Antic Software


Antic Software was the name of the software company associated with Antic, a magazine for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Bound into issues of the magazine, the Antic Software catalog initially sold Atari 8-bit games, applications, and utilities from the recently defunct Atari Program Exchange. Original submissions were later added, as well as public domain collections, with all software provided on self-documented disk. When the Atari ST was released, it became a mixture of Atari 8-bit and Atari ST software and sold some major Atari ST titles such as CAD-3D. The magazine insert changed names several times, eventually being branded as The Catalog.
Antic assistant editor Gigi Bisson wrote in the May 1986 issue that, " kept the magazine afloat during the lean year," referring to the period following Atari, Inc.'s financial collapse.

History

When the Atari Program Exchange was shut down by Atari CEO James J. Morgan in 1984, Gary Yost convinced Antic magazine's publisher, James Capparell, to create Antic Software. Yost contacted many of the programmers from APX to re-publish their works with Antic. The APX software was rebranded in mid-1984 as APX Classics from Antic. In 1985 the magazine insert was called Antic Arcade, and by 1986 it was branded The Catalog.

Software

Atari 8-bit family

Gary Yost went on to form The Yost Group which created and licensed a number of products to Autodesk, Inc.. 3D Studio was a direct successor of CAD-3D.