Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

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oldcomputr
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Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

Since I finished the cartridge section of my VIC 20 book, I started to scan and restore the covers of all the 4 "Six Pack" tape compilations sold by Commodore.
I use the VICE emulator for the screenshots, but when I got to the last 6 pack I realized that there are no known dumps of the 6 programs of VT 109.

I wrote a note on the page and moved forward to other sections of the book.

Yesterday I took some time to dump all the programs to .tap files: I have attached the raw dumps to this post. If someone is willing to clean them or extract a .prg file, that would be nice as I don't have the time now. Of course I verified that all the programs load and run fine.

The programs are:
Crawler - Centipede clone (Atari, 1980)
Treasures of the Bat Cave - 3D maze game
Big Bad Wolf - Text adventure
Alpha Draw - Textual drawing program
VIC Synthesizer - Music program
Super Seeker - Odd chequerboard game about "landing on planetoids"

You can add the word "simple" before every description - all games are written in BASIC for the unexpanded VIC 20.

A few notes:
  • The cover says "Treasure of the Bat Cave", but the instructions have a correct "Treasures" in plural form (since every maze has many treasures). The instructions have a trademark symbol after the title.
  • The cover says "Music Synthesizer", instructions have "VIC Synthesizer", program just shows "Synthesizer".
  • VIC Synthesizer and Alpha Draw need some instructions, lots of keyboard shortcuts... my VT 109 manual is in a bad shape, maybe I will scan it but not now.
  • Super seeker: move the cursor on the square with the "+" symbol avoiding the black ones.
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VT 109 6 Pack.zip
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mrr19121970
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by mrr19121970 »

CRAWLER & TREASURE load, but reset under VICE. Rest work ok.
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by tokra »

oldcomputr wrote:I use the VICE emulator for the screenshots
Just noticing this, the screenshots VICE produces if you use the "Snapshot - Start/stop media file"-function have a completely wrong aspect-ratio. Hopefully you are taking this into account before using the screenshots in your book. The screenshots VICE produces are 568 x 284 pixels (for PAL). To get to the correct aspect ratio you would need to resample this to 473,3333 x 284 pixels (5:3 pixel-aspect-ratio). Also, the colors used by VICE for the screenshots are not really correct.

Edit: For NTSC VICE creates 520 x 234 pixel-images, which need to be resized to 351 x 234 (3:2 pixel-aspect-ratio).
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by mrr19121970 »

CRAWLER and TREASURE as T64
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by Mayhem »

Cheers, these will prove handy for GB20 too as I don't have most of them :)
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by groepaz »

Also, the colors used by VICE for the screenshots are not really correct.
use a recent build from vice.pokefinder.org, disable CRT emulation, and then use mikes PAL or NTSC palette respectively :)
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by mrr19121970 »

Why won't these 2 run as a PRG ? is it some sort of protection?
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by eslapion »

Kewl!

I have VT-106 and VT-107 but I didn't even know there was a VT-109.

The first computer educator album is called VT-108 Math Book I and then CES-109 Math Book II so I assumed there wasn't even a VT-109

The albums I have published so far are here:
http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... index.html
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

tokra wrote:
oldcomputr wrote:I use the VICE emulator for the screenshots
Just noticing this, the screenshots VICE produces if you use the "Snapshot - Start/stop media file"-function have a completely wrong aspect-ratio. Hopefully you are taking this into account before using the screenshots in your book. The screenshots VICE produces are 568 x 284 pixels (for PAL). To get to the correct aspect ratio you would need to resample this to 473,3333 x 284 pixels (5:3 pixel-aspect-ratio). Also, the colors used by VICE for the screenshots are not really correct.

Edit: For NTSC VICE creates 520 x 234 pixel-images, which need to be resized to 351 x 234 (3:2 pixel-aspect-ratio).
Yes, I correct the aspect ratio of the screenshots produced by VICE.

I use the screenshots made by VICE for the "sprites" at the beginning of the description and for the grey enlarged detail on the top left of the spread.
For the TV gameplay on the page, I prefer to set VICE with 2x and scanlines, take a screenshot from the OS, then process it in Photoshop. In this case the aspect ratio is already corrected by VICE.
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

eslapion wrote:Kewl!

I have VT-106 and VT-107 but I didn't even know there was a VT-109.

The first computer educator album is called VT-108 Math Book I and then CES-109 Math Book II so I assumed there wasn't even a VT-109

The albums I have published so far are here:
http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/ ... index.html
This picture from the Kickstarter campaign shows (from left to right):
VT 106 / VT 107 / VT 108 / VT 109

Image
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by eslapion »

oldcomputr wrote:This picture from the Kickstarter campaign shows (from left to right):
VT 106 / VT 107 / VT 108 / VT 109
The VT-106 and VT-107 I have here look very different.

They are a large plastic binder made specifically to carry cassettes.

VT-106 is called the "Recreation Program Pack" and contains instruction in both french and english. The software contained seems identical to yours.

VT-107 is called the "Home Calculation Program Pack" and is larger with both cassettes and detailed instructions in English only. It contains 6 cassettes but there really are 12 different softwares; one on each side of a cassette. Could I have some software you don't have ?

VT-108, well I guess they made 2 different packs with the same product ID since both are related to math but the software contained is totally different. The one I have is called Math Book I and can be accessed via the link I posted above.
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

eslapion wrote:VT-107 is called the "Home Calculation Program Pack" and is larger with both cassettes and detailed instructions in English only. It contains 6 cassettes but there really are 12 different softwares; one on each side of a cassette. Could I have some software you don't have ?

VT-108, well I guess they made 2 different packs with the same product ID since both are related to math but the software contained is totally different. The one I have is called Math Book I and can be accessed via the link I posted above.
Commodore international companies sold additional software, often programmed by local developers.
I chose Commodore USA "official" 6 packs as a bonus content; tracking every software on tape sold by Commodore Canada, UK, Germany (just to name a few that I'm sure had some local software) was beyond the scope of the book.

About Math Book I with code VT-108... maybe Commodore Canada realized its mistake, since Math Book II was published as CES-109 and Math Book III as CES-110 - the "C" in "CES" probably stands for "Canada". Or the other way round: the last 6 pack published in USA was VT 107, then Canada published VT 108... then Commodore USA published the last 6 Pack as VT 108 :-)
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by eslapion »

oldcomputr wrote:About Math Book I with code VT-108... maybe Commodore Canada realized its mistake, since Math Book II was published as CES-109 and Math Book III as CES-110
That would make sense.

Being in Canada, I had no idea similar yet different albums were sold in the US.
... the "C" in "CES" probably stands for "Canada".
Nope, it means "Computer Educator System".

Since these were published in both french and English, I assumed the English ones were also published in the US.

Were they ?
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

mrr19121970 wrote:CRAWLER & TREASURE load, but reset under VICE. Rest work ok.
On my VICE (I'm on OS X so no nightly / recent builds) Big Bad Wolf loads but hangs after the first few lines of text.
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Re: Dumps of all the programs in the last Commodore 6 Pack (VT 109)

Post by oldcomputr »

eslapion wrote:
oldcomputr wrote:... the "C" in "CES" probably stands for "Canada".
Nope, it means "Computer Educator System".
Oh, yes, I see that the booklet says Computer Educator. But page 1 shows "Commodore Educator (Math) Series"... eh eh :-)
eslapion wrote:Since these were published in both french and English, I assumed the English ones were also published in the US.

Were they ?
In "The Home Computer Wars" by Michael Tomczyk and in Brian Bagnall's book, I don't remember reading abouth tapes other than the US made ones, initially sold separately then in 6 Packs.
IMHO I think that the Math Series was developed and sold by Commodore Canada.
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