Our standard disks cover a whole variety of subjects and themes and are selected to be of general interest. They are all single sided disks and are also available in ‘Collections’ of double sided disks that can save you money. The disks should run on all machines although very occasionally a translator may be required, if so details will be given in the description.
A good selection from simulations to arcade games. MYRIAPEDE is one of the best public domain programs and is worth the price of several disks together! Mastermind is one of the best versions around. The complete listing – MYRIA is brilliant! just brilliant, a 100% machine language centipede type game, SHELL is a Graphics demo, CLEWSO a text detective mystery, BALL another GTIA demo, CIVILWAR an American Civil War simulation, CONE a GTIA demo, LUNAR lets you land on the moon, DIZZY is a GTIA demo, MASTMIND is an excellent version of the classic mastermind game, MUNCHERS is by Stan Ockers, don’t get chomped. With SPIRALS you can draw super patterns and PACDEMO is a design for Pacman and ghosts. In CONCENTR you match the squares, EGGS is for youngsters, LOGO is the Atari logo with 256 colours and COLOURS shows you Atari’s full colour palette.
Autoboot with BASIC. All files are BASIC RUN or LOAD unless otherwise stated. Files with .LST extension should be ENTERed.
CRICKETS comes from Stan Ockers and has some great music and vertical blank interrupt routines. ELECTRIC is a very good simulation and the demos are first class. ESCAPE is a Graphics demo, VORTEX a GTIA demo. In STARBASE you protect your base from aliens while HYPNOSIS is another GTIA demo. MOTIE is a strategy game where you defend your empire, followed by MELON, a Graphics demo and MATCHES where you must not be the last to pick up matches. In MAZE you must find your way out the fastest and TRENCH lets you fly the Star Wars trench. SAS is another Graphics demo as is STRIPES. Finally SIMON is the classic match the colours game.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Lots of useful utilities. TINYTEXT is a super basic word processor with some good facilities and should prove useful for beginners to word processing or for those whose needs are small. All of the drafts of the early copies of PAGE 6 were prepared exclusively with TINYTEXT. ERRTRAP gives you full error explanation, you can forget the manual. BINSAVE allows you to save binary files to cassette, HEXTODEC is a Dec/Hex or Hex/Dec converter, MATHS gives you some advanced routines and RPMTEST allows you to check the speed of your drive. VARILIST will list your program variables, FLASH gives a flashing cursor. With CALENDAR you can print a calendar for any month, whilst RUNTIME will put a clock on the screen. TINYDOS gives you access to DOS from within BASIC, TEXTPLOT puts any size text on Gr.8 and contains a screen dump. DISK2CAS is a back up to tape, PLAYERS is a Player missile design aid, SYSTATUS gives current status of your system and, finally, ASSEMBLE is a mini Assembler for machine language.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Some great games. These are generally longer than those on the other disks, that is the only reason there are not so many on the disk. CHICKEN is a superb and highly addictive game where you just have to get a chicken to cross the road. In BOXES you must get more boxes than your opponent. OILWELL is a drilling simulation, how rich can you get? CATNMOUS is a maze game based on PACMAN. KNIGHTS will have you exploring a castle trying to rescue a damsel and BALLOONS is a shooting gallery type where you can set your own parameters. LANDER is a gravity influenced moon landing game and, finally, FORMULA1 is a great vertically scrolling race game. How many laps can you survive? Several good games for hours of fun.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Mainly for younger children but these will give enjoyment to adults as well and will let you get much more from your Atari if you have a family. DOGGIES is a really beautiful little program and will enthral 2 year olds and adults alike! For young children who are just learning to count OLDMAC is a superb game of matching and counting animals. Good music. LEARNING is another colours/numbers matching game for the under 5’s, MATHS is a very good timed maths test for older children. CAPITALS is a quiz of the world’s capitals, HANGMAN is the classic word game and MATHWARS will help them learn with some arcade action and another maths program, FUNCTION is a great maths machine! Finally PLURALS will help to check youngsters’ grammar.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
All the early issues of PAGE 6 are long gone but a selection of the programs from issues 1 – 7 are available on this disk. VULTURES comes from our very first issue and is a good ‘bird-catching’ game, SQUARES from issue 5 is a puzzle game and GRABANAP from issue 4 is a readers’ poll winning snake game. SCRAMBLE from issue 6 is a difficult word game and FOURAROW from Issue 2 Is a two player ‘Connect 4’ type game. BUGS is a unique insect catching game from issue 7, CRICKET from issue 3 is an educational program to brush up on maths via a game of cricket. GRUBS is one of the first platform type games from issue 7 and there is also a lunar landing game, LUNAR V, from issue 4. Finally you have GREETING from Issue 7 which lets you set up your Atari for a Christmas day message for the family and for those who like guessing games try SECRETCO from Issue 1.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
This disk is a programmers dream! Some of the most useful utilities you will find anywhere from a full scale assembler to automatic line numbering and renumbering to analysis and protection of your programs. It even has a revised DOS with ‘one touch’ facilities and added features such as sector copying and fast write. COMPACT deletes REMs and reduces memory use, SYNTAB gives you a full analysis of your programs, ASSEMBLE is a full symbolic assembler, COMPARE allows you to compare two listings for differences or changes, GR9MX80 is a screen dump to Epson for Graphics 9. DUPFAST will duplicate your disks very fast, LOADOBJ is a basic loader for M/L programs. PROTECT will make your programs unreadable, FORMAT will give you fast ‘one touch’ formatting. RENUMBER is an excellent renumberer indudes GOTOs, GOSUBs etc. MEMTEST is a machine language memory tester and you can generate automatic line numbers with AUTONUM. DATAMAKE will give you automatic program lines for DATA statements and finally LABEL will give you printed labels for all of your disks.
Autoboot with BASIC. All files are BASIC RUN or LOAD unless otherwise stated. Files with .LST extension should be ENTERed.
Another general collection which includes an excellent version of Missile Command plus other games and demos together with a utility for constructing background scenes in graphics 7 using machine language. Also the classic Wumpus adventure game. Only 1 free sector on this disk! HORSRACE lets you bet on the favourite, for up to 4 players. OCTADRAW is a drawing program, draw it yourself or watch, PLUSZERO is a game of catch the zero, are you quick enough? BLAKJACK is a good pontoon player, SCENE7 is a utility to construct scenes for your own programs (with full instructions). SMASH is an all text simulation of motor racing. Then there is HORSE, a classic demo of a running horse. Brilliant! Finally DEMO800 a comprehensive demo about the Atari 800 and TIGER a sort of simulation to find the doctor before the tiger eats you.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
This disk contains a complete Adventure for you to pit your wits against but it is also much much more. The adventure may take a few hours or several weeks to solve but when you do don’t worry for the program allows you to create your very own adventure. There is an inbuilt editor which will accept your story outline and write an adventure program for you! Full instructions are included and whilst you still have to come up with the story, you don’t need to know how to program to be able to write your very own adventure. Double value – an adventure to solve plus an editor to write your own. You can’t get any more on the disk, the directory is full!
Autoboot with BASIC. Full instructions are given under HELP option on menu.
Why not stop all that heavy programming for a while and have some fun or relax with some music? A few puzzles, plenty of laughs and some good music. MUSICMAN allows you to write your own music and play it back. NITEMARE is the day your computer took over, can you cope? MADLIB can make up some crazy stories and if you crack up ANALYST might help with your problems. APTITUDE is an aptitude test So you think you are clever, eh? PUFF the magic dragon is some great music. DOGBITE is a game where you must deliver the mail but watch the dogs! FUGUE is more music, some good classical stuff. Want to learn a new language? Try BOTCH, the latest computer language. Did your know Atari was a poet? With POEMS, it thinks it is. Try HORSES for a laugh. Finishing up with some music we have XMASTREE, good seasonal music and STARWARS the well known theme. If you want your own tunes, ORGAN will turn your Atari into an electronic organ.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
A superb cataloguing utility to keep track of all of your disk based programs. Auto cataloguing facility enabling you to just insert a disk and have the directory read and catalogued. Each disk is given a 1 sector identifier so that you cannot catalogue the same programs twice. If you add programs to a disk just auto catalog again and the program will sort out which are the new programs and which have already been noted! Commercial disks can be included by using the manual facility (Note: Auto catalog should not be used on a commercial disk). Five fields: Disk, Filename, Description, Source and Date (headings can be changed). Machine language sort on any field. Optional print out Well over 500 programs per database. A really superb program. Database included of all of the PAGE 6 LIBRARY programs up to disk #10 for you to practice with.
Autoboot with BASIC. Full instructions are given under HELP option on menu.
One of the justifications of all that expensive equipment is ‘serious’ use. With these programs you can at last explore the possibilities of serious use without spending a fortune on commercial programs. You can also amend the programs to suit your own personal requirements. FINANCE is a complete personal finance package but it is written for BASIC A+ although you may be able to amend it to ordinary BASIC. TEXTEDIT is a quick, easy letter writer for those odd short pieces. INVEST will keep track of capital and expenses records whilst VISACARD will help you organise all of your credit cards. ADDRESS is a simple address file and LABELS is useful for quick and easy address or disk labels if you have a printer.
Autoboot with BASIC. Full instructions are given under HELP option on menu.
Here you have mainly versions of classic games such as Frogger, Berzerk etc. but don’t think they are substandard. Some are really superb. PASSION is the most brilliant computer music you could wish for. Play this to your friends with other computers and watch their faces drop! Four machine language programs on this disk and the added bonus of a superb disk duplicator. GUNFIGHT is like the VCS classic Outlaw with two cowboys outgunning each other, MEMORY is an excellent concentration game. In ROBOT you must shoot the robots before they shoot you and PONG is a version of the one that started it all. CAMELOT is a brilliant scrolling demo probably by the famous Chris Crawford. FROGGIE is a excellent machine language Frogger game and MLMENU will allow you to load several binary (machine language) programs from one disk. Finally there is that bonus, POLYCOPY which will make file copies a joy.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
For those of you who don’t know, Stan Ockers is the acknowledged master of public domain programs and here is a collection of some of his best. Stan recently deserted BASIC for a while to write in the new language ACTION! When you see the ACTION! programs on this disk you will see why. Such speed without machine language! (Action cartridge not required). FROG is a big frog trying to catch insects with his tongue! RATS is a great climbing game in ACTION that allows you to design your own screens. BATS has you flying through caves to catch the bats. LIFE is one of the all time computer classics but written in ACTION so it’s very fast. SLOTS is a slot machine for the addicts who play the bandits and HELL is a good demo of fine scrolling whose code you could use in your own programs. WORMS is another classic, Angle worms, but so fast in ACTION and finally a space attack type game, MISSILE in which you must defend your bases.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
A collection of digitised pictures in graphics 8 to display to your friends and family. Check out how well your Atari can display pictures. You may not be able to afford a digitiser but at least you can see what they can do. Nine superbly detailed pictures complete with loader. The pictures are LADY, WINSTON, WILLIAM, TEX, DIPCHIPS, EYES, TIME MACHINE, DOLLAR and ROCKY.
Autoboot with BASIC. Choose pictures from menu.
A collection of many different programs including drawing utilities, demos and games. NSLAUGHT is a superb Galaxian type game in machine code and MAGIC is a GREAT demo of 3D effects. All the others are of top quality. Something for everyone and a good collection to dip into. HAWKS is a game in which you swoop down to catch the animals, CAMEL is a humorous simulation in which you must cross the desert, SPASOUND is a short sound routine with some amazing sounds. OTHELLO is the computer version of a classic board game for two players. GTIADEMO is a unique demo in which you can specify the parameters for different demos. In STATES you must guess the States of America, not as easy as it seems. DRAWGTIA allows you to compose your own demo whilst DIGIDRIF is a drawing utility with text. With PIXSAVE you can draw a picture, save it and watch as it is then recreated instantly. For Star Trek fans, EZTRANS is a must. MAGIC is a demo, real amazing 3-D! Last but not least BREAKTWO is a Breakout game for two players.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
A collection of some first class popular music composed with the Advanced Music System. The disk includes a player so you do not require AMS to run It. Packed with tunes such as SWEET DREAMS, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, (THAT’S THE WAY) I LIKE IT, EYE OF THE TIGER, SOUNDS OF SILENCE and many more.
Autoboot with BASIC. Disk will play through all selections. Press Select to skip/change tunes.
More Advanced Music System files for the listener who prefers some of the older ‘standards’ including such pieces as IN THE MOOD, JEANNIE, BLUE HEAVEN, PLEASE RELEASE ME and plenty more.
Autoboot with BASIC. Disk will play through all selections. Press Select to skip/change tunes.
For those who fancy a break from the joystick or who are not fast enough for all the action! Games to make you think including a couple of classic board games. Most of the games are easy to pick up however, providing you know the rules of the original game or sport! MONOPOLY is the the classic board game on the computer. With POWERHOUS you can manage American football teams through several seasons’ play. CRYPTO will have you solving cryptograms but be warned, it is hard! STARTREK is a lengthy simulation of a space battle. BACKGAMM is a great version of the board game backgammon which you can play for hours if you get hooked. ABCSPORTS is another simulation in which you can try to run your own TV station! These are all mainly very long programs!
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Some more great utilities to help you get the best from your machine. REPAIR can help you fix bad disk files and could be a godsend. EPLISTER is a listing facility for Epson printers giving really neat printouts, BESTAUTO creates Autorun files and can autoboot a fast cursor and more. XREFUTIL, will give you the line numbers of all variables. The menu on this disk, MAXIMENU is much more than a menu, try it on your own disks. NOCLICK will stop the keyboard click on 400/800 and DLLISTER gives details of any display list TRACE is a superb debugging tool which will single step through your program. MINIUTIL is a collection of utilities which includes a limited boot tape to disk copier. CREATOR can create a Recreatable BASIC program from binary and FONT, complete with three ready designed fonts is the ULTIMATE character designer!
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Become a pinball wizard with these three pinball games. Two in machine language and one excellent game in BASIC. The files are pretty long so we can’t get any more on the disk. The programs are AURABALL, FLASH and DEMON.
Autoboot with BASIC. Follow instructions for individual programs. Write protect tab may need to be removed for certain programs.
Not all arcade games but close in concept even including a slot machine! EPSILON was published in ANTIC and is considered to be one of the best ‘platform’ games in the public domain. GOLDRUSH finds you digging for gold whilst the others have a space theme. Also includes a demo (or two!). JACKPOT is a slot machine simulation, PHANTOM a Defender style space game, SAUCER in which you shoot down alien saucers, SPASAULT and STELLAR, a couple more space games and a nice demo, ATARLOGO. Some good games for those who enjoy action games for their relaxation.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Pit your wits against a variety of Adventure styles with four different text style adventures from the classic ‘dungeons and dragons’ type to a modern adventure in a submarine. Plus one ‘arcade’ style game which whilst not strictly an adventure will give you a break when you are stuck! CRASH DIVE comes from ANALOG but you are unlikely to have seen the others. The programs are OPERSAB, CRASHDIV, DUNGEON, QUEST and CASTLEQ.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Another mixed bag of thinking and fun style games and programs. No fast action reflexes required just a little thought, skill or luck! BOWLERS is ten-pin bowling similar to the old VCS game whilst FLIPIT is an Othello type. GAMBLER is great fun for up to four players and WORDSEARCH is quite a difficult word finding game. A couple of great demos and a little maze game complete this disk. The complete listing is BOWLERS, WORDSRCH, FLIPIT, HAPYMAZE, GAMBLER, SNOWFLAK and SUNRISE. Some fairly long programs for the thinkers rather than the fast thumb brigade!
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Utilities have proved to be the most popular of the library disks and we therefore bring you another collection. There are several disk utilities. DISKFIX in machine code allows you to change directories, trace files and much more. ADDMENU, again in machine code gives you a boot load with multiple choice for binary tiles. UNLOCK will restore scrambled variable tables on scrambled listings and SUPERDIR is a menu which allows you to add descriptions to all files on a disk. TINYTEXT, the superb word processor on disk #3 is included as an updated version with 80 column display for formatting. FILDSORT is a sort subroutine for sorting on any field in a fixed length record. The disk is rounded off with several printer utilities for EPSON and GEMINI printers.
We have not previously included a collection of programs from ANTIC or ANALOG magazines but many subscribers have asked for these and so this disk contains many of the fine public domain machine code programs published by ANALOG along with a couple of other machine code programs. Fight the robots in ANDROTON, eat, or avoid, spiders and fruit in ARACHNID, burrow underground in FIREBUG, keep the sparks at bay with LIVEWIRE, protect your planet from attack in PLANET, take on an opponent in RACE IN SPACE, try and land your craft in RETROFIRE, lasso cattle in ROUNDUP or avoid the shooting stars in SHOOTING. Wow! NINE incredible machine language games offering better value than some commercial disks. To top it off there is an amazing demo of the spinning earth.
Autoboot with Basic. Re-boot after each program. All files should be loaded from menu or Dos option L.
The Pinball games on disk #21 are extremely popular and several people asked for more. Here is another machine language pinball game called CREEPSHOW to save you a few more pounds down the arcade! Fans of Ghostbusters might find a similarity in the title SPOOKBUSTERS which is an arcade style game on three levels avoiding or killing the spooks. Some great sound on this. JEOPARDY is one of the now familiar platform games but quite hard. I don’t know what happens when you reach screen 2! Finally JUMPKING sets you up as Evil Knevil as you try to get your bike over the jump. Simple graphics but quite fun. There may only be four programs but they are quite long and there are only a couple of sectors left on the disk!
Autoboot with Basic. Follow instructions from individual programs.
So called because you can try and sail round the world with BAY PILOT or answer questions about world capitals and many other things with QUIZ. The major program is the QUIZ with several subjects such as world capitals, inventors, vocabulary and more. Multiple choice tests, optional timers, solo or competitive play. This is really one of the best computer quizzes I have seen in the public domain. It will even tell you if your answer is right but the spelling is wrong! Hours of fun with the family as a change from solo games. In BAY PILOT you use the joystick to sail your ship around the world whilst avoiding the pirates. This is one of those difficult games that you must stick with just to see the next screen! SLAMMER and HATS are somewhat different games for a change. In the first you must slam dustbin lids on ‘nasties’ in the bins and in HATS you catch falling hats using the number keys. Both different but good fun. Finally GRIDMASTER which is one of those simple games which somehow are quite compelling. Just move over a grid without falling off. Easy? Try It!
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Pride of place goes to a SUPERB siding program which, although written in Basic, is as good as many commercial programs. SKIKING is a downhill race game for up to four players. Two courses are on the disks but with SKIEDIT provided you can design and save any number of your own courses. It is impossible to explain in a few words just how good this program is. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed! For Airstrike fans there is BLACKBIRD in which you have to fly through caverns avoiding missiles. DIGGER finds you burrowing deep beneath the earth searching for diamonds. POPCORN is a simple catching game ideal for children but still a challenge for adults at the faster levels. Finally TAG is a super fast ‘avoid getting caught game’ for up to four players.
Autoboot with BASIC. System Reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
For adventure lovers or those who want to try their hand, four more adventures of various styles. LIVINGSTON is a standard text adventure requiring you to explore the sub-continent but it is hard enough to get out of the bedroom! In KIDNAPPED you awake in a strange hotel room. Can you escape? STARWARP is a cross between an adventure and a simulation in which you play Captain Kirk (or Captain Jim!) and converse with the full crew of Enterprise). Finally HARRY is an amusing choice of action style adventure in which you play a secret agent. These are very long programs to gives hours of entertainment.
Autoboot wih BASIC. SYSTEM RESET will re-boot. Hold trigger to re-boot to menu. To LIST programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
The adventures on this one are more in the style of Dungeons and Dragons but using super graphics rather than text. DRAGONLORD is based on the usual role playing style of strength and combat points as you explore a number of rooms in search of gold and power. KOOKY’S QUEST is a super graphics adventure in which you explore many levels of rooms and corridors stopping to fight monsters in order to obtain treasure. Great graphics. PHARAOH is a simpler graphics adventure in the usual text style whilst NUCLEAR is a more complex simulation of the operation of a nuclear reactor. Can you stop it exploding? Finally see if you can get rich in OILWELL by drilling and managing various rigs.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Not the usual fast paced games but something to relax and enjoy. SOLITAIRE is a card game written in the C language which is quite Impressive. KISMET II is similar to but more complex than Yahtzee whilst LOST describes exactly what you will be in a huge 3-D maze. How about relaxing on the golf course? Do so with TEE OFF or join up to four players in searching for hidden TREASURE. If you like wordgames HANGQUOTE is the familiar Hangman but with well known quotations. FLAGS is both educational and entertaining requiring you to identify flags of the world and DECODE is another variation of the familiar Mastermind.
Another selection of excellent games of the arcade variety. Get those joysticks out! ROBOT RAID will find you working your way through the caverns blasting gates and fuel pods whilst THIEF requires finer control as you fly your saucer through the levels of a cavern. ZURK is a classic style robot shoot out. It’s you or him but mind the walls. ANTIPONG is a new version of the old classic for two players with lots of variety. A new twist on Space Invaders? SPACE LIMBO has you shooting down the aliens before a descending shield can squash you. A chase game is included in TAXMAN where you must collect all the money before the tax man does. To round off the action Games there is RONI’s TVs, a very difficult trampolining/platform game where you have to fix TV’s on various levels. Finally there is LOST, a massive 3-D maze for you to escape from. Some easy, some hard but hours of fun all round.
Possibly the most useful disk you can buy if you are stuck on an adventure! Complete solutions to some of the more popular adventures with a unique ‘walk through’ system that allows you to step through each instruction without learning too much about the adventure. Work through to the point where you are stuck, get the next instruction and try again. Unlike written help you can’t learn more than you want to. Complete solutions to the following adventures – DEADLINE, WITNESS, MYSTERY FUN HOUSE, PYRAMID OF DOOM, GHOST TOWN, PIRATE ADVENTURE, MISSION ASTEROID, INFIDEL, HITCHHIKERS GUIDE, MASK OF THE SUN, CUTTHROATS.
Another fine set of utilities for all programmers including a few gems. Includes a new DOS called MACHDOS which comes with a complete manual. It may turn out to be your favourite. DISKDUMP allows you to disassemble any program or file from disk FASTSORT contains three sort routines to include in your programs and LINEMOVE is an excellent utility which will delete, move, count or copy lines in a Basic program. FORMATIX allows you to format disks normally or using special sectors and WIDETEXT allows you to mix text styles in Graphics 0. A great program called PMDESGNR will take all of the pain out of Player Missile Graphics by writing sections of Basic from your input to normal questions and PMAID will help you to design players for use with the above. Finally VARREMV stops your program from being easily read by others. A great collection.
Autoboot with Basic. System reset will reboot. All files are Basic Run or Load unless otherwise stated. Files with LST extension should be Entered.
An ESSENTIAL disk for all XL or XE owners or those who have just bought a disk drive. All those machines sold a while ago came with DOS 3 which should NOT be used as it is not compatible with other DOS’s. The new standard recommended by Atari is DOS 2.5. This disk contains the complete DOS 2.5 with full manual PLUS the XL FIXER to allow you to run those programs which will not run on XLs PLUS a program which allows A RAMDISK ON THE 800XL without using extra memory (DOS can be resident). Also included is a one-pass disk copier for the XE and a very useful multiple file copier, allowing you to copy files from several disks in one go, and a speed checker for your disk drive. An excellent collection which EVERY XL or XE owner should have.
Autoboot with BASIC. See Help to load individual programs.
A collection of four long games and an excellent demo, all in machine code. TRICKY is a quite unique game for 1 or 2 players combining speed, logic and strategy as you try to build a track for a Skuttlebug. Difficult to describe in a few words but it is true commercial qualify. An excellent game. BACKTRAK is one or the standard ‘collect the diamonds’ games but is very well implemented. SMUSH is a climbing game with you climbing up a building avoiding all sorts of obstacles. Finally there is GAUNTLET which is in Defender vein but much more complex involving both keyboard and joystick control with lots of options. There is an extensive on-screen manual for what is an excellent game overall. Oh yes, and there is that superb 3-D demo with music!
A beautiful disk intended for young children of storytelling age but which will also interest adults who would like to see how the Atari can be put to real creative use. The disk is an illustrated children’s story about a Gentle Giant which has every ‘page’ illustrated by excellent graphics with animation. Children can turn the page themselves and parents can use the illustrations to teach them by asking what various parts of the picture are and what things are doing. It is difficult to describe how good this disk is, it would certainly merit commercial release if any company was brave enough. If you have young children buy it for them. if not take a look at how well the Atari can be used.
Autoboot with BASIC. Follow screen prompts.
Another collection of tales of adventure to tax the mind. Can you solve all of the puzzles in these four new adventures to suit all tastes? For those who have been, at the keyboard too long there Is MADHOUSE in which you find yourself locked in an asylum. Can you get out? Going back in time TITANIC will find you at the helm of the famous ship. Can you change history? For the ghoulish among you there is WEREWOLF a humorous adventure in which you have just been bitten by a dog. Strange things start to happen! Finally HIGHSCHOOL is a different style of adventure in which you must pass several subjects to gain your diploma, If you can find how to get to the classroom! Four long adventures to keep you busy for days.
Let’s face it, a good go at space games once in a while is an ideal break from all that serious stuff and with STARGUNNER you will find one of the fastest Defender type games in the public domain. For more of a challenge try ORBITAL In which you have to fight off other craft whilst trapped in the gravity field of a strange planet. Quite difficult this one. Going back to the early days we have one of the classic type of games in LANDERH in which you must land your craft on the planet without running out of fuel. DEFENSE is another Defender type game with several levels and speeds to choose and re-fuelling of your ship. Finally there is GRAVITY, one of those very simple games like Pong or Breakout which will keep you absorbed for hours. Just keep a moving dot between two lines. Easy? Try It!
Judging by the number of letters and phone calls we have had, everyone who bought the first Micro Tales wants more! Now we have the story of CAVEMAN JOE to delight your children. This follows the same format as Micro Tales 1 with animated illustrations for each ‘page’. Another lovely disk for children of story telling age which you can read to them or they can read themselves. It will keep them quiet for hours!
Autoboot with BASIC. Follow screen prompts.
One thing the ST has done for existing Atari owners is to spur programmers on to writing some incredible demos to prove that the 8-bit Atari can still do much more than most ‘non-Atarlans’ believe. Although there are only a few demos on this disk (because they require a lot of programming), they are the best you will find. Here you have BOINK the 8-bit version of the ST/Amiga bouncing ball and CESDEMO, a version of another classic ST demo of a bird flying across an animated demo. The ‘piece de resistance’ though is FUJIBONK an incredible 3D ‘bouncing Fuji’ which spins as it bounces with colours scrolling down one side. It really has to be seen! The other demo is HOLLYMED which shows 3D perspective effects. No other 8-bit micro can do this!
An amazing 100% machine code public domain version of one of the best commercial drawing and painting programs. Included on the disk are full instructions and several completed pictures for you to improve or enjoy. All of the expected features of a painting program including a superb and novel scrolling menu bar. A class program that produces pictures in Micropainter format which, if it were not for the fact that several commercial programs already exist, would surely have been put out commercially. Included in the documentation are details of how to include pictures in your own programs.
Autoboot with BASIC. Documentation on disk.
Several programs for those who like to sit down for long sessions with the computer pitting their wits against situations in which they must use all their thinking power to come out best. Some very long simulations including TITAN where players have to mine for ore on a far flung planet. Choose how to divide your resources to survive. Includes some animated sequences for the mining sessions and full documentation on the disk to explain the objective. A more unusual simulation is DAIRY in which you have to manage a dairy herd to achieve the best milk yield and survival of your farm! A different and unusual simulation. SAFRYLAND is one of the early ‘classic’ simulations in which you rule a kingdom making decisions on how to grow and divide the food and generally rule the land. CONVOY requires you to set up and navigate a convoy of supplies during the Second World War. Rounding off we have FISH which is not a simulation as such but more of an ‘exploration’ to find where the fish are biting.
An extravaganza of sound and music for your Atari with tunes you can listen to and sound effects you can use in your own programs. More advanced users should be able to use the machine code routine from the main program to give music. In their own programs which runs independently of the Basic program. The main MUSIC & GRAPHICS demo contains nineteen pieces of music and assorted graphics demos and even has the option for you to draw in time with the music! There are nine SOUND EFFECTS to use in your programs plus SOUNDLAB to help you produce your own sounds. Then there is TICO-TICO, a simply BRILLIANT piece of music which you will not believe is written in Basic. The best I have ever heard! Finally to test your Atari to the full is VAN HALEN, a digitised sound track. Like listening to the radio.
Pride of place on this one goes to ESCAPE, a super fast 3-D maze in which you can choose your own maze size. MINIGOLF is an old classic, a simple but addictive nine-hole golf course. SABTAGE will find you trying to avoid the deadly death ray in escaping from a room. ENVIRONX is a platform game with a real challenge requiring a great deal of thought as well as action. MONKEYS is a circus and balloons type game but with a difference. Certainly one of the most difficult of this type of game. LUNARPAT is one of those cavern type games but well done and quite a challenge. To round off PIG is a two player dice game, another of those simple but highly addictive games that will have you playing for hours. A nice varied collection of entertaining programs.
Many people it seems do not like to play games on their own so we have put together a disk of games for two players. Some of these can be fast and furious! SKULLS for instance is a great machine language game that will have you trying to keep one eye on your own actions and both on your opponents! Simple in concept but great fun and quite challenging. BASEBALL is a simulation of American baseball with one player pitching and fielding while the other bats and runs. FLW is another one where you need to keep an eye on what your opponent is doing while you rush around trying to collect the right combination of letters. For those who like to think, BEAMTRON is a good strategy game in which you must build deflectors and lasers to defend yourself and attack your opponent. Several more games included for two players and one bonus game.
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To list programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
Here is a collection including puzzles for those who prefer to think rather than act on impulse and some conventional games. Most of the puzzles are of the ‘logic’ type such as the famous Towers of Hanoi. HEXPUZZ is a sliding squares game and CHECKERS requires you to change all the pieces on a chess board in the least number of moves. MASTER is a more challenging version of mastermind where you are just given a single number and you must work out how the number is made up. HEARTS is another ‘change from one to the other’ puzzles. Of the conventional games there are MOONBASE where you defend yourself from attack and several games where you are being attacked by robots or beasts all with nasty intent! If you get good at running fast, try TRAKSTAR where you can race against the clock. Finally, GAMEPACK is a compendium of simple games that are ideal for programmers to try and improve.
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will reboot. Hold trigger or key to re-boot to menu. To list programs, LOAD "D:filename" and delete line 0 before running.
This is the first in a series of ‘super adventures’, great text adventures that will give you hours of enjoyment and puzzlement. They are all quite long and there will therefore be only three or four on each disk but they are well worth trying whether you are a beginner or more advanced adventurer. This one has three adventures. RIPPER is set in Victorian London and you play the part of a constable patrolling the streets of Whitechapel trying to track down the notorious Jack The Ripper. Could be gruesome! In CRIME, the crime that has been committed is a kidnapping. Mrs Fenwick has been kidnapped and is being held somewhere. It is up to you to sift through the clues and see if you can rescue her alive. Finally AROUND THE WORLD recreates the famous adventure in which you must ride a balloon to complete an exciting journey around the world in a certain number of days. Lots of thrills, danger and excitement. You’ll have hours of fun completing these adventures and can look forward to more later.
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to menu.
We had to have something special for our fiftieth disk and here is an arcade adventure that fills up the entire disk. What makes it special and unusual is that it was originally a commercial program released in the early days of the Atari and now available in the public domain. This is an adventure in the style of the early Ultima adventures where you use a joystick to control your character as he explores a lost pyramid and fights or talks to the foes or friends he meets. You can buy provisions at the bazaar, pick up items as you go along, use objects you find and must generally keep an eye on your strength, health, wealth, defences, provisions etc. as you go. The adventure is set on the Plains of Giza where the Great Pyramid was built 4,000 years ago. It is now 1932 and you have been sent by the British Museum to discover a priceless artifact rumoured to be hidden in a secret chamber in the pyramid. At night strange cries echo across the plains and the living dead walk beneath the pyramids. Beware of the guardian in your quest! Several files make up the disk and games can be saved to be replayed at a later date.
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to menu.
A game of fun for two or three players which is based on a well known American TV program. This is a very large program that has several data files and consequently takes up most of the disk. If you enjoy playing with a friend or friends you will find it good value as a game can take several hours to play. WHEEL OF FORTUNE is basically a word guessing game in which a well known phrase or set of words has to be guessed by spinning the wheel and choosing letters. Every spin of the wheel can build up the players winning to several thousand dollars and it is a gamble all the way through whether to spin again, buy some letters or chance the solution. Whoever gets the word gets the pot for that round and the other players lose whatever they have !n the bank it could be thousands! The game is a fairly simple concept but is wildly popular in the States because is has the right elements of risk, skill and tension making it an ideal two or three player game. There will be howls of anguish and shouts of joy as you win or lose a fortune on the spin of the wheel or a guess of a letter. The disk is rounded of by another two player game called BARRIER which is on the well known angle worms theme but with a slight difference. There was only room for one extra program on the disk!
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to menu.
Three more exciting and puzzling text adventures to keep your mind alert into the small hours. ARABIAN is a tale of princesses and wizards in which the Princess Jasmine has been taken by the evil wizard Rex and Imprisoned in his castle. You must find the castle and rescue the princess, but first you must destroy the wizard! ALIEN is set far away from earthly things and finds you as the sole survivor on a disastrous mission to deliver oil to earth from a far solar system. The ship has crash landed on a small, harshly alien, planet which has no redeeming features except an abundant supply of heavy metals. You need to find provisions and a means of leaving the planet but you must be wary of the THING that massacred the rest of your crew! Back to more pleasant lands in TREASURE. Treasure Island in fact which you set out to find having discovered a map giving the exact co-ordinates of the island and written in what is believed to be Long John’s own hand. You have spent all of your savings on the passage to find the treasure and have no choice now but to forge ahead and discover for yourself – Treasure Island! Three more puzzling, intriguing and worthy adventures.
Autoboot with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to menu.
The Atari has always been recognised as the very best home computer in the graphics field and this great graphics and sound demo proves it. Here we have one of the very best demos ever seen to show off the power of your Atari. Several graphics demos combine with some of the very best in computer music to amaze you and your friends. The final demo on the disk is really amazing and you won’t be disappointed with any of them. They don’t call the Atari the Graphics Machine for nothing! One of the very best.
If you enjoyed Beneath the Pyramids, don’t hesitate to order this one! In a very similar vein to disk #50, this was originally a commercial program in the early days of Atari. This time you are a knight in search of wealth and power. Recalling the times of King Arthur and Camelot you will be able to explore and fight but will not be able to enter Camelot until you have found 12 objects that each give your knight a supply of power. The way is not easy for on your travels you will encounter the likes of Goliath and the Evil wizard who are after your power, but they won’t get it without a fights. Your progress can be saved so you may replay at a later date. One game but hours of fun.
Relax with some great music from your Atari. Six great sounds from the charts plus a couple of classical pieces will allow you to sit and relax awhile after all the strain of defeating aliens or programming! All the tunes are shown being played on an on-screen keyboard, so If you watch carefully you might even find out how to play them! Tunes include GIRLSFUN, BUSTERS, JUMP, ROXANNE. THE WORLD, VIRGIN and more.
The third in our series featuring another three mysterious adventures. In BLAKHOLE you will find yourself approaching a mysterious black hole after many months travelling in space. As you get closer you notice another ship, the Cygnus. A decade ago it had been assumed lost and its crew dead but suddenly her docking bay begins to beckon your ship as lights start flashing all over the Cygnus. Your mission is to escape from the Cygnus and inform the authorities of your discovery. The next adventure, WINDSLOE, finds you in Windsloe Mansion in search of the kidnapped, world famous, ‘Pumpkin Man’. Mrs Windsloe is a known witch and the mansion is haunted. Can you find the ‘Pumpkin Man’ and return him to your original location without being killed by the things that go bump in the night? The final one is KLONDIKE where you are a gold prospector, in search of fame and fortune, who must survive snow, ice and bitter cold in the tundra wastes. Find the treasures and take them to a specified place before you freeze to death in the wilderness.
All the programs on this one are 100% machine code. When you fancy a snowball fight at Christmas and there isn’t any snow outside try the two player SNOWBALL game, it is excellent and great fun! Star of the disk has to be XEVIOUS which is a fantastic translation of the classic arcade game. if you fancy protecting the earth from the evil and powerful Kazon empire you can try LUNARDEF, a Defender type program. Then there is STARISLE where you must destroy the force fields that surround a starship before destroying the ship itself. And if you thought all that was good, wait until you see GALACTIC, a super version of Galaxians that was way ahead of its time in the early days of Atari. Fast and addictive, you’ll love it! Come to think of it you should love all of these if you like action!
Two quite different programs, one for those who have enjoyed Beneath the Pyramids and Quest for Power and the other for printer owners. MICRO MAP is a great utility that allows you to design your own screens for the aforementioned games and then merge them with the originals to create a totally different program. Now you have access to an unlimited number of games to play or give to your friends! PICDUMP is a superb picture printer for Mlcropainter/Koala type pictures which works with Epson, NEC, Gemini or Prowrlter printers and will dump your favourite pictures to the printer. What is unique is that the program gives you a preview of the picture in shades of grey and you can alter any colour register so that the printout will look right! Great! No more wasted paper. Several bonus pictures are included on the disk for you to enjoy or Practice with.
A real mixed collection this! Look through carefully for there might just be the program you have been looking for. There is JANE, a delightful and simple bouncing cubes game that young children will love. A couple of great machine language games are LIVEWIRE2 and DEMONBRD, the former of course a follow up to the original based on the arcade Tempest, only better and more involved. STARBLS is game in the Defender style written in Basic but still extremely playable and enjoyable. There is another machine language game called RAINSTORM which is simple in concept but difficult to play, just catch the money but avoid the rain. Not easy! If you don’t like games check out the home utilities. There is CHECKBK to help you balance your bank account, together with a good DATABASE program that might be just what you need for those odd record keeping jobs. Finally, a text editor called appropriately enough TEXTEDIT that is simple but functional and which even novice programmers will be able to modify as they wish. Quite a varied collection with some great programs.
Keep your mind alert with another three puzzling and challenging text adventures that will keep you occupied for hours on end. The first is a secret agent affair in which you play JAMES BRAND with a mission to kill the evil Dr. Death before he assassinates the President of the United States. ARROWONE is set in deep space and you will find yourself descending to an alien planet where you make a horrifying discovery which will impel you to take on a desperate and dangerous quest. You will have to discover what it is as you go! Back home and back in time for WITCH where you must search a castle to find a Princess, conquering along the way the forces of darkness and the super-natural. Sounds spine-chilling!
There has always been a demand for educational software but unfortunately there is little around either commercially or in the public domain. We have been able to put together a second educational disks packed with programs for children of pre-school and primary school age and some of them will be fun for adults tool. Includes such goodies as SPELL, a great word guessing game that is based on a Tug of War theme. CONCENTR, an excellent concentration game to test youngsters memories to the limit, and if the kids fancy being a detective, let them track down Rover’s stolen bone in BARNYARD. For pre-school children there is MOLEATCK, an Ideal letter recognition game and finally WORDSCRM, a scrambled word game that can be testing for adults as well!
The star of this disk is BOOTDISK, which gives you the capability to create boot disks from cassette or disk based tiles. Still on the disk scene, there is DCOPY, a file copier with integral DOS functions, and when copying large files, you can use BASICON and BASICOFF to give you an extra 8K of memory. More advanced users will find ATOB and MLTRACE blessings in disguise to help with Assembly language programming. XDRV is an 80 column display and it is quite readable too! Two programming demonstrations and a super labelling program complete this useful disk.
Pinball fans can rejoice with another couple of fine pinball games. BLAKHOLE and COSMOS continue the pinball tradition as set by disk #21 and will give you hours of play. You will know that pinball games are quite long and there is only room for one more program on the disk which is SMASHER a good game for those who enjoy ‘shoot ‘em ups’. Break the elements into atoms. Might even teach you something about molecular theory!
Six great games to show you that you don’t need to program in machine code to write fine games. These show just what can be achieved using Basic. SPYPLANE is a Scramble type game with very smooth horizontal scrolling, can you fly through laser protected caverns in order to find the suitcases! DIVER has you recovering treasure from the sea-bed. Easy? Not with the man-eating octopus and human destroying nuclear submarine! Meanwhile up in space, a BOPOTRON tries to re-charge batteries in a spaceship and to test your brain cells to the limit we have RECALL, guaranteed to make sure you don’t get amnesial If you do, you could always try to become a member of the U.S. Senate in DRKHORSE, a superb simulation that will have you coming back time after time. Finally, In BASBURG you have to make burgers before the burgers make your day! This really is a fine collection of games for all owners.
Here is an excellent compendium of subroutines that programmers of all levels will find useful. You can select any of these routines to enhance your own programs or to save you developing specific routines from scratch. There are dozens of routines varying from fast t/O to English error messages, joystick routines to a high speed printer dump. The subroutines are suitable for all levels from beginners to advanced BASIC programmers and you may well find solutions to problems you have struggled with and quite possibly great routines you can include in your programs that you may never even have thought about! There is a lengthy tutorial included on the disk so you have no need to worry that some of the routines may be too difficult to use. An excellent disk for programmers of all abilities.
Another great collection of 100% machine code games including several arcade favourites collected from the best American Atari User Groups. Here you have BATTLEROOM, INSECTS, CHOMPER and AVALANCHE which find you avoiding death in many different ways from being eaten to being squashed! CANYON and NORDIC are a couple of simple vertical scrolling games but extremely well done and very playable. The first is a two player game which has you flying through ravines to see who can get the furthest whilst NORDIC is a fast and furious downhill skiing game. Next is OLYMPIC DASH a real ‘joystick waggler’ for one or two players as you compete in the 100 yards dash. Superb animation and beautifully smooth scrolling that just has to be seen! Finally we have a sort of cross between a dozen arcade games and noughts and crosses in a quite fascinating and unusual game. To gain a square on the board you must do battle with one of 12 different types of lifeform. Each is different, each is challenging. This one is hard to explain but great fun to play! You’ll love it.
Boot with BASIC. When Ready appears type DIR, press Return. Type .R16 and press RETURN.
Some long and complex simulations which, unlike many similar programs have good graphics support. EMPIRE is a ‘ruler’ simulation but unlike others is based on history being set in the Mediterranean between 1480 and 145 BC. You may fight the armies of surrounding countries or try diplomacy in an attempt to complete your reign of your chosen country. The style is very much that of wargaming. RAILKING is set in the USA at the time of the early railroads and is a game for 1 to 4 players in which you must try and amass a fortune by building railroads and moving goods between places. This has graphics and a save game feature and you may play against friends or the computer. A very extensive playing manual is on the disk. Finally NORAD is a sort of adventure/simulation in which you must hack your way into the Whitehouse Defence computer. There are few clues and a lot of brainwork required. These are all good quality simulations that will give you many hours of pleasure.
As you might have guessed – Space. A whole collection of mainly arcade style games set in space many in machine language with spectacular graphics. ALIEN is a vertically scrolling shoot em up with aliens that split and bounce around the screen. ROTO finds you with a Jet-pack hovering around caverns trying to rescue lost canisters and is similar to some commercial games with some fine horizontal scrolling. ROCKS has great graphics and is a lander style game in which you have to land and gain fuel before docking again with the mother ship. There are thousands of pieces of rock debris in orbit around the planet to hinder you, all excellently detailed and worth seeing. MALPASS is Defender or as close as you can get, excellent scrolling and shooting. MOONLORD is more in the simulation vein with you in control of a starshlp cruising around the galaxy defending and attacking. Again the graphics are very good. OUTPOST2 is a simpler starship game in which you must choose weapons to clear different sectors. WARRIOR gives you the view from your cockpit as you shoot incoming enemy craft. Finally, a break from space with AMAZE, a sort of futuristic Pacman in machine language for fast action. There are too many here to explain in more detail. All but two are in machine language and the disk represents an excellent collection of arcade games.
If you recall the excellent PASSIONATELY from an earlier disk, here is more of the same together with an interesting history of the Advanced Music Processor used to create the tunes. Several of these tunes were written for Datasoft commercial games but not used. Find out what the music for ALTERNATE REALITY might have been like. Other tunes include AIRSTRIKE, COSMIC, MONSTER and ROBOTMAN. Also on this disk are a collection of German tunes similar to Tico-Tico and they prove just what you can achieve on the Atari in Basic, you will be impressed! These include AMORADA, FIRECRACKER and SYNTHE. There are also a number of other types of music including such titles as STARLITE, MUSIK, OXYGENE, SPANISH EYES, IN THE MOOD, HIGH NOON and MADBOOGY. If that’s not enough the disk is rounded off with a couple of nice graphics demos including one in machine language that may well hypnotise you!
Two superb machine language arcade games written by David Castell who wrote the 1st XLENT Word Processor! These are two scenarios in which you control a Space Fighter sent back in time. VOYAGE1 Is set in 1 Million BC in which you must rescue a stranded pilot from a raft. There are many hazards such as sea monsters, volcanoes, storms etc. to hinder you and control of you Fighter is not easy at the best of times. VOYAGE2 is a similar but is set in Mediaeval times and requires you to rescue a King. Both games are fairly simple in concept yet extremely challenging to play. There are many options and even on the most basic level you will find controlling your fighter quite a task. If you manage to succeed on either game with option 9 then you are an arcade gamer par excellence! These are big games each taking around a couple of hundred sectors and the disk contains full instructions. We have however managed to squeeze just one more game on and it is another ML game, AMPHIBIAN, with an evolution theme. You begin life as a tadpole, quickly becoming a frog and you must survive by knocking off various dinosaurs? Good graphics in this one.
Those who prefer thinking games can enjoy three more adventures in our ‘Super’ series. These are again long and interesting adventures to keep you puzzled for hours. TITANIC is, as you might expect set aboard the ill-fated ship but you have the chance to rewrite history by avoiding the collision and saving the lives of thousands of passengers. DALTON is set in the Wild West in the 1880’s when the famous Dalton gang were around. You are the Sheriff and it is your task to stop the Dalton boys in whatever way you can. whether you capture them dead or alive! Many other challenges present themselves along the way. The final one is MENAGERI in which you awake to find that you have been taken by alien beings and transported to a huge orbiting zoo where creatures of all different worlds have been collected. You awake early and might just be able to escape but you need to hurry as you can see that the aliens are putting the finishing touch to a cage that is built specially for you!
AUTOBOOT with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to menu.
Here’s a real cracker, a machine language boot game that takes up the whole disk and has excellent music and great graphics. Fancy some surfing in warm tropical waters with the waves crashing on the beach and the sun beating down? Trouble is that there is a storm brewing and every one else has gone to the bar but who cares, that sea is too inviting. Grab the board and surf! Surfing is not easy as you come down off those big breakers and when there are nasty things in the sea like octopusses then the going gets even tougher, it easy to lose your board. Ibis is a difficult and challenging arcade game with a very different theme. Give it a try, it really shows off your Atari a treat.
Gauntlet fans will love this one for it is the very game that gave rise to the famous Gauntlet and although the graphics may not be quite as good, many say that it is much more playable. The Dandy Dungeon is 26 levels deep and is an adventure for 1 to 4 players working together to fight their way through each level. You will encounter monsters of varying nastiness, find food, money and keys to give you access to other levels. You must keep an eye on your Health, Food reserves and more at all times, help your friends survive, and revive them if necessary. The game is challenging can be fast paced and the graphics are very good with fine scrolling in all directions. When, and if, you complete all 26 levels supplied, Dandy Dungeon allows you to create new dungeons with the Dungeon Editor. Dungeon levels can be printed out for mapping or study and you could go on creating challenging dungeons forever. ‘ibis is another of those games which was available commercially many years ago and is now available in the public domain. Well worth the modest price and a must for every adventure gamer.
An excellent simulation with good graphics, very reminiscent of Star Raiders without the arcade element Set in the 27th Century when new advances in physics have led to the discovery of portals in space allowing access to many other galaxies and worlds. Dozens of new worlds have been colonised and a few have gained independence and have sort to dominate others. Bloody feuds have arisen and now Star Lords have been appointed to command unmanned ships and robot satellites to settle disputes in the far reaches of space without loss of human life. You are one of these Star Lords and you must compete with up to 3 other Star Lords for control of the universe. The game, which can be saved at any stage, allows 1 to 4 players and up to 3 computer players, has 40 worlds to conquer, 30 fleets to command and up to 1999 ships. It is fairly complex and challenging yet can be set up for beginners up to expert players, suggestions for play are included. Full rules of play are on the disk and may be printed out to screen or printer. If you wish we can supply a printed and fully formatted copy of the documentation for £1 extra. Another excellent program that will take many hours to master and will provide many months of play.
A nice collection of maze type games plus some excellent demos and a couple of real mind challengers. The games are ROLLEM, a challenging machine language game, in which you have to paint the floor of a maze whilst avoiding nasties by keeping out of their way or shutting gates on them. Another machine language game is KEYCHASE, one of the fastest games around – just collect keys before the alien thing collects you but it is so fast you’ll have a job to survive. DRAGON finds you in a ladders and platforms environment trying to spit fire at food that constantly changes, a fight against time, this one. MMANIAC is much more relaxed but still time based, you explore a multi-screen maze collecting stars, can be quite puzzling BOX is a chase with a difference in which you have to box in the nestle rather than shoot it, a bit more thought required here. When you have finished chasing try MBUSTERS a simple(?) pattern matching game that will really scramble your brain. This is not a children’s game and may well scramble the brain of the most able adult? To round off there are a couple of interesting demos.
Several readers have asked for a good fast sector copier but the one we have been using for the library was a commercial program and could not be distributed. Here however is a good fast public domain sector copier that is now in full time use at PAGE 6, it is much better than the commercial one! This will copy a single sided disk in one pass on a 130XE or two passes on a 65XE or 800XL and it is fast! Any number of copies can be made from the original. It will work on any system but is especially fast used on a single 1050 fitted with the US Doubler – if you have that combination you need this copier! You will find this ideal for backing up data disks for databases, word processors, Print Shop data disks and the like and also for making back up copies of PAGE 6 disks. Any time you need a back up and you need it fast, reach for Copymate! Use for single, 1050 enhanced or double density. Not for copy-protected programs.
BOOT with or without BASIC. For documentation use another disk to boot, type DOS and use option C to copy COPYMAR43.DOC to E: for screen or P: to printer
Here’s a disk for the youngsters that are in their early school years. If they are getting to grips with letters and numbers this may help them along. The disk is divided into four sections – a number of pictures for the younger ones (our 4 year old loves them!) followed by ALPHARUN in which a car must be driven round collecting either numbers or letters in strict order, an ideal way to reinforce a child’s understanding of the alphabet or counting, with several options. Older children can play DRAGON in which the dragon chooses the correct answer from different choices such as What Colour or What Is Different. Although many questions are American based the program can be easily altered. Finally there is a game for the youngsters who can control the joystick, FROGGIE which requires the frog to catch flies with his tongue, a welcome change from learning! A few nice programs which, unlike most educational programs on the Atari, are suitable for children who have started school rather than pre-school children.
For Pinball Construction Set fans everywhere, this unique program will convert those wishy-washy artifacted American colours into true solid colours for the PAL systems, the difference is remarkable! You don’t need to own PCS however as the program will work on any Pinball file such as those on previous PAGE 6 disks. Here’s your chance to have more fun in converting those old games and playing them again! Also on the disk are two new pinball games in glorious colour – PIEHUNT and BACK IN TIME. A must for pinball lovers and especially for owners of Pinball Construction Set, this is what Broderbund should have made available for the U.K. market but perhaps they didn’t know it could be done!
A couple of text adventures, one similar to the Super Adventures on previous disks, and a really superb picture puzzle to scramble your brain! The first adventure is DEADLY in which you spend a night in your deceased Uncle Henry’s mansion hoping that you are going to inherit his fortune. Trouble is that the other five beneficiaries of the will are also staying there and one of them is determined to be the sole surviving heir! This is a very long text adventure that will have you puzzling for hours. The other adventure is NIGHTSHADE which, whilst basically text input, is presented more graphically with all action on the one screen showing exits, objects, inventory etc. You start in Denny’s bedroom and your first major problem is just to get out! That is hard enough but when the troll appears things get even worse! This is one of those adventures where you can feel really pleased just to have got out of the first location but the going must get easier after that – or does It? The final program is MPUZZLER which breaks Mlcropainter, or any 62 sector format picture file, up into 122 blocks, scrambles them and challenges you to put it back together! Difficult as it is, but when some of the pieces are also rotated it can be a real nightmare! There are two pictures on the disk for you to try your hand but any other 62 sector pictures will work. This will give you hours and hours of fun and you could even set up timed picture solving competitions with your friends.
A disk put together by a US user group for the Christmas holidays to provide fun for all the family. Here you will find a wide selection of programs, not just Christmas programs, that provide ideal family entertainment. There is a section of Christmas fun with pictures and tunes on a Christmas theme that the kids will love, including a nice one where you can put all the lights on a Christmas tree with a joystick as the music plays. A bit of educational fun can’t do any harm and the CASTLE game provides just that with a challenge of building a castle by recognising various geometric shapes or formulas, one of the few programs for slightly older children. Pride of place on the disk has to be a GREAT CHESS GAME that is one of the best games of its type. It is probably not too intelligent so it may be the ideal game for those who are fed up with being beaten by the computer. SOLITAIRE is a fine card game with the familiar red on black descending cards and building foundations. A couple of games round things off with MAZERIDE requiring you to find your way out of a maze with a 3-D viewpoint. It has several options including leaving a trail of where you have been and peeking at the map. Finally there is SPIES a simple text based game that has you guessing where the spies are on a grid. Note that a couple of the programs on this disk are also on earlier disks but as the disk has been put together very well we decided to leave it as it is. It is nice to see a user group taking as much care as we do over the presentation of their disks.
Yet another collection of mainly machine code games that are fast and furious fun. In BUCKS you fly a helicopter and bomb the ground below trying to dig up buried money. All the time you must avoid bombs being dropped by a passing plane. Some excellent explosions and other effects make this one well worth seeing. BUGGY is a sort of Pole Position on sand or dodgems in the desert! You must drive your buggy across the sand without bumping all the other buggies otherwise you will loose time. Another one with good graphics. CRYSTAL is a space shoot out with a difference in that you need to work out just what to shoot and when to shoot to succeed. You need to blast a special crystal but it is protected by a force field so you must figure out how to get to it. If you do destroy it you get the chance to access the Crystal Caverns where the purpose of your mission is discovered. PARALLAX is fast and furious with your ship on a grid being attacked from all four sides by missile launchers. You need to clear the grid whilst keeping four eyes on the sides! Sounds simple but it is fast and with great sonics, a lot seems to happen and it is quite a challenge. BUMPBALL is a sort of pinball with sliding bumpers with which you must deflect balls in to various pockets to score points. Not as easy as it might seem and quite frustrating at times. CHISELLER is multiple Breakout but you do need paddles to play. With two bats and two or more balls in play this adds considerably to the challenge of one of the most addictive games of all time. TRACER is a sort of worms in space in which you must avoid the bulls of three other ships and try to survive longer than they do. Another familiar theme but well done and challenging. In machine code so it is a lot smoother than earlier games of this type. A nice relaxing game of golf might be just what you need after all that blasting and last, but not least, is PROGOLF, the only non-machine language game but still a lot of fun. Choose your club and choose the direction, get on the green and the hole comes up on screen for the final put. Quite a nice little game to round off an excellent collection.
A couple of extra long adventures in the ‘Super series’ plus a very good simulation since another adventure wouldn’t fit on the disk! The first adventure is MOUSE short for The Mouse That Ate Chicago! Four man-eating mice are threatening to eat the city of Chicago and it is your duty as a concerned citizen to stop them at all costs. Each of these monster mice has its own weakness and you must discover what it is in order to destroy them. Hunt high and low and you will succeed but don’t get too close, it could be dangerous! ROBIN, our second adventure is all about Robin of Sherwood in which you play the legendary Robin Hood with all of your merry men cavorting about the forest of Sherwood. You are sure to meet up with the Sheriff, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion and all for for great fun. The simulation is PARAVIA, a kingdom type game with a difference in that it has graphic representation of your progress and can be played by up to 6 players. Set in a 15th century Italian City-State you duty is to rise through the ruling classes to become king or queen by managing the economy wisely. The computer will plot your progress with a map of the expanding or retracting state and the strength of your defences and condition of your serfs etc. You may chose from four levels of Apprentice, Journeyman, Master or Grand Master so play can still be challenging as you improve your skills. A nice mixture of text and graphics and unusual in allowing either one or up to 6 players. A disk for thinkers.
AUTOBOOT with BASIC. System reset will re-boot. Hold trigger or key after pressing Reset to boot direct to Menu.
A varied collection of games with something to please most users. ARENA is a fine game in which you race around a huge arena collecting gems within a time limit whilst avoiding force fields. Sounds easy but what makes it a real challenge is that you can only see a tiny proportion of the arena on the screen at any one time and you have to think and move fast. ACROBAT is a great little game with simple graphics and animation but with enormous appeal. Just run your little animated man along a track and jump or somersault over fences and obstructions. Perfect timing is needed and you keep coming back for morel ASSAULT is a Missile Command style space shoot out where you must zap the aliens before they zap the city, quite good. A couple of machine language games follow with HARVY the rabbit collecting numbers and pushing back the closing walls whilst avoiding the electric fence. MONEYHUNG is a game where you run around ever more complicated mazes collecting the money and trying to avoid bumping into something nasty! CHASE is a fine two player, shoot each other, game with a maze that looks very similar to PacMan, simple graphics but, again, good game play. TUGOFWAR is quite unusual being a thinking tug of war between two players where you have to work out what number to enter to get the best ‘pull’, quite thought provoking. Finally we have ADVNTI8L which is a classic role playing adventure complete with hit points, strength points etc., fighting. attacking, buying, selling, eating, magic, monsters and all. Hours of fun with a new kingdom to explore for all those interested in fantasy style games.
Some long programs make up this disk, again a mix of games to appeal to all. On the fighting front there is one of the very few KUNGFU games available on the 8 bit in which you must fight the computer with a variety of jumps, kicks and punches. In SMURF you are one of those funny creatures of the same name and have to frog along through forests and caves, jumping obstacles until you succeed in the final quest, whatever that is! This one’s quite hard to succeed in and takes a bit of working out how to get over the various obstacles. DIAMONDS is a unique little game in which you must collect diamonds by joining them together whilst killing the nasties either by throwing rocks or diamonds at them, you’ll have to think out the best strategy. KONG is a platforms and ladders game where you rescue the damsel from the ugly and evil Kong, keeping out of his way and avoiding all the barrels and things he throws down at you. Final one is BIGQUEST, an arcade adventure where you explore room after room of a huge castle, finding keys and hidden pearls and avoiding ghosts and the like. As the name says this is a big quest that will keep you busy for hours.
What a cracker of a program! We have thrown away the disk labelling program we have been using for the last five years in favour of this one. The program prints labels for your disks but takes away all the thinking and lets you specify almost exactly what you want on a label. The program reads the directory of each disk and then lets you decide what you want to add or take away. You can add a heading, number the disks (with or without automatic incrementing), show sectors or not, show free space or not, sort on filename, extension or by size, offset labels and more. You can choose to exclude files with certain extenders, the program will automatically list the extenders on your disk and you need press only one key. Several drives are supported and you can print to a printer or disk file and there are several other such features. There are 5 pre-defined label sizes for the most popular labels but you can define your own special size. Once everything is set up, the really clever part comes into play as the program decides how best to fit all the information onto to label by using the best combination of pica, elite and condensed print and by adjusting three line spacing. Everything is automatically centred and neatly arranged, it is very clever. The default printers supported are Epson, Gemini, 10X, Prowriter, OKI 192 and Star SG 10 but you can create a custom printer driver very easily, all you need is a printer that has pica elite, condensed and variable line spacing. This one really is a great program that everyone with a disk collection and a printer will find useful.
Here’s a chance to experiment with 3-D drawing with this compiled program that allows to to plot up to 240 points to create objects which you can then view in three dimensions. Full documentation Is included and there are several example drawings for you to study. Objects can be rotated, scaled and redrawn and the angle of view can be changed. Some quite complex designs are possible. A print out feature is Included but this is set up for the Okimate 10 and we are not sure what that may be compatible with, you can but try? The program is relatively simple to use, but like all programs of this nature you need to read the documentation first and a printer would be handy, although not essential, to dump out the instructions. Mainly a chance to mess around with 3-D and try to get a little creative.
Another fabulous demo, similar to disk #53 but with one or two even better graphics and sound examples. A couple of the demos on this disk are repeats from disk #53 but due to the nature of the disk which is composed of one continuous demo we couldn’t take them out. Never mind they are well worth watching again. All the demos have great music with some stunning graphics mostly in Graphics 9 such as a mind blowing wave that’s almost impossible to describe, something like a solid gold tube that bends and floats across the screen! There’s a neat piano roll type demo, a couple of kaleidoscopes with music that you could watch for hours on end and an animated rock band? One kaleidoscope is in Graphics 8 and is extremely fast and strobe like, looks great with the lights turned off. Don’t worry If you haven’t got an ST, and be proud if you don’t want one, because demos like this can match much of what has been done so far on the ST. This shows you what the XL and XE can do, It’s a pity that a few more programmers don’t turn all this fabulous graphics power into commercial software!
Some games for those who like to think rather than react or who are perhaps not as fast on the joystick. First up we have REFLECT which is a version of Othello that is played against the computer. If this is too easy, try EUCHRE, a card game similar to bridge in which you play with a computer partner against two computer opponents trying to get the most tricks, it would probably help if you knew the rules of Euchre or had a card game reference book handy, but you can pick it up without. WAR! is, we believe, an ancient African game in which counters or beads are passed round a board containing a number of your counters in certain bowls (or something like that, you’ll soon get the hang of It!). SWITCH is a fascinating two player game, that can also be played by one, which is something like a fairground bagatelle where you have to release balls which get trapped on flippers and then release other balls to release them and so on. Difficult to explain but fun to play and it takes a lot of working out to determine how to get the best score. TRUCKER is a text simulation of driving a truck loaded with different goods across the USA. Do you go to sleep? Do you break the speed limit? Will you get the goods delivered in time? Finally there is TACTWAR, a good board type strategic battle game in which you deploy infantry, tanks etc. to battle against the computer. Excellent graphics on this one with the familiar hexagons for the battle field.
Some easy, some quite hard but all with an element of action to keep your joystick tuned. There’s MIAMI ICE where you drive a dragster around an ice rink, a task that verges on the almost Impossible! WORM is one of the caterpillar chasing his tail games in which you eat mushrooms and grow longer and try not to hit anything. This has lots of screens and is one of the best of this type of game. DARKSTAR is on a similar theme but is in machine code and gives some fast action with spectacular exploding endings, one of those simple but addictive games. HIGHRISE is a platforms and ladders game with a difference, it has lifts! You need to run along the girders trying to catch the next lift going up before a swooping bird or a flying saucer(?) catch you, another one in machine code. Fancy a game of noughts and crosses? No? well FRUSTRATION is different, an all action noughts and crosses games in which you have to beat the computer or an opponent in filling in a grid with your crosses before their noughts, sounds easy but it’s not hence the title. MINER JACK is one of the familiar digging for gold tunnelling games and is similar to most others, not special but still quite playable and worth a go. TOWN ATTACK is in compiled Basic and is a sort of reverse Missile Command in which the objective is to try and bomb the cities while avoiding the ships that are trying to protect them. This one is hard as ships tend to appear out of nowhere right in front of you but a bit of study will reveal a pattern to allow you to survive, even so you won’t blast through it in a couple of minutes. To round off there is SKYDIVER, the old parachute game, which will give the kids some fun or the grandads if they are not quite fast enough on the trigger!
It sure does! Here is a 100% machine code demo disk with a difference in that you can actually take part in one or two of the programs, including a fantastic drum machine program which allows you to record drum sequences of literally thousands of beats and replay them! The disk starts out with a couple of music and graphics demos to amaze you called SLOT MACHINE. Nothing to do with slot machines, just great GTIA graphics. Next is an excellent tune by The Outsider that stretches the sound potential of the machine to its limits. A kaleidoscope follows which can play for hours on end and where the patterns can be frozen from the keyboard. JANES PROGRAM allows you to drop blocks and bounce them about, impressive but really written for children, this one is also on an earlier disk. Now comes RYTHMISER which is fantastic if you fancy yourself as Phil Collins. A full set of drums and percussion is available from the keyboard and you can play any sequence you like for almost as long as you like and then have it played back to you at different speeds. You can save tracks and reload them or try out the built in demo which will show just how good the program can be. Quite unique this one and a whole lot of fun. If you like music you will be bowled over by THE ROTBERG SYNTHESISER which was quite famous a few years back and intended for commercial release but never quite made it. This is a demo version with five tunes and BOLERO in particular is brilliant. You tell us if you have ever heard better music on your Atari! The disk finishes up with a demo put out by Atari in the US to show what the Atari computers can do and may be interesting to new users. Old hands will already know how good this old Atari is.
Boot with or without BASIC
Big games on this one starting with a machine language 3-D maze called LABYRINTH which is similar to the quite well known Way Out from Sirius Software or the earlier 3-D motorcycle mazes. Whizz around the maze trying to collect jewels before your battery runs down, turning comers at breathtaking speed, a great illusion of fast 3-D movement and a large maze to explore. Next is QUEST, a dungeons and dragons style game similar to the early Ultima games in which you fight monsters, find treasure, buy potions and everything else you would expect in a magical world, this one is a good graphic based adventure style game that will give those with a sense of adventure some interesting hours of play. Last up is a pinball game from the well known Pinball Construction Set Not much to say about pinball, except that you can get hooked either on your own or with up to three friends. Pity there not room for more but as we said these are all long games.
Are your menus boring? Would you like your disks to autoboot? How about a menu that has lots of disk utilities built in? All of these and many more are on this disk which will transform your disk collection. There are menus to run BASIC programs, menus for machine code games, menus that do not require DOS thus leaving a full 707 sectors on a single sided disk. Some are plain, many are fancy with stylish colours and there are some real gems. There is a reasonable amount of documentation on the disk explaining how to set up your own autorun disk (It’s easy with these utilities) so this collection is ideal for beginners as well as more advanced users. Can’t say much more except that you might find this one of the most worthwhile disks in your collection.
For lovers of astronomy or astrology, a disk devoted to the heavens with programs that are educational as well as useful. Firstly there is a well-documented shareware program called MOONTRACKER which combines astronomy and astrology with a little mysticism. The first part charts the position of the sun and moon at any given time on any given day whilst the second part is a farmers almanac exploring the effects of the moon on the planting and cultivation of crops. If you want to know the best time to plant your onions or water your cabbages, this will tell you! Quite fascinating even if you are not into organic gardening! STARGAZE is an astronomy quiz which will test your knowledge of the stars or explain the constellations. PLANETRM is a similar program showing the major constellations in graphic form for you to try and recognise in the night sky. HORIZON is for those who want to go into astronomy a little more deeply and tells you where to look for a given star or planet giving such details as the angle of azimuth and angle of rising or setting of a star at any time or latitude. STARENC allows you to check the probability of a star colliding with the Earth in the future, trouble is what do you do when you find out when It’s going to happen? Last one is MAROONED, a simple game in which you must identify a planet from increasing amounts of information, in order to rescue your spaceship. Many of the programs on this disk are ideal for introducing youngsters to astronomy of for testing their knowledge.
Another set of tunes using the Composer’s Jukebox introduced way back with disk #55 with each tune being graphically displayed on a piano keyboard as it is played. These are all songs from the Victorian Music Hall days (or at least they are supposed to be but there is probably a degree of artistic license!) and all are well composed using lots of chords, no single finger stuff here! Most of the older users will know these tunes and maybe this is just the disk to get Mum to take an interest in the Atari? See If you can work out the tunes from the filenames which are THEBALL, ROSIE, ADALINE, TRAPEZE, TULIP, BOWERY, HOTTIME, PARK, TAVERN, BOOMDEAY, BILBAILEY, DINGDONG, DARKTOWN, PEGGY, BAND, HELLO, OLDS, MYGAL, TRALEE and EASTSIDE. Some nice music, better than some of the stuff on Top of the Pops!
Three more great text adventures to puzzle and intrigue you in the established style of earlier disks. ALASKAN ADVENTURE finds you in the cold wastes of Alaska where fifteen treasures are buried in the snow or hidden in nearby igloos. First thing you’ll need to do though is to find a parka, otherwise you’ll freeze to death. DANGER IS MY BUSINESS is set in the jungles of India where you play the part of a mercenary whose job it is to rescue the daughter of the American Ambassador. She has been kidnapped and is out there in the jungle … somewhere! The final adventure, BENEATH THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS is a slightly different format to the others but just as enjoyable with supernatural elements, mystery and suspense. The story unfolds as you play, there are no hints at the beginning but the title conveys the atmosphere nicely. Three long, interesting adventures.
Loads and loads of music with a couple of players that are quite different. The tunes are all composed with Music Composer but the stand alone MUSIC SYNTHESISER player allows you to change the parameters of each tune as you play it back. Change the attack, decay, volume drop and vibrato of each phrase in a song. Change the tempo and hear it again. There is no end to the fun you can have playing around with the forty two tunes on this disk! If you are into programming however there is a great listing called PLAYMBD which allows you to take any of the modified tunes on the disk and play them in the vertical blank which means you can add music to any of your programs! The listing is fully commented and it really is easy to add the code to your own programs or add extra programming to the existing listing. Now your programs, however simple, can be really professional! There are over FIFTY tunes on this disk, far too many to list
SIGNMAKER allows you to use your Atari as an electronic message centre with scrolling flashing or blinking messages made up exactly how you want them using a special script that anyone can write. You can include graphic designs, fade colours and much more to give an eye catching display and everything is explained in the very full documentation on the disk. You can even get messages to link with others for very long displays. This program makes a great display for shop windows or club meetings or just to leave messages for your family or friends but it can also be used for video titling. Now you can add the professional touch to the beginning and end of your home videos quite simply without any expensive equipment. Also on this disk is a great digitised sound demo called OPERATOR which shows that it is not only the ST that can do this sort of thing. Memory limits the length of the sample but the quality is superb.
Another chance to see how great your Atari is with some more stunning demos. Unfortunately these are long programs so you don’t get many but you do get the quality that only Atari can give you. OILDEMO is a superb example of just how good the Atari can be in serious applications, with a long demonstration of a fictitious oil drilling scheme using all of the Atari’s features. Educational as well as being interesting to watch. ATAFLEET is a very neat graphics demo with good music of a destroyer at sea, you can even join in and fire the guns! The last big demo is CAR which shows the workings of the internal combustion engine with great colours and animation. What little room there is left on the disk is filled up with several little graphics demos that are fun and which you can list out to see how they are done.
More music similar to The Gay Nineties and using the Composer’s Jukebox but this time the Classics and some very, very long and complex tunes. Interesting to listen too and good to watch the complexity of the tunes on the piano keyboard. The music includes TOCDMAJ, MZTSON7, MZT311, RONDO2, PEDAL, ORGAN1 and FUGUE2. Classical music lovers can probably work out what these tunes are! Nice music, even If you are not into the classics.
Two more great pinball games, STARSHIP and PEGASUS, created with the Pinball Construction Set and which can be played solo or with up to four players. What can you say about pinball? You know how to play, all you need is the disk and you’re away! Also on this one is STUDPOKER, a great new card game in which you take on four opponents in a game of stud. Choose how much you can afford to lose and play away. This is a very good game that intelligently works out the chances of the other players and allows you to bluff if you are brave enough. If you like card games this program alone is reason enough to buy the disk.
An on-screen crossword puzzle with 26 puzzles to solve, that’s XWORD, but be warned many of them are quite hard! Boot up the disk and you get a full crossword grid with clues coming up one by one for you to solve. Type in your answers and progress down the puzzle. Special features include a help screen, the ability to peek at the first letter in a word, give up and have the word inserted for you, highlight errors you may have made, save the puzzle you are working on and load back a semi-solved puzzle. If you have ever enjoyed solving a conventional crossword puzzle you will love the Atari version. Also on this disk is TRAPPED, a 1 player versus computer or 2 player game set on a 10 square grid in which the player with one playing piece tries to outwit and trap the player with three pieces. Sounds easy but it is in fact a quite complex little strategy game.
A nice disk for young children of either pre-school age or those who have just learnt to read as it will enable them to brush up on their reading skills. These are simple text stories that can be printed to the screen at three different speeds making it ideal for children to try and read themselves but parents can also read the stories aloud to younger ones. There are some delightful stories and poems here, many of which are the well known traditional nursery tales but including several which appear to have been made up by the authors. Just text but enchanting nevertheless. The programs include STORTELL, GINGER, MUSIBREM, RED-HEN, RIDING, SPIDER, THE3BEAR, THE3GOAT, THE3PIGS, THE3WISH, WOLFKIDS and COINS.
Here’s a way to create your own unique disks with an exclusive and colourful title preceding your programs. The TITLESCREEN designer allows you to insert text in any size, from normal letters up to about six inches tall! The drawing utilities allow you to change the colours used and the type of pen and you may create borders and lines. Once you have designed your screen you append the name of the program you wish to run and save the screen to your disk. Transfer the AUTORUN program over and when you boot your disk your own custom designed intro screen appears complete with rainbow scrolling. An ideal way to create your own personalised disks without any programming knowledge. A brief documentation file is included but the program is so easy to use it is hardly needed.
At last an educational disk for older children. Once children have learnt to read they need to understand the structure of grammar and this excellent program will help them understand the use of long and short vowels, consonant blending, plurals, compounds and contractions and ends up with a series of study skills which require arranging words in alphabetical order. The program presents a series of lessons which flash a word up on screen which the child needs to remember and use in a sentence in the correct context. If you have a printer, you can even print out additional worksheets that the child needs to complete by filling in missing words and letters and selecting words appropriate to a given question. A very well presented program suitable for children age 6 or over and for older children or even adults who wish to brush up on their understanding of grammar.
Another fine program for older children that teaches synonyms and antonyms in eight lessons. The program presents a list of words of either like or opposite meaning and then tests the child in the correct use of these words by presenting sentences with highlighted words that the child must find the correct synonym or antonym for. Only a couple of files on the disk, VOCAB and VOCAB2 but they are quite comprehensive and this well presented program will certainly help children of around 8 years of age and older begin to widen their vocabulary and better understand the use of alternative words.
Probably the best sector editor and all round disk utility we have ever come across with a set of documentation as large as the program and which itself is a goldmine of information about the structure of disk files and how to properly use a sector editor and other disk utilities. There are several sections to this utility – DIRECTORY, SECTOR, VTOC, ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE and UTILITIES. Directory mode gives full information about the directory of a disk including the starting sector, length and status of each file and allows you to lock or unlock files or recover deleted files. Sector mode allows you to check and amend any sector on the disk, move sectors to other parts of the disk and find hex or ASCII strings. VTOC mode displays a bit map of the disk and allows you to edit the map as well as showing the location on disk of the last traced file. In Assembly Language mode, traced files can be disassembled to the screen or a printer and files can be modified as you go. The Utilities allow you to format in single or enhanced density, zero sectors, check drive speed, verify files and make sure that the VTOC on your disk is correct. It is impossible to mention all the detail of this program but the very extensive documentation takes you through every feature step by step in a tutorial manner and the appendices present much useful information on disk structure.
This could possibly be one of the most requested disks of all time! There are now thousands of users of DOS 2.5 but how many have actually got any documentation on this version of DOS? How many fully understand each of the commands available? This unique tutorial will take you through DOS 2.5 step by step, beginning with an overview of the DOS system including sections on DOS.SYS, DUP.SYS, FORMATTING, FILENAMES, WILDCARDS, DENSITIES, BASIC PROGRAMS, the 130XE RAMDISK and DISK UTILITIES. This is followed by a mock DOS 2.5 menu on which you can select any of the commands available and be presented with a short tutorial on how that command operates and is used. This disk is mainly for beginners or those not overly familiar with DOS as it contains no advanced technical information. It is simple to understand and if you are at all unclear on the full use of DOS 2.5 could prove to be invaluable.
More top quality games that we believe originated from Germany but you don’t need to speak German as the instructions are provided in English. A nice selection, all of good quality, including AGENT815 which is very similar to Spy vs Spy in which you have to guide your secret agent around various rooms lifting up the furniture to discover hidden bombs before the time runs out and the house explodes. REVOLVER is a cowboy shooting game similar to an old VCS title in which you must shoot bottles with a limited number of bullets while avoiding the cacti and rocks that litter the desert. JUMPGHOST is a platform game with a slight difference in that you are a ghost who floats over the obstacles in your path. CAVES is one of the underground lander games that seem to have disappeared of late. You must control your craft and pick up fuel avoiding all walls and obstacles, not as easy as it might seem! For a fairly unique platform game try KITTEN in which the player is a small kitten that jumps around in long or short leaps and bounces on the furniture in an attempt to find all the food in the house. A nicely done game with a theme that differentiates it from most other platform games. Finally DEFENDER 3000 requires you to zap incoming bombs with your laser beam before they land and destroy the city. Not original or particularly brilliant but worth a good few goes. A good varied selection of games for every taste.
This one is a very professionally presented text adventure that many will find quite hard to solve. The modern day story finds you on Christmas Eve without having done any of your Christmas shopping (the lead character is obviously a man!) and you must get down to the local shopping mall before it closes, get the presents and get back home in time to placate your spouse. Might sound easy but there are lots of problems on the way including the nightmare of trying to park at the mall along with the hundreds of other guys who are all doing the same thing! Once you get into the Mall you need to buy eight specific items out of the hundreds available and you must buy them in a particular order! The author warns that there are one or two words not suitable for children and that some aspects of Christmas are portrayed in a cynical light, so you have been warned! Sounds intriguing though, doesn’t it?
Some really heavyweight machine language utilities for the more advanced user, all of which are fully and most comprehensively documented. Only a brief outline is possible here as the documentation runs into a dozen or so pages. First up is DUD.OBJ which is a Dataset Utility Dump ported over from the IBM world which allows dumps to printer or screen of any DOS file, any memory address range or any disk sectors. Use of each of these is fully explained. SHADOW.OBJ is a file copy/disk reorganisation utility that can copy a whole batch of selected files in one go, copy from single to double density, make damaged disks usable by mapping out faulty sectors and more. It will also copy DOS.SYS across to another disk which few other copiers can cope with. PROBJ.OBJ is a general purpose utility for manipulating object files. It can produce a RAM address map of the segments in a file together with the associated disk sectors, produce a new load file with ‘compressed’ segments to save on disk space, allow a single load file to be broken into different segments and zap bytes in the new load file. Very comprehensive instructions are included for this one. The final two are BLOC, a stand alone utility for compressing binary load files to save disk space and TRANS, the original Atari XL fixer to enable your XL or XE to run as an old 400/800. A great set of utilities for more advanced users, all in machine code and, uniquely, with a very comprehensive set of instructions.
An excellent set of games that originate mostly from Germany with one superb machine language game from Australia. EDITOR is a well presented simulation in which you run a newspaper and attempt to increase the circulation by hiring the right combination of journalists and photographers, setting the proper assignments and choosing the best stories to run. DOFF is a challenging game of moving your man around to eat various items of fruit while avoiding all obstacles and snakes that appear as the fruit is eaten. DANGER HUNT is a Krypton Factor type obstacle course in which you must cross rivers, swing on ropes, avoid rolling boulders etc. Not a fast paced game but very challenging requiring precise timing. The star of the show is XAGON from Australia, a top quality arcade game in Qbert fashion in which you hop over a grid of hexagons depressing each hexagon as you go. You must avoid nasties and collect money. This really could have been a top commercial game, it is better than many! Last is MINE RESCUE, a familiar ‘digger’ game in which you must rescue trapped miners and put them in the cage to bring them to the surface. Avoid the gas!
Three well written and well presented adventures put together by the author as a package. First adventure is THE COMPUTER SOLUTION in which you must save the world from a nuclear holocaust started by faulty defence equipment. In THE CAVES OF MADNESS you must escape the caves to return to your loved ones whilst in THE MANSBIE QUEST you have to save a ‘dead’ town from permanent disaster due to a nearby volcano. If you succeed you will be richly rewarded. The adventures all accept standard verb/noun input as well as complete phrases and have SAVE and LOAD facilities as well as points score and different ways of completing them. All three are written with Adventure Writer and look quite professional.
First in a series of educational programs teaching various aspects of civilisation from early times. The disk is titled The Birthplaces of Civilisation and consists of sets of questions on Pre-Historic Life, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India and Ancient China The series is obviously aimed at children of secondary school age but will be a severe challenge to most adults, be careful you don’t get shown up! The questions are well presented and the structure of the program could easily be used to devise your own question sets on any subject.
For children who can read sentences and need to go on to learn the rules of grammar. This excellent program has 8 lessons which each explain the rules applicable to capitalising letters in sentences or individual words and then give tests to the child to see if they have understood the appropriate rule. The lessons get more difficult and despite the program having a very American flavour such as using names of States and geographic features, parents should find this an excellent teaching aid for children of appropriate age or for those whose grammar is not quite correct.
Softkeys adds programmable function keys to your Atari by using the OPTION key with a number key. Some functions are included but you can add or define your own. Basically anything you can achieve by a POKE can be put on a function key so you can reset margins, speed up the cursor, change screen colour or whatever you wish with a simple keypress. There are three versions of the program supplied so that problems of the routine clashing with other programs can be avoided and you can choose the version suitable for your system. There is full documentation to explain how to set everything up and use SOFTKEYS. Now your Atari can act a little bit more like an IBM or ST!
Some excellent new tunes in the Composers Jukebox series all quite complex and long and based around American themes. Because of their length only six tunes will fit on the disk and the titles are ELCAP, SEMPER, WASHPOST, FRELANCE, KINGCOT and THUNDER. You can’t describe music in words so you’ll just have to get the disk! They are good tunes, take our word for it!
Some splendid new utilities including an extended BASIC which adds extra commands. DISKTOOL4 is an upgraded version of an excellent sector editor that we have used for years in preparing all our Issue disks, EXTBASIC adds a dozen new commands to Basic including renumbering, replacing variables, setting margins, cross referencing of variables, DOS commands and more. MASTMENU will RUN, LOAD or ENTER Basic or machine language programs. BASICON and BASICOFF do just what the titles say! XRESET interrupts the reset key so that when pressed a menu appears to allow a choice of Run Address, Warm Start, Cold Start or DOS start. The disk is rounded off with several smaller utility programs – ERRORTRP, DISKTAPE, LABELDSK, AUTOMATE and AUTOLINE. Without doubt the Extended basic and upgraded Disktool make this a very worthwhile disk.
A text adventure set in a future that has returned to the past. It has been forty long years since the last bombs fell and since then man, having been used to leading a pampered life, has plunged into a second dark age. Science and technology have all but been forgotten as all the thinkers perished in the last great conflict. Only those who were underground at the time survived and there had been very few. Life, although a constant struggle for most, has been relatively easy for you. Being the Chief’s eldest you’ve lead a somewhat carefree life assuming that you would take over when your father retired, but lately things have changed. Kreb, your jerk of a cousin, has convinced the Chief that because of your easy life you aren’t fit to tend goats much less the needs of the village. Needless to say with you disinherited he is next in line for Chief so unless you do something soon to impress the villagers, it looks like Kreb will take over and you’ll end up a dung shoveller, or worse! Try your luck! Also on this disk is SAUCER, a machine language adventure set in a strangely deserted town. Where are all the people?
A good arcade style game that is quite hard, you’ll need a lot of practice! You are in a constantly moving, rotating vehicle which you must guide out of various doors and explore ten different levels of the complex. There are various items on each level, some of which will be helpful and some of which mean instant death, you’ll have to find out for yourself. Look out for the walls as well, some of them are okay but others don’t do your health a lot of good! Fire and ice are fatal to touch whilst flasks will give you extra energy and diamonds give you points. It will be a while before you begin to recognise them, though. In order to succeed in Hidden Fortress you must practice and work out a strategy. I couldn’t get through the second door, can you do better?
More games from the Germans who have the knack of writing some top class games in Basic. WOMBEL is a strange game in which you guide a duck round (maybe an eider?) to melt various ice blocks and collect some gems, takes some thinking to work out just what you are supposed to achieve but very well written. In BANKPANIC you must shoot robbers but not customers as they pop up like a life size shooting range with characters the full height of the screen. An excellent game that is similar to a military or police shooting range where innocent or not so innocent figures leap out at you. You must decide good or bad, instantly. JUMPER2 and NASEN JACK are two platform games in one of which you use lifts to collect treasures on each level and in the other you collect pots of gold in an underground cavern making sure you avoid the bats. As the last pot of gold is collected a ladder descends enabling access to another level. A couple of well written platform games. The final one is FOOTRACE, a simple ‘bet on the horses’ game for several players, except there are no horses, just runners!
Dungeons and Dragons in Ultima style. In Dragon guest you become a heroic warrior in a mediaeval age who is in search of fame and fortune. You guide your alter-ego through a maze of underground caves in search of fabulous treasures. You will find that you must battle to overcome the hideous monsters that inhabit the caves. Your character has its own natural abilities such as strength, dexterity and intelligence combined with an array of weapons such as swords, arrows and potions. As your character successfully adventures and gains experience, you will find secret new caves and learn to use magic to aid you in your quest. The first thing you must do is create and save a character which can be saved to disk. Buy your supplies and away you go! A very good arcade adventure using both the joystick and keyboard and great fun.
The second program in the civilisation series covering The Greek World. As with disk #113 the program consists of a number of questions covering all aspects of the Greek World and includes The Minoans, The Mycenaens, The Trojans, The Persians, The Persian Wars, The Athenians, The Spartans and The Macedonians. Comprehensive coverage to test children who are studying early history or for testing adult knowledge. You’ll be surprised at what you don’t know!
More educational knowledge testing in a disk of similar format to the last but covering science rather than history. This one is in two parts covering THE ACTIVE EARTH and EARTH HISTORY. The former includes Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes and Volcanoes, Bending The Crust, Water Shaping The Land and Erosion and the Land. The second part includes Records in Rock, The Earth Calendar and Dinosaurs. Again the questions are searching and will test your knowledge thoroughly. Teach yourself or test your children.
The next disk in the Earth Sciences series takes a look at the air around us and the sea beneath us with many facts, quizzes and tests on these subjects. In two parts, THE ATMOSPHERE covers Composition of The Atmosphere, Forces That Move the Atmosphere, Water Vapours in the Atmosphere and The Forces Called Water. The second part is THE HYDROSPHERE and includes Ocean Basins of The World, The Dynamics of the Sea, The Wind, Waterand Waves and The Hydro Trivia Challenge. Another interesting educational disk.
The Nine Treasures of The Crystal Cluster is a sort of space action adventure in which you must visit various planets to rediscover the nine lost treasures. As it says in the intro – ‘this one person role-playing adventure should be taken as a youth’s fairy-tale for adults. Tumultuous Richard is a wizard-fighter, hopefully aligned with the forces of good. He knows much more about the secrets behind the Nine Treasures of Crystal Cluster. He has been appointed ambassador between the ‘Higher Beings United Federation’ and the fledgling, yet advanced civilisation on Earth. Earth is being tested and your reactions to the Treasures may have something to do with the final test results. Tumultuous Richard’s ambassadorship with the Higher Beings allows him to weave many mini adventures. This has become part of a larger story that involves the possible transition upward towards mankind’s ultimate potential.’ As we said at the beginning a sort of space action adventure!
A superb Boulder Dash clone with nine levels ready to play and a full construction kit to allow you create as many additional screens as you wish. Boulder Dash is so well known by now that it seems superfluous to describe It, but for those of you new to the game it involves moving your little man around to collect diamonds whilst making sure that the rocks dislodged don’t fall on his head. Simple, but challenging and highly addictive. The construction set sets this one apart, you’ll have lots of fun, both creating and playing your own games.
A great adventure creator, unfortunately not documented, but with a little experimentation and exploration you should be able to write some excellent adventures, all you have to do is write the storyline and the program will take care of all the coding. Although you don’t need any programming knowledge to use the utility, this disk should not be considered for beginners as the lack of documentation may make it quite difficult to use. Those used to the Atari and used to adventures should be able to figure it out and write some classy adventures of their own.
Another collection of great games, all 100% machine code and many based on established commercial classics. First off we have CAVELORD, a superb four way scrolling cave adventure similar to Joust in which you fly around on an ostrich like bird exploring the caves and fighting nasties. KRAZYCAT is a simple but addictive shoot ‘em up in which you must kill off hundreds of caterpillars racing across the screen, you won’t get them in one shot! MIDAS is a super Pacman clone with a difference, lots of magic gates to open and many levels. QUIX is a version of the Atari classic in which you have to capture as much of the screen as you can whilst avoiding the quix spark. SLITHER is an angle worms in a maze game, nicely done and quite challenging and finally, there is XEVIOUS a version of the World War II plane bombing classic (not the same version as on disk #57). All in all, a fine collection of top games for you to enjoy.
Here is something Big Demo fans will enjoy! A disk sent over to us by The High Tech Team containing several great demos from all over Europe. Great music, great scrolling, great effects, In fact half a dozen great, great demos. Why hasn’t this stuff been seen over here before? The folks on the Continent sure know how to stretch the Atari and can prove once and for all that this sure is a great machine. You’ll enjoy this one!
Another well written educational program to teach youngsters the basis of grammar. This one concentrates on punctuation both within sentences and at the end of sentences with good examples and tests. Pupils will learn the correct use of punctuation within dates, when addressing letters, and in everyday use. The tests and examples are well devised and will suit children of all ages, even adults who wish to brush up on their grammar. Written by a couple of teachers in an American school, where 8-bit Ataris are widely used for education.
Remember the fabulous Passionately which caused quite a stir music-wise a few years ago with its excellent percussive effects and melody and on-screen words? Well, here it is again along with half a dozen or so more tunes demonstrating the Advanced Music Processing system developed for writing top class soundtracks to commercial games. There are a number of never before released tunes on this disk, some with ‘sing along’ words and all with excellent percussive effects and melodies. The tunes are FACE, PASSIONATELY, ALL WERE I, SAY THE THINGS, ALIEN, FROG, ARAB NAVY and POST NAVY. Some good listening and some unusual music.
More great games in machine language and Basic including some of those incredible German games that seem to set new standards in Basic programming. Top of the class is MISSION X, a helicopter exploration of a cavern system with some excellent fine vertical scrolling. The three machine language games include BOMBERS, a simple 1 or 2 player game in which a canyon is bombed by plane and balloon to see who can score the higher, RAMBUG II, a novel game in which insects are exterminated with an electric beam and SCORPION, a Tempest type program in which your scorpion must clear a grid exterminating the spiders before they spin their webs to the perimeter. Other games are EGON, platforms and ladders collecting gold and covering all the floor area, DDDLABY, a three-dimensional labyrinth and maze and MUNSTER, a pacman variant with a strategic element added making it difficult to decide which order to gobble the dots. To round off there are a couple of angle worms/caterpillar games that are a little different from earlier versions and quite playable. Another fine games collection.
Dozens of childrens’ favourites on the Composers Jukebox. Songs for all ages to play and, if you know the words, to sing along to. Children will delight in selecting their own tunes and trying to recognise them. You most probably know them all, check out the filenames. The songs are TEDBEARS, STATION, HUSHBABY, RAIN, COMINROU, DOGGONE, INDIANS, MULBERRY, ALOUETTE, LONDON, TUCKER WEASEL, POLLY1, RAILRO, CLEMENT, WHIDUCK, MATILDA, COCKHORS, GODSCHIL, AMERICA, MANDOWN, BUFFALO, CRAWDAD, POPEYE, LITTLEFO, ALPHA. ROCKISL, JOSHUA, COLE, MCDONAL, YANKEE, BILLY, SIXPENS, BLASHP and FISHER.
Three more adventures to puzzle and perplex you with very different themes. First is VOLCANO ISLAND in which you have been shipwrecked on a South Seas island with an active volcano. You must find a way off the island before the volcano erupts. The second is THE WIZARDS SWORD, an adventure set in ancient times where, as an apprentice, you are summoned to your master’s deathbed to learn the secrets that could earn you the title of Wizard and the right to the sword. You must prove your worthiness by slaying the evil of Medusa that has infested the kingdom. You must firstly find the Sword and five jewels to give the sword energy and you wisdom but you must take care and be careful not to look at Medusa whose gaze can turn you to stone. A tough task for a boy apprentice. Will you survive? The final adventure is FLAT TIRE set in modern day America in which you must find you way home after suffering a flat. Sounds simple but it is not. Apparently this is based on a true life story. Three more challenges for the thinkers among you.
A continuation of the earlier series, in the same question format covering all aspects of the Roman World from the beginnings of Rome to the Decline and Fall. The subjects covered are The Etruscans and The Latins, The Roman Republic, Carthage and The Punic Wars, The Era of Civil Wars, The Roman Empire and The Decline and Fall. Lot of serious stuff here for students and a real challenge for adults. These are hard questions!
Slightly easier than the last disk in terms of content for most of these facts are of more recent times and the program can be used as a sort of trivia challenge as well as a good educational tool. There are two parts – THE SOLAR SYSTEM and SPACE EXPLORATION covering a wide variety of topics. The first includes The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and The Outer Planets and is packed with many fascinating facts that you may not know. The second part of the program includes The Solar Quiz, The Moon Quiz, Some Space Trivia, Who’s Who of Space, The Space Lab and The Space Shuttle and will challenge those who thought they knew a bit about space. Again this is a well written educational program but, much more than the other disk, will appeal to non-students due to its very topical subject. A fascinating challenge.
Hot on the heels of our first European Demo collection is this follow up with seven more fine demos written in ST style and pushing the Atari to its limits. More great scrolling music, bouncing bars, colours changes etc., things which a few years ago most people would say couldn’t be done. You need to look at some of the screens closely to see just what is going on, what these guys achieve is astonishing. Don’t forget to press console keys etc. to find out whether there is more music or other demos, you might be surprised. The demos on this disk are LAMER MIRROR, 2100 BEYOND, REVENGE, LITTLE DEMO, LITTLE COLOUR DEMO and WELCOME ZIPP. They come from Germany and Holland mainly and several are one crews answer to another trying to outdo each other. The last three demos are by individual members of The High Tech Team responsible for The Big Demo. One word of warning, as with many of these Continental things, there are one or two swearwords included in some of the messages which might offend.
Don’t do it, or rather do it on the Atari. This one is an excellent digitised soundtrack from Frankie Goes To Hollywood well mixed to give quite a long sample. Following on from The Big Demo, it seems that folks are now exploring ways to push the Atari to its limits with graphics and sound. This one has only an opening graphics screen since all possible memory is needed for the sample but the effect is great. Give it a listen.
A very nice tutored maths exercise for children that will have them hooked as they learn. Although aimed at pre-school up to about 7 or 8 years old, older children and adults may find it useful for practising mental arithmetic. The problems include Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division and Multiplication and Division tables are included. There is even a Roman numeral quiz that everyone will find useful. The program presents problems that the student has to answer. With every correct answer your tank will blow the question out of the sky whilst incorrect answers are counted down as the correct answer is shown. This is a shareware program and the questions are set at certain levels but will provide adequate practise. A multiple level version is available from the authors. A very nicely presented educational program.
The next tutorial in the earth Sciences series covering the subject of Rocks and Minerals and including Minerals, The Hardness Scale, Igneous Rocks, Sedimentary Rocks, Metamorphic Rocks and Weathering. The same format as earlier disks with questions and multiple choice answers. Perfect for students and fascinating for others as a way to improve your general knowledge. If you have followed the entire series, you might soon be ready for Mastermind!
A really top-class drawing program that has some unique features. Everything you might need in a paint package is here, including full on-screen help. You can change colours, brushes and spray patterns, change the speed of your brush, draw with line, box, oval, fill or rays and there is an excellent zoom facility (the best we have seen on a paint program) as well as Undo facilities and more. You can use a Joystick or Touch Tablet and save in Koala or Micropainter format. There are keyboard shortcuts and up to 10 configuration files may be saved to disk. Altogether a top quality package that can compete with any commercial program.
More adventure games to keep the grey matter alert. DEADLY GAME finds you having inherited your Uncle Henry’s fortune, at least you have if you can survive a night in Henry’s booby trapped mansion along with you five greedy cousins. The survivor gets the money! In ARCADE ADVENTURE the object is simply to get to an arcade and play Pole Position but like all good adventures achieving the objective is not as easy as it might seem. Final game is one that will get your mapping skills honed. CAVES OF ICE is not an adventure as such, but a graphical three-dimensional labyrinth from which you must escape, if you don’t map it you will be doomed forever!
Space games and war games make up this action collection for games lovers. CAMBODIA is a helicopter rescue mission in the jungle similar to Choplifter in which you have to rescue soldiers on a scrolling screen without being shot down. SPACE ATTACK finds you defending your central space station from attack on four sides and STARCASTLE is another variation of this theme, both well done and slightly different. Best game on the disk is SKY WARRIOR an excellent game in which you must avoid and shoot nasty flapping space insects – great graphics. SPACE LANDER is one of the familiar ‘lander’ games in which you pilot your craft down to the planet surface, quite hard this one. The remaining two programs are ESCAPE in which you send three ships across the screen avoiding space mines and PANZER a two player version of the old Tank Battle from the VCS days, simple yet addictive. Some easy, some quite challenging, all interesting.
A very nicely put together slide and sound show that will demonstrate many of the abilities of the Atari. Here is a whole collection of some of the best Basic demos and music strung together in a continuously running show that will impress you and your friends. These are not in the same league as the European Demos in our collection but they do give folks who want to learn how to program the opportunity to discover how it is done as the listings are all in Basic. Either just watch and listen or get into the listings and discover how to write your own demos.
Everyone knows and loves the classic board game of MONOPOLY and now you can play it on your Atari with up to 3 players and the facility to save games at any point. All of the features of the board game are incorporated and the game is entirely joystick controlled with many actions, such as dice throws and auctions fully taken care of by the computer. The game may be played by one player against the computer or with two or three players, either way it will give you many hours of fun. There are no game instructions included so you will need to know the basic rules of the Monopoly to play the game. Also on this disk is a TRIVIA QUIZ which includes some difficult questions and which can easily be modified to suit your own requirements by adding questions as DATA statements. Now anyone can create their own Trivia quiz on their favourite subject.
A cracking KARATE program that takes up most of the disk. You have to fight your way through 10 levels up to Black belt status but it won’t be easy! The fighters are a couple of huge sprites with some excellent animation and it will take you a good deal of practice to beat even the least experienced opponents. If you make it to Black Belt then you are very good indeed! Karate games are rare on the XL/XE and this is a good example of this type of game. Nicely done. We have also included TRIDENT, a fairly simple game of zapping incoming Trident missiles. You have to launch intercepting missiles from your base to destroy each incoming wave of Tridents. The action takes place on a grid and, whilst not graphically exciting, the game is quite entertaining as you strive to shoot down the missiles in time.
If you are looking for a simple to use word processor with minimal screen clutter but all main features of a full blown word processor then Chick Scratch may well be the answer. The disk includes a full manual but you don’t need to refer to it if you are familiar with word processing as all the commands on Chick Scratch are only a keystroke away. Pressing one key combination will open up a series of windows that guide you through all of the keys needed to access Chick Scratch’s features. As well as moving about through your document you can use global search and replace, count words, swap adjacent characters, find or change words, increase or decrease screen width and print out in many different formats. Chick Scratch will work with any printer and can be configured to suit your own print requirements. Word processors are very personal things so this one may suit you or it may not. It is certainly worth trying even if you already have a word processor. Try it, you might well discover a new favourite!
Lots of action with attack from every imaginable direction – FOURTEEN games all in machine code! Best of the bunch is DEATHZONE a clone of the classic Encounter – you won’t believe how good it is! TROLL WAR is an amusing game in which dozens of trolls storm your camp and you must think fast and work quickly to ward them off. BLAST is a sort of space limbo game in which a mother ship releases loads of droids which bounce about beneath a force shield which gets lower and lower as the games progresses. BATTLE IN THE B RING is a two player game in which you must avoid asteroids and space rockets while trying to force your opponent into mistakes that will destroy him. COSMIC DEFENDER is a superbly smooth scroller in which you destroy asteroids and blast open gates to progress through the levels. SHOOTING STARS is a nice easy game, just avoid all the stars shooting and bouncing around the screen. In BONK you collect diamonds and avoid the sparks in a maze type ring. THE CLASH OF KINGS is a two player arcade strategy game very nicely done. INCOMING finds you shooting supplies and men dropped from helicopters and jets, you must hit them before they land otherwise they will block your shots. MAZE WAR is a couple of wizards and zombies fighting it out in a number of mazes. And there are still more! SYNTRON where you avoid drolds, ELEVATOR REPAIRMAN, a snake game called COBRA and finally SUBS. And every one of them in machine code!
A game with a difference – it speaks to you! Yes, that’s right this game uses digitised speech on several occasions to add atmosphere to this exploration of underground caverns where you look for gold and jewels whilst fighting off some very nasty and unfriendly creatures. The Megawump has rounded up a gang of bloodthirsty monsters who raid villages at night and store their spoils in musty caverns deep underground. You must collect these treasures and recover sufficient magical objects to be able to destroy the evil Megawump. You will discover gold and jewels and fight off pythons, trolls and hydras in your quest. A nice game that shows how you can include digitised speech in Basic programs. Also on this disk are four other interesting games. HERO finds you in charge of a rescue helicopter taking people off the top of a burning building. You must monitor your fuel as the time counts down and the flames get higher. SKYSCRAPER is on a similar theme except this time the people are jumping off the building and you are in charge of the rescue blanket below. No organised rescue this one, just loads of panic stricken people jumping off the building. Can you catch them all? MINI BILLIARDS is just what it says, a nice game of billiards with some beautifully smooth scrolling balls that you will find quite a challenge. Finally there is VALIANT in which you explore the woods in search of keys and gold whilst avoiding the monsters. This one uses a small window on the main screen to excellent effect and is a very well designed game.
Another set of incredible demos, this time from Poland. THE TOP DEMO is literally superb and is, quite honestly, indistinguishable from an ST demo. If this were run on a monitor alongside an ST demo we guarantee no one would be able to tell the difference! It features several demos including colour bars, scrolling messages, bouncing sprites, sampled sound and great music. There is a huge, almost full screen, scroll and some superb vector graphics and much more. This demo alone is worth the price of the disk but we have added two more, the KITT INFO DEMO which has some very nice two part scrolling and VORTEX, a simple colour cycling demo. A year ago no-one would have though it possible that the Atari 8-bit could achieve this excellence.
More demos from Poland that would not fit on the previous disk. These are what the authors call their ‘rejects’ from THE TOP DEMO but any other programmer would be proud to achieve this level of programming. THE TOP 2 DEMO includes five separate demos including sampled sound, an amazing screen with dozens and dozens of individual wavy scrolls, bouncing sprites with a scroll twisting around colour bars, a great multiple font scroll with superb music plus more. Also on the disk is another demo called LSD which features four different pieces of music and a changing grid with bouncing sprites. Superb stuff.
Over a half dozen programs with a strategy element that will have you thinking hard while you play. CARDVARKS is one the the familiar higher/lower card games for 1 or two players with some excellent graphics. MISSING PERSONS is an unusual game in which you must find persons hidden on a grid by pointing lasers and deducing where the people are. MILESTONES is based on the board game in which you try and reach 1,000 miles by playing roll, mileage and hazard cards and is basically a text version of the same game on an earlier disk. The pick of the bunch is VITAL SIGNS, a unique program with serious educational undertones in which you must keep the heart and lungs of a person in good order under different activities and air conditions by adjusting respiration and heart rates. Quite unusual, we have not come across a program quite like this before. Others include SUPER WUMPUS, a text based hunt for the Wumpus in 20 rooms while fighting bats etc., FRAZEE, a version of the well known Yahtzee and TRANSITION, one of those ever so simple, yet highly frustrating games in which the object is to simply change the position of five tokens. Even with 511 possible solutions, finding just one is hard enough! All in all a good collection to make you think.
All machine code games headed up by a couple with a sporting link. First is BOWLING, a very nice ten-pin bowling simulation in which the angle, speed and spin of the ball can be controlled. Fastest and most furious is AIR HOCKEY, like the game found in arcades in which two players control a puck floating on air. This version has all the feel of the arcade and can be played by two players or by one against the computer. DASH is a version of Boulderdash with all the features of the original packed into a remarkably small program. COSMIC GLOB takes you out to space in an attempt to blast away, piece by piece, a huge glob that is threatening mankind. Finally TETRIX is the Atari 8-bit version of the game of TETRIS from the ST in which falling shapes have to be located into perfect lines which are then removed from the play area. The object is to prevent the shapes building up to the top of the screen. It sounds simple but is probably the most addictive game to have been invented since Breakout appeared all those years ago. A fine, all machine code, collection.
A collection of utilities for those who like to mess about with such things as monitors and Ramdisks, perhaps to explore and alter commercial software or for those who write in machine language. The MONITOR program is claimed by the author to be better than that on the Assembler Editor cartridge. You can step through or trace a program, move memory, dump registers to screen or printer and more. RAM-EDIT is a copier/sector editor for use with the 130XE or upgraded XL that allows single sided disks to be read into a ramdisk and then altered before being saved back to disk. The sector editor has comprehensive facilities. Two other RAMDISKS cover the XL and XE with the XL one using portions of memory that are not otherwise available giving an extra 13k of usable RAM. The XE ramdisk uses the extra memory with bank switching and also includes a demo program switching text files through the various banks. The code might be useful if you want to know how to program that elusive extra RAM. There are several other utilities including a Basic Disassembler, a Hexdump, a Tape Dump and others. Get hacking!
Want to learn to play or read music? How about teaching your children or helping them with school studies? This superb music tutorial, which was originally a very difficult to find commercial program, will teach the basics of music theory and reinforce what has been learned with a series of tests. The graphics are excellent and comprise many screens of conventional music notation that you add to using the joystick. For instance one test requires you to insert the bars into pieces of music with different time signatures whilst others require you to add the correct notes to complete measures. In order to use this disk fully a basic book of music theory may be needed but the Music Major program will certainly enhance the enjoyment of learning to read and understand music. An excellent piece of educational software.
More stunning stuff from Germany and Poland. Lots of great graphics and digitised sound continue to show just how great the Atari is. There are plenty of scrolls with players and characters and some excellent music, both conventional and digitised. These demo disks are difficult to describe in words, they need to be seen and heard. This one is, perhaps, not quite as strong as the earlier disks but certainly worth a look. If only more people had such skill in programming!
A collection of routines mainly in Basic but with some machine language subroutines that will enable all users, whether novice or more experienced to get more from the graphics and sound capabilities of the Atari. These are individual demo programs covering such things as lightning effects, colour rotation, player missile construction and movement, horizontal and vertical scrolling and much more. Many of these routines came from the book Computer Animation Primer which has been out of print for a number of years and which, in our opinion, was the best book ever written describing animation effects on the Atari. The disk is rounded off with a super street scene with passing cars, a walking man and a background scrolling at a different speed to the foreground. Excellent stuff and all within reach of the programmer who wants to list out the routines and study them.
More demos from the Continent written mainly by the team responsible for the Big Demo. Most of the text is, unfortunately, in Dutch but the graphics effects and music are as good as ever and this is another demo that shows how good a machine the old 8-bit is. Check out the couple of huge sprites half the size of the screen which should not be possible, and the great music. If you wait to the end you will get a scrolling message in English! This demo was put together for an Atari Expo held in Holland this year at which the 8-bit was well supported by users from several countries. Atari lives!
Another set of demos that surfaced at the Atari Expo written by some guys in Poland. Not as strong as some other disks but nice nonetheless. Three main demos which are BUTTON DEMO with some very nice pixel sine wave shapes drawn and undrawn as a scroll rolls by, ROBOCOP which turns your 8-bit into an ST with desktop and mouse icon that runs its own demo! The demo is mainly music based but includes the option of actually drawing with the mouse arrow icon. Last one is REVENGE OF EDDIE with nine sets of top class music and four or so graphics accompaniments which all sync with the music. Quite nice stuff but how come guys from Poland can write this sort of thing whereas in this country nobody comes close?
A mixed education disk that will suit older children or adults who like to test their knowledge. This can be used as either a learning disk or as a sort of trivial knowledge tester, It’s fun seeing just how much you know about science related subjects. The various sections are in question and answer format either with typed in answers or by multiple choice selection. The subjects include LIGHT, HARDNESS OF MINERALS, DINOSAURS, PLANETS, PLANTS, GENERAL SCIENCE and WHO’S WHO OF SPACE. As usual with these sort of disks you can get ideas for creating your own quizzes although the programs on this disk cannot be used directly as they have been protected from listing.
Another cracker from Poland featuring some of the best effects ever seen on any 8-bit machine and which put many ST demos to shame! That’s the truth. This is THE TOP DEMO Part III and has NINE separate demo screens starting with good music and chrome bars followed by a really beautiful Christmas snow scene. Next up is an incredible four line twisting scroll, then a vertical one, all with top class music. The most staggering achievement is a digitised dancer featuring 432k of digitised data, crunched down to around 62k, plus 6k of fonts, 3k of music and 3k of code. It all unpacks as the demo proceeds and is an astonishing feat of programming that shouldn’t be possible with such limited memory. A really neat demo is the Video Worm written for the author’s daughter and quite delightful. More stunning effects follow in three screens followed by the last incredible graphic masterpiece as hundreds of coloured balls circulate around the screen in ever changing patterns and colours. A real delight to watch. Many of these demos would not be considered by many to be possible on an 8-bit machine, they certainly haven’t been done before, and the whole demo can stand proudly beside any ST. Remember this is 64k, not the 1 meg many ST programmers need! A little warning, there are one or two naughty words in the scrolls, so be warned if you are sensitive to such language.
A collection of shorter demo screens collated by The High Tech Team, who brought you The Big Demo. Seven in all, starting with an intro screen from a German disk magazine. Next is The Great Lakes Demo with fine music, bouncing bars, scrolling text and an amazing bouncing transparent star ball, you need to see it! A nifty little utility for players of Ghostbusters is included that will enable you to set up bank accounts with any amount of money. The Demo II is from Holland and is in two parts, the first a traditional demo with music and bouncy bars but also some good digi-drums. The second part is a couple of digitised pics ported over from the ST. There follows Eye Of The Tiger, basically a music demo, Hi Guys featuring digitised speech and music and it is all finished off with the Phase Demo with everything included, starfields, bars, scrolls, music – a top class demo to finish off the disk. Not as strong as The Top Demos but still an excellent demonstration of what is possible on the 8-bit.
A Star Trek variant in which you command the U.S.S. Valiant in an attempt to stop the Mutin space fleet from launching an attack on the Federation from the galaxy of Pladax. The screen is divided into three sections, showing your ship and any damage sustained together with a full status report, a command area showing your options and position in the galaxy and a command window. All of the usual shields, photon torpedoes, hyper warp etc. are available as you move around the galaxy in pursuit of the Mutins. You must locate the enemy and judge how best to deal with him, ensuring that you maintain the safety of stars and star bases which themselves can be destroyed with the wrong weapons – not the objective! Battle Star is an excellent simulation of space warfare and has extensive onscreen instructions. It should keep you busy for many an hour.
Do you like to use your brain as well as your joystick? Well, if you like word puzzles or crosswords you will love Autocrostics, a game in which you must answer crossword type clues in order to work out a phrase. At the top of the screen you will find a long phrase with a blank line for each letter, below which are blanks for words for which clues are provided. As you answer each of the clues, a letter from your answer is revealed in the phrase. Unlike conventional crosswords, you can solve Autocrostics either by answering the clues or guessing words in the phrase, either will reveal the matching letter in the other part of the puzzle. You can save your game at any time or print it out so that you can carry on working at the puzzle when away from your Atari. There are several puzzles supplied ranging from easy to very difficult and it will be a long time before you solve them all. Autocrostics is one of those compelling games. If you like to think, you will be sure to become addicted!
Late one night you find yourself in your new house using all of your modem electric conveniences at the same time. The only problem is that you have just blown a fusel All you have to do is restore the power but the trouble is that you don’t yet know your way around your new house, much less know where the fusebox is. Even the cat has been missing since you moved in! Fusebox is a traditional text adventure with a difference – it has an excellent graphic interface with all the information you need displayed in boxes on the one screen. You always know exactly where you are, what you are carrying, and what the effects of your actions are. The game is very professionally designed and is one of the best looking text adventures we have seen. Whether this is your first adventure or whether you are an expert you will be sure to enjoy Fusebox. Created by an author who clearly pays attention to detail and presentation.
Entertainment in the 21st century has become rather sophisticated but man still has that desire for the thrills of the arena. With all the technology available you are now able to build robot gladiators to battle in various arenas. Can you create a champion? This is a simulation with a difference in which you must first create robots by selecting weapons, protection and motive power. How you arrange these on the robot is up to you, although you will be guided by side and front views of your robot on screen. Once created your robot can be saved and then entered into battle. Choose an arena and fight to destruction! The actual combat is achieved by entering up to six moves, to include actual movement as well as the use of weapons, to outwit your opponent. Once all the moves are entered, combat will begin and you will fight to the death. There are ready made robots on the disk and full instructions for play. Despite the scenario, this is a strategy game rather than an arcade game and you need to be able to think and plan ahead to succeed.
Maybe a game of cards is more up your street? With Super Stud Poker you can relax with Bozo, Fish, Lulu and others in a smoky room and take them to the cleaners, or loose your shirt! Here we have an excellent poker game which gives you the choice of 5, 6 or 7 card Stud, 5 or 7 card Stud Low, 5 or 7 card Stud Hi Lo or Hi Chicago. Don’t know how to play these games? Don’t worry as there are full instructions on the disk, not only on how to use the program but also detailing the objective in each of the games with full examples of play. Each of the opponents available has different attributes which are explained so that you can choose the level of game play. Some are a pushover but others will give you a really strong game. Think you’re good, eh? Super Stud Poker has good graphics, excellent play and will have you playing long into the night.
Boot with Basic.
Feltron is our sister planet, a beautiful pristine place that earth included in its terraforming project many years ago. Feltron was to become an Agricultural/Lumber planet although its ecosystem was still too fragile for human habitation but it was being monitored day by day so that humans could live there when the time was right. Then, one day, the satellite monitoring system detected alien life, a human form that was rapidly expanding and colonising the planet. Communication proved fruitless and it was evident that the aliens wanted this planet for themselves. Mankind could not allow this to happen and so began to assemble a fighting force that could handle the situation. The logistic problems were immense for earth had to ensure that in defeating the alien presence it did not destroy the fragile ecosystem that had been so many years in the building. This highly entertaining and complex simulation has an excellent graphic interface in which you call the right balance of troops and machinery from earth, set up tactical headquarters and prepare for an all out assault that will leave the planet in one piece. Difficult? Impossible? Only you can tell. If you enjoy simulations then you should find this among the best.
Boot with Basic.
A brand new DOS system that is more powerful than any DOS 2.5 based system you have come across. The features are far too numerous to mention and are documented in the extensive manual on disk (may be printed out) so here we will mention just a few of the features. Fully compatible with DOS 2.5 and supporting all drives, in all densities. Automatically configures to the density of the drive and displays the information on screen. Copies between different densities with only one drive. Automatically sets up a ramdisk and supports all ramdisks up to 320k. DOS facilities always available with no MEM.SAV needed, even on an 800 or 800XL. Restores files which have been deleted with directory display of deleted files. Automatic trace and patch for damaged files. Double column display to list 40 files on screen. Any character in a filename. Simple one-key use and keyboard speed adjust. Binary saves cartridges. High speed transfer with US Doubler or XF551. Copy all files including .SYS with wildcards. True sector copier that copies boot disks and skips empty sectors with display of bad sector numbers. Copy to or from cassette. Search for sectors. Copy from DOS 3.0 automatically and much, much more. Also included is SUPERBIN, a program to display and run binary files and SUPERBAS to create autorunning Basic programs. If you are looking for a DOS that is as simple to use as DOS 2.5, looks remarkably similar yet is three times as powerful, look no further. SUPERDOS is it.
If you have a Panasonic printer try this disk, it could put you on the road to getting your printer really flying. You are sure to find something of use among this collection put together by a fellow Panasonic user. Lots of programs including a directory printer that prints in two columns and a couple of fonts to download to your printer to define special physics and maths symbols (you could probably use the program to create your own characters) together with a few other utilities. Perhaps the most useful program is FONT DUMP which will enable you to create, edit, store and download custom fonts to Panasonic or Roland printers. After downloading, fonts stay resident in the printer and you can use your favourite word processor to access the new font. Redefining fonts is not amongst the simplest of tasks and this utility disk is not for beginners, but with a little programming knowledge and a Panasonic printer you could be onto a winner.
Stuck on a game? Keep dying just as you are about to get to the next level? Don’t you just hate it when that happens? Now The Trick can come to your rescue by altering a number of programs to give you infinite lives – up to 255 in most cases. Perhaps now you can finally see the next level on a game that you had given up on. The program alters your original game disk so if you can make a back up do so, or take the chance. After all if you have given up on a game it is not doing a lot just stuck on the shelf is it? This version of The Trick has fixes for Draconus, Spelunker, Zybex, Caverns of Callisto, Droll, Bellum, Starquake, Green Beret, Threshold, Red Max, Roundabout, Mouse Trap, Panther, Ninja Commando, Gremlins and Arkanoid. Remember it only works with original disk versions and not cassette versions transferred to disk and the author’s disks may not be the same as yours. Make a back up or use with extreme care!
Some great music has been written on the Atari by the likes of David Whittaker and now you can enjoy 28 great musical compositions taken from various games, demos and general sources, all from the one menu. Just select a tune and have it playing instantly, experience some great sounds. Nothing more to this one but greatly enjoyable if you like computer music. Also on the disk is the Equaliser Demo, a nice music and graphics demo from Poland with a Polish/English scrolling message and lots of graphic equaliser bars mapping out the music. Overall, just one to look at and enjoy, but with a touch of class.
Okay programmers, how many of you would like someone else to write the complicated routines so that you can just lift them and drop them into your own programs? This set of routines in Basic by John Navas could be just what you need. Here you will find routines to perform Boolean logic on strings, a high performance routine to convert bytes to printable hexadecimal characters, a general purpose device-to-device utility that enables you to process disk sectors and cassette records directly, a routine to read and write disk sectors directly bypassing the normal file processing, a routine to format numbers for neat printing, a routine to search a string for a substring, another to plot text characters on a graphics screen, including redefined characters. Any graphics screen can be used. There is also a good in-RAM sorting routine, a routine to get the current ‘real time’ clock value and another to disable Basic. Lots of useful routines but what makes them even more special is that every one is documented. With ready written routines like these you are sure to be able to add extra features to your programs.
There are many Happy fitted drives around but how many folks have found public domain utilities to enhance their use? Here you have a good set of utilities to get the best from your drive. HAPPY XL is a software patch for the XL/XE that allows high speed data transfer between the computer and your Happy drive. HAPPY SUPER-BOOTER allows you to run many commercial boot disks at high speed, increasing data transfer from 19,200 baud to about 52,000 baud! Any program that accesses the drive, whether text adventures, word processors or databases will benefit from this extra speed of access. As well as these major utilities you also have a new TRANSLATOR to run old software together with a number of smaller utilities including LOADFONT which will display custom fonts. RAMOS which will give you extra protected space in RAM to store character sets, SHOWSET to display the entire (redefined) ASCII character set on screen and a few more. As well as all this you get good documentation and the source code to most of the utilities. You’ll be even Happy-er!
Another good set of those cracking demos from Poland and other parts of the land over the Channel. A good half dozen demos will delight you with the usual scrolling messages, great music, special effects and more. Each of these demos is independent and each explores aspects of your XL/XE that most people thought did not exist when the machines were made. Not much that can be said about demos really, just watch, listen and enjoy. There are one or two things here that would not look out of place on the ST and a good number of effects and sounds that the majority of ST programmers could not even begin to copy!
Here we have a fun program for all those of you who like to hack about with your disks and discover little secrets. Disk Picture Breaker basically scans through commercial disks and finds picture files which can then be saved out as standard 62 sector files. Of limited practical use but it can be a great deal of fun to ‘hack’ pictures from commercial disks. There are examples on the disk from Zaxxon, Tumblebugs, Koronis Rift and others but no doubt you will find many more from other commercial disks. Finding pictures takes quite a while and the program is not particularly user-friendly but if you have the hacker’s spirit and a little persistence you could have a lot of fun and make some exciting discoveries.
An adventure based on the well-known book. The basic goal is to play the part of Paul Atreides and fulfil the ancient Fremen prophecy by becoming the ‘Kwisatz Haderach’. You must travel from your home planet of Caladan to planet Arrakis. There you must survive House Harkonnen attempts on your life. In your attempt to become the ‘Kwisatz Haderach’, you must stop all spice production on Arrakis. To accomplish this you must enlist the aid of the Fremen. To gain their confidence, you must present them with a certain gift. You will also need to prove to the Fremen that you are worthy of becoming the ‘Kwisatz Haderach’ by doing what no other male has done. It definitely helps if you have read the book or seen the movie as the only way to solve the game is to recreate certain events from the storyline, however the disk contains extensive definitions of the various characters, places and other aspects of Dune and, if you get stuck, a step by step full solution to the game. This text adventure has been programmed with the Wizard Adventure Creator and runs very smoothly and professionally. If you have any interest at all in sci-fi, this is a worthwhile addition to your collection.
If you are one of the thousands of Dr. Who fanatics, this one is for you. The game on this disk originally appeared as one of the bonuses on our issue 44 disk and has subsequently toured the world in various club PD libraries. Along the way, someone put it together with several text files to make a nice rounded disk and we thought we would put it into the PAGE 6 library as it stands. The game is an arcade adventure in which you have to find your Time Drive Unit which has been stolen by the Master. You must search rooms, find and use objects and avoid those who are out to kill you. This is not a text adventure but a graphics based, joystick controlled game with many rooms and lots of puzzles. The added text files make fascinating reading. There is a list of credits of the actors who have taken many of the well known roles in the series; a complete episode list showing program titles, number of episodes and the seasons they appeared in from season 1 right up to season 25; a very nice bibliography with several books which you probably didn’t know about; an article on whether the Doctor and the Master are one and the same and a long article on what goes on behind the scenes in a typical Dr. Who season. Finally there is a knitting pattern for a Dr. Who scarf that your Mum (or your wife!) can knit for you – it’s a full 24 foot long!
One of the most famous programs of recent times is Tetris, one of those games that because of its inherent simplicity and total addictiveness quickly established itself as one of the classics of computer gaming. In earlier times, one of the big software publishers would have produced a version for the XL/XE but, as we know, the chances of that happening now are slim. LUNACY would have had a good chance of being accepted as a commercial release but the publishers’ loss is your pain because you can now enjoy a top class version of Tetris at PD prices. Most people will know that the objective is to manipulate different shaped falling blocks so that they slot together at the foot of the screen. When a full line is completed, that line is removed and the remaining shapes drop down allowing more playing space. The object is to keep going as long as possible before the blocks build up to the top of the screen. It’s simple, its highly addictive and this version is well programmed in Turbo Basic, quick to respond and has everything you need in a game of Tetris. You can even add your own background music using Pokey Player!
There have never been many databases for the XL/XE but when they come along they tend to be worthwhile. This one provides a very easy to use environment with records and search and data entry criteria in ‘windows’ for a very professionally presented program. DATA-X is a full featured information processing system for all Ataris with at least 64k. The program can handle files with up to 300 characters (letters or digits) per field, 20 fields per record. 1,000 records per file or a maximum of 600,000 bytes of information. The program performs certain mathematical manipulations across fields as well as the add, delete and update functions normally found in this type of program. With the use of windows, no complicated commands need be learned and the program prompts for all needed information to perform its functions. Like most current database systems you create files that are arranged as groups of records with each record containing a number of fields which contain the actual information. There are good search functions and the database can be sorted with a wide selection of ways to print out records. The maths functions allow you to calculate the sum of a field, the average, the sum of flagged records, the average of the flagged records in a field and more making this program much more useful than a straight address book (although you can use it for that if you wish). A highly versatile and easy to use program. There is good documentation on the disk to get you started and explain the full use of the program.
There are a couple of programs around, like Daisy Dot, that allow you to use fancy fonts on your printer but they need a text file created with a word processor into which formatting commands have been added but have you ever wanted to produce some neat output quickly, straight from the keyboard? Fancy Writer can do just that. You select a font and the size required and just type your lines and as you press return the text is printed out in your chosen font. If you wish you can have each line in a different font or different size by choosing the appropriate setting before typing your next piece of text. The program works on NEC and Epson compatible printers and has five built in fonts – Old English, Cursive, Countdown, Futura and Babyteeth with a choice of large, medium, small and teeny-weeny in each. Whilst most use of the program will be direct from the keyboard, there is a function to allow you to save text files to disk, although you have to be careful as there are no editing facilities. The program will also print text files from disk so you can use a word processor to create files. Fancy Writer is the easiest to use, and the most ready-to-go, font program for your printer.
In the early days, one of the most highly acclaimed educational programs was My First Alphabet which showed pictures on screen and required a child to identify the letters of the alphabet. Simple in concept, it was however finely crafted and had great appeal to parents and children alike. Now we have a PD follow up to that famous program in the form of My Second Alphabet with an entirely new set of pictures for youngsters to enjoy while they are learning the alphabet. This simple, yet delightful, program is suited only for the very young but as soon as your children are old enough to have hand and eye co-ordination you can begin to introduce them to the use of computers and give them a head start in learning the alphabet. Only twenty-six pictures to enjoy but if you have children you will know that something they enjoy can last forever!
In a far distant ocean your ship braves a raging storm but goes down with all hands leaving you drifting on a life raft in a foreign sea. After many days you sight land and drift ashore on an apparently deserted island, a seeming paradise with palm trees and miles of golden sand. Your first task is to find food and somewhere to spend the night so you choose a direction and set off along the beach. If you are not careful, after just two moves you will discover that the island is not deserted after all and the natives will demonstrate their dislike of strangers by promptly killing you. Maybe you should have gone in the opposite direction? Castaway is a traditional text adventure with excellent response time and a well laid out screen to give you hours of pleasure. Ideal for any adventurer, even those who have not adventured before.
If you already understand assembly language programming this excellent program will help you expand your knowledge. If you are learning then you will be able to disassemble other users’ code to try and understand how routines are written. The Assembly Source Interface by Andrew McIntosh allows you reverse-engineer (disassemble) binary files to either the screen, disk or a printer. It produces code that is compatible with the Atari Macro Assembler. Now you can modify other users’ programs, even commercial software, to personalise screen messages, to extract ready made routines or to find out how a program has been written. Just imagine the possibilities, especially if you are learning machine code programming, of taking ready written routines and creating code that can be loaded directly into the Atari Macro Assembler. Other routines included allow the source code to be converted to MAC/65, change ATASCII files to standard PC compatible, ASCII or vice versa plus many other disk utilities. An excellent program with documentation included.
Those of you who enjoyed, or still enjoy, Dandy Dungeon (Disk #73) will love these extra levels painstakingly put together by reader Kevin Cooke. Here you have a further twenty-six levels, fully tested, to challenge you for months to come. If you have not played Dandy Dungeons before you might like to know that it was the program that inspired Gauntlet and you must surely have heard of that! Also included is a neat version of Tetris, easily as good as the ST version.-
Here is something that every Basic programmer should take a look at. Originally released as a commercial program available only by mail order in the States this is now a fully functional Shareware release. EAB is not a replacement for Atari Basic so you do not need to learn a new language but it enhances your programming no end by adding many new and convenient commands. A revised editing screen gives you a clock at the top (which you can set) and provides the background for the new commands. Most DOS functions are available directly from the editing screen, things such as directories, locking files, deleting files, writing DOS etc. all available without leaving your program. BASIC helpers include automatic line numbering, renumbering in user defined increments, Variable Name Table display, SAVE verify, Decimal/Hex conversion, English language error messages, conversion of editing between upper and lower case and much more. Other commands allow output to be redirected to a printer instead of the screen, a coldstart from the keyboard, Basic to be turned off and the extra memory banks on the 130XE to be controlled. There are other commands as well and program examples to show how these extras can be used in your programs. Extended Atari Basic is an excellent aid that should be in every programmers library.
Diskcom is a well known program used mostly by users of Bulletin Boards but it has other applications. The program basically takes a disk full of files and compresses them into one single file to be sent over a modem and extracted by the receiver. It can also be used to create disk files for use with the ST XFormer and XE Emulators on the ST. DIRPRINT is a utility specially for SpartaDos users who can get a print out of the directory structure of any SpartaDos disk in any density. The GRASS CALCULATOR is a fully featured calculator that can print out, do decimal/hex conversion and percentages. It has built in memory functions. Users of TextPro may well be interested in the FONT LOADERS on this disk which allow different character sets to be loaded in once TextPro is up and running. Finally there is LABEL MASTER, a simple label printer that will print out single or multiple address labels that can also be saved to disk. No fancy effects just a straightforward utility that anyone can use and one that will probably be called upon again and again every time you need to write a few letters.
Info Minder is a full featured, fully flexible database that you can customise for your specific needs if you can do a little Basic programming. This general purpose data management utility permits convenient full-screen data entry and modification, flexible indexing and generation of basic printed reports. It is designed to allow for relatively easy user modification to add custom report formats when needed. All of the records are stored in regular DOS files so other utilities can be used, or written, to use the information you have stored. An excellent user manual accompanies the program which prints out to 26 A4 pages and includes full guidance on database creation and modification, creating indexes and printing reports. Other sections cover customising the program and several pages describing in detail the structure of the program itself. There is much invaluable information here for any programmer wishing to create a customised utility of their own. Use Info Minder for any record keeping purposes, or study the program and manual to extract routines for your own use. Highly flexible.
Guide Mario through this desert world and collect all of the diamonds whilst trying to avoid the butterfly monsters. The first few levels are easy and can be completed by young or old but when the monsters begin to multiply you need to start thinking harder. By the time you get up to level 20 the going is a lot tougher! Control Mario in his desert maze by simply moving to collect the diamonds. Once you have completed the 20 levels supplied the game can continue as long as you wish because there is a built in level editor for you to create as many levels as you wish for your own enjoyment or to challenge friends. The graphics in this game are first class and this is a quality PD game. A nice one that beginners or experienced players alike should enjoy.
Everyone knows the concept behind Tetris and anyone who has played will know just how addictive the game can be. This new version is excellently programmed with high scores saved and displayed on a high quality playfield. In this version, which was converted to the Atari after the author played it on his PC, the falling pieces are blocks of three colours rather than different shapes and the object is to match three or more coloured blocks in vertical, horizontal or diagonal rows. Once matched the pieces are removed to give more space for further falling blocks. As usual if the blocks pile to the top of the screen the games ends. Blocks begin to fall in a set pattern of colours but these can be rotated as the block is falling to give the most advantageous combination. The colours used for the blocks are fairly close in shade making the game much more of a challenge than might otherwise be thought and the game is highly addictive. An eminently playable game that will while away many more hours than you intended when you booted it up!
Have you ever fancied going into a gypsy caravan to have your fortune read but backed out for fear of being conned? Well now there is no need to worry because you can have your fortune told by the cards in the privacy of your own home. As you run GYPSY you will be invited into the gypsy wagon of Nadia, queen of the gypsies. She will lay out the cards that foretell your future. Each card dealt will have its meaning explained to you. If you want to go further and contact the spirits on the other side you can consult the ORACLE, another program that uses a ouija board to answer your questions. You can ask any question you wish and the spirits will answer Yes or No or give you a full answer as the moving hand wanders across the board picking out the letters. The communications from the spirits can be weird and even hilarious but are there really spirits from beyond controlling your microchips? Only you can tell for sure. Of course both these programs are just for fun and you can have a great deal of fun if you get into the spirit!
Four major games for you to enjoy as you burrow underground or take your chances above ground. The MAD MARBLE MAZE is an excellent machine code version of the classic where you try to roll your marble along various ramps without rolling off the edge. Lovely smooth scrolling and top class graphics makes this a challenge to enjoy. HARD HAT WILLY is a quite different underground challenge. Here you must first use Willy’s hat to kill various bugs that are trying to burrow underground. Each one that escapes will lay eggs underground and it will then be Willy’s job to destroy those eggs but Willy can only do that if he can get a hard hat from the birds that fly overhead. Sounds weird? Well, it is an unusual game with many different elements and will keep keen players going for hours. Next we go overground to UP ‘N DOWN in which you drive a sort of rally car along a fixed grid like track trying to capture flags and avoid the other vehicles which will destroy you. The way to get rid of them is to jump up and squash them! Great machine code fun! As a finale we have NUCLEAR MOUNTAIN in which you must try to disable a nuclear powered satellite that has crashed into the ice at the North Pole. You are equipped with a flame thrower and a tracking device to try and locate the satellite before the satellite reaches critical mass and so destroys the ice cap. There are five levels of fun in this challenging game and full instructions for play are included. These games are mostly in machine code and of top quality.
A tongue in cheek adventure, as committed adventurers will realise from the title. Planetfill is also titled Escape from Dispozon and you are accompanied by Iggy, your long-suffering companion droid. Iggy will explain one of the (many) opening scenarios from his log such as – ‘The Andromeda Doria was probably a fine starship once but my master, Horkenfork, has been piloting her in circles for months. He won’t admit it, but he’s not only short, he’s very lost. We’re now orbiting about an unknown planet and, even as I record this, a large mass of interstellar debris is impending on our bow. Given his low intelligence, it’s unlikely that my master will notice it in time to prevent a collision. Master Hobblefrog is quite an emotional specimen. Screaming, gasping, clawing at the lifepod hatch, I got him inside before he peeled off all the paint; we abandoned the Doria and commenced planetfall. Things were progressing nicely when Master Huddlebad suddenly came to, began yanking at the controls and gibbering things like “Look out for that!”. I managed to restrain him but the damage was done. The planet is hurtling towards us. But Master Humblenod was far from through. It wasn’t enough that he put the pod into a power dive. No, he had to pass out again. And this time on the eject button. It wasn’t a pleasant landing.’ So goes the opening scenario, or is it? Next time you run the program things might be quite different. You have to escape using traditional adventure commands but things get quite difficult when the story keeps changing every time you play!
A whole host of flying or space based games, many in machine code. POLAR EXPLORER starts us off with a simple game in which you control a submarine and have to shoot down helicopters and planes that are trying to bomb you. Nice horizontal scrolling in this one. RAID ON GRAVITRON is a cracker, somewhat like the classic Encounter but in space. Your view is through the window of your ship as you hurtle through star fields shooting at incoming tie fighters. Survive these and you will have to survive the rigours of the time tunnel were the correct gates must be blasted to get through. If you survive you will come across the Allen Stockpile where dozens of ships are being prepared. If you can avoid the protective force fields you can destroy them all, but it is not easy. ASTRO WARRIORS is a neat two player game that uses ships similar to those in Asteroids. The objective is simply to shoot your opponent but things get difficult if you choose to fight in Solar Orbit or around the dreaded Black Hole which will suck you in if you get too close. SPIDER CITY is very much in Defender mould except that the action takes place in an underground labyrinth, mapped out on screen. Shoot all the enemy craft as you try and clear all of the caverns. Excellent smooth scrolling and sound make this one top class. AIR RAID is again similar in style to Defender but here you have to protect ground based installations from incoming squadrons of enemy aircraft out to bomb them. Best tactics are to go out to sea to confront them but you will need to watch your fuel and ammo supplies and you must return to base every so often to top up. Another quality game with great scrolling. Fillers are a couple of Basic programs, AIR DEFENSE in which you fire an anti-aircraft gun trying to judge the right height and STELLAR DEFENSE, a very simple yet highly effective game in which you blast incoming ships on a Tetris like playfield. With so many top class machine code games this one represents excellent value for money.
Some classy machine code games in Pacman style layouts, each one sufficiently different to allow hours of varied play. CRAZY SCOOTER seems at first to be quite simple as you try to drive over all the dots in concentric squares while trying to avoid the other scooter patrolling the maze. The problem is that you cannot slow your scooter down, although you can make it go faster, and the trick is to plan your route carefully otherwise you will find yourself on a collision course. In MR. M you have to control the greedy muncher as he goes around gobbling up all the fruit. The other members of the community don’t like this much, though, and try to shoot Mr. M with darts. If Mr. M is full he can resist the effect of the darts but if he is hungry he will be quite vulnerable, so your job is to keep him well fed. ZAND’S LABYRINTH is a sort of cross between those Caterpillar games and Pacman. You have to control your snake as he clears all of the dots in the maze. It might sound familiar but this game just oozes class and is one of the very best with several options. Try it at Expert level and you won’t believe the speed of that snake! You won’t find better graphics and sound anywhere. Last one is CRAB NEBULAR, a little like the original Preppie in style but here you have to clear a path through four moving walls in order to blast the crabs blocking your path. Fairly simple in concept, much harder in play, this one comes with full instructions on the disk. All machine code programs on this one.
Baseball makes a change from more popular games and if you want to have a go yourself then BASEBALL on this disk will get you familiar with the game as you play against the computer either batting or fielding. The playfield is a full view of the baseball diamond with all fielders present. If you are batting the computer will pitch balls at various speeds for you to hit and run. When the computer is in it is your chance to vary those pitches and get your fielders chasing the ball. All of the players are animated in this classy game which may take a little while to master but which will give hours of fun. If you fancy some mountain climbing for a change try ALPMAN in which your climber is hanging onto ledges by his fingertips. The object is to help him from ledge to ledge leaping or climbing ropes. Sounds easy but this is a real challenge with quite precise timing required. MISSION X is similar in style to Caverns of Mars and you have to make a helicopter descent into underground caverns. You can lift and manoeuvre your chopper but cannot have it stand still so the challenge gets greater and greater as the caverns twist and turn. To round off the disk we have NIGHT FLYER, a Basic game in which you try and land a plane at night using only the cockpit dials and gauges. It sure is dark out there but if you read the instruments right you can survive. The baseball game is the star of this disk but you also have a couple real challenges thrown in. Try them if you dare!
Turbo Basic originated in Germany and this disk of Turbo games comes from Germany but, fear not all the games are easily playable and require no translations. There are three major games, all high quality. First is BUBBLER 2 one of those snake in the maze games where your ever lengthening snake has to go round gobbling up food. GLIBBER is a platform game that takes some working out. The initial screen has many snow covered ledges and you need to guide your character around them collecting food to feed the animal on each level. The major problem is that doors on each level act as lifts and they only go up, so some strategy is needed. The last game is JUMPING SPIDER in which you guide a tiny spider around jumping over things that will harm him and climbing webs. The game is quite straightforward but some extremely precise timing is needed and this game will be a challenge for the experienced player. A couple of bonuses make up this disk together with a good menu that you could use on other disks. If you just want to play the games, that’s fine, but if you like to program in Turbo Basic, you could find this one quite useful to see how things are done.
Spelling checkers are rare on the Atari so this one is most welcome. Add the fact that it’s extremely fast and you get a fully fledged word processor on the disk and the news is doubly good. The spelling checker works on any standard text file and allows you to build your own dictionaries, including specialist ones for specific needs. Only very basic ‘starter’ dictionaries are provided so you have to build your own dictionary. This can be done by proofing a document and adding words one by one or, if you have a document which you know is spelt correctly throughout you can add the entire file to the dictionary. You won’t believe how fast it is! Hundreds of words can be added at lightning speed so you will have a comprehensive dictionary in next to no time. Proofing documents is just as fast and the program is so easy to use. Included on the disk is ANTIC WRITER, a fully fledged word processor that will give you almost every command you need and there is an extensive two part manual on the disk which fully explains every feature. There are far too many features to detail here but you can rest assured that this completely machine code written program is of top quality and will provide ease of use for the novice and power for the professional user.
Here we have a simple version of PACMAN which has great sampled sound effects and is a real whatsit to play! The graphics are simply a grid of dots with blank spaces on which your little puc person travels and the object is simply to grab the dots without hitting a space which is much more difficult than it seems. The major attraction of the game is the digitised speech which greets your defeat or success, quite common on the ST but still a rarity on the Classic. This aspect adds greatly to the gameplay which is in itself quite addictive. Kids will probably love all the sampled sound (especially if the TV is up loud!) and this simple game should give a good many hours play.
Anyone remember Broderbund’s Arcade Machine? Well, this was a game creator program a few years back with which you could create your own shoot ‘em up without any programming knowledge. Surprisingly there have been few games put into the public domain using this utility but now we have The Stonetime People, an imaginative platform style shoot ‘em up with atmospheric graphics. The action takes place in a huge cave which has various ledges from which the stone age people are rolling boulders down to try and crush you. You wander along the floor of the cave and have to shoot the boulders as they fall and the stone age people on the ledges. You need to watch out for the pterodactyls which multiply as the levels advance. On higher levels one of the adversaries starts to push a boulder along the floor of the cave so that you have less and less room and time in which to complete the level. The Stonetime People is an imaginative use of a game creator, not a classic but a game with a difference and some classy looking graphics.
There are plenty of bubble games on the ST but I can’t recall any on the Classic. This is one of those games that are so simple in concept yet totally addictive in play as all the real classics are. The objective is simply to blow a bubble through an underground cavern avoiding various spikes, floating arrows and, of course, the walls. To control the wind flow you simply move the joystick so that a small arrow points in the direction you wish to blow and press the fire button. Gravity, of course, plays its part and can be used to help pass underneath bricks hanging from the ceiling but you must remember to blow the bubble back up again. The objective is to get through as many levels as you can but only the most skilled will get through them all. Ten levels in all with a high score table. Highly addictive and highly recommended.
Another three cracking Turbo games from Germany with a little bonus thrown in. Top of the class is FLIP AND FLOP, a three dimensional grid style game in which you must proceed diagonally across the squares collecting diamonds whilst avoiding those squares that have holes and making sure that you don’t drop off the edge. The platforms are on various levels so you have to clear each before dropping down onto the next. As each level appears the task becomes more complex and you must really plan your route. SUPER MINER is an underground game in which you have to collect various objects on your travels through a mine. The first level is just a taster and you might think that it is easy but on the second level you might get no further than a couple of moves unless you can work out the secrets. Obviously the objects you pick up can help or hinder you but which is which? Very nice graphics and some good challenging gameplay. Next is LUNAR LANDER, a game that will be familiar to all but which is still addictive. This version is a little faster than most and so just that bit more of a challenge. Ideal for a break from other games. As a final bonus there is a ridiculously simple chase game in which the objective is nothing more than to see how fast you can press the fire button. Sounds silly but I bet you’ll have more than one go!
EasyStor is a database style program that was developed to produce indexes to various Atari computer magazines. The format, however, is free form so that the program can be used for any number of applications. Although designed to compliment a commercially available index program, EasyStor can be used effectively on its own. The format consists of a seven line record card with the first two as the main heading and the next five to add whatever supplementary information or explanations that you may require. Searching is possible on any word used within the record so that you do not have to restrict yourself to specific methods of entry. The number of records available is limited only by disk space and, obviously, the more information you put on each card, the less records you can have. Database programs are very personal things, some suit certain applications better than others but EasyStor might just be the card storage system that suits you.
Boot with Basic.
At last a great platform game with a difference. The object is to run along each platform to dislodge various parts of hamburgers to create complete burgers at the bottom of the screen. Of course there are various nasties trying to catch up with you and here they are Willy Weeny, Fred the Egg and Mr Pickle. If you time it right, however, you can squash these with a beef patty or burger bunt. Alternatively you can stun them with a dose of pepper but they soon recover. Burger Chef is based on the arcade game BurgerTime and is one of the classiest games to come along for the Atari Classic in some time. The graphics are great, gameplay is great and there is enough challenge on the eight screens to keep you busy for some time. Highly recommended for young and old alike.
Boot with Basic.
A new Star Trek game, part simulation, part arcade that will delight all Trekkies. This adventure takes place long before the Klingon Empire joined the Federation of Planets and so a massive Klingon force is threatening to destroy the Federation and your task is to stop this invasion. Various options allow you to warp to other sectors, activate the long range scanner, set phasors, raise shields, dock with bases to refuel and use the transporter to ferry supplies from planets. Throughout the game you will be receiving messages from different members of the Enterprise crew and you need to constantly heed these to progress. Your task is simple – destroy the Klingons – but is also complex, as commanding a ship like the Enterprise is no easy matter. Unlike straight simulations this has arcade elements in which you blast at the Klingon ships and dock with planets, similar in style really to Star Raiders. One novelty is that the messages from crew members are held as text files on the disk so you can use a word processor to customise these and have your own version of the garne!
Boot without Basic. For docs use another disk to run "D:README.BAS".
It has been a long time since some music graced the Page 6 library but here, from Germany, is a new disk of Advanced Music Player tunes for you to enjoy. There are eighteen tunes here ranging from short and sweet to long and complex pieces by Bach and Mozart. Each tune is accompanied onscreen by a piano keyboard which shows the note being played and by three colour bars which extend across the screen giving a graphic representation of the music as it plays. Eighteen pieces of music for you to enjoy.
Boot with Basic. Use arrow keys and Return.
A brand new update for TextPro that adds a few minor features and probably has a lot more but, not being regular TextPro users, we have to say that we are not sure what the other enhancements are! The TextPro file is much larger than the original, however, so there must be enhancements, perhaps faster of better handling of printing or formatting? Three additional help screens cover help for hard drive owners, hints on handling oversize files and the new commands include setting linefeeds on or off, selecting default drives and automatic menu sorting and the ability to save settings as default. This single sided disk has all the help files needed for TextPro and several other files that do not appear on the original disk but does not repeat much of the information on the original and should therefore be considered an update to the original version rather than as a full replacement. Regular TextPro users will want to try this out as the latest version. For those new to TextPro, the program is fully usable and has extensive built in help but we recommend that you also get the original version (DS#8) which has much more information on the disk.
Boot without Basic.
Every so often along comes a game that looks simple but because of its combination of graphics, sound and playability, stands high above the rest. SCRIDS is one of these that simply requires you to shoot enemy blocks and collect different sorts of tokens before escaping to the next screen. The story is that you are in the dungeon of the Scalds and must fight your way out. You will be facing off against Benkders, Fareforms and Blankburps. Along the way you can pick up special weapons to help you in your fight. You can also pick up Bysenuukuses for more points. Your ultimate goal is to destroy the Whirling Gankleblister at ground zero. You have a gun but will need quick reactions. This rather fanciful description disguises the simple players in the game but If playability is what counts this is a winner all the way. We have only made it to dungeon three, can you do better?
Boot without Basic. Press Start to play.
Five games and a music bonus make up a disk that shows the power of Turbo Basic. The first game is HOELEN GNOM, don’t know what that means but it a Berserk type shoot-out with you in a maze of rooms shooting nasties. You can’t touch the walls or the nasties and can only shoot horizontally which makes things more difficult. KUBERT is a variation of the classic game in which you hop from platform to platform changing colours. Nice large graphics in this one. Next SUICIDER is a platform game with lifts in which you have to collect keys to open the door to the next level. A real puzzler this, as it seems impossible to get past the nasties. There is obviously a strategy involved, can you work it out? Again excellent graphics. SABOTAGE is another Berserk variant in which you have to destroy a shielded missile base and other things that look like petrol pumps(!). The base will drop its shields each time it fires at you and you have to be quick enough to shoot back before the missile closes in. The final game is SPURFALL, a simple angle worms game but with a superb coloured grid as the background. Some top class games for you and don’t forget that music bonus.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Another game in Turbo Basic from Germany. Dare Devil is a maze game in which your player has to retrieve a number of green and gold keys to unlock various doors and score points. Also running around the maze are some nasty green things and contact with these is fatal. You can shoot them but only horizontally which makes it rather difficult if you are trapped in a long vertical corridor. The keys are arranged in such an order that you have to take the long way each time you open a door. You must first retrieve a gold key to unlock the door to the key room which lets you take one, but only one, green key. Once you have unlocked a green door you must take the long route back to fetch another key. All the time the green nasties are multiplying and time is running out so that the trip to the key room becomes progressively more difficult. What looks like an ordinary maze game becomes a real toughie. The graphics are top class and the combination of strategy and quick reaction make this an extremely playable game and a real challenge.
Boot with Basic.
If you didn’t manage to get a copy of Planetarium whilst it was still available (or even if you did) you might like to try this program. Not as sophisticated as Planetarium, SKYPLOT shows the Sun, Moon and Planets visible above the local horizon for any given time or place. The main display screen covers 180 degrees horizontally and 80+ degrees of elevation. Viewpoints can be flipped to N, S, E or W and the sky colour darkens realistically from darkest blue to lightest in 16 steps during morning twilight and darkens in the evening. The moon and planets can be seen, however in their correct positions by day or night. It’s fun to view the sky as the ancients may have viewed it or you can view the sky at the time of historical events or on your birthday. It’s just as easy to view the sky in the future. Simple graphics but ideal for anyone interested in astronomy. A very full worldwide table of latitude and longitude is given in the instructions enabling you to set up the program wherever you live.
Boot with Basic.
Glyph is a Shareware Font Editor and Utilities package for the Atari Classic. The utilities comprise a program that will take any 9-sector font and turn it into Basic (or Action) data statements so you can easily use these in your own programs. There are also ready written routines in Basic and Action! and for SpartaDos to use these fonts in your own programs. There are several fonts available on the disk. Glyph itself is a standard font editor but with the facility to load and work on two fonts at once. Each character set can be interchanged either with the system font or with each other and virtually all the editing commands you will need are included. Characters can be overlaid on each other or vertically flipped and well as scrolled in any direction. You can modify any of the fonts on the disk or create you own and, with the utilities, you can easily include any font in your own programs either as readable text or as redefined characters for backgrounds or players.
Boot with Basic.
A follow-on from our first Music Player disk, the format is the same but with 14 new tunes for your enjoyment. As before the tunes range from short and sweet to long classical pieces. Each tune is accompanied onscreen by a piano keyboard which shows the note being played and by three colour bars which extend across the screen giving a graphic representation of the music as it plays. Another fourteen pieces of music for you to enjoy.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Five top class games and a utility make up this disk. SUPER HUSH is a platform type game with a difference as you negotiate various ramps and elevators in search of ducks (or geese?). On the way you must avoid many green thingies that will kill you. All of the ramps and elevators are connected and the playing field is several screens which flip as you reach the edge. VIDEOSTOP is one of those simple but highly addictive games. The object is simply to match two of three dice by pressing the fire button. The graphics are excellent and despite the simplicity you will want to come back for more. THE BIG HOUSE is a sort of arcade adventure in which you wander about a big house trying to collect various objects whilst avoiding insects, birds and other creatures. Play is a little slow but the graphics are good. TRONG is a cross between Angle Worms and Pong and if you are bored with these just try this and see how good you are! The bats operate as angle worms and it is near impossible to get to the ball on time. Try It! The final game, HOUND, is a straight two player Pong game but very playable. The utility is one that everyone with machine language games should have as it creates a bootable disk without DOS which presents a menu of games on the disk for you to simply choose and run. With this you can create your own favourite disks from the myriad of games in the Page 6 Library.
Boot without Basic. Select from menu.
Lets Bubble? Let’s face it, you won’t find simpler graphics than this which basically uses a graphics 0 screen for a game similar to the old caterpillar games in which you catch fruit while you tail grows longer. What makes this game different is the use of digitised sound in the introduction and during the game with some very nice death gurgles and screams, not many PD games use digitised sound this effectively. We got this from another PD library in the States and debated whether it was good enough but in the end we decided to let you choose. It is far from spectacular but an interesting use of digitised speech. Programmers may be able to strip the sound files and incorporate them in their own games. See what you think.
Boot with Basic.
Here we have a set of printer drivers and other utilities primarily for use with the Paper Clip word processor and Panasonic printers but there are one or two programs that Panasonic owners may find useful even if they don’t use Paper Clip. We have printer drivers for Paper Clip with the Panasonic 1080 and 1090 series and also the Atari 1025. Then there is a font download for the Panasonic which redefines 15 upper case italic letters into various maths and physics symbols. This can be used with any program that can access shifted italic characters. This font program is in Basic and could probably be easily adapted to download other fonts to your Panasonic. There are a couple of font demo and test programs for the Panasonic 1080 and 1090 plus a print demo for Paper Clip. If you have the Paper Clip and Panasonic combination this is for you but you might find it useful for your Panasonic anyway.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
More of those Continental style demos including the demo of the title that lets you alter the parameters and play with the display in real time. COSINUS is a double screen display of those twisting patterns that are created with sines and cosines beneath which are a set of values that can be changed with a joystick. Plug in and away you go to create your own unique displays. Other demos included are ENJOY which combines normal demo techniques of graphics, bars and music with an excellent slide show based on a fantasy theme. Very nice pictures in the style of many Zeppelin games. FOTO is an intro screen from the High Tech Team (remember the BIG demo?) with neat effects, OPTISER has a bouncing multicolour scroll and music. To round off there is a demo from POKEYSOFT which combines many different scrolling techniques on one screen, you have to see it to believe how many scrolls can be combined. Another neat demo disk that proves once again the Classic can match more than most.
Boot without Basic. Select from menu.
A couple of adventures plus some extras to keep you thinking or to play when you can’t solve the adventures! ONE FOR THE ROAD is the main adventure. Written in machine code, this has an excellent display screen and starts with you aboard ship in a cabin which has a couple of objects and a locked filing cabinet. Check you wallet and you will find a photo of your house so you assume that you have to get home. But how? Wander out on deck and the only way is down. Go down and the cruel sea finishes you off. That’s as far as I could get but I am sure you can do better. THE TREASURES OF BARBOZ is a simpler adventure with forests, winding paths and bridges guarded by trolls. Standard stuff that should be a pleasure to novices and experienced alike. GO is an excellent implementation of the ancient Japanese game from which the word Atari comes. A strategic game that requires you to capture pieces on a board, Go is said to be more complicated than chess and is, in fact, the most widely played board game in the world. TRANSITION is a simple yet frustrating game where you change the places of counters from one side of the board to the other. Seems simple when you see, seems impossible when you play it. VIDEO POKER is a neat version of the poker slot machines, just stick in the money and decide which cards to hold and which to draw. Big payouts! Lastly there is LUCKY, a throwaway in which you try and select the numbers that the computer is going to pick.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Fancy a bit of skeet shooting? Now’s your chance with a great shooting game in which you have to take aim in each of eight positions as the clays are launched from two sides across the screen. Very quick reactions are required to line up your sights and squeeze the trigger at just the right time. Speed is variable and up to 9 players can participate in a tournament. T X CRUNCHER is set on an electric grid with T X as a little guy who feeds on power cells. You must guide him around collecting cells of differing power whilst avoiding the Hulk Robots that guard the grid. Nice graphics and decent play. CLASH OF THE KINGS is a two player arcade strategy game in which you each move your players, or their weapons such as tanks and helicopters across a board. Whenever opposing players clash on the board play switches to an arcade sequence where you have to blast each other. The loser’s piece is then eliminated and play continues. The final objective is unclear but a few games will sort it out for you. MAZE MUNCH is another Pacman clone, not much else to be said but worth a play or two, and KBERT is a Qbert clone where you try and turn the pyramid to a different colour while avoiding the nasties.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
If the weather gets too bad there is nothing like a quick round of golf in the comfort of your own home. FAIRWAY CHALLENGE is an 18 hole golf course complete with most of the hazards found on the real thing. Play is controlled by the keyboard and you select your choice of club, the strength of your swing and the direction of shot. When you reach the green you need select only the strength of shot. The graphics are good and the doc file gives hints and tips on play. MAGIC FIRE is a ‘room’ type game in which you move around collecting boxes while avoiding the magic fires. Nice bold graphics and difficult play lend this one an air of quality. SLITHER is a Nibbler done in machine language and extremely well done. If you are hooked on this style of game you will enjoy this variant. In SAGUARO you find yourself in the desert complete with the cacti of the title. Well, not quite because these cacti grow from eggs dropped by a vulture! Your job is to round up the eggs before they hatch whilst the vulture who will carry you away if he catches you hovers above. You cannot stay out in the desert heat for too long and so must make it back to your cabin with at least one egg every so often. If you fancy a spot of gardening try LAWNMOWER in which you must just cut the grass. Of course there are problems like avoiding a couple of neighbours on level 1, making sure you don’t fall down holes on level 2 and trying to mow down the Mad Planter on level 3. If you don’t he’ll keep replanting the mown areas. Last one is SPEEDSKI, a neat little downhill racer that will give you a few hours pleasant diversion.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Have you ever tried those wordsearch puzzles in magazines? You know the ones, where words are hidden in a grid of letters and you have to search for them in any direction. Some of them can be real tough, especially when a competition deadline is looming, but now you can use your Atari to solve these puzzles for you. This great program written by a dedicated wordsearch addict will enable you to solve several different types of puzzle. It will tackle the standard puzzle where you have to find all the words, you just type in the word grid and then ask the computer to identify each word as it is typed in. It solves those puzzles where one word is not in the grid, you type in the grid and the word list and the computer tells you which word is missing. It also solves the more unusual puzzle where the vowels are missing together with ‘nines’, those 3 × 3 squares that contain a nine letter word. Of course doing it this way takes out the fun of solving the puzzles but if you get stuck it will take away the frustration and you will be able to do dozens of competitions without major brain fade. Who knows, you might win that holiday to Florida at last!
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Sevens is a card game for four players sitting round the table as in Bridge. The computer plays North, East and West and you play South as you attempt to dispose of all of your cards by placing them in sequence on a foundation of sevens. The game is played for a pot which is increased if any player cannot play a card. The rules are simple but as in many simple card games, there are a number of subtleties in play. There are four levels of play in the game. In the first you simply watch the computer play all of the hands so that you can get some idea of play and tactics. Your turn to play comes in Sevens Helper where you are helped along by suggestions of cards to play. In the next level you are on your own except that if you try to play an illegal card the computer will show you which cards are playable or when to chip or pass. On the final level you really are on your own and any attempt to play an illegal card will result in a fine payable to the pot. The graphics are excellent and there is full documentation included.
Sevens is ideal as a solitaire game or as a means of practice for playing against real opponents with a proper deck. You should be able to get the family involved in a simple to learn, yet challenging and interesting, card game – and you will have had the advantage of practising in your Atari! Also included is NUKE XL, a simulation of the operation of a nuclear power plant. Your task is to prevent a meltdown by adjusting the amount of heat produced by the reactor. Some nice diagrammatic graphics add to the appeal of this standard text input simulation. The final program is a game called LOST CITY, a platforms type in which you have to search through five levels collecting gold and riches in your search for The Lost City. A straightforward platform game but neatly done.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
A collection of various games on the theme of exploring dark places and sliding things about. The major machine language game is DUNGEON DUEL, a Berzerk type game in which you have to collect treasure in a dungeon while avoiding the creatures that are after you and without touching the walls. The action is fast and the game is challenging. Next we have ROCKSLIDE, one of those puzzles where you have to get three diamonds in line by sliding various blocks around. Yes, it’s been done before but this is a very good version that will keep you challenged for a good while. CAVE is a lander type game where you have to collect fuel canisters in an underground cavern, it looks easy when you first see it but there is plenty of challenge. DEFENDING WORLD is a simple Missile Command type in which you have to shoot incoming missiles with your fixed ground based laser. STARSECTOR DEFENSE is a little more involved as you control your ship trying to avoid asteroids and destroying enemy craft. Shields play a vital part in this game and are more effective than weapons if you crash into an enemy with shields up! Last one is KASON’S TOWER, a straightforward platform game in which you have to get to the top of the screen avoiding arrows that come at two heights on each platform. Another that looks dead easy but is a real so-and-so to complete.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
A couple more pinball games with a nice machine language hopping game and some demos thrown in for good measure. The pinball games are SUDDEN DEATH, with four sets of flippers at the bottom and AURA BALL with the flippers high up on the board. Each game allows up to four players and will keep you challenged for a good while. The game is QUICK STEP is which you have to jump on various items of food which scroll smoothly down the screen trying to change them to another colour. It looks like you are a kangaroo but there is also a frog who is determined to change the food back to its original colour so you have to keep going back over items you have already changed. You must avoid landing on the same piece of food as the frog and must make sure that you don’t get carried to the bottom of the screen where you will slide off to oblivion. Simple concept but very neatly done and a good challenge, especially for younger players. The demos include GREMLINS, a neat drawing of a couple of gremlins with some good music and a scroll, SNOOPY, where Snoopy dances about to some very good music and loads of scrolls in all sorts of directions. Last one is FLYING PIGS, exactly that!
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
If you like Wheel of Fortune, now shown on TV over here then here is another chance (see also disk #51) to pit your wits against the wheel is the ultimate word game. Up to three players can take part in this game of guessing phrases which can be people, things or places. You spin the wheel and select a letter to see if it is in the phrase. If successful you win the amount shown on the wheel and play again. If the letter is not in the phrase then play passes on to the next player. At any turn you can attempt to guess the phrase and can then win the accumulated jackpot and the game. Bar of Fortune is neatly done with the ‘wheel’ as a bar scrolling across the foot of the screen and the phrases at the top. There are three version of the game on the disk, all with different phrases to keep you and your family busy for ages.
Boot with Basic. Select from menu.
Here is an interesting word challenge game for the whole family or a group of friends who think they can outwit each other. The object is to give six correct answers to each question similar to those TV game shows where the public are given a question and the six most popular answers have to be guessed. The question scrolls along the bottom of the screen and the first player, or team, to press the fire button gets the chance to answer. A time limit is selected and the player who presses first gets the chance to type in the answer in a ‘Face Off’. If his answer is one of the six selected by the computer then it is uncovered and the player gets points awarded and another go. If he gets it wrong then his opponent gets the chance to answer. At the end of this round the player with the higher points gets to Play On. Here you must try to get all the correct answers in less than three ‘strikes’ (i.e. wrong answers). The player winning the Face Off can decide to take the challenge himself or pass over to his opponent, if he feels his opponent will not get the questions right. The final choice is to Steal the points by trying to get all the answers in one try each. Difficult! There are 200 questions and 1155 answers on the game disk with an option to design your own game disks for further play. Full instructions for creating your own data disks are included. This is an excellent family game that will keep you busy for many long evenings but it can also be played solo, by those who like the challenge of figuring out answers. It is not easy to work out six items that emit a beam of light or six places in the States with lots of swimming pools but if you give it a go you will find yourself hooked. An excellent game.
Boot with Basic.
Long ago and far away in a country called Kvadryk abstract inhabitants lived their quiet abstract lives until malicious dragons appeared and began to destroy the established order. The fall of the country is close unless you can destroy each of the dragons on the various levels of this intriguing and challenging puzzle game. You will find a screen with numerous different blocks and a dragon wandering around. What you must do is make the dragon eat all the blocks by using special magic blocks to guide him around. Once the blocks have been eaten a magic mirror appears and if you can guide the dragon towards it he will be destroyed. Although this may seem easy there is a great deal of thought required since the properties of the magic blocks mean that the blocks can only be moved by transferring the magic to another block and moving a short distance. You therefore have to establish links between the blocks to force the dragon in a particular direction so that he will eat blocks that are not crucial yet leave those which you might require later to guide him about Not easy! The actual game play is not easy to describe but is fully explained on screen and after a few practices you should get the hang of it. The graphics and game design are excellent and there is a save game feature for when the going gets too tough. Up to 8 players can take part in the challenge. This is a top quality game similar to the many puzzle games coming from the Continent except that the concept is entirely new and somewhat different.
This disk was withdrawn from the library.
Boot with Basic.
Another game that, a while ago, might have been considered for commercial release. This is one for lovers of platforms games in which the objective is to explore dozens of screens looking for canisters which will give your energy, and your lives, a boost in search of the final objective which is … well, you’ll just have to get good at the game, It is too difficult to complete in time for this write up! The graphics are big and bold and your character is a fair size. You need to bounce him onto various platforms which may have nasties bouncing along, or you might find them floating around in the air between platforms, making timing of jumps crucial. Although the final destination is not obvious there appear to be dozens of screens and a high score table will give you something to aim for. Difficult to say more but if you like platform games you should not be disappointed. Top class, big bold and well-designed graphics make this an excellent PD release.
Boot without Basic.
It’s time for a space shoot out again or, more accurately, time to board you ship and skim along just above ground level trying to bomb and shoot the enemy – Airstrike style! You will be familiar with the design of this game which gives you another opportunity to test your reflexes as you guide your ship along on its mission, desperately trying to avoid enemy fire. You need to bomb tanks and enemy saucers as well as shoot down the missiles which are launched with increasing regularity. All the time the tanks are shooting back at you and your fuel is being used fast so you will have to find somewhere to land and refuel. Decent graphics and nice smooth scrolling make this a worthwhile game, with 5 sectors for you to negotiate before you can consider yourself a worthy pilot of the future. Times look to be tough in 2500, but you can start to practice today! First objective is to make it to the Hall of Fame and then you can begin to take on the challenge of the other sectors.
Boot with Basic.
Quite a while since we had a collection of utilities but here is a diskful with something for everyone. First we have the WQNR SUPER FORMATTER that will format any type of disk drive, including Ram-disks, up to 90k with all options highlighted as you go along. An ideal tool when you need to format a new batch of blank disks. The WQNR PHOTO COPIER is a neat document printer that has an interface similar in style to a photocopier. You can print out in three type sizes on an Epson compatible with as many copies as you wish. The next utility is ZAGESZCZACZ (!), a binary file compressor from Poland for the more advanced programmer. The title is unpronounceable but the program is easy to use and will take any binary file and compress it so that many more such files can be kept on one disk. It works by removing all zero bytes from the file. SPEED START is a brilliant program that we often use in the Page 6 Library to create disks that will autoboot to a menu without using DOS. You can have both machine code and Basic programs together and can format disks in single, enhanced or double density. Your own disk title is simply added. An excellent utility. You will also find a program to print out documentation files in two columns on Epson compatible printers and a useful label printer for addresses and standard labelling. Most of the programs here are fully documented and quite simple to use.
Boot with Basic.
Millions follow Coronation Street and millions of computer widows watch it while their husbands are playing with their Atari but here is a chance to bring everyone together with a mint adventure and lots of trivia info concerning the show. Let’s start with the trivia which comes in three sections. In the first you have the complete cast of the series since 1960 with all the characters and the actors who have played them. See how many you can remember. The next section shows you who lived where and when with potted histories of the houses, shops and pubs. Bet you cart remember all of the bar maids in the Rovers Return? There is also a summary of the residents who have been in trouble with the law over the years. The final section has street maps of Weatherfield so you can identify exactly where everyone lives and where they go to work and play. The mini adventure is called Stan’s Dilemma, set in 1983, on a rare occasion when Stan pulls himself away from the Rovers Return. Your good wife, Hilda, has won a food voucher in a competition and intends to use it to pay off her debts at the corner shop. Trouble is Stan’s a bit skint at the moment and the Rovers is just about to open. All he needs is the price of a pint but Hilda’s gone and spent all the money on silly things like food and rent! Still there is the voucher and if he can get it without Hilda noticing maybe he can exchange it for some cash. But who is going to cash it for him? Your job is to help Stan cash the voucher, while avoiding Hilda who is on the warpath. Can you get down the Rovers before closing time to meet your mates? Several years watching the series will be of great help in this adventure!
Boot with Basic.
Superb! If you have children that are learning the alphabet or will be shortly this is an absolute must. Join Max as he introduces you to the alphabet and tests your knowledge and understanding. Max is a cute, loveable ball on legs, a bit like an orange, with huge blue eyes, a couple of antennae and a great personality. The kids will love him (and you will too!). Max will come on stage to introduce you to the game which consists of four sections of increasing difficulty. In the first Max will bring on each of the letters of the alphabet in order and act out something to illustrate them. He might dance, jump, close his eyes, wiggle his antenna or lots of other things, each a joy to watch. In the next stage a copy of the keyboard is shown and you have to match the letters on screen as Max acts out a word. Next you have to find the letter yourself, no help this time. Max will come on, pick a letter at random to bring on stage and you have to match it on the keyboard. Finally comes the really hard one as Max comes on to act out a word but doesn’t give you any clue as to the letter. You have to decide what Max is doing and choose the right letter. This program is so cleverly designed and perfectly balanced that children of alphabet learning age, and those much younger, will love it for a long, long time. This is, without doubt, the best educational program of its type ever on the Atari. Forget all the commercial programs of long ago, Max is just the most loveable character ever to appear on your Atari. The best educational program of all, bar none!
Boot with Basic.
Experience the many wonderful colour combinations that your Atari is capable of with this disk of visual and audio delight. The principal program is a pattern generator that uses the famous ‘rainbow’ effect of all 256 colours scrolling on your screen at one time. There are 16 different pattern effects to choose from that give wonderful, swirling, hypnotic effects on your screen. When you have chosen your pattern you may select from 10 different modes that change the effects, often quite dramatically. This visual delight has to be seen to be appreciated but will enthral everyone who likes to see excellent colour effects on their Atari. Sound is not neglected with a four part sound sequence from Germany that plays classical tunes (Bach?) with a harpsichord effect. Some very nice depth to the sound on these tracks. The disk is rounded off with a demo showing a Sony video recorder accompanied by an excellent rendition of a Jean-Michell Jarre tune. A great disk to demonstrate the graphic and sound capabilities of your favourite machine.
Boot with Basic.
In this top class platform-cum-adventure game from Germany you will find yourself in some sort of underground complex which you need to explore to find the mysterious Factor-X. The game opens with you on one level of the complex with a lift in view to take you deeper below ground. You can see a filing cabinet which you can examine by pulling down on the joystick but it yields nothing and so you take the lift down. On other levels you will find more objects to examine like computers which may give you access codes to gain entry to other lifts or levels. There are also, of course, various nasty things guarding the corridors and walkways which you must avoid by jumping over. Some cannot be passed except by walking through them but each time you do so you reduce your resistance and the next time you could die. The graphics are excellent in this game and there are many levels to explore with a good deal of challenge on each. Here is a game that will take quite some time to solve, especially as the ultimate objective is not at all clear. A game that will reward the persistent, or experienced, player. Like most of the quality games from Germany this is well written and will provide many hours of fun.
Boot with Basic.
The old computer favourite Battleships might seem a bit old hat by now but there is no denying that it is a game that has the unique addictive quality that makes it an ideal game for all the family and one that even the youngest computer buff can enjoy. What battleships needs to make it interesting is a good graphic interface and, perhaps, some sound effects. Naval Battle has this and more. It is an excellent version of the classic game with a bold, colourful, playfield and some super sound effects as the bombs come hurtling in and explode. The game is for one or two players, with a demo mode, if you just want to sit back and watch, and is controlled entirely by joystick. You have five ships, in increasing size, a PT Boat, a Submarine, a Destroyer, a Battleship and a Carrier which are placed on the grid with the joystick in any position you choose. The computer, or other player, places his ships and battle commences with squares being chosen again with the joystick. Hits are registered graphically with the representation of each ship being blocked out in red as you score a hit so that you always know how well you are doing. As we say, maybe a bit old hat, but if a game is well done then it overcomes problems of familiarity and you will be surprised at how much children enjoy games that they can get familiar with. Don’t forget also that there are commercial versions of this game still being released!
Boot with Basic.
Many of the familiar card games like Pontoon and Poker have been around on the Atari for a long time but this is the first version we have found of a rather more complex game that is played in casinos around the world. The game is said to be an accurate simulation of the game as played in the casinos of Las Vegas and full rules of play are included. The game is played with 8 decks of cards and the object is to acquire a hand with the value of nine. The cards are not counted in the usual way, however, and the scoring values will have to be learned from the instructions given. This version is designed to give the novice player a better understanding of the game and to give the experienced player a challenge to his skill. Baccarat follows a strict set of rules as to when a third card can be drawn and how bets are placed. You may bet on your own hand or the bankers, in which case you pay commission to the house if you win, or you can place a bet at good odds for a tied hand. As the game can be long and complex a save game facility is included. Nice to see a different card card available so if you fancy a break from Pontoon and would like to try a card game with a difference this might just be the one.
Boot without Basic.
Once again the Atari comes to the fore as a learning tool or educational experience. This travelogue, which we believe was originally part of the now defunct disk magazine The New Aladdin, takes you on a journey to Australia, New Zealand and Russia. The narrative takes the form of a series of text screen pages that are turned with the cursor keys. In The Australian Experience, which comes in two parts, you will discover many interesting facts about life and living in the land of Oz from a native contributor whilst New Zealand is represented with three excellent drawings from Harvey Kong-Tin, a friend of Page 6 from long ago. The final narrative details the exploits of an American student on a journey to Russia just after travel restrictions were lifted and gives a unique insight into what it was like to travel to what was at the time one of the world’s least accessible countries. There are 32 pages of information on Australia, 18 on Russia with the New Zealand pictures as well and the disk is in enhanced format so that the disk is as packed as it could be. This series of travelogues from The New Aladdin is another unique use of the Atari for educational or leisure interest that deserves a look.
It is constantly surprising how some excellent games for the Atari seem to lie dormant for many years and then suddenly appear in public view. This is a supreme example of a Defender type game that was written so long ago that it requires a translator on the XL/XE! Despite being an early game, Eggnapper is an excellent arcade game that could not be bettered by today’s high programming standards. The rather complex plot has a series of mind control devices planted in eight underground caves in Iowa whose object is to spawn thousands of ‘Deeley-bugs’ that can be distributed across the Western world to cause total havoc. The government has located the caves and built a base in the first equipped with three fighter planes with which you must destroy the myriad creatures being created by the master-hopper and finally the master itself. If you succeed, then funds can be allocated to building the next base and, with luck – a great deal of luck – you will clear all eight caves. You will find all sorts of nasty things in the caves: Landers, which descend to the ground, munch away and then throw certain unmentionable stuff at you to bring you down; Bees which are launched slowly towards you and Sons of Bees which will come at you apace. On the roof and floor of the caves you will find adult and larval males and females that have their own nasty ways and eggs which will drift slowly to the floor where they will hatch, possibly into mutant bugs that will bomb your base. You objective is to destroy everything that looks nasty before it can attack your base, and of course destroy the masterhopper itself. All of the action takes place in Defender style with a radar at the top of the screen and smooth scrolling along the cave. Graphics and sound are excellent and Eggnapper is a great new discovery for the public domain which every arcade game lover should enjoy. Full instructions for play are included on the disk.
Boot with Basic.
I bet everyone has secretly wondered what it must be like to hack into those big government mainframes but who wants to risk the jail sentence! Now you can enjoy a simulation of hacking into the big US mainframes. See if you can penetrate the Department of Defense, the IRS, IBM Corp, General Motors, Ameribank or Stanford University. You will begin by telephone scanning hundreds of different numbers searching for a carrier tone and then, when connected, you will have to try and work out the password for access. You have a certain amount of time before a trace is activated but you then have to get off line quickly otherwise the Feds will be round next day! If you do get a trace, just hang up quickly and try again or try and crack another system. You won’t find out any top secrets in this simulation but the fun is in just getting through. If you get the log-on welcome screen from one of the systems it is a real buzz and you can see why some people get hooked on the real thing! This disk is really a set of simulations and you will find some more familiar ones as well. Chess aficionados will enjoy OPENINGS, a set of 10 book openings for the game that will enable you to learn and practice some of the standard opening games. Hints on moves are available. FLIP is the familiar game of turning squares to the opposite colour while ALIEN is a simple Mastermind codebreaker. You will also find a version of YAHTZEE and BSAMOTOR, a text simulation in which your task is to try and run the BSA motorcycle factory amidst industrial turmoil and several disasters. But it’s the hacking you really want to try isn’t it?
Boot with Basic.
If you have a printer then you ought to put it to good use with some custom designed headed paper for all your correspondence. This dedicated program will allow you to do just that with text and graphics mixed to your own design. Built in drawing tools enable you to design your own graphics or you can import Print Shop icons via the converter program included. Once you have a graphic you can add your text in single or double width and choose other options. Any number of letterheads can be created and saved to disk so that you can custom design a letterheading for particular use. The program works with Epson, Gemini and compatible printers. Not much more to say, just a good, useful, application to enhance the use of your computer and printer.
Requires enhanced density drive. Boot with Basic.
There’s a good choice of art programs for the XL/XE so why another? Well, each program is different and one program may suit you better than another, especially a program that is as easy to use as this. BBK ARTIST works in Graphics 7+ giving four colour pictures at high resolution. The menu screen presents you with twenty-five commands of which twenty-one are used to create your computer art. Other commands allow you to save your work or load in pictures created with Micro-illlustrator (Koala), MicroPainter or MagniPrint. With the drawing commands you can create boxes, lines, circles/ellipses, rays, plot text on screen in any character set you design (in any size you desire) and touch up your painting in ‘enlarge’ mode. This is a feature packed program with full instructions on disk so you can use the program to the full. Try this art package out it could be the one that relegates your current art program to the disk box.
Boot without Basic.
A platform type game that requires a good deal of thought and skill to solve. Your character starts at top left of the screen in a cavern with bombs visible on many ledges. Your task is to defuse each bomb by passing over it but it is not as easy as it seems. You can climb ropes and slide down chutes, even use an elevator, but unless you work out the correct order you will find yourself trapped. Falling off of a ledge is not particularly harmful, unless you land in the water, but you could find yourself trapped. This challenging game has excellent graphics and comes complete with a screen editor for you to create your own games. Full instructions are included with the screen editor so you can have many hours of fun creating your own unique games.
Boot with Basic.
This is a playable demo of a unique strategy game from KE-SOFT that is going to be difficult to describe. The object is to use a power source in the centre of the screen to fire a laser with which you must destroy a number of targets that look rather like hamburgers! The laser always fires in the same direction but will bounce off the side walls and any object it hits. What you need to do is to position two blocks so that the laser will strike one or both of them and so deflect to hit a target. You are represented on screen by a little wizard with a staff and one of the objects is to make sure that the laser does not hit you as you will then lose a life. It doesn’t sound a very exciting game but this is one of those games that soon becomes highly addictive and will have you trying again and again until you can solve one screen to pass onto the next. This demo version has eight playable screens, so is well worthwhile playing. The full version available from KE-SOFT or ANG has added music, another 45 levels and a level editor to enable you to create your own games. This addictive game could well have you hooked!
Boot with Basic.
You find yourself on one floor of a strange building occupied by a few nasty Skeletons and a Bully who would quite like to beat you up. Only by retrieving the keys to various doors and passing through the GammaRay machine will you gain enough powers to defeat the enemies. Until that time you just have to avoid them. You start with 4 lives and lose a life if you leave a door open for more than a couple of seconds, collide with the Bully or a Skeleton, enter the Ray Machine backwards or enter an elevator that is in use. There are several coloured doors on each level and you must have the appropriate key to open them. Once you have collected all of the keys you can take the elevator up to the GammaRay machine, pass through the machine and HULK OUT, thus gaining extraordinary powers that will enable you to defeat the Skeletons and pass on to the next level. To win the game you must compete all levels and finally beat up the Bully and throw him out of the house. You can choose to play with or without the Bully and can choose the number of Skeletons. A pretty good game released as shareware by a disabled war veteran from the USA who deserves some support for his efforts.
Boot with Basic.
Bigfoot is a fairly simple ‘collect the treasures’ game that will probably appeal more to younger players. You have nine levels in which you must collect various treasures while avoiding the stomping Bigfoot and The Blu Meanie. You must also avoid the Fire Pits which increase in number as the game goes on. In the first level all of your treasures are stationary but later on they will start to move about becoming more difficult to collect as you must also keep an eye on Bigfoot who will follow you more and more closely as the levels increase. Bigfoot is a well programmed game that should delight the novice game player but will probably be too easy for experienced garners, although the action can become quite fast on the later levels.
Boot without Basic.
An excellent platform game that has 48 challenging levels and the option to create as many more levels, or new games, as you wish. As with most platform games the object is to collect treasures whilst avoiding objects that will kill you. Where this one is slightly different is that certain sections of the floor will disappear as you pass over them allowing no way back, so you have to think very carefully about the route you will take. It is too easy to find that that you have left a treasure in a spot that you can no longer access. Although you must think out each level very carefully a timer brings added pressure so you must think on the move. I have only tried the first few levels which proved challenging enough but you have 48 in all. This is certainly a top class challenge. There is also an editor which will enable you to create your own games but the instructions are in German so it might prove a little difficult. With a little experimentation and perseverance, however, you may be able to create a game of your own that will put your name in the PD hall of fame!
Boot with Basic.
A follow-on from Zyclop, this new platform game shows how a very different game can be created with the game editor from Zyclop, also included on this disk. The first few screens look totally different and are really just a preliminary to the main task of exploring a rocket ship. Once you have entered the space craft you will find things a lot more complicated as you strive to collect the required objects whilst avoiding the many, many things that spell instant death. Although created with the same game editor of Zyclop, this game has a totally different feel and new challenges. There are 60 levels to this one so it should be a long time before you reach the end. And, of course, if you can work out the editor the fun need not stop there. Another excellent game from Germany.
Boot with Basic.
Yes, another version of Tetris but it is a good one – promise! Everyone must know the object of Tetris, to match falling shapes and complete solid lines, so there seems little point in explaining the game. This version comes from Poland and demonstrates some of the classy programming that has been seen in many programs from that country. You have first class presentation, music, nine levels of difficulty and the option to view the next shape or not. Scores are saved to disk so you can monitor your progress. Not much more to say, except that this is a good Tetris starter or another variation for those who are completely addicted.
This is the third variation of Wheel of Fortune we have found but it is a classy production that deserves a play even if you have the others. The object in Wheel of Fortune is to guess the letters in a word or words that can represent a famous person, a saying or phrase, a film or whatever. You spin the wheel before your go to see how much each guess is worth, hoping that you will avoid the bankrupt segment which will lose you all of your points in the round. If you watch the program on TV then you will know exactly how to play but there are instructions included. The game can be played with up to 4 players and is controlled by your choice of joystick or keyboard. There are fourteen puzzles included, each with up to 100 phrases, but you can create your own with Atari writer or any word processor that saves in ASCII format. Full instructions are included. This is one of those games that you think you could do without but which becomes really addictive when you start to play. An ideal family game, especially if you create your own puzzles with easier phrases for the children.
Boot with Basic.
Computer games are often more fun if there are two players and this collection should keep any twosome happy for a long while with five games to choose from. TVJAJI is a game that may have its origins in the classic Pong but is as far removed from that game as you could imagine. The object is to defend a wall behind your paddle from attack by your opponent volleying the ball towards you. If he breaks through you lose a point. So far much the same, but the differences start to become apparent when a number of computer ‘players’ start to interfere with the ball. These include Aliens, Square Faces, Springs, Long-legged Aliens and a Laser. Each of these will do different things with the ball. There are lots, lots more diversions included all of which are fully explained in the documentation on the disk. CAPTURE is a two player maze game in which you must race through the maze to capture the flag before your opponent does. The challenge comes in the fact that you can only see the part of the maze immediately surrounding you. A limited number of bullets enables you to blast through sections of the maze but they should be used with care. EXWALL is a unique tank duel in which the object is to get close enough to your opponent to shoot him. Your tank has spreading fire with a limited range to destroy objects in your path plus the ability to lay obstacles by backtracking. Sometimes the only way forward is to lay obstacles that can then be blasted away. Difficult to visualise, this is probably one of the most challenging two player games that requires a good deal of thought. TANKDUEL is the old VCS classic with enhancements in the scenery. The object is the same, to get close enough to your opponents tank to destroy it. The final game is UNICUM, a Super Breakout variant. This is a game for one or two players with two players playing in partnership each with one half of the screen to cover. All of the usual features of advanced Breakout are included such as collecting certain bricks that give extra features. Two player mode proves more challenging than the usual one player game as you have to anticipate your partners moves as well as your own. UNICUM is a top class piece of programming.
Boot with Basic. Do not write protect.
Five adventures for you to enjoy with the best selection screen ever, at last someone has taken the trouble to put together a professional looking adventure collection. Each adventure has its own style and quirks for you to discover, all are the usual full text adventures. In THE ISLAND you remember some sort of explosion aboard your ship and wake to find yourself on an island. You know you have to get back to civilisation but you can’t swim. THE BOW OF BEURA has a similar theme in which your ship has been caught in a storm and you wake up on a small beach at the foot of snow capped mountains but this seems to be a mythical quest. BREATH OF LIFE is firmly set in mediaeval times and opens in a castle with the Princess Pethal lying comatose in a four poster bed. Her father, the King, is at her bedside. It looks like you will have to discover how to save the princess. CORSAIR is set in a small tavern overlooking the town square. This establishment is full of sailors, wenches and lowlife scum and it looks as if you will have trouble just staying alive. Finally ATLANTIS has you as Alastor, Acolyte of Athene and you have been having strange dreams concerning the impending destruction of Atlantis. You decide to leave but it is not going to be as easy as you might think. Five decent adventures with a lot more to them than can be described here.
Requires enhanced density drive. Boot without Basic.
Actually The Gold Mine and The Princess, an adventure/simulation in which you have to provide the king with a huge herd of cattle in order to win the hand of the Princess. The only way you can purchase cattle is at the local sales but you will need gold. The only way to get gold is from the mine but the mine was abandoned years ago when a fearsome beast appeared in the depths. No one knows if it is still there and there may well be other pitfalls (literally!), including a pack of wolves that have taken residence, but your desire for the Princess is so strong that you must try. The game is divided into two playing arenas, the village and the mine. In the village there is an on-screen menu to guide you in the fashion of a simulation whilst the mine is more of an adventure with you having to map things out and decide how to avoid the perils whilst collecting the treasure. This is an interesting combination of role play, adventure and simulation and should keep fans of these styles happy for many an hour. Also included is DEATHWORLD, a standard text adventure set in space where you are about to land on a small planet at the edge of the Milky Way to discover what has happened to a mining expedition whose communications suddenly stopped some time ago. A nicely atmospheric space adventure.
Boot with Basic.
A collection of arcade games, three in machine code and one in Basic. INVASION is a standard shoot ‘em up with your view from the cockpit of your craft as enemy ships approach against a beautiful star scrolling sky. You have to shoot each of the 100 enemy ships before they wear down your shields. NUCLEAR REACTOR is one of those games where you have to wander about the screen collecting things while avoiding the walls and the local guardian. In this case you need to collect flasks and radioactive waste with increasing amounts on each level. ERG is set in a long scrolling cavern studded with diamonds (or something more exotic?) which you have to collect whilst avoiding four guardians who float around. You have only limited time so keep your eye on the timer which counts down to a detonation. Some nice graphics and scrolling on this one. Last up is DIAMOND RIDE a one or two player game with two players opposing or cooperating in the collection of diamonds and other energy shapes. Two conveyor belts at top and bottom of the screen are linked by two diamond lifts which you must use to ascend or descend to the appropriate belt. The diamonds and energy shapes appear only for a limited time so you have to make fast decisions about the quickest route to each with plenty of changes when the diamonds disappear just as you reach them.
Boot with Basic.
Three games headed up by Triple Crown, a racing and betting simulation in which you can make or lose a fortune on the horses. You need to set up an account at the bookies before deciding how much to place on the horses in each race. There are five horses to choose in each of eight races with previous form shown for guidance. The race itself is fully animated and the excitement grows as the horses near the finishing post. The game can be played alone or with others when it gets more exciting to see who can end up with the biggest pot at the end of the day. CHECKERS is an excellent version of American Checkers (or Draughts as we call it) with full U.S. rules in operation and many variations. Choose to play against the computer or another player, set up problem boards, view a past game, print out a full game and more. Full instructions are included in this excellent machine code game. QUIZ MASTER is a must for anyone interested in quizzes of all sorts. It is a quiz system in which you can set up your own quizzes based on whatever you choose. Use it for homework testing, language learning, pub quizzes, challenges, revision and lots more. Very simple to use, this could provide hours of challenging entertainment for your family and friends.
Boot with Basic.
A collection of several useful or fun programs. CREATER is a machine language menu program, only 12 sectors long, that will enable joystick selection of files on your disks and will load machine code or Basic programs as well as reading text files. Full instructions included. SUPERHOP is a fun fractal pattern generator that creates crystal or snowflake patterns that can be zoomed in or out. JOYTEST will test out your joysticks and paddles. MYGARDEN is a unique program that will enable you to lay out your vegetable plot. You give the size of your plot and indicate which type of vegetables you wish to grow and the program will work out how much of each vegetable you can plant and provide a planting diagram. XF551 ENHANCER is said to increase the Load and Save times with the XF551 by over 12%. KIDSWORD is a simple to use word processor for use by kids or adults who want to produce simple letters or printouts without learning all the complicated features of more advanced programs. Good online help and instructions for the beginner are included. ROLLDICE is a neat dice rolling routine that you can include in your own programs. To round off a couple of graphics programs give you some very pretty patterns to watch. A nice collection with something for everyone.
Boot with Basic.
If you are interested in graphics why not have a DOS which drops some of the more obscure functions in favour of something you are likely to use often? This is what ARTDOS does, retaining the most useful DOS functions whilst adding useful extras. Type DOS and you will be able to read text files directly, make an AUTORUN.SYS for your disks, load and display Koala or Micro Painter files and load and display different character sets. The latter is ideal if you have a collection of character sets which you want to use in your programs. Just use DOS to check out the look of each character set before you use it. Included on the disk are 10 pictures and 20 fonts sets for your use. Some of these may have been included on earlier disks but it’s useful to have all of these fonts together.
Boot with Basic.
There are a couple of versions of Monopoly for the Classic but none quite like this which is a sort of arcade version of the classic game. Rather than have a board, the properties are laid out along a road which smoothly scrolls as you throw the dice. You start at a ‘headquarters’ where you can visit the bank, legal department, construction site and more to find out what property you own and your cash balance. There is even a bar where you can go and meet your fellow players if you need to borrow some money. When you take your turn your player walks along the road to the appropriate square. If it is a property which you decide to buy a truck will come along and remove the For Sale sign! You probably won’t recognise the property names since this is the American version and one or two rules are slightly different but you get all the fun in an updated and animated version of the classic game. Up to four players can enjoy the fun and you can save games at any point to continue play later. You will also find an excellent concentration game called MEMORY in which you match squares revealed in pairs. Played on an 8 × 13 grid there is a lot to remember but this classy game helps you keep track by keeping statistics of play including time taken, number of tries, number of matches and more. The incentive is there to keep getting better. For 1 or 2 players. To round off there is a simple, but well programmed, ‘eat the dots’ game in which you have to get round the maze collecting money before the four bad guys get you.
Boot without Basic.
Ever fancied yourself as the most famous detective of all? Now, in this text adventure you can see if you have the ability to solve The Case of the Elementary Rescue. The scene is London in 1899. The evening fog has settled in outside 221B Baker Street and clattering hansom cabs scurry through the cobblestoned streets. Holmes sits alone, nodding lightly on the couch in the upstairs study, reading through the notes about the one villain who has so far escaped detection. The one fiend whose intelligence matches that of Holmes himself, none other than the evil Professor Moriarty. Holmes nods off but is interrupted by a knock on the door. It is Mrs Hudson, the housekeeper, with a note that has just been delivered. Could this be the beginning of the final case? Holmes has obviously failed in this one remaining problem but can you step in and solve the problem? Only you will know as you exercise your elementary powers of verb and noun combination to work your way through an adventure that could be far from elementary.
Boot with Basic.
Still on the adventure trail but now to sunnier climes. Fancy a trip to Florida, even if only in your imagination? BEACHCOMBER is set on a wide sandy beach in the Sunshine State. Seagulls overhead, waves rolling in, kids splashing in the surf and sunbathers everywhere. You can feel the soft sand under your feet the sun beating down on your shoulders and the ocean breeze against your pale face. Smell the salt air! Squinting in the bright sunlight you decide to check things out and get your bearings. You are barefoot and wearing a T-shirt and shorts with pockets but that is just about all you know as you decide to head up, or down, the beach. What will await you on this idyllic holiday? Will you discover Disneyworld or something much more sinister? Once you have finished discovering the joys (or otherwise) of sunny Florida you can deprive yourself of almost everything in OVERHEARD! Here you start in a prison cell with stinking straw on the floor and a small barred window. If you move next door you will find an old man with a straggling beard and tom tunic and a chain hanging from the ceiling. The obvious thing to do is get out, but how? The old man does not seem to want to talk to you and pulling the chain seems to produce only a distant crash. What is going on? Can you make it out? Take your pick from two types of escapism with these new text adventures.
Boot with Basic.
Enjoy the power of your Classic once more with some more fine sampled sound and graphics demos. The first is a digitised sample of a song called YOUR BODY, MY BODY which is accompanied by a sort of dual vertical oscilloscope display which beats in time with the music. HI ALF is based on an ST demo and features the strange creature called Alf who had his own TV series a while ago. Watch as Alf dances to the beat with his guitar to a great music track that does not seem to have been featured on the Classic before. Some great percussion effects. CRAZY DINO is a more standard demo with lots of scrolling, great music and you guessed it, a crazy dinosaur at the bottom of the screen. The kids will love it! The last demo is STARS, fairly simple graphically but with an excellent sound track based on a repetitive synth style riff and an eerie melody. The sort of thing you might expect from Tangerine Dream or more progressive German synth bands. Yet again your Atari Classic is stretched to its limits by these four demos.
Requires enhanced density drive. Boot without Basic.
A standard text adventure to which another programmer has added graphics created with an 8mm Camcorder, a VCR and ComputerEyes. You and your party were escorting the Princess Shala to the castle of her betrothed. Unfortunately as you camped for the night the dreaded Slave Masters of Golgoloth attacked. Though young, you fought very bravely but you were unable to hold off the savage slavers. The last thing you heard before being struck unconscious was the Princess’s helpless scream. You awake and look about. The bodies of your men lay strewn around you but there is no sign of the Princess. You are filled with fury and vow that the Slave Masters, followers of the evil Golgoloth, will taste your vengeance. Their blood will flow! But you are left alone, shivering in your simple loincloth. All your weapons and your armour are gone. What will you do?
Boot with Basic.
Now you can create your own specialised boot disks each containing up to eight machine code programs accompanied by your choice of music. There are over 50 tunes for you to choose on this disk, mostly taken from commercial games but with a few others. Your favourite tune must be here! Also included is the famous, or infamous, Rob C Menu maker which gained quite a reputation in past years as the menu of choice for those who pirated software. Nowadays there is hardly any software to copy and it never was easy to copy protected disks. Although this program contains facilities to copy disks and tapes to a boot disk you won’t be able to copy your entire software collection but you may find it useful to have several programs on one disk. You will also find a copy of DISKY II, a sector editor and disk manipulator but this has no instructions so you will need some knowledge of using sector editors to be able to use it.
Boot without Basic.
A small collection of utilities for those who write their own machine code programs or who like to fiddle around with disks. DISKTOOL is a sector editor that allows you to scan sectors, move sectors, compare sectors, scan memory, analyse VTOC, search for protection and look at boot info. ASSEMBLER is a two pass assembler that requires a 130XE or 128k machine. It is an updated version of a program on a very early disk amended to run at greater speed with Turbo Basic. If you would like to dabble with a few machine code routines, this could be the ideal simple assembler. SECMOVE is simply a straightforward sector mover, ideal for tasks such as moving directories to hide them from view. Finally LISTING FORMATTER is a good debugging tool. It will take a LISTed program and print it out in an easy to read fashion with each statement on a line printed out on separate lines and with loops indented. Note that Turbo Basic will be needed to run several of the programs on this disk.
Boot with Basic.
Another great disk for gaming fans with shootouts from space to the prairie. In STATION your task is to act as guardian to a space station destroying all manner of drifting spacecraft, asteroids and space debris before they can harm the ship. TYRANTS OF TORMENT finds you doing a similar thing but on a planet. You seem to be on a huge conveyor belt shooting incoming aliens but every so often you must avoid obstacles on the belt. Nice graphics in this one. ALIEN AMBUSH is a fast and furious machine language shootout with loads of explosions and lots of action. Alien ships split up into smaller units when hit and bounce all over the screen becoming extremely difficult to avoid. SHOWDOWN is an excellent two player cowboy shootout from Germany written in machine code. An excellent opening sequence gives way to a coral in which you fight it out with your opponent whilst at the same time trying to shoot rabbits and collect gold nuggets. A great variation of an old theme. In DAM TROUBLE you have to defend a huge dam with a helicopter gunship. Incoming missiles have to be shot down whilst, at the same time, avoiding bullets aimed at your helicopter. Can you avoid the dam being breached? Final game is FATAL CONNECTION, another machine code game which has full instructions detailing a fancy story about life on an alien planet. Your task is basically to fill a maze with an ‘anti-void’ substance and then shepherd the alien lifeforms to different exits in order to save them. Filling the maze is easy but getting the lifeforms to go where you want them can prove quite a challenge. Overall another fine games collection.
Boot with Basic.
Join Captain Nemo as he explores his undersea world in his famous submarine. This top quality arcade game is basically an undersea shoot-up as you control the submarine and avoid attack by jellyfish and all sorts of nasty sea creatures. You must guide the submarine through undersea caverns and make sure that you shoot any sea-life before it can contact your ship. Graphics and game play are excellent and the game is a challenge to play – I don’t even know what lies beyond the first cavern! If you fancy your shoot-ups in space then LASER GATES, also on the disk, might be more to your liking. Here you have to blast your way through stationary and moving laser gates to get to your destination. Of course there are enemy craft blasting at you and, whilst the occasional brush with a wall or gate won’t kill you, you have only limited energy. Two top quality arcade games for those who still enjoy playing games.
Boot with Basic.
If you missed the old Atari User, you missed some great arcade style games but, no worry, here is a selection of the best. In SANTA’S GROTTO you must guide Santa around several linked mazes to collect his presents. The total maze extends over several screens making it a challenge to work out the links. FENCE BUILDER has a fancy storyline about a nuclear reactor making your tools come alive(!) but is a neat game in which you have to erect four fences using posts and panels while avoiding the moving tools. FRANK THE FRUIT FIEND is your basic platform game in which Frank must gobble up all of the fruit on every level and of course, avoid the nasties. GREEDY GUNTHER is a somewhat uncontrollable fellow who needs to eat up a lot of dots and avoid death traps and brick walls. What makes this one challenging is that Gunther wont keep still and you can’t relax for one minute. SKATE CRAZY is, well, crazy! On a pair of roller skates you have to avoid worms coming up out of the ground and jump over what look like hamburgers being thrown at you! DOCTOR BORIS is an interesting version of the classic in which you run around trying to catch things while leaving walls behind you. This one is made more difficult by the fact that you are trying to catch time bonuses which rapidly count down and often disappear just as you get to them. To round off FRUIT GAMBLER is one of the best slot machine simulations around. Your chance to play the slots without paying the price. A great collection for gamers of all ages.
Requires enhanced density drive. Boot with Basic.
More advanced users may find this collection invaluable for when something goes wrong or if they need to back up their disks or create their own protected software. Some of the best disk utilities around include VTOCFIX which examines the Volume Table of Contents and allows you to fix problems, especially when you get a disk that shows fewer free sectors than you should have. Seems to work only in single density though. TRACER is a most comprehensive disk/sector analyser with the best graphic interface even seen on this type of utility. Edit and copy sectors, search for info and much, much more in a great utility. If you need to create ‘fuzzy’ or bad sectors then FUZZY will do it for you with ease. Another sector editor is SECTOR which lets you edit, copy and duplicate sectors and much more with some extra special facilities especially for advanced programmers. Also allows you to create ‘slow’ sectors and has a built in drive speed checker. BURP is a boot utility pack that will allow you to create your own custom disks by copying files, tapes to disk, boot files and more. It will also copy Multi-boot and Rob C Menu programs and has comprehensive DOS utility features. To round off, OLD OPERATING SYSTEM is a version of the old 400/800 OS which seems to be specifically for running ROMs and tapes that have problems on the XL.
Boot with Basic. Use DOS option L or Basic to run programs.
An adventure in the classic style by none other than Les Ellingham! This was written back in 1982, at the time when adventures were quite new on the Atari and was intended for commercial release. It never quite made it because I ran out of time to do a few refinements and Page 6 took over. Those who tested it at the time thought it was quite good and trying to play it today I find it extremely difficult! The story is that you are desperately in need of some money (nothing changes!) and the only thing you can think of is to pinch some from your Uncle Henry while he is away for a while. Once you can get in the house there comes the task of finding out where he hides the dosh. There are a good few puzzles to solve before you can get near the cash. All of the usual commands are available but there are one or two peculiarities (this was written at the birth of adventuring). The only clues you get are that you cannot use abbreviations for directions, you must type GO NORTH etc., and you have to figure out exits from locations yourself. There was going to be a prize for the first person to finish the adventure and discover the amount of cash but I can’t remember how much it was? In fact I can’t even remember how to play it, so how about someone providing a solution for the Tipster page? There is also a bonus of a version of the Tunnels and Trolls role playing adventure which I never completed. Perhaps someone would like to finish it off?
Boot with Basic.
The old favourite of the caterpillars eating the apples has been done many times but there is always room for new versions if they are done well. This one has great graphics, super fast play and options for one or two players over about 20 levels. You will need to be an expert player to reach the top. Your serpent needs to eat a number of items on each screen to progress. What look like carrots, or maybe chilli peppers, make your serpent grow and make the play more difficult but on later levels cups of tea(?) appear which can be eaten without effect. One player action is challenging but the game really comes into its own in two player mode where great fun can be had trying to outrun and outscore your opponent. A familiar theme but some quality programming makes this one worth adding to your collection.
Boot with Basic.
If you look in wonder at all those machine code demos from the Continent and realise that you will never be able to program like that, take a look at some of the first demos produced on the Atari. Here is a collection of 28 of the early graphics and sound demos produced by ordinary users tinkering about with their machines. Not spectacular by today’s standards but the big advantage is that they are all in Basic and the listings can be studied and the effects added to your own programs. There are examples of pretty graphics, character animation, player missile graphics and more. There is nothing here to totally amaze you but you will learn how to produce simple effects of your own and so make your programs more interesting. In the end there is nothing like creating your own programs, even at the simplest level, and that’s what keeps the Atari alive.
Boot with Basic.
A simulation of US Basketball between teams from Boston and LA based on the real players and their strengths and skills. Other teams are available as data disks but many games can be enjoyed using the two teams supplied. The game is intended for two players, although one person can play both teams. The skill comes in deciding which players to use in each of the four periods taking into account their special skills, level of fitness, injuries and number of fouls committed during the match. The disk contains full details of the player’s offensive and defensive skills, stamina levels and more and is updated each time you play. There is no arcade action as the score in the game itself is determined by the team selections you make and is shown in text format as each player scores or is injured. If you enjoy the challenge of simulations you should enjoy this excellently programmed game which will make a change from the usual football simulations.
Boot with Basic.
Another collection of some of the best games from the old Atari User magazine. In CHOPPER RESCUE you will be flying a helicopter to rescue stranded pilots. You have to avoid an enemy plane which will bomb you and you have to blast your way through the rock to find pilots hiding in underground caverns. MONEY BAGS is a platform game in which you have to collect all the bags of gold while avoiding nasty spiders. In CAVERNS OF NALA you will be venturing underground in a space craft in an attempt to destroy an enemy ship, but first you’ll have to unlock the gates guarding the complex. PYROMANIA is something quite different, you have to shoot birds with fireworks rockets! As the birds come down you have to ignite the rockets to try and blast them! Not sure what the R.S.P.B. would think but it’s different! MANIAC MOVER is a simple but classic game. Just race your car along the motor-way and avoid hitting or being hit by other cars. Simple, but it’s is fast and furious and one of those games you just have to try once more because you just know you can do better. SUBMARINE HUNTER has you in a destroyer dropping depth charges on the subs below. There does not seem to be a penalty for blasting the shoals of fishes! All the time the subs are firing at you. Last one is CAR CRAZY where one or two players attempt to drive their cars around a track, but these cars are really crazy and need a delicate touch on the controls. One wrong move and the cars.will be going crazy!
Boot with Basic.
Those who like to play card games will enjoy this collection which is primarily for one player. You can while away the time or practice your skills for real play against others. There are seven games included but let’s start with the best. CRIBBAGE is a great game that not often found on computers but this version has all of the features. Graphics are simple but adequate and if you know the rules you can have a great game against the computer with the score kept up to date on the on-screen crib board. Play FIVE CARD STUD against four opponents in which all the odds are worked out by the computer which plays the other four hands. This really feels like the real thing as players attempt to bluff and will raise by appropriate amounts depending on their hand. Lots of excitement when you know you have got a good hand. Another version of Five Card Stud has you head to head in a simple deal but is great for practice. EUCHRE is a game that I don’t know but seems to be a form of Whist or Bridge. Four players, playing solo or in pairs taking tricks. Seems to play well. The others are JOYSTICK SOLITAIRE which looks to be good but I can’t figure out how to lay the foundation cards, perhaps you will do better. Another solitaire game is LAST TRUMP which I am not familiar with so you’ll have to work it out as you play. Finally there is TWENTY ONE, the good old Blackjack classic that almost everybody knows. If you don’t know the rules of some these games get a book on card games and you will really enjoy playing.
Boot with Basic.
Four more convoluted or complex adventures for you to pit your brains against. We start with DR. LIVINGSTON in which you awake in a room which you presume is in Africa. You can find some hiking boots and a knapsack fairly easily but it doesn’t seem to be so easy to get out of the room to go exploring. In ESCAPE FROM THE DUNGEON OF THE GODS you are one of a rebel band that is fighting the evil king in the medieval town of Alvard. You have been captured and thrown into the legendary Dungeon of the Gods. Legend has it that there is a secret chest here which contains the power to defeat the king. You must find the Chest whilst avoiding or slaying the monsters and guardians that lurk in the prison in order to rejoin your comrades and finally free the citizens of Alvard from tyranny. Escape of another kind comes from VOLCANO ISLAND on which you have been shipwrecked. The volcano is extremely active and you must find a way of being rescued before it erupts and the island sinks beneath the waves. OPERATION SABOTAGE is set farther away, on Mars in fact! Here you are a secret agent who has penetrated the complex of an alien civilisation which is intent on waging war against the Earth. Your mission (if you decide to accept it!) is to return with the plans of a super shield which can protect against fleets of attacking craft. If you can destroy the base before you go that will be a bonus as well. Four tough challenges in classic adventure style.
You find yourself shooting lots of things with this one, but once in a while you’ll have to run instead! Start off at the shooting gallery, there are two to choose from. By far the best is SPACE GALLERY in which aliens move along various levels, hiding behind rocks as space craft fly along overhead. Loads of colour and action make this one of the best shooting galleries on the Atari. If you like the pace a little more sedate you can try DUCK SHOOT which has a familiar theme, just like the fairground shooting booths. Just shoot anything that comes along. Shooting of a different kind comes in ROCKET RAIDERS, an early commercial release by Artworx. You have to defend the city from incoming missiles which will try and break through the shield arced above the buildings. A 3-D view adds to the atmosphere but this is a fairly simple game of timing and judgement. Enough shooting, time to run! REBEL PROBE is a multi-room game in which you have to try and get the robot probe out of a complex in which it has photographed secret plans. You must avoid the walls and barriers and, of course the patrolling sentries who guard each room. CAVERNS OF DEATH has top class graphics in a maze game with both overhead and side views of your progress. You must find your way around and avoid the poisonous snakes which you find everywhere. There are ladders which seem to lead down to other levels but you will need to find a key to unlock their secrets. This is another game from Germany with great graphics and lots of challenge, especially as you only have one life! We round off with a couple of maze games. MAZE MANIA has simple graphics and the task of finding a few gems scattered about but is surprisingly addictive as you try and remember the way from one screen to another. The last one is a 3-D maze in which you get a short glimpse of the layout and then try and find your way out in ‘real’ perspective.
Boot with Basic.
Some thinking, some running and blasting. BOMBJACK starts us off in machine code style where you have to manoeuvre Jack all over the screens bursting balloons while avoiding the rockets. Lots of colour and smooth action in increasing levels of difficulty. BIKER DAVE has a challenge of a different sort as he attempts to jump cars Evil Knevil style. You must judge his approach run to perfection and pull back of the joystick to launch him over the cars. Too slow and he hits the cars, too fast and he careers off screen. GOOD KING ZURP is a strange one in which you seem to need to collect the ingredients for the perfect pizza. There is not time to collect everything on screen so get the pasta, garlic, seasonings together and don’t hit a maggot on the way! RUNJUMP is a platform game very similar to Mr. Robot or Lode Runner and is a nice challenge. There is even a construction kit for you to create your own screens although, strangely, this is set up to save to cassette. Should be simple to change the program. CREEPY CAVERN is a multi-room hunt for gems and gold while avoiding snakes and the cavern guardians. Nicely done graphics and plenty of rooms keeps the action going for some while. Time to think! Try ROLLER BALL first, a sliding puzzle style game in which you have to move various sections of pipe so that your marble can roll through to the exit. Smooth action and some classy looking graphics. Lastly MARBLES is one of those extremely frustrating games in which all you have to do is remove the marbles by jumping over them. Looks easy, plays hard!
Boot with Basic.
Lost for a few years, this fine set of utilities should be in every programmers disk box. Boot up the disk and you have a range of commands to use from Basic that will help with many programming tasks. There are ten commands of which the most useful are DIR which displays a disk directory without going to DOS; DEL will remove a single line or block of lines from a Basic program; REN instantly renumbers a program to any starting line and increment of your choice, you won’t believe how quick it is!; CHANGE alters the name of any variable so if you have a program which you are trying to unpick you can identify a variable and give it a more meaningful name throughout the program; STRIP takes out REMs and reduces the size of your programs; LISTING prints out programs on an Epson compatible with all special characters shown; VAL coverts between Hex, Decimal and Binary; LVAR gives you a complete listing of all variables used in a program and where they occur. Overall an incredibly powerful set of programming utilities that every programmer will find a use for. Even if you only use one or two commands you will find your programming takes on a new ease and you won’t have to sort through your library trying to find individual routines. Great stuff!
Boot with Basic.
Another set of three adventures headed up by a machine code exploration of your Atari. AGENT CIO is set inside the very machine that you use to play the adventure. Your job as an agent of the CIO is to solve problems which occur inside the Atari, in this case the user is having problems booting up a disk. You will find yourself in the cartridge slots, the ANTIC chip, along the parallel bus, into the POKEY chips where you will be deafened by the sound of the four channels, and lots of other places. Each location is described as a cross between the architecture of the computer and a standard room and the descriptions are very cleverly done. Not only do you have an interesting adventure puzzle to solve, you will also find out a thing or two about how your Atari works. ARABIAN NIGHTS is a more classic tale of mystery and magic set in Baghdad. Here you must help the Caliph get his daughter back from a spell cast upon her by an evil magician. You must find the shell of the egg of the giant Roc and return with it to the palace using many magical items along the way. Be wary though, as each item may only be used once. Last one is ADVENTURE X5 which is a bit of a mystery in that you will have to discover yourself what the objective is. You find yourself on the bridge of a spacecraft on a strange planet and must explore and discover. Take the voice activated lift and start exploring, you might find some interesting and strange things aboard your ship.
Boot with Basic.
Some years ago ANTIC magazine commissioned a new DOS to try and take the existing DOS 2.0 and DOS 3.0 to new heights but it never really caught on. Perhaps one reason was that this DOS used another format that was not compatible with previous DOS versions, although it can read and convert both DOS 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0. DOS 4.0 comprises three sections, a File Management System, A Command Processor and a Disk Utility Package. You will find all the familiar DOS commands included along with several new commands and every part of the package comes with on-screen help to guide you through. There is not room to describe every facet of this DOS and it may not be for you but for more advanced users it is certainly worth a look if only for the interest of finding out more about disk use. If you are curious to explore your disk drive further check this out, it could end up being your favourite but remember that not everyone will use this format so don’t go converting all of your disks!
Boot with Basic.
The Atari can produce some great 4 channel music mimicking various instruments but perhaps the best sound is that of the ragtime piano. Here we have an excellent collection of rags, two steps and waltzes from the master of ragtime, Scott Joplin. Sit back and enjoy Weeping Willow, The Nonpareil, Harmony Club Waltz, Leola, Wall Street Rag, The Strenuous Life and A Breeze From Alabama together with The St. Louis Rag from Tom Turpin. All are excellently arranged and have a graphic interface showing the notes on each of the four channels used. Scott Joplin’s music was used in the film The Sting and will be familiar to snooker lovers as the theme for Pot Black. Have a listen on your Atari to some great tunes and be surprised at how good it is.
Boot with Basic.
No need to bring cash, you start this gambling spree with $10,000 absolutely free! How long it will last depends a little on your skill, a lot on luck and on how reckless you are on the tables. Up to 4 players take part in a series of gambling games – which can be played in order or individually. Your cash is carried forward from game to game. To start off there is the RAMBLIN GAMBLIN BOARD in which you have to select squares to try and win cash or get letters to spell out Ramblin or Gamblin. This is a sort of static slot machine where you move your players rather than spin wheels. Next up is the ROULETTE table where the usual rules apply and the big wheel spins on screen. If you like cards instead, or as well, then 5 CARD STUD will have you pitting you skills against the other players or the computer in the well known game. If you still have money left you can try your luck on the SLOT MACHINES where you can wile away the time (and your money) while waiting for the next game. This is BLACKJACK, more familiarly known over here as Pontoon and you are sure to know the rules. If you still have any cash left after the Casino then you can take off for the track in the final round of betting on the HORSE RACE. Here you can bet to win or for a place with other options also available. Any money left now and perhaps you ought to start gambling for real! This is a very well put together set of programs that work well as individual games or as a complete game for just one or several players with good design and use of players. Isn’t it time you had some fun?
Boot with Basic.
This collection of sound and graphics demos originates from Germany and shows the quality of German programming as regards music with some fine tunes and effects. Most of the music is accompanied by bouncing dots and squares that pulsate in time with the beat and some have special ‘psychedelic’ graphics to torture you. This is a complete suite of programs that run consecutively although you can skip selections. It doesn’t actually do a lot but is fun to watch and contains some good music and effects to enjoy. Not of the programming quality of the top European demos but good fun and another example of some great sound and graphics effects the Atari can produce with some fairly straightforward programming.
Boot with Basic.
A variation on the game where you have to push blocks about to solve a puzzle but what an unusual and classy variation. In this game you control a squirrel who has to gather nuts for the winter. Before taking the nuts home he has to crush them between a couple of rocks that are lying about. The first problem therefore is to move the rocks and nuts about so that they can be crushed. Each nut crushed presents you with a surprise present to collect and this can be something useful like a hammer to destroy obstacles or something like a spider or spider’s web which will block your way. Where this game becomes really difficult is when all the nuts are cracked you have to return them to the squirrel’s home before you can go to the next round. This means that, as you are moving the nuts in the first place you have to think ahead to work out how you can move them again later. Often you solve the first puzzle only to find that you have left some of the nuts in an impossible place to move home. The graphics in this are top class and it should be a long time before you can crack(!) the correct sequence of moves on even the first level.
This disk was withdrawn from the library.
Boot without Basic.
An arcade puzzle game that is set on a strange planet on which is an almost uncontrollable Bongobot. That’s just the excuse for a scenario but the game is top quality and difficult to play. You start off on a screen with several keys and diamonds lying about which you have to collect Those immediately around you are easy enough but the others can only be reached by going into various huts which take you to separate games in which you have to collect a key to open the barriers outside. You can’t die in the first game but you are likely to die many times inside the huts! The major problem is one of movement, as you can’t actually move your character inside the huts but have to sort of jog the background from side to side so that your player can squeeze through gaps. It takes a lot of getting used to but once mastered is quite playable and quite different from any other game. No idea what happens in the later stages as it is hard enough to survive the first hut! This is a top quality game from Poland. Great graphics, great design, tough play. You are sure to enjoy it if you like challenging arcade style games that cause you to think rather than react.
Boot without Basic. Press START to begin.
This is a different style of card game, intended to teach you the rules and skill of playing Baccarat as played in the Casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Baccarat is a game that requires excellent memory skills as it is played with 8 packs of cards with five cards discarded. Your involvement here is to bet on the bank or the player and try to work out which cards are likely to come up. In this game cards are not counted in the usual manner so you will have to learn the points value but this is fully explained in the game. Rather than being a challenge between players, this is a game for those who love card games and it will teach you the skills of playing a new game that you can then play for real with your friends or, if you are brave enough and rich enough, play in the casino! A well programmed game with good quality graphics.
Boot without Basic.
As you know there has been some really excellent music created on the Atari but, generally, you have to be a really competent programmer to be able to create such wonderful sounds. Even with utilities programs it is not easy but it can be fun to try! This disk has three excellent music creators that you can use seriously or just play around with. The first is SOUND MONITOR PROFESSIONAL – the best, and the most frustrating because it is written in German and there are no English instructions. But, it can obviously create some top quality music as shown by the three demo songs on the disk. Try loading in Shades and see just how good the Atari can be. If you load the songs on the disk you can alter various parameters to change the style of the notes to create many different effects. If you want more conventional songwriting, try MELODY which is one of the few programs to allow you to write music in the conventional way by placing notes on a musical score. It is so simple that anyone can create a tune, or copy tunes from already printed material, and either play them there and then or save them to disk. There is even a LIST to disk function which seems to indicate that the melody data can be saved out to use in other programs. The final main program is ATARI DRUM MACHINE, a great program from Poland which uses genuine digitised drum sounds to create, and save, various patterns and complete songs. This is not one of those simple ‘bang the keys’ drum machines but a fully fledged percussion writing utility. Last but not least there is a great graphics and sound demo called VISDOM which shows just what great music (and graphics) your Atari is capable of.
Boot with Basic.
Here’s a surprise, a disk that we have had lying around for many years that we have never even looked at! Booting it up this time reveals some interesting programs for copying tapes to disk with other disk and tape utilities, a couple of demos and even a playable game that is different to most other games! The disk is basically a cassette copier/disk utility package with the following options: Tape to Tape copier; Single stage Tape to Disk Transfer; Disk Utilities including Mapper, Formatter, Sector Copier, Bad Sector Creator; Disk Sector Dumper and Editor; Basic Cassette Autoboot Creator and Single Stage Disk to Cassette Transfer. There has to be something useful there but you also get a couple of demos – a Merry Christmas message with falling snow and a vertical scrolling game demo that seems to work as a shoot ‘em up but without any scoring. Aside from all that you also have an interesting (if difficult’) fishing game called Tight Lines. The idea is to cast your bait in. fly-fishing fashion to try and catch the highest poundage of fish for the day – a sort of Catch of the Day! There are of course various hazards to make life difficult for you and no instructions so you have to work out the game for yourself, but it is not too difficult after a few goes. Altogether a interesting game with a theme that has been explored only a few times before. At least it’s not another shoot ‘em up!
Boot without Basic.
Here’s a collection of utilities, many of which we don’t seem to have included on earlier disks. Some programs seem familiar but I have checked the index of filenames of the previous library disks and they do seem to be new. First program is REBUILD, a program that claims to help fix your disks when you encounter that horrible ‘ERROR 164’ which means that your disk linkages have got scrambled. This comes with a good set of instructions and could allow you to retrieve a good number of corrupted disks. SPEED SWITCH is a tiny program that claims to be able to speed up disk transfers by switching out unnecessary housekeeping tasks. It has some good instructions and might be interesting. Another program with full instructions is RELOCATE, a utility that experienced machine code programmers might find very useful. This program is able to relocate machine code programs in memory without re-assembling the source code. It can move ‘non-relocatable’ programs and also programs with multiple load, run and initialisation routines – all is explained in the documentation on disk. Aside from these main programs there is APPOINT, a database like program that lets you set up an appointment calendar; HSCROLL which is a simple message scroller in Basic; OVERWRITE which will delete files from your disk completely by zeroing out all the sectors that a file uses; VERIFY2 is a neat disk checker to find any formatting problems and TINY MENU is a short menu that runs Basic and Binary files, useful for some Basic code that you could use in your own programs. Fillers on the disk include a Biorhythm calculator, one of those ‘mystic’ programs in which the computer is supposed to answer your questions and a drive speed tester that doesn’t seem to work! The main programs with documentation are what this disk is all about and are sure to be useful.
Boot with Basic.
A couple of excellent arcade style games here which have been seen before but which author Robert de Letter has now bundled together with a start-up menu. The first game is The Caves of Ctulhi in which our hero – Cohnan – has to battle his way along many platforms collecting the gems but avoiding the fires, spikes and other nasty things that will end his life. This originally appeared in New Atari User Issue 67 as a type-in and, of course on that disk. The second game is much more of a strategy game combining several formats of collecting gems in a given order and pushing items into a chamber. This was originally on a Futura disk in 1996. Graphics and gameplay on both are excellent and together they represent a challenging set both for steady handed games players and those who like to think. If you haven’t got the originals this is the best way to have them.
Boot with Basic.
Many of the disks in the PAGE 6 LIBRARY are available as collections, each comprising 10 double sided disks, which can be used on any drive and with any Atari 8-bit computer with at least 48K memory. In addition to a FREE disk box, each collection comes with a BONUS disk, not available elsewhere.
COLLECTION No.1 comprises Disks 1 – 20.
FREE with COLLECTION No.1 – SUPERDEMO, a graphics and sound spectacular to show off the best of your computer.
COLLECTION No.2 comprises Disks 21 – 40.
FREE with COLLECTION No.2 – DIGITUNES, some amazing digitised music to astound you with the Atari’s capabilities.
COLLECTION No. 3 comprises disks 41 to 60.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 3 – TRIVIA QUIZ disk which has hundreds of trivia questions to challenge you PLUS a question maker so that you can make up your own Trivia disks for family and friends!
COLLECTION No. 4 comprises disks 61 to 80
FREE with COLLECTION No. 4 is DIGITAL VISIONS, a collection of digitised pictures taken from various films.
COLLECTION No.5 comprises Disks 81 – 100.
FREE with COLLECTION No.5 – BEATLES MUSIC, lots of fine tunes for you to enjoy.
COLLECTION No. 6 comprises disks 101 – 120.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 6 – THE ABC of CPR, a fascinating educational presentation teaching life saving techniques or resuscitation.
COLLECTION No. 7 comprises disks 121 – 140
FREE with COLLECTION No. 7 is SOUND & GRAPHICS DEMO, a super disk to show off the best of your Atari.
COLLECTION No. 8 comprises disks 141 – 160
FREE with COLLECTION No.8 is Compiled Turbo Basic Programs.
COLLECTION No. 9 comprises disks 161 – 180.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 9 – The Enhanced Sound & Graphics Show which includes several pictures ported from the Amiga in 256 colours and a demonstration of 16-bit music achieved by combining the four sound channels into two. The results are amazing!
COLLECTION No. 10 comprises disks 181 – 200.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 10 – The Small Demo.
COLLECTION No. 11 comprises disks 201 – 220.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 11 – Composer’s Jukebox II.
COLLECTION No. 12 comprises disks 221 – 240.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 12 – Push It & FunDOS.
COLLECTION No. 13 comprises disks 241 – 260.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 13 – Desinaid (see issue 68).
COLLECTION No. 14 comprises disks 261 – 280.
FREE with COLLECTION No. 14 – Mini Film Festival.
PAGE 6 Library ‘specials’ are comprehensive single programs or collections of similar programs usually with extensive documentation on the back of the disk. They are mostly double sided disks with the manuals as text files on the disk and if you have a printer, hard copies of the manuals can be made but you may need to re-code some files to suit your word processor. We are willing to include fully formatted hard copy manuals for a little extra. A few programs come complete with a separate printed manual and are slightly more expensive. It is virtually essential to make or purchase a manual with many of these disks, reading a 30 page manual on screen is not easy! It should also be emphasised that the programs are on an ‘as-is’ basis and where indicated may not be suitable for beginners. Some, such as CAD/CAM, may require a good deal of time to use fully.
A complete cricket simulation of limited over Test matches between any of six countries. Sixteen real life players from each country are rated according to ability and may be chosen for your team. The game can be played by one or two players. Utilities included allow you to change the rating of each player or even add your own teams and players and develop a complete series between various countries. Full details of the program and how to play are included on the disk or are available as a hard copy manual. As with the real thing games can take many hours. Results can be saved to disk with date and venue. If you love cricket, you’ll love this simulation. This was written in Australia so if the Aussies beat the West Indians you’ll know why!
Printed manual available
AUTOBOOT Side A with BASIC. Documentation on reverse of disk. See manual for full details.
A complete general ledger system based on double entry book-keeping. You will require some knowledge of accounting procedures but a full manual and tutorial are included or available as hard copy. For any accounting package a printer is essential to produce back ups although this could be run without. The program is quite unique allowing any small business or club etc. to keep records on the Atari. There have been very few commercial programs of this nature and this could be the most remarkable value if you handle money in any way. The program can handle Income, Expenses, Assets, Liability and Capital and can accept up to 1000 transactions before a balance forward is required. It will produce a Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss report. Full details are in the manual and Tutorial. (This disk is not for beginners).
This disk was withdrawn from the library.
AUTOBOOT Side 1 with BASIC.
A comprehensive program developed by a couple of guys who work full time for a graphics company producing CAD/CAM systems for the IBM. This is basically a layout facility allowing you to design floor layouts or plans for houses, gardens, rooms etc. The layout can then be scaled to any size or viewed from different angles and printed onto an Epson compatible printer. It is difficult to go into further detail in limited space but the extensive manual will give full details of the program’s use. Several demo data sets are included. Knowledge of Basic is required and this is not a program for beginners. It could be a serious working tool or just plain fun. Try it and see.
NOTE: A Translator or XL FIXER (Disk #36) is required for the screen dump utility. This disk is NOT for beginners and requires a little programming knowledge.
Printed manual available
AUTOBOOT Side 1 with BASIC. Manual on reverse as text file.
Now you can explore the fascinating world of Fractals as described and illustrated in issues 22 and 23 of PAGE 6. This double sided disk gives you all the programs necessary to create your own pictures from the Mandlebrot Set together with full documentation on the use of the programs and the background to fractals. All in glorious colour on any 48k or 64k machine. You won’t believe your eyes! On the other side of the disk are 21 ready created pictures of stunning beauty with a ‘fading’ slide show loader to view them. You can use this for pictures you create.
AUTOBOOT with BASIC. See disk for details of individual programs.
One of the most useful programs I ever found was a disk editor from ANALOG magazine which taught me a whole lot about using and fixing disks. That program is copyright but the SECTOR TOOL on this disk does the same thing and comes with a complete tutorial on the disk to show you how to use it. With a Sector Editor, you can recover deleted files, change directories, customise disks, add personal details to your own commercial disks, change programs and a lot more. As you gain more experience you will not want to be without some means of directly accessing sectors on your disks. The other side of the disk is for more advanced users and contains a full SYMBOLIC DISASSEMBLER to disassemble files from memory or from disk or to explore individual disks sectors. Details of use of the disassembler are included but you will need some knowledge of machine code to use the program to the full. Also included are a couple of other useful utilities for disk users.
AUTOBOOT with BASIC. See disk for details of individual programs.
RUNS ON XL/XE ONLY. Boot in Turbo Basic and all your existing programs will run up to 3 times faster! That’s one immediate advantage but Turbo Basic is also a complete new BASIC programming language in itself that uses all of the Atari Basic commands plus dozens of additional programming techniques. Whilst it is completely compatible with Atari Basic, Turbo Basic also offers many, many new or enhanced commands. How about these for example?
Disk I/O – Disk directory and other DOS functions direct from BASIC
Graphics – Circle, Paint Fill and Text commands
Memory – Move memory blocks, DPEEK or DPOKE to PEEK/POKE two locations, enhanced PUT and GET
Structured programming – REPEAT-UNTIL, WHILE WEND, IF-ELSE, DO-LOOP, define PROCedures and other commands that are missing from Atari Basic!
General – Some incredibly useful functions that you will find invaluable. RENUMber your program, DELete lines, DUMP variables with current values, TRACE program execution, indented lines and more.
And there are dozens more, over 60 new commands in fact! Some incredible time savers include DSOUND to shut off all sound channels, ERR and ERL to show errors, INKEY$ and INSTR for string manipulation. HEX/DEC conversion, TIME functions, FRACtions, DIMensioning of strings with null characters, the list goes on! But that’s not all you get on the disk – read on! Turbo Basic on its own is worth a fortune but what if you also got a BASIC COMPILER that works not only with Turbo Basic but also any program you have already written in Atari Basic? That is exactly what you do get – and it works better than any of the (no longer available) commercial compilers! The Turbo Compiler compiles to code that requires a runtime package, included on the disk, but you can simply name any program as AUTORUN and immediately have your own boot disk. You won’t believe the speed – up to fifteen times faster! You will have to rewrite some of those games because they will be too fast to play! As with any compiler there will be one or two lines of code which may need to be re-written but they are few and far between, certainly fewer than with any of the major commercial compilers for the Atari. This alone is worth ten times the price of the disk! But that’s not all! Also included are a few programs written in Turbo Basic including a great Paint style program and a Text Tidier for converting text for those who use comms or transfer text from other computers. These programs are principally to enable you to see how to use Turbo Basic but are excellent on their own. DS#6 includes a complete printed guide to all the new/amended commands of Turbo Basic plus a guide to using the compiler.
Price £3.50 complete with printed manual
Boot with BASIC.
For lovers of trivia games we have an extra special Trivial Pursuit type game which comes as TWO DOUBLE SIDED DISKS for little more than the price of one! The quiz may be played by up to four players and is similar in style to the commercial game. There are six categories of question, Geography, History, Movies. Science, Sport and Words and each category has three levels of difficulty for extra points. The winner is the first to reach 35 points but you must gain points in each category to win. It won’t be easy, some of the questions are incredibly hard! Remember this is a set of two double sided disks. The first side contains the game Itself and the other three sides are three sets of data to give you hours and hours of play. You can mark your position in the data at any point so that questions are not repeated when you resume play. Get your Super quiz today and spend the next few nights with some friends or the family showing them how clever you are. Maybe you are not as clever as you think though, there is a Phd level!
TWO double sided disks – price £3.50
BOOT DISK 1 SIDE 1 for QUIZ.
DATA disk A on disk 1, side 2. DATA disk B on disk 2, side 1. DATA disk C on disk 2, side 2.
Now this is something really special. A 100% machine code word processor that has just about every feature you would find in a commercial word processor and a few more that I have not seen in even the most expensive word processors. It will be impossible to describe here all of the features of this amazing program. All cut and paste, search and replace and cursor movement features that you would find on the most expensive word processors are here and you can change the width of the screen and the colour, check number of words in a document and more. There are a large number of printer control commands but most important of all (and rare on commercial word processors) is the full keyboard macro feature which allows you to define sets of commands to be allocated to individual keys. This is one of the reasons why I use Superscript and I was astonished to find such a powerful facility on a public domain program. You really have to see it to believe it. Textpro can be used as a conventional word processor or even as a program editor. On a 130XE you can load a program into RAMDISK, transfer it to Textpro, edit it with full cut and paste facilities, transfer it back to RAMDISK and run it! You can even edit object code with Textpro or use it with Kermit to download files, hold them in a buffer and transfer them for processing before saving or resending them. Textpro has lots of features for disk utilities and more. It works with several different DOS packages including Spartados. The first side of the disk has the program and several macro extensions and has on screen help facilities which can be loaded at any time. You can use it straight away without a manual but if you want to get the very best from the program, flip the disk over and you will find a full manual giving you lots of hints and tips and explaining some of the amazing things you can do with Textpro. This manual needs to be printed out and is over thirty pages in total. This is without doubt one of the finest programs I have seen in the public domain, certainly on a par with Turbo Basic for value and good enough to compete with the likes of AtariWriter. You’ll have to trust us, but you wont be disappointed!
AUTOBOOT side 1 for TEXTPRO
AUTOBOOT side 2 for manual (Macros manual on side 1)
We have been using Kermit ever since the ST came out to transfer files between the ST and an Atari 800XL or 130XE. You need an 850 Interface and a null modem cable (pins 1 & 7 straight, pins 2 & 3 crossed), which you can easily make up yourself, plus Kermit on the ST (see ST library) and away you go! Send to the ST at 9600 baud or back to the 8-bit at 2400 baud, it is simple and effective. Kermit can also be used as a terminal program in its own right to communicate with remote computers via modem. There is also a copy of AMODEM on the disk, one of the best of the public domain terminal programs complete with documentation. This is a single sided disk in the ‘specials’ because of its specialised interest.
AUTOBOOT without BASIC for KERMIT. Run AMODEM from BASIC after installing RS232 handler.
Here we have a quite unique simulation which can have up to NINE players. That’s right! This must be one of the very few group games in which a number of friends or members of the family can take part at the same time. The story involves the ambitious and power-hungry Empress Gertrude who dreams of the day she rules the galaxy. One by one, the planets of the galaxy are falling into her ever-widening cosmic embrace and commanded by clones of the evil Count Zerak, her fleets of Battle Cruisers have become invincible. You must try and stop this either in liaison with or in competition with other players. Cosmic Crusaders is a superb strategy space war game, for up to NINE players. Your objectives are to conquer the surrounding planets, as you try to become the new Cosmic Emperor (or Empress as the case may be). We are confident that with a good number of players, this will turn out to be a very enjoyable and rewarding game, particularly after the first two or three weeks of playing it! Don’t take our word for it, buy it and see. The program and rules are fully documented and the package comes complete with a printed manual essential for play.
Price £3.50 complete with printed manual
See manual for full instructions to load and play.
Got a printer? You need daisy dot! This can only be described as one of the best utilities that an Epson or Epson compatible printer owner could want. By way of a special printing technique, Daisy Dot will give you very high quality NLQ characters on your printer. Using 4 graphic densities this will give results very similar to that of a typewriter in a number of different fonts. The program is ideal for professional presentation of any kind of text file but is especially suited to files which have been printed to disk with your word processor. Complete with full documentation and several fonts to get you started, this is one of the finest utilities in the public domain for owners of Epson compatible printers. We haven’t been able to try it on every printer but on the Epson FX or RX series it gives superb results. Also on the disk as a bonus are a collection of PRINTER DRIVERS that can be used with the ATARI-WRITER cartridge. Many different printers are supported. Finally there is a selection of screen dump utilities. A package for full support of your printer.
AUTOBOOT Side A WITHOUT BASIC. Follow prompts to print DAISYDOT.DOC
Boot Side B for ATARIWRITER drivers and screen dumps
XL/XE only. To celebrate Australia 11 winning the Americas Cup an Aussie Atarian has come up with a superb simulation of big yacht racing. This is quite unique in that it tackles a simulation which has not been done commercially and you will find it interesting and challenging. Many factors go into winning the Americas Cup and you will be able to control them all from designing your yacht to anticipating weather conditions to sailing the actual courses. There are six courses to sail and the game comes with a fully printed manual explaining all you need to know all neatly packaged in a genuine plastic wallet! What more could you want! Lovers of simulations will enjoy this one which combines all kinds of strategic elements with good graphics representing the various courses. Try it for many hours of enjoyment, either solo or as a challenge to your friends.
Price £3.60 complete with printed manual
Boot WITHOUT BASIC. See manual for instructions and how to play.
Requires Translator on XL/XE. Here at last is the Atari 8-bit version of this popular language which comes complete with an on-disk tutorial, unlike many other versions that have been previously available. FORTH is recognised by many as a very fast language suitable for graphics and most other programming and could well be an ideal step up from BASIC or just an interesting experiment with another language – it’s up to you! The tutorial will take you through this version of fig-FORTH but if you have no knowledge of the language you may need one of the many standard books available on FORTH. Try a new language today! NOTE: This disk requires a Translator on XL or XE machines. A suitable translator is available on Disk #36 – THE XL/XE kit.
Use Translator on XL/XE models. See side B for instructions.
Double sided disk with several BASIC programs on one side and a machine language arcade game on the other. This is a very strange and ‘mystic’ game that is well thought out as a ‘concept’. If you can appreciate things mystic and other worldly you will enjoy the whole feel of this. Side 1 contains many hints and clues about completing the game on side two and must be explored thoroughly to find the answer to the mysteries and attain the perfect score of 77777. The story is set way in the future and revolves around communications from an artificial intelligence unit giving you the insight to defeat the powers of Evil by using the Light of Truth. There are shades of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 among the many influences in what is one of the most unique contributions to the public domain. With a sense of wonder, spiritualism, mysticism or whatever you can really get into this, a most strange experience! Some of the graphics are really stunning and the machine language game itself is supposed to be in 3-D! You will need some red and blue glasses to test it out, although you don’t really need them, as they don’t come with the disk!
Boot Side A first and follow prompts. Leave disk in drive. Boot SIDE B WITHOUT BASIC.
The GTIA Cook Book gives you Electronic Art on your Atari with a myriad of fine patterns in the GTIA modes. Written by the same weird and wonderful people who wrote Eyes of The Illuminati, these are intended to be peaceful patterns for meditation or enlightenment but are really just some superb examples of the stunning graphic power of the Atari. Many of the programs you just sit and watch but others you can input various parameters to control the patterns created. Side 1 is in Basic so that you can change the listings if you want whilst Side 2, with a completely different set of programs is compiled for speed. There are dozens of programs here that will keep you occupied for hours.
Side A – BASIC Boot to Autorun – see help file.
Side B – Compiled. Boot with Basic.
This disk was withdrawn from the library.
Boot Side A without BASIC (hold OPTION on XL/XE)
Boot Side B with BASIC for documentation.
An excellent word game that is set up for older children but which, due to its unique Update facility can be changed to suit any purpose from simple words for young children to real challenges for adults or all round family fun. The game allows you to find definitions for a given word or guess the correct word given the definition and it works on a time basis for each contestant. There are nine dictionaries provided but these can be changed or added to as desired. The Update program supplied allows anyone, even a total non-programmer, to change the time limit, categories, words, definitions etc. or to create any number of new dictionaries. It is also possible to extend the program into other types of games such as trivia games. You can build up dictionaries for your children and update them as they get older (and cleverer!), build others to test specific subjects and yet more for family fun. This is a unique game suitable for anything from teaching the alphabet up to Call My Bluff! One of the very best programs we have seen in this genre, a must for every owner who loves word games or those who want to let the family join in. Full instructions for use are on the disk in a form that may be printed to screen or printer.
Boot Side A with BASIC for program
Boot Side B with BASIC for documentation.
This is the forerunner of the C language for the 8 bit Atari that was briefly available commercially a while ago but which now seems to have disappeared. A double sided disk with all of the support files, documents and sample source code you need to be able to dabble in C on your 8 bit Atari. You need to have some understanding of C to be able to use the disk as there is no tutorial but there are several text files and many examples on the disk to help you out. This one is a nice opportunity to try something different if you are bored with BASIC or just to have a look and experiment with other ways of writing programs. C source code is somewhat portable so you might be able to write a program to pass on to friends with other computers). A printer is useful to dump out all of the text documents but we can let you have a formatted printout.
Printed manual available
Boot Side B without BASIC (hold OPTION on XL/XE). Read all .TXT files, copy to P: or E: with DOS
One of the most widely recommended Bulletin Boards supporting the Atari 8-bit is The Ark whose sysop has provided a good deal of support for PAGE 6 over the past year and who has now got together this disk to enable more of you to get into the world of communications. Owners of the 850 interface or the P:R Connection will find here amended and tested versions of AMODEM that will enable them to log on to Bulletin Boards at 1200/75 instead of the standard 300/300, which will not only allow access to many more boards but will also save you a lot of money in telephone costs! Those of you who own the Datatari interface will be able to use another terminal program for the first time and can also communicate at 1200/75. If you don’t own an interface at all and don’t fancy forking out £70 or so, fear not, for the disk includes details of how to build your own RS232 interface for around £12! The disk is fully documented and is highly recommended for anyone who is into comms. You might even like to call up The Ark at your new 1200/75 baud rate and thank James Bastaple and various friends for helping to widen your comms enjoyment.
Boot Side A with BASIC.
Just what many of you Turbo Basic users have been waiting for, particularly if you are not a top notch programmer, is this first support disk prepared by a Turbo user in the States and aimed at making Turbo Basic a little easier to understand and use. The first side of the disk contains extensively rewritten documentation with many suggestions for the use of various commands in example programs. Every single command is covered and there are lots of hints to help novice or intermediate programmers. Side 2 contains a couple of tutorials on Arrays and Sorting with an explanation of pseudo string arrays which could help a lot of people who don’t fully understand how to manipulate strings on the Atari. The disk is rounded off with a Ram Disk Cataloguer which is only really of practical use on the 130XE but which will, nevertheless, provide an opportunity to study a long Turbo program. A double sided disk, with both sides full and the ideal next step for beginners or intermediate programmers who have Turbo Basic. And if you don’t have Turbo Basic you should be ashamed, order it now).
Boot Side A with BASIC for documentation
Boot Side B with BASIC for tutorials.
A new and enhanced version of Daisy Dot that has facilities to print out Micropainter graphics, a new Font Editor to allow you to create any new font and a Font Converter which will convert any standard Atari font to Daisy Dot or will italicise any existing Daisy Dot font There is an very extensive manual on the disk to print out, which is itself in Daisy Dot format to give you an example of how to create your documents. Daisy Dot 2 can mix dozens of fonts, even on one line and enhance your documents beyond the normal capabilities of your printer. If you have a Epson compatible printer you really should have Daisy Dot 2 which is similar to the original but vastly improved. There are 15 new fonts already supplied but the Font Editor will enable you to expand the features even further. Don’t be without this if you want to add sparkle to your printed output.
Boot Side A with BASIC – print READ.ME file with DOS
Flip disk for BILLBOARD and docs, also FONTEDIT and Utilities etc. Read all DOC files. NO DOS ON SIDE B!
Thirty two extra fonts to use with Daisy Dot 2 plus a patch for the Atariwriter cartridge that allows it to print to disk rather than to a printer which is essential to use Daisy Dot. Previously users of the original Atariwriter cartridge had to miss out or buy another word processor but this disk changes all that. If you use another word processor anyway, don’t forget that there are 32 new fonts on the disk.
Boot Side A with BASIC.
Of interest to anyone who uses Bulletin Boards or transfers material over to the ST or other computers is this collection of ARC utilities and file compressors. The disk contains versions of the famous ARC utility found on IBM machines and the ST which allows files to be combined and compressed for transmission or to keep related files together. ARCing files saves transmission time and costs and as this ARC is fully compatible with others you can port files over to an ST and then unARc them with the equivalent ARC program on that machine. SCRUNCH is the other compression utility which will take a whole disk and compress it into one file that can be transmitted or just kept as a back up for safety. Both programs are fully documented and the disk is full. Interestingly, these 8-bit programs have been written in C for additional speed, but they will run straight from the disk.
Boot Side A with BASIC.
Runs on 130 XE only. A Graphics 8 drawing package whose main strength is the use of text with drawings making it ideal for producing charts, graphs, plans and the like as well as conventional illustrations. All of the expected functions are present such as line draw, circle, spray gun etc. plus a few novel ones such as automatic starfield, especially effective since you are working mainly with white on black. Text can be placed almost anywhere in any one of four different sizes. Sections of the picture can be copied to other parts of the screen and more. The program is fully documented and comes with three sample pictures. All pictures are saved in standard 62 sector format making it compatible with many other programs and, if you have a printer, especially with HI-RES DUMP (Disk #DS25) which follows.
Boot Side A without BASIC for program
Boot Side B with BASIC for manual.
Runs on 130 XE only. A superb program for those with printers which will print up to eight standard screens onto one A4 sheet enabling full page printouts to be made without any noticeable joins. If you design your screens properly you get a full A4 printout of a newsheet with graphics or a poster or a book cover or whatever you can think up. Up to eight 62 sector pictures can be loaded and they can be printed out as sets of two side by side enabling a quarter, half, three-quarter or full size A4 to be printed. Printers supported are Epson, CP80 and Panasonic although instructions are included to enable the program to be configured for use with any 8-pin printer. There are eight sample screens on the disk giving an excellent demonstration of what the program can do. Any drawing program that produces 62 sector files in Graphics 8 can be used but R-DRAW (DS#24) is ideal especially for creating newspaper style pages. This excellent program comes from Germany and the original German instructions have been translated for us by reader Jim Flewker.
Boot Side A and follow instructions
Possibly the most unique disk we have featured so far! Lots of fun for those with a printer, especially those that have kids, but we suspect that a lot of dads will be taking custom printed paper planes to work! Although essentially a simple program that prints standard picture screens to an Epson compatible printer, this is very well done with instructions and designs for several different types of planes (some are only minor differences) that really fly! Gone are the days when you struggle to fold up a sheet of paper for the kids and make something that flies straight from your hand to the floor! With these planes you can even hold contests. The planes come complete with logos and marking but children will have great fun colouring them in before they are folded for flying. As well as the standard designs provided, you have the option to design your own with the drawing program included and as an added bonus there is an excellent menu on the back of the disk that enables you to make autoboot disks or give each of your disks a unique name. Sometimes you can get the most fun out of the simplest of ideas and paper planes are simple and fun but you try and make one that flies! Kids stuff? Come on, hands up all those who have never made a paper plane!
Boot Side A with BASIC and follow prompts.
Boot Side B for Utility Menu and Drawing program.
There are many owners who use their Ataris in connection with Amateur Radio or electronics and this collection should prove useful. Unless you understand these things some of these programs might be a bit obscure and, to be honest, we don’t understand what a lot of them are supposed to do! If you know something about this branch of computing we are sure you will be able to figure them out. The disk begins with CODETEST, a simple morse code tutor and trainer. SATORBIT gives predictions of the orbits of the OSCAR8, RS series and UOSAT 9 satellites. ANTCAL is an antenna length calculator. Calculation of electrical formulae is covered in EFORMS while RESISTOR enables you to delve into that box of hundreds of resistors and find out just what value and tolerance a particular resistor is. YAGICAL calculates dimensions for constructing a Yagi antenna and RECOIL allows you to design a small RF coil. LCCOMP gives values for LC circuits, PADPIX helps in designing Attenuator pads and MINIMUF has something to do with determining the radio frequency of sunspots(?). Finally CALLDUP and CONTEST are a kind of database for logging various calls made and stations worked. There is no documentation on this disk and we cannot guarantee what the programs do but if you are into Radio or Electronics you may well find something useful or educational here.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Requires printer. Anyone who plays Dungeons and Dragons will find this great utility extremely useful in creating new characters. All the requirements of D&D are included and the program prints out nicely formatted character sheets of each character created (a printer is required). Random strength, intelligence, charisma etc. are created for the character before you chose the race, class and level for your character. Magic spells are provided for Magic Users, Clerics and Druids and the character can then be fully equipped with armour, weapons, provisions, religious items, livestock and much, much more. This is a most comprehensive Character creator that D&D players and Dungeon Masters will find constantly useful and which is quite fascinating even if you don’t play D&D, just to see what different types of character you can create.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
At last a really good public domain family history program that will produce Personal Histories, Pedigree Charts and Family Groupings or Descendant listings. The program can keep track of about 500 files on up to ten data disks and is able to cope with up to two thousand relatives! Vital statistics can be entered for any person in free format so that you can record, for instance, birthplace and marriage details or additional notes. Children and parents can be inserted at any time and the program keeps track of all related files enabling Pedigree charts to be produced. Good documentation is included and there are example files provided by the author. The author uses the system himself and has twenty two generations of his family and seventeen generations of his wife’s family stored away on disk! Try it, if you are into family histories. Even if you can only go back a couple of generations, it might inspire you to delve even further!
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Some cracking utilities for SpartaDos users, most of which are fully documented on the disk. For starters we have ALPHADOS.COM which will allow an alphabetical sort of filenames and/or extensions. COLUMN80.COM allows SpartaDos to use an 80 column display. COPYMOD.COM will copy files from Ramdisk back to a floppy by selecting only files that have been modified to be copied back, thus saving a lot of time. FASTLOAD.BAS is a program that adds Ultraspeed skew to non-SpartaDos disks such as DOS 2.5 allowing them to run at a faster speed on drives fitted with the US doubler. MENU.BAS gives a directory while in Basic and has the option of RUNning a program by pressing one key. MORE.COM lists text files to the screen at the rate of 25 lines per screen with the option to press the space bar for the next 25 lines. NCHSET.COM allows alternative character sets to be used with SpartaDos 3.x and there are 33 character sets on the disk ready to use. PATH.COM is a utility for SpartaDos 3.2 which will enable you to enter a filename no matter what subdirectory you are in and have the program search all directories and run the program if it finds it. Last one is XFORMAT.COM which will clear or reformat a disk without going through all the wear and tear of actual formatting. A lot of useful utilities to enhance SpartaDos even further. If you don’t use SpartaDos this disk may still be useful for the collection of 33 character sets which can be used in your own Basic programs.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Another set of general SpartaDos utilities but rather embarrassingly, we can’t tell you exactly what’s on it as we managed to wipe out the only copy we had when getting the disks together for the update! A new copy is on its way to us from the States so it will be available and all we can say is that it follows on from the first disk in the series and no programs are duplicated on any of the disks in the series! Check the following disks for an idea of what to expect.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
The third in the series of SpartaDos utilities containing ARC, the universal file archiving program that allows files to be combined and crunched for storage or to send over a modem. ARC is compatible with the ST and several other computers so files could be transferred. Utilities associated with ARC are ARCMATE which allows files to be batch selected for ARCing, ARCREAD which will show exactly what is in an ARCed file and ARCX which will extract ARCed files. DCOUNT counts the number of entries in a given directory to avoid problems if you are coming up to the SpartaDos limit for subdirectories. DS is a directory sort to sort by filename or extension and LL is a handy program for printing documentation files without fuss. All the programs are documented on the disk and there is also an interesting document file detailing all the various memory upgrades for the Atari machines.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Continuing the series with many more useful utilities. DIRC allows you to define the style of directory listings. LIBRARY and LIIBRARYX respectively combine and separate files so that for instance, program and documentation files can be kept together. SINIT will initialise disks allowing you to set the density from within the command. SUPERKEY will provide XL/XE machines with 17 definable macro key commands so that SpartaDos commands or programming code can be entered with one keystroke! There are some macros supplied and the KEYEDIT program allows you to define your own macros. TEST256K is, as you may have guessed for testing memory in upgraded machines. VBASIC switches BASIC on or off and finally XDEL works similarly to the XCOPY command and allows you to batch delete files. Documentation is provided for each program.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
This is the DOS that will allow you to use the XF551 drive as a full double-sided double density-drive and which also brings you many new DOS commands. MYDOS can be used in any density with any drive and is a powerful alternative to SpartaDos or DOS XL. It was, until recently, sold as a commercial program for around $50 but is now in the public domain. There is no possibility of explaining all the features in a short paragraph – the documentation comes to over 35 A4 pages when printed out! To get the best out of MYDOS it is necessary to read all of the documentation which is on the disk so access to a printer is almost essential. MYDOS comes as two disks (3 sides) at a special price.
TWO disks – price £3.50
Disk 1: Side A – Manuals and utilities – use DOS to copy READ.ME to screen or printer. Side B – Source Code.
Disk 2: Boot with this disk. Disk contains MYDOS and utilities.
DS#34M – MYDOS WITH MANUAL
If you don’t have a printer we will supply a fully printed out manual but in view of it’s length of over 35 pages it will bring the cost of the package up to £7.00. The manual is fully formatted and bound.
Price £7.00 including disks
Requires 1050 drive. Enjoy an excellent Trivia game in which you battle for supremacy on a chess-board like grid with two opposing armies. Squares are captured by answering trivia questions. The game can be played by 1 or 2 players. There are 52 battle plans to choose from at the beginning, different question disk can be used, and each category of questions is divided into three difficulty levels. Answering questions will take you around the grid until you reach a square with an opposing knight in which case you may enter into a ‘joystick challenge’. Three different challenges are available, mini games in which you must beat the other knight with the winner capturing the square. At the end of the game you must capture the enemy flag and so engage in a special challenge to win the final battle. The reverse of the disk contains a Question Maker so that you can make up your own question disks. This really is a top class game, that is also well documented on disk. If you don’t have a printer we can supply a printed copy of the manual.
Printed manual available
BOOT with BASIC. MANUAL contained in files GAME.TXT and QMAKER.TXT.
GRIP is a unique assembler that will assemble machine language instructions in memory as each line of Assembly Language is entered. Further compiling is unnecessary and the assembled code can be written to disk as a file or as sectors. Furthermore files and sectors of machine code can be read into memory and edited or disassembled on screen or to a printer. There is excellent screen presentation and the assembler is fast in operation and the program is well documented on disk. Knowledge of 6502 Is required to be able to use the Grip Assembler but this disk should prove to be an ideal purchase both for those beginning to write in machine language and as an alternative Assembler for those already proficient.
BOOT with BASIC. Use word processor or DOS to print instructions in file – GRIP.TXT.
A top class Player Missile and Character editor that has several features not found in other programs of this nature including the ability to set GTIA and ANTIC modes. Characters or players can be designed using joystick, touch tablet, paddles or even a mouse and although there is no documentation the process is very easy. On the reverse of the disk are several demos and various utilities that allow you to create Basic programs to set up and use character sets you may have defined or create player/missile graphics. No programming to do! Basic loaders for fonts can be automatically written and there are a good number of ready defined fonts and Touch Edit screens on the disk to use or experiment with. There are fonts that are used in commercial games including those used in Koronis Rift so you can see just how those top quality graphics are created. Without doubt the best combined player/missile and character set editor we have come across.
BOOT with BASIC. Main program on Side A. Utilities on Side B.
At last a fully usable database that is extremely flexible and allows thousands of records to be stored. This one has been tested and it works! Diskbase can print records and fields selectively, read data from ASCII files, copy some or all records or the data structure and sort files of over 2,500 records regardless of record size. Normal search and select criteria are available on any field and the database can be set up in whatever way you wish, for names and addresses, telephones numbers, record collections, club members etc. A good quality database that every serious user should try.
BOOT with or without BASIC. For documentation use another disk to boot, type DOS and use option C to copy DISKBASE.DOC to E: for screen or P: to printer.
Requires 1050 drive. A rarity on the Atari, a real graphic adventure! Nice pictures and lots of text as you explore a space ship in the far reaches of the galaxy. You are the Captain of a vessel of the Intergalactic Trading Company fleet aboard the space freighter MANGAN on your way from the Endor tibana mines to the Seven Moons of Alderaran. You are carrying a cargo of eight thousand tons of tibana ore, a real treasure for space pirates. You thought you were immune to attack but in a totally forsaken corner of the galaxy they surprised you? To cut a long story short, you were pretty unlucky, the freight rooms are now empty and you are seriously injured. Can you get the MANGAN back safely? Some nicely atmospheric pictures make this a very different adventure.
BOOT with BASIC.
Another selection of utilities mostly for users of hard drives, so we may not sell many of this disk? For those interested in upgrading their XL or XE there are a number of text files giving full details of various upgrades right up to 1088K! Most of the programs are well documented. DSWAP lets you duplicate the ‘swap’ function on the MIO menu via a DOS command, DTC is a hard drive controller if you are lucky enough to have one of those and includes the files RECONFG1 and RECONFG2. LOCKOUT is also for hard disk users and will lock out bad sectors on the disk. Other files for hard disk users are FRMTDRV1, FRMTDRV2, GETCNO, HDFORMAT and MIO. The memory upgrade files are very comprehensive and could be invaluable to hackers.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
More SpartaDos utilities, including many for hard drives but with a SpartaDos version of the excellent program DCOPY which will make all DOS type commands much easier with abilities to append files, call a directory, copy files, erase, format, lock, print the directory, do a multiple file copy, show subdirectories, view ARC files, sort SpartaDos directories and much more. A classic utility now adapted for SpartaDos. CHANGESU will enable you to rename subdirectories and files with full support for inverse and lower case. The hard drive programs include HDTOOLS, HUH, KILL21, KILL30, PARK, RECOVER, SORTIT10 and VPATH, programs to sort directories, delete multiple files, parking drives and more. Most of the files are fully documented, especially DCOPY but a few are not, try them even if you don’t have a hard drive! For the majority this disk is worthwhile for the excellent DCOPY alone.
BOOT with BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Requires 130XE. An excellent disk cataloguer that will automatically catalogue your entire disk collection, either reading directories automatically or allowing you to input individual entries, sort and categorise them and print out the results either as a complete listing or as disk labels or jacket labels. The program can handle up to 255 disks with both sides included and up to 4095 filenames, all of which can be held in memory so that sorts can be performed extremely quickly. We have just catalogued the entire PAGE 6 library, a feat not possible with other cataloguers which could not cope with the number of programs, and it was a breeze! Without doubt one of the finest utilities for anyone with more than a dozen or so disks.
BOOT without BASIC. Use DOS option C to copy .DOC files to screen (E:) or printer (P:)
Requires 130XE. This really is a top class application, extremely well presented and easy to use. All of your cheque book entries can be included simply and easily and there are many features to manipulate your data such as categorising to discover how much you have spent on certain items. Hardcopy reports are available and there is even a feature to print out cheques, if you just happen to have the right sort of checks! Although the program is American it can quite easily be used in the UK. There is little documentation included but the program is quite easy to figure out and after a couple of trial runs you should find no problems. Check book and similar accounts programs have always been popular but none have been quite so sophisticated and easy to use as this one which takes full advantage of the extra memory in the 130XE.
BOOT with BASIC. Use DOS option C to copy .TXT files and .DOC files to screen (E:) or printer (P:)
A unique program that will not only allow you to keep records about your car, or any number of cars, but which also includes several information screens to tell you how a car works and what maintenance is required. The first part of the program allows you to keep records of all the expenditure and details of repairs and servicing of the vehicle whilst the other two parts are information only but do include conversion utilities to check the m.p.g. of the vehicle. With Car Help you can see at a glance just what your car has cost you over the years to maintain – no more searching for all those old bills you might, or might not have kept.
BOOT without BASIC. Press trigger on title screen.
More utilities for SpartaDos users including a unique file editor that allows program or data files to be modified, even machine language programs. This is really a mini word processor, but unlike most of those, can handle a file up to 90k in length. Very full documentation included. There is ALFCRUNCH which will compress files and which is also extremely well documented. MFORMAT will allow multiple disk formatting using single density in DOS 2.5. MOVE will move file entries from one directory to another without creating duplicate files, excellent for tidying up disks that have become a little unwieldy. Finally there is a Ramdisk program for those few of you to have upgraded to 1 Meg!
BOOT without BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
This one contains mostly utilities to use with Happy enhanced drives. HPYMENU allows the drive to be configured, SETHAPPY sets drives to buffered fast write. SPEED3US is a menu which quick loads files and allows filenames of any length, disables Basic, creates menu headlines, supports U.S. Doubler and more. HAPPYOS installs Happy Warp Speed routines into the XE or XL operating System using no memory. The rest of the programs on this one are for those lucky enough to have a hard disk.
BOOT without BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
The final disk in the set has just a couple of programs for users of modems that can also be used without SpartaDos. Firstly is Robert Puff’s famous DISK COMMUNICATOR (DISKCOMM) that allows files to be compacted and combined for transmission by modem, this one is fully updated and has full documentation. FILEFIX2 will remove duplicated blocks of information from downloaded files and finally there is SUPER UN-ARC that will handle all ARCed files that you might download. Finally there is a little program that will alter SpartaDos 3.2d to enable high speed SIO on the XF551. Again everything on this disk is extremely well documented.
BOOT without BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Now you can create your own, very professional, disk based newsletters or magazines simply and easily. All you need to do is create a file with a word processor and then insert a number of very easy to learn formatting commands. The results are very impressive. Several different fonts can be used, pictures can be imported from the main menu, colours and borders can be changed. There is an excellent tutorial set up as a newsletter that will show you exactly what can be done. A very professional program that should certainly be used by user groups and an ideal tool for those with Atari owning pen-pals. Much more impressive than the written word!
BOOT without BASIC. Select from Menu. Any special instructions (if needed) will be shown under HELP.
Printer required. An educational program with a difference as it prints out worksheets for pupils which are marked up in the conventional way, just like at school. The computer selects random problems but does not provide answers so the teacher, or parent needs to know their stuff to mark the results. The program covers the four basic maths disciplines of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division and each has several levels of difficulty. You just select the appropriate level for your child and the computer will print out a worksheet. As well as the standard subjects, custom worksheets can be created mixing the disciplines and levels of difficulty. This program is suitable for all ages and is, perhaps, one of the most successful educational programs in that it mixes conventional teaching with problems on paper with the use of the computer. It is a pity that there are not more programs of this type around which would extend the usefulness of the Atari as a serious tool.
BOOT with BASIC.
Ensure that Side 2 is NOT write-protected.
Concerned about what you eat or want to go on a diet? This program may well help you find out whether what you are eating is doing you good. You can find out how many calories you are consuming in a given meal and exactly what vitamins and minerals are included and whether they constitute the recommended daily requirements. There is a database of over 500 different foods items and four options will provide the nutritional value of a single food item or several items that comprise a meal. You can obtain the amount of carbohydrate, sodium, potassium, protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, fat and water contained in a particular serving size. At a glance you can see the percentage of the recommended daily allowance for each nutrient or the percentage of the suggested body intake corresponding to your age, weight and sex. Printouts of all information are available. Like all programs of this nature you should not follow the guidelines without some common sense but it should prove an insight into what you eat and help you to become a more healthy eater.
BOOT with BASIC. Disk must be set up before use
Use SELECT key on menu to highlight README.DOC and press START
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. A great new demo from West Germany created by one of Germany’s top Atari clubs. There are six demos with great music throughout – a great welcome screen followed by a five level parallax scrolling demo that would be the envy of many ST owners and then a nice graphics and mixed sampled sound demo that includes a great pixel sine wave demo. Next there is the Monster demo with bouncing sprites, a starfield and great music followed by a beautiful, smooth, hypnotic pixel demo with hundreds of superb patterns, all finished up with a simple graphic demo with a German scroll but some great percussive music. These demos are great, you won’t believe your Atari can do so much.
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic
Requires 1050 or XF551 Drive
Great role playing action in your choice of dungeons. You have to find a bag of gold within each room whilst avoiding traps and other hazards and return to the exit where you may travel to other levels or simply return home. The screen is divided into two parts, the square window which shows your position and everything you can see from your location and the lower part which allows you to enter commands for each of your moves. There are items you can carry, including a scanner, a torch, a magicians wand and you will need them all. Within each dungeon there are statues, fountains, bridges, doors and tapestries all of which play a part in your quest – you must learn how to cope with each one. There are dozens of ready made dungeons plus an Editor which allows you to create your own. Goldhunt is an excellent program of commercial quality that is impossible to describe in detail in a short space. The disk contains a comprehensive explanation of the game. An excellent game, one of the best of its type in the public domain, and well recommended.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B for documentation
Something quite unique for the public domain, a fully fledged wargame with all the features you would expect from a commercial program. In fact this was once a commercial program and is now released to the public domain. Infantry Squad is a one player game of tactical skill played on the squad level. You have an Infantry Squad made up of a Squad Leader, two Fire Teams and an Armoured Personnel carrier equipped with a machine gun. Your mission is to completely eliminate all enemy units from the battlefield while ensuring that your men survive. Your final score is based upon the amount of damage your men sustain. All of the usual features of wargames are included and you may also design your own battlefields with the built in Drawing package. Again this is a complex program that cannot be explained in a few words but it comes with full instructions on the disk. Essential for dedicated wargamers and a great, low cost, introduction for those who have not sampled strategy games. Infantry squad is a top class program, give it a try.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B for documentation
With many of the best reference books now out of print, this disk based reference guide is more than welcome. A superb tutorial that may be printed out with a word processor or read direct from the disk with the viewer program supplied. The guide covers the whole spectrum of Atari programming including The Central Input/Output Utility, The Disk Operating System, Using DOS 2, The Cassette Handler, The Keyboard Handler, Printer Handler, Screen Editor, The Display Handler, The Resident Disk Handler, System Interrupts, The Floating Point Arithmetic Package, Boot Software Formats, The Serial Input/Output Interface, The Hardware Chips, Display Lists, Player Missile graphics, Sound, The Joystick Ports and more. As you will see from the subject matter the guide is aimed at the more advanced user but it contains material that will be useful to anyone who wants to program the Atari effectively. A very comprehensive coverage of the machine with much information that is now difficult to obtain elsewhere.
THREE DISK SET – price £5.50
In AtariWriter format – use AtariWriter or other word processor to print out or boot Disk 1 for screen viewer
A set of files taken from various User Group newsletters and Bulletin Boards explaining how to upgrade your machine to 256k or more. There are instruction files, documentation, source code for assembler, ramdisk drivers, driver creators, demos and just about everything else you need to upgrade your machine and use that upgraded memory. Some of the programs will also allow you to access the extra memory on a standard 130XE. The packed disk includes full instructions to upgrade to 256k, source code for a double density ramdisk or two separate ramdisks, source code for a single density ramdisk for the 130XE, ready assembled .OBJ files for a double density ramdisk, two ramdisks and two different types of 130XE ramdisk. There is also a program that gives you a 503 sector ramdisk that works with DOS XL and BASIC XE plus one for SpartaDos that can give up to 1530 sectors. Basic programs include a ramdisk driver, a routine to check out your memory upgrade and a program to load ramdisks automatically. That’s not all! There is also information on setting up DOS 2.5 for ramdisk use, upgrading the XE to 320k or 512k and even an ST upgrade. All of the files on Side A are for the XL or XE whilst Side B has similar instructions for the old 800.
Use word processor or DOS Copy option to read files. Check README files first. Double sided – no DOS
Requires 130XE. A shareware CAD program for use with the 130XE only written in Kyan Pascal. The disk contains the full program but limited documentation, although it is sufficient to allow you to use the program fully. CAD XE allows you to create complex 3-D objects and then rotate them through x, y or z axes. Reference points may be plotted and lines joined to create wire frame objects which, when completed, can be viewed from any angle. An interesting program if you know a little about design but still fun to tinker around with if you don’t know what you are doing!
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic for program
Boot Side B with Basic for docs
A different type of disk cataloguing system more suitable for collections of commercial disks, tapes or ROMs as you enter information in a database format rather than read disk directories. The program is in fact a dedicated database that has all the usual features of sorting, extracting and printing records. Each record allows you to enter Program name, Filename, Language Code, Documentation Flag, Misc Codes, Number of Sectors, Disk and Tape References and Tape counters. Sorts and extracts can be performed on any of these fields. All of the functions of the program are fully documented on the disk in a 26 page manual that is one of the best sets of documentation on any PD disk.
Boot Side A with Basic for program
Boot Side B with Basic for docs
Fontmaster is a program for Epson compatible printers or the Star Gemini series which performs two basic functions – printing out program listings with all graphics and inverse characters properly represented and printing Syncalc spreadsheets sideways so that a wide spreadsheet can be printed on one sheet of paper. This option should also work with Visicalc. With either print function the user has the option of using any character set of which there are dozens on the disk. The user has control over print density and line width and there are comprehensive instructions for use on the disk.
Boot with Basic. Copy *.DOC files to printer (P:) or screen (E:) with DOS option C or use a word processor
An excellent desk top publishing type program that will give you some superb single page printouts if you are willing to work at it! The disk comes from Germany and is not well documented but is fairly easy to use. The Digital Editor creates individual pages which can contain text and pictures in many different sizes. A utility is included to ‘clip’ sections from standard 62 sector picture files into ‘photos’ which can then be placed anywhere on the page. Add text in a variety of sizes and you have a neat full page of text and graphics – desk top publishing on the 8-bit! The main program lets you OUTPUT TO THE 1029 PRINTER but other utilities have been included to allow printouts on Epson compatible printers. The Digital Editor is not the ultimate answer to DTP on the XL/XE but is a excellent program to allow you to use your system more creatively, especially if you have a 1029 printer.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B and use Menu to read README.DOC
We are not sure why this is called WEAK! but it originates from Germany so maybe that title means something. The program is a utility to print out pictures in Micropainter, Koala, Fun With Art or Artworks format to either 9 or 24 pin printers. To our knowledge this is the first program to support 24 pin printouts on the 8-bit. The printers supported as standard are the Seikosha SL80 and Epson 9-pin printers along with the Star LC2410 24-pin printer, but the program allows you to create your own printer drivers, so that, in theory, any printer can be used. The program supports graphics modes 8, 9 and 15 and the picture can be previewed in various modes before printing. There are a number of pictures on the disk for you to experiment with.
Boot Side A with Basic
Select from Menu
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. Super Sound is a collection of some of the best music pieces written in Basic for the Atari with lots of great percussive effects and some excellent melodies. The disk is presented as a selection from the main menu but each of the pieces is an individual program which can be listed out and which you may be able to incorporate into your own programs. A few of these tunes have appeared on earlier disks but many are new and all are excellent examples of the sound capabilities of the Atari. Listen and enjoy or get into the code and improve your own programs. There are twenty-nine pieces to enjoy here.
Boot Side A with Basic
Press START on Title screen
Select from Menu
This disk contains a series of tutorials in text format by one of the early masters of the Atari, Chris Crawford, the man responsible for writing Eastern Front and contributing much of De Re Atari. There are eight distinct lessons starting at the very beginning and building up to more complex subjects. With the dearth of books now available covering machine language on the Atari this may be one of the only sources of material for those who want to learn machine language or improve their understanding of the basics. An added bonus on this disk is the inclusion of the SPEEDSCRIPT word processor, provided so that the lessons may be read or printed out. Even if you are not interested in machine language this one may be worthwhile just to get the word processor!
Boot Side A with Basic
Select from Menu
Here is a copy of the elusive DOS XE as reviewed in issue 49, useful particularly for owners of the XF551 disk drive but which can also be used with the 1050 or other drives. One of the most useful aspects of this DOS is the ability to set up sub-directories and so organise your disks much more conveniently. You may also set the date whenever the disk is booted so that your saved files will all be dated. There are batch command facilities and a much enhanced machine language access menu that allows, among other things, appending memory to binary files and altering the contents of RAM. Unfortunately there is no manual on the disk as the officially released manual for DOS XE was a small book which does not seem to be available any longer, but the various options of the menus are quite easy to pick up.
Boot Side A with or without Basic
First you had Daisy Dot. Then you had Daisy Dot 2. Now you have Dot Magic, the third and most interesting upgrade of the program that will print out your text files in any font you choose on Epson compatible or NEC printers. There are many new features, including the import of Micropainter format pictures such as screen dumps at any point in your text, custom address labels with up to 99 copies at a go and much more. You can use any Daisy Dot font, print it out underlined, double width, proportionally centred, change spacing and change the density, all with a few simple commands in your text. There are excellent instructions on how to save your text with the most popular word processors, such as Atariwriter Plus and Paperclip. Another useful feature is Typewriter mode which lets you use your Atari as a simple typewriter, using any font you wish. Dot Magic is a major enhancement of the Daisy Dot invention and is a must for anyone who owns, and wants to get the best from, a printer. Fully documented and highly recommended.
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic.
DOCS on side A – use DOS or a word processor to print or read.
Side B contains fonts and pics
A new comms program that looks to be one of the easiest ever to use. DeTerm follows the ST idea of having drop down menus from which you can select any of the available features. This itself makes the program easier to use, but what is even more helpful is that you can select a help function for each item on the menu and full instructions for use will be read in from the disk. There is no need for separate documentation, everything you need to know is available from within the program. Now, a comms programs is a comms program isn’t it? Well this one has a unique added extra, a Breakout game that you can play while you are downloading! Next time you download or upload something there is no need to sit watching a blank screen, just flip over to the game, play a few rounds, flip back and see how the download is going! There are set-up instructions included on the disk.
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic
Docs on Side A – use DOS or a word processor to print or read
Side B contains HELP files used within the program
There is one program that users of word processors have been wanting since the first word processor was invented. That program? A spell checker. A very few programs have them built in but now, at last, we have a stand alone spell checker that can be used with almost any text file. Just run Magic Spell and it will check your file against its dictionary and create a second spell-checked file on disk, retaining your original. Simple as that. A second utility allows you to modify the dictionary. Side 1 of the disk has the normal DOS 2.5 version but SpartaDos users can flip the disk and use the program from side B for much faster checking and disk access.
This disk was withdrawn from the library.
DOS 2.5 version on side A
SpartaDos version on Side B
Instructions as text file on disk
A new language to learn and use on your 8-bit Atari. Draper Pascal was a full commercial program which has been well reviewed and recommended and has now been released as a shareware program. Side A of the disk contains all the required files for Draper Pascal including the Compiler and Editor as well as a couple of sample files. Side B contains the complete documentation file that will print out to 39 pages. There is obviously no room here to explain how to use Pascal but that is not really necessary as those interested will already know what to expect and others can read the extensive documentation on the disk. Time to learn a new language? Remember that Pascal is widely used on a number of systems and this could give you the knowledge to program on many other computers.
Boot Side A with Basic
Use word processor or DOS to read DOCS on side B
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. An amazing collection of fonts that can be used with Daisy Dot Il or Dot Magic on a double sided disk. There are no less than 75 different fonts on this disk and each side of the disk has a file which can be printed out with Daisy Dot to give you a printed record of each of the fonts available. Also on this disk is a macro for TextPro which allows you to use the backslash key and thus use TextPro to produce Daisy Dot formatted files. Note that the disk contains some of the fonts found on the Daisy Dot Accessory Disk but we have left this as a full collection in view of the ‘font demonstration’ files on the disk which would have to be rewritten in the event of the fonts being changed.
Enhanced density – both sides
Requires Daisy Dot II or Dot Magic
Read docs from menu
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. A virtual rewrite of the Digital Editor (DS #59) with most of the bugs removed and made a great deal more user-friendly. The New Digital Editor brings desktop publishing to the 8-bit system on an easier to use basis than ever before. The original program was written in Germany but this new version has been created in the USA making it easy to understand. The author has added several other programs to the disk including a modified version of BILLBOARD, an Epson compatible screen dump, and MAGMAKER to allow you to create your own disk based magazines. For the Digital Editor itself, the author has written an extensive tutorial which is on the disk and has added the ability to import text from a word processor making magazine page type creation much more feasible. The disk is packed with fonts and pictures and samples to help you and the tutorial extends to 214 sectors. The New Digital Editor will enable you to use your Atari in ways that you never thought were possible. Be creative!
Enhanced density – both sides. Boot Side A with Basic. Read docs on Side B with word processor or DOS
Four great pinball games designed with the Pinball Construction Set on a double sided disk. Not much that can be said about pinball games except that they are great fun to while away an hour or two. For one or two players (use Option key), the games have themes which are reflected in their titles which are The Gauntlet, Airball, TNT and Straight Jacket.
Double sided – boot each side WITHOUT Basic – select from menu
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. Another excellent demo from Germany this time combining top class music with assorted graphics. The music is the main emphasis of this demo and includes some cracking tracks that stretch the sound chip to its limits. Many tracks sound as if they are most likely using 16-bit sound by combining the sound channels. The disk opens with a picture of King Tut with a scrolling message and a good soundtrack before going on to the main menu which offers you a choice of eight tracks – Against Commodore, Amiga Mega Mix, Fantasy, Atari Commodore Soundtrack, Goldrunner, Katakis, Atari Fever and Dance Mix. Many of these have been inspired by (taken from?) the ST and the Amiga and show that the XL/XE is just as strong in the sound department. Give it a go to see, once again, what a great computer the Atari Classic is.
Enhanced density – boot side A WITHOUT Basic
The very first issue of a new disk based newsletter from the North of Scotland Atari Users Group that will not get dated due to the excellence of the programs included. There are several text files including an overview of the Diamond GOS system and many great PD programs. Included are the word processor SPEEDSCRIPT, an extremely well produced Spindizzy type game called CYRTABOR in which you control a spinning top on a 3D tiled playfield to collect bonuses etc. Excellent graphics and challenging play. There is a font designer program, the long disappeared version of TABLE FOOTBALL mentioned in the Football Crazy article in issue 58, an amusing interlude on COWS and BOMBJACK, a neat platforms game that has your man jumping and catching bombs, a good one for the kids this. But that’s not all! On the other side of the disk you will find, along with the text files, a disk duplicator called MYCOPYR which is ideal for 1050 drives and XE’s, a Simon variant called LET’S HOP, an excellent vertical scrolling game where you bounce a ball on tiles while trying to avoid a miss which will send you plummeting to the depths below. An excellent disk, great value, and showing what can be done by a dedicated User Group.
Double sided – boot each side with Basic
The next issue of this excellent newsletter disk with more to read and a really excellent horse racing program called TRIPLE CROWN which allows up to eight players to take part selecting form, placing bets and watching the races. Full graphics for the racing and several good support screens make this one a must. On the B side is a set of machine code games and demos from the Continent. THINK & WORK is one of the well known ‘push around the blocks to escape’ programs that will really have you thinking. An editor allows you to create your own screens. The ATARI DRUM MACHINE is an amazing piece of software from Poland which allows you to create complex drum patterns using bass drums, snare, claps etc. in two voices. Whole songs can be saved to disk. Another one from Poland is THE LASER DEMO which has four excellent pieces of music with accompanying graphics. QUADROMANIA XL is an addictive puzzle game in which you must change all the tiles to one colour. SOUND MONITOR PROFESSIONAL is a top quality German program that allows you to create songs of the like you may have never heard before. Try some of the songs included to see just what can be achieved. Finally another game called JUMP which is similar to LETS HOP on Futura 1.
Double sided – boot side A with Basic
Boot Side B WITHOUT Basic
If you use DOS XE, or have a copy but are not sure how to use it fully, then this two disk set will open up a whole new world. Here you have the complete text of the elusive DOS XE manual that was issued by Atari and then promptly disappeared in typical Atari fashion. The disks are set up in such a way that you can print out your own manual with the minimum of fuss. You will of course need a printer and a plentiful supply of paper because the printed manual was a book half an inch thick! Also included are a number of Basic programs that were in the original manual. Now, at last, you can unleash the full power of the latest Atari DOS designed to get the very best from the XE and enhanced or double density drives.
Two disk set – price £3.50
Double sided – boot Disk 1, Side A WITHOUT Basic for instructions
Requires 1050 or XF551 – XL only? If you have seen our earlier Hobbytronic Demo then you will know what to expect – high quality graphics and sound demos on a par with those available on the ST. Each time you see one of these you wonder at how the folks in Europe manage to squeeze so much from the machine. On the first side there is Mega Balls with good music and flowing and bouncing balls, Equalizer with some great music and flashing bars and other objects pounding along in time with the beat and The Vector Screen, with very nice 3-D wire frame objects on a scrolling starfield. Flip the disk and you have three more demos from POKEY in Holland. ABBUC in Poland and one other. The first is an excellent percussive soundtrack of the very best quality, the next is a combination demo with much going on including bars, floating symbols, starfields, a scroller and some good music. Finally The Vector Demo uses a Graphics 7 wireframe against a starfield with accompanying music. Not as strong as the others but you would still have liked to have written it! Note that this disk did not run on our 130XE, only on the 800XL, so it may only run on 64k machines.
Double sided – boot WITHOUT Basic
Try START, SELECT, OPTION and other keys while running
Requires 1050 orXF551 drive. A fabulous looking one or two player game that uses the full facilities of the XL or XE machines. The top class soundtrack runs on all machines but on a 130XE the extended RAM is used to give a choice of soundtracks. The game is played either by two players or one against the computer and involves two craft at top and bottom of the screen who try to blast each other, and various bonus objects, through a series of deflector gates. First you must break through your own, and then your opponent’s, barrier in order to score a hit, but careful planning is required as the deflectors could force your shot back into your area and you could end up blasting yourself! Graphics are good with neat split scrolling to advance levels and the soundtrack is awesome. 100% machine code from the Continent which will give you a challenging time whilst marvelling at the quality of the Freeware releases now becoming available on the Atari Classic. Also on this disk are a couple of bonuses in the form of The Small Demo with nice music and bouncing bars, and a multicolour sprites demo.
Boot Side A without Basic
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. When several of the best hackers get together for a disk to mark an Atari Convention you can be sure that something special will be created and The Unity Project is just that. Based very much on the classic ST demos such as The Union Demo, this one combines a small arcade game with up to eight demo screens. Each demo is hidden behind a door and to open that door you must collect a key by jumping up onto various platforms and avoiding spikes which will kill you. Some are easy to get to whilst others will have you thinking. Luckily you have unlimited lives! Some of the doors have just details about the participating groups but others have full blown demos of the kind seen on our other demo disks. Some of the doors are difficult to get to so we haven’t yet discovered what’s behind them! See if you can work it out! Another top class demo by groups from Poland and Germany and well worth showing to your friends who don’t have computers as powerful as the Atari Classic.
Boot Side A without Basic
The third issue of Stuart Murray’s excellent disk magazine which is reviewed in Issue 59 of New Atari User. The previous issues have proved to be very popular and we are pleased to be able to offer the latest issue. In this one there is much more in the way of articles on all aspects of the Atari world with a couple of original maths programs from a group member plus a fully functional calculator and a neat simulation called International Bridge Contractors. Over on the B side are the main programs which include an excellent DOS file copier, a 3-D version of Tetris, the famous Jane’s Program of bouncing blocks and a couple of good arcade games, one converted from Dandy Dungeons. Another program converts Multiboot, Rob C and other files to DOS format so that you can now get games off of multiboot disks. Finally Speed Start Initialiser is one we use ourselves to create boot disks (without DOS) to run your favourite machine code or Basic programs from a menu. Another well put together disk mag from our Scottish friends who generously allow us to include this in our library for the benefit of all who subscribe.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B WITHOUT Basic
Another Issue of this classy disk magazine that Stuart Murray has, once again, allowed us to include in the library. Side 1 of this issue contains mostly text files giving the latest news and opinion on the Atari 8-bit scene and shows just how dedicated Stuart is in seeking out every scrap of info available. You will also find a small graphics demo and a simulation called Shop Steward in which you control the union in a small factory. Over on the other side are some fine utilities and games for your enjoyment. Utilities include a Tape to Disk Copier (not tested by us) plus three excellent disk copiers including a single pass copier for the 130XE and a super fast copier for US Doubler fitted drives.
Among the top quality games, mostly in machine code, are Death Zone, a clone of the famous Encounter, itself based on Atari’s Battlezone, Videostop, a simple yet addictive dice game in which you select matching pairs from continually spinning dice and My Jong a version of the famous Oriental game using numbers instead of symbols. Omidor is a variant on Qix in which you have pre-defined blocks which you have to fill by recolouring each perimeter whilst avoiding sparks around the edges. Nice and smooth action in this quality game. Cuttlemania is a two player game based on Connect 4 but played on a 3D grid whereby you have to beat your opponent into colouring four squares in a row to your colour. Round all this off with a couple of nice demos and an excellent print manager for the 1029 printer and you have another fine issue of one of the leading Atari disk magazines.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B WITHOUT Basic
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. From the clubs in Germany and elsewhere comes the latest demo for the XL/XE with all of the usual great graphics and music that were such a revelation just a short time ago. This one has seven demos in total with excellent music much of it based on OMD. Four demos on side one give you starfields, scrolls, bouncing bars, fades, floating symbols and a choice of music. One demo includes a good slide show with wipe facilities. Over on the flip side is more of the same – well not the same, as each of these demos has something new to offer. Demos are there just to enjoy and to wonder at and this one is no exception. Check out just what your Atari is capable of and wonder why such a great machine has received so little attention from the software publishers over the years.
Boot Side A and B WITHOUT Basic
Use spacebar and START to advance and SELECT within demos
You awake on a strange spacecraft with not much going on to discover that you have the opportunity of taking part in a trading simulation based on commerce with planets in a far flung galaxy. You can trade in steel, copper, gold, neon, barium, quartz, fuel rods, titanium, DP40, mercury, lead and wheat and buy or sell these commodities in any corner of the galaxy eventually giving you enough wealth and power to be able to control whole planets. Although a straightforward trading simulation what sets this one apart is the atmosphere created by the descriptions of the places you visit. Call up the main computer and find out about you home planet: ‘Drachon is your home planet. This is a prosperous place. The sky is always filled with craft of all shapes and sizes rushing about their business. Large spaceship yards circle the planet like a huge girdle of gleaming satellites. The bars never close and many a retired trader has settled here. The robo-docks load and unload their various containers of cargo 32 hours a day. This place is the home of the Traders Federation, a governing body with the powers of, literally, life and death.’ There are a dozen other planets or regions to call up and visit and you explore a strange new world. Buying and selling the right commodities will enable you to build more ships and so control fleets of fighters, cargo transporters and Base ships which will, if you have the courage and tenacity, lead to control of planet after planet. Only the toughest will get this far but even if you fall by he wayside the new experiences gained will make you a wiser man. Alright it’s only a simulation, but it’s a good one!
Boot Side A with Basic
Requires 130XE. Way back when the ST was born a demo called Shiny Bubbles was created to show the world that only the ST could do such things with graphics, but of course that sparked off those who already had a great computer to do likewise. Others wrote similar demos to show just how powerful the ‘old’ Atari XE was and these two demos are the result. Shiny Bubbles features three bubbles bouncing around reflecting the grid pattern on the floor on which they bounce whilst Video Blitz has computer disks and ‘wells’ in a checkerboard pattern zooming diagonally across your screen at stunning speed. Both demos can be controlled by the console keys. That’s it really, a couple of stunning demos to look at that show some powerful programming. A disk for those who are proud of their 130XE’s, perhaps to show friends with other machines that they may not have made the best choice!
Boot Side A and B WITHOUT Basic
Use keys 1 – 9 and START and OPTION keys on demos
If you have Dot Magic or Daisy Dot II then you already know what stunning programs these are, or do you? This collection of utilities and enhanced documentation should show you how to get a lot more from your printer as well as provide you with a few more fonts. Boot up side one and print out, in Daisy Dot format, 16 pages of new documentation that will enable you to stretch Dot Magic beyond the limits you thought possible. Print out the hints file and find some useful tips on using Dot Magic with AtariWriter Plus, with the 130XE Ramdisk, with long files and more. There are hints on creating video cassette inlays, double sided documents and newsletters, all good stuff. On the flip side you will find a number of useful utilities including a code stripper for AtariWriter, a utility that will take any text file and print odd and even pages, a font sampler that enables you to build up a printed library of your fonts, a utility for padding proportional fonts to maintain spacing in tables etc. and, finally, a conversion utility on a 3D grid whereby you have to beat your opponent into colouring four squares in a row to you colour. Round all this off with a couple of nice demos and an excellent print manager for the 1029 printer and you have another fine issue of one of the leading Atari disk magazines.
Boot Sides A and B with Basic
A disk of utilities for printer owners, primarily for Epson compatibles but including utilities that will work on NEC and others. The main program is a new ‘device’ to control your print output known as G:. With the G: device booted up your Epson or Star compatible printer will come alive by simply printing to G: rather than P. The new device will list exactly what you seen on screen in single or double width using whatever font is showing on screen at the time. It will also do screen dumps via XIO commands and can be used with your own Basic programs. There are a number of programs included to show what can be done. OMNIPRINT will dump Koala or Touch Tablet pictures, either compressed or otherwise with several options whilst GPLUS enables you to use those pictures to create your own greetings cards. Another picture dump that works with several printers is SIDEPRINT which dumps Micropainter, Koala, Fun With Art or Strip Poker pictures sideways on your printer giving much bigger printouts than usual. Other utilities include a program to print any text file in two columns for neat output, a disk envelope printer that prints a directory and a template that you can cut out and glue together for custom envelopes and two other directory printers for the Epson. Finally there is an Epson based ‘typewriter’ that will enable you to use your keyboard as a standard typewriter, printing line by line as you hit return.
Boot Side A with Basic
Amongst the many things you can do with this disk are list your graphic icons out, rename them, print them in pages or display them on screen. The program works with Epson compatible or NEC printers. Another utility lets you convert icons to Graphics 7 screens and Print Shop screens to Graphics 8 allowing you to use them in other programs. Lastly there is an enhanced version of the Label Printer included on our main Print Shop disk that can use double width fonts. There are twelve new fonts supplied on this disk and each font has a double width version that can be used with the labeller. Time to get Print Shop working again?
Boot Side A with Basic
This disk, which we believe is the first Hobbytronic demo, brings us up to date with our collection of Hobbytronic demos. Being an early disk the demos are not quite as stunning but they still show features that nobody else seems to be able to achieve. On the first side you will find three demos, an intro with stacks of stuff going on, a Mandlebrot picture and a good one with starfields and a circular scroller coupled with some great music. On side two there are five demos starting with an ABBUC intro with bouncing bars and sprites. This is followed by more bouncing sprites on a grid and some great music. Next up is a landscape scene with music, followed by a starfield which comes from either side and disappears toward the middle where there is a fine upward scroller and rainbow bars. The final one has some great music with bouncing bars measuring the beat. Maybe not as strong as later demos but still something to show just how great your Atari is.
Boot Side A or side B WITHOUT Basic
Use START key to go to next demo or leave running
The latest issue of Futura gives you more of the same and more of everything else! The first side is packed with text bringing you news and opinions from around the world together with a couple of games. GUMBALLS is the old game of whether you or the computer will pick up the last ball but with some excellent graphics. You will also find Paul Lay’s Munchy Madness, previously published in Page 6. Side two boots up to a desktop, similar in style to the ST, in which the cursor is controlled by the joystick and menus drop down. On this side you will find several more programs including an excellent two player game in which you guide marbles along a grid. Excellent graphics and two player split-screen action. FLIP is a strategy game in which you try to flip squares on a game board to your colour. There is a great demo (most likely from Germany or Poland) and some useful fillers. These include a program to print out a calendar for any year, a metric to imperial converter and a useful utility to make any Basic program boot up when you switch on the machine. Altogether another interesting issue of this classy disk magazine.
Boot Side A and Side B with Basic
The last FUTURA to be available through PAGE 6 as future issues will only be available direct from NOSAUG. This time we have no less than 18 articles and 8 programs for your enjoyment. The articles cover all aspects of the Atari Classic and contain a great deal of information both old and new. On side A of the disk there are three programs, COLOUR HELPER which simply lets you change the screen and border colours with a constant update on the Setcolor and Poke figures required for that colour. SPIDER is a German game in which you have to make your way through a cavern which has loads of spiders hanging from the ceiling trying to get you. You have to collect keys to open the door to the cupboard where the insect repellent is kept. CAPTURE THE FLAG is a cracker of a 2 player game where each player has to run round a maze to be the first to collect the flag. Each player can see only the part of the maze they are in and the action is really smooth. Side B is dedicated to Turbo Basic and here the star is HORSE RACING in which you need to win six races. Full docs are provided with this one. There is also Random Music Generator, Word Counter, Loan and HexaDeci which you could find useful. The last chance to get FUTURA from the PAGE 6 library. Let’s hope that Stuart Murray gets enough support direct to keep this going for a long time.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B WITHOUT Basic
At last another disk of interest to radio hams. On the first side of this disk you have a morse code instructor together with a code radio simulator in which you can tune through various frequencies to pick up different morse messages. You can choose to have these messages translated for you on screen or translate them yourself. The tutor covers everything you will need and allows you to select your own speed which can be increased as you get better. Flip the disk and there is an FCC test (Federal Communications Commission test required to obtain a radio licence in the USA) which has around 200 questions on all aspects of radio broadcasting and receiving. An ideal way to brush up your knowledge. The disk has been created as a whole, rather than a number of programs thrown together, and is very neatly presented.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B with Basic
Another commercial program to hit the shareware scene. This program was only available in the States and so may not be familiar but for those who like to use their Atari Classic seriously it is a real cracker. Screens is an excellent utility that could totally transform the look of your Atari. What is does, basically, is to install a handler that allows you to set up a number of screens, or windows, that can be used to hold graphics or text with mixed fonts. The basic, and boring, Graphics 0 screen is gone forever! Screens lets you choose any rectangular area of the screen for display and gives input and output from that area without affecting the remainder of the screen. The applications are restricted only by your imagination but there is an excellent demo on the disk to show you just what can be achieved. Screens itself is a handler which installs additional commands much in the same way as Turbo Basic, so you need to be familiar with programming techniques to use it but, once the commands are learned, the possibilities are enormous. A very extensive manual is supplied so that everything you need is here. If you have programming experience, and especially if you enjoy the extra power that programs like Turbo Basic give you, then you ought to give Screens a trial run. You could end up using it all the time.
Boot Side A with Basic
RUN "D:DEMO", Manual on disk
Requires enhanced density drive. This is the official continuation of the Hobbytronic demos comprising demos from groups all over Europe and presented on three disk sides! There are 5 demos each on sides 1 and 2 and 4 on side 3 ranging from the simple scrolling message to effects that you have never seen before on your Atari. It is not possible to detail every demo but if we could only select one it would be the Visdom demo on side 1. This has a large VISDOM logo at the top with a scrolling message at the bottom. The logo is large ‘hollow’ letters which are filled one by one with a rainbow scroll but what makes this quite stunning is that each rainbow scroll is different! This should not be possible! At the same time the centre of the screen is filled with blended colours in a sort of water reflection which scrolls up the screen. The total effect is amazing and nothing like it has ever been done on the Atari Classic before. This is just one of 14 demos to choose and many have a choice of music and other effects by pressing various keys (try everything). This disk set represents the very best programming to be found on the Atari as those extremely talented programmers from Europe squeeze every bit of power from the Classic. The ethos behind this demo is ‘if we can dream it, we can do it’ and boy, have they done it!
-> Two disk set – price £3.00
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B with Basic
Requires 130XE and enhanced density drive. A unique graphics drawing program with a wide range of features all fully documented in the 20 page manual on the disk. One particularly interesting feature is a playback mode which allows you to save your commands as entered and drawn and then play this back as a sort of animated slideshow. Any number of playback sequences can be saved to disk and a sequence can call another giving you a highly flexible presentation tool. The features are far too extensive to detail fully but in addition to the standard drawing modes, the following should be mentioned. Screens are compatible with Micro Painter, Micro Illustrator etc.; text can be added in several styles; you own fonts can be loaded and used; moving of a zoom screen image into the main screen (like rubber stamping); use in Graphics modes 8, 9 10 and 11; overlay screens; and many more. The disk comes with a demonstration of the playback features which introduce you to the features. DRAW7 is particularly useful for designing backgrounds to games as well as straight graphics images. If you add the slide show capabilities of Playback mode you have one of the most flexible art packages available. DRAW7 fully utilises the extra RAM of the 130XE as well as the RAM that resides under the ROM operating system and Basic.
Boot Side A with Basic
Requires enhanced density drive. Another selection of demos from the Continent to show off the power of your Atari. The first is from Visdom with an excellent massive scroller with bendy letters and a rainbow added to the massive logo, obviously this is the source for the even better Visdom demo on The Halle Project. Next up Is a desktop type screen with messages scrolling in every possible direction. This is followed by an extremely busy screen with every type of scroll imaginable taking place at the same time. Four more demos include many bouncing effects and some great music and in one pressing the space bar gives access to a Ninja type game (although we’re not sure if it is actually playable). Overall a nice disk, not as strong as some, but still with plenty to impress you and your friends.
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic
Use CONSOLE keys in demo
Printer required. If you are involved in any way with a club or other organisation that arranges matches or games on a league basis, this is for you. League Organiser allows you to create fixture schedules with your own input of teams and time slots and the number of times they are to play each other during a season. The program will work out fixtures either at one location or on a home and away basis and produce a printed fixture list. You may have up to 31 teams and 1,500 time slots. Fixtures are automatically spread over the season to ensure fairness. There are many other options explained fully in the 13 page manual on the disk. The author invites correspondence to refine the program further if required.
Boot Side A with Basic
Boot Side B for instructions
Requires enhanced density drive. Is this the World Atari Federation? No, Its the Wuerzburger Atari Front which should give you the clue that this is another superb demo disk from Germany. On side one you have six demos with twisting messages, coloured, bouncing bars, big logos, rainbows, great music and much more. Also a wire frame vector demo and The Megaball Demo with a huge bouncing scroll. Flip the disk and you will find The Sinus Scroller with good effects in time with the excellent music together with a couple of 128k demos. The Raytracer shows a bouncing ball in 256 colours and the 128k Vector Demo has a very good wireframe rotation. As always it is difficult, and somewhat pointless to try and describe all these demos which are designed to be seen and heard rather than described. Once again the Germans have demonstrated the amazing capabilities of the Atari and this one will give you continued pleasure in your system.
Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic
Boot Side B WITHOUT Basic
At last genuine Print Shop fonts with a good varied selection on this disk. Over 30 new fonts for you to use on a double sided disk. Many decorative fonts and several more standard fonts for you to enjoy.
Requires Print Shop – fonts on both sides of this disk
A second double sided disk of Print Shop fonts, again over 30 to choose from. Print them out with the Print Shop Companion or other utilities for a complete reference. With these two new disks your Print Shop creations will take on new life.
Requires Print Shop – fonts on both sides of this disk
Fancy some new borders? How about a choice of 127 styles! Incredibly that’s how many are on this new Print Shop disk. Never again will you be lost for a border with a choice that ranges from the classic to the pure eccentric (donkeys!!). Another disk to ensure that you get Print Shop going again.
Requires Print Shop – borders on side A of this disk
Enhanced density drive required. In the beginning you were on a trip to try and blast the planet Siridium into solar orbit to boost the power of our dying sun but things went wrong. After your ship had been destroyed you fled alone in your SL-MINI space craft. Now, low on fuel, you make a crash landing on a new planet. You have to find fuel to make it back to Earth. Exploring this strange world you first come across a dinosaur. Suddenly you realise you are on the planet Guridium ruled by the Connection For Destroying Earth and you remember reading about this is Alien Worlds magazine. The C.F.D.E. has installed a Mutator machine here and transformed all the inhabitants of the planet into flesh eating monsters who now roam the planet as a deterrent to visitors. There are two guards left which you must avoid as you look for the fuel supply. Space Trouble II is a sort of arcade adventure neatly done with a double action joystick control. Pressing the fire button allows you to alternate between controlling the movement of your character and examining and using various objects you find. You need to examine everything carefully and select tools and objects to help you along. There are many puzzles to solve, not least of which is how to get past that dinosaur. Altogether a neat game that will keep you busy for some time.
Boot Side A with Basic
Requires 1050 or XF551 drive. There are very few graphic adventures in the public domain but this looks to be a real winner – four disk sides with over 40 locations all with graphics! As far as the story goes you will have to work it out as you go along. You start inside your house and can fairly quickly find a passport and the front door key so you assume that the task is to get out of the house for some reason. It seems quite easy until you exit the front door only to be killed by a policeman because you are too scruffy! Even a shave in the bathroom doesn’t seem to help. If you check the disks you will find locations outside, in the cellar and in a castle so that gives you an idea where to go. Mind you when I tried to get down to the cellar I promptly broke my neck! Maybe you can do better? The Nephew is a neat adventure to add to your collection or to start you on your way to the puzzling world of Atari adventure.
Two disk set – price £3.00
Disk 1 – Boot Side A WITHOUT Basic
A great new challenge for lovers of solitaire games, this is a variation of the classic Shanghai type games that require you to match and remove various tiles. The screen will show a board with numbered tiles in 3-D and in different colours and you need to match the tiles using the joystick to control a pointer. Along the top of the screen are drop down menus that enable several options. You may design new 3-D puzzle patterns, flip or switch the numbers around, locate a number match if you are stuck, cheat if you can’t find a match or are really stuck and, finally, you can change the game parameters. These include the opportunity to customise the number blocks which can be changed in length, width, height or marking. The method of removing the blocks can also be changed with options to match blocks to the left or right, vertically at any height or in any location. You just set the game up as you wish. My Jong will allow hours of play as you try to improve upon your best time and the options to customise the game mean that you can continue to play if you get fed up with the standard game.
Requires enhanced density drive and Epson compatible printer. If you enjoyed Paper Airplane Maker, here is another great program to get your printer into use, especially if you have kids. Paper Masks is based on the same concept as the paper plane maker, except this time you can print out face masks for your kids to wear at parties or just for fun. Over two dozen masks are available ready to print out, you just run through the designs in a slide show and select the mask you require. Press a key and it is printed out. Once you have the print out it’s time to be creative with the colouring. You can stick the mask onto card If you wish and cut out the eyes, fold the nose and more to create your own paper sculpture. On screen colours give you ideas on how to colour in and there are suggestions on the disk on what medium to use. There are over two dozen ready designed masks, all expertly drawn by an art teacher, or you can design your own with the drawing program included. Choose from half masks that cover only the top part of your face (like harlequin masks) or full face masks in designs that include lions, monsters, clowns, horror creatures and many, many more. It is not often that a program comes along that can put your computer to use for all the family and their friends but this will bring hours of enjoyment as your kids print and colour their masks. Of course, if you are into fancy dress parties yourself, what better than to give each of your guests a custom mask to suit their personality!
Here is some fabulous music exploiting the full capabilities of the soundchip but with a difference – stereo, even if you don’t have a stereo upgrade! In order to achieve the stereo effects you will need two complete systems but the music is excellent even when played on one machine in glorious mono! If you have a mate and you can get two systems together then you can have some fun with this which works by enabling you to select whether to play the left or right channel sound. As long as you synchronise the sound you should get stereo. Full instructions for setting up are included on the disk. Stereo or not this is a great selection of music from Poland accompanied by some neat on-screen scrolling and special effects. There are ten tunes to select, all of cracking quality. Enjoy the novelty of stereo or just enjoy some great music that shows that the Classic can easily match the ST in the sound department.
The essential accessory for anyone who programs in Turbo Basic at beginners or intermediate level. Not only do you get expanded documentation but also tutorials on creating Turbo programs in a structured manner with examples of often used procedures. Disk 1 has fully expanded documentation on Turbo Basic itself with every new command illustrated by example and with program listings. There is also full information on the Compiler with step by step illustrations on how to compile your own program and create autoboot disks. Here you will also find amendments to Turbo Basic that bring small improvements in its use. On disk 2 you will find The Turbo Journal, a newsletter style presentation giving step by step instructions on creating a program in Turbo Basic with each module explained. Here is how you learn to write structured programs so that Turbo can run at its best. Disk 3 gives a further instalment of The Turbo Journal with tutorials on How To Use Module, How To Use Arrays and How To Do Sorting, each illustrated by practical examples. On the other side of the disk are over two dozen ready to use routines that you can combine with your own programs to do a myriad of tasks from accessing disk drives, to displaying text on screen or printer to sorting and much more. You can save time and enhance your programs by simply importing one of these routines. Three disks that will enable you to get the very best from Turbo Basic, even if all you ever do is compile the odd program.
Three disk set £5.50
If you have ever envied Indiana Jones in his various exploits now’s your chance to join him in an exploration of an ancient tomb in which you will find all sorts of peril, and all sorts of treasure. As you start the first of 5 levels you enter the Tomb of Akmadin where you will see various levels connected by ladders with a couple of skulls to collect and maybe, a treasure or two glowing in a passageway. You must find the best, perhaps the only, way through the passageways by experimentation since many of the perils are invisible. When you have decided your route you need to move quickly on some sections to avoid rockfall and to escape sections where gates will drop to trap you. If you can collect the treasures then you need to find your way out but it is not easy. After a while your torch will expire and you must try in the dark, a near impossible task. The Adventures of Dr. Jones is a very difficult arcade adventure that will tax your skills to the limit. If you think you can tackle difficult games or want a challenge beyond the normal then give this one a try. If you get past the first screen perhaps you could drop The Tipster a line and let us all know how to do it!
Boot WITHOUT Basic
Bet you never made it to Commander in Star Raiders! Not many did but now this cracker of a disk gives you the full lowdown of the best computer game of all time that should enable you to progress way beyond your previous level. On this double sided disk you will find almost all of the information that has ever been published about Star Raiders including a massively extended manual and a five part tutorial on how to reach the ultimate level of Commander. There are also hints and tips on many things you didn’t know like how to make Star Raiders an effective two player game. There are pages and pages of information included here with diagrams to explain more complex points, much of which you will never have seen before. If you haven’t played Star Raiders in some time, it’s time to get the cartridge out again. With the information here you will begin to explore strange new levels and boldly go where you have never managed to go before. The time has come for Star Raiders to reign supreme once again?
Boot WITH Basic
If you don’t use SpartaDos you will sooner or later come across the frustrating situation of finding a disk formatted with SpartaDos which you can’t use. If you do use SpartaDos you could well find a situation where you want to transfer a program from a SpartaDos disk to a standard DOS disk. Either way this excellent conversion program will come to the rescue. Although very easy to use, full step by step instructions are included. Never again need you miss out when someone gives you a disk and drops the bombshell that it is in SpartaDos Format!
Boot WITH Basic
Requires SpartaDos and 128k memory. A resident command processor extension utility designed specifically for SpartaDos 3.2d and XL/XE machines with a minimum of 128k memory. This enhancement of SpartaDos adds more than 20 new commands, all of which are fully documented. An example of just a few of the added commands includes COLD to simulate a coldstart of the computer, COUNT to return the number of files in a directory, DEC to convert numbers from decimal to hex, EDIT to replace the Copy E: function with a command that will not trash your disks, FIND to search your disks for a specified file and, of course there are many more. All of these extra commands are designed to be easy to use and the full parameters are given in the extensive documentation which also includes a quick reference chart and fixes for any problems you might encounter. SpartaDos is a superb utility, now it can be even better!
Boot WITH Basic
Calling all Print Shop users! Three great utilities plus a small selection of graphics and borders make this an indispensable companion to Print Shop. The first program is ART SHOP which allows you to extend Screen Magic files to other formats by converting to Micro Painter format and back allowing captions to be added to Micro Painter pictures using Print Shop amongst several other options. Other utilities are included allowing you to delete Print Shop graphic files, format a Print Shop disk, list a Print Shop directory and rename files. BRODBUND is a simple program that will allow you to make a backup copy of your original Print Shop disk, a must now that the program is almost impossible to obtain. PSU is a set of useful utilities to use with Print Shop or standard disks. Directory will list out the contents of all PS disks showing graphics, borders, fonts etc. as well as standard DOS disks. Copy File allows PS files to be transferred between disks, either PS to PS, PS to DOS or DOS to PS. Rename, Delete and Format are fairly obvious utilities for use on PS disks. Finally Print allows to to print out up to 80 graphics with filenames on Epson compatibles. Lots of documentation on the disk including a full description of the disk format used by Print Shop.
Boot WITH Basic
Here you have a complete, fully documented, C Compiler for anyone who would like to experiment in C or begin writing programs in a new language. As usual this will not teach you how to program in C but will give you all you need to run C programs on your Atari. Four disks are packed with libraries and utilities along with extensive instructions and examples giving you all you need to start using C on your 8-bit system.
Four disk set – price £5.95
Boot WITH Basic
One of the few, if not the only, page layout system for the Atari 8-bit to give you WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) desk top publishing. Page Editor is an easy to use text and graphics editor that features an 80 column display and hi-res graphics on the same screen with the ability to place text and graphics anywhere you desire. The Page Editor software shows you exactly how the page should appear on your printer (requires Epson compatible). In addition to the Page Editor program the software package includes utilities to convert word processor text files, Print Shop format clip art and additional character sets. The program can be run in Turbo Basic for extra speed. The main programs, together with character sets and sample pages are included on the main disk with extensive documentation on a separate disk. Documentation runs to 11 pages giving you all you need to know about using Page Editor and its utilities. This program won’t allow you to create your own version of New Atari User but will give anyone with an XL or XE and a printer the opportunity to create interesting page layouts for all sorts of applications.
Two disk set – price £1.95
Boot WITH Basic
If you like things out of the ordinary, perhaps with a bit of mysticism thrown in then LIFESPAN could be just what you need to break away from the standard arcade game. Lifespan is a game about living in which you travel a journey from Birth to Death through Opportunities, Situations, Conversations and Experiences expressed as designs, colours and sounds. It is a series of games of different moods each of which affects the next. It begins with a Birth spiral in which a number of character types are presented to help you through life. Your goal is to discover those character types glimpsed in childhood but lost in the transition to adulthood. To accomplish this you must pursue Opportunities, deal with Situations, enter Conversations and wrestle with Doubts, Worries and Fears whilst grasping at Hopes. You will have to encounter many Experiences in order to survive enough of them to discover the Character Types they bring out in you. Your reward, if you are successful, will be that your Lifespan will end with a hypnotically beautiful light and sound show built from the experiences of your past life. People pay a fortune for this sort of thing in real life but now you can have the experience without it costing you a fortune in gurus or mind expanding drugs! Full instructions for this unique program are included.
Boot WITH Basic
Requires enhanced density drive. Who writes the best demos? The Germans? The Polish? Maybe, but here is a Hungarian programmer who would dispute that and who will almost certainly have you changing your opinions as well. Cool Emotion is an excellent double sided demo with everything you might expect from a top class demo, and then some! Some quite astonishing displays include an amazing checkerboard that zooms in and out, an amazing screen of circling globes with digitised music, a user definable plasma display, along with the more usual scrolling messages. Each screen is carefully built up to add more and more effects until you start to say that this simply can’t be done on an 8-bit system! It can, but only on the Atari, and Cool Emotion is the demo to put many other demos to shame, including many written for the ST. Be astonished by how great your Atari is. Cool Emotion is a demo that every Atari user should see.
Boot WITHOUT Basic
Requires enhanced density drive. This is a double sided demo of digitised sound that can be created with a program available from Visionaire Software. GTRACKER enables you to combine graphics with sounds created by Replay to create some excellent effects. Little more to be said about something intended to be watched and listened to, so If you are interested in digitised sound on your XL/XE give this a try. Details of how to obtain the full GTRACKER program are included on the disk.
Boot WITHOUT Basic
Requires 130XE (or 128k) and 1050 drive. Perhaps not quite what you might be expecting as PIGS stands for Pluto Inter Galactic Services, a sort of interplanetary AA Rescue service! This is a great space simulation in which the objective is to become the first player (up to 6 can take part) to visit 12 planets and pay off all your debts. You will find a list of commodities to buy to take to the first planet where you can trade these commodities for other goods and services. Keep doing this and you can visit more and more planets in an attempt to win. You must bear in mind at all times that fuel is needed to get from planet to planet and this costs money so keep some in reserve. If you make mistakes in manoeuvring then you will may run out of fuel and P.I.G.S. will be automatically called out. Their charges for fuel are not exactly competitive! Although this is a simulation. don’t expect the usual sort of text screen with everything left to your imagination. Pigs In Space is fully graphics based with the planets shown in three different sectors, maps and fuel gauges on screen and more. Virtually everything is joystick controlled. Full instructions are included on the disk and this is sure to be a great challenge.
Boot WITH Basic
Those of you who have printers will like to use their Atari more creatively and most probably already use a word processor. Creative Process is similar but is termed an ‘outline processor’, software that enables you to put down your thoughts as they occur and then rearrange those thoughts into a coherent and understandable report. As you develop an outline for a project you can add detail and supportive text to each points. You are free to add, delete, copy or move text and index points at any time. As you reorganise your thoughts, you can quickly change your document to match. Although Creative Process includes a mini word processor you have the ability to export your text for further work in your favourite word processor. The program is intended for writing reports or essays but can be used for many more projects where data or ideas need to be organised. Suggestions are included for using the program as an index card system to keep track of collections, a home inventory to monitor your possessions or as an aid to project management. You can also use the program to keep a programmer’s subroutine library or even a personal calendar. The uses are limited only by your imagination. Extensive documentation is included to enable you to use the program to its fullest capacity. You will need a printer as the documentation stretches to dozens of pages but then if you have a word processor you probably already have one. Creative Process is a unique way of organising your thoughts as you struggle to get what’s inside your head down on paper in a coherent form.
The XF551 was more widely sold in Europe than here so its not surprising that this disk comes from Germany. Although it is written in German the program is easy to understand and use without instruction and could be an essential utility for owners of the XF551. The disk gives you four utilities. The first is a sector copier and GameDOS for quad density, the next a GameDOS for single and enhanced density, then a file copier and finally a sector copier. The GameDOS selection enables you to create boot disks with you favourite games selected from a menu. Maybe you are not using your XF551 to its fullest capacity?
Boot WITH Basic
A new collection of icons to enhance your enjoyment of Print Shop. This double sided disk contains over 250 icons and, as far as we can tell, does not duplicate those on our Print Shop Collection or Option disks.
Requires Print Shop
Another superb collection of over 250 icons on a double sided disk. We have checked the filenames and they do not appear to duplicate those on other disks.
Requires Print Shop
Requires 130XE or 128k machine. If you enjoy hearing sampled sound on your Atari you will love this demo which takes a well known pop song and gives it the computer treatment. The demo uses the full memory of the 130XE loading in 13 blocks of sampled sound which are then manipulated by the player. The sample player is written in Basic and is listable and could be useful for anyone who wants to know how to use the extra memory banks on the 130XE or how to play sampled sounds. If you just want to listen the quality of this demo is superb.
Boot WITH Basic. Needs enhanced density drive.
A great motor racing game that requires no special equipment. It is only included as a special because it is a double sided disk with the track data on side B. Hot Wheels is a one or two player motor racing game in which you have to do battle round a number of circular tracks avoiding sundry bumpers, oil patches and, of course, the other car. The graphics are superb and the game is challenging as control of your car can be quite difficult. Even the computer player has trouble sometimes! Hot Wheels is a neat, challenging, racing game that will give a great deal of fun once you have mastered the control of your car. A machine code game from Germany.
Boot WITHOUT Basic. Double sided. Flip disk before pressing START.
If you have a C-64 lying around, or have a friend with one, you can now transfer files from the C-64 to your Atari. This disk includes programs for the Atari and the Commodore (which you will need to type in) as well as a diagram of the connecting cable and full documentation. You can transfer any kind of file but the program does not translate programs so don’t expect to run C-64 programs on your Classic – if you have picture files, a separate utility on the disk allows you to convert pictures in Blazing Paddles format into standard Atari 62 sector picture files.
Boot WITH Basic – Double Sided.
Docs on Side A. Progs on Side B.
This double sided disk from Germany is basically the old game of Concentration with a difference, but what a difference! You will never have seen a game of concentration with such great graphics. The object is for the player, either against the computer or another player, to match objects hidden behind squares which are selected in pairs. Familiar so far, but where Loaded Brain comes into its own is the superb 3-D playfield and the objects themselves. The playing grid is set out on a receding 3-D plane making it much more difficult to remember squares and the objects behind each square are fully animated! Pick a couple of squares and boxes on either side of the screen show a fully animated object or action sequence. The effect is great and lifts an ordinary game into a whole new level. This is the sort of game worth seeing just to experience the quality of programming. Yet again programmers from Europe show just how great the Classic is.
Boot WITHOUT Basic – Double Sided
Press START on title screen – flip disk, press START again.
Use your printer to even greater effect with Lister Plus. This great program works with Epson and compatible printers and the NEC and will give you some classy printing of program listings, text files and one-off lines. There is a selection of 14 fonts to choose although you can probably add any standard nine-sector font. Characters can be printed in three widths and either centred, blocked left or blocked right. Files and disk files are straightforward although any formatting required will have to be done with a word processor and printed to disk first. One of the best features is Type-a-Line in which you can print a single line of text direct from the program in any font or width. The line can be saved if you wish. Ideal for letterheads or heading for projects. If you want something fancy you can try mirror imaging which looks especially good if an italic font is used and lines are printed immediately beneath each other. You also get a Graphics 8/7+ screen – dump for extra flexibility but it the simplicity of use and great results that make this program a winner. If you have a printer you are sure to find a use for Lister Plus.
Boot WITH Basic
The upgrade to TextPro mentioned in Issue 76 of New Atari User with which you can follow the series on creating and using macros. There are some minor improvements to the program but the big difference between this and the earlier release is the extensive documentation that will explain everything you need to know about TextPro and tell you a lot that you did not realise was possible. The upgrade comes on two double sided disks and the documentation takes up three sides. It is formatted in TextPro format so can be loaded and printed out as a full manual. Make sure you have plenty of paper ready! There are also several macros on this disk which you can use or adapt for your own use. Macros will allow you to type envelopes, send standard letters or memos, quotations and much more. Once loaded a macro will type all the repetitive wording for you and prompt you to insert the text which differs with each document. This is a superb feature that does not apply on many of the top word processors on the ST or PC. TextPro is surely one of the best word processors around.
Two disk set.Boot WITH Basic
Double sided disk. This collection represents the best of the utilities published in the old Atari User magazine and is sure to contain at least one program you will find invaluable. Start off with BASIC RENUMBER which is a machine code routine that will renumber your programs at lightning speed, including GOSUBs and GOTOs. DATA EDITOR allows you to edit files or programs on disk, tape or in memory and re-save them. There is an 80 COLUMN DISPLAY routine that looks excellent on both a monitor and black and white TV. DISC EDITOR and DISC VIEWER are two programs that contain all you need to start messing about with your disks. Fix errors, change sectors, alter directories and more. DUMP 15 will dump 62 sector pictures on either a 1029 printer or Epson compatible while ARTSHOW lets you display your pictures-in a professional looking way with dissolves and other effects. If you have ever wanted to check what’s on your disk without calling up DOS, DISC DIRECTORIES will do it for you. It is a . machine code routine that is installed at boot up and lets you check the directory from Basic. Lastly FULLPRINT gives you a full print out of all characters, including inverse and control characters on an Epson compatible printer. There have been other programs that do many of the things mentioned here but the good thing about this collection is that it is fully documented on the reverse of the disk so that there is no having to guess how to use a particular program.
Boot WITH Basic.
Check INFO on side B before using program
XLMON is a machine code monitor from SunSoft Systems in Australia. The disk creates a boot disk which installs the Revision B Operating System in an XL/XE computer along with a 4K machine language monitor in the area of memory between $C000 and $CFFF which is not used by the Revision B OS. The monitor may be entered by a special key combination from almost any running program. Once control has been passed to the monitor you can Dump, Move, Disassemble or Verify memory, Read and Write disk sectors, Binary Load, Print and more. There are two different versions of the monitor so that you can choose the one which suits you best. XLMON requires the original Atari Translator disk to create its boot disks but we have included this on the reverse of the disk. Note that there are no instructions for use included with this disk so you will need some good experience in assembly language and will need to experiment with the combination of keys required and the correct syntax. An address is included for a shareware contribution that will get you full instructions but we do not know if this is still current.
Boot WITHOUT Basic – Double sided.
Translator on Side B
Here’s a real treat for those who follow the TV series or who are interested in the unusual or the paranormal. This great two disk set contains everything you might want to know about The X-Files and a great deal more you never even thought about! Disk one has a full run-down on the series, including full episode guides from the first two series, selections of the best and worst episodes. ‘Did You Know’ analysis of some of the things to look out for when watching, biographical details on David Duchovney, Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter and more. You can find out about X-Files fanclubs and fanzines, merchandise, trading cards and even Internet sites. Flip the disk and you will find various articles and opinions about the series as well as a full explanation of each part of the title sequence. The second disk explores some of the ideas from the series in the ‘real’ world with a series of ‘fact files’ about such things as the Yeti, UFO’s and spontaneous human combustion together with more speculative articles on such things as what an alien might look like. Side B contains four long articles about an alleged UFO crash at Roswell in 1947 and a recently released videotape which claims to show an autopsy on one of the aliens that was found. There is more information about two other alleged UFO crashes plus some other goodies, including how to experience aliens on your Atari! Altogether a superbly crafted set of disks with great opening titles and an excellent, easy to use, menu on each side. Get it today. The Truth is Here!
Boot WITH Basic. Double Sided
For those who like to have the most up to date version of this great word processor. Unfortunately the disk contains only TextPro 5.2 with sundry support files and various help files but no instructions or details of what enhancements are made to this version. If you want the manual you will need DS#26 which contains everything you need to know. If you want an updated version of TextPro which probably fixes a few remaining bugs then this is for you.
Boot WITH Basic
SpartaDos has been one of the few alternative DOS versions that have been successful for the XL/XE. It was always an expensive program but now has been grade available as PD so that everyone can use it at minimal cost. The disadvantage, is that the disk contains no instructions for use so you will need to be quite an experienced user to be able to experiment with the disk to find out just how it all works. This is a double sided disk with SpartaDos 3.3 on one side and an extensive Toolkit of utilities on the other side. I am not sure if these are what was issued with the original or whether there are some additional utilities supplied by other users. There are one or two doc files on this side of the disk to explain how the programs work. This disk might be worth a go for experienced users but those who need some help will be better off waiting until we can sort out an instruction disk, or a copy of the original manual.
Boot WITH Basic – Double Sided
Type DOS then type DIR
Several text files condensed from the original SpartaDos manual to enable you to get the best use from DS#131, introduced last issue.
Another superb demo from Poland, the like of which we haven’t seen for a while. If you have bought demos before, you know what to expect in style but some of the effects in this one will blow your mind. The main loading screen shows a set of floating pixels like a starfield above the the title and this recurs each time a demo loads. First up is a wobbly scroll (everything is in English) followed by a ‘Plot Tunnel’ which has never been done on the Atari Classic before. An unimpressive single line scroll follows but then the background comes alive with a a digital juggler taken from the ST (or Amiga) and the scroll continues, a great combination. A ‘Plot Landscape’ is next which looks like an animated version of one of those gadgets where you can push your face against pins to leave a likeness. Three spinning globes with ever changing patterns complete side 1.
Side 2 introduces members of the programming team with a moving starfield on the left and digitised photos on the right which morph into each other. Personal details of each of the three programmers appear over the starfield. After this there follows a huge photo (very clear) of the three of them which is over twice the size of the screen so bounces and scrolls around so you can see it all. What many Atarians have said is the best effect so far on the Atari is the Oil Plasma which is like a series of colourwash effects in the centre of the screen which can be altered using console keys. Mighty impressive! Next, flame licks the bottom of the screen before going on to a set of digitised photos of girls that are subject to all sorts of trick effects. A set of spiralling dots now heralds an astonishing set of 3D moving squares which seem to go right back into the screen – a bit like those Magic Eye pictures. Several more effects follow before the closing greetings and credits. This last is very impressive with a series of ‘film stills’ of all the demos you have seen.
This is only a couple of years old and there may not be many more of these to come. Give it a view, it really is a cracker.
Boot WITHOUT Basic
Here is one of the best comms programs available for the Atari Classic. If you have kept up to date with NAU in recent years you will know that Gordon Hooper in Canada successfully used this program for a couple of years to send E-mail using his Atari. If you want to join the Internet revolution (subject to limitations of course!) or just communicate with other computers, this could be the program you need. A very easy to use program but extensive documentation is included on Side 2 to tell everything you need to know.
Boot WITHOUT Basic. Docs on side 2.
A new set of SpartaDOS utilities sent in by reader Jonathon Halliday. Around a dozen new utilities include an SDX Batch file invoker, Binary file desegmenter, SpartaDOS text editor, Directory finder, OS cursor flash utility, Conditional batch file statement, a Print utility, File mover, Quick Directory changer, XKEY Keyboard macro editor and a keyboard macro and type-ahead buffer system. All of these programs have associated documentation files to explain how to use them. There is sure to be something of use here to regular SpartaDOS users.
Boot WITHOUT Basic
A brand new computer aided design program from John Foskett which, judging from the printed results, looks to be a real gem! Although primarily designed for drawing circuit diagrams, the Atari CAD program may be used to draw just about anything at all. The Atari CAD program contains a wide range of electronic symbols, a cross between the good old favourites, the British Standard BS3939 recommended symbols and those which look good on the screen and when printed out. To allow for the maximum drawing space, a mode 8 screen has been used with single line resolution. An information screen is available at most times when using the program which gives brief details of all the commands available and is accessed by pressing the <HELP> key.
Most of the drawing commands are available as a combination of joystick and keyboard controls and there are numerous preset electronic symbols to help you on your way. To help you along there are eight drawing files included which show a couple of single transistor receivers, a coil for single valve receiver, an XL/XE replacement power supply, a multivibrator twin LED flasher, a 4 way sequential lamp flasher, a sound triggered flash unit and a square wave generator. Also included are 15 master blank drawing files each with a special feature around which wiring layout drawings may be produced. Examples are included to show how these may be used.
The program is too comprehensive to explain more fully here but full documentation for its use is included on the disk. If you have ever designed, or needed, a circuit diagram then this program is a must. It can also be used for many similar design and layout applications due to the great deal of care and thought that has gone into its design. This is probably the best CAD program ever written for the Atari Classic.
Boot WITH Basic
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Side A – Boot WITH Basic
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Side A – Boot WITH Basic
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Boot WITH Basic
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Side A – Boot WITH Basic
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Disk 1 – Side A – Boot WITH Basic
Disk 1 – Side B – Boot WITHOUT Basic
Disk 2 – Boot both sides WITHOUT Basic
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Side A – Boot WITH Basic
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Here we have a disk of jokes, stories and anecdotes similar to the Nutworks disk that can be found on the ST and PCs. All of this is intended to be fun but BE WARNED most of the jokes are of the ‘dirty’ variety and may well offend some people. This is made very clear in the introduction screen where you are advised to format the disk if you are likely to be offended. If you like smutty jokes and the odd clean one then you may well enjoy this. Some of the jokes are of the burst out laughing variety whereas others are just plain corny and there are plenty of ‘in’ jokes for computer users and several ‘true’ stories. All of the text can be accessed from a selection menu and read like a disk newsletter. Please don’t buy this if you are not broad minded but, if you are you can certainly Have A Laugh as the title suggests.
Boot WITH Basic
Inspired by the best demos on the ST the High Tech Team from Holland set out to show that the 8-bit Atari could produce the same effects, the result … THE BIG DEMO.
MUSIXX
TWO separate music demos featuring interpretations of the music from a dozen top Atari games
GRAPHIXX
THREE great graphics demos that include lots of scrolling messages, bouncing effects, sine waves, rainbow effects and more all with great music
THE BIG SCROLL
The world record scroll for any Atari machine – over 60Kb of scrolling message that takes 3 hours to read!
SAMPLES
Over half a dozen sampled voices and instruments that show you that top quality samples sound is not the exclusive preserve of the ST
DIGI-MUSIXX
Quite simply the most astonishing digitised music ever heard on an Atari 8 bit computer! Two great sampled and cleverly editted tunes that play on forever. You won’t believe your ears!
All this on one GREAT disk for just £3.95. Available exclusively from PAGE 6.
The BIG DEMO is a double sided disk in enhanced density and will only run on a XL/XE with 1050 drive or a drive that can read enhanced density
WARNING: Some of the scrolling messages on this disk contain words that some people might object to and the disk should not be considered suitable for young children
A special disk to celebrate Christmas. Lovely for the children or just to get into the Christmas spirit. A varied collection of Christmas music and carols with plenty of graphics on a Christmas theme. Also included is a nice ‘family fun’ game where you can add your own words to a well known Christmas song to get the family in hysterics. If you want a break from the carols, then you can go skiing with a downhill racing game. A nice disk to get computer kids and computer mums and dads into the Christmas spirit.
Boot with Basic.
A special disk to celebrate Christmas. Lovely for the children or just to get into the Christmas spirit. A varied collection of Christmas music and carols with plenty of graphics on a Christmas theme. Also included is a nice ‘family fun’ game where you can add your own words to a well known Christmas song to get the family in hysterics. If you want a break from the carols, then you can go skiing with a downhill racing game. A nice disk to get computer kids and computer mums and dads into the Christmas spirit.
Boot with Basic.
A special disk to celebrate Christmas. Lovely for the children or just to get into the Christmas spirit. A varied collection of Christmas music and carols with plenty of graphics on a Christmas theme. Also included is a nice ‘family fun’ game where you can add your own words to a well known Christmas song to get the family in hysterics. If you want a break from the carols, then you can go skiing with a downhill racing game. A nice disk to get computer kids and computer mums and dads into the Christmas spirit.
Boot with Basic.
From Australia comes this collection of interesting digitised sound disks, all of which feature perfectly clear sound samples taken from various film or TV programmes. Some disks have stand alone menus whilst others require the player program on disk 1. Some will run on a standard 800XL whilst others require a 130XE or a machine upgraded to 128k. Sound samples eat up memory!
These are interesting disks which ‘Pedrokko’ has obviously spent many, many hours compiling and, whilst they are not useful as such, they are well worth a listen. Each disk has a message from Pedrokko as a text file explaining how the disks were created, how you might be able to use sound samples in your own programs and many other topics.
All disks are double sided.
The first disk contains player programs for different sound samples and you will need this for some of the later disks. The samples on this one are taken from Monty Pythons Life of Brian – ‘Blessed are the cheesemakers?’ etc.
Stand alone disk – all machines
Side A contains a long sample of ‘I should be so lucky’ and Side B has another long sample of Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side’.
Requires 130XE and player from Disk 1
A long sample of Clint Eastwood from the film Dirty Harry together with the famous intro to Star Trek. Both long samples.
Requires 130XE and player from Disk 1
Side A has many short speeches from various characters in Star Trek and Side B has a section from Mission Impossible designed as a criticism of those who dismiss the 8-bit systems. There is also an extract from an Aussie TV commercial plus a game for the Atari light gun with real gunshots.
Stand alone disk – all machines
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – lots of them on both sides of the disk. If you are a Turtles fan you’ll love it all.
Stand alone disk – all machines
More Turtles with shorter extracts on Side A and a much longer compilation on Side B.
Side A is a stand alone program for all machines whilst Side B requires the player and one of the two flies needs a 130XE
The first of Pedrokko’s ‘Cartoonies’ featuring many favourite cartoon characters including Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester and Road Runner. Side B has longer samples of Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny. There is also a bonus from Bugs Bunny meets Marvin the Martian.
Stand alone disk although the bonus requires the player – all machines
The next ‘Cartoonie’ featuring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd together with the Three Stooges on Side A whilst Side B has longer samples of Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester and Porky Pig.
Side A is stand alone whilst Side B requires the player. Disk is for all machines
More cartoons with much longer samples both taken from Bugs Bunny meets Marvin the Martian. These are the longest samples of all of the disks.
Requires 130XE and player from Disk 1
Pedrokko’s last offering is slightly different – a sample of a Kookaburra (an Australian bird) call which sounds just like someone laughing hysterically with a long extract on Side B from an Australian comedy show (no, it’s not Neighbours.)
Stand alone disk – all machines
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Pedrokko disks are available singly at £1.50 each or as a complete collection of 10 disks for £10. Please ensure that you have a 130XE or upgraded machine if you wish to purchase the full collection.
STILL AVAILABLE. We have received dozens of letters saying what excellent value this program is. POKEY PLAYER enables you to compose music on your Atari even if you have no prior musical knowledge. The manual gives you sufficient background in musical notation to enable you to transpose sheet music or, of course, if you understand music you can compose your own. Songs can be in three voices each playing independent melodies and you can include percussion effects. Included on the disk are the Editor, a machine code Compiler and the Player PLUS 50 READY TO PLAY SONGS. You also get a comprehensive 39 page manual.
Dozens more tunes for POKEY PLAYER including several composed by PAGE 6 readers. Disk includes an autoplayer which enables you to select tunes in any order. If you already have POKEY PLAYER you will know how good the tunes are, if not get POKEY TUNES as a ‘taster’ and buy POKEY PLAYER later!
Autoboot with Basic. Follow screen prompts.
Celebrate with our new demo disk:
All demos are in Basic with added machine code routines so that you can check to see how these great effects are achieved.
A unique memento of 10 years Atari support.
Page 6 readers continue to provide great support for other users by sharing things they have have found useful. Here Brian Arnold has taken a great deal of time to convert hundreds of Print Shop icons into the format used by Letterhead Designer (Disk #240) so that you can now choose almost any icon you wish to use in your own custom letterheads.
This set of disks contains over 450 ready to use icons covering almost every subject you can think of on FOUR DOUBLE SIDED ENHANCED DENSITY DISKS.
The original Letterhead Designer can only show 13 choices for graphics so this pack includes an enhanced version of Letterhead Designer that will allow you to select from 64 icons. The disk also corrects a small problem on the ICONVERT program.
If you have the original disk this is a great opportunity to use it further to create more designs but it is also a great way to buy the complete program if you are thinking about creating your own letterheads. Check out the description of disk #240 for complete details of the program.
FIVE disks packed with around 475 new icons of every conceivable variety plus half a dozen super utilities to help you manage PRINT SHOP more effectively. The utilities include a new ICON EDITOR that can be controlled by joystick, touch tablet and mouse and has everything you would expect of a fully fledged drawing program. Very similar to designing Print Shop icons using Atari Artist or a similar program. You can load and modify existing icons or create your own very easily. This will also convert graphics from Print Shop format to DOS or vice versa and format disks to Print Shop format.
PSLABELS fills in a missing gap from Print Shop and lets you design address or similar labels using any available icons or fonts. VIEWER is a great utility that loads up to six icons on screen complete with filenames and then allows you to dump that screen to an Epson compatible printer so that you can build up a permanent graphic library of all of your icons complete with filenames, much better than trying to remember what hundreds of filenames mean. PSPIC is similar but more creative in that a number of icons can be loaded and positioned anywhere on the screen, even overlapping, to create interesting new effects. These screens can then be saved as 62 sector format pictures to be printed out with GRLOAD.DMP which will also print out Print Shop Screen Magic pictures once they have been converted to DOS format with other utilities on this disk. PRSHOP2 is a program that allows you to view ‘Other Disk’ graphics and transfer them to DOS format and back. Also useful for checking icons which are shown on screen as they are loaded or for checking directories. Finally there is PACK which enables you to create ‘theme’ disks with collections of similar icons by saving DOS format icons into packs which can then be transferred to other disks, or over a modem, and then be ‘unpacked’. Add 475 new icons to that lot and you have just about the best collection of disks we have ever assembled. An absolute must for any owner of Print Shop.
The PAGE 6 PRINT SHOP COLLECTION comes as FIVE – that’s right FIVE – single sided disks in a plastic case complete with instructions for just £7.50 – that’s just £1.50 a disk and you can’t go wrong at that price!
NOTE: These disks are entirely separate from any PRINT SHOP disks in the main library – there is no duplication.
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THE PAGE 6 PRINT SHOP COLLECTION
The programs and icons on this set of disks have been collected from many sources but a great deal of the collating of Print Shop icons has been done by the Jersey Atari Computer Club in the U.S.A. to whom grateful thanks should be extended for providing so much support for Atari and Print Shop users. The Page 6 Print Shop Collection consists of 5 single sided disks, one of which contains several utility programs to use with Print Shop icons whilst the remaining four contain a collection of icons which you may use with Print Shop or with other utilities. You will need to make up working disks of your own from Disk #1 and the following notes should. be followed carefully.
BACKING UP:
We recommend that you make a back up of Disk #1 to use as a working copy in case anything should go wrong. The disk can be copied with a sector copier of by using DOS option J. To use DOS you must boot up your own version of DOS, do not try to use DOS from Disk #1 which has been modified. Do not try to copy the disk by transferring individual files to another disk. Put the original away and work from the back up. You may also back up the other disks in this way for safety. Whatever you do DO NOT TRY TO SAVE ANY FILES TO ANY OF THE ENCLOSED DISKS.
SETTING UP:
You need to make (at least) 2 disks of your own from Disk #1 to successfully and safely use all of the utilities provided. Follow procedure shown carefully.
1. THE GRAPHICS EDITOR: Boot up your system using your own version of DOS and make a second copy of your back up disk using the same procedure outlined above. Label this new disk Print Shop Graphics Editor. The following files must remain on the disk DOS.SYS, AUTORUN.SYS, PGRAPHS.COM, JOYSTIK.OBJ, KOALAPAD.OBJ, MOUSE.OBJ, EDITOR.DOC but all other files must deleted. Unlock the files with DOS Option G and then delete them with Option D. The finished disk will contain the full Print Shop Graphics Editor and will autorun when booted.
2. The UTILITIES: Re-boot with your own DOS if necessary. Format a blank disk and write DOS to the disk using Option H. Copy the following files using Option O or Option C if you have two drives – G.SYS, GRLOAD.DMP, PSLABELS, PSPICLOBJ, VIEWER.OBJ, PRSHOP2.OBJ and PACK3TL.OBJ. Next rename G.SYS to AUTORUN.SYS using Option E. The disk is now ready and should be labelled Print Shop Utilities. Whenever you wish to use GRLOAD.DMP you must boot with this disk to install the appropriate handler, although all the other programs can be run from other disks.
CREATING AUTORUN DISKS
Any of the programs with the OBJ extender may be made into an autorun disk if you wish. This is not essential but is often useful and is particularly recommended for the VIEWER program. The procedure is to format a blank disk, write DOS to the disk using Option H and then transfer the chosen file using Option 0 or Option C. The final step is to rename the file to AUTORUN.SYS using Option E. If you now boot up with this disk the program will autorun.
THE PROGRAMS
THE GRAPHICS EDITOR: Full instructions for this program are included in the file EDITOR.DOC and this should be dumped to your printer. Boot up your own DOS and type DOS to get the usual Menu. Insert your Graphics Editor disk in Drive 1 and use Option C to copy the file to your printer. In answer to the prompt COPY -- FROM,TO? type EDITOR.DOC,P: and the instructions will be printed as a formatted document.
GRLOAD: This is a simple Screen Dump for Epson compatibles that will allow you to dump 62 sector/Micropainter format files to your printer. These files can be created with some of the other utilities included in the collection. Note that you must boot up with the Print Shop Utilities disk you have created for this program to work. The program is in BASIC and should be run by typing RUN "D:GRLOAD.DMP". The prompts will ask for the size of picture required, number of copies and then the filename of the screen to be dumped. PSLABELS: This program will allow you to print address labels or other types of label incorporating any Print Shop Icon and, if you have alternative fonts available, to print text in your choice of font. Run the program from BASIC by typing RUN "D:PSLABELS". The screen prompts are fairly self explanatory and you may enter your text or icon in any order. Note that you cannot alter text once entered, you will have to re-type the label in full. The program is set up for 70mm × 24mm labels but wider labels can be used and deeper labels can be accommodated by adding extra ? #C2: commands to line 2260. The size of the print cannot be easily altered however and you will have to find the best position on the label if you are unable to obtain 70mm × 24mm labels.
PSPIC1: Load this program from DOS Option L or create an autorun disk as outlined earlier. The program allows any number of Print Shop icons to be loaded on to one screen for creative effects or reference. Load the first icon and indicate its position on the screen. Once loaded and displayed press RETURN to load another icon or save the picture. Icons may be overlaid or not as desired. The prompts are self explanatory and the only problem is getting used to the position of the x,y co-ordinates which relate to a Graphics 8 screen. With practice you should be able to create screens exactly as you wish. Once the desired screen is finished it may be saved in 62 sector format and this screen may then be dumped to an Epson compatible printer using the GRLOAD program mentioned earlier.
VIEWER: This may well be the most handy program you have! Load from DOS Option L or create an autorun disk as outlined earlier. The program will load six icons from any disk, display them on screen and dump them, complete with their filenames, to an Epson compatible printer. Never again will you need to wonder just what a particular icon looks like, you can build up a complete visual library of all of your Print Shop Icons. You may also use the program to visually check out icons by leaving your printer switched off.
PRSHOP2: Load this program from DOS Option L or create an autorun disk as outlined earlier. The program was originally written to enable Print Shop icons to be transmitted by modem but is useful in other ways. It can be used as a quick and easy way to check a directory of all icons on a disk or to view each icon in order. Any icon may be transferred to Atari DOS format so that icons can easily be rearranged on your disks using the normal DOS functions. Several different theme disks could be made up using the DOS copy functions and these can then be transferred back to conventional Print Shop format for use in the normal way. The prompts are fully self-explanatory.
PACK3TL: The program is an extension of the previous program that allows ‘theme packs’ to be made of your choice of icons. Again load the program from DOS Option L or create an autorun disk as outlined. The icons must have been transferred to Atari DOS format using PRSHOP2 and you then simply choose which icons you wish to include in a particular file. This file may then be transferred to another disk, ‘unpacked’ and then be transferred back to Print Shop format using PRSHOP2. These two programs used together are an ideal way to ensure that your most used icons are all on one or two disks.
THE ICONS: The remaining four disks in the PAGE 6 Print Shop Collection contain a wide variety of icons in Print Shop format that may be used with Broderbund’s Print Shop or with the utilities in this collection.
Two further Option Packs of additional icons are available each containing around 300 icons on 3 disks.
Print Shop is a trade mark of Broderbund. All of the programs and icons in this collection are, to the best of our knowledge and belief, in the public domain.
Expand the basic Print Shop collection with TWO unique OPTION PACKS of icons, each of which contains 3 disks and a total of over 375 icons. Altogether there are now over 1000 icons available through PAGE 6 – a must for every Print Shop owner. The two Option Packs are just £3.00 each and each pack has 3 disks.
Option Pack 1 has a collection of general icons of all types similar to those in the main Print Shop Collection whilst Option Pack 2 has, in addition to many general icons, dozens of ‘colour separated’ icons which allow you to use different coloured ribbons to build up multi-colour icons on your stationery, cards and letters etc. Quite unique! Complete your collection today!
A superb new arcade game which will prove a challenge to even the most seasoned player. Control the bounce of a ball to jump onto various platforms and find the exit, picking up points on the way. Sounds easy? What if some of the blocks disappear after the first bounce? What if some of the blocks are uni-directional bouncing you back the way you came? What if some blocks have to be used as lifts to reach inaccessible areas? Add to all that reverse control on some screens and 32 levels of increasing difficulty and you have a game that will challenge you to the limit. If you do manage to beat all 32 levels then the fun only just begins for there is a level editor to enable you to create whole new games of your own.
(c) 1992, 1993 Electrovision Programming/Stephen A. Firth
A BRAND NEW XL/XE ROM CARTRIDGE! EXCLUSIVE TO PAGE 6!
HYPNOTIC LAND
Yes, believe it or not, we have tracked down a brand new ROM CARTRIDGE for the XL/XE from Lindasoft in Italy who have produced this in conjunction with Atari Italy.
HYPNOTIC LAND is a version of the massive ST hit KLAX - a highly addictive, highly entertaining game that will challenge you to complete the first few levels and have you coming back for more - again and again!
The aim in HYPNOTIC LAND is to redirect mineral elements in the form of coloured balls into the corresponding coloured cup at the end of a ramp. To do this you must place arrows on the ramp to redirect a ball into an adjacent column. Remember to only put green balls into the green cup and so on. It seems easy but once you have mastered the first level, some despicable monsters start to appear to try and steal the balls. You can shoot them with the joystick but don’t forget you also have to keep one eye on the ramp! Sometimes special shining extra-balls will appear which can go in any cup and give bonus points.
HYPNOTIC LAND requires skill, concentration and quick reflexes. Can you manage it?
Like all the great classics a simple concept that has provided the foundation for a stunning and addictive computer game.
HYPNOTIC LAND is on ROM CARTRIDGE and will run on all XL/XE machines
Atari 400/800/XL/XE (48K Required)
(c) Database Software.
Distributed by Page 6 Software under licence.
Mini Office is the highly acclaimed suite of integrated programs which will turn your Atari into a versatile business machine.
Compose a letter with the WORD PROCESSOR. Set the Printout options using simple commands or menus and use the mail merge facility to produce personalised circulars.
Build a versatile card index with the DATABASE. Use the flexible printout routine, do powerful, multi-field sorting, perform all arithmetic functions and link directly with the word processor.
Design the layout of a label with the easy-to-use LABEL PRINTER. Select label size and sheet format, read in database files and print out in any quantity.
Prepare budgets and tables with the SPREADSHEET module. Total columns and rows with ease, copy formulae absolutely or relatively, and recalculate automatically.
With the GRAPHICS module you can produce pie charts, overlay line graphs and display bar charts side by side or stacked Enter data directly or load data from the spreadsheet.
Using a modem with the COMMS module you can access services such as McroLink and enjoy the excitement of Bulletin Boards.
We have found that a few of the programs in the PAGE 6 LIBRARY, particularly those in machine language, do not work properly on the XL models and are therefore making available the Atari Translator disk for persons who have purchased disks from the library. By booting the Translator first any problem programs you have should run okay on the upgraded 600XL or the 800XL.
We have just received this direct from ATARI in the States with permission to distribute it. Users of DOS 3.0 should get a copy, owners of a 130XE should definitely get a copy, 1050 users should have it whilst the old timers with 400/800’s and an 810 can save their money! DOS 2.5 is totally compatible with DOS 2.0 and will automatically format a disk in a 1050 drive in enhanced density giving 1010 sectors. There is provision to format in single density if required. There are additional utilities included for fixing bad disks and transferring files from DOS 3.0 to DOS 2.5. How do you use it? That’s easy, there is a complete manual on the disk which can be read with Atariwriter or sent to a printer or displayed on screen with a utility program on the disk. Everything you need is there.
If you have a 130XE you need this without question for it automatically sets up the top 64k as a ‘disk drive’ allowing automatic access to DOS and saving or running of programs without physically accessing the disk! It’s brilliant The original Master Disk came in enhanced format but as there will be some owners with a 130XE and an 810 drive we have transferred it to single density so it can be used by all.
This is the new ‘standard’ which everybody should have.
Set up your own Bulletin Board with ECABBS!
ECABBS is a full Bulletin Board that you can use as is or modify to your own requirements and will enable you to run a Bulletin Board from home provided you have a minimum of 40k with one disk drive and a modem with ring detect and answering circuitry.
ECABBS has previously only been available at a high price which included full back up and support from the author but he is no longer able to provide such support to new users and has therefore made the program Public Domain.
The disk is slightly more expensive than others in the library as it comes with a comprehensive 37 page manual to enable you to set up and modify the program.
Similar to Atari’s TRANSLATOR, this will allow the 800 operating system to be booted into an 800XL or 130XE thus allowing virtually all programs to run properly. Some programs in the library as well as many commercial programs require a translator and this is one of the best. Allows you to use an alternate character set and get access to an extra 4K of RAM and well as speed up the floating point routines. Boot this first, replace your disk with a boot disk or DOS disk and away you go!