Atari Calculator Explained

Atari Calculator
Other Names:Calculator
Author:Carol Shaw
Developer:Atari, Inc.
Discontinued:yes
Programming Language:Assembly
Operating System:Atari DOS
Platform:Atari 8-bit computers, 6502
Replaced By:Colleen Calculator
Service Name:CX-8102 (Atari)
APX-20130 (APX)
Standard:RPN
Language:English
Genre:Mathematical software, Financial calculator, Programmable calculator, Software calculator
License:Proprietary

Atari Calculator (or Calculator) was a proprietary software program developed by Atari, Inc. for Atari 800 computers that incorporated the functionality of a scientific calculator into a software calculator. The source code was written in assembly language by American programmer and game designer Carol Shaw. The program supported various modes, including enabling it to be used as a programmable calculator with a then-popular reverse Polish notation (RPN) input method.

History

In 1977, the Calculator computer program was developed by Carol Shaw at Atari, Inc.[1] [2] [3] [4] In 1979, the screenshot of the Atari Calculator, with the title ATARI CALCULATOR COPYRIGHT 1979 in the main window, was printed in the "Touch the future." brochure on the screenshots gallery page, featuring the upcoming Atari 800 computer. The UI was colored in light bluish text on a dark blue background.[5] In the same year, the "Calculator: Instruction Manual" book was printed, and program got product ID number CX-8102. On the screenshots of the program, printed in grayscale in the manual, the title in the main window changed to CALCULATOR COPYRIGHT (C) ATARI 1979.[6]

In 1981, the Calculator was marketed in the "Atari Personal Computer Product Catalog".[7]

In September 1981, the Atari Calculator was marketed in the Atari Connection magazine, in the section for new business and professional applications:[8]

During 1981—1982, it was distributed in two variants, by Atari, Inc. itself and by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) department,[9] in the form of boxed diskette, together with the Atari DOS 2.0, for the Atari 8-bit computers.[10]

In June 1982, the "Calculator: Instruction Manual" book was printed by the APX, noted with "User-Written Software for Atari Computers" on the cover, and the program got product ID number APX-20130.[11] In the same year, product CX-8102 was listed in the "Atari Home Computer Product Catalog". On the screenshot, printed in color in the catalog, the colors of the UI were changed from dark blue to reddish brown, the output line colored in black with gray text, and the input line colored in light bluish colors.[12]

After 1982, there was little news about the Atari Calculator, its development, and it was excluded from the listing in the next official catalogs by Atari.[13] [14] [15]

On 12 October 2011, Benj Edwards,[16] a tech reporter and historian, published on the "Vintage Computing & Gaming" site the transcription of the interview with Carol Shaw, who left Atari after 1980.[17] During the interview, there was revealed details about the Atari Calculator origin and development:

Features

Data sources: the official Atari manuals and catalogs, Carol Shaw's papers, the Atari Connection magazine, the AtariWiki

Legacy

In 2012, the Atari Calculator was highlighted in an article published in the ABBUC Magazin (Issue #111), which was published by the German-based, Atari Bit Byter User Club e.V.,[18] and the styled Atari Calculator title was featured on the cover.[19] Cover design and fan art illustrations assisting the article authored by Oliver Rapp.[20] [21] Cover illustration also includes a sign in a lower right corner in a form of mathematical formula to say "Thank you", used by Atari community to honor notable contributors:[22]

\sum_^\infty(Thank\;you\;Carol)_i

Rapp also designed a label for the possible future ROM cartridge release of the Atari Calculator, reserving ID number CXL-4028.[23]

On 27—28 April 2013, the Atari Calculator was displayed at the 14th Vintage Computer Festival Europe (VCFe) in Munich, and Vortrag Wassenberg made its presentation. Slides from this presentation were published online.[24]

On 22 November 2013, Peter Dell[25] released a ROM cartridge version of the modified original Atari Calculator with adding startup screen, as a personal gift sent to Carol Shaw:[26]

On 5 November 2014, the Atari Calculator was highlighted on the 'Inverse ATASCII Podcast'. The podcast site also published the source of the example program for the Atari Calculator, newly created cheat sheet, screenshots of software screen in various modes and an excerpt from the original user manual showing a mistake on instruction illustration.[27] [28] [29]

Colleen Calculator

On 31 August 2016, Kay Savetz, the host of the 'ANTIC podcast', uploaded at the Internet Archive the scans of the Colleen Calculator source printouts, an unreleased cartridge version of the Atari Calculator — obtained from Harry Stewart — which was originally presented by Carol Shaw. In addition, two source printiouts, which included code for floating-point arithmetic handling, were scanned and uploaded the Atari Calculator cartridge specification, handwritten by Shaw, and the official prited user manual for the Atari Calculator.[30] Savetz uploaded it all with a permission from Shaw, and the original printouts Shaw had donated to and now are storing at the Strong Museum, as well as all of the materials related to Atari, she collected during her employment period at the Atari (1978–1980).

On 29 June 2017, Shaw was hosted by Savetz on the "ANTIC" podcast. During the interview, Shaw described more details about the Atari Calculator and the Colleen Calculator development.[31] [32]

On 4 September 2020, Savetz released on GitHub source files of the Colleen Calculator, recovered and reconstructed from scanned printouts. The header in source files includes info on the initial commit date by Shaw:

The name of the Colleen Calculator refers to the codename of Atari 800 — the "Colleen".

Ports

In 2013, Norbert Kehrer ported the original Atari Calculator to Commodore 64.[33] [34] [35]

Alternatives

The Atari Calculator was not the only RPN calculator for Atari 800, there was also the commercial RPN Calculator (ID numbers APX-10105 and APX-20105), written in Atari BASIC by John Crane,[36] [37] [38] and the Atari Rechner Simulation mit UPN by MTC (imitating hardware RPN calculator).[39]

In October 2014, Norbert Kehrer created free simulators of the Hewlett-Packard RPN calculators (HP-35, HP-45, HP-55 and HP-80) for Atari 800XL and Commodore 64.[40] [41]

For the later Atari computers, further scientific calculators were developed, for example, there were two public-domain software calculators: the Scientific Calculator by M. Weller for Atari ST,[42] and the RPN Calculator by Arnauld Chevallier for Intellivision.[43]

Atari hardware calculators

In the late 1980s, Atari produced a line of hardware desktop and pocket calculators, but none of them had programming support and an RPN input.[44] [45] [46]

Gallery

UI layout from the screenshot printed in 1979:UI layout from the screenshot printed in 1982:

See also

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shaw . Carol . Carol Shaw . Calculator - notes, reference, and sketches; 1977-1979 [bulk 1979] ]. Strong Museum.
  2. Web site: Atari 400 800 XL XE Calculator . 2024-09-10 . www.atarimania.com . Publisher: Atari..
  3. Web site: Atari 400 800 XL XE Calculator (APX-20130) . 2024-09-10 . www.atarimania.com . Publisher: APX..
  4. Web site: Pappas . Peter . ATARI SOFTWARE REVIEW - CALCULATOR . http://web.archive.org/web/20160904144039/http://www.cyberroach.com/analog/an02/an2-038.htm . 2016-09-04 . cyberroach.com.
  5. Book: Touch the future. Atari 800 Personal Computer System . 1979 . . 2 . Brochure.
  6. Book: Carol Shaw . Atari's Calculator manual . 1979 . English.
  7. Book: https://archive.org/details/atari-personal-computer-product-catalog-1981-atari/page/1/mode/2up?q=calculator . Atari's Atari Personal Computer Product Catalog 1981 . 1981 . . 2, 13 . English . Calculator . Calculator. With this program, your ATARI Personal Computer becomes a powerful, 145-function programmable calculator..
  8. The ATARI Calculator . . . May 1981 . 1 . 3 . 6 . The ATARI Calculator can turn your ATARI Home Computer into a powerful calculator with 145 functions..
  9. Web site: Atari 400 800 XL XE Calculator (CX-8102) . 2024-09-11 . www.atarimania.com.
  10. Web site: 15 January 2024 . Atari Calculator CX8102 (C) 1979-Reference Manual or Command Key Reference . AtariAge Forums . en-US . Finished in 1979, sold in 1982 on disk officially with DOS II, while developed for DOS I. So be careful with MEM.SAV....
  11. Book: Carol Shaw . APX's Calculator manual version 2 . 1982 . English.
  12. Book: Atari Home Computer Product Catalog . . 1982 . 2, 10 . CALCULATOR (CX8102).
  13. Book: Atari International . Atari Program Exchange Software Catalogue Spring 1983 Edition . 1983 . English.
  14. Book: Atari Catalog: Home Computer Software (1983)(Thorn EMI)(US) . 1983.
  15. Web site: moorejh . 2020-09-06 . Explore Atari Computer Sales Brochures and Catalogs (10-15 mins) – Atari Projects . 2024-09-11 . en-US.
  16. Web site: Benj Edwards Tech Reporter, Journalist, Historian . 2024-09-10 . www.benjedwards.com.
  17. Web site: VC&G Interview: Carol Shaw, Atari's First Female Video Game Developer . 2024-09-10 . vintagecomputing.com.
  18. Web site: Atari Bit Byter User Club - Demozoo . 2024-09-11 . demozoo.org.
  19. Web site: ABBUC Magazin #111-120 – Papierbeilage – ABBUC . 2024-09-11 . de-DE.
  20. Web site: 2012-12-21 . ABBUC Magazin #111 . 2024-09-11 . des-or-mad.net . de.
  21. Web site: 2012-12-21 . ABBUC Magazin #111: Atari Calculator . 2024-09-11 . des-or-mad.net . de.
  22. Web site: AtariWiki V3.1: Thanks . 2024-09-11 . atariwiki.org.
  23. Web site: Rapp . Oliver . Calculator: Computer Program (Atari CXL4028) . ROM cartridge label . JPEG . atariwiki.org . Use with console keyboard..
  24. Web site: VCFe 14.0 . 2024-09-10 . vcfe.org . de . Eintrag in der Atariwiki zumAtari Calculator auf dem VCFe..
  25. Web site: peterdell / Profile . 2024-09-11 . sourceforge.net.
  26. Web site: WUDSN - 8-bits are enough - Tools . 2024-09-10 . www.wudsn.com.
  27. Web site: Ripdubski . 2014-11-05 . S1E3 Atari Calculator – Supplement . 2024-09-10 . en.
  28. Web site: Ripdubski . 2014-11-05 . S1E3 Atari Calculator . 2024-09-11 . en.
  29. Web site: Edwards . Benj . 17 November 2014 . Inverse ATASCII Podcast #3 – Atari Calculator . Vintage is The New Old . en-US.
  30. Web site: Savetz . Kay . 2016-08-31 . Colleen Floating Point Routines and Colleen Calculator source code . AtariAge Forums . en-US.
  31. Carol Shaw, Atari and Activision — interview . 2021-08-30 . Kay Savetz . This interview took place on June 29, 2017. . YouTube.
  32. Web site: ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast: ANTIC Interview 294 - Carol Shaw, Atari and Activision . 2024-09-10 . ataripodcast.libsyn.com . en.
  33. Web site: Kehrer . Norbert . The Atari Calculator CX8102 for the Commodore 64 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140331152941/http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/atari_calc.html . 31 March 2014 . web.utanet.at/nkehrer.
  34. Web site: Kehrer . Norbert . The Atari Calculator CX8102 for the Commodore 64 . 2024-09-10 . norbertkehrer.github.io.
  35. Web site: Atari Calculator CX8102 . 2024-09-10 . Commodore 64 Scene Database.
  36. Book: John Crane . APX's RPN Calculator Simulator Manual . 1982.
  37. Web site: Atari 400 800 XL XE RPN Calculator Simulator : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms . 2024-09-11 . www.atarimania.com.
  38. Web site: ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast: ANTIC Interview 158 - John Crane, RPN Calculator Simulator . 2024-09-11 . ataripodcast.libsyn.com . en.
  39. Web site: Atari Rechner Simulation mit UPN . 2024-09-11 . www.atarionline.pl.
  40. Web site: Kehrer . Norbert . The HP Calculator Emulators for the Atari 800XL and for the Commodore 64 . 2024-09-10 . norbertkehrer.github.io.
  41. Web site: Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast: Floppy Days 96 - Epson HX-20 Bonus, Norbert Kehrer Interview . 2024-09-10 . floppydays.libsyn.com . en.
  42. Web site: Scientific Calculator - AtariUpToDate . 2024-09-11 . www.atariuptodate.de . en.
  43. Web site: RPN Calculator - Mattel Intellivision - Games Database . 2024-09-11 . www.gamesdatabase.org.
  44. Web site: Lai . Shiuming . 2003 . Do The Math . MyAtari magazine - Feature #6, August 2003 . exxosforum.co.uk.
  45. Web site: Retro Scan of the Week: And Now…The Atari Calculator . 2024-09-11 . vintagecomputing.com.
  46. Web site: manufacturers/Atari . 2024-09-11 . www.calculator.org.

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