Pay No
Attention to those Folks Behind the Curtain
My
Vax Mail, Memos, and Status Reports from Atari/Atari
Games 1982-1992
Jed Margolin
I
worked for Atari and then one of its successor companies (Atari Games) for 13
years, designing hardware for coin-operated video games.
When
I arrived in 1979, software for the games was cross-assembled on two DEC
PDP-11/20 systems in batch mode. We had two computer operators who would take
your marked-up listing, do the edits, and run the program. If it actually ran
without any fatal errors, it would produce a listing and a paper tape.
Paper tape? (Well, at least it wasn't punched cards.)
On a
good day the process would take less than an hour. On a bad day, when someone
else's project had been designated as "hot" because it was about to
go out on Field Test or be Released, you might get only two runs that day.
You
then took the Paper Tape to your emulator which had a Paper Tape reader.
The
emulators were home-made and were in a plywood
cabinet painted black which is why they were called "Black
Boxes." Programmers could load the program from paper tape, run it,
set breakpoints, and examine memory as well as write to it. It was all done in
Hex code, so people became adept at hand assembling small fragments of code.
There was no way of saving the hand-patched program, so power interruptions
were usually followed by much wailing, yelling, and gnashing of teeth. (To be
fair, the few commercially available emulators weren't any better.)
Because the Black Box did not contain a built-in logic analyzer we had a few HP
Logic Analyzers on carts that people dragged around from project to project.
It
was common for a Programmer returning from lunch discovering that his analyzer had
been hijacked. (The Programmers were all guys then.) The result was more
wailing, yelling, and gnashing of teeth, "Who
took my HP?"
By
around 1980 we got a new home-made emulator. This one had a built-in logic
analyzer. It came in two boxes, one of which was
blue, so it was called "The Blue Box." (Even when the supplier
ran out of blue cabinets and we were forced to use brown cabinets they were
still called "Blue Boxes.")
The
Blue Box was a terminal with a video display controller and keyboard and was
programmed in Forth, which allowed the
Programmer to easily expand the functionality of the system. The standard
system software contained an in-line assembler, which was nice even if it
wasn't a symbolic assembler. I think it also had a disassembler.
It also had an external 8" floppy disk drive for loading the program, and
which allowed the Programmer to save the code. (Does anyone else remember
8" floppy disks?)
The
other box was White and contained the Emulator as well as a built-in Analyzer.
The
Blue Box used a serial link for communicating with the White Box. When the
serial link caused the Blue Box to become confused (which seemed to happen
frequently) it was especially fond of reporting "Comm
Error 60." Despite this, the Blue Box/White Box duo was probably better
than anything that was commercially available at the time. In an email, Mike Albaugh further explained:
" 'Comm
Error 60' was, essentially, a timeout. It was rarely due to a real problem with
the serial lines per se, but with the process at the other end (the debugger
running on the game processor) crashing. A few of Rich Moore's additions didn't
bother to mask of the MSB of the status word, so reported them as 'Comm Error E0'. Another cause of them was Calfee's insistence that we didn't need an atomic 'Send and
expect reply'. Under heavy load of the blue-box itself, this did lead to
comm-error-60's that really _were 'serial link related', but not due to
hardware problems. The only actual hardware problems I recall were with a whole
batch of blue-boxes that got 1MHz UARTS, instead of the spec'd
1.5 MHz parts. The blue-box ran at 1.25 MHz, so they _kinda_
worked, and because error-detection and retries could _usually_ get the traffic
through, these boxes got a reputation of being 'flakey' or 'slow', rather than
being correctly diagnosed as 'broken'. That episode taught me some valuable
lessons on redundancy and fault-tolerance. :-) "
Battlezone
was the first game to use the new system for development.
At
this point, the programs were still cross-assembled on the PDP-11s, only now
the object code was delivered on 8" floppies. (The method of transferring
data from computer to computer by transporting paper tape or floppies is called
"Sneaker Net".)
The
Blue Box had an additional serial port whose purpose was revealed with the
arrival of Atari's Blessed Event. Yes, we got our own VAX (a VAX-11/780). The
official justification for the VAX was so the PC
Design Department could do PC Board layout. Until the VAX,
PC Boards were all layed out by hand using
strips of black tape on mylar. (Even so, for the next
several years, schematics were still drawn by hand; the PC Designers had to
manually assign node numbers and enter them into the PC design software.
PC
Design was the official justification for Corporate. The real reason was that
the VAX was neat. (That's how people talked back then.)
When
connected to the VAX, the Blue Box could be used as a terminal and the VAX was
used to edit, assemble and link the program, and the output could be downloaded
into the Blue Box/White Box.
The
VAX also came with VAX Mail, which allowed people to send each other electronic
mail, now known as Email. VAX Mail wasn't as sophisticated as Email; it was
limited to ASCII text with no attachments. ASCII text was fine. Besides, I
don't think HTML had been invented yet. And you didn't need attachments. If you
wanted someone to have your file you just set the Protection Level of your file
so they could read it.
The
first users of the VAX were the PC Department (to do PC Boards), the
Programmers, and me (a Hardware Engineer who also wrote software in order to
test hardware in an organized and repeatable manner.) I also used it to write
memos and status reports. Before the VAX, the procedure for getting something
typed was to write it by hand and give it to the Department Secretary. We had
several Department Secretaries, but only one at a time. Since I was a peon
("Let's go peon Jed") my memos and status reports were done last, or
sometimes not at all. Sometimes I had to write them out by hand. With the VAX,
I could actually produce legible memos. In any event, the ones done before the
VAX were done on paper only and were left behind in my filing cabinet when I
left the Company.
The
first VAX was quickly overloaded with users, making it almost useless for
everyone. Eventually we got another one, and another one after that until we
had a bunch of them, all networked together. (I think it used Ethernet.)
Eventually, everyone in the Company had access to the VAX network (officially
called a Cluster, which is one of those group-words like a Gaggle of Geese, a
Charm of Goldfinches, or an Exhaltation of Larks).
To
tell the VAXes apart, they were given names. My own
memory is a bit hazy on VAX name history but Mike Albaugh
has kindly filled in the blanks for me.
" The first
Vax was named Ernie Slowvax,
after it got so loaded with users that performance was unacceptable. So it was
dedicated to the PC (and Pubs) departments, and Everybody
else was moved to Kim NewVax. Later IC design got
Sandy KoVax (Sandy
was a reference to the Silicon they were designing for). Sandy may have been the first 750. When
Purchasing and the like started using programs like ManMan,
they needed their own machine. A MicroVax named Mike Rovax. The consumer group brought Charm (a 780) and
purchased 7 730s, named for the dwarves as you remember, except that DEC (or
maybe Atari) naming conventions caused a problem with DOC, so it was named DOK.
Later, an eighth 730 was added: Sleazy. Ernie, Kim, and possibly Sandy were
later replaced with Microvaxen, but kept their names.
Likewise Charm, I think. At any rate, Charm was the only one to run Unix. All the others were VMS. "
The 'dwarves' refer to when, after Atari went supernova, we
acquired a Consumer group who came with their own VAXes:
a VAX-11/780 and seven smaller VAX-11/730s, which were known as Snow White and
the Seven Dwarves. (Happy, Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashfull, Dok,
etc.)
Mike
was one of the Sys Ops (System Operators) along with Steve Suttles
and Dave Shepperd (the Head Sys Op). They installed
the VAXes, figured out how to make them work,
explained to the rest of us how to use them, and wrote tons of VAX software for
the game programmers. Mike also wrote the coin routines for all the games,
self-test for most of the games (Star Wars and Hard Drivin', et at, excluded),
programmed the Math Box for BattleZone and Red
Baron, and did some games himself: Drag Race, Boxing, Destroyer, Captain
Seahawk, Hydroplane, Ultra Tank, Football, and Solar War. Steve also took care of the phone system and the paging system.
Dave also did some games: Fly Ball, Night Driver, Sky Raider, and Asteroids
Deluxe.
(The
term "Sys Op" is from the last century and also referred to the
people who ran computer bulletin boards. To make the term more relevant to the
inhabitants of the 21st Century I propose the term "Vax
Master.")
Disk
space on the VAXes was always limited. Programmers
were allocated more disk space than Hardware Engineers, who were presumed not
to need much. I started out saving the Vax Mail that
I considered the most important, which generally meant information on how to
use the VAX. Later, as I started writing Test Software, I was allocated more
disk space so I was able to save more messages. Much later, the Company got me
a PC and a network card, so I was able to save even more on my PC. What was
great about the networked PC was that the VAX's drive appeared to the PC simply
as a drive and was accessible to the XTREE Gold program I used. (XTREE was an
early GUI for moving files around. I still use it.)
I
need to say a word about context. Atari Coin-Op was always relatively
small. I think the largest we got was around 200 people. When you got Vax Mail it was from someone you knew face-to-face. Maybe
you saw them every day. At the very least it was from someone you were likely
to meet face-to-face. Many times, conversations were started on Vax Mail and continued face-to-face.
Another important context involves the way the Company was organized.
Hard
Drivin'/RaceDrivin' was done by my group, Applied
Research. Rick Moncrief was the Director of Applied
Research (our Boss) and he was also the Project Leader. Max Behensky
and Stephanie Mott were the Programmers, Erik Durfey
was the Technician, and I was the Hardware Engineer. We were all located in the
same place; our offices were part of our (large) lab. As a result,
communications was pretty much instantaneous. All you had to do was walk a few
feet. Issues could be raised, discussed, and resolved quickly. Vax Mail was unnecessary. As a result the development of
Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin'
doesn't show up much on Vax Mail. (That's why I have
included my Memos and Status Reports.)
Stun
Runner and Steel Talons (and other games we supported) were done by the Games
Group. Although they weren't physically very far, their labs were several
security doors away, so they seemed far.
The
Games Group used a management system called Matrix Management. Programmers,
Hardware Engineers, and Technicians were all in separate groups with their own
supervisors. Game projects were put together by taking Programmers from Column
A, a Hardware Engineer from Column B, and a Technician from Column C, and
putting them all under the direction of a Project Leader.
This
meant that the person you worked for (the Project Leader) was not the person
you reported to (your Supervisor, who also did your annual job review).
Complicating the problem was that Hardware Engineers and Technicians were
usually assigned to several projects at the same time. All the Project Leaders
felt they deserved a full-time Engineer, which made life difficult for the Engineers.
Their space arrangement was also different. Offices were separate from the
labs, and the labs were generally small, one lab to a project. Programmers and
Hardware Engineers had their own offices, Technicians had none, they lived in their labs. (Our Technician, Erik Durfey, was the only Technician to have his own office. I
guess we were more egalitarian than the Games Group.)
Therefore, when we supported the Games Group doing Stun Runner and Steel
Talons, when they had a problem, rather than making the trip down the hall
through three Security Doors, they would send Vax
Mail, copying their boss and our boss (Rick). When I got such a Vax Mail, I had no choice but to respond in kind, by
sending them Vax Mail with copies to their boss and my
boss. If I hadn't, it would have looked like I had ignored them.
By
the way, every few years a new Management Philosophy is announced and the
previous Management Philosophy is denounced. Matrix Management seems to have
been a product of the Industrial Revolution. It was superseded in the 1970s by
Management By Objectives, which was superseded in the
1980s by Theory Z. I don't know what the latest Management Theory is called. In
any event, Matrix Management has been rather thoroughly discredited. I do know
that it doesn't work very well.
The
GSP Evaluation Board was the last hardware I designed at Atari. It featured a
Texas Instruments TMS-34020 Graphics Signal Processor and two AT&T DSP32C
Floating Point DSPs. Only a few boards were made. As
far I can tell, the board was never used. Instead,
Atari continued to use the old TMS34010 hardware I designed for Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin'. Here is a picture of what may be the only existing board.
If
you would like to find out what it was like doing business with Texas
Instruments (as well as other companies) and what it was like working for
Atari/Atari Games, I guess you'll have to read my Vax
Mail, Memos, and Status Reports.
I
have done some minor reformatting to improve readability. I have also removed
personal phone numbers and addresses to protect people's privacy. Other than
that, this is the raw stuff.
This
reflects my experience at Atari. Other Atarians no
doubt will have a different perspective. They are invited to post their own Vax Mail and Memos.
Jed Margolin
San Jose, CA
June 23, 2001
Revised: August 7, 2001
In December 2017 Vikram Oberoi curated
my old Atari Vax Mail. He has done an outstanding job.
He has made it much more interesting:
http://atariemailarchive.org/
Copyright 2001 Jed Margolin
