Nebulon

Well, for having handful of retro machines, these are great picks.

I've got a Tandy 1000 that seems to be outputting monochrome from the composite out port. Has anyone seen this type of thing before on these machines? The manual says that the composite port is supposed to output in color.

I will admit, my Windows 8 machine has been booting up pretty darned fast. We'll see how it does after a few years though.... As for some of the previous versions of Windows, I've seen lots of issues with machines that either don't wake up or ones that spin-up but conveniently forget to activate the output to the monitor. It's mighty hard to trouble-shoot a modern PC when you can't see the screen.

I notice he mentions the 5200 as being released soon. I'm guessing that he didn't get a chance to actually use one. Then-again, he also gives the ColecoVision controllers an 'A' as well. Maybe the magazine was really trying to hype the new consoles -- to the point of bending the ratings.

The ColecoVision expansion module #1 was half the price of the Atari 2600. Pages 58 and 60: http://www.digitpress.com/library/magazines/vgp/vgp_fall82.pdf

Even as a ColecoVision fan, I really don't think Coleco should have been allowed to get away with this. And Coleco's claim about Atari's deal with Namco being unfair is nonsense. Especially considering that Atari and Namco had a working relationship (and that Namco used to be Atari's Japanese division).

Computer manufacturers really need to address this. Not so much for the older generation of computer users, but for the newer one. As a friend of mine observed, kids are getting so used to the instant-on of web-connected phones that they simply will not wait for a conventional computer to finish starting up. Instead they'll say "frag-it" and just search the information on their phone instead. Eventually, the laptop and desktop manufacturers will wonder to themselves, "Why did people stop buying our products in favor of phones and mobile devices?" I'd hate to see that happen, because I definitely prefer 'traditional' computers.

There's a ton of highly-specialized knowledge packed into the brains of the elderly right now that isn't recorded anywhere. Soon it will be gone. To those who still have grandparents -- when you have a chance to talk to them, be sure to listen. You may just pick up skill and technique-based information that could prove very useful in the future. Better yet, document it before it's gone and be sure to use your brain's memory and not just a computer to record it.

Looks like you essentially had the Rolls-Royce experience through the 90s with all those workstations. I wanted to get my hands on machines like that, but had to wait until 1996 when I started working with SGI machines. By then though, the DEC Alpha was putting a dent into their market-share (soon followed by the Pentium Pro/II/III CPUs).

Good question. I like to think of classic as just before the Pentium Pro came out, since that was a definite departure and a radical jump in the PC's evolution. I suppose people could argue the same thing about the arrival of the P4. Or maybe the 20-year cut-off you mentioned is the way to go...

You'd think it would fall under the 'work for hire' category and fall back to the employer -- as you mentioned. Personally, I dunno. I'm just basing it on the quote on page 462 of the book, "Atari Inc.: Business is fun" http://books.google.ca/books?id=3FwGMtRafrAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wow. I really enjoyed how you explained that. It's unfortunate that the salesman you were dealing with didn't know what he was talking about and actually sold you an Amiga 500 while hyping a show like Babylon 5. The first season of B5 was done using Amiga 4000 machines. Essentially, he sold you the wrong computer (or didn't bother to mention necessary CPU, RAM, and hard drive upgrades). A bit like telling you what a Pentium could do while pointing at a 386sx. The truth is, you'll run into good and bad sales people for any platform. I will admit though, some of the Amiga hype could get a bit out of hand at times. As for LightWave costing a lot. It was a much better deal when they broke it away from the Video Toaster and sold it as a separate software app. LW 3D Version 3.5 was complete and less than a thousand dollars. Pretty good for a full-featured modeling, animation, texturing, and rendering app. Since you were a kid at the time, I can see the misunderstanding between pre-rendered and real-time. At the time the A4000 was released, you'd be looking at similar rendering times on pretty much all higher-end home computers. Of course, later in the decade, the PC, SGI, and the Dec Alpha were to take the lead in rendering speeds (but that was the future at the time). The Amiga's real lead was from around 1985 to 1989. After that it started to get somewhat ambiguous with things like multitasking, video editing/genlocking, the GUI, serial transfer speeds, and -- to some degree -- audio as things that kept it relevant until around 1995. From then on, it was pretty much game over for the un-accelerated Amiga.

Can't Stop Rockin - ZZ Top

Wow. The anger -- all rooted from an unrealistic view of what a mid-80s/early-90s computer is capable of. Name one home computer prior to 1993 that can do Babylon 5 graphics in real-time. Even an SGI workstation couldn't do that back then. As for doing 3D on an Amiga, I had no issues getting great results from LightWave (one of the least-expensive 3D apps on the market). Video production - The Toaster (and Flyer) was descent for its time, although I didn't like having to pay extra for time-base correctors. But the alternatives were far more expensive. And before Photoshop got its act together, what other choice was there for doing layering and transparencies in 2D paint apps other than the ones for the Amiga and Atari ST? AmigaVision was a nice cheap way to do multimedia. Other computer manufacturers even set up kiosks with a PC in view and an Amiga running the actual multimedia presentation. The first commercial VR stations by W-Industries were A3000 machines. I can't think of a more cost-effective way to run VR at the time. Sound sampling and editing was a snap on that machine. A great example is DSS8+. It was cheap and excellent for its time. Then there was Sonix for analog synthesizer sound design on the Amiga. It sounded like a Moog. Not to mention tons of great MIDI sequencers (Music X, Bars and Pipes, etc...). I spent years repairing and configuring 8086, 286, and 386 PCs. You didn't miss out on much. So why complain? I'm curious to know what games actually didn't work on your Amiga. I ran thousands of them with no trouble and very rarely had issues. Usually it had to do with running the wrong region game on the machine. As for the marketing comment.... I wasn't aware that Commodore did any marketing Examples of Sonix output (see the Rob Baxter MP3s on the bottom half of the page): http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/amiga-audio.html

I think that's a great way of doing things. I've found that PCs can only handle a certain amount of 'stuff' before they start to go flakey. Setting up different PC workstations for different purposes has really helped to alleviate a ton of issues.

It's really too bad about the brittleness of the plastic. I spent the first evening feeding crazy glue into the hairline cracks on the 400. Apparently the guy who designed the case (Doug Hardy) holds the patent to it. I wonder if anyone will ever approach him to make a new run of Atari 400 cases (assuming it doesn't cost a fortune to manufacture them).

Back in the day, I had to settle for a 64K Color Computer 2. I was big into graphics and sound so maybe the TRS-80 wasn't the right choice. A buddy of mine was a hardcore robotics programmer; I think he got a lot more out of the CoCo than I did. Anyway, your story reminds me of when I decided to make the 'ultimate' text adventure in BASIC (yeah, I know -- wrong choice of programming language) and I soon hit the 32K BASIC memory limit. So much for the super-awesome dungeon adventure.... I always had this nagging feeling that the Atari 8-bit was the machine I was meant to use.

I use Windows Notepad pretty much every single day.

The Tandy 1000 left a positive impression on me. Thexder runs great on it and makes good use of the sound chip. In fact, I still have one that I play Thexder and Silpheed on. Here's a quick list of old DOS commands for anyone who might find them useful: http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/msdos.html

An Atari 400. I've wanted one of these for over 14 years now. I recall seeing the 800 in a store running Pac-Man and was BLOWN AWAY. Then later in 1979, I was at a friend's house and he had a shiny new Atari 400. Needless to say, it left a strong impression on me. The case design is shweeeeeet! Interestingly, the flat keyboard works a lot better than I thought it would. I tried typing on it and it was actually not that bad. I wouldn't want to try to write an essay on it, but it's workable (especially considering that they were initially thinking of not including a keyboard on the 400). I'm amazed by how much computer people got for the price when the 400 and 800 first arrived on the scene. These are real technological marvels.

Defender Pac-Man Missile Command All on the Atari 400.

What are the best games on the Atari ST? In particular, I'm thinking of SHMUP, platform, and racing games...

The Order of Death - Public Image Ltd.

Yep. That's the one. And -- of course -- I insist on working in low-light a lot of the time ('cause it looks cool).

More info: http://www.atari-forum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Blitter_manual http://paradox.atari.org/files/BLIT_FAQ.TXT