www.atarimania.com

Very nice -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

This one's for me The A8 wasn't a huge success in France, it probably sold 70-80,000 units total. The Atari 400/800 hit the market pretty late and were quickly discontinued in favor of the XL line. Despite some efforts in the educational field, the impact wasn't very big, mainly because distribution and marketing problems. The XE range did poorly because everyone was concentrating on the ST. Atari's French division marketed a number of translated titles from Atari US, APX and Milliken, mostly educational. However, you can find a number of original games like La Quête du Graal, a nice math game with poor graphics but beautiful medieval soundtrack, Des Chiffres et des Lettres (from a famous TV show) and several programs under the Atarisoft label like L'Enigme du Triangle (text adventure), Caméléon (great strategy game), Nostradamus (tarot cards), Le Promoteur... One of the most unique titles is Saddleman, a promotional game used for a nationwide contest in association with Levi's! Third-party software in the eighties was almost non-existent: Hatier published some educational titles and there was also a very nice text-graphics adventure game by Epsilon Software called FREE - Funny Risky Evil Escape. That's all really... Be sure to check our database for all French entries and the nice L'Atarien magazines for general information: http://www.atarimania.com/lst_mag_issue.php?MAG_ID=7 -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Here's the Atari 8-bit version: http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=3819 Very fun game -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Hi, If you're considering tape and disk releases, there are hundreds and hundreds of candidates! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Here you go... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com fonts.zip

Thanks -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Never heard of the Pastfinder HIP Graphics Demo... Is it a European A8 demo conversion? -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Well, if you have some rare files from personal tape or disk collections (not anything from the various Atari sites or CD-ROMs as we have all this already), we'd love to hear from you. It doesn't matter too much if a very rare file is a crack, the most important thing is to archive it before it disappears completely. We have a lot of common files in the waiting line but they're not on the site yet because we prefer fresh dumps to executables which are sometimes missing some features. This is actually a call for collaboration. There are still HUNDREDS of commercial games on old disks and tapes that have not been dumped yet and we need your help to archive them properly. Please check your old software programs and let us know what you have -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

You're correct, I think the very first emulators (like PCXFormer) couldn't boot executables. Well, there's something like 8-9,000 games so it's not easy... There are some very nice sites out there for other platforms dealing with the preservation of software. I like what World of Spectrum is doing for example. Hopefully, we'll manage to archive most of the things the same way with an emphasis on original versions of games rather than cracks. Next step would be to have 100% dumps (with copy protection). Probably in the not too distant future Unfortunately, because there is nothing really official about preserving software, you end up with multiple files of the same game, you don't know which is which (because of no historical data) and you rely on the horrible TOSEC tools. It becomes a big mess if you don't try to organize things a bit more... I believe that "K" is the author's first name initial -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Shawn, I believe my explanation wasn't too clear... The "fake" ATR images I'm referring to are the ones created with MAKEATR or BAS2ATR from executables and BASIC files. Non-standard 65K, 111K or whatever ATR images should also be avoided. I believe it's important to keep software in native form whenever possible. Just an example... If you have a file named BRUCELEE.COM and use MAKEATR so it auto-boots, you'll a have a file called BRUCELEE.ATR. Now if you decide to dump the original Datasoft disk game, you'll also name it BRUCELEE.ATR and you'll end up with two images with the same name on your HD! My point: those "fake" ATR images are not only useless but confusing and a step backwards if you want to archive software (which, unfortunately, is not a subject of choice in the A8 arena). -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

It's in the A8 FAQ... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Check the attachment, I believe it's on that disk... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com utilities.zip

Hi, I'll try to answer this one, please correct me if I'm wrong... First of all, I think you need to identify real ATR images and fake ones. A "real" ATR image should be the size of a standard disk, either 90K (single density), 130K (medium density) or 180K (double density). apart from one or two demos, I have not encountered other densities. A commercial disk which has just been unprotected or is not copy-protected will be in this format. Same if you decide to write a game and decide to release it on a disk of 90K, 130K or 180K. Or decide to take single files you want to auto-boot on disks of 90K, 130K or 180K (with or without an Atari DOS). "Fake" ATR images are any other "weird" size. They are executables (more on this later) or BASIC files (originally with a BAS extender) that have been modified so they can auto-boot on emulators (extra bytes are added to the file so the Atari or emulator knows it is an auto-boot). The 65K Alley Cat you are referring to was created with APE (you can create any disk size you want with it), DOS has probably been added and the executable file was renamed AUTORUN.SYS so the whole thing can auto-boot. IMO, "fake" ATR images can be extremely confusing and should be avoided whenever possible. An executable is either a hacked / cracked game from disk / tape / cartridge or just a normal binary file that was saved on an Atari disk (like a magazine listing you type in). You can usually load binary games directly from an Atari DOS disk. Note that some Atari utilities also allow you to modify a BASIC file (with BAS extender) to change it into an executable. Hope that wasn't too confusing -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Modified A8 computers were still being used in the late nineties as simple text display generators. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Berzerk exists as a prototype and Vanguard was ported from the 5200. File versions of these games have been floating around since the mid-eighties... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Blueprint and Gremlins are 5200 conversions but there's a very strong possibility both exist as true A8 prototypes. Was work ever started on 5200 / A8 versions of John Madden's Football or Domino Man? -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

I don't get it, it's definitely there -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Mr. Do's Castle was officially released on disk. Meteorites would be nice, maybe Frisky Tom or Sport Goofy, though I really wish some of the graphics could be embellished somehow... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

You're right, we scanned the box but not the cart... Anyway, let's see if I can put my hands on that Jumpman #1, it would be a great find -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

> Maybe it's the Jumpman demo extracted from the preview disk? Manuel, good point but while Jumpman Junior is on the Preview Disk, Jumpman isn't -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

I doubt it. Jumpman Junior has two separate entries on this list and the publisher is marked as "Epyx", not "R. Glover". The listing I have is very precise and there's probably a reason why we have Jumpman #1 as the name of the game and "R. Glover" as publisher. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Hello, Doctorclu, that would be fantastic. Please get in touch if you manage to build up a full list of what's on these disks Needs further confirmation but I have seen this one on a collector's disk list. The game's precise reference is Jumpman #1 by Randy Glover and is a file (not the usual single-sided disk you find for this game). The collector also has Jumpman as the regular Epyx version so there may actually be a beta available as well... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

I'd give it a "10". The program was advertized in some UK mags at the time so it's definitely an official release, just mega rare... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Might well be the same... According to the Giant List of Classic Programmers, it was also coded for the Apple. BTW, it seems the program was written by David Sullivan of GOE and... Ninja Golf fame! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com

Hi, We'll have a UTILITIES / SERIOUS section up pretty soon. The site is in the process of being redesigned a bit to cater for some additional stuff Thanks for the kind comments. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com