Convert ATASCII to ASCII This decoder reverses the common text-oriented ATASCII mapping used by the paired ASCII-to-ATASCII converter.
Use it to inspect Atari byte dumps and recover the supported ASCII text range.
Start with the built-in sample, then replace it with a short test value containing a space, punctuation, and a character whose code you already know. This gives you a quick sanity check before using a longer string.
Atari graphics, inverse-video values, and special control codes are not all representable in ordinary ASCII, so unsupported bytes are reported rather than substituted.
Start with a printable letter and the 9B EOL marker to verify the mapping before decoding a larger file. The result stays in the browser until you explicitly copy or download it.
This tool does not require an account, upload service, or external API. That makes it suitable for development checks, retro-computing exercises, documentation examples, and small repeatable test fixtures.
ATASCII can contain printable characters that resemble ASCII while still using different values for line handling and control behavior. This decoder focuses on the common text mapping, including the Atari EOL value used by the paired encoder. That makes it useful for reading small text records while keeping unsupported graphics and inverse-video values visible as unsupported data instead of silently flattening them.
Hexadecimal input is especially helpful when working with emulator dumps. It lets you distinguish an ordinary letter from an Atari-specific control value even when a text editor would display both poorly. When debugging a file, inspect the first known line and the first line break before processing the full record.
If the output suddenly becomes unreadable, the first question should be whether the source is actually ATASCII. Atari 8-bit systems also used internal character-set ordering and screen-oriented representations, and the Atari ST family used a different character set. Choosing the correct source format is part of a successful conversion, not an optional detail.
For repeated conversion work, keep a small known-good record beside your test code. Decode it, compare the result with the expected ASCII string, then retain the original hex bytes as a regression fixture. That approach makes later changes to parsers or file handling easier to validate than relying on screenshots or manual inspection.
When migrating old Atari text, preserve the original ATASCII bytes even after creating the ASCII version. The decoded text is useful for modern tools, but the source bytes are the evidence that lets you revisit control characters, line endings, or graphics later. This is particularly useful when an apparently simple text file turns out to contain platform-specific behavior.