[continued from previous message]
XModem, XModem CRC, YModem (1K X-Modem CRC), YModem Batch, ASCII, others
o Commonwealth XL BBS -- (c)1985, 1986 by Smokey Layton
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/226543-commonwealth-xl-bbs/
- Expected to run under MYDOS 3 or higher.
- Requires disk drive (including RAMdisk) with 180KiB capacity or higher
- Written in BASIC; BASIC XL supported
- Has a control structure that is modeled after AMIS BBS programs
o ECABBS -- Efficient Chips Atari Bulletin Board System
by Matthew Jones, V2.0, 1983
http://www.page6.org/pd_lib/utilities/pd_ecabbs.htm
- Originally a commercial release, then released to the public domain
- Requires R: handler
- Written in Atari BASIC
o FoReM BBS -- Friends of Rick E. Moose BBS.
Developed/sold by Matthew R. Singer.
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/FOREM/
Versions that operate with the Atari 850, the ATR 8000 CP/M interface, and other configurations. Written in Atari BASIC.
Matt Singer writes:
FoReM BBS derived from an early AMIS. When multiple message areas were
added the name was extended to FoReM 26M. Then, When OSS released BASIC
XL the program was rehacked and called FoReM XL... Bill Dorsey wrote most
of the Assembler routines (where is he now?).
o FoReM MPP BBS -- developed by Matt Singer, sold by MPP
FoReM BBS version for the MPP direct-connect modems.
o FoReM 26M BBS -- developed/sold by Matt Singer.
FoReM BBS updated to support multiple message area.
o FoReM XL BBS -- developed/sold by Matt Singer.
FoReM 26M updated to take advantage of BASIC XL from OSS.
o FoReM XE BBS -- developed by Matt Singer
This version of FOREM BBS requires the commercial BASIC XE cartridge in order to run. It is in the public domain and can import and export messages from
the Atari PRO! BBS EXPRESS-NET (7-bit text only, control ATASCII graphics are reserved for message data-structure bytes).
o FoReM XE Professional BBS / FoReM XEP BBS -- by Len Spencer
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/FOREMXE/
A re-write of FoReM XE BBS, last version was 5.4, Jan 5 1993.
FXEP requires an XL/XE computer with at least 128KiB of memory, the BASIC XE cartridge from OSS/ICD, SpartaDOS 3.2 (this program will NOT work with any other version), and at least 500KiB of storage.
o Madrona Marsh BBS -- written by Matt Arrington
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/MARSH/
"very structured and very customizable at the same time" - Brian A. Diaz
o MBBBS (Message Base Bulletin Board System)
-- early name for ATKeep, see above
o Nite Lite BBS -- Paul S. Swanson
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/NITELITE/
- First online: November 3, 1983. Ran completely in RAM.
- Second version shifted the message base to a disk drive.
- Third version added XMODEM uploads/downloads, support for a second disk
drive, menus were shifted to disk, ran the first online text adventure
- Fourth version shifted more of the system to disk, ran on the ATR8000
and double density disk drives.
- Version 5.0, Copyright 1985
- Integrated support for Nite Lite Systems V:Handler (RAMdisk)
- Supports C-GUL protocol for graphics and sound using the C-GUL
terminal program
o OASIS (the commercial version) / OASIS Jr. (the public domain version)
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/OASISIV/ http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/OASISJR/
The original OASIS BBS System was written by Rich Renner and Ralph Walden with tech support and input from Leo Newman. It was first published by OASIS BBS Systems (Renner/Walden/Newman) in 1986, and distributed by Leo Newman. Later, the rights were transferred to Glenda Stocks/Z INNOVATORS, then later (1991)
to Jeff Williams ("Alf").
All machine language. OASIS is very crash-resistant and comes with a "dial out" screen so that the Sysop can use the BBS as a terminal program to call
and fetch files without having to bring the BBS down and reload a terminal program. OASIS supports "Door programs" which it refers to as "OASIS PAL modules". An excellent message system, and a complex file system. It
consists of "file libraries" with suites of "file types". There is quite a
bit of overhead involved in performing a download (which may be a good thing, as it discourages file hogs). OASIS IV performs networking. SpartaDOS 3.2x recommended, but any DOS supported. R-Time 8 clock cartridge supported.
Glenda Stocks writes at
http://world.std.com/~snet/glenda.htm :
I purchased the source code rights to OASIS and began marketing the BBS software to Atari 8-bit enthusiasts around the world. I felt that I had the superior BBS software because I had programmed in the ability to run external programs, including online games and user surveys. I also had added color prompts for IBM clone users who called Atari boards running my OASIS software. Sometime in 1991...I sold the rights to OASIS to a man in Canada..
Jeff Williams ("Alf") writes: (12/6/02)
OASIS was around prior to either PRO or BBS Express! IIRC. I don't know when exactly it showed up, version 3.09 was the first one I remember seeing. What made it nifty was it was very fast, being all assembler, and having some different features that things like Forem & Carina didn't have. Compared to something like Forem MPP at the time, it was kind of amazing.
Ralph Walden sold it to Glenda Stocks, who chopped it up into modules and sold it as ver 4.7. PRO was out by then, and was a much more complete offering
imo. Glenda wrote some modules for 4.7, but it never really went anywhere because the architecture was so cramped with her changes.
Eventually she gave up and sold me the source. I looked it over and realized it was a mess and nothing was going to happen with it. I worked on a version
5 for a while, but never made much progress.
o Puff BBS -- by Robert (Bob) Puff
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/PUFFBBS/
"came with a hardware component to both provide ring detect for the Atari
(none existed in the modem) and to serve as a hardware key/dongle associated with the software."
o SMART BBS -- by Marco Benton
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/SMARTBBS/
This program is written entirely in BASIC. It expects to be running under a SpartaDOS environment. This BBS program uses a "modem clock string" rather than an R-Time 8 cartridge in order to retrieve the current time. It also comes with an Atari BASIC game door called "Sabotage".
o TART-BOARD -- by Bob Alleger
Early Atari BBS.
o TCPIP Express -- by ILS - Integrated Logic Systems - Stephen J. Carden
http://www.realdos.net/prodtcpip.html
This upgrade is to the BBS Express Professional. This version is designed to function on the Internet and Multiplexer, though neither is required.
Targeted at the serious, big-system Internet SysOp. Will ONLY run on
SpartaDOS 3.2x or greater or RealDOS. TDLINE must be installed, and the
R-Time 8 is fully supported. Written in 100% machine language.
o XeBBS+ -- by Jonathan Taylor
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/software/ATARI/EIGHTBIT/XEBBS/
for the Atari 130XE / Expanded 800XL, required BASIC XE,
designed to work with the SupraDrive hard disk.
"used the Automatic Modem Processor (AMP) code from FoReM XE, but was
otherwise written from scratch." - Jonathan Taylor
o 835 & 1030 Modem Bulletin Board
-- by Gardner Computing (earlier) / Duplicating Technologies (DT)(later)
Auto answer, XMODEM upload/download, sold with ring detector.
Ads: ROM #9 Dec84/Jan85 p. 37; Antic v4n10 Feb 86 p. 44
------------------------------
Subject: 9.1) What file formats for entire disks/tapes/cartridges are there?
It is now common, especially when working on modern computers, to work with Atari software as files or "images" containing the data from an entire disk, data cassette, or cartridge as duplicated from the native media for the Atari.
Here is a list of file formats, arranged by their associated filename extensions. These are all filename extensions used to name files containing entire 8-bit Atari floppy disk images, cassette tape images, or cartridge images.
.ATP -Atari Protected Disk Image Format. An open disk format suitable for
storing copy protected disks (similar to the APE .PRO format).
Version 1.6, 2004-4-11, by the ATP Working Group:
http://www.ataripreservation.org/websites/freddy.offenga/ATP16.htm
.ATR -Image format invented by Nick Kennedy, for his SIO2PC project.
Very similar to .XFD but with an added 16 byte header.
This is the most common image format, used with most 8-bit Atari
emulators running on other computer platforms.
SIO2PC is at
http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/sio2pc.htm
.ATX -Image format invented by Jorge Cwik (ijor), for VAPI project. Goal of
Vapi is the preservation of Atari software in its original unmodified
form, including custom format or copy protection. .ATX is a superset of
.ATR for single density; does not support other Atari disk densities.
.ATX is comparable to .IPF or .SCP (SuperCard Pro) file formats.
http://vapi.fxatari.com/
http://www.whizzosoftware.com/sio2arduino/vapi.html
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/252191-vapi-library-source-code/
.BIN -(1) Same as .ROM, see below; or (2) a binary file as described in a
separate section of this FAQ list regarding filename extensions.
.CAR -Cartridge ROM image format invented for the Atari800 emulator. Format
includes information about cartridge type. Contains the 'CART'
signature at the beginning of the file. See:
http://sourceforge.net/p/atari800/source/ci/master/tree/DOC/cart.txt
.CAS -Cassette image format invented by Ernest R. Schreurs, for his
Digital Cassette Image system (includes CAS2SIO, WAV2CAS, and CAS2WAV
MS-DOS utilities). See:
http://home.planet.nl/~ernest/
- The .CAS format was extended by Tomasz Krasuski to support non-
standard data (copy prevention mechanisms), for his A8CAS shared
library, tools, and emulator patch.
http://a8cas.sourceforge.net/
- More .CAS tools:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/y7ah6lgz
Note that the .CAS format, both original and extended, only includes
the digital track; it does not include the audio track.
.DCM -Image format invented by Bob Puff for his Disk Communicator 3.2 utility.
Intended for use on native Atari hardware. A compressed data format.
DISKCOMM is at
http://www.nleaudio.com/css/files/DISKCOM.ARC
.DCM specs at:
http://home.planet.nl/~ernest/diskcomm.zip
.DD -Early filename extension used with double density disk images for use
with the Xformer emulators. Replaced by the .XFD extension.
.DI -Image format invented by Kolja Koischwitz & Christian Krueger for
800XL DJ, their 1050/XF551 disk drive emulator for the Atari
ST/TT/Falcon.
800XL Deejay:
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/Emulators/800xldj.lzh
.IPF -Interchangeable Preservation Format invented by the Software
Preservation Society (SPS),
http://www.softpres.org/. A platform
agnostic format that is extremely low-level, representing the
information as it would have been read by a drive head. Comparable to
.SCP (SuperCard Pro) or the Atari-specific .ATX format. Images are
created on a modern computer using the KryoFlux USB-based floppy
controller:
http://www.kryoflux.com/
.PRO -Proprietary image format invented by Steven Tucker, for his
APE ProSystem.
http://www.atarimax.com/
.ROM ROM dump file, raw with no header information. Typically a cartridge
memory dump, but also used for an operating system memory dump.
.SCP -Image format invented by ICD, for SpartaDOS. Used with the external
SpartaDOS command SCOPY, distributed with SpartaDOS 3.2. Used when
working with native Atari hardware. A compressed data format.
.SCP -"Flux image file" format (platform agnostic) invented by Jim Drew for
his SuperCard Pro universal floppy disk copier/imager/converter
hardware/software for Windows PC. Comparable to .IPF or the Atari-
specific .ATX format.
http://www.cbmstuff.com/proddetail.php?prod=SCP
.SD -Early filename extension used with single density disk images for use
with the Xformer emulators. Replaced by the .XFD extension.
.XFD -"Xformer Floppy Disk" image format invented by Emulators, Inc. (Darek
Mihocka) for the Xformer emulators (ST, PC). Known earlier, before
support for arbitrary disk sizes was added, as .SD or .DD depending on
the density of the imaged disk. The format consists simply of a raw
sector dump of a disk.
http://www.emulators.com/
See also: Atari Disk Image FAQ (Steve Tucker)
http://www.atarimax.com/ape/docs/DiskImageFAQ/
------------------------------
Subject: 10.1) How can I read/write Atari diskettes with my other computer?
This sections lists solutions for accessing an Atari format 5.25" floppy disk using a PC with industry standard 5.25" floppy disk drive.
Atari-Link PC (AtariDsk) V1.2 (c) 95-12-09 ==========================================
by HiassofT (Matthias Reichl)
Ataridsk is a program for MSDOS-PCs that allows you to access Atari floppy
disks in double density (180KiB). All you need is a PC (XT or 286 should be
sufficient) and a 5.25" floppy drive. Features of this tool:
* Menu driven user interface
* Read, write and format Atari disks on the PC
* Small size (only 35KiB)
http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
WriteAtr V0.92b
===============
by HiassofT (Matthias Reichl)
With WriteAtr you can write double density ATR-images to Atari floppy disks
on your MSDOS-PC. You can also create ATR-images of double density floppy
disks! All you need is a PC and a 5.25" and/or a 3.5" floppy drive.
Version 0.92b added experimental support for the enhanced density (1040
sectors/128 bytes per sector) format. Please note: this format doesn't work
with a lot of floppy controllers - use it at your own risk!
http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
MyUTIL
======
- By Mark K Vallevand
- Based on Charles Marslett's UTIL.
-
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/8bit/Diskutils/Transfer/myutil.zip
- Includes SpartaDOS disk utility v0.1e to access 180KiB SpartaDOS disks
ATARIO
======
- By Dave Brandman with Kevin White
- Reads SS/DD 180KiB Atari disks.
-
http://preview.tinyurl.com/pjvb7be (atario21.arc)
SpartaRead
==========
- By Oscar Fowler
- Reads SS/DD 180KiB SpartaDOS disks.
-
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/8bit/Diskutils/Transfer/sr.arc
UTIL
====
- By Charles Marslett
- Reads/Writes SS/DD 180KiB Atari disks.
-
http://www.wordmark.org/
===============================================================
Here's some advice on using the above utilities from Hans Breitenlohner:
There are two technical obstacles to interchanging disks between
DD Atari drives and PC drives.
1. The Atari drive spins slightly slower (288 RPM instead of 300 RPM).
If you format a disk on the Atari, then write sectors on the PC, it is
possible that the header of the next physical sector will be overwritten,
making that sector unreadable. (The next physical sector is usually
the current logical sector+2). The solution to this is to format all
disks on the PC.
(Aside: Does anybody know how this problem is handled on the
XF551? Is it also slowed down?)
Konrad Kokoszkiewicz answers:
"The XF551 disk drive is not slowed down - these drives are spinning
300 rotations per minute. To prevent troubles with read/write disks
formatted and written on normal Atari drives (288 rot/min), the main
crystal frequency for the floppy disk controller is 8.333MHz
(not 8MHz, as in 1050, for example)."
2. If the PC drive is a 1200KiB drive there is the additional problem of the
track width.
The following is generally true in the PC world:
- disks written on 360KiB drives can be read on either drive
- blank disk formatted and written on 1200KiB drives can be read on
either kind
- disks written on a 360KiB drive, and overwritten on a 1200KiB drive,
can be read reliably only on a 1200KiB drive.
- disks previously formatted on a 360KiB drive, or formatted as 1200KiB,
and then reformatted on a 1200KiB drive to 360KiB, can be read reliably
only on a 1200KiB drive.
(All this assumes you are using DD media, not HD.)
Solution: Use a 360KiB drive if you can. If not, format disks on the
Atari for Atari to PC transfers, format truly blank disks on the PC
for PC to Atari transfers.
Jon D. Melbo sums it up this way:
So a basic rule of thumb when sharing 360KiB floppies among 360KiB &
1200KiB drives is: Never do any writes with a 1200KiB drive to a disk that
has been previously written to in a 360KiB drive....UNLESS... you only
plan on ever using that disk in the 1200KiB drive from then on out. Of
course a disk can be reformatted in a particular drive any time for use
in that drive. As long as you follow that rule, you can utilize the
backward compatible 360KiB modes that most 1200KiB drives offer. ===============================================================
AnaDisk + DeAna
===============
While the above mentioned utilities work with SS/DD 180KiB Atari-format disks or SS/DD 180KiB SpartaDOS disks, the following combination of utilities has been used successfully to read SS/SD 90KiB Atari-format disks. So if you only have standard Atari 810 and/or Atari 1050 drives, you could look into:
AnaDisk, created by Chuck Guzis at Sydex, Inc. in 1987
- "Scan, edit, repair and copy just about any kind of diskette"
- Version 2.01, November, 1989
- One source for AnaDisk 2.06 (1992):
http://www.retroarchive.org/cpm/cdrom/UTILS/22DISK/ANAD206.ZIP
- Some have reported more luck with this than 2.07
- One source for AnaDisk 2.07 26-Aug-92:
http://www.retrocomputing.org/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=det&p=776&id=retroorg
- Last free version, readily available, but sometimes described as buggy
- Sold to New Technologies Inc. (NTI) by Sydex in March 2000.
- More information:
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/sydex.html
DeAna by Nate Monson
Available:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mo7e9xa
- Converts AnaDisk dump files from Atari format
See
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kpnqcjp for tips on using this combination of utilities.
OmniFlop (as of 2007)
========
- By Sherlock Consulting (Jason Watton)
- A 'universal' floppy disk reader, writer, and tester for the IBM PC or
compatible which can handle alien floppy disk formats not normally
supported by DOS, Windows and Linux.
- OmniFlop on its own transfers disks between systems. If you want to access
files, for example, on these disks then you need more - you will need to
use OmniFlop to image the disk, then other software to interpret the
filing system. OmniFlop alone only handles whole disks.
- Features include, as of 2nd Sep 2007 v2.01m Release:
- Read, write, and format Atari 8-bit format (90KiB). (Charles Doty)
- Available:
http://www.shlock.co.uk/
===============================================================
The following more recent solutions involve connecting a standard "internal"
PC floppy disk drive to a modern personal computer via USB port.
KyroFlux (2009)
========
- By KryoFlux Products & Services Limited
- A USB-based floppy controller "designed specifically for reliability,
precision, and getting low-level reads suitable for software preservation"
- Compatible with USB 2.0 (high speed).
- Shugart (with extensions) drive interface. 34-pin dual-row header connector.
- Works with all major 3.5" and 5.25" drives
- Connection of two drives supported using a dual floppy cable, one can be
accessed at a time.
- Host software is currently Windows (XP and up, 32 and 64-bit flavors),
Mac OS X and Linux.
- Graphical User Interface (including raw data visualization)
- Output formats include .0.raw track streams and Atari XFD disk image format
- Available:
http://www.kryoflux.com/
FC5025 USB 5.25" floppy controller (2010)
==================================
- By Device Side Data
- Plugs into any computer's USB port and enables you to read data
from a 5.25" floppy drive.
- Sold as a controller board only without a drive mechanism.
It has been tested to work well with the TEAC FD-55GFR drive and should
also work with most other 5.25" drives.
- The FC5025 is read-only. It cannot write to floppies.
- The FC5025 may be unable to read disks that are damaged or copy-protected.
- The FC5025 is intended for 5.25" disks only, not 3.5" or 8" disks.
- The FC5025 may be unable to read the second side of "flippy" disks,
depending on the drive it is attached to.
- The included software works on: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
- The included software supports types of disk including: Atari 810
- Available:
http://www.deviceside.com/
SuperCard Pro by Jim Drew (2013)
=============
- USB device for PC.
- Can automatically duplicate any disk that was written with the data
starting and ending at the index pulse. "99% of Atari 400/800 commercial
disks were created this way."
- Device includes a standard 34 pin (17 x 2, .100" x .100") floppy drive
interface.
- Make backup copies of 5.25" or 3.5" floppy disks (including any Atari disk)
directly to another disk, or store the data as a flux image file (.scp)
- Available:
http://www.cbmstuff.com/
------------------------------
Subject: 10.2) How can my other computer utilize my Atari disk drive?
1050-2-PC function of SIO2PC 4.x, by Nick Kennedy
Allows a PC to communicate directly with an Atari disk drive. Requires "1050-2-PC" cable which is very similar to the SIO2PC cable but configured differently. Software allows direct sector I/O with the Atari drive and can
be used to create disk images which will emulate copy protection schemes when run on SIO2PC. Supports the .ATR disk image format.
More 1050-2-PC information:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/1050.txt
SIO2PC home page:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/sio2pc.htm
Additional cable/interface designs and sources:
-
http://www.asselheim.de/atari/1050-pc.htm (Frank Heuser)
- SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB (Ray Ataergin)
http://www.atari8warez.com/
APE ProSystem, by Steven Tucker
- The ProSystem hardware is a cable designed to allow connection of a stock
1050 disk drive directly to a PC's serial port for use by the companion
ProSystem software. Latest version:
Atarimax Universal SIO2PC/ProSystem interface, USB or RS-232/Serial versions
http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/
- The ProSystem software program is used to create (protected or unprotected)
.PRO format disk images. These disk images can then be accessed by the
Atari using Steven Tucker's Atari Peripheral Emulator (APE) cable/software.
http://www.atarimax.com/
atarixfer module of AtariSIO package, by Matthias Reichl, 2002-
Used to read/write disk images from/to a Atari drive connected to your Linux box with an 1050-2-PC cable or an APE ProSystem cable. Requires a 2.2, 2.4, 2.6 or 3.x series Linux kernel (with enabled module support) and a serial port with a 16550 or 16C950 compatible chip. Supports the .ATR disk image format.
http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
------------------------------
Subject: 11.1) What is the history of Atari's 8-bit computers platform?
Information presented here is derived as directly as possible from sources published or produced in the original time period. While also consulted extensively, modern historical retrospectives (including books, oral
histories, and especially websites) are utilized chiefly as pathways to
primary sources.
Key sources for 1977-1978:
https://archive.org/details/JoeDecuirEngineeringNotebook1977 https://archive.org/details/JoeDecuirEngineeringNotebook1978
Credit to Tomasz Krasuski for finding sales figures in Polish periodicals:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/kdydwv8
For a broader Atari history:
https://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/
1975
July: MOS Technology announced the MCS6502 microprocessor, samples to ship September 1975, and announced that the 6502 and other MCS6500 family microprocessors would be second sourced by Synertek.
September 16-19: MOS Technology introduced the MCS6502 MPU at WESCON (Western Electronic Show and Convention) in San Francisco.
1976
July: MOS Technology announced a series of new chips in the 6500 family, including the MCS6520 PIA.
1977
April 16: The introduction of the Apple II by Apple Computer would spur Atari to ramp up nascent efforts to develop new machines based upon the Atari Stella project platform. (Antic podcast interview 65 with Steve Mayer)
June 5-8: At the 11th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Atari introduced the Video Computer System (VCS; previously: Stella project).
June: Atari/Cyan Engineering senior engineer Steve Mayer, Atari chairman Nolan Bushnell, and Atari president Joe Keenan determined to launch a follow-up project to the Atari VCS. (Fun p253) (would lead to: "Colleen" project)
July 25: John D. Vurich, previously National Semiconductor product marketing manager (and prior to that, chief engineer at Mirco Games, Inc.), had joined Atari (Consumer) as new product manager (personal computer). (TVDigest 7/25/77 p11)
August 9: As the follow-up project to the Atari VCS, Atari "Colleen" broad specifications as proposed by Cyan Engineering senior engineer Steven T. Mayer and Atari (Consumer) microelectronics engineer Joe Decuir were accepted by Atari decision makers including Synertek/Atari LSI chip designer Jay Miner, Atari (Consumer) director of research Bob Brown, Atari VP Consumer engineering M. John Ellis, Atari (Consumer) new product manager (personal computer) John Vurich, and Atari VP research and development Al Alcorn (head of the Consumer Division). (Decuir 1977 engineering notes p65-74) Miner would be Colleen project manager.
October?: Steve Smith joined the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group as a chip engineering technician. He had been interviewed by Craig Nelson.
Fall?: Engineer Richard Simone, previously LSI design manager at National Semiconductor, joined the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group as LSI
Design Manager. Simone was to head large-scale integration chip design for Atari dedicated game consoles, while Synertek's Jay Miner was to head Atari's LSI chip design for cartridge-based game consoles (and computers). (Atari User #4) (Bob Brown remained Atari (Consumer) director of research.)
Fall: Douglas G. Neubauer joined the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group
as a chip design engineer.
Fall?: Atari and Dorsett Educational Systems reached a licensing agreement
that would bring Dorsett's Talk & Teach Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) System to Atari personal computer systems.
November 29: Upon considering updated pricing estimates for the Atari Colleen system, Atari engineers considered targeting products at three consumer price points: Colleen would be the complete computer system, "Candy" would use the Colleen chipset but would be a non-expandable game player (no keyboard, no interface, potentially Atari VCS compatible), and "Elizabeth" would be the
same as Colleen but with a 13-inch color monitor. (Decuir 1977 engineering notes p106-110)
December: "Several other new personal computers, in the PET/TRS-80 price range, are coming soon...Atari (another video game manufacturer), and a European and Japenese [sic] company are also expected to enter the competition."
(Micro #2 Dec77 p18; reprinted from "Northwest Computer Club News" Oct77)
December 21: Design reviews of the Colleen system and ANTIC/CTIA/POKEY chips were held, fixing most of the specifications of the three chips that Atari
was gearing to develop. (Decuir 1978 engineering notes p5)
1978
January 6: Howard Bornstein would be the first person to work on the Colleen system monitor/resident firmware. (Decuir 1978 engineering notes p5)
January: "Other manufacturers are also looking at TV games as the way to enter the home-computing market. Atari is said to be working on a programmable unit featuring color graphics; it will use either custom chips or a 6502 micro." (ROM v1n7 Jan78 p60)
Winter: Atari acquired the right to port Microsoft BASIC M6502 8K Version to the upcoming Atari personal computers. See:
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102722318
February?: David Gjerdrum joined the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group
as a software engineer. He would be assigned to the project to port Microsoft BASIC M6502 for the Atari Colleen project.
February 17: Internally-suggested demo software for Colleen for the system's intended January 1979 debut included: chess, BASIC, resident operating system, 2 action games (examples: 4 Player Tank, Super Bug), income tax preparation / personal finance, menu planning, demonstration cartridge (point of sale), support of: printer, floppy disk, cassette, Dorsett system (Larry Kaplan memo summary in Decuir 1978 engineering notes p39)
March: Peter N. Rosenthal joined Atari (Consumer) as a marketing research associate (personal computers).
April 20: Educational technology consultant Liza Loop of the LO*OP Center ("Learning Options Open Portal") gave an invited presentation to the Atari Colleen project engineering team. (Decuir 1978 engineering notes p71) Atari would proceed to hire Loop to write user manuals for the upcoming Atari personal computer systems. She interviewed with Atari director of consumer engineering Wade Tuma.
August: Carol Shaw joined the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group as microprocessor software engineer (game designer/programmer).
August: Atari (Consumer) hired NEOTERIC consultant Harry B. Stewart to oversee and document "Colleen" project systems software development. Stewart was
hired by Microelectronics group director of software development George Simcock.
September: In the Atari (Consumer) Microelectronics group, "Colleen" project systems software development efforts were essentially re-started, with several of the division's top VCS game programmers now taking the lead.
September/October: Steve Bristow, previously Atari (Coin-Op) VP Engineering
and Plant Manager Pinball Production, became VP Engineering, Consumer division (personal computers) (replacing John Ellis in the role; Ellis remained VP Consumer engineering.)
October 6: Atari contracted with Shepardson Microsystems, Inc. (SMI, headed by Bob Shepardson) to create both a version of BASIC and a File Management Subsystem (FMS) for the upcoming Atari personal computers. The contract
called for delivery by April 6, 1979.
Fall: Peter Rosenthal, previously Atari (Consumer) marketing research
associate (personal computers), became Atari (Consumer) Manager of Software Planning (personal computers). (John Vurich remained manager of product planning (personal computers).) (Fun! p475)
November: The Atari "Colleen" computer was named the 800 and the "Candy" machine was named the 400, named after their target price points of $800 and $400. The 400, which did not yet have a final case design, would not have a keyboard, but would support an external keyboard connected through controller ports 3-4. (Atari Inc.: Business is Fun, p. 460)
November/December: As reflected in the preliminary Atari 800 Operators Manual printed for the January 1979 CES, Atari expected to ship the 800 with:
internal 8KiB OS ROM Module, internal 4KiB RAM Module, TV Switch Box, AC power adapter, 410 program recorder, 4 joystick controllers, Basketball cartridge, Atari BASIC cartridge, Atari 800 Operators Manual, Atari BASIC Programming Guide
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