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LIST OF MISSING / UNDUMPED SOFTWARE


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With a number of positive things on the software preservation front going on lately, I thought it would be a good idea to have a handy list to help users get a better picture of what still needs to be dumped. There are archives of programs available but references to what's missing are rare or lack accuracy. I think this work will complement what both Farb is doing with his Atari Software Preservation Initiative and what we're doing at Atarimania for instance.

 

While we've had such a list on the forum at Atarimania for many years, it isn't easily visible. Also, the database itself gives information but not in an optimal way. Moreover, the text format to be used here will be easier for updates. AtariAge is likely a better place to reach more people and be more efficient.

 

....

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

 

I've been playing around with the Atari computers a little lately and got curious about the state of software archiving. I have a few questions, if you don't mind.

 

Is this the most up-to-date list available?

 

If a program was released in multiple formats (like disk and tape), do those tend to be exactly the same, or are there important differences?

 

What does it mean if a program's Atarimania page lists the dump as "MISSING"? At first I assumed that meant it wasn't dumped, but that doesn't seem to always be the case. Here are three examples that aren't on the list in the original post.

 

Conversational Spanish is listed as missing, but recordings are available on the Atari Wiki. Perhaps that's a special case because the game uses recorded audio?

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-conversational-spanish_1336.html

 

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Conversational%20SPANISH%20CX4120

 

British Heritage Jigsaw Puzzles Vol. 1 is listed as MISSING, but I found it on some ROM sites, though I'm not certain the dump is good.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-british-heritage-jigsaw-puzzles-vol-1_795.html

 

I couldn't quickly find a dump of The Jar Game / Chaos, though it might be out there somewhere.

 

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-jar-game--chaos_1237.html

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  • 3 months later...

Bumping an old thread. I recently dug out all my old Atari 800 gear and it turns out I have a few that I believe may be missing, at least according to the AtariMania entries. I just compared what I had against those entries so sorry if you already have them. I have the following:

 

- Hi-Res Adventure #2 Wizard & Princess - On-Line Systems version on floppy, original and I have documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Airstrike - English Software Company version on floppy, I have a beat up box, no documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Age of Adventure by EA, I have box and documentation in great condition. Both Ali Baba and Hercules boot to title screen

- Shamus on cassette - I don't have a tape player so don't know condition. Only have the tape

- Intruder Alert - Artwork cassette with documentation (it came in a plastic "bag" that I have, no box), untested as well

 

Not sure how to proceed so just wanted to raise awareness that I have them. Happy to work with somebody to get them dumped in the community is interested. Thanks!

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Bumping an old thread. I recently dug out all my old Atari 800 gear and it turns out I have a few that I believe may be missing, at least according to the AtariMania entries. I just compared what I had against those entries so sorry if you already have them. I have the following:

 

- Hi-Res Adventure #2 Wizard & Princess - On-Line Systems version on floppy, original and I have documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Airstrike - English Software Company version on floppy, I have a beat up box, no documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Age of Adventure by EA, I have box and documentation in great condition. Both Ali Baba and Hercules boot to title screen

- Shamus on cassette - I don't have a tape player so don't know condition. Only have the tape

- Intruder Alert - Artwork cassette with documentation (it came in a plastic "bag" that I have, no box), untested as well

 

Not sure how to proceed so just wanted to raise awareness that I have them. Happy to work with somebody to get them dumped in the community is interested. Thanks!

Where in the world are you located?

 

Allan

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Bumping an old thread. I recently dug out all my old Atari 800 gear and it turns out I have a few that I believe may be missing, at least according to the AtariMania entries. I just compared what I had against those entries so sorry if you already have them. I have the following:

 

- Hi-Res Adventure #2 Wizard & Princess - On-Line Systems version on floppy, original and I have documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Airstrike - English Software Company version on floppy, I have a beat up box, no documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Age of Adventure by EA, I have box and documentation in great condition. Both Ali Baba and Hercules boot to title screen

- Shamus on cassette - I don't have a tape player so don't know condition. Only have the tape

- Intruder Alert - Artwork cassette with documentation (it came in a plastic "bag" that I have, no box), untested as well

 

Not sure how to proceed so just wanted to raise awareness that I have them. Happy to work with somebody to get them dumped in the community is interested. Thanks!

Each type of media requires different ways of archiving. The easiest media to archive are the print media. Boxes, disk lables, documentation. If you want to archive those and have a scanner, just follow some of the recommendations here in other threads for archiving. Send me a private message here and I can help you out as well. Cassette media requires a good stereo cassette deck, an audio cable, audio input jack on your computer and some downloadable software from the Net like Audacity.

 

http://www.audacityteam.org

 

Disk archiving is a little harder. For non-protected disks you can use devices like SIO2PC or SIO2SD interfaces. If you are trying to archive copy-protected disks, you need special equipment like a Kryoflux and an old 5.25 PC drive.

 

https://www.kryoflux.com

 

For places to archive, you have a number of options. The easiest is to make a free account at archive.org and put it up there. You can send it to www.atarimania.com for them to archive (If you choose atarimania.com you can just send it to me since I do most of the 8-bit section now and am always looking for stuff to add to the database.)

 

There also is a torrent archive that is being regular worked here on Atariage in the Atari 8-bit section that you can send stuff to.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234684-atari-8-bit-software-preservation-initiative/page-1?hl=+archive%20+torrent

 

Also keep in mind that a lot of stuff has been archived already (although there is a lot more to be done) so take a look (or ask here) to see what has been archived. A lot more games have been archived verses utilities so that's another thing to consider.

 

Allan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Using a program like Audacity to capture the cassette output to a 16-bit WAV file using an analog audio converter (either built-in to the motherboard/sound card or USB) would be ideal.

Edited by Farb
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Also keep in mind that a lot of stuff has been archived already (although there is a lot more to be done) so take a look (or ask here) to see what has been archived. A lot more games have been archived verses utilities so that's another thing to consider.

 

Allan

It's also worth noting that even though many titles have been archived, they may not yet be verified (validated against an additional identical dump) or there may be variants of the title out there that we are unaware of. So it's often worthwhile dumping even things that are already archived.

 

For example, a8preservation.com has already dumped a disk-based Airstrike but has not verified it so a second dump would be really helpful. Wizard and the Princess has a verified dump of the original release but not the later SierraVenture release.

Edited by Farb
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Not a dumb question at all. Atarimania is not always up-to-date with the latest preservation work done at a8preservation.com and vice-versa. For example, a8preservation has created a dump of Datasoft's release of Pac-Man. Likewise, I know there are original dumps of titles on Atarimania that haven't been added to a8preservation yet.

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When I uploaded some rare stuff in my topic here on AtariAge I searched the internet if copies of these programs were already available. I found lots of titles not on Atarimania, but were available on other sites. It is quite hard to find out what is available and what is not.... ;)

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  • 6 months later...

Hi Atari Frog,

 

I have some other Dutch cassettes (from a.o. Aackosoft and Courbois) on my "to do list". So they will be coming in the next months.

 

I have an original catalogue of Courbois in my collection. The following atari titles are listed in the catalogue:

 

Cassettes for 64k computers:

A01, A02, A03, A04, A05, A06, A07, A08, A09, A10, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15, A16, A17, A18

 

Educational cassettes:

A S01 (Supertekst), A S02, A S03, A S04, A S05, A S06, A S07 (Super Calc)

 

Cassettes for 16k computers:

A601, A602, A603, A604, A605, A606, A607, A608, A609

 

Disks:

A D01 (Supertekst), A D02 (Super Calc)

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Mine is from November 1988. The layout is different, but the content of pages is the same.

 

I have disk 01 and cassettes 01, 02, 03, 04 and S02. I have heard that Fready is negotiating with another collector to dump cassettes S01, S04, 07, 08, 09 and 10. So we still need a lot of them....

 

The cassettes are very bad quality, it takes a lot of time to dump them. That is the reason I created ATR-images :-(

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Bumping an old thread. I recently dug out all my old Atari 800 gear and it turns out I have a few that I believe may be missing, at least according to the AtariMania entries. I just compared what I had against those entries so sorry if you already have them. I have the following:

 

- Hi-Res Adventure #2 Wizard & Princess - On-Line Systems version on floppy, original and I have documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Airstrike - English Software Company version on floppy, I have a beat up box, no documentation, it loaded to the title screen

- Age of Adventure by EA, I have box and documentation in great condition. Both Ali Baba and Hercules boot to title screen

- Shamus on cassette - I don't have a tape player so don't know condition. Only have the tape

- Intruder Alert - Artwork cassette with documentation (it came in a plastic "bag" that I have, no box), untested as well

 

Not sure how to proceed so just wanted to raise awareness that I have them. Happy to work with somebody to get them dumped in the community is interested. Thanks!

Has this gentleman been helped out? It would be good to get them kryo/scp and verified. Looks like a tape dump or two as well

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I've worked it out now more or less, unfortunately there's a problem in that the tape won't play - too stiff, the lubricant in the tape has dried up / worn away. I've got a whole stack of games with this problem and every single one is made by Databyte or US Gold. It would be fair to say over 80% of my tapes by those companies have the same problem, while over a hundred others are fine. Must have used the same tape stock :/

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clean heads matter..

normally they can be loosened or even in some circumstances re-cased.. a couple of whacks can loosen a tight uneven tape pack,

keeping a cassette in higher humidity for several weeks (65-70%) can help...

there are cassette cleaner and lubes. you can super lightly lube a tape, 'bake at a super low temp' let soak in a little.

a tape deck with no play head in it can play a cassette all the way to the end a few time to get a slow even wind.

You can use 'last tape head formula 9' it works well and a damp cyclopentasiloxane wipe works well enough

I usually don't fool around and give it the full treatment. impeccably clean hands and fingers.

I put just enough on that it doesn't slime the head or make the tape skate or 'drop out'

When it's working well, I make a back up using new tape in quality deck.

Normally the original is just fine for years and years afterwards but back up to be sure..

and clean heads when your done matters too..

Edited by _The Doctor__
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