Task: Explore Atari XL BASIC Listings
Needed: A web browser
Time: 15-30 mins
Introduction
I recall several friends remembering when they got their first Atari 8-bit computer. They brought it home, took it out of the box, and quickly discovered they had no software to run on it. The early Atari computers only came with the Memo Pad software installed. As you can imagine, this was somewhat frustrating! Further, software was fairly expensive at $30 or $40 a pop which would be more than $100 each today. What many of us did was type in programs in BASIC from books and magazines. This was tedious, but only cost as much as the magazine. It is fun now to run some of these old BASIC programs. We highlight here the Atari XL BASIC listings website that includes collections of BASIC programs in ATR files for download. This is a really fun site to explore.
Instructions
Navigate to the Atari XL BASIC Listings website, download the ATR files, and have fun trying out the many BASIC programs. You can run the ATR files in Altirra or copy them to floppy disk using an SIO2PC device.
Comments
Note that the site is in German and many of the listing sources are magazine or books in German. Google can easily translate the page. Of course, the code is still BASIC!
