Atarimania Forum

I have obtained on loan a 110 page catalog from Dynacomp, from 1983. This has got to be almost the last or the very last catalog they put out before they dissapeard. Based on the listings (most with long descriptions and screenshots!) the Atarimania database was only about 60% complete for Dynacomp.
Here's a listing of all Atari educational and game titles, along with the media they were on. Some of these are spot on in the database already, but about half are totally new or have a minor correction. A few games already in the AM database look to have never been released for Atari, so I've called those out for removal below.
I will try and scan the catalog in, but the thing is small and the images are B&W (no geryscale) and printed on cheap newsprint stock. Many screenshots are almost unintelligable becuse of this.
I may not be able to get any detail in the scans,but I will try. At the very least, the descriptions should be readable.

The list:

Hodge Podge - looks same as Artworks version, 48K cass and disk
Botany Fruit Key - 32K disk only
Player Piano, cass and disk, 32K
Body Basics - 48K disk
Teacher's Gradebook - 48k disk
Math Whiz Quiz - 16k cass, 24k disk
Frog Master - 16k cass, 16k disk - ad notes that this won an APX award, so I assume it's the same as the APX version
Eliza II - 48k disk - ad says available for all computers except Apple, Commodore, North Star (BASIC) and Atari - so this may be a removal from the database
Crystals - note: it's a pretty pattern generator, 16k cass, 16k disk
Valley of the Kings - 48k disk only
Starship Landing Party Adventure - 48k cass, disk
Stud Poker - 16k cass, disk
Euchre - 32k cass, 48k disk
Bridge Master - 48k disk only
Poker Party - 24k cass, disk
Go Fish - 24k cass, disk
Baccarat - 24k cass, disk
Blackjack Coach - NOT available for Atari
Forest Fire - 24K cass, disk
Space Lanes - 24k cass, disk
Midway - 32k cass, disk
Gomoko II - 16k cass, disk (note screenshot looks nothing like the freeware Gomoko in the AM database)
Computhello - 24k cass, 32k disk, BASIC cart
Casino Craps - 16k cass, 24k disk
Sea War - (note : no screencap, but seems to be a battleship clone from the description) 48k cass, disk
Quintominoes - 16k cass, disk
Backgammon 2.0 - 24k cass, disk
Chompelo - (note: described as two different games in one program, Chomp (Nim) and Othello) 16k cass, disk
Management Simulator 24k cass, disk
Leipzig 1812 - 32k cass, 48k disk
Shiloh 1862 - 32k cass, 48k disk
Waterloo 1815 - 32cass, 48k disk
Dynacomp Battle Trilogy - above 3 wargames in one pack
Threat Force - 32k cass, 48k disk
Battlefield!!! - (note says this is a collection of 8 war games originally distributed by Xitron Systems) (note: screen shot does not look like Battlefield already in the AM database) - 48k cass, disk
Super Sub Chase - 24k cass, disk
Valdez (note: holy crap! this says it's an Alaska supertanker navigation sim!! YEARS BEFORE the Exxon Valdez disaster and even before the Exxon Valdez was built!) - 24k cass, disk
Monarch - 16k cass, disk
Space Evacuation - 24k cass, disk - (note: no ! in the name in this catalog)
Starbase 3.2 (note: a Trek clone) - 24k cass, disk
Flight Simulator - 16k cass, disk
Yacht Race - 48k disk only (note: I have this game, see other thread)
Cactus League Baseball - 40k disk only
Rollerball (note: description says it's the sci-fi sport of the future. 1997 to be exact.) - 16k cass, 24k disk
The Rings of the Empire - 16k cass, disk
Space Trap - 16k cass, disk
Intruder Alert - 16k cass, disk
Moonprobe - 16k cass, disk (note: catalog has this as one word, not two)
Games Pack I - 24k cass, disk
Games Pack II - 24k cass, disk
Space Tilt - 24k cass, disk
Li'l Men from Mars - 24k cass, disk (note: catalog has this spelled as: Li'l rather than Lil')
Escape from Volantium - 16k cass, disk
Super Tank Attack! - (note: catalog calls it a "much improved version of the arcade game Tank Attack!")24k cass, 32k disk
Final Assembly - 16k cass, 32k disk
Golf Pro - 16k cass, disk
Paper Boy - 24k cass, 32k disk
Diamond Hunter - cass, disk
Cosmos - 24k cass, 32k disk
Alvin - 16k cass, disk
Crazy Chase - cass, disk
Triple Blockade - 16k cass, disk (note: wow, this must be one of the earliest Tron Cycle games ever)
Dragonblast - 32k cass, 48k disk (note: looks similar to, but not as good as the dragon vs. thread game in Dragonriders of Pern)
Nebs - 32k cass, 48k disk

Wow, this is fantastic

Many thanks, FastRobPlus!!!

Wow! You never stop

FastRobPlus wrote:I have obtained on loan a 110 page catalog from Dynacomp, from 1983. This has got to be almost the last or the very last catalog they put out before they dissapeard. Based on the listings (most with long descriptions and screenshots!) the Atarimania database was only about 60% complete for Dynacomp.

Pretty sure we have a catalog somewhere (or scans) where some of the titles you mention here are listed but we didn't have the time to process all this information. What revision is your catalog? Ours would be something like #25 or #26...

Here's a listing of all Atari educational and game titles, along with the media they were on. Some of these are spot on in the database already, but about half are totally new or have a minor correction. A few games already in the AM database look to have never been released for Atari, so I've called those out for removal below.

Excellent!

I will try and scan the catalog in, but the thing is small and the images are B&W (no geryscale) and printed on cheap newsprint stock. Many screenshots are almost unintelligable becuse of this. I may not be able to get any detail in the scans,but I will try. At the very least, the descriptions should be readable.

We really need to let you know what we have exactly to avoid duplicate work. Maybe we'll ask you to scan only a handful of pages that weren't processed correctly on our scans. Give us a few days and we'll have the information.

Frog Master - 16k cass, 16k disk - ad notes that this won an APX award, so I assume it's the same as the APX version

Yep!

Just checking my papers now and I have some other titles not on this list (so we may have a more recent publication?). It appears Dynacomp just bought programs from other companies (sometimes defunct) and repackaged them. Chancellor of the Exchequer and MasterMatch are two of them.

Eliza II - 48k disk - ad says available for all computers except Apple, Commodore, North Star (BASIC) and Atari - so this may be a removal from the database

Actually appears in their December 1983 ad in Compute! and says "except Apple".

Crystals - note: it's a pretty pattern generator, 16k cass, 16k disk

I'm SURE I have this somewhere.

Blackjack Coach - NOT available for Atari

Says "all" in the same ad.

Battlefield!!! - (note says this is a collection of 8 war games originally distributed by Xitron Systems) (note: screen shot does not look like Battlefield already in the AM database) - 48k cass, disk

Valdez (note: holy crap! this says it's an Alaska supertanker navigation sim!! YEARS BEFORE the Exxon Valdez disaster and even before the Exxon Valdez was built!) - 24k cass, disk

One of us has this... somewhere!

I wonder if the company released anything after 1984 or relied on their back catalog. Actually, Dynacomp supported the Atari till 1990 or so!

Thanks a bunch for the hard work! These will be added shortly!

--
Atari Frog
http://www.atarimania.com

Atari Frog wrote:

Valdez (note: holy crap! this says it's an Alaska supertanker navigation sim!! YEARS BEFORE the Exxon Valdez disaster and even before the Exxon Valdez was built!) - 24k cass, disk

One of us has this... somewhere!

Ah, okay! So I have catalog 25. If there is a 26 or later (and it sounds like there is) it ought to have the same stuff as this and more, explaining why some of the titles like Eliza II gained Atari versions later on.

Hi Everyone

I just discovered this forum as I am just working now to transfer my atari 8-bit programs to my PC.

I authored several games by Dynacomp: Nebs, Super Tank Attack!, Paper Boy

I have the original source code, etc. over the next few weeks as I get access to the source code and make disk images I will post data for these games.

I am now in my forties but fondly remember programming these games when I was 14 years old and getting a royalty check each month from Dynacomp. FYI, I drew the aliens on graph paper by hand, then calculated the binary values and actually think I still have the "design documents" from 1982/1983. If I can get ahold of those I'll scan those in as well.

- Ron Kim

Hello Ron, great to hear from you!

It would be very cool to see the source code and design docs.

Royalties at 14 must indeed have been tremendous [img::]http://www.atariage.com/forums/public/s ... _smile.gif[/img] .

Hopefully we can preserve this stuff so that it isn't lost.