256 colors Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 Better quality of games in terms of game play and fun i think this applies too all 8/16 bit home computers and consoles Now compare this to the same old tired over hyped bullshit on Steam like the next ego shooter for example or another open would shit-hole littered with dlc's Then there's the hassle constant pc hardware updates bullshit with Microsoft and other security software Even more crap with Steam accounts,logins,updates,hackers......all this crap to play games 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 21, 2018 Author Share Posted December 21, 2018 (edited) Turn on drive, insert disk, turn on computer. At least with Atari OS and TOS. Edited December 21, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorgle Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 I still use one my 1200XLs daily as a keyboard for my office PC and another is set up at home for my son to learn programming. I like the check printing idea... might have to look into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 I love the way that guy is laughing, I can't stop watching it and get this big silly grin off my face... It fits so perfectly with my sentiments about the question. You mean Idi Amin's laugh when asked "is it true that you said Hitler didn't kill enough Jews during the war?" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 21, 2018 Author Share Posted December 21, 2018 (edited) You mean Idi Amin's laugh when asked "is it true that you said Hitler didn't kill enough Jews during the war?" Who he is and what he was laughing about has nothing to do with liking the way someone (you don't recognize) laughs from a silent video clip you have no idea of the circumstances in which it was filmed, for the situation it was used for here. Of course you've ruined it now. Of course some will/would attack me as an antisemitic under such flimsy circumstance because it's all about an agenda, to hell with the truth or facts. Edited December 21, 2018 by Gunstar 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 (edited) Who he is and what he was laughing about has nothing to do with liking the way someone (you don't recognize) laughs from a silent video clip you have no idea of the circumstances in which it was filmed, for the situation it was used for here. Of course you've ruined it now. Of course some will/would attack me as an antisemitic under such flimsy circumstance because it's all about an agenda, to hell with the truth or facts. Alternatively I could have just been yanking your chain. Its a funny meme, regardless of who it is and what they were laughing about. I don't think you are antisemitic, I think you didn't know who that person was, and I was letting you know in a light-hearted way so that you didn't repeat the mistake somewhere else and have to face the wrath of a bunch of faux outraged millennial SJWs. As you alluded to in your reply, truth and facts are pretty important, I gave you some with no agenda except a little gentle leg pulling. Maybe I should have put a little winky smiley at the end of my comment to make it more obvious? I left it off because I didn't want you to think I was joking about who the person is and what he's laughing about. The language of emoji is somewhat lacking in nuance. EDIT: Sorry for the de-rail, can we go back to the topic now please! Edited December 21, 2018 by Mr Robot 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 21, 2018 Author Share Posted December 21, 2018 (edited) Alternatively I could have just been yanking your chain. Its a funny meme, regardless of who it is and what they were laughing about. I don't think you are antisemitic, I think you didn't know who that person was, and I was letting you know in a light-hearted way so that you didn't repeat the mistake somewhere else and have to face the wrath of a bunch of faux outraged millennial SJWs. As you alluded to in your reply, truth and facts are pretty important, I gave you some with no agenda except a little gentle leg pulling. Maybe I should have put a little winky smiley at the end of my comment to make it more obvious? I left it off because I didn't want you to think I was joking about who the person is and what he's laughing about. The language of emoji is somewhat lacking in nuance. EDIT: Sorry for the de-rail, can we go back to the topic now please! "Some" was not at all referring to you either. But, yes, emoji's do help, I make the mistake of not using them sometimes where they are needed to convey lack of seriousness. Edited December 21, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 "Some" was not at all referring to you either. But, yes, emoticons do help, I make the mistake of not using them sometimes where they are needed to convey lack of seriousness. Now you can point them to my follow up using your middle finger to point! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujidude Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 Emulation only user here. I guess I'm not a true Atarian? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwilove Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 My reply is "Unfinished Business" .... that is... stuff left to do - on it. I bought the machine because I thought It was the best out there (at the time) to do the sort of graphics that I would like - to see in videogames. There wasn't that much there at first - to be good examples of - but titles started appearing which showed what it can do? I got back into it - around 2012? because of a project that sounded promising to work on - that fitted the above line. I like to see new games of a decent quality graphics standard - and I am a very hard person to please. I don't like to see games dated to back In the 80s - but look fresher and improved. Because of the resources available today - you should make use of them? While Space Harrier is a fantastic effort - no mention is made of the sprite colours? I presume there must be some hardware restriction present - which doesn't allow for brighter colours to be present? Time Pilot doesn't work for me - with the low res - could anything else be added in - to help compensate for this? Bosconian is excellent - I wonder if extra frames could have been added in - making it even better? If a game is excellent with it's gameplay - why can't it have the best graphics possible - with animation - so that it looks as good as it plays? I know that working around the limitations of the hardware - is very hard to deal with - but I hope that eventually the missing games you thought impossible? may start to appear? Whether anyone's willing to invest the time, effort and patience to do it - is the question? I don't think there's anyone keen enough to program a better version of Zaxxon, Xevious - and other such poorly executed titles - but I like to see it eventually done - just to prove the point - that it was possible to do so. Probably not back In the day - because of the amount of time, effort, talent that needed to be invested to pull it off. The biggest factor is probably the amount of memory available back then, to work with? Harvey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 20 plus years ago I asked the same question to my user's club (Alamo Area Atari User's Association--AAAUA). Pride was my answer then, and now. Pride in owning such a great piece of computing capability (for then, and now). Fun is more appropriate now. It's really a hobby, an interest. Something I have never stop using. I used to love to write papers and letters with it. No one writes (no one really reads either) any letters these days. So, my very capable printers sit quietly waiting. I my Atari through graduate school. I have tried to use it for budgeting, the software just seems to slow me down. Don't need any computer to balance my checkbook (look that word up in the dictionary for you young 'uns). I do use it to track all my disks, carts, LPs, and CDs. However, I slip and buy something I forgot I own, so I am not too disciplined. Games, of course, those glorious one (or two) button simple games. Too old to figure out Playstation or Xbox controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) 20 plus years ago I asked the same question to my user's club (Alamo Area Atari User's Association--AAAUA). Pride was my answer then, and now. Pride in owning such a great piece of computing capability (for then, and now). Fun is more appropriate now. It's really a hobby, an interest. Something I have never stop using. I used to love to write papers and letters with it. No one writes (no one really reads either) any letters these days. So, my very capable printers sit quietly waiting. I my Atari through graduate school. I have tried to use it for budgeting, the software just seems to slow me down. Don't need any computer to balance my checkbook (look that word up in the dictionary for you young 'uns). I do use it to track all my disks, carts, LPs, and CDs. However, I slip and buy something I forgot I own, so I am not too disciplined. Games, of course, those glorious one (or two) button simple games. Too old to figure out Playstation or Xbox controls. I was a member of AAAUA, just a subscribing one for the newsletter, I wrote a column or two in some issues dealing with graphic art on the Atari (1991/92ish). Unfortunately, by the time I moved to San Antonio (Canyon Lake) in 2004 AAAUA was long gone...now I'm up in Tulsa since 2015. Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gilsaluki Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 I was a member of AAAUA, just a subscribing one for the newsletter, I wrote a column or two in some issues dealing with graphic art on the Atari (1991/92ish). Unfortunately, by the time I moved to San Antonio (Canyon Lake) in 2004 AAAUA was long gone...now I'm up in Tulsa since 2015. Yep. We have spoken of AAAUA in the past. I too was a subscriber for many years. Great newsletters. I should have a copy of your articles. I live in Edmond, OK, grew up in The Village, OK (OKC). Small planet. I loved Thelma Sunvison and the rest of those guys. They helped me out a bunch. Grabbed a lot of cheap software from Atariville. Wish I had grabbed more. I still have 99 percent of it. When I move back home in 1992, there was a user group in Moore, Tinker Atari Computer Enthusiasts (TACE). I went there to a scheduled monthly meeting. There were maybe 4 or 5 people there. I was all excited to be there with 'real Atarians'. Not one of them came over to me and introduced themselves. When I attempted to interact with them, they just ignored me. That was my one, and only live appearance at a user's group meeting. No wonder it all collapsed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Yep. We have spoken of AAAUA in the past. I too was a subscriber for many years. Great newsletters. I should have a copy of your articles. I live in Edmond, OK, grew up in The Village, OK (OKC). Small planet. I loved Thelma Sunvison and the rest of those guys. They helped me out a bunch. Grabbed a lot of cheap software from Atariville. Wish I had grabbed more. I still have 99 percent of it. When I move back home in 1992, there was a user group in Moore, Tinker Atari Computer Enthusiasts (TACE). I went there to a scheduled monthly meeting. There were maybe 4 or 5 people there. I was all excited to be there with 'real Atarians'. Not one of them came over to me and introduced themselves. When I attempted to interact with them, they just ignored me. That was my one, and only live appearance at a user's group meeting. No wonder it all collapsed. Sorry I forgot about us talking of it before, your handle/name is a bit hard to remember I guess. As to your experience with TACE, that's probably why they had so few members, such a shame they treated you so rudely. I've never had a user group experience myself. Atari Age and Atari Sector are my user groups now... I remember the ads of the Atariville sale in the newsletter, but I was in Wisconsin at the time, so I missed out... Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firebottle Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Why do I still use the Atari? Because I ain't dead yet, that's why... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Even though I have 3 XL machines out on my living room at the moment, there have been times that my Ataris were packed away for one reason or another and I was emulation only. I never thought myself any less of an Atari user or enthusiast because of it. Especially with Altirra being as complete and accurate as it is, I see it as simply being a modern version of an A8 computer. I certainly don't think that using Altirra as your primary Atari is any less "legit" than using something like a 1088XEL. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Even though I have 3 XL machines out on my living room at the moment, there have been times that my Ataris were packed away for one reason or another and I was emulation only. I never thought myself any less of an Atari user or enthusiast because of it. Especially with Altirra being as complete and accurate as it is, I see it as simply being a modern version of an A8 computer. I certainly don't think that using Altirra as your primary Atari is any less "legit" than using something like a 1088XEL. To each their own of course, but I don't think the 1088XEL is legit either, but at least it has some real Atari hardware inside...but packed away and using emulation is one thing, sometimes that's life, but not owning any Atari equipment and only ever using emulation, then your are not an Atari enthusiast, at best you are a PC enthusiast and emulation enthusiast who is also and enthusiast of vintage Atari software, none of which makes one a true Atari enthusiast in my book. A: Hi, I'm an Atari 8-bit enthusiast. B: Cool! show me your Atari stuff! A: It's this emulator right here on my PC... B: ??? later chump... ============================ A: Hi! I'm a Corvette enthusiast! B: Cool! show me your vette! A: I don't own one, but I love to pick it as my car of choice on my XBOX racing game! B: ??? later chump... Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 The main cause for me using the Atari stuff ? Fun with finding solution for puzzling things. And possibly finding a perfect sulution at the end 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 A: Hi, I'm an Atari 8-bit enthusiast. B: Cool! show me your Atari stuff! A: It's this emulator right here on my PC... B: ??? later chump... ============================ A: Hi! I'm a Corvette enthusiast! B: Cool! show me your vette! A: I don't own one, but I love to pick it as my car of choice on my XBOX racing game! B: ??? later chump... Difference here is the emulated Atari and real Atari both get you to the same destination - fun with Star Raiders & Defender & Centipede for example. The real Corvette will take you across town. The XBOX racing game will not. No comparison. Not to mention, the upkeep of just the few systems I do own, to get them up to scratch, the video improvement modifications, retrobrighting, keyboard mylar replacements, and the constant fear that this time will be the time that one of the many parts in the system gives up the ghost...-Thom It is those things that would consume me and my time if I were to keep acquiring retro rigs. I did have a 400/800 as a kid and enjoyed them at the time. Altirra effectively recreates the early experiences today and adds some improvements by nature of being a virtual machine. I've gotten used to those creature comforts over the last decade and would not want to give them up. And the reliability and consistency has been nothing short of amazing. It's what I wanted as a kid all along! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 The thread title asks 'Why do you still use your Atari?', and I don't think playing games in an emulator constitutes using an Atari at all. That just means you enjoy playing Atari 8-bit games. You needn't even collect actual games in that case, so there's no need to have any tangible, collectable artifacts. The 1088XEL - although not original equipment - is 'legitimate' in the sense that it's actual hardware into which you can plug real peripherals. But I have a hard time understanding how someone who does not own an 8-bit Atari can be said to be 'still using his Atari'. Of course I use emulation all the time as an essential development tool, but it's a means to an end (namely, developing software which runs on Atari computers). If you run the resulting software on nothing but emulators, you are 'still using' 8-bit Atari software, but pragmatically speaking you're not using an Atari 8-bit computer; no more than I am using an Apple Mac when indulging in the contrivance of running macOS on an HP laptop. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) No comparison. Yes comparison: REAL vs. FAKE. True vs. Poser. And real Ataris vs. Emulation absolutely does not get you to the same destination. NOT...EVEN...CLOSE.. It gets you games to play you remember fondly. A real Atari is SO much more, and if you can't see that, all I can do is say..."I pity the fool." For real Atari enthusiasts, it's about the machines. I don't see an Atari symbol on my PC, and if you happen to own an Atari "PC" just try using emulation on it. So, you "Atari" on an emulator...hello PC enthusiast. Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 Yes comparison: REAL vs. FAKE. True vs. Poser. And real Ataris vs. Emulation absolutely does not get you to the same destination. NOT...EVEN...CLOSE.. It gets you games to play you remember fondly. A real Atari is SO much more, and if you can't see that, all I can do is say..."I pity the fool." I'm sorry, but this thread is descending into a farce. If you guys want to go on record saying that people who use emulation are faking-it posers and not real enthusiasts, then go on - but this is feeding into a cartoony basement-dwelling retro-purist caricature. I'm all up for having real hardware, and as a Sinclair kid I do have a couple of them in storage, plus plan on buying the Next. At the same time I would never begrudge somebody who only uses emulation - for whatever reasons - the title of a true enthusiast. The enthusiasm is in the heart and mind, not in the amount of hardware in your possesion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) I'm sorry, but this thread is descending into a farce. If you guys want to go on record saying that people who use emulation are faking-it posers and not real enthusiasts, then go on - but this is feeding into a cartoony basement-dwelling retro-purist caricature. I'm all up for having real hardware, and as a Sinclair kid I do have a couple of them in storage, plus plan on buying the Next. At the same time I would never begrudge somebody who only uses emulation - for whatever reasons - the title of a true enthusiast. The enthusiasm is in the heart and mind, not in the amount of hardware in your possesion. Believe what you want. I whole heartedly disagree. We are talking about exactly what the title infers, and if people come along and say they still use and Atari, through emulation, I have no regrets saying what I have said about it. I refer you back to post #47. I don't care if your feathers are ruffled because you consider yourself an Atari enthusiast that doesn't own Atari equipment, you are not, and you are only fooling yourself. If emulation is good enough for you, then you don't even have a clue what it is to be an Atari enthusiast or real enthusiast of any machine except possibly a PC and emulation enthusiast. As the Eagles said "you can look up and see the stars at night, and still not see the light." Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted December 22, 2018 Share Posted December 22, 2018 The title asks if you are still using your Atari or not. That's a fair question. Are you or are you not? No problem. There's nothing there about being a poser if you are not. But since you insist on expanding this angle into a rather sad elitist circlejerk, where the only real fans are those with real hardware then let me refer you to post #71, namely the bit where you say "I pity the fool". It fits oh-so-perfectly with my sentiments about your position. It's funny, when I first came to this board I was disappointed at how many people here make fun out of die-hard hardware owners, threads about purges and saying that the emulation/fpga is the only way. And I often defended the "real deal crowd" - that's because I do love the old machines dearly. But reading some of the commenst here, especially yours Gunstar, it's not something I will be doing again soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted December 22, 2018 Author Share Posted December 22, 2018 (edited) Good. I don't need defending from someone who doesn't even know what they are defending themselves. Buh bye. You are right, this thread has descended into a farce, by you. READ THE TITLE. Edited December 22, 2018 by Gunstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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