erek
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2005
- Messages
- 10,943
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That was the killer part about the 7800, but like someone said earlier, it came too late. Most people had moved on from the 2600, so the value in that wasn't as strong as it would be if the 7800 had been released earlier.I loved my 7800 simply because I could also play 2600 games on it which was nice because quite a few people had them laying around and gave them to me for nothing.
How rare you tarnish the realm of Tamriel with your twisted words.I had a 7800 that I got at an electronics wholesale auction... it was thrown into a big box of random electronic junk and some carts. While it was a giant step up from the 2600, it wasn't as good as say a NES, Sega Master system, or a C64 which were all out at the time. I think if Atari could have released the 7800 instead of the 5200, they would have made bigger impact and stayed relevant longer. But by the time the 7800 finally released, no one cared any more.
The 7800 is the console that the 5200 should have been. Actual hardware compatibility with the 2600, and some very decent arcade ports and games.
edit - I just read the wikipedia. So the delay wasn't intentional, it was all held up due to Atari being sold to Tramiel's company from Warner, and all current projects got suspended until that all played out. Bad timing I guess.
There's a lot of history with Atari mismanagement unfortunately. Even as a young un I remember being very frustrated at the missteps at every turn.
But as for the tech - man, what fun. You could do so much with a handful of instructions on the platforms of that day!
C64 4Lyfe!Hey I grew up as a commodore kid, so I am fully familiar with management fuckwittery
Brian Bagnall’s Commodore trilogy is a great read for Commodore fans on the inner workings of the company and I’d enjoy something similar about Atari if it exists. I’m on the last book now and in the section where the engineers are debating which chipset to champion to keep the Amiga ahead of IBM and Apple. It’s pretty astounding, as was the whole middle book regarding the birth of the Amiga. The original Amiga engineers were good but they just didn’t grasp the market and fought Commodore every step of the way on the Amiga 500. Had it been the Amiga 500 which was launched in 1985 instead of the Amiga 1000, Commodore probably kills the Atari ST within a year and has enough sales to fund chipset development and higher-end Amigas. As it turned out, Commodore couldn’t afford multiple lines of R&D so a wrong choice in the 80s effectively sealed their fate in the 90s.
I had a 7800... Not sure why you think People didn't have exposure. They were available for purchase . I had a 2600 as well as a 5200. Fun systems.
There are some really good articles on ArsTechnica about Amiga and Commodore as well. Can't find the links right now but if you search for Amiga or Commodore on Ars it should find them. Multi-part series.
Commodore management dumbassness goes beyond the Plus 4 + C16 debacle, although that was a disaster. If they could have got the C65 (Or super 64 or whatever it was going to be) out the door instead of just C64 and Amiga revisions, it might have helped. But the management ineptness was so deep and hard, I don't think any one or two products could have saved them.
Atari and Commodore, giants of the 80's tech scene relegated to the trash bin of history. Sad.
The original Amiga engineers were good but they just didn’t grasp the market and fought Commodore every step of the way on the Amiga 500. Had it been the Amiga 500 which was launched in 1985 instead of the Amiga 1000, Commodore probably kills the Atari ST within a year and has enough sales to fund chipset development and higher-end Amigas. As it turned out, Commodore couldn’t afford multiple lines of R&D so a wrong choice in the 80s effectively sealed their fate in the 90s.
I don't see how you get the Amiga 500 in 85 instead of the A1000. The Amiga 500 is the cost reduced A1000. I still have my Amiga 1000.
Remember this is the machine that has huge daughter-board with RAM chips to emulate the kickstart ROMs that weren't stable yet. It didn't inlcude the full 512K of chip ram because it was considered too expensive, so it had a weird one-off chip ram expansion on the front. It was kind of a Frankenstein machine, cobbled together to get to market.
Right. But on the other hand, the Atari ST made it in 1985 and outsold the Amiga for the first couple of years. Of course, Atari used a canned OS and didn’t develop their own, so they didn’t need to devote as much to OS development. You’re certainly correct about the WCS (the RAM component) and stuff like that, but I wonder if they could’ve eliminated WCS sooner and had the A500 on the market much earlier - maybe not in 85, but perhaps 86?
The A1000 is a machine I am always debating purchasing. I have an A2000 and A3000 and I think the A1000 would be a great addition to my collection, but I just can’t pull the trigger for some reason. I remember seeing it for the first time in 85 and being completely blown away so I think at some point, I’ll pull the trigger for nostalgia’s sake. Prices have really gone up over the last few years for sure.
Any collectors anything will have a bell curve for the price--low when no one cared anymore for it, then the 'bell' where everyone remembers they wanted one back in the day, and then the low when everyone's interest in it dies off, usually from the people themselves dying off (at least in the case of classic cars). I expect something similar to happen with the price of the A1000, although finding a perfect example of one will get harder as time goes one. I still can't find the 1MB Pentium Pro 200 chips at any decent price although these systems are on the far end of the bell curve now.Prices have really gone up over the last few years for sure.
Okay, you MUST post a pic of it now for the entire Internet to know!I think it pre-dates the computer, and the commodore acquisition. I can't even find a picture of it now in a google image search. It's a tiny little thing not much bigger than large egg with a short little stick.
Amiga branded joystick they were making to help finance the project. IIRC I bought the joystick before I even heard of the computer. I think it pre-dates the computer, and the commodore acquisition. I can't even find a picture of it now in a google image search. It's a tiny little thing not much bigger than large egg with a short little stick.
Then I think I have that little guy too--was it the one that attached to the side? Ah, the tac-2. I think I still have the tac-2, tac-3, and tac-5. I never found a tac-4 and always wondered why there wasn't one.I think I had one of those I used on C64. I seem to recall the blisters from that stubby little stick. Replaced with a Tac-2, All long long gone, sold everything for pennies on the dollar to pay rent back in the generic mac and cheese dinner days.
By the time I could (sorta) afford an Amiga, my roommate had a DX2-66 with a sound blaster and X-Wing + Tie fighter was like.... OMG. I didn't become nostalgic again for it until 5-10 years ago. I just cannot bring myself to go drop real money on a used, yellow Amiga 500 that plays games like a 386 with a VGA card.
Now if they ever come out with the Amiga Classic, sure I got a hundy for that.
Okay, you MUST post a pic of it now for the entire Internet to know!
Thanks for this, I'm a long time Atari hack. I never had any exposure to the 7800, and I guess historically, neither did many other people.
I recently moved, and it's packed away elsewhere. Though by searching for the Joyboard (other accessory they made during this time) I found it.
It was called the Amiga Power stick. I bought it to play games on my C-64. It was great initially because it had extremely short throw. But it it has those conductive rubber contacts that foul up after a while and stop working so well. Then I would open it, clean it with alcohol and it would work ok for a while...
Cool to know that I helped contribute to Amiga before I even knew it existed.
http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/powerstick.html
View attachment 202138
What was the breadbin? Like breadboard or another name for the usual brown/beige casing?I also have a C64 breadbin...
we actually got one new....I assume because my dad was too cheap to get an NES at christmas. this was well after the nes was out. but a 7800 + like 10 games was problem next to nothing back in like 88.
my only complaint even now is the fact they just cheaped out on the audio and went with what the 2600 had when they had much more superior options by then. It still can't graphically hold up to the SMS or NES but it was still pretty solid. If it had come out on time, it still would have suffered because of the sound.
What was the breadbin? Like breadboard or another name for the usual brown/beige casing?
Had those for my Atari 800-XL. It is how I won Decathlon. Such a fast short throw on those of the required fast left right joystick smashing required! Good times.I recently moved, and it's packed away elsewhere. Though by searching for the Joyboard (other accessory they made during this time) I found it.
It was called the Amiga Power stick. I bought it to play games on my C-64. It was great initially because it had extremely short throw. But it it has those conductive rubber contacts that foul up after a while and stop working so well. Then I would open it, clean it with alcohol and it would work ok for a while...
Cool to know that I helped contribute to Amiga before I even knew it existed.
http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/powerstick.html
View attachment 202138
Gorgeous C-64 setup. All a 1984 kid could dream of.