This is a nice article from the Unix newsnet. Transferred by Mark Keates, tidied and edited by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢¢From: Mike Barnes ¢Subject: Good ol' days¢Keywords: Atari 800¢¢¢I have enjoyed all of the recent posts from everyone writing about their love affair with the old Atari 800s. I guess I can begin my "remember when" story.¢¢I saw an add for An Atari 800 in print long before I actually saw the computer. There used to be a high tech store called Chafitz in the Washington, D.C. area that only sold high technology products. ¢They were passing out literature on the Atari 800 and 400 about a year before they ever showed up in the store.¢¢I wished I had kept the flyer. It pictured a businessman wearing a suit carrying an Atari 800 up to his office. The computer sounded impressive as it came standard with 8 KB of memory and was expandable to 48 KBytes of memory.¢¢If I remember correctly, the Atari 800 was introduced at about $1000.00. There was a game pack available that included two joysticks and the game Star Raiders. This was about $70.00.¢¢There was a $99 cassette. I don't think the 810s were in the stores yet. At nearly $800 each, I couldn't afford one anyway. There was also the optional basic cartridge.¢¢I bought the Atari 800. I had owned two 6800 based computers that bit the dust prior to buying¢the Atari. For over a year, I only played the few cartridges and tape based games I had and practiced learning BASIC.¢¢I had always been interested in the technical side of computers. The Atari was the first computer that really did anything but allow me to hack with computers. I think that anyone that purchased computers in the 1980 to 1981 time frame remember computers purely as toys. ¢There was no serious purpose for them. They were not the "productivity tools" they have become. Back then, computers were their most pure, they were there solely for fun and experimentation.¢¢When I met my wife, I told her that I had a personal computer. She was a mainframe programmer but had never seen a personel computer. She said that she had heard of them but had never seen one.¢¢I told her that I would loan her the computer to try out. She took it home with a copy of Space Invaders. The next morning, she called me and told me she had stayed up all night and wasn't going to work. I think I knew then that we were ment for each other.¢¢I wore out joystick after joystick playing Missile Command and Star Raiders. About 25% of my¢yearly income had been invested into the Atari. I spent night after night playing games, programming and trying to understand how it all worked. It is hard to believe how many years when by that I continued use and expand my 800 system. I bought everything from the 80 col. boards to expanded memory cards. I bought double density drives and even double sided drives. I set up a BBS once. My wife and I even started a software company XLEnt Software, to share our fascination with the Atari computers with other Atari fans.¢¢I soon realized that Atari owners were different from other computer owners. Atari had always neglected it's customers and software vendors were slow to recognize the Atari as an equal to the Apple II. Despite this, we knew we had a better product. We knew that our computer had custom designed graphics and I/O chips that were missing in other computers. The Atari's custom chips gave the Atari a personality that was missing in the other computers. The Atari's faster game action, programable character sets and various graphics modes, provided the patient hobbiest with hours and hours of challenges. Hell, we weren't even limited by graphic modes, we had display lists.¢¢When I first bought a computer, I had this sense of urgency that I was too late. I had read about all the wiz kids that were even younger than me that were making a fortune in computers. I was 26 and I felt like it was too late for me to catch up to these 24 year old kids that already knew so much more than I did. Besides, they all seemed to be so much smarter than me anyways.¢¢Over time, I began to assume a confidence about Atari. It was no longer enough to play. I wanted to evangelize. I went into business selling many high tech products. The store I had sold projection TV's, laser disk players and high fidelity equipment. We also sold Atari computers, printers and floppies. I sold enough floppies in those days to pay the rent. (Floppies were $3.50 each then).¢¢Over time, I was forced to offer new computers. I started with Apple II clones and moved up to¢the Columbia which was one of the early IBM PC clones. All along, the Atari 800 remained my personal computer. I wrote my proposals, resumes on the Atari. I wrote articles and typed letters. I learned spreadsheets and databases on the Atari. I learned my first structured language, Action which was similar to a cross between C and Basic. I learned the joys of telecommunications and the pricipals of D/A conversion.¢¢There is much more I could tell but I will skip to the end. In all these years, I have left a Atari 8 bit computer hooked up. The original Atari 800 has been packed away. It will likely never be sold and may never be used. I may pass it down someday but it will remain my most "personal" computer.¢¢My five year old used to turn on the Atari 8 bit and simply type letters on the screen. She'd call us to the screen and show us that she had typed her name. My wife dragged out a box of cartridges. I had collected about fifty Atari cartridges over the years. My daughter has tried every game. She rushes to the old computer every night to play her favorite games. Recenly, our Thai exchange student has joined my daughter in playing games. They will sit and challenge each other to game after game of Galaxians, PAC MAN and Centapedes.¢¢At night, I am sitting in front of my 80386 based computer with 4 MBytes of RAM. I am cursing and swearing as I try to pick the right font for the paragraph I am about to type. My computer has a fax card, a CD ROM, a laser printer, mouse, scanner and many other implements of torture that allow me to maintain the image of professionalism I strive for with my clients and associates.¢¢Hours go by as I create charts, graphs and graphics to make my point. I am considering buying an even larger computer. My 100 MByte disk is saturated. I look at the clock and see that it is 3:00 am. I notice that I am not the only one awake. I see a light from another room. I walk towards the light and see my wife sitting with joystick in hand. She is playing with the Atari.¢¢I remind her of the time and go back to finish my report.¢¢
