Podcast: Download

 

This episode features Biorhythm, originally released in 1980 by Atari.

 

Box and Supplement Scans

Scan of the front of the box (the one I fixed until my patience wore out):

 

Scan of the front of the box (courtesy of Darren Doyle):

 

Biorhythm in Action

Boot splash:

 

Menu

This title only has the following menu options which are to ask if you want instructions, and if you want a hardcopy:

 

8K Version

Instructions:

 

Loading main program:

 

Output to screen, or screen and printer:

 

Entering the birth date:

 

Entering the desired month and year:

 

The plotting has started.  A small blip tone is made as each day is displayed:

 

The completed month.  Notice you only see the last 15 days plotted at any given time:

 

16K Version

Instructions:

 

Loading the main program:

 

Entering your name:

 

Output to screen only, or screen and printer:

 

Entering your birth date:

 

Entering the desired date range:

 

Uh oh, too bad.  This title is not Y2K compliant.  Though this appears to be an input restriction as you can produce post 1999 content with the 8K version:

 

The plot has started.  Like the 8K version, a short blip tone is made as each day is displayed:

 

The plot is complete:

 

Comparison

Atari Biorhythm output for comparison purposes:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-cmp-040170-032016-ab.pdf

 

Web based output for comparison purposes:

 

Output from both aligned for comparison purposes.  The plots are the same:

 

Files

As a cassette program there are no files.  I converted both to SAV and LST formats, and have provided a DOS 2 diskette with the files.  You can download it from the links below.  The contents of my disk are:

• BIO8K.SAV – 8K version in SAVe format.
• BIO8K.LST – 8K version in LiST format.
• BIO16K.SAV – 16K version in SAVe format.
• BIO16K.LST – 16K version in LiST format.

 

Printing

8K instructions:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-prt-8-1-inst.pdf

8K month plot:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-prt-8-2-month.pdf

16K instructions:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-prt-16-1-inst.pdf

16K month plot:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-prt-16-2-month.pdf

16K year plot:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/s2e17-prt-16-2-year.pdf

 

Show Links:

• Atari Mania: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-biorhythm_12428.html
• Atari Wiki: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Atari%20Biorhythm
• Biorhythm Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biorhythm
• Biorhythm Calculator: http://www.biorhythm-calculator.net/default.aspx
• Casio Biolator: http://www.casio-calculator.com/Museum/Pages/BBB/Biolator%20(H-801)%20Life%20Cycle/Casio%20Biolator%20(H-801)%20Life%20Cycle%20Edition.html
• Compunetic Arcade Machine: http://www.retroland.com/biorhythm-machines/

 

Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.