Greetinx all!¢My name's Paul aka Spite Ripsoft.¢I first got into the Atari 8-bit way¢back in 1982.¢My dad bought me an Atari 400 with ¢tape recorder and a couple of¢games. Centipede, Star Raiders and the¢Basic cartridge, I was around 9 years¢old at the time. A couple of my mates¢also had Atari computers. One was the¢infamous Howie and the other was my¢great mate Nicky, he had thousands of¢games. His dad knew somebody who lived¢in America and got all the latest¢software.¢I used to get all of my software from¢Nicky. I also spent many hours typing¢in programs from mags.¢In 1984 (I think), we were robbed and¢those thiefs took my Atari and tape¢recorder, but left all the leads.¢A few months later I had an Atari 800¢with a disk drive.¢My mate Nickys Dad could copy chips for¢1050 drives. He did Lazer, Doubler and¢Happy chips. I bought a Doubler chip¢which cost me around twenty quid, not¢bad since they cost around thirty quid¢at the time.¢My 800 lasted me for about 3 or 4¢years. Then I bought an Atari 800XL¢from Dixons, as they were selling them¢off cheap. Well I needed it anyway as¢my 800 was dieing due to Howie the dil.¢You see his computer had broke, he had¢snapped the pins in the I/O port on the¢side of his 800. I didn't know this at¢the time. He came round to my house one¢day and asked if he could borrow my¢800.¢I said yes (That was the worst mistake¢of my life!).¢You see he had swopped his computer¢with mine. He tore off the serial¢numbers of both computers and gave me¢his. I did not notice this for about a¢week, due to the fact it was exam time¢at school and I had no time to play on¢my computer.¢When I came to use my computer nothing¢would load. I tried the tape recorder¢and disk drive over and over again.¢Then it came to me, Howard hadn't been¢around for a few days. I checked the¢side of the computer and guess what? I¢had his computer! Was this a legitimate¢mistake?¢No! He had done this on purpose. But¢how could I prove it? I shot upto¢Howards, he was in playing on HIS¢Atari?¢Umm! I said to him 'Got your computer¢fixed quick didn't you?'¢He said 'Oh! yes, my Dad knows somebody¢who can fix them.'¢What a load of crap, you see his Dad is¢a builder and was always working.¢In the end we ended up having a fight¢over it. His Mam is totally mad! One¢time she says 'Hit him!' then 'Stop¢hitting him!'¢Proper mad heads!¢From that day to this I very rarely¢speak to Howie.¢I really don't know why I haven't sold¢out and bought a C64 or something.¢My Atari must have some power to make¢me keep it. It must be the hardest¢computer to program on in Basic.¢A few years later in 1990, I bought an¢Atari 65XE from this lad. I told him¢I'll have his computer, tape recorder¢and games for twenty quid. He said yes!¢I was totally amazed, what an offer!¢If only you could get everything for¢twenty quid!¢Well this short story must come to an¢end. Thanx for reading.¢¢ Yours SPITE¢
