YOUR PAGE!¢¢I hope to include this in every issue¢and it will be written by you! Just¢write a bit about yourself and your¢history on the Atari 8-bit and send it¢to me, first received will be the first¢entered. I have voluntered to go first,¢so if you can submit something similar¢to this then I'd be well happy! I'm¢hoping to persuade Spite to submit¢something for issue 03! Why not submit¢something for issue 04??¢*¢Hi my name is John E. and I first got¢my Atari in 1987, it was an 800XL, 1010¢recorder and about 50 cassettes, the¢1010 was pretty knackered and soon all¢the keys broke, so we had to take the¢front off the recorder and press PLAY¢that way. I knew a friend who had an¢Atari 800XL and 1050 disk drive and¢although he said I could make him an¢offer for the drive, I couldn't because¢I was still at school and never had a¢lot of money. Anyway I left school¢May 27th 1988 (I always remember it as¢it was my 16th birthday!) and I was¢due to start collage at the end of¢August, so I thought I'd get myself a¢job and then I'd be able to save up for¢the drive. My Aunty worked at a local¢pizza base making factory (Canadian¢Pizza Crust) and she managed to get me¢a job there working from 6PM-10PM, the¢wages were very low for sixteen year¢olds, a crappy 1.27 an hour! Anyway I¢worked there for a few months (by the¢way NEVER eat Canadian Pizza Crust¢pizzas!) and managed to save a little¢bit of money (and it was only a bit!),¢I had gone around to my friends one¢Saturday and told him I'd hopefully be¢able to buy the drive soon, he had got¢a C64 then and the Atari 800XL and disk¢drive were shoved into a corner doing¢nothing! I asked if I could borrow it,¢seeing as he wasn't using it and he¢said I could, I wanted to make sure it¢was working first but the plug for the¢drive had no back on it so I told my¢friend, he told me to just plug it in,¢so I did! I have often wondered how¢close to death I came that day...¢Well, I borrowed the drive and a few¢weeks later I made him an offer of 80¢pounds for it, he accepted and I was¢the proud owner of a 1050 drive and a¢few disks.¢Anyway that drive lasted about a year¢and then died, so I had to get another¢one! I managed to get one from someone¢in Page 6 who had plenty, the first one¢he sent got lost in the post, but the¢second one arrived safely. It cost 100¢pounds, but I wasn't bothered about the¢price, I was back on the scene that's¢all that mattered. Time went by and I¢just happened to look in a paper called¢'Loot' and I saw an Atari 1050 disk¢drive for sale, only 60 pounds! So I¢'phoned the person up and luckily it¢hadn't been sold, unfortunately they¢lived rather a long way away and the¢bus ride was rather a long one, anyway¢to cut a long story short I got the¢drive and what a bargain it was! It has¢a write-protect switch and was so quiet¢I couldn't tell it was formatting, my¢other 1050 was put in my spares draw¢and that's where this story ends...¢¢Could you write something like this?¢Why not give it a try, Atarians love¢reading about other Atarians and I¢really enjoyed writing this!¢
