Hi, Lynn!
I am getting flashbacks from my early computer days! I bought an Atari ST
back in 1985 shortly after they came out, and learned a great deal about
computers and programming with it. The GEM (not related to the scanning
GEM) GUI was a really nice windows desktop UI that I wish had been marketed
in it's PC version better than it was by Digital Research (of DR-DOS fame)
Atari actually continued making and marketing the ST line of computers
throughout the '80s and were reportedly trying to sell high end workstations
(the TT, as I recall). Unfortunately, they really dropped the ball in
marketing them here in the US. There were several magazines devoted to
Atari until the late '80s but they dried up as products ceased to be
marketed here.
I had the most fun with it emulating a Mac128 using a cartridge that
contained Mac ROMS scrounged from used Macs. THis cartridge plugged into
the "game port" (I recall no games being marketed using this port!) and with
appropriate software, one could run a large variety of "properly written"
Mac programs on the Atari, at a slight performance BOOST! (higher clock
speed 68000 processor in the Atari than in the Mac).
Cool computer at the time, but poorly marketed.
Guy "showing his age" Clark
-----Original Message-----
From: Lynn Allen [mailto:lalle@email.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 4:09 PM
To: filmscanners@halftone.co.uk
Subject: RE: filmscanners: OT: Co-processors & Amiga
------Original Message------
From: "Austin Franklin" <austin@darkroom.com>
> Yeah, and the Atari did the same thing...before the Amiga!
......................................................
Two things: 1) I've said before, I'm not a "hardware head" nor an engineer
("but I play one on television" ;-))and 2) memory is a poor sustitute for
fact-sheets (which I don't have at hand). Nor do I want to be argumentative,
BUT...
As I recall, Atari 1200 (I think it was called) and Amiga were in
development at roughly the same time. Amiga was bought up by Commodore
Computers (which Jack Tramiel had turned into a major home-computer player
with the Commodore 64, and had left for Atari), *mostly* to keep Tramiel
from getting his hands on it. It was, in essence, a bankrupcy sale--the
original developers ran out of money. This was about 1982-83.
Apple introduced Macintosh first. *Way* first. It had no color capabilities,
but was a cousin to their awesome Lisa machine, which was developed for
graphics, particularly type and page setting, so color didn't matter.
Sinclair introduced their 1200 about the same time. It did have color, but
not much power. IBM was tinkering with the PC Jr.
Commodore "unveiled" the Amiga in 1984, but you couldn't buy one. Atari
introduced their model a few months later, and you *could* buy one. It
boasted color, and multiple processors, but had nowhere near the performance
of the Amiga--which I couldn't get, anyway. Amiga had the patents on the
co-processors, because it had been in development for several years before
Atari and Tramiel (now with Atari) made their "mad dash to freedom." There
was talk of Lawsuit (which was also heard from the direction of Apple), but
the new Atari was not well-recieved, had other problems as well, and the
company "crashed and burned" about a year later. By that time, I had an
early-serial-number A1000.
Anyway, that's the way *I* remember it, and I don't think that today's
filmscanners on this List give a flying f*rt. My point was that A) it could
multi-task, and B) it was ridden into the ground by upper management that
cared neither about their customers nor their product. It was like a page
out of "Dilbert."
So you made me break my promise not mention it again, Austin, and I hope
you're happy! ;-)
-----------------------------------------------
FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com
Reserve your name now at
