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money and this thing can be self sufficient and it might make some money.' They grudgingly agreed to let him do it because the Atari platform desperately needed a larger software base, a void not being filled by the other publishers of the day. And so he did it and very quickly made it into a monster success. It was a major profit center for Atari. They rewarded Dale for his initiative by bringing in another guy to be Dale's boss... so Dale, in disgust, transferred to the new Atari
Research Division under Alan Kay about a year after APX launched.
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Moreover, Atari had to come to grips with the fact that Atari is not in the mail-order business. However, APX will continue to review products sent to Atari by outside programmers. If the programs are topnotch, they will be added to the main Atari catalogue. Otherwise, they will not be sold by Atari
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Atari mailed catalogs to all computer owners who sent in warranty cards. The first issue of the catalog, dated summer 1981, stated that while "Atari offers a wide variety of useful and entertaining software ... we've come across other interesting software deserving public recognition ... will make
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The guy who cooked up the idea, Dale Yocum, was trying to explain to the management that there are a lot people out there that like to write programs and if we can publish these programs for them, it's a win-win. He put together a business plan for it and said 'Look, we only need a little bit of
34:
from 1981 until 1984. Quarterly APX catalogs were sent to all registered Atari 8-bit owners. APX encouraged any programmer, not just professionals, to submit video games, educational software, applications, and utilities. A few internally developed Atari products were sold through APX, such as
105:
Dale Yocum approached Atari with the idea of setting up their own third-party publishing arm. With Atari's distribution capabilities the products would be seen by many more prospective customers, and at the same time, Atari would make money with every sale, money that would otherwise be lost.
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In 1981 APX announced an award program, the Atari Star, with quarterly and yearly cash awards. All programs submitted for publishing were eligible. The annual grand prize for the best program was a trophy and $ 25,000. The first winner was the educational game
54:
If accepted, a submitted program was added to the catalog with credit given to the programmer. The top submissions of the quarter in each category were recognized. One program each year received the top honor: the Atari Star award. APX releases
76:
The brainchild of Dale Yocum, the Atari
Program Exchange started in February 1981. In 1982 its management was taken over by Fred Thorlin, who operated it until it closed. APX published quarterly catalogs until 1984, when new Atari CEO
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programming language designed for an unreleased, higher-spec Atari computer model. It was relegated to the Atari
Program Exchange and sold without support. The software requires two floppy drives which greatly reduced its audience.
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such software available quickly and inexpensively ... We'll keep costs down simple packaging and we'll rely on user-written documentation ... What we'll offer, then, is a lot of interesting software quickly and inexpensively".
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console. By the end of the first year on the market increasingly sophisticated applications from outside Atari were nonetheless becoming available. There were, however, a limited number of distribution channels at the time.
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by Mark Reid, a maze chase game taking place across a large, scrolling city map. According to Reid, there was talk of moving the game into Atari's product line, but Atari's troubles stemming from the
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in late 1979, the company kept most of the hardware details secret. It intended to be the primary supplier of software for the platform, as had been the case with the
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and various peripherals. Many APX programs were games, but it distributed a wide variety of applications, utilities, programming tools, and educational software.
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322:(1982) was the first time Atari widely published information about the internals of the Atari 8-bit computers. It was serialized in
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The final catalog, dated Winter 1983–84, was much smaller than previous catalogs. After the discontinuation of APX,
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According to Atari CEO James Morgan, APX was losing money in its mail-order business so that part was shut down:
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by David
Buehler, a game designed to improve touch typing skill. Atari published it as a cartridge in 1984.
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The quarterly publication included descriptions and screenshots of each program, and advertisements for
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Dunion's
Debugging tool, or DDT, is a machine language debugger which was later incorporated into the
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495:"The quarterly APX contest / APX: Programs by our users...for our users / Publications / Hardware"
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304:, credited to Dennis Koble who wrote the original arcade game, and 1982 platform game
169:. The Antic Software catalog was bound into issues of the magazine and later included
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by
Fernando Herrera. He used the money to cofound video game developer and publisher
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prior to publication, then sold through APX as loose pages intended to be put in a
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and became part of the official Atari product line. One of
Crawford's later games,
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closed down the mail-order division. Some APX software was later picked up by
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614:"Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and Video Game Programmers"
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Atari distributed two licensed arcade ports through APX: 1978's
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248:, was the Atari Program Exchange's most popular program. The
373:. The source code was sold separately as Deep Blue Secrets.
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to the Atari 8-bit computers which was published by APX as
559:"Introducing the premier award of the software industry"
394:. In Small, David; Small, Sandy; Blank, George (eds.).
420:"Atari: The Golden Years -- A History, 1978-1981"
697:
692:including scans of catalogs and list of programs
73:, were moved to Atari's official product line.
706:Defunct software companies of the United States
256:, and a scenario editor, were sold separately.
438:
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565:(advertisement). January 1982. pp. 24–25
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320:De Re Atari: A Guide to Effective Programming
161:magazine published some former APX titles as
599:"The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers"
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165:and continued soliciting new submissions as
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197:which sold several of his games, including
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343:. The author, Jim Dunion, contributed to
466:"Introducing the Atari Program Exchange"
132:. Other products sold included the book
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470:Atari Program Exchange Software Catalog
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501:(Fall ed.). 1983. pp. 34, 72
45:, and a port of the arcade video game
30:that sold software via mail-order for
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13:
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141:
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727:
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260:and vertically scrolling shooter
651:"Atari PASCAL - A Good Product?"
649:Tillman, Raymond T. (May 1983).
716:Atari Program Exchange software
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624:
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85:and branded as "APX Classics".
577:
533:
530:, Issue 50 (July 1984), pg. 44
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412:
234:
93:When Atari first launched the
1:
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352:Atari Pascal Language System
276:, was also sold through APX.
439:DeWitt, Robert (June 1983).
398:. Creative Computing Press.
365:author Jack Palevich ported
7:
524:"Atari's New Lease On Life"
472:. Summer 1981. pp. 1–2
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119:
99:Atari Video Computer System
10:
732:
690:APX info at Atari Archives
657:. No. 11. p. 42.
441:"APX / On top of the heap"
341:Optimized Systems Software
231:kept this from happening.
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291:and became the home game
285:inspired the arcade game
39:, the developer handbook
638:. Fall 1983. p. 48.
585:"Reminisching: Getaway!"
310:, which was uncredited.
229:video game crash of 1983
67:, and Atari Star winner
266:were both converted to
163:APX Classics from Antic
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117:
20:Atari Program Exchange
711:Atari 8-bit computers
612:Hague, James (1997).
148:
112:
95:Atari 8-bit computers
32:Atari 8-bit computers
390:Nelson, Ted (1983).
354:is a version of the
241:Eastern Front (1941)
221:The 1983 winner was
212:The 1982 winner was
58:Eastern Front (1941)
26:) was a division of
16:Video game publisher
522:and Selby Bateman,
499:APX Product Catalog
392:"The Atari Machine"
195:First Star Software
563:Creative Computing
396:The Creative Atari
182:Atari Star winners
130:computer magazines
330:three-ring binder
190:My First Alphabet
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655:ANALOG Computing
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263:Caverns of Mars
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151:in any fashion.
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142:Discontinuation
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79:James J. Morgan
64:Caverns of Mars
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684:External links
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673:Atari Archives
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545:Atari Archives
541:"APX Catalogs"
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520:Fred D'Ignazio
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418:Steve Fulton,
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268:ROM cartridges
258:Eastern Front
246:Chris Crawford
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167:Antic Software
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110:later stated:
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669:"Deep Blue C"
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632:"APX Catalog"
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37:Atari Pascal
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636:archive.org
476:November 7,
450:October 30,
371:Deep Blue C
345:De Re Atari
250:source code
235:Other games
215:Typo Attack
200:Astro Chase
135:De Re Atari
70:Typo Attack
42:De Re Atari
28:Atari, Inc.
700:Categories
618:dadgum.com
569:August 14,
405:0916688348
377:References
173:products.
424:Gamasutra
318:The book
301:Avalanche
273:Excalibur
528:Compute!
505:July 29,
307:Kangaroo
288:Gauntlet
224:Getaway!
206:Bristles
177:Products
171:Atari ST
120:Catalogs
48:Kangaroo
367:Small-C
89:History
402:
356:Pascal
337:MAC/65
445:Antic
363:Dandy
282:Dandy
158:Antic
571:2014
507:2014
478:2020
452:2013
400:ISBN
350:The
325:BYTE
252:for
203:and
24:APX
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.