Recent posts

#1

Games / Re: Bomb Jack remake

Last post by Barjack - Today at 01:38

Superb achievement <3
Congratulations !

#2

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by overange - Today at 01:15

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do.

Yes, programmers eventually discovered tricks to make the CPC do impressive things... but let's be honest, needing years of effort just to make it work properly isn't exactly a bragging right.

Your posts are amusing, but please make up your mind. It's one or the other, otherwise it's double standards.

Oh, it's not a double standard—it's just perspective. The Atari 8-bit was already packed with potential, and people are still uncovering new ways to push it further. The CPC, on the other hand, needed good programmers and to perform miracles just to break free from "Speccy mode."

That said, being in the middle and having your own opinion is perfectly fine—no one's forcing you to pick a side. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter which machine did what better, as long as you enjoy it. But hey, where's the fun in a retro debate without a little friendly fire? 😆

#3

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by MaV - Today at 01:08

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do.

Yes, programmers eventually discovered tricks to make the CPC do impressive things... but let's be honest, needing years of effort just to make it work properly isn't exactly a bragging right.

Your posts are amusing, but please make up your mind. It's one or the other, otherwise it's double standards.

#4

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by overange - Today at 00:18

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do.

yes. still how to make a scroll 

Oh, come on now! The Atari 8-bit has scrolling—it's just that mere mortals need to decipher ancient scrolls and summon the ghost of Jay Miner to fully unlock its secrets. Meanwhile, other systems just slap a couple of tiles around and call it a day. Where's the fun in that? 😆

[This should keep the discussion lively!]

#5

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by overange - Today at 00:17

• The MSX – The system that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. A glorified typewriter? A gaming machine? A karaoke machine? Who knows? It was basically the tech equivalent of someone trying to do everything and succeeding at none of it.

First good joke With 8 million sold units the MSX was the most successful homecomputer after the Commodore C64 (12 million). Itwas fucking successful. It is always funny that some ignored it like in DE, in UK or in the US and didn't have any clue about the rest of the world, so they thought the MSX failed, which is weird, as it was sold much more like e.g. the Atari 8bit, CPC, etc.
"trying to do everything" - it did not try it, it just DID it with much success. For music, video, etc. It was even used on the MIR space station. Something, about other 8bit homecompiuter platforms could just dream about, what it always makes it strange to read such assumptions.

• The Amstrad CPC – Cute. Really, it tried. But what's the point of having nice colours when the system moved slower than a pensioner in a mobility scooter? Great for waiting, though—patience-building and all that.

The CPC wasn't the best for games in the past, as it didn't have sprites but a big screen ram. But as soon as you know how to do it, you can do extremly cool stuff - sometimes about what an A8 only can dream about.

Meanwhile, the Atari 8-bit machines?

• 128-color palette? ✅
• Custom graphics chips that were years ahead of their time? ✅
• A sound chip that wasn't an afterthought? ✅

- the palette which is terrible limited to use; either only greyscales for a choosen colour or something else limited
- the graphic chip, which makes games like Cybernoid nearly impossible because of its limitations
- the sound chip, which could not even hit a correct note
Jay Miner was a great guy, but you had all these 1970ies-style limitations.

And then there's the Amiga—yes, I hear you, fanboys. "BuT tHe AmIgA wAs 16-bIt!!" And yet, it still spent most of its life running software that looked like an Atari 8-bit game with a fresh coat of paint. Just admit it: the Amiga was basically an overpriced, overhyped, glorified ST with a slightly better sound chip.

The original Amigas GUI was slower than the actual one for the CPC. And no, the Amiga was the successor of the Atari8 (Jay Miner), and has nothing to do with the more primitive Atari ST. It just suffered under the cheap ST game ports, like the Amstrad did with Spectrum ports. I start to wonder if you have any ideas about all this things?

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do. So while the rest of the 8-bit world was out here struggling to display more than two colours without flickering into oblivion, Atari's machines were casually running some of the best-looking games of the era.
In conclusion, the Atari 8-bit computers were the true unsung heroes of the 8-bit world. The rest? A mix of industrial design accidents, budget office machines, and "home computers" that made you work harder than your dad's tax return software.

The A8 is the coolest 6502 machine I know, with a great and friendly scene, as I met them every year at the big Fujiama party. E.g. I love(d) my exciting talks with FlashJazzCat, which you will know, if you are an A8 guy.
Like all machines, which can (optional) have a very low screen ram, it can do great game/demo tricks, which are not possible in this way on a CPC. But I guess you all know that the CPC is superiour to the A8 in several disciplines, for sure not in all.

MSX – The 'Successful' Jack of All Trades?

Ah yes, the MSX, the system that was so successful that even its fans have to remind people it existed. 8 million units? Fantastic. But let's be real: a lot of those were in Japan, where anything that made a beep and had a keyboard got sold in droves. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, the MSX was the gaming equivalent of those weird brands of cola you only find in discount stores—technically drinkable, but nobody really asks for it.
And sure, it went to space. Great. So did a calculator. If being used on MIR is the standard for greatness, then I guess we should all be worshipping the Texas Instruments TI-82 as the pinnacle of computing.

Amstrad CPC

Yes, programmers eventually discovered tricks to make the CPC do impressive things... but let's be honest, needing years of effort just to make it work properly isn't exactly a bragging right. That's like saying, "Sure, my car has no engine, but if you push it down a hill, it really flies!"
That said, I genuinely like the CPC. If it had received more attention and hadn't been stuck as a dumping ground for Speccy ports, we'd have seen far more of the great looking titles that are only now being produced.

Atari 8-bit's 'Limitations'?

• "The palette is terrible limited to use."
   Right, because 128 colours is so limiting. Maybe if it had a glorious 16 colours like a Spectrum, that'd be much better? 🤣
• "The graphics chip makes Cybernoid nearly impossible."
   Ah yes, because one game having issues totally invalidates an entire system. Meanwhile, on other platforms, you were lucky if the game even looked like the box art.
• "The sound chip couldn't even hit a correct note."
  POKEY could do four channels of audio magic while others were out here sounding like dial-up modems choking on a peanut.

And let's not forget: Jay Miner was a great guy... which is why he designed hardware that was actually good.

The Amiga – Glorified Successor or Just Overpriced?

• "The Amiga was the successor to the A8."
   Yes, in the same way a Porsche 911 is the "successor" to a VW Beetle—sure, there's a connection, but one is a refined masterpiece, and the other was... well, a Beetle. The Amiga was great, but let's not pretend it didn't get bogged down by  weird business decisions (cough Commodore cough).
• "The Amiga's GUI was slower than the CPC's actual one."
   Right. And a Ferrari with the handbrake on is slower than a bicycle. Doesn't mean the bike is better. AmigaOS was decades ahead of its time, but sure, let's compare it to a system that still used keyboard commands for basic functions.
• "The Amiga had nothing to do with the primitive ST."
   Funny, because a lot of ST ports say otherwise. I get it—Amiga fans want to pretend the ST was some long-lost cousin they'd rather not talk about at family gatherings. But let's not rewrite history here.

Atari 8-bit – The Real Deal

Look, I respect that people love their own machines. But let's be honest: if we're talking about which 8-bit system had the most forward-thinking hardware, the Atari 8-bit line was it.

• The MSX? A confused hybrid.
• The CPC? nice colours.
• The Spectrum? A keyboard calculator with a superiority complex.
• The Amiga? Amazing, but burdened by bad ports.

Meanwhile, the Atari 8-bit just worked, looked fantastic, and punched way above its weight class. The fact that it still surprises people today just proves how ahead of its time it really was.
And yeah, Fujiama is great— FlashJazzCat is one of the best A8 guys out there and tells it like it is ( just watch his recent videos on the Side3 Cartridge problems ).
But that doesn't change the fact that the Atari 8-bit didn't need excuses. 😎

This should keep the discussion lively! 😆

#6

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by McArti0 - Today at 00:05

BTW. CPC is very "safe" equipment....  WAIT &0300,1 

#7

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by McArti0 - Today at 00:02

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do.

yes. still how to make a scroll 

#8

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by VincentGR - Yesterday at 23:55

Just admit it: the Amiga was basically an overpriced, overhyped, glorified ST with a slightly better sound chip.

and pre emptive multitasking, animation beast, broadcast machine, music studio, the first multimedia computer and many more.

#9

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by McArti0 - Yesterday at 23:53

8-bit world was out here struggling to display more than two colours without flickering into oblivion

And Atari 8-bit 4 

#10

General Discussion - Introductions / Re: 22-page 2013 controversial...

Last post by Prodatron - Yesterday at 23:48

• The MSX – The system that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. A glorified typewriter? A gaming machine? A karaoke machine? Who knows? It was basically the tech equivalent of someone trying to do everything and succeeding at none of it.

First good joke With 8 million sold units the MSX was the most successful homecomputer after the Commodore C64 (12 million). It was fucking successful. It is always funny that some ignored it like in DE, in UK or in the US and didn't have any clue about the rest of the world, so they thought the MSX failed, which is weird, as it was sold much more like e.g. the Atari 8bit, CPC, etc.
"trying to do everything" - it did not try it, it just DID it with much success. For music, video, etc. It was even used on the MIR space station. Something, about other 8bit homecompiuter platforms could just dream about, what it always makes it strange to read such assumptions.

• The Amstrad CPC – Cute. Really, it tried. But what's the point of having nice colours when the system moved slower than a pensioner in a mobility scooter? Great for waiting, though—patience-building and all that.

The CPC wasn't the best for games in the past, as it didn't have sprites but a big screen ram. But as soon as you know how to do it, you can do extremly cool stuff - sometimes about what an A8 only can dream about.

Meanwhile, the Atari 8-bit machines?

• 128-color palette? ✅
• Custom graphics chips that were years ahead of their time? ✅
• A sound chip that wasn't an afterthought? ✅

- the palette which is terrible limited to use; either only greyscales for a choosen colour or something else limited
- the graphic chip, which makes games like Cybernoid nearly impossible because of its limitations
- the sound chip, which could not even hit a correct note
Jay Miner was a great guy, but you had all these 1970ies-style limitations.

And then there's the Amiga—yes, I hear you, fanboys. "BuT tHe AmIgA wAs 16-bIt!!" And yet, it still spent most of its life running software that looked like an Atari 8-bit game with a fresh coat of paint. Just admit it: the Amiga was basically an overpriced, overhyped, glorified ST with a slightly better sound chip.

The original Amigas GUI was slower than the actual one for the CPC. And no, the Amiga was the successor of the Atari8 (Jay Miner), and has nothing to do with the more primitive Atari ST. It just suffered under the cheap ST game ports, like the Amstrad did with Spectrum ports. I start to wonder if you have any ideas about all this things?

Atari 8-bit computers were so good that people are still discovering how much they could actually do. So while the rest of the 8-bit world was out here struggling to display more than two colours without flickering into oblivion, Atari's machines were casually running some of the best-looking games of the era.
In conclusion, the Atari 8-bit computers were the true unsung heroes of the 8-bit world. The rest? A mix of industrial design accidents, budget office machines, and "home computers" that made you work harder than your dad's tax return software.

The A8 is the coolest 6502 machine I know, with a great and friendly scene, as I met them every year at the big Fujiama party. E.g. I love(d) my exciting talks with FlashJazzCat, which you will know, if you are an A8 guy.

Like all machines, which can (optional) have a very low screen ram, it can do great game/demo tricks, which are not possible in this way on a CPC. But I guess you all know that the CPC is superiour to the A8 in several disciplines, for sure not in all.