https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/inverseatascii-s2eb2-hitechexpressionsheartware.mp3

This episode features HeartWare, originally released in 1986 by Hi Tech Expressions.  It was developed by Comware and authored by Joe Suarez.

Podcast: Download

Packages are extremely hard to find.  I did find a couple of photos:

Another:

Review found in the Chicago Tribune on February 13, 1987 by Steven Kosek:

Animated boot splash:

As animation draws to a close:

Main Menu

Graphical menu with 3 simple options:

Option 1 – Animated Friendship Greeting

Enter a message:

Then listen to the music and watch the animation:

Option 2 – Greeting Card Printer

First, enter a message:

Select the style of card to print (full page or quarter page):

Select the scene (full page):

Select the scene (quarter page):

Get the printer ready:

Printing full page graphic 1:

Printing full page graphic 2:

Printing full page graphic 3:

Printing quarter page graphic 1:

Printing quarter page graphic 2:

Printing quarter page graphic 3:

Printing quarter page graphic 4:

Option 3 – Greeting Disk Maker

First enter your message:

Start swapping disks.  This occurs 3 times:

The disk is single density and has a hidden VTOC, with a message in the DOS VTOC:

Full page graphic 1:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-full1.pdf

Full page graphic 2:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-full2.pdf

Full page graphic 3:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-full3.pdf

Quarter page graphic 1:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-quarter1.pdf

Quarter page graphic 2:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-quarter2.pdf

Quarter page graphic 3:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-quarter3.pdf

Quarter page graphic 4:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2eb2-prt-2-quarter4.pdf

Ha, what instructions.  Instructions were not Hi Tech Expressions strong suit.

Podcast: Download

This episode features Silent Butler, originally released in 1985 by Atari.  It was developed by Silent Butler Software.  It was programmed by Ted A. Goldstone.

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/inverseatascii-s2e07-atari_silentbutler.mp3

This episode features Silent Butler, originally released in 1985 by Atari.  It was developed by Silent Butler Software.  It was programmed by Ted A. Goldstone.

Podcast: Download

Scan of the front of the box (notice the report date on the cover):

Scan of the back of the box:

Five screens complete the boot process.  Boot with a 130XE to eliminate program disk swaps:

First setup checking:

Now setup savings:

Now select printer:

Ready?  The start of bookmark one:

2 – Change to Savings & Checking

3 – Reminders

4 – Fixed Bills

5 – Savings Accounts

6 – Checking Acounts

7 – Other Bills

8 – Reminders

9 – Current Bills

Review?  Answering Y walks through the steps of Bookmark One again:

The start of bookmark two:

2 – Reconcile Checkbooks

3 – Savings Account Review

4 – Checking Account Review

5 – Account Review

6 – Tax Summary

7 – Print Special Summaries

8 – Change Printer

Review?  Answering Y walks through the steps of Bookmark Two again:

If the process is terminated early and you return you are greeted then asked if you want to continue or start at the beginning:

Printer error.  From this point on it remembers there is no printer attached:

The program disk is both copy protected and uses a hidden VTOC.  The record disk uses a hidden VTOC as well.

I could not get any print routines to work either in emulation or with real hardware.

There is not much in the 20 page manual.  You don’t really need it anyway as the program guides you the entire time.

Podcast: Download

This special holiday episode features JingleDisk, originally released in 1986 by Hi Tech Expressions.  It was programmed by Sean Michael Puckett using the Action! programming language.

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/inverseatascii-s2eb1-hitechexpressions_jingledisk.mp3

This special holiday episode features JingleDisk, originally released in 1986 by Hi Tech Expressions.  It was programmed by Sean Michael Puckett using the Action! programming language.

Podcast: Download

The product was not packaged in a box.  Instead it was enclosed in 8.5″ x 11″ heavy card stock folded in half.  A disk sleeve permanently attached on the inside for the diskette.

Scan of the front:

Scan of the back:

When the program first boot a color animated boot splash appears:

After a few seconds the color animation stops and the load proceeds:

The main menu screen uses an artifacting graphics mode to produce colors:

There is no interaction with the program with this module.  Sit back and enjoy the songs and animation.  The animation uses an artifacting graphics mode.  Highlights of the animation are:

The Holiday Greeting menu.  You can create a greeting disk or different printouts:

Section 1 – Create Greeting Disk

First you are asked to enter 3 lines of text with each line limited to 12 characters:

Confirm your entry.  If you say No you are returned to the main menu.  You can not edit:

This warns you about things to come.  Make sure your JingleDisk is write protected so you don’t accidentally mess up during all the disk swaps that follow:

Ready, insert your blank disk:

After its formatted, insert the JingleDisk program disk:

After it reads part of the disk, swap your data disk back in:

After it writes to your data disk, insert the JingleDisk program disk again:

That process repeats for a total of 3 times.  At the end put the Jingle Disk program disk back in:

The disk you just created is now previewed.  It will loop forever as well:

Section 2 – Full Page

The Full Page card menu has three options.  1 and 2 print cards.  The 3rd exits back to the main menu:

For full page cards you can enter one line of text limited to 33 characters:

Once you confirm it, it will be displayed on the screen and sent to the printer (see the screen displays below in the Printing section of this post):

Section 3 – Quarter Page

The Quarter Page card menu has 5 options.  The first four options print cards on a single sheet of paper that can be folder twice into a card that opens. The last option exits to the main menu:

Each card here is allowed three lines of text limited to 33 characters each:

Once confirmed, the card will be drawn on the screen and sent to the printer.  See the screen displays in the Printing section below.

Section 4 – Full Page Message

This prints your message in the snowflake font without any border on a full sheet of paper.  The input is just like with Greeting Disk creation, except that you are limited to 15 characters per line instead of 12.   The card is drawn on screen and sent to the printer.  See the screen display in the Printing section below.

When exit is chosen, a credits screen appears and stays:

TITLE uses Atari DOS 2.0.  The contents of the disk can be seen in this screenshot:

The files are:

Full Page Design 1

Full page card 1 screen display:

Full page card 1 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-2-3.pdf

Full Page Design 2

Full page card 1 screen display:

Full page card 1 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-2-4.pdf

Quarter Page Design 1

Quarter page card 1 screen display:

Quarter page card 1 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-3-2.pdf

Quarter Page Design 2

Quarter page card 2 screen display:

Quarter page card 2 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-3-3.pdf

Quarter Page Design 3

Quarter page card 3 screen display:

Quarter page card 3 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-3-4.pdf

Quarter Page Design 4

Quarter page card 4 screen display:

Quarter page card 4 printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-3-5.pdf

Full Page Custom Message

Full page custom message screen display:

Full page custom message printer output (Epson FX-80):

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/s2eb1-prt-2-4-1.pdf

No manual is available.  The only instructions are included on this small slip of paper tucked in with the disk:

Podcast: Download

This episode features Home Financial Management, originally released in 1982 by Thorn EMI.

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/inverseatascii-s2e06-thornemi_homefinancialmanagement1.mp3

This episode features Home Financial Management, originally released in 1982 by Thorn EMI.

Podcast: Download

Scan of the liner for the plastic case:

Advertisement:

Booting the setup program:

Entering the date (it is not Y2K compliant so use a day compatible year such as 1987 for 2015):

Pre-menu menu.  Set the start fiscal month, or reset data for a new year:

Seeing the first budget (fiscal) month:

Setup  main menu:

Module 1 – List categories

Listing of selected categories.  Income categories are denoted with + and expense (cost) categories with a -:

Module 2 – Enter or change budget

Changing a budget involves selecting the category, and tying the new amount.  To span all months from the currently displayed through end of fiscal year, precede input with a *:

Module 3 – Delete, change, enter or select category

First choose the function from the sub menu:

Delete a category by selecting it and pressing DELETE.  There is no confirmation, so be careful:

Change a category by selecting it, typing the new name, then choosing Income or Cost:

Adding (Entering) a new category is just like changing one, except you type the new name on the blank line at the top.  Choose Income or Cost after pressing RETURN to accept the name:

Selecting categories for inclusion is done by selecting each one and press RETURN to select it.  An ATASCII circle will appear next to each one that is selected:

Module 4 – Change opening balance

Change the opening balance by typing the new balance in.  After pressing RETURN you can repeat the process or use ESC to return to the menu:

Module 5 – Clear categories

Wow, a confirmation prompt.  Confirmations are used sparingly in this program.  Press Y to clear all the selected categories:

Module 6 – Finish Run

When completing setup, use this to save your budget and category data.  First give your data set a name:

Prep the cassette tape:

After the save completes, the program dumps out (at least in emulation), but not to BASIC.  It appears to disable the cartridge before exiting:

Booting the main program:

Enter the date (not Y2K compliant, must use a day compatible year in the accepted range: 1987 for 2015):

Prepare to load your data:

Loading your data:

Main Menu:

Module 1 – List Categories

Lists all selected categories.  Income categories denoted with +, expense (cost) categories denoted with -:

Module 2 – Enter or change actual

Changing actual amounts for categories.   Do this once a month after calculating your totals with some other method (calculator).  Defaults to current month:

Adjusted amounts for a month:

Module 3 – Enter or change budget

This is the same as the budget definition in the setup program.  Defaults to the current month:

Module 4 – Delete, change, or enter category

The submenu for delete, change or enter:

Delete, select and press delete.  No confirmation so be careful:

Changing an entry name.  Select and start typing.  After RETURN is pressed, choose I for Income, or C for Cost (Expense):

Adding a new category.  Just start typing on the blank line.  After pressing RETURN, press I for Income or C for Cost (Expense):

Module 5 – Change opening balance

Just start typing to change the opening balance.  After pressing RETURN, the balance is updated, and the prompt remains so you can re-enter it if needed:

Module 6 – Analyse Data

There are 7 options for analyzing data (reporting), presented through a sub menu:

1 – Income by month and category:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

2. Report showing difference in dollars:

3. Report showing difference in percent:

2 – Income for year to date:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

3 – Costs by month and category:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

4 – Costs for year to date:

First choose to send output to screen or printer:

2. Showing the difference in percent:

5 – One category for 12 months:

2. Enter the category number.  Prompt will appear when you start typing or if you press ESC:

3. Showing the difference in dollars for each month:

4. Showing the difference in percent for each month:

4. Choosing a bar chart.  Data is sorted first:

5. Bar chart is presented:

6 – Cash flow:

2. Showing the difference by month in dollars:

3. Showing the difference by month in percentage:

4. Showing the data in bar chart form:

7 – Balance by month:

First choose the type of report:

2. Showing the difference in percent by month:

3. Showing the data in bar chart form:

Module 7 – Finish Run

First give a name for the data to be saved.  It is not a filename, but is written into the data that is saved as an identifier.  Don’t overwrite the tape you loaded from in case you want to revert a change:

And boo, it failed to save (at least under emulation).  It failed right after pressing RETURN before activating the cassette:

There are no files to speak of as this was distributed on cassette tape and store its data on cassette tape as well.

Income for month by category:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-1.pdf

Income for year to date:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-2.pdf

Cost for month by category:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-3.pdf

Cost for year to date:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-4.pdf

Category by month:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-5.pdf

Cash Flow:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-6.pdf

Balance by month:

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/s2e06-prt-m-6-7.pdf

Scanned Manual download: https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/home_financial_management_thorn_emi.pdf

Podcast: Download

This mini episode features Atlas of Canada.  Originally released in 1981 by APX.  The author was Atari, Inc.  It is basically the same as Atari States & Capitals, and European Countries & Capitals.

https://inverseatascii.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/inverseatascii-s2em1-apx_atlasofcanada.mp3

This mini episode features Atlas of Canada.  Originally released in 1981 by APX.  The author was Atari, Inc.  It is basically the same as Atari States & Capitals, and European Countries & Capitals.

Podcast: Download

None that I have found, other than the manual.

APX Fall 1982 catalog description:

Loading

Boot to BASIC, then use CLOAD to load, and RUN to execute (for cassette).  Use RUN “D:ATLAS” (for diskette):

Game Play

Beginning game play, with a province highlighted as the first question.  Questions can be provinces, capitals, islands, areas, rivers, lakes, bays, seas, or cities:

Partway through the game.  Completed landmarks have dotted outlines while the landmark currently being asked has a solid outline:

Final score after my first run of the program.  As you can see Canadian geography is not a good category for me:

Files

Atlas of Canada is distributed on an Atari DOS 2.0S single density disk.  There are only 4 files on the disk

APX disk identification file contents:

Scanned Atlas Of Canada manual can be downloaded from AtariMania or Internet Archive.

Podcast: Download

This episode features States & Capitals, and European Countries & Capitals.  Both originally released in 1980 by Atari.