{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"ANTIC Interview 459 - Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II","description":"Mike Lorenzen: Atari Program-Text Editor, Pitfall II  Mike Lorenzen worked at Atari, Activision, and Accolade, creating games for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, and Commodore 64 computers.  At Atari, Mike coded Golf and Circus Atari for the Atari 2600. For the 8-bit computers, he wrote MEDIT (which he told me stands for Mike\u2019s EDITor.) Atari got a lot of mileage from MEDIT, using versions of that text editor in several products: first, in Atari Program-Text Editor (which was bundled with Atari's Macro Assembler), and in two Atari Program Exchange products: APX 20075, Atari Program-Text Editor; and APX 20076: Word Processing Diskette, where it was bundled with a text formatter.  Both Program-Text Editor and Word Processing Diskette first appeared in the Winter 1981 APX catalog (the second APX catalog) with a price of $39.95 for Program-Text Editor and $49.95 for Word Processing Diskette \u2014&amp;nbsp;relatively hefty prices, considering the median price for software in that catalog was just $17.95.  At Activision, he ported Pitfall and Pitfall II Lost Caverns to the Atari 8-bit \u2014 and in that, created the undocumented Easter egg of an additional game inside: Pitfall III, which appears only in the Atari 8-bit version.  At Accolade, Mike developed the game &quot;Psi-5 Trading Company&quot; for the C64, which he called &quot;the most sophisticated Commodore 64 program ever written&quot;.  This interview took place on June 4, 2026.  Software mentioned:  Macro Assembler and Program-Text Editor at AtariMania  APX 20075: Atari Program-Text Editor at AtariMania  APX 20076: Word Processing Diskette at AtariMania  Pitfall at AtariMania  Pitfall II Lost Caverns at AtariMania  People mentioned:  Scott Scheiman interview Dale Yocum interview Chris Crawford interview Fred Thorlin interview  Brad Fregger on Lorenzen's overwork  More information:  Inverse ATASCII reviews APX Program-Text Editor  AtariWiki on Program-Text Editor Psi-5 Trading Company ","author_name":"ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/ataripodcast.libsyn.com","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/41602555\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/content\/202851065"}