A Question About Atari Basic Versions...

[DavidMil]

Ok, please forgive my ignorance but I'm curious...

 

If a simple program is written in Atari Basic ver. C and you run it on an 800 with Basic ver. A; off the top of your head, what kind of problems could you expect?

I know this covers a really big area, I'd just like to get some feedback.

 

Thanks,

DavidMil

[+Nezgar]

Generally, you should have no compatibility problems. The problems with rev A & B were mostly while you were programming using the editor and got either lockups, or memory bloat. Loading and execution of programs should be fine in any Rev.

 

I never heard of, and never experienced, loading and running an Atari BASIC program not working on a particular Rev....

Edited July 9, 2018 by Nezgar

[+CharlieChaplin]

Oh, there are several commercial programs that will only run with Rev. A of Atari Basic, see atarimania...

[_The Doctor__]

and a few conversely that don't work exactly as expected in the other direction, I use rev c and have a on cartridge for others...

aren't most rev a dependent works patched already? and if not why wouldn't we at this day and age not tackle them

Edited July 9, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[+CharlieChaplin]

and a few conversely that don't work exactly as expected in the other direction, I use rev c and have a on cartridge for others...

aren't most rev a dependent works patched already? and if not why wouldn't we at this day and age not tackle them

 

Don't mix OS-A with Basic Rev. A...

Most (if not all) games that require OS-A or OS-B have been patched by Homesoft to work correct on XL/XE machines. But afaik none of the programs that really require Atari Basic Rev. A have been patched, so they work alright with Rev. B or Rev. C...

[DavidMil]

Didn't 'A' have a problem with strings that was partly fixed in 'B'?

 

David

[ACML]

I made the choice to convert all my machines and BASIC carts to rev C. What a lot of people don't know is that the old brown ATARI rev A can easily be turned into a rev C. The two 24 pin sockets (2x4K=8K) in the brown Rev A cart can be replaced with one 8K rev C chip. Atari designed the older brown carts to accept 8K ROMs. You just pull out the 2 4K rev A ROMs and place the single 8K rev C ROM in the right socket (leaving the left socket empty). No soldering wires, cutting traces and BAM!, you just upgraded the rev A cart to rev C.

Edited July 9, 2018 by ACML

[+Nezgar]

You just pull out the 2 4K rev A ROMs and place the single 8K rev C ROM in the right socket (leaving the left socket empty). No soldering wires, cutting traces and BAM!, you just upgraded the rev A cart to rev C.

Oh nice! I might have to put in an order of rev C chips into best electronics! Or... I wonder if my 2764-->2364 adapter boards from go4retro would fit inside.. Maybe with no sockets/direct soldering to PCB... then you could even use a 27C256 and install a single 3 position switch in the shell to select between BASIC A,B, and C.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Nezgar

[+MrFish]

Instedit is one of the programs that will only run on BASIC rev. A.

I used to own a copy of this and tested it on real hardware (800,

800XL, 130XE) and made an image to test in emulation (using

various combinations of hardware, BASIC, and OS'es).

 

[Note: I sent an image of the ESI version -- along with all the

scanned materials -- to Atarimania; I'm not sure why the disk

image was never posted, though. Let me know if it needs to be

resent.]

 

[erichenneke]

Here's a simple one to replicate. I ran into this when I tested "the Bounty Hunter" on original Atari 800 hardware using a Rev A cartridge. This was the reason I released an updated revision for the final version of the game.

 

In Rev A version of Basic, just end any PRINT statement with "CTRL-R". And then follow this with another PRINT statement.

When you run it, it will not carriage return to the next line as it should and instead it concatenates the lines and wraps without a carriage return.

 

If you run the exact same thing in Rev C ( or Rev B for that matter ) it will carriage return as you would expect it too and print on two separate lines.

 

 

-Eric

 

 

[+Nezgar]

Interesting, I didn't know that one - Is it only the Control-R character that prevents the newline? I guess that would be a much bigger problem if it was for everything... (like having a semicolon on every print statement)

[_The Doctor__]

 

Don't mix OS-A with Basic Rev. A...

Most (if not all) games that require OS-A or OS-B have been patched by Homesoft to work correct on XL/XE machines. But afaik none of the programs that really require Atari Basic Rev. A have been patched, so they work alright with Rev. B or Rev. C...

I didn't mix OS up with Basic, and judging by the number of quick responses it's evident others are aware of some of the issues as well. We'd be in real trouble if I had

 

A is for addled but archived,

B is for buggy, be gone!

C is correct and current,

 

only the first and last are drawn!

Edited July 10, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[phaeron]

Interesting, I didn't know that one - Is it only the Control-R character that prevents the newline? I guess that would be a much bigger problem if it was for everything... (like having a semicolon on every print statement)

 

Nope, it's a bit worse than that:

READY
PRINT 1.00000011
1.00000011

READY
PRINT 1.00000012
1.00000012
READY
PRINT 1.00000015
1.00000015
READY
PRINT 1.00000016
1.00000016

READY