Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit, /comp/sys/cbm, /alt/folklore/computers Absender : BRYEDEWAARD@news.delphi.com (BRYEDEWAARD@DELPHI.COM) Betreff : Re: Why did Commodore beat Atari in the 8-bit market? Datum : Sa 03.12.94, 21:22 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 723 Bytes -------------------------------------- heller@akh104.rh.psu.edu (Andrew K. Heller) writes: >Matt Singer (singer@osfrt.mro1.dec.com) wrote: >: When I got my Atari ST developers kit, the computer wouldnt boot. They >: told to me open it up and "flex" the motherboard... QC at it's best. >as I recall the "chips on the motherboard popped loose during shipping" > those were the first production runs by the way.... >of course the first Jaguars were the same in some ways... Mr. T never >learns. The ST uses a lousy PLCC socket made by ITT/Canon that had a bad habit of losing its grip on the IC. Atari's solution was to put a clip over the chip to hold it in, but still many STs failed later in life due to these sockets. -Bry Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit Absender : ransom22@delphi.com (Joe Walsh) Betreff : Re: multitasking - 6502? Datum : Fr 09.12.94, 22:01 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 1115 Bytes -------------------------------------- writes: >But John, I put you in the same catagory as Wilkinson. You are >probably one in a thousand if not one in a million. I guess my >75% are not. Maybe Äprogrammers, computer artist, desk top publishing, >the self employedÜ can use multitasking, but they should realize they >are in the extreme minority. I agree with you. At my place of employment, every computer is connected to the LAN. Every computer also runs Windows. Almost everyone there has more than one program loaded at a time. But no one actually multitasks. What I mean by this is that no one ever actually has more than one process running at a time. When the benefits coordinator recalculates her 28 MB spreadhseet, she walks away and has a chat with coworkers. She doesn't flip to E-mail and star er, start reading her messages. I doubt that she would be happier if she did. Similarly, people go grab a coke or snack or spend time talking while their WordPerfect merges are running. I agree that those who actually use multitasking are in the minority. -Joe Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit Absender : ransom22@delphi.com (Joe Walsh) Betreff : Re: multitasking - 6502? Datum : Fr 09.12.94, 22:14 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 2199 Bytes -------------------------------------- Glenn M. Saunders writes: >And the reverse is true as well. Bushnell was an exception and he got >out when the getting was good. However, the 2600 almost sold itself by >virtue of it being the best thing around and one of the ONLY things >around for a few years so that was a unique situation. I just have a quibble here. The 2600 wasn't alone in the market by any means (Bally's Astrocade, Odyssey 2, and the Channel F for example) when it was introduced. It was also not the best thing around (although "best" is a subjective term), as witness Bally's machine. But you are right..Bushnell got out at the right time. Entrepreneurs almost never make good managers, simply because the traits that make one a successful entrepreneur are not those that make one a good manager. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Warner not put in their own guys and Bushnell had stayed on. Or if he'd never had to seek capital in the first place. But, I think the company would have crashed and burned even before it did under Warner. >The sad thing is that a shithead like Bill Gates is lauded as a GOD of >programming and having become king by virtue of an underdog >beats-the-odds struggle when his greatest marketing triumph was a >combination of plagiarism from CP/M and luck dealing with IBM to become >the official OS of the IBM-PC--and Bill Gates himself probably hasn't >written a line of code since 1983. Not to mention his 2nd biggest >triumph being a johnny-come-lately ripoff of the MAC GUI, which was in >turn a ripoff of the Xerox systems--but that's another story. Heh. Bill gates - the man we love to hate. :) A real-life J.R. Ewing. ÄGrinÜ He made his name writing BASIC interpreters for any machine that would have him. Thank the Lord that Atari didn't ask him to write their OS and/or BASIC, and instead turned to Shepardson Microsystems Inc. for both. The Atari could have turned out to be a very different machine.... (oop...meant DOS, not Os. The Os was written by Atari, of course!) The entire world pays for Bill's company's mistakes every day.... -Joe Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit, /comp/sys/cbm, /alt/folklore/computers Absender : jcompton@bbs.xnet.com (Jason Compton) Betreff : Re: Why did Commodore beat Atari in the 8-bit market? Datum : Fr 09.12.94, 20:48 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 1099 Bytes -------------------------------------- michaelb@hobbie.bocaraton.ibm.com (Michael Rogero Brown (Sys Admin)) writes: >He's probably talking about Commodore UK ads. The main Commodore company >went belly up, but several of the subsidiaries, including Commodore UK are >supposedly still going strong, from what I hear. I've even heard the C-UK >wants to buy the rights to the Amiga so that it can still be manufactured and >sold. It's more accurate to say "Commodore UK and Canada are surviving, somehow. That's about it." Commodore US liquidated in September. Commodore International is still in liquidation. One of the two companies which seems to be trying to buy the C= assets (the Amiga, basically) is C= UK. It's hard to characterize C= UK or Canada as strong, as they have no real new product to sell... Jason Compton FAX: 708-491-4064 jcompton@cup.portal.com and @bbs.xnet.com Editor-In-Chief Amiga Report Magazine and Coverdisk Contributing Writer Amiga Game Zone Magazine The time to rise has been engaged. -REM, _Finest Worksong_ Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit Absender : ransom22@delphi.com (Joe Walsh) Betreff : Wanted: XMM801 "dust Cover" Datum : Fr 09.12.94, 22:36 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 382 Bytes -------------------------------------- I would like to have another "dust cover" for the XMM801. This is not a cloth piece you put over the printer. Rather, I am talking about the plastic piece that is on top with the XMM801 label on it. Mine is missing the label. BEST stocks the cover, but not with the label. If you have a broken XMM801 and are willing to sell the cover to me, please E-Mail me. -Joe Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit Absender : brian@stat.mps.ohio-state.edu (Brian K Smith) Betreff : How to convert a 400 to 48k? Datum : Sa 03.12.94, 18:18 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 413 Bytes -------------------------------------- I have an Atari 400, no modifications. I'd like to upgrade it to 48k (or better), since it has four joystick ports. I also have an 800xl (can I put four joystick ports on it? :-) ) The 800xl could be used for parts (memory...). I want to be able to play mule (and others) four player. Does anyone have instructions on the conversion? Post or email is fine. Brian brian@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit, /comp/sys/cbm, /alt/folklore/computers Absender : richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Betreff : Re: Why did Commodore beat Atari in the 8-bit market? Datum : Sa 03.12.94, 22:51 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 705 Bytes -------------------------------------- Äwater vs electronics discussionÜ I have often used soap & water to clean electronic and telephone equipment. One problem is that some components and some types of circut boards will absorb the water and expand or otherwide deform. This deformation usually is not reversible when the equipment is dried. I regularly clean keyboards by dissasembling, setting the PC board(s) aside and scrubbing the rest. A compressed air gun is also a good cleaning tool. -- Rich Greenberg Work: TBA. Know anybody needing a VM guru? N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 Pacific time. I speak for myself & my dogs only. Canines: Chinook & Husky(RIP) Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit, /comp/sys/cbm, /alt/folklore/computers Absender : gpage@nyx10.cs.du.edu (george page) Betreff : Re: Moisture/voltage... Datum : Sa 03.12.94, 16:30 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 430 Bytes -------------------------------------- Yeah. How come the digital timer in my coffeemaker died when I spilled water in it filling up the reservoir? And the car don't start when the distributor's wet? And lightning kills swimmers? -- George Page Commodore Enthusiast ("Collectors" get hit with higher prices) Aurora (Denver) Colorado USA. gpage@nyx.cs.du.edu or @nyx10.cs.du.edu or aq361@Freenet.HSC.Colorado.EDU or George Page on FIDONet (1:104/518) Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit Absender : mrathwel@uoguelph.ca (Mark Rathwell) Betreff : Re: 32k carts? Datum : Sa 03.12.94, 23:43 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 1283 Bytes -------------------------------------- : In fact I'd wager that MOST XEGS games were 64-128K using various : schemes. I believe Crossbow and Crimebusters are big carts too. Well ... I don't know about Crossbow. However, Ace Of Aces, Dark Chambers and Into The Eagles Nest were big memory games. : The same trend was happening in the 2600 and 7800 arenas. However, in : the case of the 2600 we are talking about 4K bank increments I believe as : opposed to 16K on the 8-bit. Yep ... the first 2600 games were only 4K. Later, Atari managed to squeeze as much as 64K into the cartridge. Games like Solaris and Secret Quest showed off this memory. 7800 games were often 128K (1 megabit) or greater ... especially the later titles. On that platform, Scrapyard Dog, Commando, Midnight Mutants, Alien Brigade, Basketbrawl, Mean 18 Golf, and Tower Toppler were a few of the larger games. >> Mark << Empfaenger : /comp/sys/atari/8bit, /comp/sys/cbm, /alt/folklore/computers Absender : jgt7c@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Blade) Betreff : Re: Why did Commodore beat Atari in the 8-bit market? Datum : So 04.12.94, 00:10 (erhalten: 10.12.94) Groesse : 951 Bytes -------------------------------------- eidelbus@cal.eng.utah.edu writes: > > In article <786063794snz@thornber.demon.co.uk> David@thornber.demon.co.uk (David Thornber) writes: > > > The thing that really worried me though was the power supply for the > > 64 itself - you could almost fry eggs on it. > > > > -- > > David Thornber > > In my years of tinkering around on my 64, I've insisted on cleaning the > keyboard's innards once a while, getting a drive for the fan, etc. but > until I actually touched the power supply, I never knew it could get > so hot. I've started to use a small towel wrapped around the p/s, > which I'll keep soaked with water. Does anyone know if this is a bad > idea? YES!!!!! You keep heat from dissipating away from the power supply, so it burns out much faster. -- Joe Thompson, HyperCard Programmer and Analyst Author, GraphFunction 3.0 (C) 1993 Joe Thompson Class of '98, University of Virginia jgt7c@virginia.edu