Noelio Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I don't know HOW rare this is, but I haven't found any other online. Its contents are in English & French, so I would imagine it is a french canadian company.(?) It's a folder style case with 6 tapes inside. the games are actually pretty good, but obvious knock offs of arcade games at the time. I have no idea how to do cassette dumps, but I will read up on it as this collection is really worth the download. If you have directions / howto, I will get right to it as I just bought a brand spankin new XC-12 from B & C solely for this purpose. Image attached. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noelio Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Its listed as unbelievably rare. Sounds like I got a gem! I had this since I was a kid. In fact, I got a 600XL & this tape set for Christmas, with no tape deck! Had to wait about six months before I could use it hahaha. Some really well done games. I hope I can dump it but I am slightly concerned where there are approx 3 second pauses (tape stops then starts again) between load chimes. Might be an early piracy prevention scheme... Not sure. http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...VERSION_ID=1224 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 (edited) If you capture the audio from the cassettes as a high quality WAV file, there are a number of utilities including WAV2CAS that will convert the files to .CAS images. Very nice item, Atarimania lists it as a 10. Steve Edited April 4, 2007 by classics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Congratulations, this is an ultra rare item! The last time I saw this set on eBay was seven years ago... and I grabbed it! All games are written in BASIC but Maze Master is a very nice Pac-Man clone. The other programs range from utter crap to fair. Haven't been successful with the CAS conversion so far but maybe I'm just not very good at it... If you want to give it a try, please make sure you transfer the whole tapes as they are (so we have six original CAS images). Do you have any other games from Canada? We're mainly looking for the following titles: - anything by Monticello Data Systems - Time Zone and The Word Bird by IPS - Password Adventure by Inter-8 - Alien Numbers and Math Pack by Inhome Software - Bug Runner by ISIS - anything else not listed Do you have any issues of ROM Magazine? Thanks! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noelio Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Congratulations, this is an ultra rare item! The last time I saw this set on eBay was seven years ago... and I grabbed it! All games are written in BASIC but Maze Master is a very nice Pac-Man clone. The other programs range from utter crap to fair. Haven't been successful with the CAS conversion so far but maybe I'm just not very good at it... If you want to give it a try, please make sure you transfer the whole tapes as they are (so we have six original CAS images). Do you have any other games from Canada? We're mainly looking for the following titles: - anything by Monticello Data Systems - Time Zone and The Word Bird by IPS - Password Adventure by Inter-8 - Alien Numbers and Math Pack by Inhome Software - Bug Runner by ISIS - anything else not listed Do you have any issues of ROM Magazine? Thanks! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com This is the only cassette pack I have. I am in the process of recording the tapes via sony sound forge 8, so the masters should be good. I went with 8 bit mono 44,100. The problem, I think, is the strange pauses in the second phase of loading each game. Would be nice to copy direct to ATR disk somehow too. If my attempt fails, I think we will have to find the former cymbal company reps to maybe release their sources, if they still have it. A few games in there I really liked as a kid. Lots of cheese too! If I had somewhere to upload the whole tape images, id be happy to do so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I am in the process of recording the tapes via sony sound forge 8, so the masters should be good. I went with 8 bit mono 44,100. Great! The problem, I think, is the strange pauses in the second phase of loading each game. You're right, that's some unusual protection... Would be nice to copy direct to ATR disk somehow too. Pretty sure somebody will be able to crack the good games so I wouldn't worry. If my attempt fails, I think we will have to find the former cymbal company reps to maybe release their sources, if they still have it. The good news is that we have two copies now so I'm confident we'll manage to archive all the games somehow... If I had somewhere to upload the whole tape images, id be happy to do so. Feel free to send the compilation to us, we'll make it available for download on our site Thanks! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathtrappomegranate Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 If you have difficulty, you can send the .wav files to me, and I'll have a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noelio Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 cool... On tape 4/6 now. Is there an upload ftp I can fire the raw .wavs up on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 the artwork is really 80s style... maybe i should dig out my tons of tapes for vic 20 and atari as well? maybe there is something in my basement as well? .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noelio Posted April 7, 2007 Author Share Posted April 7, 2007 Hi Folks, In the spirit of Easter Weekend, when I first got to actually ever use these tapes I got for Christmas '83 or '84 (not 100% sure), The first try at conversion from cassette was 70% successful. I think 23 years of living with my destructive powers has proven early 80's computer tape technology as fairly reliable. Considering these tapes spent half their life in a locker that was situated close to large guitar stack amps etc for half their life , I'm surprised ANY games work! It's a 10 on the Atarimania rarity scale - Unbelievably rare. So to many, this is new software! Cool! Don't forget to read the readme in order to use properly! And make sure to install Atari800Win to start playing right away. http://www.ngmmedia.com/users/atariism/tap...re_Games-20.rar Enjoy! Noel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Is there a list somewhere if Canadian software houses that produced games for Atari 8-bits? I'd never really thought of the possibility of there being Canadian software that wasn't released in the U.S., I always just assumed that all the same software houses published and released the same stuff for a "north american market." But I've never seen or heard of some of these tape games, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Jefferson Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Do you have any issues of ROM Magazine? I have Vol 1, Issue 2 and Vol 1, Issue 3. I got them from a friend who's Dad ran a computer store in the early 80s. I never saw these magazines anywhere in stores myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 Is there a list somewhere if Canadian software houses that produced games for Atari 8-bits? Well, that's what the "search by country" option in our database is for... Add anything published in ROM Magazine and stuff from tiny Canadian software houses and you'll pretty much get a clear picture... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted April 7, 2007 Share Posted April 7, 2007 I have Vol 1, Issue 2 and Vol 1, Issue 3. If you have time, scans would be amazing! We could host them on our site... -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Has anybody be able to run some game from this archive? Tried with PLus and no single one works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Most of the games do work, they just need to be CLOADed. The loading scheme seems to be specific so it's difficult to reproduce working tape images for some of the programs. Someone has offered help to convert all titles to disk so stay tuned. -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 (edited) Oh, haven't realized that they are in BASIC... :] After checking... CASes 4 and 5 don't work (some errors, i think). Edited June 21, 2007 by miker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charliecron Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Just FYI, this set it on ebay again. Also, just FYI, I did get the first game to load on a real Atari as well, using Urchlays fantastic cassio. Havent tested other games yet. The author, Noelio, in his readme, mentions that the games will only run on an emulator, nonsense! Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Most of the games do work, they just need to be CLOADed. The loading scheme seems to be specific so it's difficult to reproduce working tape images for some of the programs. Someone has offered help to convert all titles to disk so stay tuned. And? Anything happened? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 ...second bump... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 If someone though that the project is dead... Click!. Many thanks to Fandal for working them out! Also remember check out his site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.atarimania.com Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Pretty cool Fandal got the games working! Maze Master is a really nice one especially! -- Atari Frog http://www.atarimania.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Any successes with dumping rest 25% of this collection? (and those 75% are still absent on Atarimania site...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miker Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 (edited) Bumping topic once more... Or maybe anybody has the copy of it, too (and can retrieve the rest)? Edited November 10, 2010 by miker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oo7 Posted March 20, 2014 Share Posted March 20, 2014 OMG I had this as a kid and couldnt remember what it was all called. Is there a working copy of Maze Master? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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