is Dana Henry, Director of Public Relations for Hasbro Interactive. Dana and I recently conducted an hour-long interview, which you will hear in its entirety. That interview covered a number of subjects, with particular focus on their stance with the classic gamers, arcade emulation, the IDSA, etc. Other subjects include their recent acquisition of the Atari software/hardware properties, and their future plans for some of those classic Atari games.

Dana made three product announcements during this interview. Two of the three new products had not been publicly announced before, and Back In Time has the EXCLUSIVE news. One of those announcements is for an emulation related product to be released this summer!!!

This is an episode not to miss. If you are a classic gamer, or a fan of classic game emulation, listen to this episode.

Episode 3: March 27th, 1999 - This episode features an interview with Curt Vendel, curator of the Atari Historical Society, and webmaster of the Atari Historical Society website. AHS is a group of 180 former Atari employees that are working to keep the Atari name alive.

This interview covers all aspects of Atari history, including many items in the AHS hardware/software collection, the Tramiels, many missed opportunities, and the unreleased prototypes and vaporware products featured on the AHS website. Curt even talks about his efforts over the past 14 years or so to travel across the country meeting with former Atari employees. Curt made trips many years ago to Sunnyvale to rummage through the trash bins behind Atari's old headquarters at 1196 Borregus Ave to recover and save many items which are important parts of Atari's history and would have been lost forever.

Episode 2: February 28th, 1999 - This episode takes a close look at the plans for Classic Gaming Expo '99. My guest is John Hardie, who is the co-webmaster of Atari Gaming Headquarters, one of the elite Atari support/history web sites. John is also a staff writer for Digital Press.

John's is the co-promoter for Classic Gaming Expo '99, and he shares some information on the plans for the show. CGE will take place in Las Vegas this August 14-15. CGE'99 promises to be a grand spectacle and is solely devoted to celebrating the history of ALL classic video, arcade and computer games. Over 30 industry veterans have been lined up as speakers during various seminars that will run throughout the event. Nolan Bushnell, the inventor of Pong, and the founder of Atari Corporation, will be giving the keynote address.

John and I discuss a number of topics including ROM dumping, the IDSA, John's new book deal to update "Zap! The Rise and Fall of Atari" and all of the details for Classic Gaming Expo.

Episode 1: February 17th, 1999 - This is the premier episode of Back In Time, the result of over two months of pre-production work. I spend a few minutes at the beginning of the show introducing myself, my history/experience with Atari, and explaining why I decided to move forward with my crazy idea to do an "Atari talk show." Donald A. Thomas Jr.

My guest for this show is Donald A. Thomas Jr., a longtime friend of the Atari community. In 1990, STart magazine dubbed him "The Ultimate Atarian" -- a title which still fits to this day. He was the Marketing Director for Atari Corporation from 1989 until 1996. He is the curator of the outstanding classic gaming and computing history website -- I.C. When, and currently works for VM Labs as the Director of Peripherals Licensing.

Don and I discuss a number of topics including his employment history at Atari, past and current projects, Don's new job at VM Labs with the Nuon project, his video game/computing history website, and the current state of classic gaming.