Missing Atari 8-bit titles

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#31 Post by www.atarimania.com » Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:01 am

Garry wrote:
Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:16 am
Simple Adventure and Mini Adventure have different authors and different descriptions. I think both were advertised at the same time. One has graphics, the other makes no mention of graphics. We won't know for sure until they are both found.
Sorry, I pointed to the wrong Simple Adventure. It's this one:
http://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C94 ... nture.html

Note the addition of Mini Adventure by Steve Hillen to the library in issue 12 of Monitor (page 25). The listing is on the next page.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#32 Post by www.atarimania.com » Mon Nov 28, 2022 10:42 am

Garry wrote:
Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:16 am
Page 6 had a lot of exclusive titles, but being public domain, they made their way into other PD libraries. As you noted, the reverse also happened. The Page 6 library is available online, but none of the other PD libraries are available as a coherent whole as far as I know. If you have any further info on origins or availability, feel free to add it as a note. Every little bit helps.
There may be others of course but I can only think of these two exclusive titles (type-ins and disk bonuses are another story of course):
http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_at ... 3_8_G.html

My opinion is that assigning a publisher or company to a public domain title doesn't make much sense, only the original author counts. Sometimes, you can track down the coder, notice he was part of a user group and make some kind of connection but that's about it. Most of these programs were just copied by the programmer to a friend who in turn gave it to somebody else and that's how software circulated and spread. It's a bit uncommon to see a game being sent directly to the maintainer of a PD library. Make no mistake, Page 6 just picked up most of the titles from copied disks that were "floating around".

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#33 Post by www.atarimania.com » Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:03 am

Strident wrote:
Mon Nov 28, 2022 7:57 am
Personally, if I can find an earlier example of the game being circulated (through a verifiable source, such as a contemporary library catalogue or magazine source) then I'll remove references like those Page 6 ones and resort to using the author as a fallback publisher. So, as Garry says, if you have any specific information and references to share then I can look at entries on a case-by-case basis. We do want the archive to be accurate and earlier publication should, at the very least, be mentioned in the notes section.
Well, let's take the example of Arcade Adventure again. Actually, I didn't even know the game was part of the Page 6 Library before I saw it listed under that publisher on the site. I got this file from a user in the US who decided it was time to archive his software "collection" from the mid-eighties. The title was just on a disk with other cracked BASIC programs and that's how it ended up on our site. Sometimes, it's more a matter of guesswork to find out the origins, you don't necessarily have a reliable source to work with because of the way games circulated from user to user back in the day. In short, the fact that Blah Blah Blah Adventure ends up in a PD collection doesn't mean much.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#34 Post by www.atarimania.com » Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:33 am

Alex wrote: Alptraum
Saw your comment about the game showing corruption. Let me know if this side works:
http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/Alptraum.zip

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#35 Post by Strident » Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:04 pm

www.atarimania.com wrote:
Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:03 am
Well, let's take the example of Arcade Adventure again. Actually, I didn't even know the game was part of the Page 6 Library before I saw it listed under that publisher on the site. I got this file from a user in the US who decided it was time to archive his software "collection" from the mid-eighties. The title was just on a disk with other cracked BASIC programs and that's how it ended up on our site. Sometimes, it's more a matter of guesswork to find out the origins, you don't necessarily have a reliable source to work with because of the way games circulated from user to user back in the day. In short, the fact that Blah Blah Blah Adventure ends up in a PD collection doesn't mean much.
Well, we're always happy to review and amend any listings to correct them or add additional sources... so please feel free to flag up anything you think needs investigating further. In the case of the two Ray Wilmott games, it is useful to have the Page 6 disk references on there, as additional information on the notes, but I agree that having "Page 6" listed as the publisher is potentially confusing. I've changed the publisher there to "Ray Wilmott" at the moment, in the absence of any other publisher to credit.

It seems like Ray, who hailed from Spotswood, New Jersey, was a very active Atari user in the US, particularly on GEnie, and a keen collector of software (particularly PD titles) for the 8-bit machines. There's mentions of him in issues of Current Notes, Atari User, Page 6 and Atari Classics. He put together a nice list, in 1992, of various Atari PD companies and magazines still supporting the machines...

He mentions Page 6 in the Space Newsletter of November 1991: "Just thought that with the lack of 8-bit magazine coverage these days, some of you out there might appreciate me passing along this info. I just recently stumbled across a nicely done, slick British mag covering the 8-bit Ataris. lt's called New Atari User by Page 6 Publishing."

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#36 Post by www.atarimania.com » Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:26 pm

Strident wrote:
Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:04 pm
Well, we're always happy to review and amend any listings to correct them or add additional sources... so please feel free to flag up anything you think needs investigating further. In the case of the two Ray Wilmott games, it is useful to have the Page 6 disk references on there, as additional information on the notes, but I agree that having "Page 6" listed as the publisher is potentially confusing. I've changed the publisher there to "Ray Wilmott" at the moment, in the absence of any other publisher to credit.
Only the non-type-in / non-exclusive material marked "Page 6" struck me as odd, the others appear to be fine. I'll let you know if I see something weird.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#37 Post by Garry » Sun Jan 01, 2023 4:56 am

www.atarimania.com wrote:
Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:33 am
Saw your comment about the game showing corruption. Let me know if this side works:
http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/Alptraum.zip
That's the version I had. You can't view the files because the directory is offset by one sector and it has a customised DOS.SYS. I think I've fixed it and sent the files to Alex to test. If it's okay, I'll send it to you to replace the dodgy copy on atarimania.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#38 Post by www.atarimania.com » Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:51 pm

This version was fixed by DjayBee and is supposed to work:
http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/Alptraum.zip

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#39 Post by Garry » Tue Jan 03, 2023 3:20 am

That's only one enhanced density disk. The original was two enhanced density disks. Are you sure it's complete? Perhaps Alex could test both.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#40 Post by www.atarimania.com » Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:18 am

Alex only mentioned an issue with the first side, that's why I didn't bother with the second disk.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#41 Post by Garry » Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:20 am

Gotcha.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#42 Post by Alex » Tue Jan 03, 2023 8:02 pm

www.atarimania.com wrote:
Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:51 pm
This version was fixed by DjayBee and is supposed to work:
http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/Alptraum.zip
Yes, this one does work . I'll try to solve the game.

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#43 Post by Alex » Wed Jan 04, 2023 9:49 pm

www.atarimania.com wrote:
Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:18 am
Alex only mentioned an issue with the first side, that's why I didn't bother with the second disk.
I have completed the first disk and it works fine. I'm playing the second disk and almost finished it. Some of the pictures are blurred, Can you also upload the second disk so I can check if it is better?

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#44 Post by www.atarimania.com » Thu Jan 05, 2023 9:37 am

Unmodified so it may be the same as the one you already have but the dump is more recent (2016) and comes from an original:
http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/Alptraum_side_B.zip

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Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles

#45 Post by Alex » Thu Jan 05, 2023 9:20 pm

Thanks! That one has all correct images.

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