On Sunday, December 3rd, 1995 - Charles Cole wrote:
 
CC> except from the European market, and none of it had any practical
CC> application (i.e., mostly just DEMOs and GREETINX type programs).
 
Well, owning an Atari 8-bit is probably for many of us not as much a
practical thing as it is a fun thing.
 
I will say, my Atari does many practical things using OLD software.
Whether or not the Atari 800 functions in a practical way has nothing to 
do with how much "new" software is released for it.  The Atari 800 is a
mature system that already has a full library of practical software.
If the Atari were a new, just released system, I could understand
abandoning it for fear that it could not be put to productive use.
 
But the truth is that many of the applications that exist for the Atari
have "maxed out" on what can be done in 48k already.  The expectation of 
increasingly large and increasingly complex business applications is
just unrealistic, and unnecessary.
 
So, from my perspective, a system this old and ripe has a tree full of
software waiting to be plucked, and that if anyone has difficultly
putting such a system to productive or practical use, it denotes a
deficiency in the user, not the system.
 
Furthermore, from my perspective, at this late date in the Atari 8-bit's
life cycle, the NEW software that is of most interest is the frivolous:
Games, graphics, music, demos, animations, electronic greetings from
foreign lands, and anything else that has some expressive, creative, and 
artistic content.
 
There's only so many ways to process words, numbers, and records in 64k
(or even 128K, or 256k).  We've been there, and done that.  The colors
and sounds and shapes and the dances of sprites that can be conjured up
are fairly infinite in their variety, even in 48k.
 
 
The Atari 8-bit does not require the release of ANY new software to
justify its utility, value, or practicality.  The release of "art"
programs from Europe is just icing on the cake.
 
--- RiBBS v2.10        

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