After 38(!) years:The Atari Accountant CX401 (Holy Grail of Atari) is back!

[+davidcalgary29]

This is indeed amazing. Those 815s are just hideous, though, however much it would be amazing to have one.

[+slx]

A great work of digital archeology! Thanks to all involved!

 

AFAIK Bradley Koda from Best Electronics is spelled with a ‚K‘ and not a ‚C‘ (as in the acknowledgements).

 

 

 

 

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[bfollowell]

 

You missed that this software only worked with the "almost-vapourware" Atari 815 Dual-Drive Double-Density ONLY disk drive. (It could not even read single density disks from the 810). There are very few in existence, but they exist. They also recorded their data binary inverted compared to every other DD drive created by 3rd parties afterwards including Atari's later XF551. None of them could read disks from the 815 properly, which was part of the challenge which was successfully solved without having to find a working 815.

 

More details about the solution to this specific challenge are on a sub-page linked from the main Atari Accountant page:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Read%2C%20write%20or%20convert%20from%20an%20Atari%20815%20Double%20Disk%20Drive

 

I'll have to read the article later, when I have more time. I really not at all interested in this particular package or anything, but effort that went into archiving everything sounds really interesting.

[Ransom]

Wow! What a great thing, to bring this semi-mythical piece of software forward from the mists of time. Wonderful!

[luckybuck]

@bfollowell: yes, Nezgar is right, please read my article. I doubt, 815 were sold. Accoding to Curt Vendel, there are just 75 on the whole planet, not more. As Nezgar told, the 815 is DD only(!), that is important! You can't read or write SD disks! So, who should buy something like that? You have to buy an 810, too. Why Atari made this? As a scientist, I don't like to suggest, I prefer to know. But here, it is difficult, because the people in charge deny to be interviewed. Therefore, I just can guess, that the research & development department tried to gain new markets and new customers. We have to consider, when this had beeen done the right way, we now would speak of HCs, instead of PCs...

 

@slx: Thank you very much! That is a big faux pas of mine! Already corrected in the Wiki. Thanks. :-)

[+DrVenkman]

I don't know if any 815's were sold or not but I saw one - in the flesh - at about 13 years old around 1981, at an Atari-sponsored computer show in a local shopping mall in East Tennessee. At first blush, it sounds like an unlikely place for a computer company to hold a dog-and-pony show like this, but my town was one of several prosperous little areas around the University of Tennessee, which itself has close ties to the Department of Energy Y-12 nuclear weapons facility and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories; my step-father, in fact, held a Q-clearance in connection with his work in that field. So in that regard, perhaps it's not that unusual that prototypes were demoed in certain bastions of high-tech around the country in an effort to drum up interest in future/not-quite-ready-for-primetime products.

Edited February 25, 2019 by DrVenkman

[bfollowell]

I look forward to The Making of "The Atari Accountant CX401 (Holy Grail of Atari) is back!"

 

Awesome work in bringing this lost item back to life!

[luckybuck]

@DrVenkman: :-))) The world is really(!) little! In 1994 I was at the University of Tennessee, space institute. :-) They had or even have today a partnership with my university here, RWTH Aachen. We even share the 'Quick Götert lectures' (?) as far as I have in mind. :-) But my main focus was on Jack Daniel’s, which was brewed around the corner. From a professor there, I got a mouse pad (Star Trek), which I even had today. :-) Yes, military was 1st there, but if time, we could use their stuff, too. Great time then! :-)

 

But WOW! So then, we have evidence, they were sold! :-) That is great!!! Thank you very much. This gives great hope, that the boxes CX402 and CX03 were sold, too!!!!!! :-))))))

 

WOW, what a day, if there will be all 13 DD disks together! Or all the 26 SSSDs... :-)

Just comparable to the church with the Torah project, which shoud already be finished by now...! Same for the Maya scrolls. Btw. the Dead Sea Scrolls investigations last since 1947, so > 72 years... Therefore, we are really(!) quick with the Accountant...

 

Well,

Q(S) (sensitive) Clearance
TS clearances, Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) => TS/SCI Clearance
Both requires Single Scope Background Investigation (as of 1998 cost $3,225)

would be cool to have, or a red card with free access to all areas. :-) But not there, Provo, Utah is where the music plays... On the other hand, without Atari? Ah no...

A 3rd clearance is Yankee White? But only for the situation room. Honestly, who wants to be there? Maybe, they have good cookies, but that is all.

 

@bfollowell: that will take some time! Today, I start to write the German version, which must be finshed at 28th, otherwise fire and fury will come over me...

It will remain a little bit for Abbuc members only, but later be published, of course. Hope, you don't mind?

Edited February 26, 2019 by luckybuck

[Sugarland]

Fantastic news!! Thank you so much!

 

I see Yahoo! has several buildings next to the former Atari warehouse. They hope to be so great.

[Kyle22]

@DrVenkman: :-))) The world is really(!) little! In 1994 I was at the University of Tennessee, space institute. :-) They had or even have today a partnership with my university here, RWTH Aachen. We even share the 'Quick Götert lectures' (?) as far as I have in mind. :-) But my main focus was on Jack Daniel’s, which was brewed around the corner. From a professor there, I got a mouse pad (Star Trek), which I even had today. :-) Yes, military was 1st there, but if time, we could use their stuff, too. Great time then! :-)

 

But WOW! So then, we have evidence, they were sold! :-) That is great!!! Thank you very much. This gives great hope, that the boxes CX402 and CX03 were sold, too!!!!!! :-))))))

 

WOW, what a day, if there will be all 13 DD disks together! Or all the 26 SSSDs... :-)

Just comparable to the church with the Torah project, which shoud already be finished by now...! Same for the Maya scrolls. Btw. the Dead Sea Scrolls investigations last since 1947, so > 72 years... Therefore, we are really(!) quick with the Accountant...

 

Well,

Q(S) (sensitive) Clearance

TS clearances, Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) => TS/SCI Clearance

Both requires Single Scope Background Investigation (as of 1998 cost $3,225)

would be cool to have, or a red card with free access to all areas. :-) But not there, Provo, Utah is where the music plays... On the other hand, without Atari? Ah no...

A 3rd clearance is Yankee White? But only for the situation room. Honestly, who wants to be there? Maybe, they have good cookies, but that is all.

 

@bfollowell: that will take some time! Today, I start to write the German version, which must be finshed at 28th, otherwise fire and fury will come over me...

It will remain a little bit for Abbuc members only, but later be published, of course. Hope, you don't mind?

 

All I can say is that everything is going to be fixed and made right again.

Q

[+slx]

One still wonders how they came up with idea not to make the 815 backward/downward compatible with the 810. At that time they maybe still thought that all software would (should) be produced and sold exclusively by Atari anyway, but still it would seem like a major hassle to produce all disk-based software in two versions.

 

Or was it simply too early for a concept like multi-format floppy drives?

[_The Doctor__]

multi and flex format already existed in 8 inch realm, perhaps a form of protection for an early design, the drive might have been able to do more modes later but the line ceased before anything was further could develop

[luckybuck]

@Kyle22: But you can neither deny or acknowledge, right?

 

@slx: as a further spin-off, we found out an updated list for the Atari faq so far:

 

CX401 General Accounting System (4 SSDD Diskettes)
CX402 Accounts Receivable System (4 SSDD Diskettes)
CX403 Inventory Control System (5 SSDD Diskettes)
CX404 Atari Word Processor-for 810 drive
CX405 PILOT
CX406 Atari Personal Financial Management System
CX407
CX408 Atari Word Processor-for 815 drive
CX409
CX410
CX411
CX412 Atari Dow Jones Investment Evaluator
CX413 Microsoft Basic CX413
CX414 The Atari Bookkeeper
CX415 The Home Filing Manager (Basic)
CX416
CX417
CX418 The Home Manager
CX418 v.2 Atari Family Finances
CX419 The Bookkeeper
CX420
CX421 Atari Familien-Finanzen--von Budget & Income und Atari Family Finances
CX481 The Entertainer
CX482 The Educator
CX483 The Programmer
CX484 The Communicator
CX488 The Communicator II
CXL8001 Home Finance-Checkbook Cartridge

 

Therefore, CX404 and CX408 speak a clear language here.

I just can assume, I hate this btw, that Atari intend to go for new markets, which require higher storage capacities. CX401-3 with 26(!) SSSD-Diskettes speaks for this. The 810 can't deal with that. And even the 815 would have trouble. 8 drives are allowed, therefore 4 x 815 drives. This fits 8 out of 13 SSDD disks... So even then, you can change a lot during working. Not funny. Besides this, the 800 was limited on 48 KiB at that time...

Edited February 26, 2019 by luckybuck

[_The Doctor__]

not really, usually a person would be using one section of the suite extensively and only use the other modules once a week, once a month, once a quarter, and/or once a year at tax time.

so 8 drives would have been adequate. Remember also folks left the machines run overnight and on weekends to crunch numbers and other tasks. Ah the good old days when everything shut down on Saturday and Sunday with only machines processing somewhat unattended... People had time to enjoy life, have fun, live longer...

Edited February 26, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[luckybuck]

Yes, you are right, but whatever module you are using, there must be some kind of shared database...

In the description we can see, that every module CX401...3 runs on its own.

Would be so cool, if someone come up and tell us, well, we have CX402 or CX403... :-)

[+slx]

Ah the good old days when everything shut down on Saturday and Sunday with only machines processing somewhat unattended... People had time to enjoy life, have fun, live longer...

 

And don't forget to put a dust cover on your computer when it's switched off!

[+kheller2]

If you think the 815 is odd in only supporting DD think of how odd it is that the motherboards have components for DS/DD x 2 mechs.

[luckybuck]

Didn't knew that! Anyway, think from a customer's point of view. You just have to buy an 810, too, in order to read the normal disks... That is very expansive and not user friendly...

[+DrVenkman]

If you think the 815 is odd in only supporting DD think of how odd it is that the motherboards have components for DS/DD x 2 mechs.

 

Some optimistic engineer(s) probably the idea of "future-proofing" the design - if/when the prices for double-sided mechs came down, why, there you go! Just plug it in, in place of the single-sided original. And if the boards could support 2 mechs each, it's quite possible the guy(s) had the idea of plugging in a cheaper "slave model" drive, which would use the control circuits of the original.

[+kheller2]

Some optimistic engineer(s) probably the idea of "future-proofing" the design - if/when the prices for double-sided mechs came down, why, there you go! Just plug it in, in place of the single-sided original. And if the boards could support 2 mechs each, it's quite possible the guy(s) had the idea of plugging in a cheaper "slave model" drive, which would use the control circuits of the original.

 

This all makes me wonder about their engineering direction before going home consumer, was the 815 a result of the business software, or vice versa, was the 800 just future proofing with the ram modules or was that foreshadowing of the price drop in RAM chips or both. Not much if any of their products after the 400/800 era would I consider over engineered.

[luckybuck]

Hard to say, we just can assume...

 

It is Roger H. Badertscher, president of Atari's Computer division in 1981, who has all the answers. But he refused to be interviewed...

[dmmx]

This is fantastic. The team did a great job bring back to life this long lost piece of Atari history. I wonder how many of these systems were actually sold?