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Remember the old computer rivalry?


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I remember in the golden years of my BBSing days (1983-1988), it was frowned upon for a C64 user to call an Atari BBS and vice versa. Even though the number of Commodore BBS's outnumbered Atari BBS's by at least 6 to 1 in my "local" calling area, the rivalry was still obvious. One of the Commodore BBS's I used to call actually had an "Atari's Keep Out!" line on their title page.

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I remember in the golden years of my BBSing days (1983-1988), it was frowned upon for a C64 user to call an Atari BBS and vice versa. Even though the number of Commodore BBS's outnumbered Atari BBS's by at least 6 to 1 in my "local" calling area, the rivalry was still obvious. One of the Commodore BBS's I used to call actually had an "Atari's Keep Out!" line on their title page.

 

I remember that! In fact some of the TI BBS's had a "Press FCTN P to continue" prompt. It was not really meant to be nasty to other computer users, but to insure that TI callers could get through when they needed too. Some of the major cities where these BBS's were had PC-Pursuit exit points, these BBS's would get multiple calls from dang near everywhere in the country tying up their single phone line. So, with one single question you could pretty much insure that only TI's would stay online. Sure, a few people knew and figured out what "FCTN P" was, but it was a very small group.

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In 1984, my Town was too small to have any BBS's, but the Next Town over, ( Salem, OR ) had Five or Six C64 BBS's ( at 300 Baud ) and a NorthStar Advantage running CP/M and a 1200 BPS Modem..

 

I called all of them with my Apple ][e.... I bought my Commodore SX-64 from one of the C64 BBS operators.. I have the Commodore RS-232 interface, so I could connect my Modem to the SX64 too.. Since it was a U.S. Robotics Password Modem..

 

 

I don't think I ever called an Atari BBS or TI99/4A BBS.. Nobody in my area ran them..

 

MarkO

Edited by MarkO
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Have you gotten your C64 Telnetting on the Internet yet? There are "GOBS & GOBS" of BBS's online.

 

 

If you are slightly interested, you might want to check out << My Blog Entry >> on it.

 

No, my SX-64 and Apple ]['s don't TCP/IP, yet.. I read your thread, Getting your CLASSIC COMPUTER on the Internet BBS's and I am thinking of getting a Lantronic Unit..

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I guess I'm the exception to the rule. I never bashed other systems, hell I didn't know anyone else with a computer! I had a 99/4A but I was more interested in what other systems had that was different or new compared to what I had. I liked all computers, especially ones I didn't have. The arcade coin-op games always seemed to be better than any home computer you could buy and I always wondered what was in them, what their resolution was, how much memory they had, and what video *chip* they used. ;-)

 

I loved looking through the computer magazines and seeing all the new looking systems with stuff I had no idea what it was. I was always looking at the resolution and colors though, those were the specs that defined a system to me. I remember the VectorScan 512, or something like that: 512x512 with 1024 colors per pixel! Great stuff. Everything was new and exciting, always something to discover or explore. I think that's what made the early 80's the "golden era" of home computers. I'm just glad I was the right age at the right time with parents who bought me a home computer instead of sending me to computer camp.

I don't think you're any exception. I used to drool over the computer ads myself, comparing specs - although it was a little after the 8-bit era, in the early 90's, when I first really got in to computing.

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The Thomson TO and MO families were sold mostly in France, and in Italy and Germany (with little to no success).

They are famous in France for being the main computers used in the "Informatique pour tous" (computer for all) 1984 plan for giving all schools computers and dedicaces classes to learn about computers.

 

Their most recognizeable feature was the included/build-in light pen, used at the computer boot and in some software.

 

to770.png

 

It had an impressive graphic/text mode, but weak capabilities for games, and a slow CPU, making up to Spectrum-level games.

Even at sound level, the TO 7 and MO5 series had only a beeper. One game module adding a real sound chip and two game ports (amusingly, using the Odyssey²/Videopac standard, in either DIN or COM plug format, rather than the computer/atari standard) but most games doesn't use it.

 

800px-Thomson_MO5_face.JPG

Module "games and music" pluggged on the back of a MO5

 

1024px-Thomson_TO-07-IMG_0413.JPG

The very first models had the most horrible "sensitive" keyboard. The upgraded TO7-70 was available in gum and real kays keyboard.

 

One interesting but not much used feature was the cart port :

IMG_0075.jpg

It was mostly used for the BASIC cart, and the LOGO programming/teaching language. Most of the programs were released on tapes, and some on floppies.

 

Another nice feature was the use of a standard SCART connector, meaning that you could buy any SCART cable to connect your computer to your TV, if the TV had one SCART plug. Or buy any SCART equipped monitor.

 

Sorcery on the Thomson :

sorcery.png

Boulder dash like game :

pspthom-snap-2.jpg

 

It's an interesting machine because many French gaming companies (such as Infogrames, know today as Atari) started on those computers. It's probably the reason of their failure on foreign markets and ultimately in France : French games only, almost no arcade ports nor computer games ports of the time.

Edited by CatPix
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In 1984, my Town was too small to have any BBS's, but the Next Town over, ( Salem, OR ) had Five or Six C64 BBS's ( at 300 Baud ) and a NorthStar Advantage running CP/M and a 1200 BPS Modem..

 

I called all of them with my Apple ][e.... I bought my Commodore SX-64 from one of the C64 BBS operators.. I have the Commodore RS-232 interface, so I could connect my Modem to the SX64 too.. Since it was a U.S. Robotics Password Modem..

 

 

I don't think I ever called an Atari BBS or TI99/4A BBS.. Nobody in my area ran them..

 

MarkO

Hello fellow Oregonian! There were quite a few Atari BBS's in Portland back then. Good times.

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Hello fellow Oregonian! There were quite a few Atari BBS's in Portland back then. Good times.

Hello there!! I live up the Willamette from you...

 

I recently have seen a bunch of references to Atari BBS's in Portland, OR, and I just saw this tonight, in Tandy's Little Wonder The Color Computer 1979-1991, Second Edition, on Page 16, in the Second Column, "Radio station KGON, it was reported, had its own bulletin board running on a CoCo."

 

Do you still have any Atari's?? I have Apple ]['s, Commodore's, Sinclair's ( ZX81 and TS1000 ) , and now a CoCo 3.

 

MarkO

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It's an interesting machine because many French gaming companies (such as Infogrames, know today as Atari) started on those computers. It's probably the reason of their failure on foreign markets and ultimately in France : French games only, almost no arcade ports nor computer games ports of the time.

 

Very interesting, thanks for such great info on this! Being an ex Atari employee from the 2000's when Infogrames controlled them I'd actually suggest that Infogrames lacked basic business acumen, at least during the 2000's. They are kaput now, afaik, and Atari is back starting Dec. 2013 but fully on their own without their French puppet masters :)

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Well, it's probably true. I mean, even the idea of replacing a well-know name (at least in Europe) by the name of a long defunct company tell much about their idea of business.

Infogrames had their best years in the 90's, mostly as publishers : Alone in the Dark, Driver, and a bunchload of French-based cartoons and comics games (Asterix, Tintin, etc...).

French companies have a long story of having great products/ideas but never knowing how to sell them. Or how to evolve enough to keep up with the market.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I was never into the rivalry thing back in the day... I had friends with Atari Computers, and I had a Commodore 64 (and so did some of my other friends).

 

We were too busy playing the Ultima series for any real debate, and if someone had a 'cool' game, you went over to their house to play it!

 

I didn't know anyone with an Apple, except for the computer lab at school.. I do remember seeing this ad back in the day, though... ;-)

 

post-37051-0-94354800-1403762296_thumb.jpg

Edited by TheRealAnubis
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I don't know about 4 Apple IIc's plus a C64. That would give more combined RAM (576k) than what C128 has. You'd need to buy a 512k REU to get C128 up to beat the combined memory of 4 IIcs.

 

My school wasn't into "war" until Super NES and Genesis came out. Most of my classmate didn't have a computer until 386 and Mac II became available, and Nintendo NES was already a dominant system. I think I was the only one with a SMS back then but I didn't care. Less sharing :P

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I don't know about 4 Apple IIc's plus a C64. That would give more combined RAM (576k) than what C128 has. You'd need to buy a 512k REU to get C128 up to beat the combined memory of 4 IIcs.

 

My school wasn't into "war" until Super NES and Genesis came out. Most of my classmate didn't have a computer until 386 and Mac II became available, and Nintendo NES was already a dominant system. I think I was the only one with a SMS back then but I didn't care. Less sharing :P

 

Yeah - I think they're exaggerating a bit there myself, but it is fun to read!

 

I've always been a Sega fan, but I have plenty of Nintendo stuff as well. I really think the Dreamcast was one of the best systems ever. I'm sure that's up for debate, though!

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@JamesD... if you want to show off the CoCo... then show it off!!!!

 

 

Those plasma demos are really cool as are the rest of the videos on that guy's youtube page, bunch of neat stuff including an amazing 1 bit PCM audio player.

Edited by John_L
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