Mr.Amiga500

December 11, 2012

I was checking Atarimania.com this morning for one thing or other and chanced upon the arcade Asteroids emulator in what seems at first glance to be finished form. OMG!

I never heard about this either. Thanks for posting.

The first video games I ever saw were in 1980 when I saw three arcade machines: Asteroids, Centipede and Berzerk. I've always been pleased with Atari 8-bit Berzerk and Centipede (5200 version), but Asteroids on the Atari never quite did it for me - until now. It's great to have all three on my 800XL.

December 3, 2012

That's very interesting. I had no idea there was a Cherry swich version. Thanks for posting.

So I guess we should call that a "Type 6"?

October 31, 2012

I remember being horribly frustrated that the programming examples with the command COLOR kept giving me error messages when I tried to run them. It took me a while to realize that I was using Canadian spelling of "COLOUR".

Ha! I did that too when I first started programming - and that was on a TRS-80 "Colour Computer". (Canadian boxes for the computer actually had the correct spelling "Colour") I got plenty of syntax errors on that one.

I was thrilled when I got AMOS BASIC for the Amiga and I had a choice to spell commands "COLOUR" and "CENTRE".

October 26, 2012

Computers:

Atari 800 bringing ease of use for color/sound

Commodore 64 which had many push the limits of what an 8bit could achieve

Amiga that ushered in the 'multimedia' craze

Game Systems:

Atari 2600 - established the console market

Yes, I agree with this. Each was the ultimate in its time: the Atari 2600 from '79-'82, the Atari 8-bit from '83-'85, the C64 from '86-'87 and the Amiga from '88-'91. At least that was my experience in those years.

(I know these aren't the years the machines were introduced, but that's when they were most popular (pricing, available software) - the C64 didn't get big in Canada until around '85-'86 after Atari 8-bit was "dead")

Edit: ...and I'm not being biased - most of those years, I owned a TRS-80 CoCo 2 and it was not the ultimate.

October 9, 2012

Thanks Ray. That royally f**ks things up, no doubt about it. I didn't envisage windows being dragged entirely off the screen (of course this is all part of field testing!), so it's unsurprising that such circumstances create problems. This is similar to the bug w1k reported, so I'll look into it. There's a lot of clipping going on, and it's easy to end up with impossible conditions (this one probably being one clipping region being entirely outside of another, and the condition not being picked up).

If dragging windows off screen is a big problem, you could do it the Amiga way and prevent any parts of windows from moving off screen. Although people accustomed to modern GUIs might dislike this, I've always thought this was better: you can just quickly slide windows to any side of the screen without having to carefully position them to make sure they're not partly off screen, with gadgets or icons inaccessable.

October 9, 2012

if you ask me, I would simply call it Inspire.

"Inspire" has been used many times before - often on crappy computing products or programs. I'd like to see a name that is unique and easily searchable. How about something simple: since this is "a new gui for Atari", maybe it could be called "Anewgui" (Atari new gui - pronounced "anoogie")

(The name has the added benefit that if somebody asks for it, you can say "Oh, you want a noogie? OK!" - and then you grab them and give them a "noogie" .)

September 30, 2012

Perfect. Thanks.

September 30, 2012

There's just one little error that bothers me - in the main theme, just before it loops, there are three notes that are identical. There should be four notes, two the same, then one a step lower, then another the same as the first two. ("da da dum da" instead of "da da da"... I'm too lazy to find out the exact keys, but you get the idea )

September 29, 2012

Awesome. :cool: When I switched to the "enemy music", I got a sudden feeling that some skeleton guys were running after me.

I love Faery Tale. I still have a button on my Amiga file manager that plays Faery Tale music when pressed. Now I've got it on my 800XL too. Thanks!

I wish I had the night music too.

September 26, 2012

Hey that's great, Syd! Space Channel has quite a few viewers.

I've been to your Personal Computer Museum twice. That's where I first got to play with a Kaypro (and liked it so much I later bought two) and got to test a buckling-spring IBM AT keyboard (now my favourite keyboard and what I'm using to type now). At the museum "spring cleanup", I got a boxed Vic-20, C64 & drive, C128 & drive, SGI Indy and some TI-99 games - all very reasonably priced.

July 16, 2012

Aw, crap! I missed it.

I'll be checking the GPS coordinates of all the buyers to see who is most convenient to steal one from.

February 14, 2012

Third BYTE magazine scanned and uploaded to:

http://oldcomputers....-magazines.html

BYTE July 1980 - Computers and Education

Awesome. Thanks for continuing this.

Now I wish I could find somebody doing scans of late 70's/early 80's OMNI magazine.

January 26, 2012

I'm pretty sure I've read "1977 Trinity" in one of my BYTE magazines from 1979 (or was it 1980? I have no BYTE magazines before 1979 so it's not earlier). I think it was in the BYTE Editor notes in the first few pages of the magazine.

I definitely remember reading it, but that's as close as my vague memory can take me.

January 19, 2012

Because he wants to keep the discussion public, OK?

Now, move your peabrains: Sikor is the publisher of these games, no? There isn't anywhere written that the software is free, and there aren't any his commercial prods available for download on Fandal's nor on Atarimania site.

And despite Sikor's post #35 with given details (so you know the situation, now, NO?), still anyone hasn't asked him for permission.

Maybe I could broke into someone's house and tell him something like "I love your plasma tv, I'll take it", and just steal it, no?

Good work, guys!

And Mr Amiga, this is for you:

I don't normally make personal attacks, but ThomSW... you're an idiot!

January 19, 2012

Yes, it is wrong to share it forward without ask person/firm/whatever, who has rights for them. I often loggin here, my firm - Sikor Soft - are knowwing for atarian, still in business. So? Did you have any problem to send private messege and ask me?

I'm sure kheffington didn't deliberately try to ignore your rights - so why didn't you send him a private message and ask him instead of calling him a pirate?

September 24, 2011

Funny thing even today I don't think the Apple II is anything special. Between PET....Atari 800.....C64.....Amiga 1000 all bases are covered.

Yes, exactly. I have an Apple II+ and two Apple IIc computers (with matching monitor). I tried hard to like them, I really did. I love the built in floppy drive and wish there was an Atari like that (but with XL colour scheme). But.... anything the Apple II can do is much better done on other computers. If I want glowing green-screen, command line fun: I'll use my Kaypro. If I want quick, portable text editing: I'll use my TRS-80 Model 100. If I want 8-bit gaming: I'll use my Atari 800XL. If I want to do anything else, I'll use my Amiga 500. I can even run Apple II software on the Amiga. (and still get the same lowres scanlined feel - unlike with PC-based emulators)

Back in the day, the Apple II was unbelievably overpriced. I never knew anyone who had one and I never saw one in real life - until 1987, when I saw an Apple IIc on "blowout clearance sale" at a store closing (the death of Robinsons). I looked at the clearance sticker and it said $1100. It just didn't make sense to me. I was sure it was a typo and that it was actually supposed to be $110. That sounded reasonable to me, having bought a new CoCo III the year before for $99 - and this was supposed to be a store closing sale and the IIc was an out of box store demo model! The cashier came back and said, "No, it's not a typo. It's $1100." I stood there, baffled, confused, discombobulated... and anything else you can find in a thesaurus. Then I said, "Holy F****** S***!"

September 23, 2011

The big breakthrough was when SGI launched the Indy, though... at around $9-15K (IIRC) it was "almost affordable" to PC users, and was a type of "Holy Grail", ultra-desirable item for both high-end Amiga & high-end graphics PC owners, at the time, since their Indigo2 systems were pretty much in the luxury-sedan price range.

I've got an Indy. It's a nice, solidly built computer with some nice features. I still definitely prefer the Amiga.

One thing that was very impressive about the early 80s, when I was connecting to the online world, via a 300 bps modem, was that there was a wealth of unbelievably skilled hackers and computer scientists who would be willing to share all kinds of computer lore, if you showed that you were genuinely interested. It effected the way that I do things, and in particular, my posting style, which can be seen, right here in this post, and most of my non-BOFH (lol) posts here. I found it to be a great teaching mechanism, almost like an ancient culture where secrets were passed, via an oral tradition, in a closed circle.

Well, hope that you enjoyed that little bit of nostalgia.

Yes, I miss that. Compare the skill those people had with today's "hackers". Every time I hear about "geniuses" in the Apple Store, I want to puke.

September 23, 2011

I can appreciate the Amiga for its technical merits. And I so much wanted it to make it big-time. I guess I didn't have the patience to watch it develop. Or perhaps I was already indoctrinated too deeply with the Apple II way of things to switch sides or anything.

It was really frustrating to know and understand the true "potential" of the machine and not see it fully utilized. Having some good arcade game ports would have gone a long way toward "helping" me "like" the Amiga all that much more.

To be fair I learned a lot about digitizing video and some of the basics of Photoshop-like operations via Deluxe Paint III & PhotonPaint.. Operations and ways of working I would not again really do till 2002 on the PC. The few games I jammed on were JET and FLIGHT SIMULATOR II, F/A -18 INTERCEPTOR. Cool. And despite the tediousness I explored some of the more "sophisticated xfer protocols like Z-Modem and others.

Anyways I have no definitive exact precise reason why I hated the machine as much as I did. Perhaps it was the advertisements, cool in their own right, but pretty much out of my full grasp.

Come to think of it I truly disliked a lot of the 16-bit era. The machines did not seem as crisp and snappy as the 8-bits that came before.

Maybe there wasn't an established network of warez distribution.. I really don't precisely know!!!

See, now this post makes much more sense. I can understand this post.

I too initially disliked the jump from quick command line to relatively slow GUI. I absolutely hated Microsoft BASIC on the Amiga - and that shit program completely killed my enthusiasm for programming (I had already written programs on 7 different 8-bits before getting the Amiga). I also understand the lack of software problem - although that was nothing new to me, having the same problem with my CoCo II.

But... I stuck with the Amiga and kept tinkering and upgrading and customizing and pushing it as far as I could. It still blows my mind how flexible and configurable an 80's computer can get - to a point where I could do all this with my 1987 Amiga 500:

Connected to my work's Microsoft Outlook Web Access through browser and sent office emails using A500 (connected browser with 128-bit secure HTTPS, javascript and images)

Logged on to eBay with 256-bit HTTPS, bid & won items (with 1-second accuracy - one "snipe" in the final second!)

Emulated MacOS 8.1, ran Mac software ClarisWorks, WriteNow3 and games (also emulated 7.5.5 and ran Mathematica, and 3D game Vette! at full speed)

Digitized and converted images from DVD/VCR/Video Camera in 24-bit colour

Sampled and converted music from DVD/Compact Disc/Cassette Tape

Converted & created MP3s

Played audio files > 50Mb (16bit 44100Hz AIFF - in 14bit stereo, absolutely no skip or stutter)

Created and printed PDF documents (PDFs displayed perfectly in Adobe Acrobat)

Sent and received Faxes

Sent and received MSN instant messages

Processed huge images 8800x6800 in size - in original 24-bit depth!

Scanned and printed 24-bit images at 720dpi

Uploaded/downloaded files from the internet larger than 100Mb

Played DOOM, DOOM II, Plutonia and TNT, custom and patch wads with music and sound

Sent and received emails with large multiple attachments >5Mb

Sent and received over 2Gb of files through serial at 115200 baud (original A500 serial)

Then there's the more ordinary things like creating web pages and relational databases, playing Windows MIDI files, creating 24-bit 3D rendered animations, multimedia presentations and emulating 6 different 8-bit computers. I would have been able to do more if I had more than 8Mb RAM.

Take a look at my signature link for some screenshots. (but view in original size - automatic scaling screws them up)

September 22, 2011

@Keatah

[...]

Funny, there are times reading your many posts on the topic of PC's that you seem fairly knowledgeable then posts like these remind me

why I generally don't get you, you claim to have given the AMIGA a fair shake yet everything else your posting comes off as ANTI-AMIGA and just plain ignorant.

I just assumed the Amiga caused him some kind of psychological damage when he was young. (maybe a bully grabbed his Amiga and repeatedly slammed it into his nose, saying "Stop typing yourself! Stop typing yourself!")

September 22, 2011

Recant, Sinner...

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Oh GOD I hate that song.

September 22, 2011

I just found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZiWTdc6Dc8

I'm a bit disappointed. I've pressed the Amiga key on my A1000 many times before, but never had glowing light come out and turn me into a white foetus. I guess you have to be in that strange hallway for it to do that.

September 22, 2011

September 22, 2011

The one thing I do not agree with is the Amiga being the cat's ass! Sure it was undoubtedly a leap of technology -- one that fell flat on it's face. That was the shittiest computer around.

What?? That's crazy talk. The Amiga was the ultimate 80's computer. How could anybody like Atari 8-bits and not like the Amiga? It's the next generation Atari.

September 22, 2011

I remember in 1981 watching a documentary about the new "Steadicam", invented for the movie, "The Shining" - made to do super-smooth camera movements. I thought it was awesome. Who knew that 20 years later, camera operators would be deliberately shaking the camera all over the damn place like a drunk with a palsy problem.

I remember a lot of shaky camera work on 60s/70s sci-fi TV shows like Star Trek too though

I don't remember shaky camerawork in Star Trek. If there is, it's not deliberate. There's a difference between occasional accidental shaky camerawork and deliberate drunken spastic camerawork.

(great... now I've got that Star Trek Kirk fight music in my head... "da da DA da da da DA da da DA DA!")

September 21, 2011

I second that! I am in complete agreement with everything you said (especially point 2) except the part about action hero movies and sequels. Some of those are actually watchable, in my humble opinion.

Well, yeah, some are watchable - especially compared to many movies these days. I guess I could skip that point.

What I can't stand about modern movies (2000-present) is the hyper-fast edits, drunken camerawork and "speed up and slow down" bits all over the place. They just slam an image in your face for half a second, rip it away, do a speed up & slow down bit, rip that away and slam something else there. You don't have a chance to actually look at something and you don't have the time to look at different spots within the image. Images are crammed in your face like meat into a sausage grinder.

I remember in 1981 watching a documentary about the new "Steadicam", invented for the movie, "The Shining" - made to do super-smooth camera movements. I thought it was awesome. Who knew that 20 years later, camera operators would be deliberately shaking the camera all over the damn place like a drunk with a palsy problem.

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