+-+-+-+¢ Reprinted from XIO3 the GARDEN CITY¢ ACE-CANADA Jul/Aug '93 NEWSLETTER, by¢ THE OL' HACKERS AUG, NY, with¢ THANKS.¢¢ THE BEST COMPUTER by DOUGLAS SKRECKY¢¢ What's better a 486 powerhouse¢ with 8 Megs of ram, a 100 Meg hard¢ disk, Super VGA monitor and a Laser¢ Printer....... or an Atari 800XL with¢ a Panasonlic 1080 Dot Matrix¢ Printer?........¢ Before a tidal wave of laughter¢ erupts, perhaps we should weigh the¢ merits of these two choices¢ objectively just in case the obvious¢ winner should prove to be have feet¢ of clay.¢ What can an Atari 800XL do?¢ Well, you and a friend could play¢ Angleworm with it, which just happens¢ to be the best public domain two¢ player game ever invented. ¢ What can a 486 do? If you were¢ an accountant you could play Dbase¢ IV, which I hear is lots of fun for¢ these people, but unfortunately not¢ for anyone else. The Atari can run an¢ excellent PD shoot-em-up game called¢ Gauntlet. The 486 can help you to¢ balance your checkbook, which is real¢ easy seeing that it would be empty if¢ you bought a 486. The Atari can help¢ you rattle off a letter to a friend.¢ The 486 can help you go broke running¢ your very own desktop publishing¢ business, provided you can master the¢ 500 page manual first.¢ Perhaps all this is a rather¢ unfair comparison because of the¢ large price difference between the¢ two choices. A fairer contest would¢ be between packages of equal value.¢ So, lets throw in a used Ford Fiesta¢ with the 486 and compare that to an¢ Atari package with an expensive¢ sports car that the babes are¢ sorta...... partial to.¢ And the winner in this contest¢ is ... I have just been handed the¢ envelope and I am now opening it¢ ..........a hush desends on the¢ crowd, and......... ¢ The winner is Atari, just as we¢ expected all all long. No surprise.¢ -+-+-+-¢¢
