Antic Publishing

Antic Publishing

Company type	Private
Industry	Publishing
Founded	April 1982 (1982-04)
Founder	Jim Capparell
Defunct	July 1990 (1990-07)
Fate	Ceased publication; content merged into STart magazine
Headquarters	United States
Products	Antic magazine, STart magazine, II Computing, Antic's Amiga Plus, Antic Software catalog

Antic was a printed publication centered on Atari 8-bit computers and subsequently the Atari ST. Its name derived from the ANTIC chip found in the 8-bit models. Published by Antic Publishing, its run spanned from April 1982 until June/July 1990. The magazine included type-in program listings, predominantly written in Atari BASIC, along with reviews, instructional articles, and a "Game of the Month" type-in feature. In 1986, the launch of STart magazine created a dedicated outlet focused solely on the Atari ST platform.

In the United States, Antic competed mainly with ANALOG Computing, another magazine targeting Atari 8-bit enthusiasts. Additionally, multi-platform magazines such as COMPUTE! and Family Computing provided Atari 8-bit users with type-in software.

Starting in 1984, issues included the Antic Software catalog, which offered public domain titles, reissues from the discontinued Atari Program Exchange, and original software developed by Antic.

History

Jim Capparell, a programmer formerly employed by NASA and an early adopter of Atari 8-bit systems, left his position on January 15, 1982, to establish a magazine dedicated to these computers. Securing advertising support from companies like On-Line Systems, Broderbund, and Synapse Software, the inaugural 30-page issue was introduced at the March 1982 West Coast Computer Faire and officially published in April of that year. Originally released every two months, it transitioned to a monthly schedule within twelve months.

By late 1983, Antic had expanded to 148 pages but experienced a significant decline in advertising revenue—losing half its ad sales over three months in 1984. The addition of the Antic Software catalog—which featured public domain software, previously released APX titles, and new original products—helped to stabilize the magazine’s financial situation. In 1985, Antic Publishing also launched II Computing, a magazine focused on the Apple II computer.

Following Atari's closure of the Atari Program Exchange in 1984, Antic began marketing former APX software under the label APX Classics from Antic, while encouraging new submissions through its own Antic Software catalog included with each issue.

In 1985, Antic debuted ST Resource, a section devoted to the Atari ST, which eventually led to launching STart magazine in 1986. This spin-off outlived its parent publication by approximately one year; after Antic ended publication in mid-1990, its content was integrated into STart for six subsequent issues. Furthermore, between 1989 and 1991, Antic Publishing produced Antic's Amiga Plus, aimed at Amiga users.

The final edition of Antic was published in June–July 1990, culminating in a total of 88 issues plus a "Best of" compilation volume.

TYPO

TYPO ("Type Your Program Once") was a utility designed to check typed-in programs for accuracy by generating checksums for blocks of code; however, it did not identify specific lines containing errors. It was replaced by TYPO II, a more compact and faster utility that produced two-letter checksums for each line of Atari BASIC. This allowed users to verify their input by matching these codes against those printed in the magazine.

Variants of TYPO were licensed to Page 6, while ANALOG Computing implemented a similar two-letter checksum system compatible with Antic's TYPO II.

External links

• Antic available at the Classic Computer Magazine Archive
• Access the Antic Magazine Collection hosted by the Centre for Computing History