Amarok: "I'm glad the world hasn't forgotten Atari"

July 08, 2024 • Updated: Mar 17, 2025 - 02:04 AM

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In the contemporary Atari 8-bit scene, few names stand out as much as Krzysztof "Amarok" Piotrowski (Poland). His game "Time Wizard" has received an exceptional reception, winning contests and becoming an instant favorite of the community.

In this exclusive interview for Atariteca, Piotrowski shares his passion for creating unique games, revealing the challenges and learnings of each project. With ideas for future puzzle games and arcade platformers, Amarok is proof that there is always more to discover in the world of retro game development.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got involved in computing: your age, whether you are married or have children, where you live and what you do for a living.
My name is Krzysztof Piotrowski, I am 47 years old and I live with my wife and two children in the city of Wroclaw, in southwestern Poland. My adventure with programming began in the late 80s, when I got access to an 8-bit Atari computer. As a result, I decided to study computer science at the University of Wroclaw. After graduating, I started my professional career as a programmer at a medical software development company, with which I have been associated ever since. In life, I value honesty, kindness and selflessness.

What was your first computer and what inspired you to start programming on it?
My first computer was an Atari 130XE, which my parents bought in 1989 together with a cassette recorder. In those days in Poland, it was not easy to get a computer. Moreover, floppy disk drives were very expensive. One source was the Pewex chain of stores, where it was possible to buy goods from the so-called Western countries, i.e. outside the bloc of communist countries. These stores used so-called merchandise vouchers, which were a substitute for real dollars.

I remember we had a couple of game tapes with titles like Bruce Lee, Boulder Dash, River Raid, and Road Race. It wasn't a problem having to wait 10 or 15 minutes for the game to load, and not being able to save the game state. The computer would just stay on for a few days so we could get through harder games like Robbo.

One day, my dad got a book on Atari BASIC programming by Wieslaw Migut. At first, I just transcribed listings from the book. Then I started playing around with modifying function parameters to learn the hidden capabilities of the computer. In addition, I transcribed listings from magazines published in Poland - Komputer, Bajtek, Moje Atari and Tajemnice Atari.

At some point, my dad acquired the books Assembler 6502 by Jan Ruszczyc and Atari XL/XE Memory Map by Wojciech Zientara. Unfortunately, he didn't have any tools to write in that language, and had to design the code on paper, then convert the instructions into machine code manually, and finally enter them as a block of data into a BASIC program. It was a lot of fun programming as if I were encrypting top-secret information.

How did your relationship with Atari 8-bit computers begin?
My first contact with Atari computers was in 1987 when I saw an Atari 800XL at my uncle's house. I remember it was amazing to see objects appear on the TV screen that could be controlled with a joystick.

In those days, the availability of computers was very limited, at least in my neighborhood. These were still the days of communist rule, when we lived behind the Iron Curtain and there was no easy access to Western technology. Also, I grew up in a small town where there was virtually no information about computers.

Do you still own an Atari 8-bit computer?
Yes. I still have my first computer, and I'm glad that it's in working condition all the time. I occasionally turn it on to play various games. In recent years, I've used the Atari more often to test the games and programs I create.

"If it weren't for ABBUC, Arcadia and Time Wizard might not have been created at all."

Surprisingly, the cassette recorder still works, but most of the tapes have been lost, damaged, or overwritten with music. I currently use a SIO2PC interface to emulate a floppy drive, which I didn't have in the past.

I also recently bought an arcade joystick, because my old one is almost non-functional and I don't want to completely damage it. The new controller comes with 3 different fire buttons on the standard joy2b+, which gives you additional capabilities in some games.

How do you remember the Atari scene in Poland when you were a new computer user?
I remember that games and programs were mostly available on cassettes, as floppy disk drives were expensive and harder to come by in those days. Back then, nobody cared about software licenses and software piracy was a common practice. Often, games were copied not with special copying programs, but with dual-cassette recorders, commonly calleddachshundsdue to their low, long shape. The quality of the recordings was poor, as copying was often done on cheap, repeatedly pre-recorded cassettes. They also used double the recording speed, resulting in signal degradation. They were often copies of copies of copies of copies.

In the late 80s and early 90s, 16-bit computers already dominated the world. However, due to high hardware prices in Poland, 8-bit computers got a second life. The Atari XE series, by the way, was conceived as a line of inexpensive computers, but stylistically related to the Atari ST computers. As far as I know, the situation was similar in other countries of the communist bloc as well.

At that time, several Polish game development companies were founded, such as the famous LK Avalon (Robbo, Mission, Fred), Mirage Software (Battle Ships, Problem Jasia) or ASF (Monstrum, Miecze Valdgira). Quite a few demos were also created to demonstrate the graphic and musical capabilities of these computers.

This explains why there is so much interest in Atari XL/XE computers even today in Poland. Many great productions are still being made in our country, such as «ADoom», «Albert», «Bosconian», «Crownland», «Dude Story», «FloB», «Gacek», «Last Squadron», «Time Pilot», «Yoomp!». The Atarionline.pl or AtariArea forums bring together many fans of these computers. Various summits are also organized where fans of 8-bit computers can meet and have a good time with retro entertainment.

Why the nickname "Amarok"?
In the 90s I discovered the work of Mike Oldfield, a composer and multi-instrumentalist. It all started when I saw a concert on TV featuring the album Tubular Bells II. I had a lot of Mike Oldfield cassette tapes and often listened to his music. One of the albums he composed is titled “Amarok”. It is an extraordinary masterpiece consisting of a single 60-minute track. For this reason, it was not released on cassette. As soon as I became the happy owner of a CD player on my computer, I immediately bought my first music CD with it. The album is so crazy, strange and beautiful at the same time that the word Amarok became my nickname.

What are your all-time favorite Atari 8-bit games? And why?
I think the games I value the most are the classics from the 80s and 90s. I have a great feeling for them and I gladly return to these titles. These include «Behind Jaggi Lines», «Boulder Dash», «Bruce Lee», «Draconus», «Fred», «Montezuma's Revenge», «Road Race», «Robbo», «The Last Starfighter». There are also many modern productions that I appreciate mainly for their audiovisual design and innovation, such as «Crownland», «Flob», «Last Squadron», «Prince of Persia», «Tony», «Yoomp!».

Is there any of them that you "admire" for their technical aspects or any other in particular?
I find it difficult to choose my most favorite game of all time. The ones I have mentioned are either at the top of my personal ranking or just closer to my heart.

What led you to develop games for Atari?
In the 90s, my programming on the Atari was limited to small programs mainly related to drawing graphics. At that time, I wasn't thinking about game development at all.

I took a break from the Atari world for many years, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started browsing the Atari forums intensively, including AtariAge. I was fascinated by how great games and demos had been created in the meantime.

In particular, I was fascinated by the images generated using the RastaConverter program. I was reminded of the limitations of the computer in terms of the number of colors that could be displayed simultaneously and on the forum I discovered that many apparent limitations had been overcome. I wanted to try myself in image conversion and it turned out to be very fun and satisfying.
[-] In the meantime, I started browsing forums about software development on the Atari in a more modern way. I discovered that it is possible to write and compile programs in the Pascal language, called MadPascal, on a PC. The ability to directly test and debug programs using the Altirra emulator turned out to be an incredible convenience. The large number of example programs and games included with the compiler allowed me to become more familiar with the capabilities and limitations of the platform.

My work is related to medical imaging, including signal and image processing. I decided that my first program, which I called “gr9Lab”, would address this issue. I used the ninth graphics mode to display images with 16 shades of gray. The program includes several operations for image processing and filtering, such as sharpening, anti-aliasing, edge detection, blending two images, and many other specialized effects. The entire visual and logical part of the program was written in Pascal, and the image processing operations in assembler to optimize computation time.

My next project was “SortViz”, a program for visualizing sorting algorithms. I had previously seen this kind of demo on YouTube and decided to port the idea to an 8-bit computer. Here I used the trick of manipulating the Display List, i.e. the information of what a line on the screen should display, to get a quick animation without copying the parts of the image.

At this point, I felt confident enough in programming to decide to participate in a programming contest organized by the German association ABBUC. Many years before, I had the opportunity to play games like “Zuma” or “Luxor” on my PC quite often. Therefore, I decided that my first game, “Arcadia”, would follow a similar concept. Creating this game gave me a lot of satisfaction and allowed me to explore programming on the Atari further. An added bonus was winning third place in the contest, which encouraged me even more to program. For Christmas I prepared a winter version of the game with new graphics, levels and Christmas music tracks.

In the meantime, I wanted to test the Atari's ability to access the Internet using the FujiNet device. For this purpose, I wrote a simple program called "LinguaXE" using Google's text translation engine. One of the challenges, besides handling network protocols, was to implement Unicode support to give the ability to input and display texts in different languages and alphabets.

My latest project is a game called “Time Wizard,” which is a reference to time travel, a topic that has fascinated me ever since I watched the movie “Back to the Future.” The game is a kind of adaptation of the game “Braid,” which impressed me a lot at the time. That’s why I decided to create something similar on the Atari 8-bit. “Time Wizard” was created as my proposal for the ABBUC Software Competition in 2023. Since there was a limited time to submit the work, I had an additional motivation to implement and complete the project. I was pleasantly surprised by the extremely positive response from the Atari community to the game. I didn’t expect the game to be so popular and win in some competitions. I am currently working on a physical release of the game on cartridge. There will be more levels and new mechanics in the game.

Which of your projects do you like the most? And why?
I don't have any particular project that I like the most. Each one has been a challenge and an opportunity to improve my knowledge of Atari programming. I keep realizing how little I still know, but I try to learn from more experienced people. There is a lot of material on the forums, as well as programmers sharing their source code.

So how do you get inspired for your projects?
In most cases, the main reason for doing projects is to test myself, challenge myself and explore the unknown. With each new project I learn how many aspects of Atari programming I don't know yet. The satisfaction comes from breaking more barriers and bringing joy to users with games and programs. It is also important for me to participate in the mission of keeping the Atari 8-bit legend alive.

What was the most difficult or challenging feature to develop for each?
«Gr9Lab» was my first serious program for the Atari, so everything was new to me. A big challenge was the need to optimize the code for calculation speed. This required implementing appropriate routines in assembler. In addition, I wanted the application to have a GUI with menus and also mouse support.

SortViz was not particularly difficult to write, but the most important thing was to come up with a way to quickly visualize sorting algorithms. The point was to make the effect on the screen pleasing to the eye and to show the power of an 8-bit computer. Here, the key to success turned out to be the use of the Screen List; that is, information about what is displayed on individual lines of the screen. Instead of copying pixels from the screen, it is enough to swap elements of the Screen List.

Arcadia was my first game, so there were a lot of things to plan for. I had to learn how to implement the gameplay itself, and how to play music. I had to design the game's graphical elements, the title screen, etc. I also created a simple editor for level design. In addition, the project had a limited time to complete due to the deadline for submitting entries to the contest.

In Time Wizard, the challenge was to create an engine to play music and sound effects at different speeds, including backwards. In addition, I had to develop the game mechanics in such a way that they were varied and at the same time capable of saving the game history up to two minutes for which I allocated 48 kB of RAM. This is my first platformer, so I had to familiarize myself with the topic of hero movement, obstacle detection, etc. In particular, I wanted the hero's jumps to be dynamic and controllable in the air. I was concerned about creating the impression of a more modern game than what would have been designed in the 80s.

"Someday tools that use AI technology will come to the Atari world as well."

Have other people collaborated on your projects?
So far, I have completed all the projects on my own. However, while working on «Time Wizard Deluxe Edition», I received strong support from the Atari community in translating texts into many languages and designing additional levels. I also received a lot of help from Wojtek "Bocianu" Bocianski, the author of the game «FloB», in terms of procedures for handling the cartridge. Without his help, I would not have been able to achieve the physical release of the game.
[-]
«Time Wizard» is an undeniable success. What are your next plans?
In the near future, I plan to finish the “Time Wizard Deluxe Edition” project and bring it to a boxed release. I also have very general ideas for more games, but they are not developed enough to talk about. I will just mention that they concern puzzle/arcade platformers.

Have you considered porting games from other platforms/systems? If so, which ones?
Yes, I have considered porting some games to Atari. However, I am more interested in creating something new and unique that I haven't seen on 8-bit computers so far. However, I do appreciate the efforts of programmers who magically extend the capabilities of the Atari 8-bit to port great games to aging hardware.

How do you rate the participation of members of the AtariAge/AtariOnline forums or Facebook groups?
Nowadays, access to information and sharing experiences with others is invaluable. In fact, most of the knowledge I have gained about software development at Atari comes from AtariAge and AtariOnline. I also enjoy the fact that programmers share the source codes of their projects. It helps a lot to improve skills together. I find it hard to imagine that I could have developed a game like “Time Wizard” in the 80s or 90s.

What do you think about competitions like ABBUC, Atari Awards or BASIC Tenliners?
In my opinion, any competition focused on game or software development has a huge impact on the current state of the Atari scene. Firstly, they encourage and motivate the creation of new projects. Secondly, they popularize and spread information about game and software development also outside of forums. In my case, if it had not been for the ABBUC software competition, “Arcadia” and “Time Wizard” might not have been created at all. I also think that we would not be talking about many great games that have been and will be developed as competition entries.

"The more I program, the more I realize how little I still know. But this encourages me even more to keep going."

What do you think about recent homebrews?
Today's games show that it is possible to achieve amazing capabilities on the Atari 8-bit that no one thought of in the old days. Access to a wide range of technical know-how, software development tools such as cross-compilers, graphic and music editors make it relatively easy to create games. This frees up creativity, which is important to enhance the appeal of modern productions. I am convinced that one day tools using AI technology will also come to the Atari world, further increasing the number and hopefully the appeal of released games.

What are your impressions of the current Atari 8-bit scene?
I'm glad that, despite the passage of time, the world has not forgotten Atari. On the contrary. More and more games and hardware extensions for computers and consoles are being created. It's great that younger people are discovering the beauty of 8-bit technology and therefore the legend can live on.

And what do you think about today's new gaming and video game platforms?
I rarely play on modern platforms, because I don't have time for it. I am aware of the incredible technological advances that allow for the creation of hyper-realistic worlds in which players can immerse themselves endlessly.

What other hobbies do you have?
I love traveling, hiking in the mountains, and exploring historical architecture. I always carry my camera with me and try to find a unique way to present or express reality, because photography is one of my greatest passions.

I am also interested in my family genealogy. I obsessively go through old documents looking for information about my ancestors. At the moment, I have managed to find a document from 1678, in which there is information about my ancestors eleven generations before me.

I also love good sci-fi movies and instrumental music, including electronic music and progressive/symphonic rock.

What is the biggest lesson you've learned from your time programming for the Atari 8-bit?
Developing software on the Atari is a constant exploration of the unknown for me. Every moment I come across some barrier or limitation that I must overcome. The more I program, the more I realize how little I still know. But this encourages me even more to continue forward.

Any recommendations for those who want to embark on the task of reviving/creating games for Atari 8-bit computers?
I am not an expert to give advice to others on how to make games, especially since for everyone something different is important. In my case, it is the right attitude. I just want creating games for the Atari 8-bit to be a pleasure, entertainment, hobby and a distraction from everyday life. I try not to treat it in any way as a method of earning money, because I have my professional job for that. This approach allows me to be more open-minded and increases my creativity.

I chose MadPascal as my main programming language for the Atari because it allows me to start creating simple programs or games in an incredibly easy way without getting into the complexities of machine language, operating system procedures, registers or memory mapping. There are also many examples provided with the compiler itself, which everyone can easily build themselves and explore by modifying them. Also, there are many people sharing their source codes or discussing these topics on forums. This is a real repository of knowledge, which I used in the beginning and still use today.

If someone has no experience in this matter so far, I would suggest starting the adventure with small programs that can be written quickly and enjoy the effect on the screen. This encourages further exploration of the field and creation of more complex projects. So, with small but systematic steps, a lot can be achieved. And it is important not to get discouraged if you encounter difficulties, just perhaps take a break for a while to think about the problem, search for information on the web and gain a broader perspective.

Thank you for taking the time to give us this interview. Is there anything else you would like to share with Atariteca users?
I also thank you very much for the opportunity to talk. It is a great pleasure and honour for me to be here among so many great and also famous creators of the Atari world. I wish everyone many pleasant moments with retro computers! May the legend of Atari live forever!