🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <880501041352.036351@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA> Friesen%PCO@BCO-MULTICS.ARPA writes:
>
>Well I guess my machine is more of a business computer than most :-).
>Everyone says that they have a lot of games for their Atari.  Well I
>only have 3 (plus about 4 PD ones and a few I have programmed).  The
>reason I don't have too many is because I like arcade action games, not
>text adventure games (which seem to be the most common type).
>
> [stuff re Atari Video marriage with Atari Computer deleted...]
>

There are some excellent video games for the ST.  Atari's own Star
Raiders has been updated and enhanced to take advantage of the
graphics capabilities of the ST.  It has the feel of the original with
lots of pretty little touches added, like multiple simulated "computer
displays" within the main window...

>Sometimes people ask, "If you knew when you bought your Atari, what you
>know now, would you have bought it?
>
>My answer is YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!  I love my Atari!!!!!!

Well, this brings up an excellent point: why did YOU buy this machine?

Mr. Beckemeyer apparently chose the machine because it was the
fastest, cheapest 68000 box around and he intended to concentrate on
that aspect of it; unfortunately in his enthusiasm or niavete he
either overlooked the machine's designed-in limitations (no external
bus connections, buggy OS ROMS), or underestimated their impact on the
power of the machine.  Now he bemoans the fact the Atari is slow in
fixing things.  Did Atari hold a gun to your head, and force you to
develop for their machine, Mr. Beckemeyer?  It was your choice.  If it
was a bad one, then move on.  No one likes sour grapes.

I chose the machine for several reasons.  I had been working with an
S-100 bus system based on a Z80-A computer, running CP/M 2.2.  I was
tired of hitting the limits of the Z80's speed and memory.  The
graphics board I had was limited to 265 x 192 resolution with a fixed
palette of 16 colors (based on the TI9918A chip).  I could see the
possibilities with more speed, more memory, better graphics.

Then, along come both the Amiga and Atari.  Both are based on 68000's,
with its large linear address space, rational register architecture
and instruction set.  The Atari is available, stock with a MEGAbyte of
memory (ye gods!  How could I EVER fill that up? :-).  The screen
resolutions are nearly double what I had.  The prices are within my
budget.  Now, how to choose?

At the time (about two years ago), all the talk on the Amiga side was
about how buggy the operating system is, how slow the file management
is, what a pain Kickstart is, etc.  So I bought Atari.  Now, to my
sardonic amusement, all the talk in Atariland is about how buggy TOS
is, how slow FAT searching is, where is the blitter, etc!  And
Amigaland?  Well, they get their OS updates on disk, so they're WAY
ahead of where they were 2 years ago!  So knowing what I know now, I
would probably buy an Amiga, maybe... except that there have been a
number of EXCELLENT software packages published exclusivly for the
Atari, such as Antic Publishing's Cyber Studio.  This stuff is EXACTLY
what I wanted the computer for.

Personally, I haven't found any of the TOS bugs fatal; except that I
don't have a hard disk so I stand to loose less than others.  I don't
mind that the floppies aren't as fast as they could be, since they
hold 1/3 more data (800K vs. 600K) than my 8" floppies, in a fraction
of the space.  I do wish Atari would release new ROMS, and a blitter
mod for the 1040, but I never had a blitter before (hell, I had to
write my own graphics routines from the SET/GET PIXEL level on up!).
I guess I can live without one for a while longer...

P.S. Apologies to Mr. Beckemeyer if I have misspelled your name.  I do
not have your posting in front of me.  If I have, and it makes you
feel any better, feel free to misspell mine.




Greg Wageman               ARPA: greg%sentry@spar.slb.com    | To err is human; to
Schlumberger Technologies  BIX:  gwage			     | REALLY screw things
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