Computer export to the Eastern bloc under CoCom embargo

[Computer export to the Eastern bloc under CoCom embargo]

In Poland, it was not possible to buy a computer in a normal shop up till some point in the late Eighties/early Nineties (I don't remember exactly).

 

There was a chain of shops called "Pewex" though,  which was officaly sanctioned and allowed people to buy stuff using foreign currencies. They usually had stock otherwise unavailable elsewhere, eg whiskey, Lego / Matchbox toys, etc. At some point they started selling 8- bit Ataris. I used to go there and stare at the likes of Rescue on Fractulas. Around 1989 my aunt bought me a C64 in one of them.

 

But this trade was a drop in the bucket: majority of micros would be brought by people from Germany and other countries, and traded via ads and second hand markets.

[Retro Rays Super Console X]

"...DC/N64 perfectly emulated..." Wow, I'm getting one pronto, seeing as not even a high-end PC rig can emulate these two "perfectly".

 

Edit: Just saw it's a Chinese company, so it's ok. They love to use this kind of flowery Engrish.

[Your fav killer-app other than a game?]

Flight Simulator is a game

 

ZX Spectrum: Copy Copy - guess what it did.

Amiga - Soundtracker

PC - Dos Navigator in the DOS days, now Total Commander. I can't imagine using Windows without it  (but I hardly ever use "windows" themselves).

[Beige4Daze, the Beige-puter.]

Lovely machine. Getting a proper sound out of them can be a bit of a 'mare. I have a FM 801 based card, which is supposed to be totally compatible with DOS/Win, but it took a lot of fiddling to get it to work anyhow. In retrospect, probably I should've got some ISA Blaster, even if though they cost a bit these days.

[Hardware Upgrades, Experiences and Tips]

You will be hard pressed to utilize 8GB on this machine. Sticking 32GB in it is quite wild (and price differences are significant).

 

 

[Seemingly odd hardware design decisions]

On 1/30/2021 at 10:51 PM, Krebizfan said:

PC Speaker: All the 5150 speakers I had access to were very quiet. Not much point to wiring up a knob and variable resistor if the speaker is barely discernible.

Never had an original IBM, but  the Nineties most of my PCs were fairly loud in that respect. Perhaps it differs somewhat per model.

 

The one I'm using now for DOS (p4 fro Noughties) is excruciatingly loud.

[Hey CRT Aficionados - TV Opinions Wanted]

For me 0-lag is just an added bonus. It's all about the looks, and these are simply inimitable. Although I must admit that there are some extremely good shaders out there. But even best of them are still somewhat limited by modern panels themselves. I'd love to try shaders combined with OLED tech, but it is still too expensive.

[Hey CRT Aficionados - TV Opinions Wanted]

In UK some Trinitrons now cost as much as PVMs used to 5 years ago. PVMs on the other hand now count as much as used car prices. It's quite mental.

 

I have a whole chunk of my cellar full of backup ones, so should be ok for a decade or two. But still check the classifieds just out of a habit...

[Hey CRT Aficionados - TV Opinions Wanted]

Sony is great but it does not mean others were rubbish. Yeah, the HD TVs are good for 480i (and up) consoles, and for watching old films and such. I'm rather impressed that you were able to manhandle it yourself though, I draw a line at 21 inchers

[It’s okay to like the VCS.]

 

15 minutes ago, leech said:

That they're at least 'trying' to do something other than sue people over Pong and other 40+ year old IP is a good thing, I think. 

The only thing they're trying to do is to make quick buck along the path of the least resistance. People who are really trying are making Amico.

[It’s okay to like the VCS.]

Infogrames have lost their mind in the late Nineties, way before Atari acquisition. If you read the history of their half-billion spending spree, it's like a scenario for some Corporate Raider movie. They were were sucking the life out of established, venerable software houses way before EA even had an inkling of such idea.

 

I mean, if you buy and sell DMA Design in the same year it's rather clear that long-term strategy and building something is not your intention. I bet this deal must be a running joke around Take 2 offices to this very day

 

It's a shame, because pre-1996 Infogrames was one of my favourite publishers, very original and innovative.

[Seemingly odd hardware design decisions]

Here are some I thought about recently:

 

-PC Speaker: no way to turn it down or switch off. It's probably not much of a bother when you were messing about with spreadsheets, but there are a lot of early PC games which can drive a man mad with their super loud, beepy attempts at "music".

 

-Atari ST's underside joy/mouse ports: not sure if all ST models were cursed with this, but my 1040STf is, and I hate it with a passion. It's extremely awkward and makes banally simple stuff like connecting a joystick a royal pain. What were they thinking?

 

-ZX Spectrum's whole-word BASIC editor: it made for a cute, colorful design on the keyboard, and I've also heard it was a good way to stop people making mistakes. But it was also rather cumbersome, and everywhere else the standard were free-typing editors (btw, is this a seemingly odd software or hardware decision? Hmm...)

 

It was tempting to call this thread something like "Completely crazy hardware design decisions" but I'm pretty sure they might have some valid explanations. So if you know one, or have more examples, post away!

[Newbie ST Questions - UltraSatan, Gotek, 3.5" diskettes]

32 minutes ago, ijor said:

 

There seems to be quite some misinformation here about that. The gotek can run almost any disk copy protection and custom formats.

 

Of course, it requires the correct image. Not just an ST or MSA one.

How about .stx?

[I'm getting a new VCS after all!]

4GB is more than enough for most emulators if you run Linux. Even something as advanced as PCSX2 has only 1GB as recommended requirement.

[What Atari needs to do with the VCS in 6 months...]

6 hours ago, Matt_B said:

You're generally right in that modern AAA games support controllers well. It's just that most indies still don't, and they're the ones that the VCS is more likely to meet the hardware requirements for.

Well, for sure, I'd never get rid of KBM totally. If you like Dead Cells I recommend Noita, it's quite amazing. I tried to play it with controller, which is possible, but mouse works much better.

 

16 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

That was back in the 90's when it was mostly FPS & RTS games on the PCs which do require the precision of a mouse.  Nowadays PC games are mostly console ports & indie platformers which play better with a gamepad anyway.  (Is it really hard to just buy an Xbox contoller or even a cheap $20 Logitech gamepad?)

Not back in the 90s, when it made much more sense - I'm talking about now. I made a similar post (about gamepads being generally superior) on a strictly-PC gaming forum recently and it went down as a sacrilege

 

About VCS, if I had one, I'd just buy a small wirelss handheld keyboard and a mouse and keep it around as a secondary option. This way it works even from a couch or armchair. Modern optical mouses are surprisingly precise even when used on some silly surface like a thigh or an armrest.

[The Atari VCS Controversy Thread]

Obviously, it's not an end of the world though. And this dude looks like this might just be the case. Though, I guess if you operate in that ruthless social media sub/like economy, it's the only way to survive.

[What Atari needs to do with the VCS in 6 months...]

I grew up with microcomputers and later PCs, haven't used a controller till I got PSX ~1998. There are very little AAA PC-first games being made these days, I'd struggle to name any. It doesn't matter anyway...Tomb Raider or Driver would play better with a controler too when they first came out.

 

I know there's a deep-seated opposition to controllers in PC gamer circles, but I don't think it has anything to do with actual reasons, more of a throwback to the old pcmasterrace vs consoles beef.

[The Atari VCS Controversy Thread]

 

Lol...I never watch these vids but love the intro screens...they crack me up. Like school drama production, only with 40+ geezers hammin' it up

 

It's not some terrible "conspiracy" buddy, just Atari being Atari, nothing new or particularly shocking. Get yourself a cup of tea and calm down.

[What Atari needs to do with the VCS in 6 months...]

What I meant was more about how the differences are so small that I don't really observe them anymore. Unlike the HDD to SSD jump, that was pretty significant. Games...I don't know, for me they load fast enough. The only loading times I still "feel", longer than few seconds are on R* games and NMS start up.

 

Anyway, when I was buying that NVM (500GB) it wasn't that much more expensive than normal SSD, so it's a good choice for the OS/program disk.

[What Atari needs to do with the VCS in 6 months...]

I had an NVM for quite some time, it's supposed to be 4 times faster than my normal SSDs, but I can't say I really feel any difference in Windows or games. Normal ones are just fast enough.

[What Atari needs to do with the VCS in 6 months...]

9 hours ago, Matt_B said:

Most games are still best played with keyboard and mouse

It's 2021, come on. Most games, barring some obvious (and niche) genres such as strategy or adventure are best played with a gamepad. Tbh, I even play most FPSs this way these days.

[Why C128 did stay longer than 1989?]

I'm a great Spectrum fan but this is the first time I've ever heard that it was in any sort of competition with the PC

 

If 8-bit micros could run business soft as effectively as PCs then PCs would've never took off. The likes of Apple/TRS were actually PCs of the time, thanks to their expandability, the other micros such as Amstrads or C64 were in completely different league.  Of course, there were many small/home businesses which did use them, but that's because a) they couldn't afford the big things b) they were okay with inferior performance. Once the clone prices started falling it was a no brainer to make a switch.

 

Amiga in the 90s was as dead in the water as everything else (but consoles): few more buyers would just prolong its death throes. Maybe if 1200 had more exciting specs (especially 3D -wise) it would've helped but in the long run the clones would take over anyway.

[Why C128 did stay longer than 1989?]

Nothing could stand in the way of cheap no-name clones.  I love them as much as most people despise them - they were, and still are, true "people's computers".

 

The only chances I see Commodore (or anybody else) surviving this concept, would be having a clone line which was in some way profitable (so becoming a Dell of sorts) or duking it out with Apple for the boutique niche.

[Wii U is super fun]

By "exclusive" I mean, well, an exclusive - game appearing only on U. If that list is complete I can't say it's very impressive, at least compared to other Nintendo consoles. After removing indies, remakes and party games I'd be interested in Kirby, Fatal Frame, Star Fox Zero and Xenoblade.

[Wii U is super fun]

So what are the best Wii U exclusives? I might get it one day, though atm they are a bit too dear, thanks to some strange Covid/Switch shortage effect.