Quote:
Originally Posted by obsessed2
My TRS-80 Level I never got a virus either. Man I wish I would have kept that machine. Makes you long for the good old days.
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Since this thread has gone completely off the track, I'll go with this if anyone wants to play
I bought my Atari 400 at Zayres Department Store around 1982, I think. It was $149.99 and there was a $50 mail in rebate. My first computer and my first rebate. I bought it because it was a better video game. The membrane keyboard made anything else difficult. Nonetheless, my brother and I typed in programs from Antic magazine and before long I was modifying BASIC programs.
A guy I worked with gave me a 300 baud modem in 1986. I used this to access bulletin boards. Back then, troubleshooting hardware with unknown helpers in near real time was magic.
The 400 was replaced by an 800xl then a 130xe. I added disks and printers and managed to get through college with Atariwriter and a 1027 pinnter.
When I started programming, it made sense to get a DOS computer and the Atari was relegated to its intended role of better video console. When my last cx40 (joystick) broke, I packed up the whole mess and put the box in my attic.
Many years later, I learned to adapt a sega genesis controller and broke the Atari out for my kids. They loved it. Eventually, they moved on to a Playstation and the Atari was back in the attic.
Many more years later, the Atari Flash devices come and go and there are LOTS of CX40 sticks on ebay. I buy 50 of these and pull out my box'o'atari. Amazingly, all computers, disks, and diskettes are fully functional after two decades of hot and cold New England attic storage. And it turns out people are hooking these things up to usb devices and burning their own carts and all sorts of cool stuff. Some are even writing new programs for the computer.
In 2012, I have an XEGS with a pair of Wico sticks and an SD Drive plugged into an LCD. It's still fun. I digress...
It turns out there are
forums where all of this is discussed and, of course, there is a 31 page thread on the Atari ST vs Amiga and a less proflic comparison of the Atari and Commodire 8-bit computers.
I remember the profiling of users of each in the day (game players and pirates flocked to the Atari while educators and students embraced the C64).
But here's a twist for you. People who swore by the Atari 8-bit computers also swore by the Atari ST and those raised on the C64 flocked to the Amiga.
Jay Miner who designed the Amiga was the designer of the Atari 800 and
Jack Tramiel, former CEO of Commodore, and engineers he brought from Commodore after he was pushed out developed the Atari ST.
I guess, in the end, we cheer for the laundry.
(pulling the wandering thread back to the original topic deftly)