S2E02 APX Family Vehicle Expense

This episode features Family Vehicle Expense, originally released in 1982 by APX. It was developed by Jerry Falkenhan.

Box and Supplement Scans

In typical APX fashion, there is no box. This was an early title so there was not even a blister pack. Just a manual and a disk. Scan of the manual cover:

APX Catalog listing (Fall 1982):

Family Vehicle Expense in Action

Main menu. Note the difference in the menu from the release version and the catalog version. The title is different. The catalog shows black screen with the title “Family Vehicle Cost”. The release version has a blue background and title “Family Vehicles”. Also note the copyright lines are modified in the release version using graphics 2 with a graphics 0 text window:

Prompting to insert program disk:

Prompting to insert data disk:

Monthly Data

The monthly data module loading:

When first entering the Monthly Data module, you must choose a month:

Then sit back and relax as it slowly loads the months data:

Once data is loaded, the Monthly Data sub-menu is presented:

Monthly Option A – Review Entries

First, pick a car:

Pick a report to review:

Statistical Data review:

Summary & Detail category summary review:

Monthly Option B – Enter New Data

Pick a car:

Pick a category:

Pick a payment type:

Enter the day number:

Enter the cost:

For fuel, choose Gallons or Liters. If you choose liters, it will convert to gallons automatically:

For fuel, enter the amount dispensed, and confirm:

For fuel, enter the mileage and confirm:

Do you want to add more entries? Answer Y to add another entry for the same vehicle in the same category, or N if you want to change categories or vehicles, or months:

Back at the category selection menu. Note revised category totals after fuel entries were made:

Back at the vehicle selection menu. Note revised totals for the vehicle expenses were entered for:

Monthly Option C – Change Entries

Pick a car (this feels familiar):

Pick a category:

Transactions for the category for the month are listed. Choose one to edit:

Now choose which field of the transaction to edit:

Gallons was modified:

Revised transaction list. Select another transaction to edit or ESC back to the menu:

Menu Option D – Delete Entries

Pick a car:

Pick a category:

Pick a transaction to delete:

Are you sure? Or “Is This It?”:

Menu Option E – Print Entries

Choose the report you want to print:

If the printer is attached and online, it will start printing:

Menu Option F – Exchange Month

Changing the month:

Atari DOS

This exits to DOS, Atari DOS 2.0.

Setup Program

The setup module loading:

Once it loads, it has to work a bit. Please wait…

Setup menu:

Section A – Exchange Names

Pick a category name to change:

Edit it inline:

Confirm the change:

Altered category list. Confirm all are correct:

Pick a vehicle name to edit. Edits work the same way as the category names edit does:

Updated list of vehicle names (Hrm, ones missing in this screenshot. Before I added “The Judge” I guess.):

Next up edit the payment names. This works exactly like editing category and vehicle names:

Section B – Data Disk-Drive#

Choose either A or B to select which disk drive will be the data drive:

Section C – Setup Fixed Cost

This has a sub-menu with four options:

Fixed Cost Submenu A – Insurances

Enter yearly total for insurance of each vehicle:

Confirm each entry:

Fixed Cost Submenu B – License Tags

Enter the yearly license fees:

Fixed Cost Section C – Loan or Lease

Enter each vehicles yearly payment totals:

Fixed Cost Section D – Depreciation

Enter current month:

Enter current year:

Enter purchase dates:

Enter purchase price and current value:

Section D – Setup New Year

The warning message that flashes upon entering Setup New Year. Sound is also played with this:

Are you sure you want to zero out all the data?

OK, This message tells you whats about to happen over the next 12 minutes. Don’t freak out over the black screen. BTW, unrestricted speed on the emulator makes this go by in seconds: