ilaskey

https://uspto.report/TM/73486415

A *little* bit late but we just called ourselves The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. I think someone else mentioned TSCC in relation to a Shamen demo so it got a bit muddled.

Same here. Somehow they totally bypassed me. Probably a good job too, I'd have spent a fortune!

Curious that no one picked up on the original poster saying it looked like a factory upgrade and the box had a sticker saying it was a 64K 600 XL

Was it just me or did a lot of his dates sound a bit out, especially taking into account where he was working at the time or was that the 'new' Atari?

He's fairly active on the Atari Age group on Facebook and often chips in with corrections and thoughts on that era.

I'm guessing in relation to the PET etc, being black and white and not having proper sound, they didn't count as a "home computer" hence his emphasis on "Full featured"

It was both kit and pre-built

Also the ZX80 before that.

I know the guy will be biased because of who he is but seriously, VIC20 was the first home computer? Atari 800 was apparently a games computer and TI99/4 wasn't 'fully featured' https://www.facebook.com/michael.tomczyk.90/posts/1915406888484108?comment_id=1917577321600398&reply_comment_id=1918394684851995&notif_id=1524626645879039&notif_t=feed_comment_reply&ref=notif

His account says "smido is hospitalized :/"

My history was: 400->800->130XE->STM The STM was upgraded to 2.5Mb RAM and had a 286 hardware PC Emulator, hard drive, mono and colour screens and an external 720K HD Then I got a Mega STe with a 386 board, same hard drive, but a multisync monitor. Then finally a Falcon And at the risk of becoming unpopular, I got a 486 multimedia PC and wished I'd never bothered with the Falcon...

Exactly. There were some superb DTP and WP packages with excellent font support. There was of course all the music pro's using the MIDI aspects and decent database and spreadsheet products too. It was less so in the Uk compared to Germany and possibly others but firms did use STs for their day to day work and people working from home often had an ST and software with MS compatible file formats so they could exchange documents back and forth. I used to use an ST to write Unix code for DEC Ultrix using Lattice C and some stubs. I would write the code at home, get it compiling then bring the source into work to test and debug.

I've just been reading some old UK music magazines and one from April 85 has the following quote: The projected package deal of the top-of-the-range 520ST (that's the 512K version) plus a colour monitor and 1 megabyte disk drive is likely to sell for between £800 and £900, and if you bear in mind that the equivalent (though still only monochrome) Apple Macintosh system costs well over £2500, that's exciting by any standards. When you add on the ST's wonderful Mac-type Digital Research GEM operating system, the built-in MIDI port, the MIDI software that companies are already developing for it, and the addon keyboard and digital synth that Atari have produced for it, there's really not much doubt left in my mind about Tramiel's claim that, 'by 1986, we will have captured 25 per cent of the UK home computer market'. I know about the Hotz Box from later on but what could they have been referring to here?

If you're talking about the RF output, that will be 25 or 30 frames per second or 50/60 *fields*.

For me, the fundamental difference was that the C64 was designed to a price whereas the 800 was architected to a vision. The C64, being a few years newer had better sprites, arguably better colour handling and the SID chip was good for music (FX, less so). On the other hand, it all just feels thrown together. The BASIC was grim, the disk subsystem terrible and there were very few nice touches. On the other hand, the 800 just oozed engineering quality, from the interlocks that cut the power when you popped open the cartridge lid, the loadable drivers in the OS with a fully architected structure, the SIO bus and all the distinct and one way connectors etc. For an early entrant into the home computer field, everything about it was designed to make it easier for the end user, to humanise the experience. Later on with the XLs and then XEs it became more of a C64 in overall physical presentation but the 800 truly is a thing of beauty which always impressed me with its attention to detail and forward thinking.

Good set of Atari 800 sightings in films http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=113

Heh heh. I had the film on VHS but copied it to a DVD, still got it. At the time, a pretty girl hacking with an Atari 800 was ticking all the boxes for me

They also used an 800 for some audio FX in Tron.

The best film IMO for Atari 8bits is Prime Risk. Not actually that bad a film either, the basic plot was years ahead of it's time.

Talking to various people in Atari UK at the time, I think the biggest impact was it took huge amounts of management attention and that was when they lost the thread on the ST Series. By the time they exited Federated, the ST had started to die. They told me they should have paid far more attention to upgrading the ST much earlier but they were just too wrapped up in Federated to see what was happening.

I managed to work my way from: 2600->400->800->130XE->STM->Mega STe->Falcon/Jaguar I bailed when Atari folded. I was doing reviews/writing for Atari magazines as well as my day job as a programmer. When everything died, I looked at the early multimedia PCs and decided it was time to jump. I got a 486SX with CDROM, sound card etc and it was like the future had arrived with Encarta and other such things. I then wrote for PC magazines for some years until the web killed the market for paper mags. The last magazine I worked for became an AOL based one before going standalone as a website but with no investment, it eventually became a non runner so we shut shop. Still on PCs. I use emulators for my old Atari 8bit stuff. Apart from Word Up (massively underrated) and the Lattice C Compiler I don't miss the ST side too much if I'm honest.

Listening to the OSC one now, fantastic. As a huge fan of his writing I'd have been a bumbling wreck if I was interviewing him but he comes across as a really decent guy.

Working fine now, thanks.

I've downloaded the Dave Comstock one twice from iTunes and it's truncated, both times around 1:15. Anyone else getting that?