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episodes

  • The Antic Files Episode 001

    This episode features Antic Magazine #001, Volume 1, Number 1, from April 1982.

    Podcast: Download

    Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Zane Little named The Cool Factor.  It is used under Creative Commons License Deed (CC0 1.0 Universal), and with express written permission of the author.

     

    22 min
  • S7E09 Sierra On-Line HomeWord – Supplement

    This episode features HomeWord, released in 1983 by Sierra On-Line. It was written by Ken and Roberta Williams.

    Podcast: Download

    Advertising

    Print ad:

    Packaging

    Package front cover:

    Package back cover:

    Cassette:

    HomeWord in Action

    Booting

    Main Menu

    The default when the program is opened. Navigate left and right for other options. Top level menus depicted here:

    Edit Menu

    These are the Edit sub menu options:

    Editor (editing mode)

    These is the empty editor and one thats had a document created in it:

    • Empty document. Lower right is mini print preview.
    • Editing a document.

    Print Menu

    These are the print sub menu options, and a walk through of printing:

    • Print menu options.
    • Starting the actual print operation.
    • Print preview option.
    • Decent print preview!
    • Print option to set start page number.
    • Print only some pages?

    File Menu

    These are the file menu options:

    • Saving…
    • Save: Give it a name.
    • Document chaining.

    Layout Menu (Formatting)

    This menu is where all the page and text formatting are chosen from:

    • Page spacing.
    • Top and bottom margins.
    • Left and right margins.
    • Line spacing.
    • Page eject.
    • Selecting where to place the page eject.
    • Page eject placed.
    • Text alignment.
    • Bullets points that go four levels deep!
    • Print style is disaapointing. You need to use ESC codes which I couldnt make work correctly, unless your printer is directly supported.
    • Headers and footers.

    Customization Menu

    This is where you setup program customizations:

    • Auto backups? Sure, seems like a good idea. These are named with extension BAK.
    • Change default margins so you dont need to adjust them all the time.
    • Save the customizations to disk!
    • Configure default bullet point levels.
    • Pick which printer.
    • Atari 1025 owners feel sad now.
    • Multiple disk drives? Set it here.

    Disk Menu

    This is where you can prepare a disk for use, view files, etc:

    • Prepare a new disk.
    • You can convert an existing regular DOS disk to the HomeWord format using Update.
    • What! Why?
    • Erasing a document.
    • Up/Down cycles one directory entry at a time.
    • Disk directory.
    • Leave HomeWord.

    Help Screen

    This is a handy edition. In program help!

    Error Handling

    Errors are handled gracefully with an explanation and instruction.

    Files

    VTOC is moved, so you can only get a listing of saves from within the program, however the disk is recognized as a valid format.

    Manual

    The manual is readily availabile at AtariMania (link below).

    Print Output

    Test page (1025 printer selection on an emulated 825 printer):

    S7E09-prt-Print-1025On825Download

    Test page (Other printer selection on an emulated 825 printer):

    S7E09-prt-Print-OtherOn825Download

    Show Links
    • AtariMania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-homeword_31423.html
    • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Entertainment
    • Internet Archive – HomeWord Cassette Tutorial: https://archive.org/details/IntroductionToHOMEWORDWordProocessor
    • Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

      23 min
    • S7E09 Sierra On-Line HomeWord

      This episode features HomeWord, released in 1983 by Sierra On-Line. It was written by Ken and Roberta Williams.

      Podcast: Download

      Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

       

      23 min
    • S7E08 Electronic Arts Financial Cookbook – Supplement

      This episode features Financial Cookbook released in 1984 by Electronic Arts. It was written by Stan Trost.

      Podcast: Download

      Packaging

      Package front cover:

      Package inside front cover:

      Package inside back cover:

      Package back cover:

      Diskette:

      Financial Cookbook in Action

      Booting

      • Familiar EA Logo

      Menu

      • First 21 recipes.
      • Remaining recipes.

      Using Recipes

      • An interesting recipe discussed in the podcast. Living On Your Savings. Step 1.
      • Living On Your Savings. Step 2.
      • Living On Your Savings. Step 3.
      • Making Savings Last Forever. Step 1.
      • Making Savings Last Forever. Step 2.
      • Also discussed in the podcast. Owning Your Car. Step 1.
      • Owning Your Car. Step 3.
      • Owning Your Car. Step 4.
      • Discussed in the podcast. Buying Your Car. Step 1.
      • Buying Your Car. Step 2.
      • Buying Your Car. Step 3. Results.
      • Buying Your Car. Step 3. Results continued (scrolled).
      • Discussed in the podcast. Leasing Your Car. Step 1.
      • Leasing Your Car. Step 2. Results (bottom).
      • Leasing Your Car. Step 3. Results (scrolled to top).

      Printing

      Catalog

      • Disk contents and menu (scrolls right and left).
      • Oh look! I saved something!

      Profile

      • This applies to all documents on the inserted disk.

      Deleting

      • Hovering the DELETE menu option.
      • Activated the DELETE menu option, Currently deleting file.

      Saving

      • Entering the save file name.
      • Recipe data being saved.

      Loading

      • Works much like save, select the file, then activate the option. Currently loading data.

      Formatting

      Errors

      • Trying to use a non-tagged (Financial Cookbook formatted) disk.
      • ‘Whoops! Do not press TAB! Wipes out your entry and places a tab char in data.
      • Take that pesky cartridge out first!

      Files

      VTOC is moved, so you can only get a listing of saves from within the program.

      Manual

      The manual is readily availabile at AtariMania (link below).

      Quick Start Card (How To Operate Financial Cookbook):

      EAFCCardDownload

      Print Output

      Recipe 6 – Living On Your Savings:

      S7E08-prt-06-LivingOnYourSavingsDownload

      Recipe 7 – Making Your Savings Last Forever:

      S7E08-prt-07-MakingSavingsLastForeverDownload

      Recipe 29 – Owning Your Car:

      S7E08-prt-29-OwningYourCarDownload

      Recipe 31 – Buying Your Car:

      S7E08-prt-31-BuyingYourCarDownload

      Recipe 32 – Leasing Your Car:

      S7E08-prt-32-LeasingYourCarDownload

      Vehistics Comparison

      Comparison of how my program calculates the same vehicle data, correctly.

      • Vehistics. Cost per Mile calculation – Compare with Owning Your Car.
      • Vehistics. Total Cost of Ownership calculation.
      • Vehistics. Fuel Summary – Period: All

      Show Links
      • AtariMania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-financial-cookbook_27176.html
      • STart Magazine Review: https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n5/personalfinance.html
      • Inverse ATASCII S7 E07 Cut & Paste: https://inverseatascii.info/2023/09/17/s7e07-electronic-arts-cut-paste-supplement/
      • WikiPedia Electronic Arts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts
      • Biblio: Doing Business With VisiCalc: https://www.biblio.com/9780895880864
      • Biblio: Useful BASIC Programs for the IBM PC: https://www.biblio.com/book/useful-basic-programs-ibm-pc-trost/d/1444317550
      • Internet Archive: Useful BASIC Programs for the IBM PC: https://archive.org/details/usefulbasicprogr0000tros
      • Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

        23 min
      • S7E08 Electronic Arts Financial Cookbook

        This episode features Financial Cookbook, released in 1984 by Electronic Arts. It was written by Stan Trost.

        Podcast: Download

        Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

         

        23 min
      • S7E07 Electronic Arts Cut & Paste – Supplement

        This episode features the Cut & Paste word processor, released in 1983 by Electronic Arts. It was programmed by Tim Mott, Steves Hayes, Norm Lane, David S Maynard, Jerry Morrison, Steve Shaw, Dan Silva.

        Podcast: Download

        Advertising

        “We See Further” ad that featured the programmers, as carried by Antic Magazine June 1983:

        Ad for EA titles from Compute! October 1984. What a bargain!:

        Packaging

        Package front cover:

        Package back cover:

        Cut & Paste in Action

        Booting

        • Boot splash.
        • Main menu.

        Usage

        Catalog Menu Options:

        • Load, Print, Quit, Delete, Rename …
        • Menu active (load selected).
        • Catalog, Copy-Disk …
        • Format-Disk, Drive2, Setup

        Setup (Display & Printer settings):

        • Defaults
        • Most likely want to change display width to 40.

        Format-Disk:

        Editing:

        • Blank document. 19,443 bytes free on 64K machine.
        • Some Inverse ATASCII episode notes.
        • File saved and name reflected in title. Menu active, Buffer selected.
        • Random Notes selected.
        • First paragraph selected. Menu active, preparing to Cut.
        • Paragraph cut.
        • Looking at the buffer using the Buffer menu option. It contains the cut text.
        • Emptied buffer.

        Saving:

        • ‘Save options.
        • Entering the name to save as.
        • Selecting save.
        • Saving, note the message.

        Loading:

        • File selected, load occurring. Note message.

        Printing:

        • Print menu (of sorts). Adjust and select output type.
        • Printing. Note message.

        Delete:

        Rename:

        Errors (some):

        • Proprietary disk format.
        • Something went wrong with disk I/O.
        • Disk file is write protected.

        Files

        VTOC is moved and the disk format is unrecognizable be DOS’s I tried:

        • Sample documents on the disk.
        • Trying to view the disk contents in DOS.

        Print Output

        Blank Envelope:

        S7E07-prt-BlankEnvelopeDownload

        Blank Letter:

        S7E07-prt-BlankLetterDownload

        Blank Memo:

        S7E07-prt-BlankMemoDownload

        Blank Outline:

        S7E07-prt-BlankOutlineDownload

        Blank Resume:

        S7E07-prt-BlankResumeDownload

        Letter Home:

        S7E07-prt-LetterHomeDownload

        Inverse ATASCII episode notes:

        S7E07-prt-IAS7E07SMDownload

        Show Links
        • AtariMania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-cut-and-paste_29619.html
        • WikiPedia Cut & Paste: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_%26_Paste
        • WikiPedia Electronic Arts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts
        • CyberRoach Analog Review: http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an21/cut_and_paste.htm
        • Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

          22 min
        • S7E07 Electronic Arts Cut & Paste

          This episode features the Cut & Paste word processor, released in 1983 by Electronic Arts. It was programmed by Tim Mott, Steves Hayes, Norm Lane, David S Maynard, Jerry Morrison, Steve Shaw, Dan Silva.

          Podcast: Download

          Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

           

          22 min
        • S7E06 APX Bowler’s Database – Supplement

          This episode features APX Bowler’s Database, released in 1982 by APX. It was programmed by Jerry White

          Podcast: Download

          Advertising

          Advertising

          APX Catalog advertisement from Fall 1982. Note that it received a full page and a blue ribbon award:

          APX Catalog advertisement from Fall 1983. Note the price increase of $2.00, and the nice bowler cartoon at the bottom of the page:

          Bowler’s Database in Action

          Booting (from disk):

          Main Menu:

          Load Score Data

          • Load source selection.
          • For cassette loads, ready the cassette and press return.
          • Progress status.

          Enter Score Data

          • Enter each games scores. No need to press return for 3 digit scores. Breakout the Atari CX-85 keypad!
          • Confirmation.

          Fix Score Data

          • Enter week number. (1-1) represent available start and end weeks.
          • Fixing is the same as entering.

          Save Score Data

          • Save target location question. Note he forgot to change the title to pink.
          • Progress status.
          • Confirm deletion after save.

          Score Reports

          • Output will always go to the screen. Send to printer as well?
          • Summary report.
          • Asking if you also want the detailed report, which is also followed by the Use Printer question.
          • Detailed report.

          End This Program

          Nothing to see here, just a BASIC READY prompt.

          Files

          Supplied DOS is Atari DOS 2.0s:

          There are 5 files on the program disk:

          Contents of DISKNAME.DAT file (APX disk ID). Note that database is mispelled as DATEBASE with an E:

          Dump of the SCORE.DAT file containing 5 weeks of data:

          The first bye is the number of weeks.

          Bytes 2 and 3 are unknown, but 0.

          Bytes 4+ are the score data in ASCII form with each score being followed by a RETURN (character 155).

          Manual
          APX_Bowlers DatabaseDownload

          Print Output

          Summary report:

          S7E6-prn-1-Rpt-SummDownload

          Detailed report:

          S7E6-prn-2-Rpt-DetDownload

          Show Links
          • AtariMania: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-bowler-s-database_30052.html
          • Atari Archives: http://www.atariarchives.org/APX/showinfo.php?cat=20091
          • Inverse ATASCII’s C-Library on GitHub: https://github.com/Ripjetski6502/A8CLibrary
          • Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

            22 min
          • S7E06 APX Bowler’s Database

            This episode features APX Bowler’s Database, released in 1982 by APX. It was programmed by Jerry White.

            Podcast: Download

            Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.

             

            22 min