Atarian Global Lost & Found

[+MrFish]

OK, fellow Atarians, I just got a crazy idea.

 

In 1995 (approx.), due to circumstances beyond my control, I lost my humble, but much loved, Atari collection. It included the following:

 

1 - 130xe Computer

2 - 1050 Disk Drives

1 - XDM121 Printer

30 - Cartridges (application, game, programming languages, etc.)

75 - Floppy Disks (containing: applications, games, programming languages, utilities, etc.)

7 - Programming Reference Manuals (Mapping the Atari, De Re Atari, etc.)

6 - Game Controllers (various)

1 - 410 Program Recorder (I didn't mind losing this)

 

At the time I wasn't too upset about losing the hardware and software. These older computers and software had been replaced by newer and better ones (so I thought at the time). However, I always felt a sense of loss for what was my first, very personal, fun, and educational experience with computers. But, most of all I knew the games, applications, and utilities that I had written (well, some of them were still unfinished) would never be recovered. For these I felt a very great sense of loss.

 

Fast foward to 2005. I had used emulators for the Atari as early as, hmmm..., maybe '95 or '96, but I was never really satisfied with what was available. However, at this time (2005) I found several very good emulators available. With quite a bit of time and a desire to recall my early computer experiences I got pretty heavy back into it, including programming and all.

 

Everything was going along fine, except occasionally I had the crazy, if only momentary, idea that it might be possible to recover some of my old programming disks. With the advent of eBay and all the Atari stuff that was being sold there it seemed possible, however highly unlikely, that I may some day be able to stumble upon my lost items. I never really gave much credence to the idea and gave little, if any, time to searching eBay for anything.

 

Now, I know I was up until 2 a.m. last night, and I've been acting kind of goofy all day at work, but I got a crazy idea when I arrived home from work today that, at least, doesn't seem impossible. What if someone has my collection of programming disks and they are a member of AA? Maybe I could just post and see what happens... Maybe it's possible that they are still out there waiting to be rediscovered... It wouldn't hurt to try...

 

So, at the risk of wasting some time typing, and wasting others time reading (hopefully not too boring), here goes nothing.

 

I am looking for a small collection of disks that contain original programs written in Turbo BASIC & Atari BASIC with machine language subroutines from COMPUTE and other sources. Here are some of the programs that would be found on the disks:

 

1. GRAPHICAL PROGRAMMERS CALCULATOR (Completed): Used Antic 15 to display a calculator that is similar in looks to the original Macintosh calculator, but contains buttons for hex, binary, logical operators, and such. It also uses p/m graphics to display a cursor (shaped like the buttons) that is moved from button to button by the joystick or keyboard. Used black-on-white (background) for colors. This was on several disks and at least one auto-run disk.

 

2. DRAW POKER (128k only, 75% complete): Used Antic 4 and a redifined character set for diplaying large cards that overlapped each other. You could deal, select, draw, and receive your new cards, but the dollar values for betting were not present yet (in the program, or on screen). I believe the bottom portion used Antic 15 to show the game information. The cards were quite large, hence the reason for overlapping. The cursor for selecting cards to draw was made of p/m graphics and was in the shape of an isosceles triangle, and used yellow and brown for colors. It (cursor) appeared at the bottom of the dealt cards and was moved with the joystick horizontally. Used extended memory for storing card graphics.

 

3. MONOPOLY (Board Graphics Only): This program displayed the entire MONOPOLY board on a single screen in Antic 14, with DLI's to get all the colors of the properties/graphics. Graphics for Jail, Go To Jail, Free Parking, etc. were all there.

 

4. ANIMATED HYPERCUBE (128k only, Completed): This program had two parts. One would draw a single Hypercube transformation and then save the bitmap to a disk file. It would then draw the next transformation and append this to the file, until a complete sequence of transformation were saved to disk. Program two would load this file into extended memory and replay each transformation in succession, showing the animation of a "4-dimensional" Hypercube. White-on-blue (background) was used.

 

Those were some of the last programs in progress or finished that I recall. There were also some other less advanced programs like: a Checker game for two human players, which used Antic 15 and artifacting to get different colors (Completed); and a simple card game called Midnight Baseball in Antic 2 (my second program, I believe. Completed)

 

I also did some examples of solid and pattern fill algorythms; scalable font tests; and many other programs, tests, and utilities of various levels that I can't remember. There may also be serveral disks worth of machine language subroutines for BASIC that were listed to disk for adding to programs as needed.

 

All of these Atari items were lost in San Francisco, California in 1995 (approx.) in a storage room auction. If any of this sounds remotely familiar to anyone I would be most appreciative to hear about, and see some of my old programs again. If nothing else this will probably help me get this out of my system. Somethin' about those old Atari memories...

Edited August 8, 2007 by MrFish

[geezer]

Damn

 

I feel your pain! I had a similar situation also in the early 90s.. My dad was cleaning up and wanted to throw away some disks. I pointed to a box of all the educational software we had, but somehow he threw out another box of disks - _EVERYTHING_ I ever programmed, the BACKUPS of the same, all the drivers and backup drivers for all my hardware, and all the archives of BBS related stuff. I didn't realize it until weeks later when it was too late and that made me put my remaining software and the atari on ice, while all of my hardware (rverter, voicemaster jr, computereyes, parrot, hybrid arts midi, atr8000 and loads of other stuff) I threw into my electronics junkbin, where they got cannibalized. Years later I got all my drivers back and reconstructed what was left of the hardware, but life will never be the same without my programming stuff.. I've had dreams now and then that I found the missing disk case, hidden in the house, or while looking around a junkyard.

 

Anyways, I wish you luck! Your situation sounds a tad more hopeful than mine.

[+MrFish]

Damn

 

I feel your pain! I had a similar situation also in the early 90s.. My dad was cleaning up and wanted to throw away some disks. I pointed to a box of all the educational software we had, but somehow he threw out another box of disks - _EVERYTHING_ I ever programmed, the BACKUPS of the same, all the drivers and backup drivers for all my hardware, and all the archives of BBS related stuff. I didn't realize it until weeks later when it was too late and that made me put my remaining software and the atari on ice, while all of my hardware (rverter, voicemaster jr, computereyes, parrot, hybrid arts midi, atr8000 and loads of other stuff) I threw into my electronics junkbin, where they got cannibalized. Years later I got all my drivers back and reconstructed what was left of the hardware, but life will never be the same without my programming stuff.. I've had dreams now and then that I found the missing disk case, hidden in the house, or while looking around a junkyard.

 

Anyways, I wish you luck! Your situation sounds a tad more hopeful than mine.

 

I guess the good part, for me, is that it drove me to start coding seriously again. Eventually I'll have more and better programs, and the older ones won't matter so much, except for what they've taught me.

 

Thanks for replying. Sorry about your dads errant cleaning habits...

Edited August 9, 2007 by MrFish