I couldn't really find a popular hub/forum for Atari-land that seemed to have some excitement or at least interesting conversation. Am I blind???
Nope, don't fret. You're not blind! Hell, there's more going on in the TRS-80, TI-99/4A and Apple ][+ worlds than 16-bit Atari currently
Let's not forget something... the Atari ST was designed from the ground up to be a utilitarian/appliance type computer. Cheap computing for cheap bastards. That was Idek Tramielski's first, foremost and ONLY game plan since founding Commodore. Mass quantity sales worked for systems like the C=64, but by the time that the second and third generation of home computing hit, that ideology was quickly becoming obsolete. People wanted something either REALLY different or something VERY similar. These are just my opinions and observations growing up with the stuff mind you and there's a ton of idiosyncrasies and other managerial/marketing type decisions going on - but... (and it doesn't matter that Atari designers designed the Amiga) fact remains that once Tramiel left Commodore and fled to Atari, it was pretty much the beginning of the end for both companies. Their management (at both corporations) were so out of touch that it wasn't funny. Neither really knew how to market what they had. Especially Commodore. Atari ruined their reputation with retailers and users alike between shitty relations with corporate buyers to the fact the average consumer wasn't going to be duped by Atari's (and to a lesser extenet: Commodore's) rehashing of obsolete computer shite.
Put simply: you don't continue to market 8-bit computing when you're trying to sell 16/32-bit computers. Never works, ever worked, and still wouldn't work. These guys were awful communicators and weren't really into the biz for computing in the first place. Especially Atari. Look at their ridiculously repackaged 8-bit crap (since the 800): the entire XL/XE line. Then there was the XEGS (joke), the 8-bit computer sans keyboard gaming console otherwise known as the 5200. 7800 was a joke compared to the NES and the Lynx was even plagued by a shitty/blurry screen (great hardware otherwise, designed by Amiga people). Oh, can't forget about the folly that was the Jaguar... :lol:
C= had their share of retardation by releasing the 128 around the same time as Amiga and the rebranding of the C64c but at least they made far fewer model mistakes than Atari. Guess they always considered themselves competition, which was too bad. Competing against yourself NEVER works. Not in the 80's or 90's anyway. And we're not talking about auto's either. Perfect example of what I'm trying to convey is how GM and Chrysler dropped a few lines each. Why? Because they had too many brands that were ALL the same. Hardly any variance and people knew that.
Bottom line: no such thing as product loyalty anymore. Not since the floodgates of cheap ass disposable consumer electronics were made possible thanks to the administration of Silly Billy Clinton
