Atari 8-bit

Nov 23, 2022
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Goto 10
Getting Started with Retro Computing I
If you like what you’ve been seeing here on Goto 10 and are interested in getting into retro computing yourself, then here are some tips/guidance/ideas/suggestions. This will be split into multiple parts as there are so many systems to consider. To start, I’m going to focus on the Atari 8-bit, as I tend to do. In later posts I will cover the Atari ST and…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 6 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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A Brief History of Atari 8-bit Computers, Part 2
In 1983 Atari was still losing money in general and it is not really known if the computer division itself was profitable or not. But either way, parent company Warner Communications wanted out. By late spring they were looking for buyers. It just so happened that about that time, Jack Tramiel was starting his own company (Trammel Technologies…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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A Brief History of Atari 8-bit Computers, Part 1
In the 1970s, Atari was primarily making arcade games. Due to the success of home versions of Pong that connected to a TV, a project to create a home video game system with swappable games was started in the mid-1970s and it eventually became the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), released in 1977…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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Animal, The First AI?
A popular BASIC game from the early 1970s was something called Animal. In it, the computer tried to guess the animal you were thinking of. It started off by not knowing just one animal. It then asked you a question and made a guess. When it guessed wrong it asked you for a yes/no question that will help it differentiate your pick with its guess…
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2 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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A BASIC Valentine
I’ve been reading through some issues of Family Computing recently. It’s not really my favorite magazine as the content is rather lightweight. But the February 1985 issue had a nice interview with Jack Tramiel which I enjoyed. It also had some BASIC programs to create a Valentine which I thought was appropriate for today…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
My 40 Years of Computing — what’s yours?
Welcome back to the Goto 10 Free Friday post! Of course, if you’re a free subscriber you’ve only seen about half of the Goto 10 posts (and are missing out on perks). If you’d like even more Goto 10 content, with extra posts on Mondays, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 11 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Why Did Early Computers Use a ROM OS?
Today’s computers boot their entire OS from disk. But back at the beginning, computers had their OS in ROM. One big benefit of a ROM OS was that the computer would boot almost instantly. For example, the Commodore 64, like most 8-bits, had its OS and BASIC in ROM. It also had its DOS in the ROM of the disk drive, which was somewhat unusual. But his all meant that it could boot in just a couple seconds and be ready to use…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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10 Types of People
As the old joke goes, “There are 10 types of people, those that understand how binary numbers work and those that don’t.” Let’s get you into the “understand” group. Binary is the type of numbering system that is native to computers. It is base-2. Numbers that normal people work with are called decimal or base-10…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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The Terribleness of using Cassettes for Data Storage
Who else started using computers with a cassette drive? When we got our first computer, an Atari 400, it didn’t have any way to save BASIC programs at all. I would have to leave it on for days at a time to save something I was working on. I then would hand-write it on paper to “save” it…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 5 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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BomBer: A BASIC Game
Another BASIC game I made back in the 80s was one that I actually designed with one of my younger sisters. She had expressed interest in all this “computer stuff” I was doing and wanted to know what it would take to make a game. So we sat together for about a week and made a game. It was a riff on Canyon Bomber and we called it BomBer because for some re…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 4 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Tower of Atari
Squeezed into my tiny office is my collection of Atari computers. At the bottom is an Atari 1040ST, above it an 800XL, above that a 130XE and then finally at the top is my Atari CC1010 calculator. Don’t miss out on the Goto 10 Year-End Sale! Save 20% on a…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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Advent of Code 2022 in BASIC
I was encouraged to give this year’s Advent of Code a try. If you’ve not heard of Advent of Code it is an annual programming puzzle that takes place in December. Each day leading up to Christmas has a new puzzle with two parts. This was the first time I had looked at…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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Asteroid Run
An early game I made was called Asteroid Run. This game used a redefined character set and Graphics mode 0 to fill a screen with asteroids. Your ship moved up through the screen and you had to move it left/right to avoid asteroids while picking up satellites for points. You had a shield that allowed you to fly through an asteroid without dying…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Drawing a Spiral in BASIC
A while ago I came across this short snippet of BASIC code, originally written for QuickBASIC 4.5: CLS RANDOMIZE (TIMER) x = 320 y = 240 r = 100 c = 1 SCREEN 12 PSET (x, y - r), 0 FOR a = 0 TO 72 STEP .01 LINE -(x + r * SIN(a), y - r * COS(a)), c…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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LCDs vs. CRTs
These days most computer displays (and TVs) are LCDs. But not too long ago, everything was a CRT. Let’s talk a bit about the difference and what the pros/cons are for using with retrocomputing. This is a Monday paid post. Friday posts are free. If you’d like access to this post and many others (plus…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Text Adventure Game Maps
Apparently it is Black Friday so I should point out the Goto 10 sale: 20% off paid yearly subscriptions. Thanks for reading! Although I did enjoy playing text adventure games back in the 80s, I don’t recall many that I finished. One that I remember liking, probably because I had recently read the book, was…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Atari 8-bit Cartridges
The Atari 8-bit computers were an interesting combination of a powerful 8-bit computer and a great video game console. One big aspect of this is that cartridges, especially game cartridges, were very common on the Atari. Other similar systems, such as the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64 and TI 99/4a, also had cartridges but it sure feels like the Atari 8…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 4 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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More About ANALOG Computing
After my last post about ANALOG Computing magazine, I had a lot of replies and comments and learned some new things I thought I would pass along. First, I forgot to mention the other ANALOG-related item in my collection: An Atari 8-bit Extra. This supplemental came out in 1987 and had 20 type-in programs that were never published in the magazine…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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ANALOG Computing Magazine
In the US, the two main Atari (8-bit) Magazines were ANALOG Computing and Antic. I also liked Compute!, because it covered lots of computers and allowed me to see non-Atari stuff. Still, ANALOG was easily my favorite as it had the most in-depth articles and usually better game listings. Since there was no internet back then and I didn’t use a modem at t…
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2 years ago · 8 likes · 8 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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From Atari 8-bit to Atari ST
When I started college as a Computer Science major in the late 80s, I was still using our Atari 800XL. I remember the first time I turned in a Pascal assignment using it and the professor wrote on the printout “what computer is this?” for an example that was supposed to show a division by 0 error, but in Kyan Pascal instead just showed 0…
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2 years ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Atari 130XE Video Problems
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my newly acquired Atari 130XE has some video troubles. After unboxing it and hooking it up to my LCD using s-video, I saw that the default screen in BASIC is red. It should be blue: I tried a few games and although they all look OK, you can tell the colors are not quite right…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Inside the Atari 130XE
As I showed in the unboxing, I recently picked up an Atari 130XE. For those unaware, the 130XE was announced in at the January 1985 CES, the first one after Jack Tramiel took over Atari from Warner in July 1984. The 130XE is a slimmed down 8-bit machine, compatible with the 800XL and those before it, but it had 128K of RAM. It shipped in the first half o…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 6 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Taking Screenshots in 1984
We are all spoiled. It is so easy to get screenshots these days. For best quality, I often take screenshots from an emulator because I can easily grab it from my Mac. But it’s also pretty trivial to take a digital photo of the retro computer display…
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2 years ago · 1 like · Paul Lefebvre
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Unboxing an Atari 130XE
Watch now (1 min) | I recently picked up my very first Atari 130XE. I’ve wanted one of this since they came out in 1985, but never actually acquired one. When originally released they retailed for $149 (that’s about $400 in 2022) which actually was a great value for the time. But it does make you realize how expensive computers were back then. You can get…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 7 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Inside the Atari 800XL
Although I now have an Atari 800XL, it is not the one I had as a kid. This one is a later model because it has the Rev. C BASIC built-in. It is not modified in any way. If you zoom in on the picture below a bit, you’ll notice the Option key is somewhat worn out. This is pretty common because you have to hold down Option to disable the built-in BASIC, wh…
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2 years ago · 14 likes · 8 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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8-bit Baseball Games
Spring is here and baseball season is upon us making this one of my favorite times of the year. As a teenager in the mid-80s, my two favorite hobbies were playing baseball and making BASIC programs on my Atari 800XL. In the summer of 1986, I got to combine both…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 6 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
OSS 4-in-1 Cartridge
I already own the OSS Action! and BASIC XL cartridges, but never had the MAC/65 assembler and I no longer have the BASIC XE cartridge that I owned in the 80s. These all are pretty difficult to find and can be expensive when they show up. Technically you don’t need the cartridge at all since there are now images available for these things, but I like cart…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Archimedes Spiral in BASIC
I’ve reviewing some of my ANALOG Computing magazines, starting with Issue 1 and have come up with a few things that I’ll be highlighting here. On of those things is a short BASIC program to display an Archimedes Spiral from ANALOG Computing Issue 7…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 7 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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Understanding the Atari DOS 2 File Format, Part 1
In ANALOG Computing Issue 8, Tony Messina writes about the DOS disk format in his Utility column. In this issue he discusses the DOS disk format, focusing on the data, directory and boot sectors. I loved reading about this again to refresh my memory on how this all worked. Atari single-sided disks held just 90K. There were 720 sectors, each 128 bytes in …
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
The ANALOG Computing Pocket Reference Card
Unlike programming today, one cool thing about coding back in the early days is that there were a lot fewer things you needed to know. In many cases, you could fit everything onto a reference card, such as The Analog Computing Pocket Reference Card that came in an issue of…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Activision Hacker
It’s been a crazy week, so I just have a short post for you today. As I mentioned previously, I didn’t consider myself a big gamer, but I often enjoyed games on my Atari 800XL. One game I especially liked was Hacker by Activision. With Hacker you started off with a blank screen and had to figure out how to hack into Magma, Ltd systems to save the world…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
My First (rejected) Magazine Submission
One of the first programs of a decent size that I actually got to completion was something I called DOSBOS. It was a “utility” that let you view disk contents from BASIC. It was not very elegant as itself was a BASIC program. I remember that my Dad was very impressed with it and even typed up my docs at work so he could print it for me to submit to a mag…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Happy Pi Day
Happy Pi Day (March 14 or 3/14 as we write here in the US)! This reminded me of an article in ANALOG Computing that draws a circle using smaller and smaller lines. After a little digging, the article is called CalcPi and is from the February 1986 ANALOG Computing (Issue 39…
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2 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Antic: The Atari Podcast
Bonus Post! Earlier today, my email was blowing up with new subscriptions to Goto 10, even before this week’s post, Programming the Atari with BASIC, was published. After a bit of digging, I found out that Goto 10 got a shout-out on the latest episode (86 - Tangents) of…
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3 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Programming the Atari with BASIC
I mentioned in an earlier post that I learned to program on my Atari 400 and 800XL, starting with Atari BASIC. Compared to other BASICs of that era, Atari BASIC was a little odd. Perhaps the biggest oddity was its string support. In other BASICs, you created a string by putting $ at the end of the variable name. So you could write something like this…
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3 years ago · 8 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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Unofficial Atari: Visual History Book
I recently picked up a copy of this book from Greyfox Books back in October 2021. It cost me €25 plus another €24 for shipping from the UK (about $55 total). It arrived reasonably quick, a week or so if memory serves. The book is from 2019, so it is not new, but then it’s not like the games highlighted in the book have changed at all in the past 35 years…
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3 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Improving the 1050 floppy drive with SpartaDOS and US Doubler
As I mentioned in the Wonderful Atari 800XL, we had upgraded our 1050 disk drives with a US Doubler chip. The purpose of this chip was to 1) bring it up from dual-density to true double density and 2) greatly increase the transfer speed. The US Doubler was from ICD, a popular maker of hardware peripherals and enhancements for Atari 8-bits. We also had t…
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3 years ago · 2 likes · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Upgrading to the Atari 800XL
I really liked the Atari 400, but it did have some problems. The obvious first problem was the terrible keyboard. Sure, it was better than some of the awful membrane keyboards of the time, but it still was not good.You are reading Goto 10, the retrocomputing newsletter with a focus on Atari stuff…
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3 years ago · 3 likes · 4 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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My First Atari Computer: The Atari 400
Since I was getting bored with the Atari 2600, after a while I again started bugging my parents to get a real computer. This time it worked, because at some point my Dad came home with an Atari 400. This would have been sometime in 1983 as that’s when prices for home computers started dropping significantly. I’m pretty sure my Dad got the Atari 400 at…
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3 years ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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My Atari Origins
Welcome to Goto 10, the newsletter about retro computing with an Atari focus…
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3 years ago · 1 like · Paul Lefebvre

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A Brief History of Atari, Part 1
In honor of Atari’s 50th anniversary this week, I present A Brief History of Atari over the next three weeks, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything! It all started with Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari on June 27, 1972 after his first company (Syzygy) and first arcade game (Computer Space) failed, probably because of their terrible names. Atar…
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2 years ago · 8 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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A Brief History of Atari, Part 2
Be sure to read A Brief History of Atari, Part 1 if you haven’t already. It covers the inception of Atari, including the creation of the VCS and 8-bit computers. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the final installment of A Brief History of Atari next week…
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2 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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Trooper 2 Atari-style USB Joystick
Welcome back to this week’s free Goto 10 post. First, it’s time for a quick poll: The poll is open for 3 days. Be sure to check back for the results. Now on to the main topic! I wanted to test out some games in a couple emulators, but I couldn’t find my old USB gamepad. Gamepads are fine but I grew up on Atari and I’m used to a joystick anyway…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Dragon and Snowflake Fractal Sweeps in BASIC
In the September 1985 issue of Compute! magazine, there was an article called Apple Fractals. The article included three programs written in Apple II BASIC: The Dragon Sweep, Eight Thousand Dragons and The Snowflake Sweep. I recently found a printout of the Dragon and Snowflake sweep programs that I had converted to Atari BASIC (apparently I never tried …
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
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My First BASIC Programs
Our family got our first computer in 1983 (an Atari 400), but unlike most computers of the time the Atari computers did not come with BASIC built-in. So we mostly used it as a fancier version of the Atari 2600. Eventually in the late 1983, perhaps for Christmas, we got the Atari BASIC cartridge which meant I could finally type in and run actual programs…
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2 years ago · 13 likes · 9 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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Atari Painter in BASIC
In my continuing series of Atari BASIC programs I wrote in the 80s as I was first learning to program, I present Atari Painter. The title screen says it is “the ultimate drawing game”. I’m not sure what sort of teenager arrogance I had back then, but it was certainly strong! This program is not a game. It does let you draw on the screen using a joystick…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Atari's Best 8-bit: The 130XE with 128K
This is a free Friday post. Enjoy! Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss them. You can also become a paid subscriber to get extra Monday posts and many perks. 130XE Repaired! You might recall that earlier this summer I picked up an Atari 130XE in the box on eBay…
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2 years ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Paul Lefebvre
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Change the Atari BASIC "READY" Prompt
One fun thing you can do with an Atari XL/XE is move the ROM BASIC into RAM. And once it is in RAM you can modify it with the POKE command. In Compute! November 1985 Reader Comments, there was a short program to copy BASIC to RAM, which also patches the Rev B BASIC to be Rev C…
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2 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Returning to Retro Computing
End of an Era By 1995 I had been working professionally as a software developer for about a year, mostly doing DOS development, but using Microsoft Windows (and OS/2). In 1995, my poor Mega STe was showing its age. Although it was maxed out with 4MB RAM, its 16Mhz CPU was falling way behind current computers. At this point I primarily used it with Usenet to sell (manually, auction-style, pre-eBay) retro video game stuff I would buy at local flea markets and pawn shops…
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2 years ago · 1 like · Paul Lefebvre
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Animation with Player/Missile Graphics
A common feature of many 8-bit computers is something called sprites or as they are called in the Atari world, player/missile graphics. Regardless of the name, these are small objects that can be shown and moved around on the screen independent of what might already be shown there. A sprite might be the space ships in Space Invaders, Pac-Man itself or an…
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2 years ago · 3 likes · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Pumpkin Man: A (Simple) BASIC Game
Last week I showed how to create a Player (aka Sprite) in the shape of a pumpkin that you could move around the screen with the joystick. The code was written in Atari BASIC and used an ML subroutine to actually move the player (well, actually it was two players side-by-side but moved together to look like on larger player…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
Atari Book Haul
I keep an eye on Atari eBay auctions in case something interesting pops up. One thing I’m a big fan of are magazines (check out my ANALOG collection) and books. I had a ton of Atari 8-bit related books back in the day, but of course they had been sold off long ago…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Paul Lefebvre
Goto 10
8-bit Wars: Atari vs. Commodore VIC-20
8-bit Wars is a series where I compare other 8-bit systems to Atari’s 8-bit computers. I’m an Atari guy, so there’s bound to be some bias. Please comment should you disagree with my comparisons. The Atari 8-bit computers started shipping in Fall 1979. The entry-level model, the Atari 400, cost $549. The Commodore VIC-20 was released in 1981 at a price of $299 and was Commodore’s first computer with color graphics, as previously they only had the monochrome, all-in-one PET computers. So how did the Commodore VIC-20 compare to the Atari 8-bits…
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2 years ago · 4 likes · Paul Lefebvre
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Computing Costs in the Day
Believe it or not, the cost of computing has dropped dramatically since the early days. It’s fun to look back at early computing to see how things were done back then, but one thing that is often overlooked is what things actually cost. You’ll see people complain today about how expensive a Mac Pro ($6,000) or some software is today but let’s take a look…
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2 years ago · 6 likes · 4 comments · Paul Lefebvre

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