RARE Lance Haffner Final Four Basketball

[glurk]

Going thru my old stuff, I have (maybe the ONLY existing) Atari version of Lance Haffner Games' "Final Four College Basketball."

 

I wrote the Atari conversion from the Apple version, for Mr. Haffner back in the late 80's.  I don't think it ever got released.  It boots up and runs,on my 800, with an Atari BASIC cartridge inserted.    Program files on side 1, team data on side 2.  He paid me for the work, but I guess the market crashed around that time.

 

So who wants it to archive?  I'll send it to them.  This is for real, I just tested it and it's working.

[www.atarimania.com]

This is crazy!

 

You can post it here, we'll gladly archive it!

 

What is the story to this conversion? How did you get to write this port? Did you code anything else on the Atari?

 

Thanks!

[glurk]

I knew a group of older "wargamer" people that were into that, then into computers and games.  We used to meet every weekend and trade programs and stuff.  And they were into the Haffner stuff.  And I was good at BASIC, and all the old 8-bit systems, so it all just came about...

 

I'm not a sports guy AT ALL, just a computer nerd.  But he paid me for the conversion, and I sent it to him, and that's all I know!  I was like 18 or 19 or so back then.  I have no way of getting this disk onto any modern format, ATR file, or anything.  It's on a MyDOS 3.08A flippy that boots and runs.  I can copy it, at least.

 

I'd need to physically mail the thing to someone to archive, which I'd be happy to do.

[+MrFish]

7 minutes ago, www.atarimania.com said:

You can post it here, we'll gladly archive it!

I think you misunderstand: it looks like he needs help archiving it. He'd like to find someone to send it to who could help him with it.

 

[Edit: He already answered you, while I was typing.]

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by MrFish

[+MrFish]

45 minutes ago, glurk said:

Going thru my old stuff, I have (maybe the ONLY existing) Atari version of Lance Haffner Games' "Final Four College Basketball."

 

I wrote the Atari conversion from the Apple version, for Mr. Haffner back in the late 80's.  I don't think it ever got released.  It boots up and runs,on my 800, with an Atari BASIC cartridge inserted.    Program files on side 1, team data on side 2.  He paid me for the work, but I guess the market crashed around that time.

 

So who wants it to archive?  I'll send it to them.  This is for real, I just tested it and it's working.

Pretty amazing news, because some people here (myself included) had been in search of Lance Haffner's 3 in 1 Football, and a copy recently turned up (not archived yet). Still waiting to see 3 in 1 get archived, and the College Basketball would be really cool too. Haffner made some great sims.

 

[+MrFish]

49 minutes ago, glurk said:

So who wants it to archive?  I'll send it to them.  This is for real, I just tested it and it's working.

@Farb is the guy you want to get in touch with about archiving. Although it depends on where you live. There may be someone else closer -- especially if you're not in the U.S.

 

[glurk]

Well, I only recently dug out the old Atari (right before I joined here) and have been going through to see what I have.  And found this, which I had totally forgotten about.  I "may" have been the one who converted 3-in-1 also, I know I worked on it at one time.  This was like 40 years ago, LOL.  I don't have that, though.

 

I'd like to send this one to someone who will make it freely available, that's all.  And I'll copy it before I send the only disk, haha.  It's the original disk, and it's like 40 years old too, of course.  That said, all my stuff still works like new, it's been kept well in dry, safe, temperature semi-controlled place.

 

[www.atarimania.com]

Oops... Sorry about that, I didn't read the post properly.

 

There are a number of people in the US who will probably chime in

 

Thanks!

[glurk]

Well, I am in the US (Kentucky), so if someone reliable wants to contact me, and can archive it, I'll send it to them.  I'll just wait for a reply or a message.  In the meantime, it will be here.  I'm not in the best of health now anyways, so I'd like to get it archived and available.  Thanks in advance to whoever is willing to do that.

[+Allan]

2 hours ago, glurk said:

I knew a group of older "wargamer" people that were into that, then into computers and games.  We used to meet every weekend and trade programs and stuff.  And they were into the Haffner stuff.  And I was good at BASIC, and all the old 8-bit systems, so it all just came about...

 

I'm not a sports guy AT ALL, just a computer nerd.  But he paid me for the conversion, and I sent it to him, and that's all I know!  I was like 18 or 19 or so back then.  I have no way of getting this disk onto any modern format, ATR file, or anything.  It's on a MyDOS 3.08A flippy that boots and runs.  I can copy it, at least.

 

I'd need to physically mail the thing to someone to archive, which I'd be happy to do.

While you wait, is there anything else you did, Atari 8-bit wise, back-in-the-day, that you remember?

[glurk]

Well, I did write and still have a sector editor, called "Sector-Zap" that has never been released.  I sent it in to either Analog or Antic magazine, maybe both, but they told me that had something similar lined up.  It works pretty well, searches in text or hex, reads directory, etc.  It only works in single density.  I made it for cracking protections, LOL.  I was pretty good at that, doing boot tracing at one time.  I used to know all the opcodes by heart.

 

I did other stuff too, I'm really just now digging through it all.  I hope to get something to copy my stuff over to SD card, but I don't really know what to get, or where to get it.  I'm old, poor, in bad health, and have forgotten a lot of what I used to know.  Not complaining, just being honest.  It's been a long time since I had this old computer out.  Kind of reliving the old days.

 

If I can get some device to get this stuff into ATR dumps or whatever, I'll release anything interesting that turns up.

 

I'm also working on a Barnstorming port, which is posted in the programming section.  I can still code, but I'm pretty slow at it.  I may ask for help on that one, or just release what I have.  I'm still working on it!

[+Stephen]

4 hours ago, glurk said:

Well, I am in the US (Kentucky), so if someone reliable wants to contact me, and can archive it, I'll send it to them.  I'll just wait for a reply or a message.  In the meantime, it will be here.  I'm not in the best of health now anyways, so I'd like to get it archived and available.  Thanks in advance to whoever is willing to do that.

I'm in Ohio and can archive this.  It would just be a straight read from floppy on an ATR, no need for any special archival hardware would be needed.  You can PM me if nobody closer contacts you.

[Savetz]

Looks like you have plenty of offers, but I can also help in needed. Near Portland OR. I've archived hundreds of one-of-a-kind Atari disks.

 

-Kay

[glurk]

9 hours ago, Stephen said:

I'm in Ohio and can archive this.  It would just be a straight read from floppy on an ATR, no need for any special archival hardware would be needed.  You can PM me if nobody closer contacts you.

Ok, Ohio is close, and I think it's a good idea for it to not be in the mail for a long distance.  I'm going to make a copy before I send, just in case.  To me, this is just a project I did years ago and got paid for, so it's not really anything special to me.  Just being honest.  I'll PM you right now, and thanks.

 

[+MrFish]

12 hours ago, glurk said:

I'm also working on a Barnstorming port, which is posted in the programming section.  I can still code, but I'm pretty slow at it.  I may ask for help on that one, or just release what I have.  I'm still working on it!

 

@phaeron has converted a number of 2600 games to the 8-bit computers, and he's posted source code for all of the projects and talked about some of his techniques for doing them. You might glean some insight by consulting the threads about those. If I recall correctly, he disassembles the 2600 roms so he can utilize as much of the original code as possible.

 

@phaeron has converted the following:

Adventure

Combat

Midnight Magic

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Seaquest

Stampede

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by MrFish

[+Stephen]

Disks showed up today.  As promised, here's the ATRs.  All credit goes to the OP.  Please feel free to distribute this far and wide.  There will be some scans forthcoming, but I'll need some time to clean up before they get released.

Boot BB1 with BASIC, BB2 has team data.  That's all I know.

 

P.S.

SECZAP is a sector editor that was also shared with me.  I didn't know where to post it.

 

BB1.atr BB2.atr SECZAP.atr

[+MrFish]

Thanks to @glurk and @Stephen

 

It was a miracle that 3 in 1 Football turned up recently, but it's even more so that this turned up, and almost simultaneously.

 

[+MrFish]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

There will be some scans forthcoming, but I'll need some time to clean up before they get released.

 

What other materials are there, documentation, a retail box?

 

[glurk]

I'll chime in, since I wrote this stuff...  ?

 

On the Haffner game, I remember you boot disk #1, and when it asks for the first team number, put in disk #2, and enter a team number from 1-200.  Same for the next team.  I believe they are in alphabetical order.  It originally had a list, which I don't have.  Could be extracted from disk #2, it's all in BASIC.  Should be the same as the Apple version, if anyone has the docs for that.  I just converted it from Apple BASIC to Atari BASIC.  My memory is hazy on everything else, LOL.

 

The Sector-Zap is a neat little sector editor I did, and it includes the ASM source code, which compiles in EDTASM or maybe MAC/65, I forget.    It's only for single-density disks.  I still use that one on my real 800.  Maybe someone will find it useful.

 

The other stuff I sent was old software submission agreements from some of the old game companies from the 1980's.

 

Glad to share this stuff!  Thanks to Stephen for converting and posting them!

[www.atarimania.com]

Huge thanks again for rescuing this game, it's on our site now:

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-final-four-college-basketball_38034.html

 

3-in-1 Football next hopefully!