This article was taken from the newsnet system. It is a good indication of the problems American Atari users are having. We have it easy in the UK! Tidied by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢¢Ben Poehland brought up some good points, but there are a few larger issues to worry about.¢¢(1) Where can Mr. Average Joe buy Atari equipment, now that it has been officially dumped by Atari? In order to put together a decent system you have to bascially root through dumpsters to find the appropriate used components. There *is* a market for a very nice low cost computersystem for handing useful applications, but if you can't walk into a store and buy an Atari XE, then no one is going to.¢¢(2) Along the same lines, there doesn't seem to be a way to expand the Atari 8-bit user base. There are no new users, and eventually the old-timers will give up and buy a PC clone.¢¢(3) No available places for service. If a machine breaks down, you have to fix it yourself, provided you have enough documentation to know how. Most Atari machines are rock solid, but disk drives are another story. If Atari machines are to continue, there needs to be an easily obtainable and *inexpensive* (around $100) IBM compatible 3 1/2" drive. And just using 3 1/2" disks would give a bit more respectability to the machine. The 1050 has to be completely eliminated.¢¢(4) The status of all that old software needs to be resolved, including stuff published in Antic, ANALOG, and COMPUTE!. If any of it goes public domain, there should be someone, or an organization, which takes the time to catalog it, make sure it works on all machines and has proper documentation, and distribute it via mail order and BBS. Public domain needs to be explicitly marked as such to prevent copyright confusion in the 8-bit world; it may lead many people to believe that you can copy anything.¢¢As Ben noted, an 8-bit magazine is desperately needed. Atari Interface is a fairly nice little magazine, but it is split between the ST and the 8-bits and could use a bit of polishing. (Question: why does everyone think that the 8-bits and STs have something in common?).¢¢And 8-bit software really does need to move ahead if the machines are to have a future. Geez--anyone ever notice that the same articles and programs kepts repeating during Antic's final few years? Another stupid random number door prize program, a simplistic joystick-based drawing program, a tic-tac-toe game, another Tetris clone. Bleah.¢¢Why am I saying all this? Well, I used to be a die-hard Atari user, and I used to write for Antic and ANALOG, and I just plain *like* the 8-bit computers. I programmed an 800 from 1982 to 1988, then "officially" moved to the PC world (I had been using one on the side since 1984). I really miss the simplicity of the 8-bit machines. On the PC, things are so contrived -- you have to go through all sorts of contortions to do anything, whereas on the 800 there is usually a nice simple little way of solving the problem. This lets you concentrate on writing applications and such, without having to worry about how to work around the hardware. I really wish that the 8-bit market would settle down and grow, but in all honesty I don't think it is ever going to happen. Sigh.¢¢Comments?¢¢--¢James Hague ¢exuhag@exu.ericsson.se¢¢¢
