Launched in 1979, the Atari 400/800 line of 8-bit personal computers quickly established a strong presence in the home computer market due to their advanced graphics and sound capabilities, superior to many of their contemporaries such as the Apple II and Commodore PET. Despite the growing popularity, outside of scattered user groups there was no central place from which users could get the news, reviews, help, or the ever-popular printed program listings. This led Lee H. Pappas and Michael J. DesChesnes, who had met a few years earlier at a Star Trek convention in New York City, to launch A.N.A.L.O.G. 400/800 Magazine (later A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing), the first magazine dedicated entirely to Atari’s 8-bit computers. The A.N.A.L.O.G. name began as an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games, which was spelled out in the first two issues.

In late October of 1980 Pappas and DesChesney had attended the National Small Computer Show at the New York Coliseum with a glossy two-color flyer to promote what was supposed to be their upcoming newsletter. They visited exhibitors to explore new offerings and solicit advertisements. The response from potential advertisers exceeded all expectations and encouraged them to expand the project from a simple newsletter to a full-fledged magazine.

While working on A.N.A.L.O.G., with the blessings of Atari, the duo opened a small Atari store in the DesChesnes’ family home and started selling Atari VCS 2600 games with the profits put towards the magazine production. The premiere issue of Pappas and DesChesney’s new magazine, published in February 1981, was 45 pages of high-quality content with well-written articles by some of the best in the business. Despite an initial print run of only 2,000 copies, the magazine quickly gained popularity with each issue containing news, reviews, tutorials, and BASIC and machine language program listings readers could type into their own computers, many of which rivaled the quality of commercial software.

From early on Pappas and DesChesney started selling Atari 400/800 cassette games packaged in Zip-Lock bags via mailorder under the name ANALOG Software, the magazine’s commercial software label. Several of the games published were written by magazine staff members but a few came from magazine readers, one of which was Phil Mork‘s Shooting Gallery, advertised in the May/June 1981 issue.

Mork, an electrical engineer and local A.N.A.L.O.G. reader showed up and demoed his target shooting game, a clone of Gremlin/Sega‘s 1980 video arcade game Carnival. With a few tweaks and added music, Mork’s Shooting Gallery was released for the Atari 400/800 in the early summer of 1981 by ANALOG Software.

Phil Mork, an avid A.N.A.L.O.G. reader, demoed his Shooting Gallery to the magazine and got it published in the early summer of 1981 under the ANALOG Software name, the magazine’s commercial software label.

Shooting Gallery copied Gremlin/Sega’s 1980 video arcade title Carnival in nearly every aspect but played well with fluid animations and fitting music.
You must clear all the targets without running out of bullets or the game ends. Bonus bullets can be earned by shooting specific targets, with a star awarding ten extra shots, and a bullseye granting five.
Watch out for the bird, if it reaches the bottom it’ll consume your bullets.

Shooting Gallery, being an unlicensed clone of Gremlin/Sega’s Carnival, Analog Software soon approached Sega for the rights to sell an officially licensed version for the Atari 8-bit line of computers. In 1982, with a license agreement in place, Analog Software published Mork’s Carnival for the Atari 400/800.

A.N.A.L.O.G. Computing ran from 1981 to 1989 with 79 issues published. When the 16-bit Atari ST was released in 1985, coverage of the new system moved to an ST-Log section of the magazine before spinning off into a separate publication under the ST-Log name in the spring of 1986.

Sources: leepappas.com, Wikipedia, AtariAge, AtariMania…