So did you ever have an atari computer?

[spirantho]

I didn't used to - but I do now. I actually have a 1MB upgraded 520ST (that's the original 1984 one with no disk drive, no TV modulator, nothing!), a 1040STfm or 2 and a Falcon 030.

Funny this is that Atari suffered the same problem as CBM did at the time - Atari would keep throwing upgrades at the users, but the software developers always stuck to the baseline as that was what sold the most.
The STe was a much better machine, and had a blitter, better palette and much better sound. Hardly anything used it.
The Falcon was better than a 1200, in hardware. Still, nothing used it. I remember when the Falcon was coming out Amiga users were pretty worried that their computer wasn't as good as an Atari any more. In 1992 PCs were still predominantly machines that went ping and had up to 16 colours while needing a mortgage to buy. VGA was there but very expensive. It was all Atari vs Amiga.

I miss those days *sniff*, at least the ST had character. It's kind of like in the 60s everyone arguing who's better: The Beatles or The 'Stones? Then a few decades later it's Leona bloomin' Lewis (that's her real full name, by the way, honest) spat out of the Cowell machine who's topping the charts.

Oops, looks like I got side-tracked. Must be getting old...

[Xanxi]

Even now i still feel like i would drop dead only by touching an Atari ST (the Amiga-Atari war was taken rather seriously in France ).
However, i kinda like the Atari Falcon, perhaps because there is no more ST wording on it, but i don't own it.

[tone007]

I had a bunch of 8 bits and a 520ST.  Didn't like any of them.

[Colani1200]

I bought a Mega ST in the 90ies for Cubase. I still have it, plus a few more (1040, Lynx, a Portfolio and also a 2600). There were a few really excellent programs for the ST, but overall the hardware itself and it's OS is rather crappy IMHO.

[prowler]

I had an Atari 2600 clone as a kid but never owned anything else Atari until a few years ago when a flat mate of mine told me his work was throwing out an Amiga. He couldn't tell me what kind but I turned up at his work to pick it up.

It turned out to be an Atari 1040 with 4Megs of ram, the monochrome monitor and the cubase cartridge but no software. I thought what the heck, I have always been interested in what was so great about the Atari after a few of the typical playground arguments and took it home to play with.

Games seemed OK. Some were on par with the AMiga versions, some worse some better. I also liked the fact that it had the RAM expansion on the motherboard which took normal, for the time, RAM which I felt the Amiga could have always dealt with. From what I could see, cubase looked pretty good as well and I can see how this application helped to sell a number of Atari units.

As for their desktop GUI, GEM, I personally found that to be a major let down. 3 screen modes, the 2 lower res ones supported colour, the high res one black and white. The only way I could access all of them without a special monitor was to have the monochrome monitor plugged into the monitor port and a TV set into the RF port. I found the GEM interface pretty bad to use and work with, it reminded me of early MacOS and it's single tasking.

[4pLaY]

I never had an Atari back in the days but i bought an Atari Falcon 030 last year, havent had time to play with it so its for sale if anyone wants it (no silly bids).

[Tension]

Bought a STe for a tenner about 10 years ago at a car boot sale for a laugh.

Couldnt believe how shite TOS was.  (Though the diskless loading was impressive)


IIRC the game Doodlebug had a 'ST mode' where the GFX were downgraded appropriately lol.

[Khephren]

I traded in my C64 and speccy, and used my christmas money to get a brand spanking new STFM.
It was the first time I started using a computer as a computer, and not just as a game console, so i'll thank Atari for that. But I bought it because it was £100 cheaper than the Amiga, and came with a massive pack of games, but it was the Amiga I wanted, but could not strech to.
   A year odd later, I sold the ST and managed to buy a second hand A500, and never looked back.

[jupo42]

Yes and no. My family had a VCS (2600) early in my youth, and it was our only electronic entertainment for years. My mom brought home an early model A2000 from one of her business trips when I was 6, and we stuck with Amigas for over 10 years. I never knew any kids my age who had an ST series Atari... but then again, I also didn't know any other kids who had an Amiga, or even a Mac. In America of the late '80s, playing video games meant you had a Nintendo, and using a computer already meant an IBM clone.

It wasn't until I was packing up for college that one of my high-school buddies mentioned his family was selling his old ST. By that time, both sides had lost the "war," and I was curious what the old nemesis competitor had to offer. So, for $100 I picked up a 520STfm with a boatload of floppies and began my journey into vintage computer collecting. (A few months later I bought a VIC-20, then a Mac Plus... At my worst, I've had nearly 100 computers in various stages of repair... That's still my only Atari, though.)

I wasn't terribly impressed. The midget SC1224 screen was tiny. GEM looked even cheesier than AmigaDOS 1.2 (who picked out that color of green? and is that cursor a bumblebee?). And the games I played were not as enjoyable as the ones I still played on my Amiga at the time.

[amiga92570]

I had a 2600 and 5200 which I still have today.

[Amiga_Nut]

Before the Amiga 1000 was affordable I was given an STM (no built in drive, but had a TV modulator built in) as a birthday present, at my own request....16 colours was a bit limiting for computer art and Commodore mouse was OTT in price like £50 and another £50+ for GEOS I think, 25% the value of an ST which had mouse and GEM included!

I got it specifically because I didn't have 1250+VAT to spend on a computer for doodling on otherwise would have got an A1000, and the ST was the next best machine really. Then when all the idiots were offloading their 1000s when news of the A500 emerged I got one of those too for a good price.

Technically Paula/Copper/Blitter were light years ahead of Atari Shifter graphics/YM sound chip though, but it didn't matter as maybe only 5% used anything like the full power of Amiga, ST ports from the nobhead software houses in the UK charging £5 make me sick, I have no problem with the actual ST machine which at one point was £299 compared to £499+£20 modulator for A500. Pays your money and you get what you pay for.

I understand why some people hate the ST though, as if the ST didn't exist Amiga games might have been programmed properly, Amiga games should have looked similar to Sharp X68000 games NOT bloody ST games

[JimS]

A cousin of mine had an Atari 800XL and while it was not much different to a C64 it always felt like a cheap "me too"-product to me - made for people who mainly wanted to play games. In fact I don´t know of any serious application or programming package even today, but I guess this is just my ignorance.

The 8 bit machines did have some serious software... at least as much as I can remember that far back... ;-) The usual word processing stuff... if you can imagine writing on a 40 column screen. Koala pad for drawing... Printshop for signs & banners... there was even a 3d animator, but i don't recall the name of that one... I even wrote a label maker that got some play among user groups.
As for languages, well Basic came with it, either as a cart, or built into it. There was a 6502 assembler - in a cart no less! and a unique language called Action! that was sort of a cross between C and assembly. Those were just the ones I used.
Hardware wise the cpu was 70% faster than the 64 and it's serial peripheral bus was much faster. I always considered the 64 to be the 8 bit version of the ST. ;-) But then after making the original decision back in 1980 or so to go Atari, I never paid much attention to doings in the Commodore camp until the Amiga made the scene.

[redrumloa]

Atari? If you asked such a question in an Amiga forum in 1990 you probably would have been accused of trolling.  

Probably? :laughing:

Time passes and all these computers are so far removed from relevant the old feuds look silly. If I had the money and the spaced, I'd have a computer museum with all the old platforms.

[klx300r]

owned an STe for 3 months after finding one at a garage sale last year..ended up selling it to a true Atari fan because I honestly never had the will to learn/toy with it.....my 64/ 128/ A500/ A1200 rule my retro heart after all:afro:

[Karlos]

I never owned one, but these days I find myself intrigued by the idea of a Falcon+CT60 or one of those Hades compatibles

[number6]

@JimS

How can we forget "Computer Eyes" for the 8bit?

#6