BELLCOM PD Catalog Disk

[Atari8guy]

In my "I have nothing but free-time" fantasy world, I'd take the Bellcom PD archive and turn it into something like Aminet - then add other archives to it.

[ballyalley]

I have archived all of the BELLCOM public domain library material that I have on my computer to Archive.org.  I wrote a lengthy explanation of the collection in the description of the archive:

 

https://archive.org/details/BELLCOMPublicDomainSoftwareAtari8Bit

 

This is a collection of Atari 8-bit home computer public domain software from Don Bell's BELLCOM PD library that was based in Ontario, Canada starting in the mid-1980s.  This archive was created in January 2022 and uploaded to Archive.org to try to facilitate and aid Atari fans who have had a difficult time finding this software as it moves and disappears from various places on the Internet.

 

There have been several people in this thread who have requested this Atari software when it has dropped out of view when an FTP server or website disappears.  I hope that all Atari users are able to make use of this software and document archive.

 

Keep in mind that I only collected this disk collection from other places on the Internet.  The hard work of countless Atari fans over decades has allowed this collection to come into existence as one 352MB zip file that can be easily downloaded at any time.

 

I hope that a community of Atari fans comes together to figure-out and sort through this large BELLCOM PD software collection and give some order to it.  Perhaps one day there will be a website dedicated to this giant collection of Atari 8-bit home computer software.  Or, maybe someone will be inspired to create a podcast detailing this collection of Atari software that Don Bell managed to collect and distribute to at least 40 countries around the world by the mid-1990s.

 

Have fun sorting through these files.  There is enough software here to keep any Atari fan busy for a lifetime.

 

Enjoy!

 

Adam

[EddyFree]

Several years ago I started writing a small ATR utility but I never finished it. Got enough of it together to at least generate directory listings of ATRs with DOS 2.x, MyDOS, or SpartaDos directory structures. After reading some of this thread I decided to dust it off and run it on the entire Holmes BELLCOM ATR collection to generate a large directory listing that some here may find useful.

 

Keep in mind that the program is raw and unfinished so some of the output is premature, may be incomplete, or even inaccurate. For example, if a file is listed as "Deleted" but also shows "Link Errors", please ignore those as deleted files will most likely have their file chains broken. If the ATR has a SpartaDOS directory and the link status is "Empty Sectors", ignore this too. There are a few disks in the BELLCOM collection that have the directory entries relocated to unconventional slots and that throws off the program also, these will usually have file entries showing a non-deleted status and broken chains with 0 sectors read. Bottom line is the listing isn't "perfect" but the vast majority is good.

 

So find attached my Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR "Directory Dump". Hope someone gets some use out of it.

 

Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR Directory Dump.zip

 

 

[ballyalley]

45 minutes ago, EddyFree said:

got enough of [my small ATR utility] together to at least generate directory listings of ATRs with DOS 2.x, MyDOS, or SpartaDos directory structures. [...] Bottom line is the listing isn't "perfect" but the vast majority is good. [...] So find attached my Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR "Directory Dump". Hope someone gets some use out of it.

 

I downloaded and opened this file using a 10 pt. Courier New font; this document is 458 pages long!  I took a brief look though the file and so many of the filenames look intriguing to me.  Just to give people an appreciation for what has been done here, here is the directory listing for Side A of Disk 83:

 

************************************************************
ATR    ->D083_A.ATR
DOS    ->DOS 2.x
DENS   ->128   MAX SEC->720
************************************************************

Filename       Bytes  Secs.  Status   Start   No. CRC16  Link Status
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DOS     .SYS    4625    37   Locked       4    0  AE5D   OK
AUTORUN .SYS     178     2   Locked      41    1  ADA0   OK
MENU    .       2198    18   Locked      43    2  B7CD   OK
TMNT7   .BAS    3260    27   Locked      61    3  6D17   OK
TMNT7   .DIG   18227   146   Locked      88    4  7E9C   OK
TMNT8   .BAS    3267    27   Locked     234    5  784C   OK
TMNT8   .DIG   23271   187   Locked     261    6  FD28   OK
TMNT9   .BAS    3349    27   Locked     457    7  DA39   OK
TMNT9   .DIG   22903   184   Locked     484    8  1D68   OK
PEDROKKO.FNT    1024     9   Locked     668    9  2E57   OK
SILENT11.TXT    1334    11   Locked     677   10  B4F1   OK

32 Free Sectors  675 Used Sectors   Total Sectors : 707
---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I chose this directory because of the filenames TMNT.  Could that stand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

 

I wonder if Kay and the gang over at the Antic podcast would like to give this thread some coverage.  I'd love to listen to an episode of the show dedicated to public domain software.  I mean, there were people who weren't pirating their software.  Um, right?

 

Adam

[Atari_Ace]

3 hours ago, ballyalley said:

 

I downloaded and opened this file using a 10 pt. Courier New font; this document is 458 pages long!  I took a brief look though the file and so many of the filenames look intriguing to me.  Just to give people an appreciation for what has been done here, here is the directory listing for Side A of Disk 83:

 <<snip>>

I chose this directory because of the filenames TMNT.  Could that stand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

 

I wonder if Kay and the gang over at the Antic podcast would like to give this thread some coverage.  I'd love to listen to an episode of the show dedicated to public domain software.  I mean, there were people who weren't pirating their software.  Um, right?

 

Adam

 

From the Bellcom 1992 catalog (on archive.org):

 

■ D-83 PEDROKKO #6 

Side 1 contains additional voice 
excerpts from the Teenage Mutant 
Ninja Turtles series, while side 2 
contains larger “scenes” created 
using Turtles sound track samples. 
(Side 2 requires 130XE and player 
from #D-78) 
 

If you just want to browse what's in the Bellcom collection, start with the catalogs.