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most complete proper A8 game archive?


oo7

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As you can read in pinned Topic for newbies (point 3), there are some good archives, each with their own strengths.

 

My favorites are:

Homesoft (very clean and continually updated files and tunes preview, click on Download all on the right).

Atarimania (screenshots, manuals, infos and rankings).

Fandal (unparalleled for demos and authors real names).

 

If a game is missing, there are other archives to search like Atarionline, Atari 8-bit Forever, Mr. Bacardi.

 

 

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16 hours ago, Philsan said:

As you can read in pinned Topic for newbies (point 3), there are some good archives, each with their own strengths.

 

My favorites are:

Homesoft (very clean and continually updated files and tunes preview, click on Download all on the right).

Atarimania (screenshots, manuals, infos and rankings).

Fandal (unparalleled for demos and authors real names).

 

If a game is missing, there are other archives to search like Atarionline, Atari 8-bit Forever, Mr. Bacardi.

 

 

So then there is no n0-intro like collection.

 

Those archives and sites are less complete than some seem to think and dont have crc verification tools to confirm cean dumps.

 

Thanks.

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https://archive.org/download/Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2019-07-09/Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2019-07-09/ if you want commercial software from originals only.

 

1 hour ago, oo7 said:

Those archives and sites are less complete than some seem to think and dont have crc verification tools to confirm cean dumps.

 

You're comparing two entirely different systems and eras so your logic is a bit flawed (sorry).

 

Please consider the following:

- games are not only on cartridge but also on tape / disk

- there are sometimes multiple releases from different companies for a single program

- some titles only sold three or four copies overall  

- about 50-75% of Atari software will never be found in original form anyway

- it's less easy to dump disks / tapes

- PD / freeware / type-ins were also available

- there are programs where there is no information at all so can't be verified at all

- new titles are being found on an almost daily basis...

 

It's 1,000 times easier to catalog games for the SNES than for a 1979 computer system and, by definition, this will always be a work in progress.

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In hindsight it all should have been archived as it came out BUT the tools and know how was in its early stage, lets remember that the term 'software piracy' had not even been thought of as yet, it was a fresh slate being written on as we learned how to do stuff. I'm not even sure CRC was a thing then so it would have been a primitive database at best. As Atari frog says, with countless release and re releases on other labels etc it makes databasing computer software so much harder.

 

Much kudos to the Atari Preservation team who are byte by byte making a verified collection of 'as it was sold' software which of course relies on people to allow their originals to be archived and returned. The notion of doing that to some is met by the wish to keep a sealed out of the box bit of history. For me that is a nice idea but to be honest you may well just have a disk that's succumbed to bit rot with the original box and manual as new. I like the idea of actually using that software more or at least making sure that its been archived.

 

We also have the issue that some rare stuff only (at the moment) survives as a 'cracked version' which cannot be verified, it may well work but it might be badly cracked or incomplete so show issues only in certain situations.

 

The elusive perfect archive still is just a hope when it comes to more corruptible media, roms are heavy duty and can take a whack, disks and tapes not so...

 

The best bet for a really good archive is to get all that is out there, get a decent duplicate detector like Duplicate File Detective and weed out all the dupes and then you will have as good as it gets BUT with lots of broken titles mixed in. That leaves just the Atari Preservation Initiative as the best choice for known GOOD stuff but its very much work in progress by some very dedicated people which will take time to get all the available stuff done but it will be a perfect archive when fully done and already is an amazing resource of correct titles.

Edited by Mclaneinc
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1 hour ago, www.atarimania.com said:

https://archive.org/download/Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2019-07-09/Atari8bitPreservedSoftware2019-07-09/ if you want commercial software from originals only.

 

 

You're comparing two entirely different systems and eras so your logic is a bit flawed (sorry).

 

Please consider the following:

- games are not only on cartridge but also on tape / disk

- there are sometimes multiple releases from different companies for a single program

- some titles only sold three or four copies overall  

- about 50-75% of Atari software will never be found in original form anyway

- it's less easy to dump disks / tapes

- PD / freeware / type-ins were also available

- there are programs where there is no information at all so can't be verified at all

- new titles are being found on an almost daily basis...

 

It's 1,000 times easier to catalog games for the SNES than for a 1979 computer system and, by definition, this will always be a work in progress.

ok so noting like no-intro Famicom cart and famicom disk image collection lol.

 

 

 

I was not comparing. I was asking if anything like this exists.

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Be careful of the C64 one, like many of the comps bad versions of games have been found in the past..Same with the very popular Gamebase 64, it takes an age for updates and with every one there's a stripping of bad games found and replaced with better versions. Its a problem for any gamebase or pack, unless you have a LOT of time its easy to add a bad version. For the gamepack mentioned in my sig I'd sit down and play  / test every game in it but as it grew that became just too time concerning for me...

 

The thing with the Atari is that I've found Atari folk less interested in banding collections together, if you look at the C64 its a different story....Its just the way it is....

 

Just have great fun with what is out there :)

Edited by Mclaneinc
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1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said:

Be careful of the C64 one, like many of the comps bad versions of games have been found in the past..Same with the very popular Gamebase 64, it takes an age for updates and with every one there's a stripping of bad games found and replaced with better versions. Its a problem for any gamebase or pack, unless you have a LOT of time its easy to add a bad version. For the gamepack mentioned in my sig I'd sit down and play  / test every game in it but as it grew that became just too time concerning for me...

 

The thing with the Atari is that I've found Atari folk less interested in banding collections together, if you look at the C64 its a different story....Its just the way it is....

 

Just have great fun with what is out there :)

Hmm thanks for the input.

 

 

I was just really curious if one for the A8 existed. Kinda got re bit by the 8bit bug and am trying to get caught up with the times lol.

 

 

I always loved the A8 line but all of a sudden I find myself wanting to get back on track with them to more use.

 

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Well have great fun doing it, the torrent from the preservation society is around 2700 disks, tapes etc so plenty of choice and known good versions, all the well known stuff is in that its just missing utils and rare stuff.

 

Its also on a Megashare somewhere to save the torrent but you would have to go through the Atari Preservation thread for the link.

 

I'm like you an all around retro freak, the Atari is my first love but there too many nice games to limit to one machine but I always come back to the Atari..

 

I seem to remember you are using Altirra (excellent choice) so remember to not use fancy modified drive settings for the original protected stuff and the protection check will almost always fail, other thing to remember is country of origin, most stuff plays happily on any region with NTSC being around 17% (?) faster but games written for PAL land sometimes don't like the swap as you found out.

 

If it does not work in NTSC then swap it to PAL. If you see OSB or OSA in the file name then it wants to be in 400/800 mode with the associated OSA or B rom in place and selected. If you need LOTS of OS's then let me know.

 

Again, have great fun and enjoy the old stuff again..

 

Paul..

Edited by Mclaneinc
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6 hours ago, Mclaneinc said:

Well have great fun doing it, the torrent from the preservation society is around 2700 disks, tapes etc so plenty of choice and known good versions, all the well known stuff is in that its just missing utils and rare stuff.

 

Its also on a Megashare somewhere to save the torrent but you would have to go through the Atari Preservation thread for the link.

 

I'm like you an all around retro freak, the Atari is my first love but there too many nice games to limit to one machine but I always come back to the Atari..

 

I seem to remember you are using Altirra (excellent choice) so remember to not use fancy modified drive settings for the original protected stuff and the protection check will almost always fail, other thing to remember is country of origin, most stuff plays happily on any region with NTSC being around 17% (?) faster but games written for PAL land sometimes don't like the swap as you found out.

 

If it does not work in NTSC then swap it to PAL. If you see OSB or OSA in the file name then it wants to be in 400/800 mode with the associated OSA or B rom in place and selected. If you need LOTS of OS's then let me know.

 

Again, have great fun and enjoy the old stuff again..

 

Paul..

Thanks for the tips Paul. yes I am tinkering with Altirra, I love it and it is probably going to be my primary A8 platform. I am impressed by it, however I plan to get back on real hardware as well.

I do dabble all over when it comes to classic computers and game systems. I never really stopped using the A8 line. I've just had a long break, life does this sometimes. it was 1983 when I got a 600 xl for xmas and I've had a special place in my heart for the platform since. 

 

I haven't reported back on lightgun tests yet just cause I haven't done it yet, I will post on here what I try and results.

 

I am currently running Altirra 3.90 beta 19 on my Win 7 media center and Win 10 laptop. 

 

I like the idea of emulation because it allows me to enjoy the A8 in pal and ntsc., however I also plan to find a way to use hardware again, I mean I already can use hardware but would like to figure out a modern way to access/store data.

 

again thanks for the tips. I'llbe around here more often I'm thinking. I miss using forums and the A8 is now back in my main focus.

 

 

James

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On 11/27/2019 at 7:52 AM, oo7 said:

So then there is no n0-intro like collection.

 

Those archives and sites are less complete than some seem to think and dont have crc verification tools to confirm cean dumps.

 

Thanks.

I wish there was a way to download all of Fandal at once like Atarionline.pl

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On 11/28/2019 at 6:09 AM, pixelmischief said:

Is there a place where the presentation society lists "wanted" stuff?

 

Thanks for publishing the link Paul ;-) The Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative has its own forum. But please do know, that the forum is intended for people involved with software preservation. So only for people who are actively dumping and/or analysing Atari 8-bit software, no chit chat ;-) The forum can be found here: https://community.a8preservation.com/

Edited by Fred_M
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  • 2 years later...
On 12/1/2019 at 9:11 AM, Fred_M said:

 

Thanks for publishing the link Paul ;-) The Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative has its own forum. But please do know, that the forum is intended for people involved with software preservation. So only for people who are actively dumping and/or analysing Atari 8-bit software, no chit chat ;-) The forum can be found here: https://community.a8preservation.com/

I realize this is an old thread, but is it possible to download from a8preservation  ?   They have a atr that I can't find in other places, but while they have it, it seems there is no link to download????

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Lords of Karma.  Its an atx file type so its copy protected.  Most of the other common sites have it as an individual .xex  file.  This file will load with an emulator, but doesn't seem to work with fujinet or my ultimate cartridge.

 

So for this reason, I sorta wanted the disk image instead of just a file.  Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative has it,but I can't seem to see how you download from that site.

 

thanks for any help,

mickey

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23 hours ago, mickster said:

Lords of Karma.  Its an atx file type so its copy protected.  Most of the other common sites have it as an individual .xex  file.  This file will load with an emulator, but doesn't seem to work with fujinet or my ultimate cartridge.

 

So for this reason, I sorta wanted the disk image instead of just a file.  Atari 8-bit Software Preservation Initiative has it,but I can't seem to see how you download from that site.

 

thanks for any help,

mickey

About 'Lords of Karma' - my guess is that it was never copy protected as such.  With this game, it does have a long initialisation at it's start.  I think it displays a 'working....' text screen, and after about five minutes? It then starts....

Harvey

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