jetset's "Please help me" thread

oesii · Post by **oesii** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:19 am

I'm pretty sure TurboBasic is only for XL/XE:

Turbo Basic FAQ

But you always download some disk images or manuals and try it out

ftp://ftp.spudster.org/CTH/Programming/TurboBasic/

John E. · Post by **John E.** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:38 pm

There was a version of Turbo BASIC available for 48k 400/800 machines. Not sure if it incorporated everything in Turbo BASIC XL, but it was definitely out there.

Post by **deathtrappomegranate** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 2:44 pm

Turbo Basic wasn't realeased on cart at the time, but was available on disk, both for the XL/XE and for earlier models. It may well exist on one of the modern "multicarts".

OSS released BASIC XL and BASIC XE on cart (although BASIC XE also required the accompanying disk for the full reange of functions).

jetset · Post by **jetset** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:03 pm

deathtrappomegranate wrote: OSS released BASIC XL and BASIC XE on cart (although BASIC XE also required the accompanying disk for the full reange of functions).

Ok, stupid question...

Who/What is OSS ?

Post by **Andre** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 8:21 pm

jetset wrote: Who/What is OSS ?

AFAIK, Optimized Systems Software is a company founded by former Atari employees, who worked on Atari Basic and Atari Assembler. OSS programming languages (Basic XL and XE, MAC/65, Action!, Pascal) and utilities (toolkits to the programming languages, a word processing program I forgot the name of) were the best of the best in the middle 80s.

Post by **deathtrappomegranate** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:04 pm

http://www.laughton.com/paul/abps/oss/two_births.html

http://www3.sympatico.ca/maury/other_st ... basic.html

The first link is a portion of the book "Inside Atari DOS", and the second is more general.

There's a lot more stuff around about this, but these two relate to one of the main guys at OSS.

The OSS BASICs were, pretty much, debugged and enhanced versions of Atari BASIC - what the language would have been if it hadn't been rushed to market to meet the Christmas '79 deadline (I believe that it was Sears who insisted on that timescale).

The Atari BASIC Sourcebook is highly recommended if you're at all interested in programming languages for the 8-bit machines.

jetset · Post by **jetset** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:25 am

Ok my friends...time for more help please!

I may have mentioned before, I have a disk with literally thousands of game (atr) files. Most work fine, some will not. I recently made an odd discovery... Satans Hollow.atr will not run properly for me. I also downloaded that file from a few other sites, same result.
Then I stumbled upon Homesoft's 8-bit Games page. He also has THOUSANDS of games, but most games are lumped together into one file, usually anywhere from 3-10 games in a single file, and all you do is select that game from a menu (a compilation so to speak)
Diskette #60 (on this page) http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/index.php?idx=S
contains 9 games including Satans Hollow. When I load the "GAMES60.ATR" file, and select Satans Hollow from the list...Satans Hollow runs fine 100% !

So...my question...
Can this game be "seperated" from the original games60.atr file into its own individual file ???

Post by **Atari Frog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:30 am

Check for ATRUTIL by Ken Siders. Don't have any URL handy but I'm fairly sure Google will find it.

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

jetset · Post by **jetset** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:50 pm

Atari Frog wrote:Check for ATRUTIL by Ken Siders. Don't have any URL handy but I'm fairly sure Google will find it.

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

After much googling, I found it, and was able to seperate the file(s), but they are in ".com" form, and need to be in ".atr" form. Is there a program for this ?

oesii · Post by **oesii** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:18 pm

Are you using the APE software? The PC-mirror part of APE lets you run all executables through a menu. Atari executables are .com, .xex, or .exe

oesii · Post by **oesii** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:21 pm

Ken also has a utility on his webpage that lets you make .atr images from executables:

http://atari.ksiders.tzo.com/a8emulators.html

Ken's ATR/DCM Dos utilities

Post by **Atari Frog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:55 pm

DO NOT make ATR images from executables or BASIC files: it's confusing and useless. There's already some severe disorganization because of those multiple ATR files of all sizes and the shitty TOSEC system, don't make things even worse please!

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

jetset · Post by **jetset** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:16 pm

Are .com filed considered executables ?

Post by **Atari Frog** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:38 pm

Yes, either .com, .exe, .xex... We only use .com because it's more practical and it's no use having zillions of extensions for the same kind of files.

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

jetset · Post by **jetset** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:49 pm

oesii wrote:Are you using the APE software? The PC-mirror part of APE lets you run all executables through a menu. Atari executables are .com, .xex, or .exe

Ok, this part I might be able to handle.
SO....say for example, I have the satans hollow.com file (which I rename satan.com so it is under 8 characters)
I just click the pc-mirror button, and turn on the 800 and I'll be at the "c" drive, at which point I change to the directory with the "satan.com" file, and just type "satan.com" (sans quotes) and it will run then?