Re: [steem] Atari Questionaire
- From: Richie Alexander <archiebaldrick@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: steem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 07:33:16 -0800 (PST)
Why not tell us about your own Atari story?
Why not.
My father had an 800 Atari that had a flight simulator
on it which I got as a hand-me-down when the ST came
out in the 1970?s. Later, when he got a Mac, I
started using his old ST. (early 1980s) It may sound
funny, but even with some pretty good games written
for the ST, my brother and I probably played 'Rogue'
the most. Even though the graphics were lame, the
total random changes of each new game required
strategic adaptation which kept our interest. Since
the game was designed to not be saved, we would
compete in the ?hall of fame? seeing how far we could
make it before we suffered a variety of horrific
deaths.
The ST flight simulator turned out to be extremely
useful when I took up gliding as a hobby. Management
of air speed during the many hours of simulated flight
has helped, and maybe even saved me in real flight,
due to the automatic responses drilled in through
extensive simulator experience. Additionally, the
delay time between control input and the resulting
reaction of larger simulated aircraft is very similar
to the ?feel? and timing of some other vehicles, such
as larger boats and real aircraft, which has allowed
me to adapt quickly in situations where other people
were unable to cope. Anyway, I used the ST for years
until PCs finally caught up.
Rich
--- stefan kuhn <stefanj_mail@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Edouard Lombard wrote:
>
> > Why not tell us about your own Atari story?
> Well, I think I'll tell the whole story. It all
> started when I was 15
> and finally had some money, because I had my
> "konfirmation" (christian
> initiation celebration, don't know the english term)
> and you usually get alot of money there.
> This will cause some moans, but actually at that
> time, my dream-machine
> was a VIC-64. However, I couldn't afford it, so I
> bought a VIC-20. :)
> Where I lived, there were absolutely NO people who
> also had such a
> computer, so I coudn't trade games and programs
> (yes, the problem is as
> old as software itself... ;) ) like the VIC-64 users
> could.
> So I digged out the basic manual and tried to write
> my own games -
> that's how I learned to program. ;)
>
> The next computer I switched to was an Atari 800-XL
> and since it was
> very popular in my region, I could trade games and
> stuff with my
> friends and other people. Yet, I was more interested
> in programming and
> eventually switched from basic to 6502 assembler
> language.
>
> When the Atari ST came out my two best friends and I
> were thrilled about
> this new 16/32 bit computer and how fast this thing
> must be and decided
> that we MUST have this one.
> So we saved money and bought our first Atari STs and
> started
> programming. My interest mainly shifted to
> programming the sound-chip
> and the MIDI ports, while my two friends started
> making their first
> game: "Terranova", which was distributed by
> "Kingsoft".
> Meanwhile I started to write my own music
> composition software
> "MIDIPlay", which I used to compose my own music and
> extended to my
> needs over the years.
> Also during that time I helped my friends with the
> other games they
> wrote, most importantly "Spherical", which was
> distributed by "Rainbow
> Arts", where I also made the sound f/x and music
> for.
> The game was a big success, we even ported it to the
> Amiga, others
> ported it to Amstrad, VIC-64, etc.
> We all got the money for our first SH-204 harddisks
> that way. It was
> loud, it was slow, it had "only" 20 MB, but we
> thought it was the
> greatest piece of hardware of all times! ;)
>
> I was the last one of us three who left the ST and
> bought a PC. That was
> in 1995. I had all in all 3 Ataris. The first one
> was a 520STFM, then a
> 1040 ST with 4 MB memory expansion, TOS 2.6 and SCSI
> harddisk in a
> tower, and finally when it died, I bought a similar
> tower second hand.
> I worked on, and used my "Midiplay" for 5-6 years,
> and it was my main
> reason not to switch to another platform.
>
> > How many do you have?
> No hardware ST anymore. They all died by long.
>
> > Which model?
> See above.
>
> > How much do you like it?
> I knew the purpose of every memory address, so I had
> a very close
> relationship to it... ;)
>
> > Are you some of you not working in the computer
> industry now?
> No, I'm not not working in the computer industry
> now. ;)
> Means, yes, I'm working in the computer (software)
> industry as a
> software developer now. In the audio software
> industry, to me more specific.
>
> > How did you get yours?
> See my story.
>
> > How do you still like to use them?
> I boot up STeem mainly to look at the programs I
> wrote and to play
> around with my "MIDIPlay". I'm happy that it runs in
> STeem and that I
> can actually listen to my old music (if I connect my
> old synths to my PC.)
> I even further developed my only ST game (which was
> never released)
> "Monster Mission" on STeem. Originally I wrote this
> "dungeon shooter"
> style game for color mode, but when I got my
> monochrome monitor, I had
> to change the code to work in mono mode. (Which
> looked ugly.)
> Using STeem, I loaded the source up in my DevPak
> assembler and changed
> it back to work under color mode. That was fun. ;)
>
> > Do you use Steem in conjunction with your real
> machine?
> No, since I have no real ST anymore.
>
> > What are your favourite programs/games?
> Mainly my own software. I was never too much into ST
> gaming. ;)
>
> > Do you mainly use original discs or ones found on
> the Internet?
> I use mainly my own discs, most of them I was able
> to transfer to the PC
> before my last ST died.
>
> > How do you share your time of personal use between
> Atari and PC?
> This varies. I have phases where I am extremely
> nostalgic and run STeem
> all the time. But in general I would say 95% PC now.
>
> Best,
> Stefan
>
>
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