On Friday, January 12th, 1996 - Dave Trutzenbach wrote:
 
DT> This is getting a bit long still.  Atari was ahead many years ago
DT> with the 400 /800.  Disk drives.....not around at first... had to 
DT> load via a cassette recorder.... but, worked pretty good.
 
Yes, the Atari 400/800 was ahead of the competition technologically
speaking.  For audio/visual power, it was precisely 10 years ahead.
But in terms of market share, Atari never even got close to Apple.  And
once IBM threw its credibility behind the PC, Atari's fate was set.
 
DT> I agree I have had a lot of fun from my Atari's but, if they do not 
DT> support us WHO WILL.  I though the Falcon was / still is a great 
 
Who supports it?  We do.  We do it ourselves.  By the way, in the early
days, I could hardly get anywhere without the help of the local Atari
user group.
 
And in those days, the main topic was people bitching about how we
weren't getting enough support.  Seems to me that we have the same
situation today.  Atari computer owners support each other and
themselves.  The main difference today is that we do it on-line with
modems, the perfect technological solution for bringing the remaining
Atari users together internationally.
 
We save a lot of time and gas money this way!  :-)  The real downside is 
all the Atarians that refuse to have modems, don't take time to use
them, or are ignorant of what is available if they did have a modem.
These Atari users are pretty much "out of it" and are alone with nothing 
but mail order dealers.
 
DT> computer but, again who suuports it.  
 
The Falcon is being supported a little by developers of cool
productivity software.  All of the important modern applications are
available, make it a very usable machine.  The real gap is in
entertainment titles.  I don't think there is enough available to
qualify it as an adequate gaming platform.  Rather ironic.  The
existence of Ataris and Commodores spurred the development of PC
gaming technology.  PCs become more and more like Ataris every year,
until now the PC is sort of more like an Atari than an Atari is.  :-)
If you play Rise Of The Triad on an 8meg 486DX2/66 with VLB and a 16-bit 
sound card, I think you'll see what I mean.
 
I suppose there are quite a few ST owners that are just now beginning to 
freak out as they realize that their system is no longer supportable by
the mass software market.  I remember feeling a little strange when I
learned that Atari had produced the last 130XE.  By that time, I had
come to accept it, and to understand that my 8-bit had become a
"nostalgia" system long before that event.  It is still something of a
shock to learn though.  I suppose there are still a lot of isolated Atari 
ST users out there who don't know that Atari only makes the Jaguar now.
 
DT> IT'S A CRYING SHAME...... BUT THAT'S LIFE I SUPPOSE!
 
Yep.  These computers have a limited lifespan.  That's just a fact of
life.  In consolation, there is no shame in this.  Today's Pentium will
be a doorstop in only 15 years.  And when you look at the horizon of the 
technology that's coming, it really doesn't matter.  The most advanced
desktop computer today is going to be nothing compared to what we will
be using in the future.
 
So don't be depressed.  As long as your Atari works and does something
useful, it is worth having and enjoying, just like any other tool.
 
--- RiBBS v2.10        

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