Let Chris Crawford teach you to program Atari's 8-bit computers

Back in the 1980s, Chris Crawford was at Atari, and he produced a series of how-to videos for enthusiasts of its 400 and 800 computers on how to program them.

Back in the 1980s, Chris Crawford was at Atari, and he produced a series of how-to videos for enthusiasts of its 400 and 800 computers on how to program them. These videos have been preserved on YouTube, and offer fascinating perspectives on not just how an enthusiastic company employee inventively promoted his company's PC platform to its fans, but also how programming was both taught and structured during the 1980s home computing boom.

Part 1 is embedded above, but you can watch Part 2 hereand Part 3here.

Gamasutra spoke to Crawfordlast year about his (very lage) ambitions for games, and his current work: "We're establishing what is fundamentally a new entertainment medium; it's going to be slow going. "But that's the way it was 35 years ago; I've done this before, and I'll do it again," he said.