Articles in the "Interviews" Category

An Interview with Kevin Tschudi

One of the most famous TRS-80 companies was Alpha Products. If you called technical support at Alpha Products after 1984, you probably spoke to Kevin Tschudi. While working there from 1981 to 1991, he wrote the VS-100 Talker software and Newclock-80 drivers and co-designed the A-Bus system.

In this interview, conducted in August 2011, he talks about his experiences at Alpha Products.

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An Interview with Dan Gookin

Dan Gookin is a popular computer book author who has written 120 titles that have sold 12 million copies and been translated into over 30 languages. He is perhaps most famous for DOS for Dummies, his 1991 book which became the fastest selling computer book and launched the For Dummies series that continues today. He also maintains the web site Wambooli

In this interview, conducted in August 2011, he talks about how he started in computers with a TRS-80 Model III.

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An Interview with William Demas

William Demas is the author of many notable TRS-80 games, including Panik, Frogs, Forbidden Planet, and Forbidden City. In this interview, conducted in July 2011, he discusses his TRS-80 games and experiences.

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An Interview with Jack Crenshaw

Jack Crenshaw has a long history with computers, and one of his first microcomputers was a TRS-80 Model I. Readers of 80 U.S. Journal might remember his comments about the Exatron Stringy Floppy. Others will remember his “Let’s Build a Compiler” tutorial series. His “Programmer’s Toolbox” column appears in Embedded Systems Design magazine, for which he is also a contributing editor.

This interview was conducted over January and February 2009.

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An Interview with Paul Andreasen

Paul Andreasen was the primary designer of the Mikrokolor color graphics interface and his company, Andreasen’s Electronics Research & Development, sold versions for several TRS-80 models (including the Model 100). In this interview, which was conducted over January and February 2009, he talks about his varied and interesting experiences.

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An Interview with Bill Hogue

The first time I ever saw a TRS-80, it was running Galaxy Invasion, written by Bill Hogue and Jeff Konyu. It might be difficult for some today to completely understand just how remarkable a program it was. Galaxy Invasion, along with Bill Hogue’s other games for Big Five Software, were incredible demonstrations of what was possible with the TRS-80. Judging from the messages I have received over the years, his games inspired many people to pursue a career in computers because they wanted to learn how to write programs the way he did.

After writing his games for the TRS-80, Bill Hogue went on to even greater fame as the author of Miner 2049er, the 1984 Electronic Game of the Year, and its sequel, Bounty Bob Strikes Back!. More recently, he created the official site of Big Five Software. I was pleased to have the opportunity in October 2008 to interview Bill Hogue.

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An Interview With J. Weaver Jr.

J. Weaver Jr. is the author of the TRS-80 games Outhouse, Chicken, Rally, Vexus, Planetbuster, Yield, and Pulsar. In this interview, conducted in October 2008, I had the opportunity to ask him some questions about his games and his memories of the TRS-80.

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An Interview with Jim Stutsman

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jim Stutsman, whose works include MICRODOS and DBLDOS for Percom and Monte’s Windows for Montezuma Micro. In the interview, conducted in October 2008, he had some very interesting answers to my questions and provided some fascinating insight into the early days of the TRS-80.

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