RIP Jack Tramiel

[MacDeath]

Ok, the guy used to be a bastard when he was still in charge... but he was perhaps a model to Alan Sugar.

both men share some aspects in common , not just religion.


He survived the camps during WW2.

He created Commodore, hence he is the "commercial father" of the C64 (and PET and VIC-20), commercial father because he didn't designed the electronic, lol... but like Alan sugar, had a great influance on the design actually (cheapen every things... get this Disk drive slowlier so it is cheaper...)

Then he switched on Atari and created the Atari ST, which was actually a 16 bit Amstrad CPC6128 concept... and despite what Amigafags would say, the Atari ST was a great computer of its time !!!

interesting that peoples say he killed Atari (Jaguar and abandon of the Falcon...) but it was also due to his son, and after all he revived Atari To in 1985 (fixed!) with the ST... and who care, he made big money after all...


He used to still be alive, was seen at the 25 aniversary of C64... which recently surprised me.
gave some interview, but was a discret man, yet very respected by greybearded Silicon valley eminancies...

I was happy to know he was still alive and then...  he went away.


Finally, th MAN's a legend.

Steve jobs was small bizness and a real snotling !

C64...biggest sold Computer.
Atari ST ? perhaps one of the biggest selling 16bit computer too.

which revolutionised the music industry too...
And thx to it we had great atari ST ports on CPC (thx france) and can have great AY/YM musicians to participate on CPC productions.


finally not that a detestable person after all.

and still one of the forefather of the affordable and playfull Home Computing and the MIDI revolution is no more.

[Bryce]

interesting that peoples say he killed Atari (Jaguar and abandon of the Falcon...) but it was also due to his son, and after all he revived Atari To in 1885 with the ST... and who care, he made big money after all...

Well anyone who could come up with the Atari ST in 1885 and still be around after 2010 to tell about it, either invented the flux capacitor first, or is just plain good in my books

What does an ST and the 6128 have in common, that you consider them comparable?

Bryce.

[MacDeath]

Well, talking about the STF (STFM ?)

Just compare the fact that it was supposed to be cheap, have the disk drive inside (like the 6128) and more memory...
Also, same sound (AY/YM), relatively comparable simple yet efficient videomodes...  all in one casing and so on...
Also fully software concerning games stuffs (no awesome hard scrollings, no Hardsprites...)


To me the STF is clearly like the 16bit version of the CPC6128...not in that it is compatible, but in that it's design is based on the same concept...

Also the similarities between the STE and the PLUS (despite the STE being a bit more advanced compared to the basic STF than the PLUS is compared to the CPC...)

And both ST and CPC are underated by Commodorks fanboyz...

1885

oops, typo, f'xed

[TotO]

What does an ST and the 6128 have in common, that you consider them comparable?

Considering some improvements to do on a Amstrad CPC to be a 16-bit computer, you get something near an Atari ST. 

[MacDeath]

yeah, just take a CPC...
give it a 16 bit CPU, add more RAM, "overclock" the video modes (32K instead of 16K), tadam, there you have your ST.

of course being the Hardware man you are, you would say those are 2 different beasts... and they are.
But still...

[McKlain]

If you want to know more about the man and his doings, just read "Commodore, a company on the Edge". A really fun book to read. If you are a retrocomputer geek.

Amazon.com: Commodore: A Company on the Edge (9780973864960): Brian Bagnall:

[MacDeath]

- Business is war
- Power without the price
- For the masses and not the classes

[Gryzor]

Nice post: Retrogamer blog

[Gryzor]

If you want to know more about the man and his doings, just read "Commodore, a company on the Edge". A really fun book to read. If you are a retrocomputer geek.

Amazon.com: Commodore: A Company on the Edge (9780973864960): Brian Bagnall:

A really great book, both for retro enthusiasts and business book readers. Highly recommended. Wish we had something of the sort for Amstrad, and not the crap that Lord himself scribbled while sitting on the throne.

[MacDeath]

and not the crap that Lord himself scribbled while sitting on the throne.

oh yeah, the brown note effect...
Sometime I wonder, were you a scatophile ?

[ralferoo]

yeah, just take a CPC...
give it a 16 bit CPU, add more RAM, "overclock" the video modes (32K instead of 16K), tadam, there you have your ST.

Not even "overclocked". Just a consequence of having a 16-bit databus instead of 8-bit is that you have double the number of bits available for video.

Then again, the ST had some smart choices too, such as the built-in MIDI port that gained it massive traction.

[MacDeath]

aren't MSX and Spectrum128 fitted with a MIDI port too ?

[TFM]

No 

[robcfg]

At least not all of them. Several MSX do indeed have Midi ports... 

[Bryce]

The Spectrum did have a midi port, but with a very strange socket, not the standard socket it should have had. But due to the fact that midi is just a glorified RS232 port, any computer with built-in RS232 automatically has midi, just the software is needed to make it work.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Nice update! Didn't know that. I just remember there was a Midi-Interface DIY from the glorious CPC Amstrad International (1985 or 86 released IIRC). Sadly I never had time to get into the deepness of music on computers (CPC).

[MacDeath]

Nice update! Didn't know that.

WTF ?
You were my german halfgod of coding and coolness, and it happened that I know more about you on some obscure non CPCmachines ?


hahahha...hehehe...hahahhaha haha !
shame on you.



No wonder Germans are C64 lovers after all...

At least not all of them. Several MSX do indeed have Midi ports...

yeah, many MSX were actually sold as music machines, not computers...
I was surprised as a child to see those sold in a music chop... it looked like computers but haven't heard about those at the time... (CPC being almost the only 8bit "computer" here in france after 1986... where I Lived...)
Also Atari ST coming right from 1986 to after.

[MacDeath]

2 of them died recently...

The two other are british so I guess it counts in the fact we will never get rid of them...

Anyway, they made our hobby.

Also, half of them are jewish (perhaps more actually, IDK).. which was finally a good commercial point...
paradoxally, they made their computer cheaper (Tramiel, Sugar, and sinclair too) in order to make more money... (paradox parados) because they were cheap... themselves...
And those Nazifags tells jews are money reapers... seriously... (well, those sugar and tramiel were too anyway lol... despite they made their computer cheap, in order to make more monies... seriously how is that possible )

how is that possible, two cheap jews dong cheap computers because they are cheap reapers, so we can get computers for cheap ?

(er.f.. are  the other two goyims ?)*
*funny point is sugar and tramiel don't have beaky noses**...
**ok, i stop anti-semitism here (which is not, just irony)***
***but hey, lot's of parradoxes here...

All they did was... getting us good complete computers for cheaper... not more powerfull ones, but cheaper and completes... (The jews ones, Tramiels and Sugar... but Snclair too, lol...

BTW, we can clearly see how all 4 are related, despite half being american and half being UK... (Tramiel is actually Polish (and jewish, already told it) too... (I am also of polish ancestry...)... but we know Speccy managed well in polskaya and USSR...).

so...

there the stuff :

Tramiel survived holocaust.
Sugar sold Beet (which is actually used to produce sugar...)
Jobs had no real need to get a job because he came from a rich family... but was into computing anyway/anyhow (silly con valley... well named ('pun intended))
Don't know about Sinclair, but he is an engineer...


Jobs worked at atari as a coder...
Jobs did the Apple too, one of the first almost complete computer (in the time mainframes and  Altaïr were the norm...).
Tramiel did comodore  and released pocket calculators (thx Kraftwerk) and the famous "PET".

80's years...
Sinclair did the ZX80-81 (later "spectrum"). "real" computer (ZX80-81 were, sort of) is at last available to mundane commoners with few monies to spill... (and Z80 is always awesome anyway)
complete hit, how could you get a true computer for such cheapnes ? Z80 and soldering it yourself was the clue...

So, spectrum.
Tramiel did (release) the C64...
Both of those were ... not that good actually, concerning the Quality of the object (Computer specifications were good anyway)... no Mass Data storage included, bad quality cheap plastic and keyboard... yet C64 was 64K anyway and...well... C64 you know ? while speccy48 was... shitty but cheap too (cheaper)... so...

84... MAC (Jobs) and CPC (sugar)... OMG, homecomputers are getting into a new commercial formula...
All you have to do it to... plug the Power supply and use it.
Monitor-MassDataStorage-(not rubber)Keyboard are all included...
One is cheap and awesome,  the other is "good" and fucking expensive... (guess who's who...)
(I still think putting the motherboard&massdata storage into the keyboard instead of the monitor is best solution...)


then PCW (Mac sort-of hardware formula, but CP/M-Z80 based) (sugar) which revolutionize publishing/accountancy/and so on... also CP/M retro compatibilty...
Tramiel got screwed by capitalism (while being a big screwer by himself) and get fucked out of Comodork... but can screw "Atari Corp." thx to the same capitalism (and thx to video game's 1982-83 crisis)...
and then did the awesome AtariST later  taking the MAC/Amstrad CPC recipe (all in one)... but with the Sinclair QL's CPU (68000, 16/32 bit-ers... yet no BLitter until the STE in 88-89...) in order to screw off the Amiga (1000... then 500...) by releasing first...

Sinclair sold his Speccy/company to Sugar because his machines were shitty quality production (ok, specification are what they are, but product reliability  was clearly faulty...perhaps even better when you could solder them yourself actually...).
QL was shitty anyway, and the Microdrive was more than shit-tier too... all of them unreliable.
but hey, Linux bitch !!! and 68000...


Sugar does a kool"compatible" PC clone (1512, then 1640...)(1987 ? seriously a good upgrade of the CGA... 640x200x16... awesome !)) while Atari ST is becoming the cheap awesomness it is. Good old Jackintosh.
MAC is for fags... (but the Wozniak is still an awesome cool guy, Apple2 GS all the ways....) and ok, Amiga...


Atari ST was a Hardware "clone" of MAC (68k CPU based... "as powerfull as" (actually more IMO...), yet far cheaper), while PCW was a "commercial" clone of MAC ( Z80 based, but "all in the monitor, not the keyboard"... and publishing tool anyway...), CPC and MAC came in 1984 and set the "all in one" machine system (yet CPC was an upgraded Speccy, ST was an upgraded QL...)... Also CPC was twice or trice cheaper than Mac...
Speccy doing the cheapest 8bit (C64 was supposed to be cheap in US too) while Atari ST became the cheapest "powerfull" 16/32bit with lots of RAM...
Speccy and CPC(6128?) became also cheaper 8bitters with all-in-one formula... (3" rulez ! Speccy+3 coumd have been great if supplied with additional video modes...)...

those Apple2 got the "snow-white" design in the Miga/ST/AmstradPLUS/Archimedes/and-so-on designs...


of course Jobs never did cheap machines...

All of them died in nearby 1994-95... just right the time for Microdoft to con-queers the world with this buggy-shitty-lame win95...

Jobs passed to the "nExt" thing, Apple survived somehow because they weren't doing cheap computers and got a niche market (Publishing.... GPAO ?)

And so on...


C64 finally became #1 selling computer... ZX Speccy became 2nd system (thx to eastern clones, thx communism mediocrity !)
Atari ST managed to get MIDI station (professional digital music system) cheap and powerfull, easily available with lotta RAM... also 16 bit games (better and cheaper than 8086 EGA based IBM PCs)...
BTW Sugar did the good olde IBM PC cheap and good (1512/1640...)

so there you are, perhaps "half" the "modern" (1975+) commercial Hardware/computing history of home-computerings pionneers... is here in those 4 guys... (pre-95...)


So, all amrican died...
UK ?
One became "minister", the other married a hot b...er...chick (actually very hot, "bowness"... why do I just can imagine a hot chick bowing down to get it inside the rear and getting me a boner ?)

And you know,I wished Alan S. would autograph one of my 6128PLUS...


Of course I didn't talked about the portable "PAD" devices Sugar did before Jobs...
Nor the eMailer (iMailer ?) from Amstrad... ( )

Btw... an winess is ?

Angies bownerress inducting hottie... (poweress by 69 CPU... sort of...)


Anyway, RIP Jack...