The original circuit, called a “Sound Synthesizer”, was published in a Radio Shack booklet: “Engineer’s Notebook: Integrated Circuit Applica- tions” in 1980 and later called “Stepped Tone Generator” in “Engineer’s Mini-Notebook - 555 Circuits” by its designer, Forrest M. Mims III (Silicon- cepts, 1984).
It was named “Atari Punk Console” by Kaustic Machines crew because its “low- ” sounds resemble classic Atari console games from the 1980s, with a square wave output similar to the Atari 2600.
