When did you move on from your 8-bit and why?

[kenjennings]

This is a goofy idea, but may work for something like that - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adamleeb/hemingwrite-a-distraction-free-digital-typewriter

 

That's not a completely terrible idea. (Which actually means seems kinda cool.) Though, not fond of needing the cloud to store anything. An SD card would be plenty, and then easy to move to a PC.

[VW]

I moved on in 1989 or 1990 when our family got its first 8088 PC. I didn't want to move on but the software scene for the A8 was completely dead by then. I mothballed the stuff and my mom ended up losing it all somehow. In the early 2000s, by chance I saw a 7800 for sale at a local game store. I had to buy it since I had never owned one and after I got a few games, the nostalgia came roaring back. I ended up buying A8 computers, games and disk drives off of ebay and fortunately my best friend still had the old 800XL I had sold him 15 years previously so I could get a 130XE. I traded him a better condition 800XL I had bought from ebay so I can say I still have my original 8 bit computer.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Okay, now i understand.

[+Ripdubski]

8 bit until summer 86. Got an ST and pretty rapidly left the 8 bit behind. Thought it was the future.

[MrMaddog]

This is more of a moving from and back again story...

 

I had a 130XE all throughout my high school years, but lusted after the ST which I got for my graduation. How could you resist a Mac-Like computer that played Sega sytled games and was cheap? Sadly I had to unhook my 130XE to make room for it and kept the NES which at the time still had rental games available. I wished I could still play my 8-bit games on the ST, but ST Xformer was too slow for anything but Atari Basic programs. (it was usefull for making graphic screens to paste into Degas)

 

After college in the mid 90's, I got into classic game collecting so I got rid of the NES and hooked the XE back to the same TV where I also had a 2600 hooked up. If anything, I gotten more cart games than I had during my "active" years. Plus I kept my STe and got software from FTP sites so there was still support long after the company died.

 

Late 90's was when I really needed a PC for going back to school. So all my Atari stuff, both A8 and ST, ran on emulators. This was only for games though since there was really no reason to run serious applications on any Atari when the same programs on Windows or Linux was so much better and faster. I did wish I was able to run a proper multitasking system like FreeMiNT but it was possible at the time.

 

Nowadays I just check out the homebrew stuff to run on Altria...

[reverendshoebox]

I grew up with an Atari 800, and eventually had my very own 130XE in my room through high school. I refused to give up on it even while on the side I was really enjoying playing around with QBasic on a friend's PC. I visited BBSs with said 130XE, using a 1200 Baud modem and a surprisingly-decent 80-column terminal with (if I remember correctly) some manner of ANSI support. But finally, I ran out of memory while writing a graphical sci-fi comedy RPG I'd ever-so-originally titled "Space Cadets," and the frustration from this, combined with my desire for newer games, a WYSIWYG word processor, and a faster modem, finally put me over the edge. We got a 486 shortly thereafter (probably 1992-'93 or so.) I still kept the 130XE in my room and used it for games and such, and I still have it set up now.

 

-=ShoEboX=-

[fujidude]

I traded him a better condition 800XL I had bought from ebay so I can say I still have my original 8 bit computer.

 

Now that is nostalgia!

[Jetboot Jack]

I guess I have a very different perspective on moving on than many here, since from around 1988 I have been a commercial game developer - computers and video game systems changed from hobbies into business.

 

I had my 800 in constant personal use all the way until I went to University in 1985 - and then I got a job to help pay my way, part time at an Atari 8bit games shop in Reading (Ordem which later became Computer Cavern).

 

I bought myself an ST and an Amiga 1000 in 1986 and started tinkering with them. My 800 was still there, and when in 1988 I took over running CC the guys I employed were all 8bit freaks so we started making some games - which we sold to Atari and then I kicked off Harlequin.

 

I kept using my 800 right through 1990, despite gaining PC's and video game development hardware - until Harlequin folded and I went to get a job designing games for Microprose - where they focused my efforts on SNES/Genesis and PC.

 

Still have my 800, but it lives in the loft, it used to be alongside a few other relics - but I got rid of everything save my 8bit stuff last year - too many machines rotting away!

 

So I guess I never moved on really, but now my toys are MUCH more powerful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InhV7glyMl0

 

sTeVE

[Mclaneinc]

I'd forgotten about Computer Cavern, went there a few times over the years, i had period of time where I got nostalgic and used to go to all the reasonably local Atari haunts like Silica Shop in Kent and CC after they had moved away from the 8bit. (nothing beats the experience of walking in to Silica Shop in Sidcup during the heyday of the Atari 8bit, was a wonderful time in a new era).

 

I was also planning to get a PS4 for me and my daughter this year but as some people know she was rushed in to hospital near death 3 months ago and is still in there (but much better) so with all the travelling to see her the money side went downhill (used PS4 would be gratefully accepted )

 

Are you still deving? (that game??)

Edited December 18, 2014 by Mclaneinc

[Atari-Collector]

I sold my original Atari 800 system early/mid 80s to get my first PC, an 10MHz Turbo XT made by 'Hewitt Rand'. A company the store convinced me was a big brand name... Always regretted selling the Atari, somewhat out there is an 800 and 810 that have green LEDs in there power lights. (I thought they'd look nicer with green power light...)

 

While not exactly the same setting up, I now have a Atari 800 system again, but with 1050 floppies instead of the 810 (which I couldn't find any worth buying...) and a 850 instead of the P:R: interface I had back then.

[_The Doctor__]

dead 810's just clean and re seat everything... wiggle everything..... leave power on about and hour... then turn off wait a bit turn back on wait a bit .... put in a disk and they come back to life... at least that's what I did to get the last three in row working...

[Jetboot Jack]

@Mclaneinc - "Are you still deving? (that game??)"

 

Yup - I have been a full time developer for 28 years, and Until Dawn is what I am busy on at the moment..

 

sTeVE

[high voltage]

Never moved on, just added.

[Mclaneinc]

@Mclaneinc - "Are you still deving? (that game??)"

 

Yup - I have been a full time developer for 28 years, and Until Dawn is what I am busy on at the moment..

 

sTeVE

 

Looks a bit Dragons Lair, are there free choices rather than X & Y?

 

Lucky man, did you get to met Hayden, she's a cracker..

[pfeuh]

Hello,

 

For me, it's because of the ST, which made a bridge between my friends, musicians ones and computer geeks ones. It was at the end of the 80's, no internet. Friends were real ones instead of virtual ones.

 

Regards,

 

Pfeuh

[Jetboot Jack]

@Maclaneinc - it has a LOT of choices with consequences, plenty of freeform exploration, as well as QT type play...

 

sTeVE

[Mclaneinc]

Thanks Steve...

[airsoftmodels]

My 600XL stopped working about a year after I got it in 1983. I tried to take it apart, but as a 14 year old kid, I couldn't get past the shielding. (I guess I was an idiot.) Recently I purchased an inexpensive but broken 600XL, and have ordered the 6502 CPU and the 16K OS ROM to fix it. Maybe I can redeem myself for the mistakes of the past.

[kiwilove]

An Atari 800 with 48K was my first home computer as such - and before I purchased it, I did wait as long as I could until a decent graphics orientated home computer was available - which I purchased while I was briefly in London. When I returned home to NZ - I had to get it converted to the PAL-B used in NZ, as I was using the RF output. I did get around to purchasing a 600XL (RAM converted to 64k), 800XL and 130XE. And when the software got very scarce - I did purchase a C64 (Cassette then disk) as a means for making up for the lack of Atari games - which I only had for about a year? I did sell all of this eventually to move onto the Atari ST (and later Amiga) because I could not afford to hang onto them all.

I also got a Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo consoles (and disk copier for the SNES). Money always being an issue with me - I know now I should have hung onto the Atari 800 for sure - and would like to own an old Atari 16k computer once again - if only to see how the current project - AtariBLAST! actually runs... While Altirra is an excellent emulator, it does not faithfully reproduce all of the old hardware accurately enough.

I have more of a fascination to work with the old 8-bit graphics - rather than with 16-bit quality graphics. I guess it's to do with nostalgia and that 80s' time period - and in some way it's like going back into a time machine and having a chance to do something new, that may have been possible too - back then...

 

And with my transportation means - I did go from walking to cycling to motorcycling to car driving - my means of transport have also gone the way back to buses, walking and back to cycling all over again. More because of a lack of money - but also appreciating the helpful fitness aspect too.

 

There will be some surprises in store for AtariBLAST! - which I will not detail - but it'll probably not be like when they have first seen the project initially - that it'll not be with that same WoW! factor - but some kind of logical progression - maybe...

 

Harvey