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Many pieces of software were available for the
Atari 8-bit family 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. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...
of home computers (the 400/800, XL, and XE series). Software was sold both by
Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...
(then Atari Corporation starting in mid-1984) and third parties. Atari also distributed software through the
Atari Program Exchange 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 j ...
from 1981 to 1984. After APX folded, many titles were picked up by
Antic Software Antic Software was a software company associated with ''Antic'', a magazine for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Bound into issues of the magazine, the Antic Software catalog initially sold Atari 8-bit games, applications, and utilities from t ...
.


Programming languages


Assembly language

Atari, Inc. published two assemblers. The
Atari Assembler Editor Atari Assembler Editor (sometimes written as Atari Assembler/Editor) is a ROM cartridge-based development system released by Atari, Inc. in 1981. It is used to edit, assemble, and debug 6502 programs for the Atari 8-bit family of home computer ...
cartridge is a friendlier, integrated development environment using line numbers for editing source code similar to Atari BASIC. The professionally targeted Atari Macro Assembler shipped at a higher price on a copy protected disk without editor or debugger. Third-party assemblers include SynAssembler from Synapse Software and MAE (Macro Assembler Editor) from Eastern House.
Optimized Systems Software 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 fo ...
published an enhanced disk-based assembler mimicking the structure of Atari's Assembler Editor as EASMD (Editor/Assembler/Debug). It followed that with
MAC/65 MAC/65 is a 6502 assembler written by Stephen D. Lawrow for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. MAC/65 was first released on disk by Optimized Systems Software in 1982, with the program requiring 16 KB RAM. A bank switched "SuperCartridg ...
first on disk with BUG/65 as a companion product, then as a 16KB bank-switched cartridge. MAC/65 tokenizes lines of code as they are entered and has much faster assembly times than Atari's products. Dunion's Debugging Tool (or DDT) by Jim Dunion is a machine language debugger originally sold through the Atari Program Exchange. A reduced version is included in the cartridge version of MAC/65. Atari magazine ''
ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' (an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANAL ...
'' published the machine language monitor H:BUG as a type-in listing, followed by BBK Monitor.


BASIC

Atari shipped Atari BASIC with all their machines either as a cartridge or in ROM. It also sold Atari Microsoft BASIC on disk.
Optimized Systems Software 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 fo ...
created a series of enhanced BASIC interpreters: BASIC A+,
BASIC XL 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 fo ...
, BASIC XE. Commercial BASIC compilers for Atari BASIC were available: ABC (Monarch Data Systems, 1982), MMG BASIC Compiler (1984), Advan BASIC (1985), The freeware Turbo-BASIC XL compiler, released in 1985, was popular in the later years of the Atari 8-bit line. In 1984, ''
ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' (an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANAL ...
'' published Minicomp, a compiler that generates machine code from a very limited subset of Atari BASIC statements.


Pascal

Atari's own Atari Pascal requires two disk drives and was relegated to the
Atari Program Exchange 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 j ...
instead of the official product line. Later options were Draper Pascal and Kyan Pascal.


Forth

Atari 8-bit Forths include fig-Forth, Extended fig-Forth (Atari Program Exchange), ES-Forth, QS Forth, and ValFORTH. The animated in-store demo to promote the 400/800 line was written with Atari's internal "Coin-Op Forth" implementation.


Other

Action! is an ALGOL 68-like procedural programming language on cartridge with an integrated compiler and full-screen text editor. The language is designed for quick compile times and to generate efficient 6502 machine code.
Deep Blue C Deep Blue C is a compiler for a subset of the C programming language for the Atari 8-bit family distributed by the Atari Program Exchange (APX). The compiler is a version of Ron Cain's public domain Small-C modified by John Howard Palevich to run ...
is a port of Ron Cain's
Small-C Small-C is both a subset of the C programming language, suitable for resource-limited microcomputers and embedded systems, and an implementation of that subset. Originally valuable as an early compiler for microcomputer systems available during t ...
compiler. It was sold through the
Atari Program Exchange 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 j ...
. Atari, Inc. published the highly regarded Atari Logo as well as Atari PILOT, both on cartridge. Other Atari 8-bit family languages include Extended WSFN and Inter-LISP/65.


Applications

: ''See :Atari 8-bit family software.''


Word processors

Atari, Inc. published the Atari Word Processor in 1981, followed by the more popular
AtariWriter AtariWriter is a word processor program for the Atari 8-bit family released by Atari as a 16 kB ROM cartridge in 1983. The program was fast and easy to use, while still allowing the creation of fairly complex documents. It was a huge success ...
cartridge in 1983. Third party options include PaperClip, Letter Perfect, Word Magic, Superscript, Bank Street Writer, '' COMPUTE!'' magazine's type-in SpeedScript, The Writer's Tool cartridge from OSS, Muse Software's Super-Text, KISS, Wordman, and relative latecomer The First XLEnt Word Processor in 1986.
Cut & Paste Cut & Paste is a word processor published in 1984 for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, IBM PC, and IBM PCjr. It is one of the few productivity releases from game developer and publisher Electronic Arts, along with the contemporane ...
from Electronic Arts and Homeword from Sierra On-Line were designed to be simpler to use than other programs. Two integrated software packages that include word processing are
HomePak HomePak, published in 1984 by Batteries Included, is an integrated application written for the Atari 8-bit family and ported to the Commodore 64, Commodore 128, IBM PCjr, and Apple II. It includes a word processor (HomeText), database (HomeFind), ...
and
Mini Office II Mini Office II, published by Database Software in 1986, was an office suite available for several home computers, among which were the Amstrad CPC, the Atari 8-bit family, the BBC Micro, the Commodore 64, and others. The software package could be ...
. '' Antic'' compared seven word processors in the February 1987 issue of the magazine.


Graphics

Movie Maker Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000 and in Windows XP on October 25, 2001 ...
, originally from Reston Publishing then later
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
, allows creating full-screen animations with synchronized audio that can be saved in a standalone playback format.


Music

Atari's Music Composer cartridge (1979), the first music composition software for the Atari 8-bit family, was later joined by Advanced MusicSystem from the Atari Program Exchange (1982),
Music Construction Set ''Will Harvey's Music Construction Set'' (''MCS'') is a music composition notation program designed by Will Harvey for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1983. Harvey wrote the original Apple II version in assembly language when h ...
(1983), and
Bank Street Music Writer Bank Street Music Writer is an application for composing and playing music for the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Commodore 64 and IBM PC. It was written by Glen ClancyAntic published the Antic Music Processor in 1988 as a disk bonus.


Games

: ''See :Atari 8-bit family games.'' Because of graphics superior to that of the Apple II and Atari's home-oriented marketing, the Atari 8-bit computers gained a good reputation for games. ''
BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
'' in 1981 stated that "for sound and video graphics
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
are hard to beat". Jerry Pournelle wrote in the magazine in 1982, when trying to decide what computer to buy his sons, that "if you're only interested in games, that's the machine to get. It's not all that expensive, either". A 1984 compendium of reviews used 198 pages for games compared to 167 for all other software. It noted the existence of a distinct "graphics look" to native Atari software: "Multiple graphics modes, four directional fine scrolling, colorful modified character-set backgrounds, and, of course, player missile graphics". ''
Star Raiders ''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 March 1980. The game is considered the platform's kille ...
'' was Atari's killer app, akin to VisiCalc for the Apple II in its ability to persuade customers to buy the computer. ''Antic'' in 1986 stated that "it was the first program that showed all of the Atari computer's audio and visual capabilities. It was just a game, yes, but it revolutionized the idea of what a personal computer could be made to do." When
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...
started publishing games in 1983, the Atari 8-bit line was a key platform. EA's '' M.U.L.E'' takes advantage of the four joystick ports on the original Atari 400/800 models, as does the cooperative dungeon crawl '' Dandy''. ''Dandy'' was the direct inspiration for the 1985 '' Gauntlet'' arcade game, which also allows four players.


References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite journal , last1=Curtin , first1=Bob , title=A Word Processing Trilogy , journal=ANALOG Computing , date=March 1985 , issue=28 , pages=57–64 , url=https://archive.org/details/analog-computing-magazine-28/page/n57