Another missing game "Dueling Cannons" (magazine type-in)

[Rybags]

I saw this on Facebook and was interested since the game is similar to Shootout which I created in 1984 as a conversion of an old Compucolor II game.

 

Dueling Cannons was in K-Power magazine Issue 3, April 1984.  I obtained the listing by OCRing screenshots of the relevant pages then tidying up the errors.

https://archive.org/details/k-power-magazine-03/page/n51/mode/2up

 

dc.bas

 

I think I got it all right.   I used an online OCR page and got the usual assortment of errors you'd expect from a lowish quality print sample (I and O substituted for 1 and 0 etc)

Just my opinion here but it's not much of a game, I think my one is a lot better.  Compare from here if you want http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-shootout_14374.html

 

Not sure how keen AtariMania and the other archive sites are for Basic games from magazines but this should tick one more off the list at least.

[mutterminder]

Back when it was the only way of getting a new program, I typed many a magazine listing into my computer.  The chance of my going through all that time and trouble now, is almost none existent.  So thank you for getting the program into easily accessible state. This makes it easier for me, and everyone else to easily check it out.

[Rybags]

I feel much the same way - to the point where I couldn't be even bothered typing in printouts of stuff I've done.

 

In the case of this one it didn't take a huge amount of time.  I created PNGs of the printout from screenshots pasted into MS Paint.

Then just searched for "OCR online" and used the first hit https://www.onlineocr.net/

Created a plain text file.  As I said before it had trouble with stuff like S and 5, S instead of $ and some other similar looking characters.  I suppose a simple posturization of the pic so it was clear black & white might have made a big difference.  Also the resolution probably wasn't optimal.

Probably near 1/3rd of the program lines had at least one error but all up it was probably under 30 minutes effort to get it working.

[rdefabri]

I cut my teeth entering programs like this back in the day.  I'd stay up late to do it, helped me learn "coding", and I had fun because the game was "free" (not really, considering the time to enter it, but no monetary outlay).

 

Some of these games don't really hold up to the professional games of the time, but they'll always hold a special place in my heart because the value it provided back to me was immeasurable.

 

I would love for more of these to be "found" - thanks for doing this!

[Rybags]

I suspect a lot of the lesser known magazines are probably there to be found in odd archive sites.

Just a case of hunting them down.

[bandit]

I also typed in games ect.. very early, before Antic and Analog, family compute was one I think. However I learned to buy Antic and analog with disk and subscribed.

 

 

[www.atarimania.com]

3 hours ago, Rybags said:

Not sure how keen AtariMania and the other archive sites are for Basic games from magazines but this should tick one more off the list at least.

 

Many thanks!

 

Yes, of course we're interested, the sheer number of such titles in our database proves that. Though we don't necessarily upload the programs on a regular basis, many keep being added (this is announced on our front page). We still have a HUGE backlog of readily typed in games / utilities / demos contributed by members here or found on various disks, it just takes time to do things properly.

[Rybags]

As I was scanning/typing I did notice it's somewhat inefficient and could be improved in various ways without a lot of effort.

 

But the aim was to allow preserving in it's original state.

[SlagOMatic]

27 minutes ago, www.atarimania.com said:

We still have a HUGE backlog of readily typed in games / utilities / demos contributed by members here or found on various disks, it just takes time to do things properly.

I read this as "we have a bunch of magazine scans that haven't been turned into proper code yet". Is that accurate? If so, is there an organized volunteer system where people whittle down this pile in their spare time?

[www.atarimania.com]

24 minutes ago, Rybags said:

But the aim was to allow preserving in it's original state.

 

You did this the right way, that's what counts.

[www.atarimania.com]

1 hour ago, SlagOMatic said:

I read this as "we have a bunch of magazine scans that haven't been turned into proper code yet". Is that accurate? If so, is there an organized volunteer system where people whittle down this pile in their spare time?

 

I meant we still had many dumps not uploaded yet. For instance, SoftSide is complete but we didn't add the utilities / applications to the database yet. A lot of the stuff from the UK is done but not everything is on the site, practically all the German listings are being keyed in so those can be crossed out...

 

This being said, there ARE many programs that still need to be typed in. You can find some of them here by using the text search feature and entering "type-in": 

 

 

There isn't anything organized for volunteers. I wouldn't have time to maintain a proper webpage myself but if someone wants to build one with all publications from the US so we can have a general view of what's missing, that might be a solution. Otherwise, just a thread here?

Edited April 17, 2023 by www.atarimania.com

[Rybags]

Is there a list of type-ins that are pending ?

I could probably do one once in a while if the magazine scans are available.

Fairly sure I have most of the Compute! scans somewhere here too.

[+Allan]

 

[adam242]

Thank you for this! As soon as I loaded it up in Altirra, I recognised a long-lost childhood favorite. I was a subscriber to K-Power and typed this one in to my 600XL BITD... it's saved on a long gone cassette...

[www.atarimania.com]

16 hours ago, Rybags said:

Is there a list of type-ins that are pending ?

I could probably do one once in a while if the magazine scans are available.

Fairly sure I have most of the Compute! scans somewhere here too.

 

Not sure where to begin but here are some random type-ins missing entirely.

 

From Compute!'s Atari Collection - Volume 2:

Climb

Front Attack

Electronic Football

 

From Byte:

Drugs in Pregnancy

 

From Interface Age:

Play after Me

 

From MACE Journal:

Protector (The)

 

From Micro:

Number Shuffle

 

From the JACG Newsletter:

Multiplication Fun

 

[rdefabri]

3 hours ago, www.atarimania.com said:

 

Not sure where to begin but here are some random type-ins missing entirely.

 

From Compute!'s Atari Collection - Volume 2:

Climb

Front Attack

Electronic Football

 

From Byte:

Drugs in Pregnancy

 

From Interface Age:

Play after Me

 

From MACE Journal:

Protector (The)

 

From Micro:

Number Shuffle

 

From the JACG Newsletter:

Multiplication Fun

 

Wow! Do you have any more JACG newsletter links?  I was a member back in the day, and while I'm sure I kept a few of them, I can't seem to find them (my basement is 30+ years of pack rat fever).

[www.atarimania.com]

Yes, there are tons of them on archive.org scanned by Kay Savetz:

https://archive.org/search?query=JACG

[+HatNJ]

this was 1st program I ever typed in from a printout an guy who sold my parents my 800

 

can not find printout or download for game

 

 

[+HatNJ]

Found it i entered Goldrush instead of gold rush into atarimania

 

now back to on topic

[rdefabri]

On 4/18/2023 at 5:21 PM, www.atarimania.com said:

Yes, there are tons of them on archive.org scanned by Kay Savetz:

https://archive.org/search?query=JACG

This is great - thanks!