505: “I Presented the Amiga Chipset to Atari… and Everyone Freaked Out!” - Atari's Matt Householder - The Retro Hour Podcast EP505

From hating Pong to working for Atari, this week we chat with Matt Householder. From his early days at Gaming Devices Inc. and designing the arcade classic Krull, through to joining Atari right after the video game crash and witnessing the dramatic Amiga chipset saga from the inside. Matt reveals what it was really like working under Jack Tramiel, converting GEM for the Atari ST in record time, and why developers had to sell snacks from their desks just to survive. He then takes us into the golden years at Epyx, creating World Games and the smash hit California Games, before moving on to 3DO, where a secret project he managed ended up helping fund Diablo. Contents: 00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories 54:26 - Matt Householder Interview Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show: Doncaster Gaming Market: https://www.doncastergamingmarket.com/ Bitmap Books - https://www.bitmapbooks.com Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com for all your PCB needs Take your business to the next level today and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for £1/month: https://shopify.co.uk/retrohour We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you'd like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://theretrohour.com/support/ https://www.patreon.com/retrohour Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8 Website: http://theretrohour.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/ X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour Show notes Solid Aluminium Xbox Prototype Actually Works: https://youtu.be/0OMP8JvGWNY Lost Destruction Derby 2 Saturn Prototype Unearthed: https://tinyurl.com/5c75zhxa James Pond Makes a Comeback on Modern Consoles: https://tinyurl.com/2s4j38wd Castlevania Amiga Remake Gets CD32 Upgrade: https://tinyurl.com/47624rsa Castlevania Comes to the Atari 2600 (!): https://tinyurl.com/2k5ub8f5 Sonic Finally Lands on the GX4000: https://tinyurl.com/bdm5svj2 Worms Turns 30 – Team17’s Classic Celebrated: https://tinyurl.com/mrvtutnc