Atari 8-bit family

The Atari 800, featuring a full keyboard and dual-width cartridge slot cover.
Type	Home computer
Release date	November 1979
Discontinued	January 1992
Operating system	Atari 8-bit OS / Atari BASIC
CPU	MOS Technology 6502B @ 1.79 MHz (NTSC version) @ 1.77 MHz (PAL version)
Graphics	320 × 192, 256 colors, 4× sprites, raster interrupts
Sound	4× oscillators with noise mixing, or 2× AM digital
Connectivity	2× (or 4×) Joystick, 1× SIO, 1× (or 0×) PBI, 1× (or 2×) ROM cartridge
Successor	Atari ST

The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips. Over the following decade several versions of the same basic design were released, including the original Atari 400 and 800 and their successors, the XL and XE series of computers. Overall, the Atari 8-bit computer line was a commercial success, selling two million units through its major production run between late 1979 and mid-1985,^[1] a total of around 4 million units.^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

Origins[link]

Design of the 8-bit series of machines started at Atari Inc. as soon as the Atari 2600 games console was released in late 1977. The engineering team from Atari Grass Valley Research Center (originally "Cyan Engineering")^[2] felt that the 2600 would have about a three year lifespan before becoming obsolete. They started "blue sky" designs for a new console that would be ready to replace it around 1980, three years after the 2600's introduction. What they ended up with was essentially a "corrected" version of the 2600, fixing its more obvious flaws.^[3] The newer design would be faster than the 2600, have better graphics, and would include much better sound hardware. Work on the chips for the new system continued throughout 1978 and primarily focused on much-improved video hardware known as the Color Television Interface Adaptor, or CTIA.

During this gestation the home computer era began in earnest in the form of the TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Apple II family—what Byte Magazine would later dub the "1977 Trinity".^[4] Ray Kassar, the then-new CEO of Atari from Warner Communications, wanted the new chips to be used in a home computer to challenge Apple. In order to adapt the machine to this role, it would need to support character graphics, include some form of expansion for peripherals, and run the then-universal BASIC programming language.

The need for character graphics led to the introduction of the ANTIC, a co-processor that ran in concert with the CTIA to provide graphics. Like the earlier TIA of the 2600, the CTIA was designed to produce sprites and nothing else. ANTIC was built to generate conventional bitmap graphics and characters, providing a number of different modes with varying color support and resolution. ANTIC and CTIA worked in concert to produce the complete display.

The early machines: 400 and 800[link]

Atari 400 (1979). Featuring a membrane keyboard and single-width cartridge slot cover.

Internal components of the Atari 800 without the heavy aluminum RF shielding. Although the main board has a card edge connector on the rear, it was inside the aluminum shield and unavailable for use.

Atari 800, internal components: * Plastic guide for installing cards/cartridges * Processor board (was hidden inside the aluminum shield) * DOS ROM board (added support for floppy drives) * Interior of ROM cartridge * 16 kilobyte memory board * 16 kilobyte memory board * 16 kilobyte memory board * Main system board * External I/O and power supply board

Management identified two sweet spots for the new computers, a low-end version known as Candy, and a higher-end machine known as Colleen (named after two attractive Atari secretaries).^[5] The primary difference between the two models was marketing; Atari marketed Colleen as a computer, and Candy as a game machine (or hybrid game console). Colleen would include slots for RAM and ROM, a second 8 KB cartridge slot, monitor output (including 2 more pins for separate luma and chroma) and a full keyboard, while Candy used a plastic "membrane keyboard" and internal slots for memory (not user upgradeable).

At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that signal leakage in the television frequency range had to be extremely low. As the Atari machines had TV circuitry inside them, they were subject to this rule and needed to be heavily shielded. Both machines were built around very strong cast aluminum shields forming a partial Faraday cage, with the various components screwed down onto this internal framework. This had the advantage of producing an extremely sturdy computer, although at the disadvantage of being expensive and complex. The FCC ruling also made it difficult to have any sizable holes in the case, which eliminated expansion slots or cards that communicated with the outside world via their own connectors. Instead, Atari designed the Serial Input/Output (SIO) computer bus, a daisy-chainable system that allowed multiple devices to connect to the computer through a single shielded connector. What internal slots existed were reserved for ROM and RAM modules.

Atari had originally intended to port Microsoft BASIC to the machine, as had most other vendors, intending to supply it on an 8 KB ROM cartridge. However the existing 6502 version from Microsoft was 12 KB, and all of Atari's attempts to pare it down to 8 KB failed. Eventually they farmed out the work to a local consulting firm, Shepardson Microsystems, who recommended writing their own version from scratch, which was eventually delivered as Atari BASIC.

The machines were announced in late 1978^[5] as the 400 and 800, although they were not widely available until November 1979, much closer to the original design date. The names originally referred to the amount of memory, 4 KB RAM in the 400 and 8 KB in the 800. However by the time they were released the prices on RAM had started to fall, so the machines were instead both released with 8 KB. As memory prices continued to fall Atari eventually supplied the 800 fully expanded to 48 KB, using up all the slots. Overheating problems with the memory modules eventually led Atari to remove the module's casings, leaving them as "bare" boards. Later, the expansion cover was held down with screws instead of the easier to open plastic latches.

The Atari 400, despite its membrane keyboard and single internal ROM cartridge slot, outsold the full keyboard and RAM expandable Atari 800 by some margin.^{[citation needed]} Because of this, developers were generally unwilling to use the 800-only right cartridge slot.

Liz[link]

The 400 and 800 were complex and expensive machines to build, consisting of multiple circuit boards mostly enclosed by massive die-cast aluminum shielding. Additionally, the machine was designed to add RAM only through cards, though it soon shipped fully expanded right from the factory. Soldering that RAM to the motherboard would be much less expensive than the connectors and separate cards needed in the 800. At the same time the 400 did not compete technically with some of the newer machines appearing in the early 1980s, which tended to ship with much more RAM and an upgraded keyboard.

Another major change was the introduction of the FCC ratings specifically for digital devices in homes and offices. One of the ratings, known as Class B, mandated that the device's RF emissions were to be low enough not to interfere with other devices, such as radios and TVs. Now computers needed just enough shielding to prevent interference (both ways), not prevent any emissions from leaking out. This requirement enabled lighter, less expensive shielding than the previous 400 and 800 computers.

In 1982 Atari started the Sweet 8 (or "Liz NY") and Sweet 16 projects to take advantage of these changes. The result was an upgraded set of machines otherwise similar to the 400 and 800, but much easier to build and less costly to produce. Whereas the previous machines had individual circuit boards mounted inside and outside the internal shield, in the new design a single board supported all of the circuitry and the much thinner shielding was attached to it. This reduction in complexity was helped by improvements in chip making since the original machines were released, allowing a number of separate chips in the original systems to be condensed into one. Atari also ordered a custom version of the 6502, initially labeled "6502C" but eventually known as SALLY to differentiate it from a standard 6502C, which added a single pin that allowed four support chips to be removed. The SALLY was incorporated into late-production 400/800 machines, all subsequent XL/XE machines and Atari 5200/7800 game systems.

Like the earlier machines, the Sweet 8/16 was intended to be released in two versions as the 1000 with 16 KB and the 1000X with 64 KB; RAM was still expensive enough to make this distinction worthwhile. In order to support expansion for high-end systems, similar to the card slots used in the Apple II or S-100 machines, the 1000 series also supported the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI), a single expansion slot on the back of the machine. An external chassis could be plugged into the PBI, supporting card slots for further expansion.

XL Series[link]

1200XL[link]

Atari 1200XL

Released in late 1982, the 1200XL was an odd hybrid of features from the Sweet 8/16 projects. Notable features were 64 KB of RAM, built-in self test, redesigned keyboard (featuring four function keys and a HELP key), and redesigned cable port layout. In general terms the 1200XL most closely matched the "high end" Sweet 16 concept.

However the 1200XL also included a number of missing or poorly implemented features. The PBI expansion connector from the original 1000X design was left off, making the design rely entirely on SIO again. Frustrating this was the fact that the +12V pin in the SIO port was left unconnected; only +5V power was available although some devices made use of the +12V line. An improved video circuit provided more chroma for a more colorful image, but the chroma line was not connected to the monitor port, the only place that could make use of it. Even the re-arrangement of the ports made some joysticks and cartridges difficult or impossible to use. Changes made to the operating system to support the new hardware also resulted in compatibility problems with some older software that did not follow published guidelines.

The 1200XL ended up with functionality similar to the existing 800, but at a hefty price point. For all of these reasons the 1200XL sold poorly. There is an often-repeated story, perhaps apocryphal, that 800 sales shot up after the release of the 1200XL, as existing owners tried to snap them up before they disappeared.^[6] The machine was discontinued in 1983. There was no PAL version of the 1200XL.

Newer XL machines[link]

Atari 600XL. This machine featured a slightly shallower case than the 800XL.

An Atari 800XL

By this point in time Atari was involved in what would soon develop into a full-blown price war when Jack Tramiel of Commodore International was attempting to undercut his old enemy Texas Instruments. TI had undercut Commodore's calculator business only a few years earlier, almost driving him from the market, but this time Tramiel's supply was stronger than TI's, and he could turn the tables.

Although Atari had never been a deliberate target of Tramiel's wrath, they, along with the rest of the market, were dragged into "his" price war in order to maintain market share. The timing was particularly bad for Atari; the 1200XL was a flop, and the earlier machines were too expensive to produce to be able to compete at the rapidly falling price points. The solution was to replace the 1200XL with a machine that users would again trust, while at the same time lowering the production costs to the point where they could compete with Commodore.

Starting with the 1200XL design as the basis for a new line, Atari engineers were able to add a number of new IC's to take over the functions of many of those remaining in the 1200XL. While the 1200XL fit onto a single board, the new designs were even smaller, simpler, and as a result much less expensive. But by this point, in early 1983, the price war rapidly drove prices downward. Atari, attempting to beat this downward pressure, took the opportunity to move production of the new machines to the far east, where they could be produced for even lower costs.

Several versions of the new design, the 600XL, 800XL, 1400XL and 1450XLD were announced at the 1983 Summer CES. The machines had Atari BASIC built into the ROM of the computer and the PBI at the back that allowed external expansion. The machines looked similar to the 1200XL, but were smaller back to front, the 600 being somewhat smaller than the 800 front-to-back (similar to the original Sweet 8 project). The 1400 and 1450 both added a built-in 300 baud modem and a voice synthesizer, and the 1450XLD also included a built-in double-sided floppy disk drive in an enlarged case.

The main circuit board of an Atari 800XL

However, the production move ran into unexpected delays. Originally intended to replace the 1200XL in mid-83, the machines did not arrive until late in 1983. Although the 600/800 were well positioned in terms of price and features, during the critical Christmas season they were available only in small numbers while the Commodore 64 was widely available. Although the 800XL would be the most popular computer sold by Atari, it was unable to defend Atari's marketshare, and the race to the bottom gutted their profits.^[7] Combined with the simultaneous effects of the video game crash of 1983, Atari was soon losing millions of dollars a day. Their owners, Warner Communications, became desperate to sell off the division.

Through this process the 1400XL and the 1450XLD had their delivery dates pushed back, first by the priority given to the 600XL/800XL, and later by the 3600 System. In the end the 1400XL was eventually canceled outright, and the 1450XLD so delayed that it would never ship. Other prototypes which never made it to market include the 1600XL, 1650XLD, and 1850XLD. The 1600XL was to have been a dual processor model capable of running 6502 and 80186 code, while the 1650XLD was a similar machine in the 1450XLD case. These were canceled when James J. Morgan became CEO and wanted Atari to return to its video game roots.^[8] The 1850XLD was to have been based on the Amiga Lorraine^[9] (later to become the Commodore Amiga). These models were canceled when Jack Tramiel took over Atari and changed the XL series development into the XE series. The new Atari scrapped plans for the Amiga-based 1850XLD system for the Atari ST system.

Although Commodore emerged intact from the computer price wars, fighting inside Commodore soon led to Jack Tramiel's ousting. Looking to re-enter the market, he soon purchased Atari consumer division from Warner for an extremely low price.

Tramiel era: XE series and XE Game System[link]

Atari 130XE

Atari XE Game System

Jack Tramiel's Atari Corporation produced the final machines in the 8-bit series, which were the 65XE and 130XE (XE stood for XL-Expanded). They were announced in 1985, at the same time as the initial models in the Atari ST series, and visually resembled the Atari ST. Originally intended to be called the 900XLF, the 65XE was functionally equivalent to the 800XL minus the PBI connection. The 65XE (European version) and the 130XE had the Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI), which was electronically almost compatible with the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI), but physically smaller, since it was located next to the standard 400/800-compatible Cartridge Interface and provided only those signals that did not exist in the latter; ECI peripherals were expected to plug into both the standard Cartridge Interface and the ECI port. The 130XE shipped with 128 KB of memory, accessible through bank-selection.

An additional 800XE was available in Europe (mostly Eastern Europe), which was essentially a 65XE repackaged in order to ride on the popularity of the original 800XL in Europe.^{[citation needed]} Unfortunately, the 65XE and 800XE machines sold in Eastern Europe had a buggy GTIA chip, specifically those machines made in China in 1991.

Finally, with the resurgence of the gaming industry brought on by Nintendo, Atari Corp. brought out the XE Game System (XEGS), released in 1987. The XE Game System was sold bundled with a detachable keyboard, a joystick and a light gun (XG-1), and a couple of game cartridges (Bug Hunt and Flight Simulator II). The XE Game System was essentially a repackaged 65XE, and was compatible with almost all Atari 8-bit software and hardware as a result. Bad marketing and a lack of newer releases hampered sales.

On January 1, 1992, Atari corp. officially dropped all remaining support of the 8-bit line.^[10]

Design[link]

The Atari machines consist of a 6502 as the main processor, a combination of ANTIC and GTIA chips to provide graphics, and the POKEY chip to handle sound and serial input/output. These "support" chips are controlled via a series of registers that can be user-controlled via memory set/get instructions running on the 6502. For example, the GTIA uses a series of registers to select colors for the screen; these colors can be changed by inserting the correct values into its registers, which are mapped into "memory" that is visible to the 6502. Some parts of the system also use some of the machine's RAM as a buffer, notably the ANTIC's display buffer and its Display List (essentially a small program written in the chip's simple machine language that tells ANTIC how to interpret that data and turn it into a display), as well as GTIA's sprite information. These features enable the computer to perform many functions directly in hardware, such as smooth background scrolling, that would need to be done in software in most other computers of the time.

ANTIC[link]

ANTIC is a microprocessor which processes display instructions. A complete sequence of instructions is known as a Display List. Each instruction describes how a single "line" on the screen is to be displayed (specifying one of several character or graphics modes available), where it is displayed, if it contains interrupts, if fine scrolling is enabled or not, and optionally where to load data from memory (text or graphics information). Since each line can be programmed individually, this feature enables the programmer to create displays made up of mixed graphics and text, as well as different graphics modes on the screen at once. It also enables the machine to quickly "scroll" the screen vertically or horizontally by means of a single memory write. ANTIC reads this Display List and the display data using DMA (Direct Memory Access), then translates the result into electrical data for GTIA to process. This process is performed without any CPU intervention.

The ANTIC is primarily responsible for drawing the "background" of the graphics screen, as well as text. ANTIC then passes off the video data through the GTIA, which adds color and draws sprites (which Atari called "players" and "missiles"). The combination leads to oddities such as the ability to invert all the text on the screen by changing a value in memory. The character set is easily redirected by changing an ANTIC register, allowing the user to create their own character sets with relative ease.

CTIA/GTIA[link]

The Color Television Interface Adaptor^[11] (CTIA) is the graphics chip used in early Atari 400/800 home computers. It is the successor to the TIA chip used in the Atari 2600. According to Joe Decuir, George McLeod designed the CTIA in 1977. The CTIA chip was replaced with the Graphic Television Interface Adaptor^[11] (GTIA) in later revisions of the 400 and 800 and all other members of the Atari 8-bit family. GTIA, also designed by George McLeod, adds three new color interpretation modes that enables the display of more colors on the screen than previously available.^[12]

The CTIA/GTIA receives graphics information from ANTIC and also controls sprites (known at the time as "Player/Missile Graphics"), collision detection, priority control and color-luminance (brightness) control to all objects (including DMA objects from ANTIC). CTIA/GTIA output them as separate digital luminance and chrominance signals, which are mixed to form an analogue composite video signal.

POKEY[link]

The third custom support chip, named POKEY, is responsible for reading the keyboard, generating sound and serial communications (in conjunction with the PIA). It also provides timers, a random number generator (for generating acoustic noise as well as random numbers), and maskable interrupts. POKEY has four semi-independent audio channels, each with its own frequency, noise and volume control. Each 8-bit channel has its own audio control register which select the noise content and volume. For higher sound frequency resolution (quality), two of the audio channels can be combined for more accurate sound (frequency can be defined with 16-bit value instead of usual 8-bit). The name POKEY comes from the words "POtentiometer" and "KEYboard", which are two of the I/O devices that POKEY interfaces with (the potentiometer is the mechanism used by the paddle). This chip is actually used in several Atari arcade machines of the 80s, including Missile Command and Asteroids Deluxe, among others.^[13]

Computer models[link]

• 400 and 800 (1979) – original machines in beige cases, 400 has a membrane keyboard, 800 has full-travel keys, two cartridge ports, monitor output. Both machines have expandable memory slots (up to 48 KB). Later PAL versions have the 6502C processor.
• 1200XL (1982) – new aluminum and smoked plastic cases, 64 KB of RAM, only two joystick ports. Help key, four function keys. Older software, if it was written improperly, caused compatibility problems with the new OS.
• 600XL and 800XL (1983) – replacements for the 400, 800 and 1200XL sans function keys. 600XL has 16 KB of memory, PAL versions had a monitor port, 800XL have 64 KB and monitor output. Both have built-in BASIC and an expansion port known as the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI).
• 800XLF – 800XL with Atari FREDDIE chip and BASIC rev. C. Released in Europe only.
• 65XE and 130XE (1985) – A repackaged 800XLF with new cases and keyboards. The 130XE has 128 KB of RAM and a Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI) instead of a PBI. The U.S./Canadian version of the 65XE has no ECI or PBI.
• XE Game System (1987) – a game machine in a light beige case, with a detachable full-travel but slightly "mushy" keyboard (Atari ST'ish)
• 800XE – the final machine in the series. Styling the same as 65XE and 130XE. A 130XE with 64 KB RAM. Mainly seen in Eastern Europe.

• Prototypes/Vaporware (Never Officially Released)
  • 1400XL – Similar to the 1200XL but with a PBI, FREDDIE chip, built-in modem and speech synthesis chip. Cancelled by Atari.
  • 1450XLD – basically a 1400XL with built-in 5¼″ disk drive and expansion bay for a second 5¼″ disk drive. Code named Dynasty. Made it to pre-production, but got abandoned by Tramiel.
  • 1600XL – codenamed Shakti, this was dual-processor system with 6502 and 80186 processors and two built-in 5¼″ floppy disk drives.[1]
  • 900XLF – redesigned 800XLF. Became the 65XE.
  • 65XEM – 65XE with AMY sound synthesis chip. Cancelled.
  • 65XEP – "portable" 65XE with 3.5" disk drive, 5" green CRT and battery pack. Never released
  • 1090XL expansion system, 5 slots in a large case (never released, small numbers leaked out)
  • 1055 3½" floppy drive [2]
  • XF351 3½" floppy drive [3]
  • XF354 3½" floppy drive

Peripherals[link]

Atari 1020 4-color Plotter

During the lifetime of their 8-bit series, Atari released a large number of peripherals. These included:

• Several dedicated cassette tape drives. All were similar, and capable of recording at 600 bit/s on a standard audio cassette. (Unlike some computer systems, it was not possible to use a standard cassette deck with the Atari for this purpose.)
• Various 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, including single, enhanced and true double-density models.
• Several printers of various types; dot matrix, thermal, 4-color plotter and letter-quality daisy wheel.
• Modems, including one model with an acoustic coupler and other direct-connect models.
• Other peripherals, including a Centronics/RS-232 expansion system, numeric keypad, memory module, touch tablet and an 80-column display module.

Atari's peripherals used the proprietary SIO port, which allowed them to be daisy chained together into a single string. These "intelligent" peripherals were more expensive than the standard IBM PC devices, which did not need the added SIO electronics.

Software[link]

Operating system[link]

Built-in[link]

The Atari 8-bit computers came with an operating system built into the ROM. The Atari 400/800 had the following:

• OS Rev. A - 10 KB ROM (3 chips) early machines.
• OS Rev. B - 10 KB ROM (3 chips) bug fixes. Most common for 400/800.

The XL/XE Atari 8-bit models all had OS revisions due to added hardware features and changes. But this created compatibility issues with some of the older software. Atari responded with the Translator Disk, a floppy disk which loaded the older 400/800 Rev. B or Rev. A OS into the XL/XE computers.

• OS Rev. 10 - 16 KB ROM (2 chips) for 1200XL Rev A
• OS Rev. 11 - 16 KB ROM (2 chips) for 1200XL Rev B (bug fixes)
• OS Rev. 1 - 16 KB ROM for 600XL
• OS Rev. 2 - 16 KB ROM for 800XL
• OS Rev. 3 - 16 KB ROM for 800XE/130XE
• OS Rev. 4 - 32 KB ROM (16 KB OS + 8 KB BASIC + 8 KB Missile Command) for XEGS

The XL/XE models also came with the Atari BASIC ROM built in, which could be disabled at startup by holding down the silver OPTION key to the right of the keyboard. Early models came with the notoriously buggy revision B. Later models used revision C.

Disk Operating System[link]

The standard Atari OS only contained very low-level routines for accessing floppy disk drives. An extra layer, a disk operating system, was required to assist in organizing file system-level disk access. This was known as Atari DOS, and like most home computer DOSes of the era, had to be booted from floppy disk at every power-on or reset. Unlike most DOSs, Atari DOS was entirely menu driven.

• DOS 1.0 - Initial DOS for Atari.
• DOS 2.0S, 2.0D - Improved over DOS 1.0, became the standard for the 810 disk drive. 2.0D was for the never-released 815 drive.
• DOS 3.0 - Came with 1050 drive. Used a different disk format from previous DOSes, and was incompatible with DOS 2.0, making it very unpopular.
• DOS 2.5 - Replaced DOS 3.0 with later 1050s. Functionally identical to DOS 2.0S, but able to read and write enhanced Density disks.
• DOS 4.0 - Designed for 1450XLD, cancelled, rights given back to the author.
• DOS XE - Designed for the XF551 drive.

Several third-party replacement DOSes were also available, sometimes quite advanced, such as SpartaDOS X.

Other software[link]

Amongst the many pieces of software released for the 8-bit Atari computers, a large number of programming languages were implemented, including:-

• Assemblers, via the Atari Assembler Editor, Atari Macro Assembler, MAC/65, and several others.
• BASIC; Atari BASIC was the "standard" BASIC implementation for the 8-bit family, originally a ROM cartridge, and built-in from the 600XL/800XL onwards. Other BASICs included Atari Microsoft BASIC, Turbo Basic XL, BASIC XL and Advan BASIC.
• C (Programming Language), via the Deep Blue C, Lightspeed C and cc65 compiler.
• Other languages including LOGO (Atari LOGO), LISP (INTER-LISP/65), PILOT (Atari PILOT), several versions each of Forth and Pascal, Action! (a high performance Atari-specific language from OSS), and WSFN (which stands for nothing).

More recently, cross platform development tools (most commonly run on PCs), have become popular for retrocomputing software development.

Graphics capabilities[link]

Moiré pattern in 320x192 graphics mode.

While the ANTIC and GTIA chips allowed a variety of graphics modes to be combined, and different playfield widths to be used, the Atari's Operating System provided a basic set of graphics modes. In most cases, these were exposed to Atari BASIC via the "GRAPHICS" command, and to some other languages, via similar system calls.

• 40×24 text modes
  • 1 color of text, with each character's 8×8 pixels the same size as those in 320×192 graphics mode, with the same hue restriction. Characters with the high-bit on were represented in inverse-video.
  • "Lowercase with descenders" mode, which was not available through GRAPHICS, only as part of custom display lists. In this mode characters were 10 pixels high and occupied either the upper or lower 8 pixels of that height. This was not strictly speaking a 40×24 text mode, because of the unusual height.
  • Colored text, where every two bits represents a colored pixel (characters were 4×8 pixels that were the same size as those in 160×192 graphics mode). Characters with the high-bit on were displayed using a 5th color palette register where the 4th would normally be used.
  • Colored text, where every four bits represents a colored pixel (characters were 2×8 pixels that were the same size as those in 80×192 graphics mode and had the same color limitations). This mode was not directly available through GRAPHICS but required setting GTIA flags in text mode.
• 20×24 text mode
  • 1 color of text, with each character's 8×8 pixels the same size as those in 160×192 graphics mode. Characters with various bits enabled or disabled (which would normally appear as 'control-characters', lower-case characters, or inverse-video) were displayed with different colored pixels.
• 20×12 text mode
  • (Same as 20×24 text mode, but with larger pixels and fewer rows of text)
• 40×24 graphics mode — 4 colors (2 bpp)
• 80×48 graphics modes — Either 2 colors (1 bpp), or 4 colors (2 bpp)
• 160×96 graphics modes — Either 2 colors, or 4 colors
• 160×192 graphics modes — Either 2 colors, or 4 colors
• 320×192 graphics mode — 2 colors (1 bpp). The pixels were a shade of the playfield color, and could not be different hue. (In practice on NTSC models, this actually resulted in 4 possible colors on a standard TV screen: black, white, blue, and brown, the last two colors being caused by using pixels in only even or only odd columns — thus the blue and brown regions were effectively in 160×192 resolution).
• 80×192 graphics modes (GTIA chip only)
  • 9 colors from the color palette registers
  • All 15 Atari hues, but only of one brightness (plus black)
  • All 16 Atari shades, but only of one hue

These were only the modes the OS setup by default. As described above, the ANTIC chip used a display list and other settings to create these modes. The actual hardware could be programmed to display up to 384 pixels wide by putting the hardware in wide or overscan mode and up to 240 pixels tall by creating a custom display list.

Software-driven modes[link]

Due to the 8-bit Ataris' flexibility, it was possible (with clever programming) to create a number of software-driven pseudo-"modes" beyond those directly supported in hardware. These included pseudo-256-color 80×192 modes and 80×24 character displays. One difficulty with these modes was that the grating on PAL and NTSC televisions is very different, as is the update speed and resolution, and so often they would display well on European systems and awfully on US ones, or vice versa. For the same reason they may not display well – or display rather too well – on simulators.

It was also possible by using the display list interrupt facility to display far more than the usual number of sprites on the screen, with more colours than available. This is done by writing machine language routines to change the values of hardware registers at different vertical positions on the screen. The machine language routines modifying hardware registers allowed the programmer to move the sprites around and change their colours 'on the fly'. The same technique could be employed to display far more colours than seemingly allowed in any particular graphics mode, which could be mixed and altered at will.

Because the screen memory could be accessed by two pointers and relocated anywhere in available memory, it was also extremely easy to implement hardware scrolling and page flipping to enable easy game design and programming.

There are many examples of demo programs available on the internet, displaying these and other features.

See also[link]

• History of Atari
• A.N.A.L.O.G. magazine
• ANTIC magazine
• Atari User magazine
• Page 6 magazine

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

General[link]

• The Atari History Museum
• Atari 8-Bit Computers: Frequently Asked Questions
• The Atari 8-bit Computer WebRing
• Stan Veit's Atari 800 History
• ATARI 65 XE with arabic keyboard
• Gamasutra's "A History of Gaming Platforms: Atari 8-bit Computers" by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton
• Gamasutra's "The History of Atari" Part 1:1971-77 | Part 2:1978-81, by Steve Fulton

Technical information[link]

• Another source of chipset information
• De Re Atari by Chris Crawford

Software, games, music, demos[link]

• Atari SAP Music Archive
• Atari Archives
• XL Search – A searchable index of files from numerous Atari FTP archives and websites
• Reminiscing: 8-Bit Atari Games
• Database of Atari games, demos and software

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Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; 27 November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Chinese American^[3] Hong Kong actor,^[4] martial arts instructor,^[5] philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement. He is widely considered by many commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist and pop culture icon of the 20th Century.^[6][7][8] He is often credited with changing the way Asians were presented in American films.^[6]

Lee was born in San Francisco to parents of Hong Kong heritage but was raised in Hong Kong until his late teens. Lee returned to the United States at the age of 18 to claim his U.S. citizenship and receive his higher education.^[9] It was during this time that he began teaching martial arts, which soon led to film and television roles.

His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked a major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world, as well.^[10] He is noted for his roles in five feature-length films: Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Warner Brothers' Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Game of Death (1978), both directed by Robert Clouse.^[11]

Lee became an iconic figure known throughout the world, particularly among the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese nationalism in his films.^[12] He initially trained in Wing Chun, but he later rejected well-defined martial art styles, favouring instead the use of techniques from various sources, in the spirit of his personal martial arts philosophy, which he dubbed Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).

Early life[link]

Part of the series on Chinese martial arts
List of Chinese martial arts
Terms
Kung fu (功夫) Wushu (武術) Qigong (氣功)
Historical places
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺) Wudang Mountains (武當山) Mount Hua (華山) Mount Emei (峨嵋山) Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山)
Historical people
Yue Fei (岳飛) Yim Wing-chun (嚴詠春) Hung Hei-gun (洪熙官) Fong Sai-yuk (方世玉) Dong Haichuan (董海川) Yang Lu-ch'an (楊露禪) Wu Quanyou (吳全佑) Ten Tigers of Canton (廣東十虎) Chen Fake (陳發科) Chan Heung (陳享) Wong Fei-hung (黃飛鴻) Sun Lu-t'ang (孫祿堂) Huo Yuanjia (霍元甲) Yip Man (葉問) Wang Zi-Ping (王子平)
Famous modern actors
Bruce Lee (李小龍) Jackie Chan (成龍) Sammo Hung (洪金寶) Yuen Biao (元彪) Jet Li (李連杰)
Legendary figures
Bodhidharma (菩提達摩) Zhang Sanfeng (張三丰) Eight immortals (八仙) Five Elders (五祖)
Related
Hong Kong action cinema Wushu (sport) Wuxia (武俠)
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Bruce Lee was born on 27 November 1940 at the Chinese Hospital in Chinatown, San Francisco. According to the Chinese zodiac Lee was born in both the hour and the year of the Dragon which in this cultural tradition is considered a strong and fortuitous omen.^[13] His father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was fully Chinese, and his mother, Grace Ho (何愛瑜), was half Chinese and half Caucasian.^[14] Grace was the daughter of Ho Kom-tong and the niece of Sir Robert Ho-tung, both notable Honk Kong businessmen and philanthropists.^[15] Lee was the fourth child of five children: Agnes, Phoebe, Peter, and Robert. Lee and his parents returned to Hong Kong when he was three months old.^[16]

Names[link]

Lee's Cantonese birth name was Lee Jun-fan (李振藩).^[17] The name homophonically means "return again"; it was given to Lee by his mother, who felt he would return to the United States once he came of age.^[18] Because of his mother's superstitious nature, she originally named him Sai-fon (細鳳), which is a feminine name meaning "small phoenix".^[19] The English name "Bruce" was thought to be given by the hospital attending physician, Dr. Mary Glover.^[20]

Lee had three other Chinese names: Li Yuanxin (李源鑫), a family/clan name; Li Yuanjian (李元鑒), as a student name while he was attending La Salle College, and his Chinese screen name Li Xiaolong (李小龍; Xiaolong means "little dragon"). Lee's given name Jun-fan was originally written in Chinese as 震藩, however, the Jun (震) Chinese character was identical to part of his grandfather's name, Lee Jun-biu (李震彪). Hence, the Chinese character for Jun in Lee's name was changed to the homonym 振 instead, to avoid naming taboo in Chinese tradition.

Family[link]

Lee's father, Lee Hoi-chuen, was one of the leading Cantonese opera and film actors at the time, and was embarking on a year-long Cantonese opera tour with his family on the eve of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. Lee Hoi-chuen had been touring the United States for many years and performing at numerous Chinese communities there.

Although a number of his peers decided to stay in the United States, Lee Hoi-chuen decided to go back to Hong Kong after his wife gave birth to Bruce Lee. Within months, Hong Kong was invaded and the Lees lived for three years and eight months under Japanese occupation. After the war ended, Lee Hoi-chuen resumed his acting career and became a more popular actor during Hong Kong's rebuilding years.

Lee's mother, Grace Ho, was from one of the wealthiest and most powerful clans in Hong Kong, the Ho-tungs. She was the niece of Sir Robert Ho-tung,^[15][21] of Eurasian descent and patriarch of the clan. As such, the young Bruce Lee grew up in an affluent and privileged environment. Despite this advantage of his family's status, the Hong Kong neighborhood Lee grew up in became over-crowded, dangerous, and full of gang rivalries because of the mass number of people fleeing communist China to Hong Kong, :^[19]

Post-war Hong Kong was a tough place to grow up. Gangs ruled the city streets and Lee was often forced to fight them. But Bruce liked a challenge and faced his adversaries head on. To his parents dismay, Bruce's street fighting continued and the violent nature of his confrontations was escalating.

After being involved in several street fights, Lee's parents decided that he needed to be trained in the martial arts. Lee's first introduction to martial arts was through his father. He learned the fundamentals of Wu-style t'ai chi ch'uan from his father.^[22]

Wing Chun[link]

The largest influence on Lee's martial arts development was his study of Wing Chun. Lee began training in Wing Chun at the age of 13 under the Wing Chun teacher Yip Man in 1954, after losing a fight with rival gang members. Yip's regular classes generally consisted of the forms practice, chi sao (sticking hands) drills, wooden dummy techniques, and free-sparring.^[23] There was no set pattern to the classes.^[23] Yip tried to keep his students from fighting in the street gangs of Hong Kong by encouraging them to fight in organized competitions.^[24]

After a year into his Wing Chun training, most of Yip Man's other students refused to train with Lee after they learnt of his ancestry (his mother was half Chinese and half Caucasian) as the Chinese generally were against teaching their martial arts techniques to non-Asians.^[25][26] Lee's sparring partner, Hawkins Cheung states, "Probably fewer than six people in the whole Wing Chun clan were personally taught, or even partly taught, by Yip Man".^[27] However, Lee showed a keen interest in Wing Chun, and continued to train privately with Yip Man and Wong Shun Leung in 1955.^[28]

Leaving Hong Kong[link]

After attending Tak Sun School (德信學校) (a couple of blocks from his home at 218 Nathan Road, Kowloon), Lee entered the primary school division of La Salle College in 1950 or 1952 (at the age of 12). In around 1956, due to poor academic performance (or possibly poor conduct as well), he was transferred to St. Francis Xavier's College (high school) where he would be mentored by Brother Edward, a teacher and coach of the school boxing team.

In the spring of 1959, Lee got into yet another street fight and the police were called.^[29] From all the way to his late teens, Lee's street fights became more frequent and included beating up the son of a feared triad family. Eventually, Lee's father decided for him to leave Hong Kong to pursue a safer and healthier avenue in the United States. His parents confirmed the police's fear that this time Lee's opponent had an organised crime background, and there was the possibility that a contract was out for his life.

The police detective came and he says "Excuse me Mr. Lee, your son is really fighting bad in school. If he gets into just one more fight I might have to put him in jail".

—Robert Lee^[19]

In April 1959, Lee's parents decided to send him to the United States to stay with his older sister, Agnes Lee (李秋鳳), who was already living with family friends in San Francisco.

New life in America[link]

At the age of 18, Lee returned to the United States with $100 in his pocket and the titles of 1957 High School Boxing Champion and 1958 Crown colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong.^[13] After living in San Francisco for several months, he moved to Seattle in 1959, to continue his high school education, where he also worked for Ruby Chow as a live-in waiter at her restaurant.

Chow's husband was a co-worker and friend of Lee's father. Lee's elder brother Peter Lee (李忠琛) would also join him in Seattle for a short stay before moving on to Minnesota to attend college. In December 1960, Lee completed his high school education and received his diploma from Edison Technical School (now Seattle Central Community College, located on Capitol Hill, Seattle).

In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington, majoring in drama according to the university's alumni association information,^[30] not in philosophy as claimed by Lee himself and many others. Lee also studied philosophy, psychology, and various other subjects.^[31][32] It was at the University of Washington that he met his future wife Linda Emery, a fellow student studying to become a teacher, whom he married in August 1964.

Lee had two children with Linda Emery, Brandon Lee (1965–93) and Shannon Lee (b. 1969).

Jun Fan Gung Fu[link]

Lee began teaching martial arts in the United States in 1959. He called what he taught Jun Fan Gung Fu (literally Bruce Lee's Kung Fu). It was basically his approach to Wing Chun.^[33] Lee taught friends he met in Seattle, starting with Judo practitioner Jesse Glover, who later became his first assistant instructor. Lee opened his first martial arts school, named the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, in Seattle.

Lee dropped out of college in the spring of 1964 and moved to Oakland to live with James Yimm Lee (嚴鏡海). James Lee was twenty years senior to Bruce Lee and a well known Chinese martial artist in the area. Together, they founded the second Jun Fan martial art studio in Oakland. James Lee was also responsible for introducing Bruce Lee to Ed Parker, royalty of the U.S. martial arts world and organizer of the Long Beach International Karate Championships at which Bruce Lee was later "discovered" by Hollywood.

Jeet Kune Do[link]

The Jeet Kune Do emblem is a registered trademark held by the Bruce Lee Estate. The Chinese characters around the Taijitu symbol read: "Using no way as way" and "Having no limitation as limitation" The arrows represent the endless interaction between yang and yin.^[34]

Jeet Kune Do originated in 1967. After filming one season of The Green Hornet, Lee found himself out of work and opened The Jun Fan Institute of Gung Fu. A controversial match with Wong Jack Man influenced Lee's philosophy about martial arts. Lee concluded that the fight had lasted too long and that he had failed to live up to his potential using his Wing Chun techniques. He took the view that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. Lee decided to develop a system with an emphasis on "practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency". He started to use different methods of training such as weight training for strength, running for endurance, stretching for flexibility, and many others which he constantly adapted, including fencing and basic boxing techniques.

Lee emphasised what he called "the style of no style". This consisted of getting rid of the formalised approach which Lee claimed was indicative of traditional styles. Lee felt the system he now called Jun Fan Gung Fu was even too restrictive, and eventually evolved into a philosophy and martial art he would come to call Jeet Kune Do or the Way of the Intercepting Fist. It is a term he would later regret, because Jeet Kune Do implied specific parameters that styles connote; whereas the idea of his martial art was to exist outside of parameters and limitations.^[35]

Long Beach International Karate Championships[link]

At the invitation of Ed Parker, Lee appeared in the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships^[36] and performed repetitions of two-finger push-ups (using the thumb and the index finger of one hand) with feet at approximately a shoulder-width apart. In the same Long Beach event he also performed the "One inch punch",^[37] the description of which is as follows: Lee stood upright, his right foot forward with knees bent slightly, in front of a standing, stationary partner. Lee's right arm was partly extended and his right fist approximately an inch away from the partner's chest. Without retracting his right arm, Lee then forcibly delivered the punch to his partner while largely maintaining his posture, sending the partner backwards and falling into a chair said to be placed behind the partner to prevent injury, though his partner's momentum soon caused him to fall to the floor. His volunteer was Bob Baker of Stockton, California. "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again", Baker recalled. "When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable".^[38]

It was at the 1964 championships where Lee first met Taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee. The two developed a friendship – a relationship from which they benefited as martial artists. Rhee taught Lee the side kick in detail, and Lee taught Rhee the "non-telegraphic" punch.^[39]

Lee appeared at the 1967 Long Beach International Karate Championships and performed various demonstrations, including the famous "unstoppable punch" against USKA world Karate champion Vic Moore.^[36] Lee told Moore that he was going to throw a straight punch to the face, and all he had to do was to try to block it. Lee took several steps back and asked if Moore was ready, when Moore nodded in affirmation, Lee glided towards him until he was within striking range. He then threw a straight punch directly at Moore's face, and stopped before impact. In eight attempts, Moore failed to block any of the punches.^[40][41]

Fight history[link]

Lee defeated three-time champion British boxer Gary Elms by way of knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong Inter-School amateur Boxing Championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches.^[42]

The following year, Lee became a member of the "Tigers of Junction Street," and was involved in numerous gang-related street fights. "In one of his last encounters, while removing his jacket the fellow he was squaring off against sucker punched him and blackened his eye. Bruce flew into a rage and went after him, knocking him out, breaking his opponent's arm. The police were called as a result".^[43] The incident took place on a Hong Kong rooftop at 10 pm on Wednesday, 29 April 1959.^[44]

In 1962, Lee was challenged by a man who had been holding a grudge against Lee while the two were practicing at a YMCA in Seattle.^[45] The man was described by Jesse Glover as a karate man who also had a blackbelt in judo, though Glover, who was a brown belt in judo at the time, claimed to be better than the man in judo.^[45] After weeks^[46] or months^[47] of provocation by the man, Lee agreed to fight the man for three two-minute rounds, with the winner being the one who knocked the opponent down or out in two out of three rounds.^[48] The match took place at YMCA's handball court, with Glover as the referee and Ed Hart as the time keeper.^[48] Lee wore street clothes and used a Wing Chun stance while his opponent wore a gi and used a karate stance.^[48] According to Glover, Lee used his right forearm to deflect an initial kick from the man and simultaneously landed a left punch to the face.^[48] Lee deflected more punches using the forearm, controlling the center line and landed more punches to the man's face until he was against the wall.^[48] The man attempted to grab Lee's arms, which Lee responded by a double fist punch to the face and chest, followed by a kick to the nose, which produced a nosebleed and a knockout, at which time Glover stopped the fight.^[48] Taki Kamura said the fight lasted 10 seconds.^[49] Ed Hart stated "the fight lasted exactly 11 seconds – I know because I was the time keeper – and Bruce had hit the guy something like 15 times and kicked him once. I thought he'd killed him".^[46]

In Oakland, California in 1964 at Chinatown, Lee had a controversial private match with Wong Jack Man, a direct student of Ma Kin Fung known for his mastery of Xingyiquan, Northern Shaolin, and T'ai chi ch'uan. According to Lee, the Chinese community issued an ultimatum to him to stop teaching non-Chinese. When he refused to comply, he was challenged to a combat match with Wong. The arrangement was that if Lee lost, he would have to shut down his school; while if he won, then Lee would be free to teach Caucasians or anyone else.^[43] Wong denied this, stating that he requested to fight Lee after Lee issued an open challenge during one of Lee's demonstrations at a Chinatown theatre, and that Wong himself did not discriminate against Caucasians or other non-Chinese.^[50] Lee commented, "That paper had all the names of the sifu from Chinatown, but they don't scare me".^[51]

Individuals known to have witnessed the match included Cadwell, James Lee (Bruce Lee's associate, no relation), and William Chen, a teacher of T'ai chi ch'uan. Wong and witness William Chen stated that the fight lasted an unusually long 20–25 minutes.^[50] According to Bruce Lee, Linda Lee Cadwell, and James Yimm Lee, the fight lasted 3 minutes with a decisive victory for Lee. "The fight ensued, it was a no-holds-barred fight, it took three minutes. Bruce got this guy down to the ground and said 'do you give up?' and the man said he gave up" – Linda Lee Cadwell.^[43]

Wong Jack Man published his own account of the battle in the Chinese Pacific Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper in San Francisco, which contained another challenge to Lee for a public rematch.^[50] Lee had no reciprocation to Wong's article, nor were there any further public announcements by either, but Lee had continued to teach Caucasians.

Lee's eventual celebrity put him in the path of a number of men who sought to make a name for themselves by causing a confrontation with Lee. A challenger had invaded Lee's private home in Hong Kong by trespassing into the backyard to incite Lee in combat. Lee finished the challenger violently with a kick, infuriated over the home invasion. Describing the incident, Herb Jackson states,

One time one fellow got over that wall, got into his yard and challenged him and he says 'how good are you?' And Bruce was poppin mad. He [Bruce] says 'he gets the idea, this guy, to come and invade my home, my own private home, invade it and challenge me.' He said he got so mad that he gave the hardest kick he ever gave anyone in his life.^[52]

Bob Wall, USPK karate champion and Lee's co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalled one encounter that transpired after a film extra kept taunting Lee. The extra yelled that Lee was "a movie star, not a martial artist," that he "wasn't much of a fighter". Lee answered his taunts by asking him to jump down from the wall he was sitting on. Wall described Lee's opponent as "a gang-banger type of guy from Hong Kong," a "damned good martial artist," and observed that he was fast, strong, and bigger than Bruce.^[53]

This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart.^[54] Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass with the wall and swept him up, proceeding to drop him and plant his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly". – Bob Wall^[55]

Acting career[link]

Bruce Lee in The Kid.

Lee's father Lee Hoi-chuen was a famous Cantonese opera star. Because of this, Lee was introduced into films at a very young age and appeared in several films as a child. Lee had his first role as a baby who was carried onto the stage in the film Golden Gate Girl. By the time he was 18, he had appeared in twenty films.^[13]

While in the United States from 1959 to 1964, Lee abandoned thoughts of a film career in favour of pursuing martial arts. However, a martial arts exhibition on Long Beach in 1964 eventually led to the invitation by William Dozier for an audition for a part in the pilot for "Number One Son". The show never aired, but Lee was invited for the role of Kato alongside Van Williams in the TV series The Green Hornet. The show lasted just one season, from 1966 to 1967. Lee also played Kato in three crossover episodes of Batman. This was followed by guest appearances in three television series: Ironside (1967), Here Come the Brides (1969), and Blondie (1969).

At the time, two of Lee's martial arts students were Hollywood script writer Stirling Silliphant and actor James Coburn. In 1969 the three worked on a script for a film called The Silent Flute, and went together on a location hunt to India. The project was not realised at the time; but the 1978 film Circle of Iron, starring David Carradine, was based on the same plot. In 2010, producer Paul Maslansky was reported to plan and receive fundings for a film based on the original script for The Silent Flute.^[56] In 1969, Lee made a brief appearance in the Silliphant-penned film Marlowe where he played a henchman hired to intimidate private detective Philip Marlowe, (played by James Garner), by smashing up his office with leaping kicks and flashing punches, only to later accidentally jump off a tall building while trying to kick Marlowe off. The same year he also choreographed fight scenes for The Wrecking Crew starring Dean Martin, Sharon Tate, and featuring Chuck Norris in his first role. In 1970, he was responsible for fight choreography for A Walk in the Spring Rain starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn, again written by Silliphant. In 1971, Lee appeared in four episodes of the television series Longstreet, written by Silliphant. Lee played the martial arts instructor of the title character Mike Longstreet (played by James Franciscus), and important aspects of his martial arts philosophy were written into the script.

According to statements made by Lee, and also by Linda Lee Cadwell after Lee's death, in 1971 Lee pitched a television series of his own tentatively titled The Warrior, discussions which were also confirmed by Warner Bros. In a 9 December 1971 television interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Lee stated that both Paramount and Warner Brothers wanted him "to be in a modernized type of a thing, and that they think the Western idea is out, whereas I want to do the Western".^[57] According to Cadwell, however, Lee's concept was retooled and renamed Kung Fu, but Warner Bros. gave Lee no credit.^[58] Warner Brothers states that they had for some time been developing an identical concept,^[59] created by two writers and producers, Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander. According to these sources, the reason Lee was not cast was in part because of his ethnicity, but more so because he had a thick accent.^[60] The role of the Shaolin monk in the Wild West, was eventually awarded to then-non-martial-artist David Carradine. In The Pierre Berton Show interview, Lee stated he understood Warner Brothers' attitudes towards casting in the series: "They think that business wise it is a risk. I don't blame them. If the situation were reversed, and an American star were to come to Hong Kong, and I was the man with the money, I would have my own concerns as to whether the acceptance would be there".^[61]

Producer Fred Weintraub had advised Lee to return to Hong Kong and make a feature film which he could showcase to executives in Hollywood.^[62] Not happy with his supporting roles in the United States, Lee returned to Hong Kong. Unaware that The Green Hornet had been played to success in Hong Kong and was unofficially referred to as "The Kato Show", he was surprised to be recognised on the street as the star of the show. After negotiating with both Shaw Brothers Studio and Golden Harvest, Lee signed a film contract to star in two films produced by Golden Harvest. Lee played his first leading role in The Big Boss (1971) which proved to be an enormous box office success across Asia and catapulted him to stardom. He soon followed up with Fist of Fury (1972) which broke the box office records set previously by The Big Boss. Having finished his initial two-year contract, Lee negotiated a new deal with Golden Harvest. Lee later formed his own company, Concord Productions Inc. (協和電影公司), with Chow. For his third film, Way of the Dragon (1972), he was given complete control of the film's production as the writer, director, star, and choreographer of the fight scenes. In 1964, at a demonstration in Long Beach, California, Lee had met Karate champion Chuck Norris. In Way of the Dragon Lee introduced Norris to movie-goers as his opponent in the final death fight at the Colosseum in Rome, today considered one of Lee's most legendary fight scenes and one of the most memorable fight scenes in martial arts film history.^[63] The role was originally offered to American Karate champion Joe Lewis.^[64]

Bruce Lee's star at the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong.

In late 1972, Lee began work on his fourth Golden Harvest Film, Game of Death. He began filming some scenes including his fight sequence with 7'2" American Basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a former student. Production was stopped when Warner Brothers offered Lee the opportunity to star in Enter the Dragon, the first film to be produced jointly by Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. Filming commenced in Hong Kong in February 1973. One month into the filming, another production company, Starseas Motion Pictures, promoted Bruce Lee as a leading actor in Fist of Unicorn, although he had merely agreed to choreograph the fight sequences in the film as a favour to his long-time friend Unicorn Chan. Lee planned to sue the production company, but retained his friendship with Chan.^[65] However, only a few months after the completion of Enter the Dragon, and six days before its 26 July 1973 release,^[66] Lee died. Enter the Dragon would go on to become one of the year's highest grossing films and cement Lee as a martial arts legend. It was made for US$850,000 in 1973 (equivalent to $4 million adjusted for inflation as of 2007).^[67] To date, Enter the Dragon has grossed over $200 million worldwide.^[68] The film sparked a brief fad in martial arts, epitomised in songs such as "Kung Fu Fighting" and TV shows like Kung Fu.

Robert Clouse, the director of Enter the Dragon and Golden Harvest revived Lee's unfinished film Game of Death. Lee had shot over 100 minutes of footage, including out-takes, for Game of Death before shooting was stopped to allow him to work on Enter the Dragon. In addition to Abdul-Jabbar, George Lazenby, Hapkido master Ji Han-Jae and another of Lee's students, Dan Inosanto, were also to appear in the film, which was to culminate in Lee's character, Hai Tien (clad in the now-famous yellow track suit) taking on a series of different challengers on each floor as they make their way through a five-level pagoda. In a controversial move, Robert Clouse finished the film using a look-alike and archive footage of Lee from his other films with a new storyline and cast, which was released in 1978. However, the cobbled-together film contained only fifteen minutes of actual footage of Lee (he had printed many unsuccessful takes)^[69] while the rest had a Lee look-alike, Kim Tai Chung, and Yuen Biao as stunt double. The unused footage Lee had filmed was recovered 22 years later and included in the documentary Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey.^[70]

Apart from Game of Death, other future film projects were planned to feature Lee at the time. In 1972, after the success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, a third film was planned by Raymond Chow at Golden Harvest to be directed by Lo Wei, titled Yellow-Faced Tiger. However, at the time, Lee decided to direct and produce his own script for Way of the Dragon instead. Although Lee had formed a production company with Raymond Chow, a period film was also planned from September–November 1973 with the competing Shaw Brothers Studio, to be directed by either Chor Yuen or Cheng Kang, and written by Yi Kang and Chang Cheh, titled The Seven Sons of the Jade Dragon.^[71] Lee had also worked on several scripts himself. A tape containing a recording of Lee narrating the basic storyline to a film tentatively titled Southern Fist/Northern Leg exists, showing some similarities with the canned script for The Silent Flute (Circle of Iron).^[72] Another script had the title Green Bamboo Warrior, set in San Francisco, planned to co-star Bolo Yeung and to be produced by Andrew Vajna who later went on to produce First Blood.^[65] Photo shoot costume tests were also organized for some of these planned film projects.

Physical fitness and nutrition[link]

Physical fitness[link]

Lee was renowned for his physical fitness and vigorous, dedicated fitness regimen to become as strong as he possibly could.

After his match with Wong Jack Man in 1965, Lee changed his approach toward martial arts training. Lee felt that many martial artists of his time did not spend enough time on physical conditioning. Lee included all elements of total fitness—muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. He tried traditional bodybuilding techniques to build bulky muscles or mass. However, Lee was careful to admonish that mental and spiritual preparation was fundamental to the success of physical training in martial arts skills. In Tao of Jeet Kune Do, he wrote

Training is one of the most neglected phases of athletics. Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development of the individual for participation. ... JKD, ultimately is not a matter of petty techniques but of highly developed spirituality and physique.^[73]

The weight training program that Lee used during a stay in Hong Kong in 1965 placed heavy emphasis on his arms. At that time he could perform single biceps curls at a weight of 70 to 80 lb (about 32 to 36 kg) for three sets of eight repetitions, along with other forms of exercises, such as squats, push-ups, reverse curls, concentration curls, French presses, and both wrist curls and reverse wrist curls.^[74] The repetitions he performed were 6 to 12 reps (at the time). While this method of training targeted his fast and slow twitch muscles, it later resulted in weight gain or muscle mass, placing Lee a little over 160 lb (about 72 kg). Lee was documented as having well over 2,500 books in his own personal library, and eventually concluded that "A stronger muscle, is a bigger muscle", a conclusion he later disputed.^[75] Bruce forever experimented with his training routines to maximise his physical abilities and push the human body to its limits. He employed many different routines and exercises including skipping rope, which served his training and bodybuilding purposes effectively.^[76]

Lee believed that the abdominal muscles were one of the most important muscle groups for a martial artist, since virtually every movement requires some degree of abdominal work. Mito Uyehara recalled that "Bruce always felt that if your stomach was not developed, then you had no business doing any hard sparring". According to Linda Lee Cadwell, even when not training, Lee would frequently perform sit ups and other abdominal exercises in domestic living throughout the day, such as during watching TV. She said of Lee, "Bruce was a fanatic about ab training. He was always doing sit-ups, crunches, Roman chair movements, leg raises and V-ups".^[77]

Lee trained from 7 am to 9 am, including stomach, flexibility, and running, and from 11 am to 12 pm he would weight train and cycle. A typical exercise for Lee would be to run a distance of two to six miles in 15 to 45 minutes, in which he would vary speed in 3–5 minute intervals. Lee would ride the equivalent of 10 miles (about 16 kilometres) in 45 minutes on a stationary bike.^[78][79]

Lee would sometimes exercise with the jump rope and put in 800 jumps after cycling. Lee would also do exercises to toughen the skin on his fists, including thrusting his hands into buckets of harsh rocks and gravel. He would do over 500 repetitions of this on a given day.^[80] An article of the S. China Post writes "When a doctor warned him not to inflict too much violence on his body, Bruce dismissed his words. 'the human brain can subjugate anything, even real pain' —Bruce Lee".^[81]

Physical feats[link]

Lee's phenomenal fitness allowed him to perform numerous exceptional physical feats:^[82][83]

• Lee's speed in terms of reacting + punching from a distance of three feet away was determined to be around five hundredths of a second (0.05 second); from five feet away it was around eight hundredths of a second (0.08 second).^[84][85][86]
• Lee could take in one arm a 75 lb barbell from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest and slowly stick his arms out locking them, holding the barbell there for several seconds.^[87]
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.^[88]
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.^[83][89]
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.^[90]
• Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.^[83]
• Lee held an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.^[82]

Nutrition[link]

According to Linda Lee Cadwell, soon after he moved to the United States, Lee started to take nutrition seriously and developed an interest in health foods, high-protein drinks and vitamin and mineral supplements. He later concluded that in order to achieve a high-performance body, one could not fuel it with a diet of junk food, and with "the wrong fuel" one's body would perform sluggishly or sloppily.^[91] Lee also avoided baked goods and refined flour, describing them as providing calories which did nothing for his body.^[92]

Lee consumed green vegetables and fruit every day. He always preferred to eat Chinese or other Asian food because he loved the variety that it had. Some of Lee's favorite Chinese dishes were beef in oyster sauce, tofu and steak and liver.^[93] He also became a heavy advocate of dietary supplements, including Vitamin C, Lecithin granules, bee pollen, Shilajit, Vitamin E, rose hips (liquid form), wheat germ oil, Acerola – C and B-Folia.^[94]

Lee disliked dairy food although he felt that for building muscle he must consume milk. As a result he only ate dairy as part of cereals and protein drinks, usually using powdered milk instead of fresh milk. Lee's diet included protein drinks; he always tried to consume one or two daily, but discontinued drinking them later on in his life. They typically included non-instant powdered milk which is reported to have a higher concentration of calcium than other forms of powdered milk, eggs, wheat germ, peanut butter, banana, brewers yeast for its B vitamins, and Inositol and Lecithin supplements.^[95] Linda Lee recalls Bruce Lee's waist fluctuated between 26 and 28 inches (66 to 71 centimetres). "He also drank his own juice concoctions made from vegetables and fruits, apples, celery, carrots and so on, prepared in an electric blender", she said.^{[citation needed]}

According to Lee, the size of portions and number of meals were just as important. He would usually consume four or five smaller meals a day rather than a couple of large meals, and would boost his metabolism by eating small healthy snacks such as fruits throughout the day.^[95] Fruit and vegetables provided him with the richest source of carbohydrates; he was particularly keen on carrots which would make up one half of the contents of the drink, with the remaining being split between the other fruits and vegetables. The reason why Lee was so keen on juicing vegetables and fruits is that he believed it allowed the body to assimilate many nutrients more easily. The enzymes in the juiced vegetables acting as organic catalysts which increase the metabolism and absorption of nutrients. Given that most of these enzymes are destroyed when vegetables are cooked, Lee would try to consume them raw.^[96]

Lee often consumed a drink of royal jelly and ginseng as they contain B-complex vitamins, including a high concentration of vitamin B₅ (pantothenic acid) and vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine), acetylcholine, hormones, and eighteen amino acids which allow for a quick energy boost.^[96] In traditional Chinese medicine, ginseng is also said to improve circulation, increase blood supply, allow quicker recovery times after exhaustion and stimulating the body.^[97] In addition, Lee regularly drank black tea, often with honey or with milk and sugar.^[98]

Philosophy[link]

Lee is best known as a martial artist, but he also studied drama and philosophy while a student at the University of Washington. He was well-read and had an extensive library. His own books on martial arts and fighting philosophy are known for their philosophical assertions, both inside and outside of martial arts circles. His eclectic philosophy often mirrored his fighting beliefs, though he was quick to claim that his martial arts were solely a metaphor for such teachings. He believed that any knowledge ultimately led to self-knowledge, and said that his chosen method of self-expression was martial arts.^[99] His influences include Taoism, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Buddhism.^[100] On the other hand, Lee's philosophy was very much in opposition to the conservative world view advocated by Confucianism.^[101] John Little states that Lee was an atheist. When asked in 1972 about his religious affiliation, he replied, "none whatsoever".^[102] Also in 1972, he was asked if he believed in God, and he responded, "To be perfectly frank, I really do not".^[99]

The following quotations reflect his fighting philosophy.

• "Be formless... shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You pour water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put water into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash! Be water, my friend..."^[103]
• "All types of knowledge, ultimately leads to self knowledge"^[104]
• "Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it".^[105]
• "Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there".^[106]
• "Quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough".^[107]
• "I always learn something, and that is: to always be yourself. And to express yourself, to have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him".^[108]
• "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential".^[109]

Poetry[link]

Lee’s erudition expanded in any field that required pure human expression. Aside from martial arts and philosophy which focus on the physical aspect; and self consciousness for truths and principles^[110] . He also wrote poetry that reflected his emotion and a stage in his life collectively^[111] . Many forms of art remain concordant with the artist creating them. Lee’s principal of self-expression was applied to his poetry as well. His daughter Shannon Lee said “He did write poetry, he was really the consonant artist”^[112] .His poetic works originally handwritten on paper, later on edited and published. John Little being the major author (editor), for Bruce Lee’s works. Linda Lee Cadwell (Bruce Lee’s wife) shared her husbands notes, poems and experiences with followers. She mentioned “Lee’s poems are, by American standards, rather dark-reflecting the deeper, less exposed recesses of the human psyche”^[113] . Most of Bruce Lee’s poems are categorized as anti-poetry or fall into a paradox. The mood in his poems show the side of the man that can be compared with other poets such as Robert Frost, one of many well known poets expressing himself with dark poetic works. The paradox taken from the Yin and Yang symbol in martial arts, also integrated in his poetry. His martial arts, and philosophy contribute a great part to his poetry. The free verse form of Lee’s poetry reflect his famous quote “Be formless... shapeless, like water.” ^[114]

Bruce Lee’s poems:

• Rain, Black Clouds ^[115]
• Down The Western Hill ^[116]
• The Dying Sun ^[117]
• Love Is a Friendship Caught on Fire ^[118]
• Once More I Hold You in My Arms ^[119]
• All Streams Flowing East or West ^[120]
• Boating on Lake Washington ^[121]
• For a Moment ^[122]
• Walking Along the Bank of Lake Washington ^[123]
• Night Rain ^[124]
• Our Togetherness Is Like a Sweet Dream ^[125]
• The Surroundings Utter No Sound ^[126]
• It Is Spring ^[127]
• Things I See ^[128]
• The Humming Bird ^[129]
• The Frost ^[130]
• The Falling Leaf ^[131]
• Though the Night Was Made for Loving ^[132]
• The Silent Flute ^[133]
• Since You Left ^[134]
• Parting ^[135]

Death[link]

Bruce Lee is buried next to his son Brandon in Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle.

On 10 May 1973, Lee collapsed in Golden Harvest studios while doing dubbing work for the movie Enter the Dragon. Suffering from seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. They were able to reduce the swelling through the administration of mannitol. These same symptoms that occurred in his first collapse were later repeated on the day of his death.^[136]

On 20 July 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong, to have dinner with former James Bond star George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 pm at home to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. They worked until 4 pm and then drove together to the home of Lee's colleague Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress. The three went over the script at Ting's home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting.^[137][138]

Later Lee complained of a headache, and Ting gave him an analgesic (painkiller), Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the muscle relaxant meprobamate. Around 7:30 pm, he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not turn up for dinner, Chow came to the apartment but could not wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, who spent ten minutes attempting to revive him before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lee was dead by the time he reached the hospital.^[139]

There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, his brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13% increase). Lee was 32 years old. The only substance found during the autopsy was Equagesic. On 15 October 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee died from an allergic reaction to the muscle relaxant (meprobamate) in Equagesic, which he described as a common ingredient in painkillers. When the doctors announced Lee's death officially, it was ruled a "death by misadventure".^[140][141]

Don Langford, Lee's personal physician in Hong Kong, had treated Lee during his first collapse. Controversy erupted when he stated, "Equagesic was not at all involved in Bruce's first collapse".^[142]

Donald Teare, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by an acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic.^[143]

The preliminary opinion of Peter Wu, the neurosurgeon who saved Lee's life during his first seizure, was that the cause of death should have been attributed to either a reaction to cannabis or Equagesic. However, Wu later backed off from this position, stating that:

"Professor Teare was a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard; he was brought in as an expert on cannabis and we can't contradict his testimony. The dosage of cannabis is neither precise nor predictable, but I've never known of anyone dying simply from taking it."^[142]

Lee's wife Linda returned to her hometown of Seattle, and had him buried at lot 276 of Lakeview Cemetery.^[144] Pallbearers at his funeral on 31 July 1973 included Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Chuck Norris, George Lazenby, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, and Lee's brother Robert.

Lee's iconic status and untimely demise fed many theories about his death, including murder involving the triads and a supposed curse on him and his family.^[145] Black Belt magazine in 1985 carried the speculation that the death of Bruce Lee in 1973 may have been caused by "a delayed reaction to a Dim Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse".

Legacy[link]

Certified instructors[link]

Bruce Lee personally certified only three instructors. Taky Kimura, James Yimm Lee, and Dan Inosanto. Inosanto holds the 3rd rank (Instructor) directly from Bruce Lee in Jeet Kune Do, Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Bruce Lee's Tao of Chinese Gung Fu. Taky Kimura holds a 5th rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. James Yimm Lee held a 3rd rank in Jun Fan Gung Fu. Ted Wong holds 2nd rank in Jeet Kune Do certified directly by Bruce Lee and was later promoted to Instructor under Dan Inosanto; feeling that Bruce would have wanted to promote him. Other Jeet Kune Do instructors since Lee's death have been certified directly by Dan Inosanto, some with remaining Bruce Lee signed certificates.

James Yimm Lee, a close friend of Lee, died without certifying additional students apart from Gary Dill who studied Jeet Kune Do under James and received permission via a personal letter from him in 1972 to pass on his learning of JKD to others. Taky Kimura, to date, has certified only one person in Jun Fan Gung Fu: his son Andy Kimura. Dan Inosanto continued to teach and certify select students in Jeet Kune Do for over 30 years, making it possible for thousands of martial arts practitioners to trace their training lineage back to Bruce Lee. Prior to his death, Lee told his then only two living instructors Kimura and Inosanto (James Yimm Lee had died in 1972) to dismantle his schools.

Both Taky Kimura and Dan Inosanto were allowed to teach small classes thereafter, under the guideline "keep the numbers low, but the quality high". Bruce also instructed several World Karate Champions including Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, and Mike Stone. Between the three of them, during their training with Bruce they won every karate championship in the United States.^[146]

In Japan, Junichi Okada is a certified Japanese instructor in Jeet Kune Do.^[147]

Hong Kong legacy[link]

Sculpture of Bruce Lee at the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong

There are a number of stories (perhaps apocryphal) surrounding Lee that are still repeated in Hong Kong culture. One is that his early 70s interview on the TVB show Enjoy Yourself Tonight cleared the busy streets of Hong Kong as everyone was watching the interview at home.

On 6 January 2009, it was announced that Bruce's Hong Kong home (41 Cumberland Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong) will be preserved and transformed into a tourist site by philanthropist Yu Pang-lin.^[148][149]

Awards and honours[link]

Bruce Lee was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.^[6]

Martial arts lineage[link]

Lee was trained in Wu Tai Chi Chuan (also known as Ng-ga) and Jing Mo Tam Tui for the twelve sets. Lee was trained in the martial arts Choy Li Fut, Western Boxing, Épée fencing, Judo, Praying Mantis Kung-fu, Hsing-I, and Jujitsu.

When Bruce arrived in the US he (already) had training in Wu Style Tai Chi, sometimes in Hong Kong called Ng-ga. And he had of course training in western boxing. He had training in fencing from his brother, that's Epee, that goes from toe to head. He had training obviously in Wing Chun. And the other area was the training he had received in Buk Pie, or Tam Toi, he was twelve sets in Tam Toi. And I believe he had traded with a Choy Li Fut man.

—Danny Inosanto^[150]

Media[link]

Books authored[link]

• Chinese Gung-Fu: The Philosophical Art of Self Defense (Bruce Lee's first book) – 1963
• Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Published posthumously) – 1973
• Bruce Lee's Fighting Method (Published posthumously) – 1978

Selected filmography[link]

For a complete list of Bruce Lee's filmography see

Films[link]

Television[link]

Games[link]

See also[link]

• Bruce Lee Library
• Bruce Lee statue in Hong Kong
• Bruceploitation
• Mostar Bruce Lee statue

References[link]