Podcast: Download

This episode features HomePak, originally released in 1984 by Batteries Included.  It was developed by Star Systems Software, Inc., and written by Russ Wetmore.

Box and Supplement Scans

Scan of the front of the folder:

 

Scan of the front of the folder inside:

 

Scan of the back of the folder:

 

Advertisement from January 1985:

 

Another advertisement:

 

Advertisement for Batteries Included, which includes HomePak, from December 2012:

 

HomePak in Action

Main Menu

 

HomeText

Loading:

 

Splash banner:

 

Editor (empty file, replace mode):

 

Editor (full file, typeover mode):

 

Editor Options popup menu (invoked with OPTION console key):

 

Function Menu

Function menu:

 

Directory listing (of program disk):

 

Clear buffer (confirmation):

 

Configure printer commands (each commands ON and OFF is asked for, up to 5 sequences in each can be input):

 

Load file:

 

Preview file (file too large – needs 5K of the 6K+ to operate, workaround in the manual):

 

Preview (single page).  Colors highlight different formats:

 

Print:

 

Save file:

 

Writing the customizations (CTRL-W, not on the menu):

 

HomeFind

Loading:

 

Splash banner:

 

Creating a new data disk, or selecting a new data disk drive (result of pressing SELECT on previous screen):

 

Whoops, didn’t put the program disk back in the drive:

 

Interface

Primary user interface.  The top is where output is returned, the bottom is where commands are input:

 

Entering a new record.  Anything “new” is news to the database.  Add it?  Sure.  This first prompt is the subject of the entered record:

 

Continuing the entry, this is the prompt for adding a new tag which is the second part of the entered record:

 

With records in the database, query’s are performed using a similar syntax.  Entering “Who’s Allison” returns all records with subject Allison:

 

Function menu:

 

Listing the subjects:

 

Listing the tags:

 

HomeTerm

Loading:

 

Splash banner:

 

Function menu:

 

Setting the capture file name:

 

Clearing the buffer:

 

Setting the delay:

 

Setting the timer:

 

Setting the character translation mode.  ATARI mode disables the custom font in favor of the system font:

 

ATARI mode:

 

Mini DOS:

 

Files

Contents

HomePak uses Atari DOS 2.0.  The contents of the disk can be seen in this screenshot:

HomeText, and HomeTerm files are written to standard formatted disks.  HomeFind uses a custom format.  HomeFind data diskettes can not be read by DOS.

 

Printing

HomeText formatting sample:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/s3e03-prt-1tx-sample.pdf

HomeFind output sample:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/s3e03-prt-2fn-query.pdf

 

Instructions

Check AtariMania!

 

Show Links

• Atari Mania: http://www.atarimania.com/utility-atari-400-800-xl-xe-homepak_15765.html
• HomePak wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homepak
• Batteries Included wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batteries_Included_(company)
• Russ Wetmore wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Wetmore
• Antic Podcast Interview Episode 113 (Russ Wetmore): http://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-113-russ-wetmore-preppie-sea-dragon-homepak
• STart Magazine #1: http://www.atarimania.com/mags/pdf/atari_start_vol_1_issue_1.pdf

 

 

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.