Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:41 am
by Garry
Firstly, thanks for the info on 'Time Gate' and 'Adventure Maker'. I hope you can keep us updated whenever a new Atari adventure is discovered.
Seeing as we now have a thread on missing Atari 8-bit titles, here are some games to look for. I have divided these into three categories: (a) games in the database with no known dumps, (b) games not in the database and known to have existed, (c) games not in the database and not known whether they exist. For (b) and (c), I haven't added these to the database until it can be confirmed that they are adventures.
name unknown (Soac-Soft, 1984) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, January 1985, p. 154. Soac-Soft, 8 Springfield, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7, Eire)
Adventure Alpha (William H Kraus, Milliken, 1984) (b)
Adventure in Sherwood Forest (Montage Productions, 1984) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, August 1984, p. 110; September 1984, p. 130. Montage Productions, 159 Whiteladies Road, Bristol, B58 2RF (or 2RE?))
Adventure Paragon (Kuma Computers, 1983) (c)
Adventure Time (A W Gray, AWG, 1984) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, February 1984, p. 166; March 1984, p. 159; April 1984, p. 176; May 1984, p. 168; June 1984, p. 168; July 1984, p. 159)
Adventures in Flesh (Krell Software, 1983) (c)
Adventures of Mr Byte, The (Vidar Olavesen) (Norwegian) (c)
Agent 16 (Clinton Branch, Branch Software, 1988) (c)
Alice in Wonderland (Continental Software, 1983) (c)
Amnesia (Thomas M Disch, Electronic Arts, 1986) (c)
Amylak 2 (Dehetsoftware, 1991) (Czech) (a)
Breakdown (b)
Breakers (Rod Smith, Joe Vierra & William Mataga, Synapse, 1985) (c)
Breath of Life Part 2, The (John E, Aura) (c)
Castillo Encantado (Jörg Walkowiak, Data Becker, 1984) (Spanish) (a)
Castle Dracula (Paul T Johnson, Mercury Software, 1986) (a)
Catacombs of Doom (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Cheat (Adrian Cox, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Citadel, The (Steve Tullet, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
City beyond the Light (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
City of the Dwarfs (Adrian Cox, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Coveted Mirror, The (Penguin Software, 1983) (a)
Crimson Crown, The: Transylvania II (Penguin Software) (c)
Critical Mass (Sirius Software) (a)
Crownquest (Michael Schütz, 1985) (German) (c)
Death in the Caribbean (Micro Lab) (c)
Demons Dungeon (The Programmers Workshop) (c)
Demon's Lair (Database Publications, 1986) (b) (Atari User, vol. 1, no. 10, February 1986, p. 60, disk bonus)
Dennis through the Drinking Glass (J Sosta, Midnight Magic Computing, 1984) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, November & December 1984, p. 208; January 1985; February 1985. J Sosta, 141 Plimsoll Road, Nighbury, London, N4 2ED)
Devil's Demons, The (P Dumpleton, 1984) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, January 1985, p. 154. P Dumpleton, 34 Beaullieu Road, Boscombe Down, Wilts, SP4 7PD)
Diamond 1 (Scott Smith, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Diamond 2 (Scott Smith, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Domed City, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Dragon 2 (a)
Egyptian Escapade (AD400) (c)
Elven Adventure (Scott Wright, Moses Engineering, 1983) (c)
Enthar Seven (Robico) (c)
Escape from Planet X (Donald X Vaccarino, Covox, 1989) (a)
Escape Part 1 (W H Ferran, AD400, 1986) (b) (reviewed in Atari User)
Escape Part 2 (W H Ferran, AD400) (b) (reviewed in Atari User)
Fiebre del Oro (Jörg Walkowiak, Data Becker, 1984) (a)
Forever Lost (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Fourth Kind, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Geheim van de Drie Burchten, Het (Loek Klaassen & Albert Sickler, Kluwer Technische Boeken, 1986) (Dutch) (a)
Geheim van Landusië, Het (Hal Renko & Sam Edwards, Addison-Wesley, 1986) (Dutch) (a)
Getlost (N Davidson, 1983) (a) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, October 1983, p. 149. N Davidson, Harlings Lake Street, Marks Cross, Sussex)
Ghost of Radun, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Ghostly Greycastle Manor (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Hasha the Thief (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Hemlock Soames Strikes Again (Frank S Eva, Micro-Novels, 1985) (a)
Idol Island (J P Crackett, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Island Incident (AD400) (c)
Islands of Beta, The (William H Kraus, Milliken, 1984) (b)
Jungle Fever (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Keine Panik! (Powersoft, 1992) (German) (c)
Keys of Time, The – Chapter 2 (Marc Freebury, Argus Press Software, 1984) (b) (Atari Computing, tape magazine, issue 4, side B)
Keys of Time, The – Final Conflict (Marc Freebury, Argus Press Software, 1984) (b) (Atari Computing, tape magazine, issue 5, side ?)
Kingdom of the Arc (Jeff Smith) (b)
Last Body, The (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Legend of the Trollis (1985) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, January 1986, p. 125. No address. Phone 552-3714)
Literary Fantasy (Antic Software) (c) (public domain disk #PD056)
Lord of the Rings: Part 1, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Lost in Time (M Maestranzi, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Masquerade (Dale Johnson, Phoenix Software, 1983) (c)
Medieval I (Spectrum Visual Concepts, 1987) (c) (Advertised in Compute!, vol. 9, no. 4, April 1987)
Mini Adventure (Steve Hillen, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Moses (Three Rivers Software, 1987) (a)
Motion Variable (Larry & Kevin Scott, Outland Quest Software) (a) (not released?)
Mysterious Stones (Markus Rösner, Powersoft, 1991) (German) (c)
Oldorf's Revenge (Highland Computer Services/Synergistic Software, 1980) (a)
Oo-Topos (Michael Berlyn, Sentient Software) (c)
Ostrov Piratu (Radomir Danenberger, D Adventure, 1993) (Czech) (c)
Paradox (Jon A Slack, Runesoft, 1984) (c)
Paranoia (Frank Weese, IQ) (German) (c) (this was offered as a bonus game if you paid for 'Trolls')
Peter Rabbit and Father Willow (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Peter Rabbit and the Magic Carrot (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Peter Rabbit and the Naughty Owl (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Pirate's Booty (Steve Bradbury) (b)
Quest for the Scroll (Dan Holme, HCMS, 1982) (c)
Realm of Enchantment I (c)
Return of Star Voyager (Micro-Novels, 1985) (a)
Revenge at Rigel (c) (same as below?)
Rigel's Revenge (Mastertronic) (c)
Ronin (Synapse Software/Broderbund) (c)
Sabotage Part 1 (Tony Longworth) (b)
Schat van de Inca's, De (Hal Renko & Sam Edwards, Addison-Wesley, 1986) (Dutch) (a)
Schat van de King, De (Mike van Alen, MVA Software) (Dutch) (a)
Schloss des Grauens (Atari Deutschland, 1984) (German) (c) (same as 'Schloss'?)
Schloß von Kent Merfur, Das (Frank Gehring, Chip/Vogel-Verlag) (b) (The best of Atari XL/XE, p. 53; available on a compilation disk with other games, mail order only)
School Adventure (Andre Persidsky) (b)
Sea Lock (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Seven Cities of Cibola, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Silent Shadow (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Simple Adventure (Alex Kells, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club) (a)
Skull Island (Darryll D Reynolds, Gameworx/Softgold, 1984) (a)
Space Mission (Jörg Walkowiak, Data Becker, 1984) (Spanish) (a)
Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy (Simon and Schuster, 1985) (a)
Star Voyage 3 (Frank S Eva, CodeWriter) (a)
Star Voyage 4 (Frank S Eva, CodeWriter) (a)
Star Wars (Markus Rösner, Powersoft, 1991) (German) (c)
Starship Landing Party Adventure (Dynacomp) (c)
Storia Infinita, La (Doriano Benaglia) (Italian) (a)
Sunken Treasure (Crystal Microsoft) (c)
Tebbit, The (Applications Software Specialities, 1984) (a)
Terror Fair (Larry & Kevin Scott, Outland Quest Software) (a)
Time Machine (c) (Advertised in Computer & Video Games, March 1984, p. 159. 15 Wynmoor Crescent, Brampton, Barnsley, South Yorkshire)
Time Tower (Ken Grassham) (b)
Tower of Brasht, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Trailer (German) (b) (available from Atari Bit Byter User Club, disk #34)
Transported (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Treasure Hunt (Harris House Software, 1983) (c)
Tummy Digs Goes Shopping (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Tummy Digs Goes Walking in the Forest (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
Two Heads of the Coin (Robert LaFore, Adventure International, 1981) (a)
Valley, The (Steve Calkin, The UK Atari Computer Owners Club, 1982) (c) (possibly a port of an RPG from Computing Today, 1982)
Vloek van Nefre a Toth, De (Hal Renko & Sam Edwards, Addison-Wesley, 1986) (Dutch) (a)
Voyage of the Shadowstarr (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Warlock's Mountain (1985) (c) (advertised in Computer & Video Games, January 1986, p. 125. No address. Phone 552-3714)
Wisdom of Sharazec (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Wizard of Sham, The (CPS Games, 1982) (a)
World of Wizard-Dree (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Worlds in Collision (c)
Zargon (Atari Bit Byter User Club) (German) (b) (available from Atari Bit Byter User Club, disk #611)
Zaridian’s Fortress (Compuquest, 1985) (c)
Zossed in Space (Jyym Pearson, Adventure International) (c)
Re: Missing Atari 8-bit titles
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2022 5:56 am
by Garry
I'll try to keep the list updated. As games are found and preserved on Atarimania, I'll delete them from the list. For games that were advertised or promoted, but never released, I'll leave them on the list, but mark them in red.
All John's stuff is still online.
Thanks. I was using the wrong link. I found 'Behind Closed Doors 9'. It looks like this might have been the only game that John ported to the Atari 8-bit. I'll take a closer look later, but the other Atari games are for the ST.
On the subject of Atari games, Garry... You mentioned an "official" 2005 version of Graeme Yeandle's Magic Castle recently. Is there a source/reference regarding that official status?
On reflection, I think I was mistaken. Graeme Yeandle's site only lists the Spectrum versions, so he probably didn't do it. The version on Atarimania was released in 2005 and credits John E, so John E must have done the conversion.
I own the book with the Atari versions.
Do you have a scan of the book or know of a scan of the book. If so, I'm happy to do the conversions. I would have done the same thing as you and modified one of the existing versions. I can certainly make a working copy from the text version. I'll download that and report back a little later. Mind you, I'll have to translate them to English to actually play the games, but I think it's important for the original Dutch games to be preserved.
The following games on the list were sent to me for testing, either by Les Ellingham, publisher of Page 6, or the original author. As far as I know, they were never revised or published after I returned my test comments, so I may have the only copies in the world. The only trouble is that I no longer have a disk drive that can read the floppies and I don't know if they're still readable after all these years. If they can't be recovered, it's no great loss, as no one knew they existed in the first place and some of them were very buggy. I've ported them to Inform 6, based on my original maps and playing notes, and expanded them quite considerably. I'll publish these when they're finished. (This might be a good Christmas/New Year project.)
- Breakdown (this was the inspiration for 'Acid Rain')
- Kingdom of the Arc (enhanced version tentatively titled 'Search for the Lost Ark')
- Pirate's Booty (enhanced version tentatively titled 'Dead Man's Chest')
- Sabotage Part 1 (very similar to 'Crash Dive', so no plans to enhance this one)
- School Adventure (enhanced version tentatively titled 'Winchester High')
- Time Tower (enhanced version tentatively titled 'The Time Crystals of Cythii')