E.T. Book Cart Text Files
Dublin Core
Title
E.T. Book Cart Text Files
Creator
Charles F. Gray and Michael Rideout
Date Issued
2006
Format
Book (electronic)
Medium
Atari VCS/2600
Type
Educational
Language
English
Description
These are the actual text files that comprise the E.T. Book Cart. They were sent to us by Michael Rideout via Charles Gray.
Table Of Contents
E.T. Boom Cart Text Files
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Michael Rideout" <seagtgruff@aol.com>
Date: 2014-05-13 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: Text files request for Professor
To: <mercgray@gmail.com>
Cc:
I had to dig these off of my old computer, but I think they're the correct (final) files. I didn't have them in Word; they're just standard text files. The text had to be formatted as it was to appear on the screen, and I wrote a program to read each file and convert it into several binary files for inclusion in the assembly code-- due to the way the characters are drawn with the sprites, the text had to be separated into pairs of letters for the odd and even frames of each page (screen), and I also used four special characters (if I remember correctly, vertical tab, horizontal tab, line feed, and page feed) to help eliminate unnecessary blank data and conserve space. Consequently the text files might look a little strange-- the edges of the text area are indicated by vertical bars, and the end of each page is indicated by a line of tildes.
Three sets of files are enclosed:
Regular Edition - This folder contains the text files for the regular edition of the cart, which included the bonus game. It contains two subfolders:
Formatted - This folder contains the following text files:
c0.txt - This is the table of contents. There are five pages, each identical except for the location of the asterisk (cursor) that indicated which chapter the user wanted to select.
c1.txt - This is chapter 1, or the collection of sayings and comments.
c2.txt - This is chapter 2, or the interview with Howard Scott Warshaw.
c3.txt - This is chapter 3, or the ode to Howard Scott Warshaw.
c4.txt - This is chapter 4, or the instructions to find the Easter eggs.
ct.txt - This is the credits text for the bottom of the title screen.
Unformatted - This folder contains the following text files, which appear to be the same as those listed above but without any extra blank lines added so that each "page" contains the correct number of lines:
F1_Title_Screen.txt
F2_Table_of_Contents.txt
F3_Chapter_1.txt
F4_Chapter_2.txt
F5_Chapter_3.txt
F6_Chapter_4.txt
(The F1, F2, F3, etc. at the beginning of each filename simply mean "file 1," "file 2," etc., prepended so the files would be listed in the correct order in the directory.)
Special Edition - This folder contains the text files for the special edition of the cart-- the one that worked with NTSC, PAL, and SECAM-- which omitted the ode, the "transmission" for triggering the Easter egg, and the bonus game, and which had a different interview with Howard Scott Warshaw. Some of the files should be identical to the corresponding ones from the regular edition:
c0se.txt - This is the table of contents.
c1se.txt - This is chapter 1, which I believe is identical to chapter 1 of the regular edition.
c2se.txt - This is chapter 2, or the alternate interview with Howard Scott Warshaw.
c3se.txt - This is chapter 3, which I believe is identical to chapter 4 of the regular edition.
ctse.txt - This is the credits text for the bottom of the title screen.
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Gray <mercgray@gmail.com>
To: seagtgruff@aol.com <SeaGtGruff@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, May 13, 2014 10:54 am
Subject: Text files request for Professor
Hi Michael,
Do you have the text files for the E.T. Book Cart. I have the .abw(abiword) files but I am guessing you converted these to a microsoft word documents. I remember there were some minor spelling mistakes that Al wanted fixed, which you did fix. I am not sure if you fixed the word doc itself or directly in the wip rom file?
I need these for a professor who is doing a research paper on digital media.
So would you email me the word files for all the text in the E.T. Book Cart?
Thanks again,
Charles
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Michael Rideout" <seagtgruff@aol.com>
Date: 2014-05-13 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: Text files request for Professor
To: <mercgray@gmail.com>
Cc:
I had to dig these off of my old computer, but I think they're the correct (final) files. I didn't have them in Word; they're just standard text files. The text had to be formatted as it was to appear on the screen, and I wrote a program to read each file and convert it into several binary files for inclusion in the assembly code-- due to the way the characters are drawn with the sprites, the text had to be separated into pairs of letters for the odd and even frames of each page (screen), and I also used four special characters (if I remember correctly, vertical tab, horizontal tab, line feed, and page feed) to help eliminate unnecessary blank data and conserve space. Consequently the text files might look a little strange-- the edges of the text area are indicated by vertical bars, and the end of each page is indicated by a line of tildes.
Three sets of files are enclosed:
Regular Edition - This folder contains the text files for the regular edition of the cart, which included the bonus game. It contains two subfolders:
Formatted - This folder contains the following text files:
c0.txt - This is the table of contents. There are five pages, each identical except for the location of the asterisk (cursor) that indicated which chapter the user wanted to select.
c1.txt - This is chapter 1, or the collection of sayings and comments.
c2.txt - This is chapter 2, or the interview with Howard Scott Warshaw.
c3.txt - This is chapter 3, or the ode to Howard Scott Warshaw.
c4.txt - This is chapter 4, or the instructions to find the Easter eggs.
ct.txt - This is the credits text for the bottom of the title screen.
Unformatted - This folder contains the following text files, which appear to be the same as those listed above but without any extra blank lines added so that each "page" contains the correct number of lines:
F1_Title_Screen.txt
F2_Table_of_Contents.txt
F3_Chapter_1.txt
F4_Chapter_2.txt
F5_Chapter_3.txt
F6_Chapter_4.txt
(The F1, F2, F3, etc. at the beginning of each filename simply mean "file 1," "file 2," etc., prepended so the files would be listed in the correct order in the directory.)
Special Edition - This folder contains the text files for the special edition of the cart-- the one that worked with NTSC, PAL, and SECAM-- which omitted the ode, the "transmission" for triggering the Easter egg, and the bonus game, and which had a different interview with Howard Scott Warshaw. Some of the files should be identical to the corresponding ones from the regular edition:
c0se.txt - This is the table of contents.
c1se.txt - This is chapter 1, which I believe is identical to chapter 1 of the regular edition.
c2se.txt - This is chapter 2, or the alternate interview with Howard Scott Warshaw.
c3se.txt - This is chapter 3, which I believe is identical to chapter 4 of the regular edition.
ctse.txt - This is the credits text for the bottom of the title screen.
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Gray <mercgray@gmail.com>
To: seagtgruff@aol.com <SeaGtGruff@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, May 13, 2014 10:54 am
Subject: Text files request for Professor
Hi Michael,
Do you have the text files for the E.T. Book Cart. I have the .abw(abiword) files but I am guessing you converted these to a microsoft word documents. I remember there were some minor spelling mistakes that Al wanted fixed, which you did fix. I am not sure if you fixed the word doc itself or directly in the wip rom file?
I need these for a professor who is doing a research paper on digital media.
So would you email me the word files for all the text in the E.T. Book Cart?
Thanks again,
Charles
Files
Collection
Citation
Charles F. Gray and Michael Rideout, “E.T. Book Cart Text Files,” Learning Games Initiative Research Archive (LGIRA), accessed April 18, 2024, https://lgira.mesmernet.org/items/show/1579.
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