VisiCalc is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp in 1979. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. VisiCalc is considered to be Apple II's killer app. It sold over 700,000 copies in six years, and as many as 1 million copies over its history.
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800 and manufactured until 1992. All of the machines in the family are technically similar and differ primarily in packaging. They are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU running at 1.79 MHz, and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips. This architecture enabled graphics and sound more advanced than contemporary machines, and gaming was a major draw. First-person space combat simulator Star Raiders is considered the platform's killer app. The systems launched with plug-and-play peripherals using the Atari SIO serial bus, an early analog of USB.
Atari BASIC is an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with the Atari 8-bit family of 6502-based home computers. Unlike most BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BASIC is not a derivative of Microsoft BASIC and differs in significant ways. It includes keywords for Atari-specific features and lacks support for string arrays, for example.
Star Raiders is a first-person space combat simulator for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It was written by Doug Neubauer, an Atari employee, and released as a cartridge by Atari in 1979. The game is considered the platform's killer app. It was later ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari ST.
In computing, PEEK and POKE are commands used in some high-level programming languages for accessing the contents of a specific memory cell referenced by its memory address. PEEK gets the byte located at the specified memory address. POKE sets the memory byte at the specified address. These commands originated with machine code monitors such as the DECsystem-10 monitor; these commands are particularly associated with the BASIC programming language, though some other languages such as Pascal and COMAL also have these commands. These commands are comparable in their roles to pointers in the C language and some other programming languages.
Galahad and the Holy Grail is an action-adventure game for the Atari 8-bit family designed and programmed by Douglas Crockford and published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1982. Influenced by Adventure for the Atari VCS and Arthurian legend, it contains almost 100 rooms–according to the manual–which are switched between with a flip screen technique.
Action! is a procedural programming language and integrated development environment written by Clinton Parker for the Atari 8-bit family. The language, which is similar to ALGOL, compiled to high-performance code for the MOS Technologies 6502 of the Atari computers. Action! was distributed on ROM cartridge by Optimized Systems Software starting in 1983. It was one of the company's first bank-switched "Super Cartridges", with a total of 16 kB of code.
Optimized Systems Software (OSS) was a company that produced disk operating systems, programming languages with integrated development environments, and applications primarily for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. OSS was best known for their enhanced versions of Atari BASIC and the MAC/65 assembler, both of which are much faster than Atari's products, and the Action! programming language. OSS also sold some products for the Apple II.
Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was programmed by Greg Christensen and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. Caverns of Mars became the best selling APX title of all-time and was moved into Atari, Inc.'s official product line, first on diskette and later on cartridge.
AtariWriter is a word processor for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers published by Atari, Inc. as a 16KB cartridge in 1982. It replaced the Atari Word Processor, which shipped on a copy protected disk, required 48KB, and was incompatible with the XL computers.
Antic was a magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and later the Atari ST. It was named after the ANTIC chip which provides 2D graphics in the computers. The magazine was published from April 1982 until June/July 1990. Antic printed type-in programs, reviews, and tutorials, among other articles. Each issue contained one type-in game as "Game of the Month."
Crossfire is a multidirectional shooter created by Jay Sullivan for the Apple II and published by On-Line Systems in 1981. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, Commodore 64, and IBM PC. The Atari 8-bit release had a separate cartridge and magnetic media release; the cartridge version ran on a 16k machine and used character mode graphics while the magnetic media version largely duplicated the graphics from the Apple II and ran in hi-res bitmap mode, needing 32k of memory to run. The C64 release had background music which is absent from other versions. A cartridge version of Crossfire was a 1984 launch title for the IBM PCjr, announced in late 1983.
Atari Program Exchange (APX) was a division of Atari, Inc. that sold software via mail-order for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. Quarterly APX catalogs were sent to all registered Atari 8-bit owners. APX encouraged any programmer, not just professionals, to submit software for commercial distribution. If selected, a program was added to the catalog, with credit given to the programmer. The top submissions in each category were awarded, and several popular APX titles, such as Caverns of Mars, were moved to Atari's official product line.
Many pieces of software were available for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. Software was sold both by Atari, Inc. and third parties. Atari also distributed software through the Atari Program Exchange from 1981 to 1984. After APX folded, many titles were picked up by Antic Software.
De Re Atari, subtitled "A Guide to Effective Programming," is a book written by Atari, Inc. employees in 1981 and published by the Atari Program Exchange in 1982 as an unbound, shrink-wrapped set of three-holed punched pages. Targeted at developers, it documents the advanced features of the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and includes ideas for how to use them in applications. The information in the book was not available in a single, collected source at the time of publication.
Wizard and the Princess is a graphic adventure game written for the Apple II and published in 1980 by On-Line Systems. It was the second title released in the Hi-Res Adventures series after Mystery House. While Mystery House used monochrome drawings, Wizard and the Princess added color. Ports for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 were released in 1982 and 1984 respectively. The 1982 self-booting version for IBM PC compatibles was renamed Adventure in Serenia.
Sierra was the code name for a 16-bit/32-bit personal computer designed by the Sunnyvale Research Lab (SRL) of Atari, Inc. starting around 1983. The design was one of several new 16-bit computer systems proposing to use a new chipset from Atari Corporate Research.
Clipper is a 1982 video game written by John S. Bayes for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Program Design, Inc.
Kid Grid is a grid capture game which borrows heavily from the 1981 arcade video game Amidar. Written by Arti Haroutunian for the Atari 8-bit family, it was published by Tronix in 1982. A Commodore 64 port from the same programmer was released in 1983.
Zeppelin is a scrolling shooter designed by Cathryn Mataga and published in 1983 by Synapse Software for the Atari 8-bit home computer. The game was ported to the Commodore 64 by David Barbour in 1984.
