About the games I wrote
A long time ago (still in school then, approx. between 1983 and 1986) I started programming games on the Atari 800XL. They were released as listings in a magazine called HOMECOMPUTER, which was published by Tronic-Verlag. There were no CD-ROMs or diskettes accompanying magazines at that time, so people had to type in the listings. I used the built-in programming language BASIC but reached it's limitations quite soon. So I began working out parts in Assembler.
People interested in this magazine can hop to Mr.Bacardi's Homepage (only in German), which is dedicated to the Tronic-Verlag.
The games are put together on disk images which you can download here:
- Disk image containing serveral games. There are some more games on it which are not listed below, but I didn't program them. A big thanks goes to Andreas Magenheimer, who created this disk image.
- Tombstone City. This was the first game I ever released in one of these magazines. In order to be able to send a copy to the magazine and due to lack of a printer I was forced to type it with a typewriter.
For running these games, you have to download an ATARI-Emulator and read how to set it up and run the games.
I've even uploaded the BASIC source code here - for all of you who want to see how source code looked like then.
So here comes the list of games available in the disk image. This is real low tech!
The Games
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Atlantis
(atlantis.bas) |
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Jack the Digger
(jackdig.bas) |
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Vulkan (vulkan.bas) |
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Magic Fire
(magfire.bas) |
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Cosmische Arche
(cosmic.bas) |
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Oilpanic
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Atari Emulator
For Windows PC, there's a command-line open source emulator for Atari 800XL available at Sourceforge.net.
For easier use of it, there's a Windows front end called Atari800Win Plus. It uses the emulator mentioned above as it's core. I recommend this to download.
You'll need the BASIC and Operation System ROMs for the emulator, which are not part of the downloads mentioned above. Download them from the Atari800 emulator project page at SourceForge.Net.
How to start the games
Emulator and ROMs downloaded? Good. If you haven't installed the ROMs, do so. Just open Atari800Win Plus, goto Menu "Atari -> Settings" and select the ROM files there.
For loading the disk image and starting a game, try this:
- Download one of the disk images from aboove, which contain the games, and unzip it. For unzipping, you can use the free 7-Zip.
- Load the disk image 'JBGAMES.ATR' (Menu 'File -> Autoboot Image')
- A DOS-like screen appears. Type DIR and ENTER to see a list of files on the disk image.
- Type BON (for 'BASIC ON') to start BASIC.
- To run a game, for example 'vulkan.bas', type CAR RUN "D:VULKAN.BAS". Important: On a German keyboard the " is typed by pressing the ä-key, the : is on the ü-key.
In the help of the emulator you'll find information about the keyboard layout, especially where the ATARI keys Start, Select etc. are simulated with.
