Atari8guy Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 In my "I have nothing but free-time" fantasy world, I'd take the Bellcom PD archive and turn it into something like Aminet - then add other archives to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballyalley Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 I have archived all of the BELLCOM public domain library material that I have on my computer to Archive.org. I wrote a lengthy explanation of the collection in the description of the archive: https://archive.org/details/BELLCOMPublicDomainSoftwareAtari8Bit This is a collection of Atari 8-bit home computer public domain software from Don Bell's BELLCOM PD library that was based in Ontario, Canada starting in the mid-1980s. This archive was created in January 2022 and uploaded to Archive.org to try to facilitate and aid Atari fans who have had a difficult time finding this software as it moves and disappears from various places on the Internet. There have been several people in this thread who have requested this Atari software when it has dropped out of view when an FTP server or website disappears. I hope that all Atari users are able to make use of this software and document archive. Keep in mind that I only collected this disk collection from other places on the Internet. The hard work of countless Atari fans over decades has allowed this collection to come into existence as one 352MB zip file that can be easily downloaded at any time. I hope that a community of Atari fans comes together to figure-out and sort through this large BELLCOM PD software collection and give some order to it. Perhaps one day there will be a website dedicated to this giant collection of Atari 8-bit home computer software. Or, maybe someone will be inspired to create a podcast detailing this collection of Atari software that Don Bell managed to collect and distribute to at least 40 countries around the world by the mid-1990s. Have fun sorting through these files. There is enough software here to keep any Atari fan busy for a lifetime. Enjoy! Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddyFree Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 Several years ago I started writing a small ATR utility but I never finished it. Got enough of it together to at least generate directory listings of ATRs with DOS 2.x, MyDOS, or SpartaDos directory structures. After reading some of this thread I decided to dust it off and run it on the entire Holmes BELLCOM ATR collection to generate a large directory listing that some here may find useful. Keep in mind that the program is raw and unfinished so some of the output is premature, may be incomplete, or even inaccurate. For example, if a file is listed as "Deleted" but also shows "Link Errors", please ignore those as deleted files will most likely have their file chains broken. If the ATR has a SpartaDOS directory and the link status is "Empty Sectors", ignore this too. There are a few disks in the BELLCOM collection that have the directory entries relocated to unconventional slots and that throws off the program also, these will usually have file entries showing a non-deleted status and broken chains with 0 sectors read. Bottom line is the listing isn't "perfect" but the vast majority is good. So find attached my Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR "Directory Dump". Hope someone gets some use out of it. Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR Directory Dump.zip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballyalley Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 45 minutes ago, EddyFree said: got enough of [my small ATR utility] together to at least generate directory listings of ATRs with DOS 2.x, MyDOS, or SpartaDos directory structures. [...] Bottom line is the listing isn't "perfect" but the vast majority is good. [...] So find attached my Holmes BELLCOM Collection ATR "Directory Dump". Hope someone gets some use out of it. I downloaded and opened this file using a 10 pt. Courier New font; this document is 458 pages long! I took a brief look though the file and so many of the filenames look intriguing to me. Just to give people an appreciation for what has been done here, here is the directory listing for Side A of Disk 83: ************************************************************ ATR ->D083_A.ATR DOS ->DOS 2.x DENS ->128 MAX SEC->720 ************************************************************ Filename Bytes Secs. Status Start No. CRC16 Link Status --------------------------------------------------------------------- DOS .SYS 4625 37 Locked 4 0 AE5D OK AUTORUN .SYS 178 2 Locked 41 1 ADA0 OK MENU . 2198 18 Locked 43 2 B7CD OK TMNT7 .BAS 3260 27 Locked 61 3 6D17 OK TMNT7 .DIG 18227 146 Locked 88 4 7E9C OK TMNT8 .BAS 3267 27 Locked 234 5 784C OK TMNT8 .DIG 23271 187 Locked 261 6 FD28 OK TMNT9 .BAS 3349 27 Locked 457 7 DA39 OK TMNT9 .DIG 22903 184 Locked 484 8 1D68 OK PEDROKKO.FNT 1024 9 Locked 668 9 2E57 OK SILENT11.TXT 1334 11 Locked 677 10 B4F1 OK 32 Free Sectors 675 Used Sectors Total Sectors : 707 --------------------------------------------------------------------- I chose this directory because of the filenames TMNT. Could that stand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I wonder if Kay and the gang over at the Antic podcast would like to give this thread some coverage. I'd love to listen to an episode of the show dedicated to public domain software. I mean, there were people who weren't pirating their software. Um, right? Adam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Ace Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 3 hours ago, ballyalley said: I downloaded and opened this file using a 10 pt. Courier New font; this document is 458 pages long! I took a brief look though the file and so many of the filenames look intriguing to me. Just to give people an appreciation for what has been done here, here is the directory listing for Side A of Disk 83: <<snip>> I chose this directory because of the filenames TMNT. Could that stand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I wonder if Kay and the gang over at the Antic podcast would like to give this thread some coverage. I'd love to listen to an episode of the show dedicated to public domain software. I mean, there were people who weren't pirating their software. Um, right? Adam From the Bellcom 1992 catalog (on archive.org): ■ D-83 PEDROKKO #6 Side 1 contains additional voice excerpts from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, while side 2 contains larger “scenes” created using Turtles sound track samples. (Side 2 requires 130XE and player from #D-78) If you just want to browse what's in the Bellcom collection, start with the catalogs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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