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Atari 8-Bit as a Legitimate Business Machine


pixelmischief

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Atari was used in all manner of business, it controlled machines, cnc or otherwise, was a POS system, did inventory, issued checks, was used for stock market, and on and on. I pointed out the paper tape reader and electrostatic pad someone ended up buying that is a member here on AtariAge. Video stores, cable systems, cnc, books, checks, word processing, mailing lists... that's all business. Weaving, CNC, motor control etc, that's industrial business. Straight up legit. They were used in r&d and education, again established fact. Check out some pod casts etc. Listen to the history of it all, read the backing documentation, buy some weird stuff, go to some of the archives, recreate it if you wish. Atari machines ran businesses, in some cases were a persons business, what else is there to say?

 

Agreed. Of course, the same is true of nearly every computer, though. There was nothing special about the Atari 8-bit's place in business history. It was a footnote like many other computer systems of its general make-up and era. So the answer is of course, yes, the Atari 8-bits were legitimate business machines, but no more so than most other decent computers. Again, in broader strokes, you're probably looking at primarily CP/M-based, Apple II, and IBM PCs and Compatibles as the significant business computers of their respective eras. And I'd certainly put some other computer platforms, like the TRS-80 Model x series, as ahead of others like the Atari 8-bit in that specific category as well.

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IBM was probably looking to get a quicker jump start than building a new computer system from scratch. We do agree having a computer system limited to 48K at the time would have had too many limits to handle some large business needs. The Atari 8-bit or any computer could be used for business. All depends on what that business needed the computers for. Video61 and Atari Sales are currently using PCs and MACs, but still need the Atari 8-bit computers to test the programs I write. His EPROM burner only works on the Atari. I even had to send him floppies containing EPROM images through the mail until he got his SIO2PC to work properly. There we have a business still using an Atari 8-bit computer.

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The 800 and some other Atari systems were often re badged (and dare I say not with Atari's approval) for any number of display systems, scrollers, controllers... The Apple and the Atari were more often found on site with cards jammed into them controlling stuff more than speccy, trs, amstrad, coleco, commodore, whatever.... every once and a while I'd find a similar rats nest with a ti and it's expansion box running something...

 

TRS has a soft spot for me, they were often in school or being used as terminals after video chip upgrades came along... that and the doubler/data separator.80 columns as well as upper and lower case were not on all machines back then either. You had to tear it apart and do some soldering be it Apple, TRS, what have you. The Atari had more than one easy solution for 80 columns. Poor marketing, not entrenching in schools across the nation, and not continually updating or upgrading basic and math pack hurt in the start of it. Microsoft Basic I and II were not pushed but should have been, or doing a better faster Atari Basic/Math Pack would have been great.

 

edit... The TRS wasn't exactly up to speed for business until the model III.The earlier models? it was a multitude of issues that caused them not to be that business machine, 4k, flickering blue silver video, power supply issues, upper lower case, disk drive issues, and compatibility issues. But I have a soft spot in that I got to tear them apart and fix them up, put in memory (16k at a time usually ), video chip kit, etc. Once beefed up and decked out.. well there was a sh*t ton of stuff to run on it. Radio Shack was everywhere and wanted to get their machines known as having the most software available for it, this was worse than VCS titles in many cases.

 

I may still have a few of their line printers somewhere... now they were built tough!... Something most people never realized... TRS line printing wide carriage spreadsheet spitting beasts! Ran the living crap out of those and they kept chugging!

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I disagree. Anything with the IBM name would have sold just due to the IBM name.

You have no idea how many times I heard things like "Isn't IBM the best?" when I was selling computers.

Some people wouldn't even buy a PC clone that was significantly faster than the IBM.

They had to have an actual IBM because they were somehow the best due to the IBM name badge on the front.

No question IBM makes good stuff, but I knew people that ran their business on "Turbo XT" clones for over 10 years without a glitch.

 

 

 

And the "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" is also overused, and was overused even back then. The RT/PC wasn't a huge hit and the IBM PCjr, despite being hailed as a market savior by several important publications in 1983, was a disaster. DEC built a very profitable business selling "open systems" solutions that were often faster, cheaper and more capable than what IBM offered.

 

I don't have any numbers but I recall one sentiment at big blue was that management had been reluctant to invest in small micros due to the failure of the 5100 line, and fears they would cannibalize sales of the lucrative 3270 mainframe terminals. One popular story back then was that management's hand was forced when they realized people were buying Apple IIs to run both Visicalc and connect to an IBM mainframe.

 

Which brings us to another point about the potential success of the Atari 8-bits in business. Besides the lack of vendor supported 80-column mode, the machines also lacked RS232 serial and Centronics parallel ports. I read somewhere that the Atari 850 interface box was a hard-to-find item back in the early 80s, leaving the Atari based business user deciding between the official 825 printer or trying to figure out how to attach that fancy daisy wheel to their Atari. The IBM PC of course offered an IBM branded parallel/serial card as well as a parallel interface on the MDA card, which I guess would have been the most common choice for buyers of the original 5150 machines.

 

I've never been an Apple guy so I am curious if anyone knows if Apple offered an official RS232 interface card for the original II.

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The smart peripherals serial buss design made for more expensive disk drives, tape drives, etc... not just the serial interface.
Commodore had the same issue.
I like the concept though, and the Coleco Adam did it a smarter way.

It used the 6803 microcontroller which had the CPU, RAM, serial UART, and I/O ports built in.
You could even get them with built in ROM. This greatly lowered the cost of design vs the Commodore and Atari.

 

*edit*
The Adam also had card slots, so not every peripheral had to be on Adamnet

Edited by JamesD
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With your "don't" this and "don't" that and "don't" the other...get over yourself and your own self-importance.

who died and made YOU God? - oh yes of course, how silly of me - YOU DID

 

happy new year.

 

I believe you misread my post. I do not blaspheme.

 

Your argumentative attacks against me and the op you quoted show that you lack reading comprehension and critical analysis. You got called out on it and retort with punitive insults because you have no case. Good day to you sir.

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A great machine, in retrospect, but too innovative by a long shot for businesses of the time to gamble on. Combine that with the fact that Jobs was damaged goods, having been ousted by Apple, and it is clear how something so excellent essentially dies on the vine. No one was bold enough to pick it.

 

If memory serves, and it's getting rather dodgy to rely on it these days, I recall Next focusing more on the Academic market at first vs. business - though I suspect he'd of sold there as well. The only place I ever saw a Next machine was in a University setting and even then they were normally stuffed in a closet somewhere. People seemed to prefer Sun machines on the desktop for any number of reasons.

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I believe you misread my post. I do not blaspheme.

 

Your argumentative attacks against me and the op you quoted show that you lack reading comprehension and critical analysis. You got called out on it and retort with punitive insults because you have no case. Good day to you sir.

argumentative? YOU were the one who decided to argue with an 11-day-old post!

 

and as for the OP - read MY first post. I made a "suggestion" to which the OP decided to argue.

 

any chance YOU might drop this now? thought not.

Edited by Guest
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The only place I ever saw a Next machine was in a University setting and even then they were normally stuffed in a closet somewhere. People seemed to prefer Sun machines on the desktop for any number of reasons.

 

My experience was the same as yours. I was at Goldman Sachs in 1992/1993, and while we did have a prominently displayed proof-of-concept kiosk of the NeXT Station, it was Sun SPARC 2's and 10's that we were rolling out by the hundreds. Big number crunchers on the trading floor got the DEC Alpha.

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My experience was the same as yours. I was at Goldman Sachs in 1992/1993, and while we did have a prominently displayed proof-of-concept kiosk of the NeXT Station, it was Sun SPARC 2's and 10's that we were rolling out by the hundreds. Big number crunchers on the trading floor got the DEC Alpha.

 

I have fond memories of the SS2 - the "CPU Power per Pound/Kilo" value was low for that boat anchor but I did a lot of my early Linux education on it (late 90s at this point - so the SS2 was WAY old at this point).

 

I used DEC Alphas in school. They were clustered together (of course) and I remember logging into one of them and having every drive in the cluster just start hammering away. This was 94 or 95.

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When all vectors for logical debate have been exhausted, shit on your opponent's football team. =)

I am done here btw. Take care and go Cowboys... ;-)

 

One more and I'm done for reals...

How do you feel about the Cleveland Browns?

I flushed the Super Bowl last night. It was full of Browns... :lol:

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I don't get the whole 11 day old post thing, not everybody logs in everyday... some only log in once a month or every few weeks. I believe all have a voice, not just the ones with a direct response feed.

To be honest I was on my phone using the mobile site very late at night, possibly under the influence of intoxicating beverage, and wasn't aware there were seven more pages beyond the first. I really shouldn't be "feeding the trolls" either... :roll:

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I don't get the whole 11 day old post thing, not everybody logs in everyday... some only log in once a month or every few weeks. I believe all have a voice, not just the ones with a direct response feed.

 

Hey I'm still trying to figure out why an anecdotal story shared by Mclaneinc about a former colleague who's lack of work focus necessitated additional manual steps in the company's supply chain management makes him a defacto misogynist.
I understand that many, perhaps even most, people believe the 1918 Representation of the People Act was only about extending suffrage to women, whereas in fact it was about a great deal more than that, but I admit I had no idea that retelling a tale of a female office employee who liked "girly mags" and shopping is somehow a dangerous prelude to some Margaret Atwood vision of a dystopian future.
Perhaps we need those trigger warnings after all....
Welcome to 2019.
Edited by oracle_jedi
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Wasn't the 850 a little expensive?

 

The Super Serial Card was sort of the standard once it was introduced, but Apple introduced several over the years starting in 1978.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_serial_cards

 

I know another company later came out with the PR connection and SIO (ICD) that also did DB9 and DB15 port interfaces. I still need to make inquiries about getting my SIO board back from MetalGuy66.

 

Was there ever anything going on with a network adapter that hooked directly to the Serial Ports? If the Atari could interface with a main frame, download and edit files, then upload them back. That would make it more professional.

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http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234789-bit3-full-view-80-under-the-hood/

 

I remember someone was doing an 80 column board for the Atari 800, but looks like very few of these got sold. If these and other similar card were sold when the Atari 800 hit the market, there would had been people using them for serious mainstream business. I have to read up on the specifics on this board. I wonder if Atari themselves were trying to do an 80 column board. I know they did XEP80 but that was after Tremial took over Atari. I know Omnimon exist, but that is NOT true 80 column character mode, uses a graphics 8 screen and 8k RAM, and is too slow.

 

What would also help if a version of Lotus 123, Word Perfect, and dBase and other major business programs made it over to the Atari 8-bit.

Edited by BlueMoon_001
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http://atariage.com/forums/topic/234789-bit3-full-view-80-under-the-hood/

 

I remember someone was doing an 80 column board for the Atari 800, but looks like very few of these got sold. If these and other similar card were sold when the Atari 800 hit the market, there would had been people using them for serious mainstream business. I have to read up on the specifics on this board. I wonder if Atari themselves were trying to do an 80 column board. I know they did XEP80 but that was after Tremial took over Atari. I know Omnimon exist, but that is NOT true 80 column character mode, uses a graphics 8 screen and 8k RAM, and is too slow.

 

What would also help if a version of Lotus 123, Word Perfect, and dBase and other major business programs made it over to the Atari 8-bit.

You need the hardware before you get software support, but you need the software to generate demand for the hardware.

The key to the first Apple II 80 column boards selling well, was that some popular titles were adapted to 80 columns, and thanks to the monitor ROM design, support was easy from BASIC.

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Doesn't the ROM / Cartridge Atari Basic depend on OS calls while editing the program, and the OS is dependent on Antic/GTIA? You will also need an updated OS to support a different display circuit or do it with additional software and drivers. I think only Atari had their Atari Writer to support this XEP80. It would had been useful if Basic, spreadsheets, and DOS supported it as well. With Basic or any program editor, it probably only be useful while editing your program. When the program runs, like a game or any program that uses graphics, you will need to switch back to Antic/GTIA to see what is going on. Maybe if an 80 column device output to a color monitor that can also swap with the native Antic/GTIA.

 

As for games, If XEP80 or this Atari 800 board for 80 columns, it would need re programmable fonts and bitmap modes for something decent. Can have it do text adventure type games I guess.

Edited by peteym5
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  • 2 years later...
On 12/19/2018 at 2:33 PM, Gunstar said:

I also recall now some old Atari ads for the 800XL too, and I do think a couple were famous novelists who used Atari 800XL to write their books, IIRC, Ray Bradbury was one...and I think either the article or 800 ads also had other famous writers included. I am going to go see if I can relocate where I saw or read this stuff and post images or links to it here...

 

here are a couple old ads I found. Although Ludlam claims he just got an Atari that he's going to use in the future, but Cooper says he does use it. But these aren't ones I remembered, so I'll keep looking...

post-149-0-24395000-1545252236.jpg

post-149-0-64174100-1545252248.jpg

gotta love ole Gordo Cooper, one of the Original 7 Astronaut.  Another Oklahoman that done good.  

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@gilsalukiYes, indeed. Though I'm not a true Oklahoman (assuming the nod was directed at me), I just moved here five years ago. I was born in Texas and have lived coast to coast.

 

My longest stints were 13 years in the Chicago area during my formative years, and about the same in Texas, and in between the two, about a decade in Wisconsin total (first half for college), with a two year break in the middle that I lived in Huntington Beach SoCal. Oklahoma will end up being the longest, assuming I live long enough to make it so, it's where I'm retiring (if and when I retire) on family land I inherited.

Edited by Gunstar
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