Xebec

Similar to this, I remember occasionally going to the mall as a kid and young teenager, and seeing the Atari software section slowly shrink from an entire wall or even multiple sections.. to a moderate section of the wall.. eventually to a single stand up thing in the middle of the floor that wasn't particularly large (i.e. 20 boxes max). Not having had access to magazines or other news sources at the time (just BBSes - where the software was plentiful.. ), it was the only solid indication I had something was wrong. I do remember thinking "Atari is back" when the Jaguar did the limited launch in NYC and appeared on track for more success.. I was a little lucky that I had access to a PC or two around 1989-1990 so I had time to transition as the market dried up for the ST. The ST had been in my rear view mirror (unfortunately) before the Falcon launched, and I never even knew about the STE until much later thanks to emulators pointing it out (i.e. mid-late 1990s).

Excellent! Updating Wikipedia now.. More seriously - just curious if it was year end -- December, or did Atari actually pull the plug in early 1993?

Hey All, I know Atari ended / exited the Atari 8-bit business effective January 1992; though it seems like sales (and some kind of support?) continued a little bit beyond that, especially in Eastern Europe. What's the official timing of Atari exiting the ST (and Falcon) platforms? I see the generic date of '1993', but I was looking for some more specifics: - When Atari introduced the STe in late 1989, did they immediately stop production of the original ST(f)? or did they coexist in production for a year or so? - When did Atari officially/publicly pull the plug on the Atari STe in 1993? I think it was later in the year - was it at the very end - December? or earlier? Not related, but I thought it was interesting that Atari (unlike C=) took advantage of Moore's Law / manufacturing to lower cost of some components within the ST line twice -- once with the STe (combining MMU+GLUE into the GST MCU single chip, and some other consolidations), and again with the Falcon 030 (COMBEL = MMU+GLUE+Blitter). I'm curious if the Falcon040 had planned any further consolidations? Did the TT030 share any components with STe or Falcon that were consolidations of the original ST chipset? Thanks!

Good luck! What you're doing for us is awesome! Thank you!!

ragequit To stop playing a game out of an anger towards an event that transpired within the game.

So what are your (favorite ) nominations for Atari 8bit games that are most capable of inducing #Ragequit? Yes these are just games, and yes they're all meant to be enjoyed.. but let's have some fun and assume you're predisposed to raging at "unfair" games -- what would they be? A few to start the discussion: - Fort Apocalypse - some sections are *extremely* unforgiving on collisions requiring a lot of patience - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - If you're not prepared for constantly respawning (Dark Souls style) then you won't have a good time - The Last V8 - played on a NTSC system when it's intended for PAL is quite the challenge What else do others recommend?

Wow really nice enhanced version Jace! I liked how you fused some of the POKEY sounds with modern stuff. Thanks for posting!

Treat it like graphics cards, get an F5 bot running for Fujinet to avoid scalping

That is a very fair post.. the 8bit accessories were extra expensive for the user convenience.. too bad Wifi and Fujinet weren't available in the 80s

Wow serious flashbacks watching this. I remember the first time I downloaded a file from a BBS -- as a 7 year old kid. It was a game from an Atari 8-bit BBS ("The Tardis" - near Woodbury, NJ) and the modem program would show the internal code when transferring via XModem.. 300 baud then later 1200.. via 850 Express. Dad was focused on teaching me good manners and had me thank the SysOp for the piece of software. IIRC the SysOp as a joke tried to run the Eliza program at some point which didn't fool me but reflecting back is epically hilarious.. Also kind of spooky to hear "we recovered xyz from the archive" -- this really is digital preservation and ancient history we're using just to re-experience these things.. Amazing work on this!

Very interesting - I had a feeling it wasn't even considered. I guess they never thought back then the speed would amount to anything useful vs. the awesome speed and low latency of slots. IMO the user experience of even SIO is better than having disks, printers, casettes, and modems each on unique cables vs. just daisy chaining with a universal cable. Do you know what his main objections were to USB 1.x? 2.0 obviously adds speed, but also new connector types, USB OTG, and a battery charging spec.

Lol - I always wondered if the Amiga designers thought about continuing something like the SIO / a universal serial port for all of the reasons it was awesome on the Atari 8bit and later in USB...

Yeah I think Wolfie 3D was still all integer code; it was Quake that *definitely* liked FPUs..

Hey there, Just two technical questions for the ST ; Were there any 80 column terminal/modem programs that supported 16 color ANSI on the ST? maybe via 640x200 and some kind of color changing tricks? Also, did screen resolution affect the stability of the serial port at higher baud rates (19200 or above) on the ST? I know on the Amiga desktop resolution * color count -- lower was better for ensuring higher serial port speed stability. I'm curious if that was just due to the multitasking nature of the OS or something else going on .. Thanks! John

LOL - Duh - that worked - thank you I am now getting occasional hangs on the XIO read/write commands (either they work immediately or they time out eventually with Error 138) but will mess around later today to see what's going on. Thanks again for this wonderful device!