Tech Time Warp: Back in the Day, The Hot Tech Rivalry was Amiga vs Atari

[Pyromania]

News article from Wired.com

THE TECH INDUSTRY is full of iconic rivalries. Facebook vs. Twitter. Apple vs. Google. Uber vs. Lyft. But in 1985, one of the biggest rivalries was Atari vs. Amiga.

It"s been 30 years this week since Commodore International, best known for the iconic Commodore 64, launched the Amiga, which is still remembered today as a remarkable machine that offered cutting edge multimedia features for a much lower price than a Macintosh. But the Atari ST, which was less powerful but even cheaper, aimed to fill the same niche. In 1985 the PBS show Computer Chronicles ran an episode pitting the two classic computers against each other.

Fueling the tension between Atari and Amiga was the fact that Atari was being run by none other than Jack Tramiel, the Holocaust survivor who founded Commodore as a typewriter repair company in 1953. Although Apple is often credited with democratizing computers in the 1970s, it was Tramiel's commitment to bring computers to the masses, not the classes that made computers truly accessible. Tramiel left Commodore under mysterious circumstances in 1984 and soon became the CEO of Atari, where he led the launch of the ST. To put it in modern context, imagine Mark Zuckerberg leaving Facebook and taking over Twitter. After Tramiels departure, Commodore acquired Amiga, then a struggling startup.

Read compete article via the link below.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/tech-time-warp-back-day-hot-tech-rivalry-amiga-vs-atari/

[JimS]

Back in those days, I had an Atari 800... when the 16/32 bit machines came out, I decided the Amiga was a better choice for me & jumped ship. The embarassing part was that I was president and founder for that matter of the local Atari user group. ;-)

[Pyromania]

Atari's GUI, GEM has not aged well. The version in the linked video looks very dated. I remember seeing GEM for the first time in 1985 and thought it looked primitive back then.

[slaapliedje]

Back when we upgraded from 8-bit to 16-bit, I had no idea about the basic switch of everyone, specifically Jay Miner, who helped with the Atari 8-bit chips, and then went on to create the Amiga.  Had I known such a thing, I too would have gone from the 800XL to the Amiga, but instead went with the Atari Mega STe.

But when I saw how awesome workbench looked (1.3 at the time) compared to the black and white icons and such of GEM, I had been envious of the Amiga, even more so when I saw 2.04.

GEM wasn't even updated to have colored icons until the Falcon came out.

I only managed to get myself an Amiga quite a few years back, but it's all upgraded and re-capped, etc.  Been a long road, but it runs awesomely while my Ataris mostly sit in my 'toy' room unplugged.  Though I do have my Atari 130XE and Atari Jaguar connected next to the Amiga, and PS3 and PS4

slaapliedje

[paul1981]

Back in those days, I had an Atari 800... when the 16/32 bit machines came out, I decided the Amiga was a better choice for me & jumped ship. The embarassing part was that I was president and founder for that matter of the local Atari user group. ;-)

Haha!!

[amiga999]

I remember the game Giddy in Wibble World had some funny stuff in it.  There was an Atari guy saying "atari! atari! rave! gibber!" and an Atari ST in a garbage can that you pick up and the game says "You've got an Atari ST!  Sad man!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7SbIJ0Ap4

good bits are at the 2:10 mark and the 2:28 mark

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I remember the game Giddy in Wibble World had some funny stuff in it...

That game is adorable!  And still better than some commercial stuff released today.  

[B00tDisk]

I'll give the ST this much: it brought us the sound of the KLF and for that it can be forgiven a great many sins.