TwiliteZoner

there was quite a huge market/user base for it.. Check out the MIDI section on Aminet. Can't comment.. I didnt do it.. I do know it was quite popular to have a variety of major/minor chord samples of various instruments in songs that employed those type of arrangements. Thats a total farce... And having never heard that claim before, I find it UTTERLY HILARIOUS.. Midi iis a 31.25Kbps ring-topography SERIAL transmission standard. Timing for things like disk interfaces, arbitration of various high speed data buses, DRAM control circuits, etc. are literally THOUSANDS of times more timing-critical than MIDI and all of these machines employ these features quite well. The "MIDI timing" would be 100% software dependant on any personal computer. You sir have allowed ATARI ST worshipers to absolutely "blow smoke up your ass" if you actually believe that the ATARI hardware was more precisely "timed" than any other computer platform. I can in fact SHOW you on a logic analyzer that this is not the case, but even if it was, it wouldnt matter. Digital circuits in microcomputers are timed in terms of nanoseconds (billionths of a second), and the smallest relevant timing interval in MIDI is in terms of miliseconds (thousandths of seconds) and amounts to an eternity in terms of machine cycles for even the slowest processors. Like I said.. I didnt use the software.. So its quite possible that CUBASE(or whatever you used) shits all over BARS&PIPES on the Amiga.. I dont know.. But I do know there was a TON of people using AMIGAs and MACS for MIDI, and alot of the ones I knew had tried STs, or even OWNED STs and preferred the other platform. And some of these people make their living in the music industry to this day.. Whether it is actually a "farce" or not I cannot say, but I do remember reading in various Atari and MIDI specific magazines the timing issues and the Atari being the better MIDI platform. I know that the local music shops only carried STs and didn't even have Macs, let alone Amigas. I will see if I can find those articles and scan them and post them in here. Edit: Found one online. Here is a link to atarimagazines.com where Jimmy Hotz mentions the timing of the MIDI. http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n4/rockandroll.html But, of the Atari ST. Hotz is unequivocal in his praise. He's used the Macintosh. He's used the IBM. In fact, he's tried every computer available. Compared to these other machines, Hotz says "the Atari is cheaper and works faster. Of all the computers I've used, Atari seems to react the fastest and have the best MIDI timing to make it sound the most natural with what you put in there."

Here is a link to the Google video of the Computer Chronicles ST episode from 89. At the 12:08 mark they discuss the speed of the emulation compared to a Mac Plus of the time. http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=comp...;aq=f&aq=f#

If you watch the Computer Chronicles ST episode from 89. They demo Spectre GCR and it is clearly stated that it is indeed 20% faster than a Mac Plus. Wasn't there a story back in the day that stated that Apple themselves actually used ST's equiped with GCR's for debugging due to Dave Smalls utilities? I know I read that in an ST mag back then.

I should have thought to post that as well. Great site and very knowledgeable Amiga people there.

Yeah, they don't have an Xbox360, PS3, WII or Classic Machines forums either. Should Al remove "those" forums from this site? Apples and Oranges my friend. I could see adding a classic computing forum before I could see adding a dedicated Commodore forum to an Atari website. Just my opinion.

Yet there is a wrestling subforum on an Atari-centric site? What's wrong with that? Of course they don't get much traffic, they don't exist yet. But seriously, if you look around at the "general everything else goes here" forums, there are posts involving NES, Coleco, Intellivision, etc... But those forums kinda suck to sustain any interest because they also have posts like "my feet are different sizes". Is it really that big a deal to throw them out there for a while and see how it goes. If there is no interest after a period of time, remove them. But it's kind of unfair to just assume they won't have interest and not give it a chance at all. You also have to consider... While what you said about Atari-centric is a fair point, search engines are a little less discriminating. Atariage is hit by crawlers. I often find google links pointing directly to threads that matched my search. Some people here are having Intellivision problems (and posting here on an Atari site). Some Intillivision person not from here could be searching for something and get a hit linking them here. While that can happen now, what would the reaction be of an outsider comming here and seeing that it's just one post in a sea of randomness at a place with a massive focus towards one thing that isn't about that post. One might not feel welcome. Wouldn't waste the time to register and reply to offer help because they can see it as an off-topic post that isn't about what the site is about and would just be igorned. If you're going to allow non-atari talk, then you should make non-atari'ers feel welcome. Only having all the Atari related stuff in their own nice rooms and everyone else has to share the communal tent out in the back yard doesn't exactly accomplish that. Has Amiga.org added an ST section? Didn't think so.

Hey, its their phone and their well known tight controlled service. If you don't like it, don't use it. Personally, if I knew there may be 3rd party apps on a device that I've specifically constructed to remain closed, I'd put a kill switch in as well. What would the reaction be to the kill switch if the iPhone was a Microsoft product? It should be the same, but since Microsoft has a much more public and volatile history regarding such things, it most likely would not. Not sure what the point is though. Regardless, I know that certain people aren't happy about this app and violation of IP. Whether or not Apple uses a kill switch on it or not, I have no idea - probably like using an anvil instead of a flyswatter if they did though. I'd think the kill switch would be used more for apps that might have critical issues. It'd be more likely they just boot the app from the app store. I think you understand the point well enough.

I noticed in the picture that the machine is still plugged in. When you start working on this, you really need to remove that power cord.

Hey, its their phone and their well known tight controlled service. If you don't like it, don't use it. Personally, if I knew there may be 3rd party apps on a device that I've specifically constructed to remain closed, I'd put a kill switch in as well. What would the reaction be to the kill switch if the iPhone was a Microsoft product?

Thanks for the links Doc.

Thank you sir.

Great work guys! Looks amazing.

I always wondered why Atari never brought Phoenix to the 8 Bits. Especially considering how popular Demon Attack was. It seemed like a logical thing to do.

Happy Birthday Doc!

Yep. I think they are one and the same as far as the samples go.

I could be wrong, but I think that Zaxxon and Super Zaxxon still rely on the samples for some sounds. They are easy enough to find via search engine.

Happy Birthday!

Ahhhhh..... Time Bandit. The very first ST game I ever played. Brings me back to the day I dumped $1,000 on my shiny new 520ST, external floppy drive and Color monitor along with Time Bandit and DEGAS. I ended up drawing more in Degas then play the time bandit game! -rick Hmm, I gotta ask - those prices seem kinda high. I bought a 520ST, ext floppy drive, and SC1224 monitor when they all first came out from a place called CDW (IIRC) and the total price was something like $800... Just wondering and curious... Got mine from Electronics Boutique in a local mall. 520ST, DS/DD Floppy Drive, SC1224 color monitor, about $800+ Degas and Time Bandit, about $100 Tax on all of the above @ 5 percent. about $50 Yup that's really close to $1,000! -rick I got mine at an Electronics Boutique as well. I think my 520ST was about $420 by itself.

Ahhhhh..... Time Bandit. The very first ST game I ever played. Brings me back to the day I dumped $1,000 on my shiny new 520ST, external floppy drive and Color monitor along with Time Bandit and DEGAS. I ended up drawing more in Degas then play the time bandit game! -rick Hmm, I gotta ask - those prices seem kinda high. I bought a 520ST, ext floppy drive, and SC1224 monitor when they all first came out from a place called CDW (IIRC) and the total price was something like $800... Just wondering and curious... Hey DL that was $800 including shipping?

Finally I add the Google translate icon at the bottom of the page, and Google in-page searching engine at the top. Thanks for advice. Great move! I have wanted to be able to read your pages ever since the first time I went there! Count me in as well. Thanks Kaz.

Thanks Doc. So far from what I can tell it appears the service is reliable at 9600, but your mileage will vary at higher baud rates.

I believe it's supposed to work if you dial *99 before dialing out through it. I've never actually tried it myself though. I read that as well. I think by doing that you are tricking the line into thinking it's a fax machine.

With the stelladapter I am hard pressed to tell the difference.

I'm thinking of switching over to Vonage and was wondering if anyone here has any experience using it with a modem. I have read online that some people have had success at varying baud rates.

Great find there Doc. You gotta love the 800 "crashing" the Amiga meeting.