Atari 400 Instruction Manual

USER'S HANDBOOK
TO THE
ATARI 400/800® COMPUTERS
by:
Jeffrey
R. Weber
Stephen J. Szczecinski
Weber Systems, Inc.
Cleveland, Ohio

Published by :
Weber Systems, Inc.
8437 Mayfield Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44026
For
information on translations and book distributors outside of
the United States, please contact WSI at the above address.
User's Handbook To The Atari 400j800® Computers
First Edition
Copyright© 1983 by Weber Systems, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
publication may be reproduced , stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy , recording , or otherwise without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Library of Congr e ss Ca talog Card Number 82-051088
ISBN 0-938862-15-4
Typesetting: Chell ey Hoffm an
Production & Design: Beth Cammarn

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE ATARI COMPUTERS
AND PERIPHERALS
Atari 400 and 800 7. Atari 800 Specifications 9.
Atari 400 Specifications 10. Atari Keyboard 11.
Atari Video Display 11. Plug-In Cartridge
Hatches 13. Computer Memory 13. Atari 410
Program Recorder 14. Atari 810 Disk Drive 15 .
Atari Printers
16. Atari 850 Interface Module 16.
Game Controls 17. Software 17. Operating
Systems 17. Languages 18. Applications
Programs 18.
2. INSTALLATION AND OPERATION OF ATARI
COMPUTERS
Introduction 19. Installing the Atari 400 21.
Installing the Atari 410 Recorder 21 . Installing
the Atari 810 Disk Drive 21 . Installing the Atari
820 Printer 23 . Installing the Atari 822 Printer 24.
Installing the Atari 825 Printer 24 . Installing a
ROM Cartridge 25 . Power On 26. Keyboard 30.
System Reset Key 31 . Select Key 31 . Option Key
31. Start Key 31. Return Key 32. Break Key 32 .
Shift Key
32. Ctr! Key 33. Caps/Lowr Key 33 . .II\..
Key 34 . Arrow Keys 34. Back S Key 35. Clear
Key 35. Insert & Delete Keys 35 . Tab Key 35. ESC
Key 36 . Auto Repeat 36. Display Line Length 36.
7.
19.

3. INTRODUCTION TO AT ARI BASIC
Immediate & Program Modes 37. Line Numbers
38. NEW 40. END 40. Program Execution 40.
Program Lines & Display Lines 41. Multiple
Statement Program Lines 41. Abbreviating
Keywords 42. Listing a Program 42. Error
Messages 43 . BASIC Data Types 44 . Floating
Point Numbers 44 . Scientific Notation 45 .Tables
& Arrays 49. Expressions & Operators 51 .
Compound Expressions & Order of Evaluation
52.
Arithmetic Operations 53. Relational
Operators 55. Logical Operators 56. Atari
BASIC Statements 59 . Remark Statements 59 .
Assignment Statements 60 . DATA , READ 60 .
Outputting DATA 62. INPUT Statements
64. Loops 66. Nested Loops 67 . Conditional
Statements 68. Branching Statements 68. ON,
GOTO 70. Subroutines & GOSUB Statements
70. ON, GOSUB 72. Break Key & CONT 72 .
System Reset Key
72 . STOP 73. END 73 . Atari
BASIC Functions 74 .
4. ADVANCED AT ARI BASIC
Atari ASCII 75 . String Handling 76. Substrings
76. String Concatenation 77 . CHR$ & ASC
Functions 78. Escape Sequences in Strings
79. Graphics Characters in Strings 80. Variable
Storage 82. PEEK & POKE 83. Screen Output
Programming 84. Using the Carriage Return in
Cursor Positioning 84. TAB 85 . Moving the
Cursor With Escape Sequenc es 86. Home
Cursor 87. POSITION 87. Changing the Display
Screen Margins 88. Screen Input Programming
88. Prompt Messages 88. Input Response
Checks 89.
5. ATARI BASIC REFERENCE GUIDE
ABS 92. ADR 92. AN D 92. ASC 94. A TN
94. BYE 95. CLOAD 95. CHR$ 96. CLOG 96 .
CLOSE 97. CLR 97. COLOR 98 . COM 102.
37.
75.
91.

CO NT 103. COS 104 . CSAVE 104 . DATA 105 .
DEG 106 . DIM 107 . DOS 110 . DRAWTO 112.
END 114. ENTER 114. EXP 115. FOR 116. FRE
118 . GET 119 . GOSUB 123. GOTO 125.
GRAPHICS 126 . IF 126. INPUT 129. INT 132.
LEN 133 . LET 133 . LIST 134 . LOAD 136 . LOCATE
137 . LOG 139. LPRINT 139 . NEW 140. NEXT
141 . NOT 142. NOTE 143 . ON 144. OPEN 145.
OR 153. PADDLE 154. PEEK 155 . PLOT 156.
POINT 157. POKE 158. POP 159 . POSITION
160. PRINT 161 . PTRIG 166 . PUT 166. RAD 169.
READ 170. REM 171 . RESTORE 171 . RETURN
172. RND
172. RUN 173. SAVE 174 . SETCOLOR
175 . SGN 175. SIN 175 . SOUND 176 . SQR 177.
STATUS 177. STICK 178. STRIG 179. STOP 180.
STR$ 181 . TRAP 181 . USR 182 . VAL 183 . XIO
184.
6. ATARI 410 PROGRAM RECORDER
Introduction 189. Data Files 189. Program Files
190 . Saving Programs 190. Program Recording
Formats 191. Loading a Program 192. RUN C:
195. Reading and Writing Data 197 . Opening
Data Files198. Closing Data Files200. Writing to
a Data File 200. Reading From Data Files 202.
7. AT ARI 810 DISK DRIVE
Types of Disks 205. Hard Disks 205 . Winchester
Disk Drives 206. Floppy Diskettes 207. Tracks &
Sectors 208 . Hard & Soft Sectors 209 . Single &
Doubl e Sided Diskettes 211. Diskette Density
211 .
Write Prot e ction 212 . Disk Files
213. Filename Match Characters 213. Atari DOS
215. Disk Buffer 21 7. Booting DOS 217. DOS
Menu 218. Disk Directory 220 . Run Cartridge
222 . Copy File 223. Delete File 227. Rename
File 228. Lock File 230 . Unlock File 231. Write
DOS File 231 . Format Diskette 232 . Duplicate
Disk 233 . Binary Save 234. Binary Load 236 . Run
At Address 237. Create MEM.SAV 238.
Duplicate File 239 . Saving BASIC Programs 240.
189.
205.

Loading a Program 242. Chaining Pr og rams
243. Op e nin g a DiskFil e 244 . Clos in g a Data File
246. Writing to a Data File 2 47 . R ea ding Fr om a
Data File 248. NOTE
and POINT 250.
8. Al ARI PRINTERS
LIST P: 253. LPRINT 25 4. PRINT# & PUT 2 55.
Print er Buff er 255. Print er C haracter Sets
255.
Atari 825 Contro l Characters 256. Line Feed
258.
Rever se Line F eed 258 . Ha ld-Line F eed &
R
eve rs e Half-Lin e F eed 259. Car riage Re turn
259. Und e rlinin g 259. Standard, Con densed, &
Proportionall y Spa ce d Charact er Sets 260.
Backspace & 1-6 D
ot Spaces 26 0.
9. AlARI GRAPHICS & SOUND
GRAPHICS 263. GRAPHICS 0 263. Color
R eg iste rs & SETCOLOR 265 . GRAPHICS 1 & 2
267.
COLOR 272 . PLOT 277. ORA WTO 278.
GRAPHICS 3 thru 8 278. POSITION 281.
LOCATE 282. PUT 283. XIO 283. Atari Sound
285.
APPENDIX A. Atari Error Messages
APPENDIX B. Atari BASIC Reserved Words
APPENDIX C. Atari ASCII Code Set
APPENDIX D. Atari 400/800 Memory Map
APPENDIX E. Atari PEEK & POKE Locations
Index
253.
263.
287.
294.
295.
301.
306.
315 .

CHAPTER 1.
INTRODUCATION TO THE ATARI
COMPUTER AND PERIPHERALS
Introduction
In this book, we will describe the Atari home computers as well
as the peripherals that can be attached to them such as disk
drives, cassette recorders, and printers.
In the first chapter of this book, we will discuss the features of the
Atari 400 and 800 computers , the 410 Program Recorder, the 810
disk drive , game controls , and the various Atari printers . In the
second chapter, we will discuss the installation and operation of
the Atari 400 or 800 and its various peripherals .
In the third and fourth chapters, we will discuss programming
the Atari in Atari's version of the BASIC programming language.
The
fifth chapter contains a reference guide to the various Atari
BASIC commands, statements, and functions.
In Chapters 6, 7, and 8, we will discuss the Atari Cassette
Recorder, Atari Disk Drive, and Atari printers in greater detail. In
Chapter 9, we will discuss the usage of graphics and sound on the
Atari 400 and 800 .
Atari 400 and 800
There are two Atari computer models; the Atari 400 and the Atari
800 (pictured in Illustration 1-1).
The Atari
400 and 800 are very similar. Both models function the
same and follow the same set of instructions. The difference
between the Atari 400 and 800 lies in the fact that the 800 has
features
that the 400 does not.
For instance,
the Atari 800 's memory can be expanded , while the

8 User's Handbook to the Atari 400/800 Computers
memory of the Atari 400 is more or less fixed. Also, with the Atari
800, a video monitor can be used for video output as well as a
regular television set. With the Atari 400, only aregular television
set can be used for video output. A video monitor offers a more
detailed picture than a regular television set. Also, the Atari 800
has a typewriter style keyboard while the Atari 400 has aflat panel
with the keys outlined on it. Finally, the Atari 800 allows two
accessory cartridges to be plugged in, while the Atari 400 allows
only one.
However, the Atari 400 does have one major advantage--it costs
less than the Atari 800.
From hereon, we will refer to both the Atari 400 and 800
collectively as the Atari, unless a distincion between the two is
necessary. Whenever we refer to one model, the reader can
assume that
the concept applies to the other model as well,
unless
we specify otherwise.
Illustration 1-1. Atari 800 Computer