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Help to get atarimuseum.nl software collection available to the community


Fred_M

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Hi guys!

 

In the topic "What is your rarest utility/program/game that you own?" (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/235869-what-is-your-rarest-utilityprogramgame-that-you-own/) I posted information about the Lindasoft game "I Beatles e il papiro della pace" which is not available anywhere online. I was asked to upload the copy-protected ATR-files on AtariAge, so the specialists ;) of AtariAge can try to remove the copy protection to get this title available to the community.

 

I was very surprised that within a few hours the copy protection was removed by Atarigeezer :thumbsup:

 

I also uploaded the ATR-files of Micromisers Turbobase in this topic (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/246011-micromiser-software-inc/?p=3750743) as this title was also not available online (the disks were not protected).

 

I collect original Atari 8-bit software since 1985 and I found out that I have quite a lot of titles in my collection which are not listed or not available for download anywhere (as far as I know ;) ). Some AtariAge members asked to upload more protected ATRs so the protection can be removed and become available to the community.

 

So let's start :-D I will not upload everything at once (I don't have the time for that) but I will feed this topic the coming months with new titles. I hope the specialists here will enjoy removing the protection and I hope that everyone enjoys the software.

 

I don't mind if people will upload these ATRs to other sites, but I would very much appreciate it when atarimuseum.nl is mentioned as source.

 

Now it is time for the first ATR in this topic. This is "The Alchemist", a tape to disk transfer utility from a small British software company called Softscan. It was released in 1989 and Page 6/NAU magazine published several adds of this company. I used this disk myself to transfer several tapes to disk. It is a medium density disk with one bad sector, so this ATR will not run without the removal of the copy protection.

 

The cover of this title and the instructions can be found in my cover database: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Alchemist_disk.jpg

 

Good luck everyone in cracking this one ;)

The_Alchemist_by_Softscan.rar

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its your copy.. i did not see this tool before..

it was a quite simple protection, took me 2min to crack from the time i saw your post..

 

it was looking for a bad sector at address 670C (Hex) and when it did not find the bad sector the program loader simply looped it self at address 6713 (hex) it did JMP $6713

so i simply changed the loader to jump to and continue with the software even if the 'bad sector' is not found..

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The next disk I tried, did not have any protection at all ;)

 

So here is "Fun in Learning" by Keypunch Software ©1985. 4 educational games for kids.

 

Boot with Basic.

 

The front cover can be found here: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Fun_In_Learning_front.jpg

And the back here: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Fun_In_Learning_back.jpg

 

I am searching for the next protected one ;)

Fun_in_Learning_Keypunch.rar

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Okay next one...... ;)

 

Saper Constructor
This is a level editor for the game Saper. It was published by ANG Software for Atari 8-bit computers in 1993
Please note that is a different program than Saper Konstruktor by Silver Software
Contents:
SAPERCON: Disk 1 side A: Main Program (copy protected, medium density 1 bad sector)
The cover (including instructions) of this software can be found here: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Saper_Constructor_Ang_disk.jpg
This software does start, but recognizes that it is a copy. You will get 3 choices to continue.
If this one is also cracked in 2 minutes.... :-D :-D

Saper_Constructor_ANGSoftware.rar

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its your copy.. i did not see this tool before..

it was a quite simple protection, took me 2min to crack from the time i saw your post..

 

it was looking for a bad sector at address 670C (Hex) and when it did not find the bad sector the program loader simply looped it self at address 6713 (hex) it did JMP $6713

so i simply changed the loader to jump to and continue with the software even if the 'bad sector' is not found..

 

EA EA - NOP NOP :)

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Hi Nir!

 

Thanks again! The fixing of the ATR-files is going much faster than I expected. Yesterday evening I was looking for other disks that I can upload here, it is quite difficult to find out what is available and what is not. I thought Atarimania would be a good reference, but especially for utilities it is not. For example the software of 2bit systems (digidrum etc.) I cannot find on Atarimania, but after some google searching I found them on Archive.org. But next up will be some disks published by Ulf Petersen (Usermag/Liberal Dreams Software). I found an older topic on AtariAge, where people asked for software published by Ulf.

 

The person behind ANG? Yes and no. Yes, I helped out a lot in those days. I was the one always behind the selling booth, helped with copying software, designed some covers, written some manuals etc. In the later years I was was running Stichting Pokey. And no ;-) I was not the owner, that was John Maris. It was his company and he was the programmer. He wrote programmes under the name TML (The Missing Link). Saper Constructor was one of his products. In the late ninteties he had a car accident, which resulted in some memory loss. Luckily he recovered, but a few years ago we tried to de-protect the ANG Software titles, sadly he could not remember how to do that. I have still some copies of his less familiar work, like TML Drumeditor 1 and 2 (stereo) which I also cannot find online. So I will upload these too ;-)

Edited by Fred_M
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For the sake of completeness in preservation I created copy-protected images of both titles. Unfortunately ATX does not yet support ED disks, so I had to use ProSystem format.

 

Btw.: Saper Constructor checks for a duplicate sector $39b/923. I just added some fake data for the 2nd one and it now runs - this should sometime be replaced with the correct data.

Alchemist, The (19xx)(Softscan)(GB)(p).pro.zip

Saper Constructor (1993)(ANG Software)(NL)(p).pro.zip

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Hi Djaybee,

 

Thank you very much. By the way the release date of The Alchemist is 1989.

 

As I wrote in my previous post, it is quite hard to find out what is available and what is not. So if people want to help deciding which titles of my collection are of any interest, they can look at the list here: https://atarimuseum.nl/atari-8-bit-software/

 

And (maybe a stupid question) does anybody know, what Atarimania means when they do have a title available for download, but the text says "Missing original disk image"? (for example Pondering about Max's: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-pondering-about-max-s_499.html).

Edited by Fred_M
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First a number of disks that were not protected. So these are working ATRs:

 

I was looking for some Ulf Petersen games. I found "Fantastic Games #1". This is a compilation of 2 disks. The first one: Pipeline XL/Pipeliners XL is already available. The second game I could not find on the internet, the games is called "Mosaic" and is a Turbo Basic game. The copyright date of the compilation is 1991.

cover: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Fantastic_Games_1_disk.jpg

 

The second one is MS copy, but the version for the Speedy XF. I found out too late that it is already available.... It was published in 1994

cover/instructions: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/MS_Copy_disk.jpg

 

The third one is (The Atari) Home Studio. A sampe utility program written by The Gatekeeper for ANG Software. The copyright date is 1992.

cover: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Home_Studio_disk.jpg

 

Enjoy!

Mosaic_working.rar

MS-Copy_Speedy_XF_version_working.rar

The_Atari_Home_Studio_ANG_working.rar

Edited by Fred_M
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Then another title which is protected.

 

It is L.D.S. "C:" Emulator by Liberal Dreams Software a.k.a. Ulf Petersen. Published in 1990.

This is another tape to disk utility form Germany. I could not find it on the known resources, but it may be already out there.

 

Contents:
CEMULATR: Disk 1 side A: Main Program (copy protected, medium density several bad sectors)
The protection kicks in when loading the second program "C Emulator".
Good luck! ;)

LDSCEmulator_not_working.rar

Edited by Fred_M
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I believe when it says original image missing that they have a cracked copy rather than an original image.

 

Honestly I think even if you can find them online there should be an archive of all of this software in one spot rather than spread across several places

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I believe when it says original image missing that they have a cracked copy rather than an original image.

 

Honestly I think even if you can find them online there should be an archive of all of this software in one spot rather than spread across several places

 

Well, I cannot find an archive which offers all..... I am googling like crazy! sometimes the images are not available on Atarimania, but are on the holmes ftp site. Also the site of Fandal offers images which are not available on other sites. Even the PD Library of ABBUC offers images not found anywhere else. It makes it quite hard to find out which titles are not available.

 

About the missing original images. I tried Pondering about Max's. I have the original here, but I saw no cracked messages etc. in the file Atarimania offers. It looks the same as my original.

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To the German visitors out here. I found some User-Mag magazines, Top Magazines, Strange Invasion and 8-bit (Powersoft) Magazines. I cannot find them on the internet and only a few are listed in the ABBUC library. Is there any interest to convert the ones I have to ATR images?

Edited by Fred_M
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Hi Nir,

 

It is not in my originals list, but I have also several hundreds of copied disks. I will take a look, maybe it is in there, but to be honest I expect that I don't have it. In those days I only had a XF speedy that was not entirely compatible with the 1050 happy/speedies.

Edited by Fred_M
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I would like to take the time to thank you for getting the titles presented for preservation. While some of the titles are indeed in the wild, it is a good Idea to submit all of them in any case. The reason is simple. Much of what has circulated is of different revision or has been distorted in some way over the year by upload and download protocols. Other titles may have been modified for other purpose. Another reason to just go for it is that what you find a copy at some site or another it may be bit-rotted,degraded or have some problem from storage of that copy. Your move to send us these images either confirms our copies or allows defects to be replaced or repaired. It is a wonderful service to do so.

 

You are doing only what the community can hope that others will follow in doing. The preservation of this software is important, not only to history, but also to education of software engineering and programming efforts around the world.

 

There is a computer software museum over seas far from the US with an Atari section that appeared small that I wish we could go through thoroughly, It's a big place.. The fact is they have Atari dispersed though out on flippy disks, dual disks, or multi disk sets and they did not catalog the titles and do not buy duplicates as the software is there. I forget the name of it but it looks like a castle stone building. There are way more titles in the building for the Atari than meets the naked eye, as you go about your travels fellow Atari User forum members, many of these places are more than willing to allow preservation of titles and you may point out to them an Idea to place Atari plaque or stickers on the dual offerings. You would be surprised how much it effects them, it shows people are indeed interested. After the normal rank and file are asked, a letter to the persons at that top can yield some pleasant results.

 

You have my respect and gratitude. Thank you for being and showing what it is to be an active member of the 8 bit community.

 

-T D__

Edited by _The Doctor__
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First up, again some titles which are not protected. So these are working ATR images.

 

TML Drumeditor 1

By ANG Software for Atari 8-bit computers © 1992
Contents: TMLDED1.ATR: Main program
TML Drumeditor 2
By ANG Software for Atari 8-bit computers © 1993
Contents: TMLDED2A.ATR: Main program
TMLDED2B: Data disk
Hack Picture 2
By ANG Software for Atari 8-bit computers © 1991
Contents: HACKPIC2.ATR: Main program

 

Enjoy!

 

P.S. I don't mind if people will upload these ATRs to other sites, but I would very much appreciate it when atarimuseum.nl is mentioned as source.

 

 

TML_Drumeditor_1_working.rar

TML_Drumeditor_2_working.rar

Hack_picture_2_working.rar

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And another 2 protected ATRs that need copy protection removal.

 

First is Homeword, a word processor by Sierra from 1984. My disk is the Dutch release by Aackosoft, but you can tell only by the packaging. The disk is in English and by Sierra. I found Homeword only on the Holmes FTP site, but that ATR-file is also not working. All other well known sites don't offer this title.

 

There are some bad sectors on this single density disk and when I load the disk with a real drive and computer it works perfectly. When you start this ATR in an emulator (Altirra or 800winplus) it crashes the emulator.

 

The cover can be found here: https://atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Homeword_Aackosoft_disk.jpg

 

 

 

The second title is the game Tusker by Mirage Poland. I found this game on the Holmes FTP site too, but that one is clearly an illegal copy with several cheat options. All other well known sites don't have this game.

 

This is the original disk by Mirage. A single density disk with loads of bad sectors (the second part of the disk). The ATR does boot, but loading turns into a loop.

 

Sadly I have the original disk only, so no cover for this title....

 

So Nir ;) you can have a go at it, but it would be nice if you get some help ;-)

Homeword_NOT_working.rar

Tusker_not_working.rar

Edited by Fred_M
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