iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Mail’s here - three boxes of Atari history sent to me to scan

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Today's distraction: building FujiGrid, a screenful of simultaneous Atari computer emulators. Pressing the S key enables sound for all of them at once, which is quite a cacophony

Screenshot of 30 different Atari 8-bit computer games running at once

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

A box of 8-inch CP/M disks sent to me in 2023 is finally preserved at @archive.org: source code for the MSC 8004 Z80 Monitor-Debugger, KA6M packet-radio and HDLC dev software, BDS C tools, Pascal/Z, Z80 FORTH, Workman utilities, Digital Research system disks.

A floppy disk labeled BD SOFTWARE C COMPILER
BY LEOR ZOLMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY
WORKMAN AND ASSOCIATES
COPYRIGHT 1982

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Games Computers Play reborn update: avatar movement, scrolling, multiple users, and inter-user communication, ability to change your avatar. navigating between rooms with local in-room communication.

Four atari800 emulator windows each showing a different Games Computers Play window, with cute little robots

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Reviving a long dead online service, like you do.

Two screenshots of an Atari 8-bit computer rendering of a city, with two robots

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Had time left, so decided to vibecode a thing to make Print Shop graphics from webcam images. Created Print Shop Camera www.savetz.com/print-shop-c... Made a greeting card with my pic for sick @4am.bsky.social that said "Sorry you barfed". Always keeping it classy.

A very pixelated black and white image of Kay

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

At the INIT HELLO Apple II conference last weekend, there was a "make a Print Shop graphic" contest. Rather than ... you know, draw something ... I decided to see if I could make a QR code into a Print Shop graphic image. It worked! This sign is certainly the first QR code in the 1984 software

A letter sized paper that says GREETINGS FROM INIT HELLO 2026 with a QR code in the middle

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

That time MacAddict magazine called me a slut in print

From the letters page of the Jan Mary 200 issue of MacAddict:

KEVIN, YOU IGNORANT SLUT!
K Savetz may want to throw out his lowly puzzle in the Apple Menu ("ANALize Your Mac," Nov/99, p44), but I love it for something quiet and slow to do while talking on the phone. Of course, I don't keep the silly map picture—I use more interesting pictures such as Jackson Pollock's "White Wall" or illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are.—RUTHALICE ANDERSON

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Not surprised, but disappointed

A conversation with ChatGPT 5.1

Assignment: write a stern letter to Hilton corporate cancelling my hilton honors membership and saying that I will no longer be choosing hilton hotels for my travel. ICE is a United States secret service that kidnaps and kills people without cause

Answer:
I cannot include false or defamatory claims. ICE is not the United States Secret Service, and alleging kidnapping or killing without cause is not factual. I can draft a stern cancellation letter that condemns the company's actions and states your boycott without those claims.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Chris lent me the APX Dragon Quest disk and I was able to flux image it. Is it now preserved!

Screenshot of Dragon Quest title page which features a green dragon flying towards the viewer

A 5 1/4 inch floppy disk labeled DRAGON QUEST 1.1

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

There’s a retrocomputing newsletter that I want to like. On the most recent issue cover, there is an AI generated Atari computer that’s just so terrible. If you have a hobby, do the hobby. Don’t let an LLM create it for you. I’d rather see a 3 year-old’s crayon drawing over this monstrosity.

AI-generated atari 800XL. The colors are right, but the shape isn’t right, and the keyboard has blurry buttons. The keycaos are wrong. There are two letter I keys. Etc.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

When someone is trying to hack my Facebook account I'm secretly rooting for them. Please take away the misery

Screenshot of a Facebook password reset email. "One more step to change your password"

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

Harry Stewart (ex-Atari employee who programmed PILOT, WSFN, and other stuff) has died. His daughter sent me his Atari documents. Some of these I scanned years ago when he lent them to me. Others seem to be unpreserved.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

In 1984 someone had their Atari 800 repoed 😭 (Also, what's a Vector 2600?)

Ad in The Daytona Beach News-Journal - April 27 1994. PUBLIC AUCTION - Vector 2600 Computer - Comet II Printer - Atari 800 with communicator package.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

ATARI in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

66 across: console for the game Pitfall!

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

My automated searches for Atari 800 turn up weird things sometimes. Uploaded to @archive.org yesterday: Le Journal De Mickey - Album N°130 #1858 (2 février 1988) archive.org/details/jour... (translation in alt text)

In French: A computer soon...
A few weeks ago, Vincent was wondering how to persuade his parents to buy him a computer.
Many of you responded, and here's your advice.
"I had the same problem as you about a computer. My parents told me that when I got at least 15 out of 20 in a modern language, they'd put a hundred francs in a box for me. So, eventually, I managed to buy one, and now I'm typing away on an Atari 800 XL. You could possibly suggest this solution to them.
Katia Volpatti, Saint Marcel."

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

It followed me home, mom, can I keep it? I promise to feed and play with it every day.

A pile of three Atari eight but computers, two Atari STs and various old software displayed on the floor

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

My newspapers.com search for "Atari 800" turns up weird stuff from time to time

A 1983 “Shoe” comic strip from The Sanford Herald shows two bird characters discussing computers. One says, “I just don’t know which desktop computer is right for me and my system. There’s IBM, Xerox, Apple II, Atari 800…" The other replies, you oughta start out with something basic…” The punchline follows in the final panel: “Like a Dumpster I”

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

It annoys and/or amuses me every week when I get my TidBITS newsletter in email, when Google warns me to be cAreFuL with this newsletter — which has existed years longer than Google. Of the two entities, TidBITS is more trustworthy by far. @adamengst.bsky.social

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

ATARI in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Atari in today’s NYT crossword puzzle

Clue: cartridge from the 1980s. Answer: ATARIGAME

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Another trip to the PO Box; another pile of scam invoices from Domain Networks

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

This program does not exist, and yet here we are

Atari eight bit computer screenshot that says “Atari artworks” featuring an image of an artist palette

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

On the upside, I did find these Star Trek the next generation trading cards shoved in with the floppy discs.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Floppy disks are gross. People are gross. 40 years of air is gross.

A look into the inside of a floppy disk sleeve, which is brown with grime or cigarette smoke or something. It’s disgusting.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Using Applesauce to make images of Lee Pappas’ old Atari disks. How’s your Sunday going?

A workshop with an old Apple laptop, a couple of 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drives, an applesauce disc imager, and a pile of disks.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Christmas morning 40 years ago, I got an Apple //c

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

A little display list interrupt action

now in the screenshot, the border walls change color (getting darker) as they move down the screen. There are a few new lines of code to do this via display list interrupts

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Another trip to the post office box, another pile of scam mail from domain networks. Every time.

Six identical envelopes and the insert from one of them, an invoice for $289 for a “business listing” of my domain

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Still playing with FastBASIC to learn the ins and outs. In just a few minutes, I have the bones of a game. Not a fun game, mind you. Not yet.

On the left, 50 lines of simple FastBASIC code. On the right, an Atari emulator screenshot showing a brick border, a green robot, and some blue watery waves scattered around.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Atari in today’s NYT crossword puzzle.

42 across clue: BLANK shock (Japan's term for the video game crash of 1983)

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

you are a hero! it seems to be working. I noticed there is a time period before the video is uploaded/processed where there is a video not found error. Maybe delay posting a few seconds to prevent this?

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I finally took the time to set up FastBASIC development on my Mac. FastBASIC is a new(ish) compiled BASIC for Atari 8-bit. I haven't messed with BASIC since the 2020 10-line BASIC contest, when I used TurboBASIC XL. FastBASIC is the new hotness. #atari8bit

Screenshot of bottom window with Microsoft Visual Studio code with some simple BASIC code. Top window: An Atari emulator screenshot showing a wall around the edges with a little robot inside

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

ATARI in today’s NYT crossword. Clue: Pong company

Photo of a portion of a crossword puzzle. 22 down is ATARI

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I submitted my #NaNoGenMo entry yesterday at the last minute. A Long Walk is the story of a man's walk from Caribou, Maine to Bend, Oregon over the course of 967 days as strangers give him unreliable directions. It came out…fine. Not terribly interesting. github.com/NaNoGenMo/20...

Day 735:
A storm forces him to seek shelter temporarily. Jose arrives in Rural Municipality of Stuartburn. He asks a local logistics and distribution manager, a swallow-tailed person named James, which way to where he is headed. The logistics and distribution manager motions towards the west.

The vastness of the world makes him feel both insignificant and empowered.
Distance covered today: 8.61 miles.

Day 736:
The sun beats down relentlessly. Jose arrives in Rural Municipality of Stuartburn. He asks a local make, an abashed person named Kelly, which way to his destination. The make smiles and gestures west.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

My next Atari computer interview is in the hopper and will be published Friday: The Critical Connection, the intersection of Atari and CP/M computers.

Magazine ad: IMPROVED
CP/M® TO ATARI®
INTERFACE!
The Critical Connection™
ONLY $175

Picture of The Critical Connection, a long computer cable with an SIO plug on one end and RS-232 Serial on the other, with a black box in the middle

an article from InfoWorld magazine, with the headline The Critical Connection unites Atari and CP/M

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Finished a trip to NYC where partner and I saw 9 Broadway shows in 5 days.

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 01/11/2024

Bob saved all sorts of documents from his time at Atari, including a 1982 collection of nine colorful pencil drawings (by a Disney animator) depicting futuristic scenarios where people use a computerized encyclopedia to get information. Help me keep doing these interviews: patreon.com/savetz

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 19/09/2024

Do you know about the Captain Midnight HBO signal hack? Guy at a cable company just pointed a dish at the satellite, overpowered the real signal and took over HBO for a few minutes. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain...

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Kay Savetz @savetz.bsky.social · 21/07/2024

Do I know anyone who can read DVD-RAM cartridges? (Yes I already asked Foone)

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