Tag: just for you inc

  • I’m heading to Atlanta — plus, Jack Tramiel’s phone numbers

    I’m heading to Atlanta — plus, Jack Tramiel’s phone numbers

    I’ve been remiss in sharing some fantastic news. In April, I was awarded a “Geffen and Lewyn Family Southern Jewish Collections Research Fellowship” from the Rose Library at Emory University! This fellowship will enable me to travel to Atlanta for a week or two and study materials at Emory related to several Jewish educational games…

  • Unearthed: Kirschen’s “Magic Harp” for Commodore Amiga

    Unearthed: Kirschen’s “Magic Harp” for Commodore Amiga

    When I published the original four-part “Bringing dry bones back to life” series where I shared 10 pieces of previously-lost computer programs developed by Yaakov Kirschen, I couldn’t include “Magic Harp,” his original Amiga-based “artificial creativity” music composing software. At the time, Kirschen’s wife, Sali Ariel, believed that it was likely gone forever, because she…

  • Unearthed: Kirschen’s “Music Creator” for IBM PC

    Unearthed: Kirschen’s “Music Creator” for IBM PC

    Decades before the debut of DALL-E, Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen was developing an “artificial creativity” system to let computers compose their own music, by extracting components of existing songs and combining them in new ways. The software was originally written for the Amiga, but business changes led them to abandon that platform and port the…

  • Unearthed: Kirschen’s Atari ST projects

    Unearthed: Kirschen’s Atari ST projects

    The artificial personalities “Murray” and “Mom” were among the very first entertainment offerings for the Atari ST computer. They were also the first products released by Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen’s new “LKP, Ltd.” software studio in Israel, in partnership with his American firm, “Just For You, Inc.” “Murray and Me” (monochrome, 1985) “Murray and Me”…

  • Bringing dry bones back to life: The Kirschen software collection

    Bringing dry bones back to life: The Kirschen software collection

    It’s time to bring some dry bones back to life. In coming days, I will publish a curated collection of lost software developed by the Israeli cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen together with programmers from Gesher Educational Affiliates as well as from his own studio, LKP Ltd. The collection includes 12 games, demos, and experiments in artificial…