Amiga 2000HD - VS - Atari Mega4 ST

[JimS]

Zadoc wrote:
Back in the 8-bit days (C=64 vs Atari 8 bit like the 800XL) I was an avid Atari fan with Commodore being the 'arch-rival'.  

Sounds like we were in the same boat. Back then I was a big Atari 8-bit fan.. even started and ran the local Atari Usere' Group.  I felt the 64 was garbage :-) cheaply made, but popular with the masses who valued price above quality.  When the Mac, Amiga and ST came out...  Well the Mac was out because it was too expensive and B&W only.  The Amiga had a better OS than the ST, better graphics, was genlockable, and was generally 'cooler'  no choice...  So, I gave up my user group and went Amiga, and took some good-natured ribbing... and gave some.

"nostalgia isn't what it used to be"

[DoomMaster]

To Framiga:

In the first manual page was written: "The new A3000 . . .a cheap alternative to the A2500 system".

 

Sound strange to me that a machine with in-built SCSI, newer design and higher performances, was sold as "cheap alternative".

That is because the Amiga 2500 is actually a much higher quality, better built machine then the Amiga 3000.  After the release of the Amiga 2000 Series, Commodore lowered the quality on all Amigas beginning with the Amiga 3000.  The awesome Amiga 2000 is the Flagship Amiga computer because of its durability and expandability.  As more and more people are realizing just how nice the Amiga 2000 system really is, it is now once again gaining in popularity.  I have noticed that people are selling their Amiga 600s, 1200s, and 3000s on eBay and then those same people are turning around and buying an Amiga 2000HD or 2500.  The first run Amiga 2000 computers were so nice, in fact, that they even came from the factory with a military spec 68000 processor, military spec custom chips and 2 military spec 8520 ICs.  The first run Amiga 2000 keyboards had Cherry keyswitches that were made in Italy and the power supplies were made in Japan.  The first run Amiga 2000s also had the higher quality 4-layer motherboards.  The revision 6.x motherboards are the lower quality 2-layer boards.  The expansion slots on the Amiga 2000 are on the motherboard, just like todays PCs.  This is a much better design then having those slots on a daughter-board plugged into the motherboard (like on the Amiga 3000 and 4000 computers).  Framiga, have you ever actually looked inside an Amiga 2000, to see how it was built?  It is really a very nicely made machine, built like a German Tiger Tank !      :-D

[Cranched]

Here at my office 3 years ago I had my Amiga 2000 doing animation and video next door to our staff music guy, who channeled all his world class keyboards and synthesizers throught his Atari Mega ST. He even bought a Mac and Composer software, but never even got it out of the box. As far as I know, it's still the sequencer in his home studio.

[that_punk_guy]

Framiga wrote:
In the first manual page was written: "The new A3000 . . .a cheap alternative to the A2500 system".

Sound strange to me that a machine with in-built SCSI, newer design and higher performances, was sold as "cheap alternative".

I believe the later A2500s came with 68030 and SCSI cards so the performance wouldn't have been too different; up till then the A2500 was marketed as an extreme high-spec professional machine and they probably didn't want the A3000's appeal to be as selective.


Edit: that's high-spec, not mil-spec  ;-)

[jeffimix]

The Amiga 6.x mobos work with the GVP G-Force, whereas my 4.4 doesn't  :-x  (4.3 does but that's another matter).

The first run Amiga 2000s also had the higher quality 4-layer motherboards. The revision 6.x motherboards are the lower quality 2-layer boards

[DeQuevedo]

Which is better?

it depends......The 2k is HD professional computer, yeah, but... Is the Atari Military Grade computer?
 :-D  :-D  :-D

[AntonioX]

Cu_Amiga Said

Apart from the sound, the ST wasn't really all that bad. The games between the ST and Amiga were comparable and similar. Maybe the ST would have been better off with the SID chip! Didn't the ST use the same sound chip as the one found in a ZX Spectrum 128k?

It was the same one that was in the Amstrad  cpc/+ range as I uas a cpc user back in the old days oh and I also used a ST for some time  until I got hold of my first Amiga 500 and the rest is history hehe the ST was crap and of story  :-D

[DonnyEMU]

I think the Amiga 500 was a direct response to the Atari ST and the fact that the A1000's limited expandability (compared to the PC XT's slots) (anyone remember the scary zorro 1 add-on case by byte-by-byte)...

The Atari ST originally had a 512 color palette with no BLITTER. The Mega STs added a blitter chip and later the Atari was brought up to 4096 colors at once.. They also had a Dynamic hi-res type mode that let you see all 4096 colors at once.

The thing is they were aimed at different markets. The Amiga was originally aimed at video games and TV style graphics. Atari and Commodore (both at different times headed by Jack Tramiel) were looking to compete against the Macintosh..  Which was aimed at desktop publishing with it's black and white monitor at the time..

Jack Tramiel wanted to make a low cost Mac that everyone could afford that did desktop publishing and music so the ST aka "jackintosh" was born. He tried to get the Amiga away from Commodore but didn't succeed, so he got GEM (with that ugly font) and made an almost clone of the mac desktop.  The ST had a monochrome display and when you put a "magic sac" on it with Mac roms could easily emulate a Mac.

They are very different machines. If anyone who knows the amiga "pagestream" lineage, they should know that it original was called "Publishing Partner Professional" and came from the ST platform.

The Amiga didn't have good output or outline fonts till the A3000 and OS2 with outline fonts came around (which was already available thru GEM on Atari making it good for cheap publishing.

The Amiga high res mode was criticized for it's flicker.  At the time the ST had a black and white high res monitor aimed at publishing, and color for low end and games.

The amiga could "genlock" and was aimed at video production. Back in those days video wasn't "digital" and required analog video devices..

Seeing the Amiga at the beginning "genlock" with Andy Warhol and Deborah Harry introducing it in New York brought quite a different crowd to the Amiga and set in on a different course to desktop video that was realized with the Toaster.

The ST grew to Amiga like capabilities and they added a multi-tasking version of gem finally.  If you compare the ST's OS to Windows 3.1 the ST shines really brightly. It's amazing that GEM didn't beat on Windows on the PC..

They are both unique and it's like comparing apples to oranges. I don't see having a built in midi port helped the ST midi software, with Dr t's being on both platforms and you could plug an internal midi port into your A2000.. Also there is nothing like bars and pipes on the ST..

It's really cool on Windows XP, I can run both OSes on the same machine and the old software through emulators (and several other platforms like 68K Mac and Apple ][GS)

 It's like the best of all  worlds nowadays with more graphics and sound than all of them ever had before..

-Don

[mikeymike]

@ CU_AMiGA

A GREAT PHILOSEPHER ONCE TRULY SAID "THE ST WAS A POOR MANS AMIGA"

Wise man also say "fix your caps lock".

Also, wise man might drop a hint as to the wonders of a spell checker, but that might be taken the wrong way :-)

[amigamad]

Try this site to help your spelling .http://dictionary.reference.com/

[Wain]

I'm confused, did I wake up today in 1987 or something???

[amigamad]

I'm confused, did I wake up today in 1987 or something???

yes  and this time round the amiga.s going to be better than the pc. :-D  :-D

[mikeymike]

Try this site to help your spelling .http://dictionary.reference.com/

Also:

www.dictionary.com (US English)

dictionary.cambridge.org (UK English - they also sell dictionary software for Windows, very good IMO, 11 quid)

[kd7ota]

[color=0000FF]~DOOM MASTA!~[/color][/b] :-D

[Cyberus]

@ kd7ota

errr, okay

[CU_AMiGA]

How much do Atari ST's normally fetch up to on Ebay then? I might have a search for one! lol