PYC118%URIACC.BITNET@brownvm.brown.edu (Rasiel) (12/03/90)
Not meaning to sound condescending to the Atari community but with utmost honesty I have to say that a close friend of mine has an ST which he'd heartily trade in for a stock 500. The thing is, ST's have very little over the Amiga. ANY ST, with the exception of price (and then only a trivial dif- erence). Some say that the ST has superior sound becuase of its built-in MIDI but the fact is MIDI is readily available for the Amiga for a mere $30 and that doesn't say anything about its sound chip which is the same as the ST's I think (8 bit, 4 channel, right?). The biggest downfall for the Atari market is its support and availability. I have never seen an Atari dealer and the last place I saw an Atari on sale was in JC Penny's or Sears a few years back. I believe it was a model 2600. Seeing and playing around with my friend's ST I can tell it is underpowered (He has a 520 or something like that), worse yet he ordered some software from a dealer a few states away and they just cashed his check. Still, I don't want to flame those machines too much, they're still a better deal than a Mac SE because of color. And they are inarguably dirt-cheap. If only they had more presence in the US and could emulate more machines (like, sure, Amiga!) they'd be more successful. One thing that's bugged me and perplexed me: Why in the world did C='s engineers ever decide to put the power switch on the 500s in such a retarded place? Were they on drugs? The only place where it will go is on the floor and to turn it off or on I must either bend down, way down, or flick it with my shoe! This is real odd, I'd think the best place for a power switch would be on or near the console. Rasiel, pyc118@uriacc
balistik@uns-helios.nevada.edu (SHAWN HICKS) (12/03/90)
In article <37882@nigel.ee.udel.edu> PYC118%URIACC.BITNET@brownvm.brown.edu (Rasiel) writes: >erence). Some say that the ST has superior sound becuase of its built-in >MIDI but the fact is MIDI is readily available for the Amiga for a mere $30 >and that doesn't say anything about its sound chip which is the same as the >ST's I think (8 bit, 4 channel, right?). The biggest downfall for the Atari ^^^--isn't it 3.... A friend of mine has one and we compared them side by side running the same software and I was shocked to learn that it had three voices. When I had my C=128 I was annoyed to learn that Atari's had four voices and C='s had three. I was chagrined when my friends ST had three and the Amiga 1000 had four. That extra voice allows a melody and Trio chord to be played... important. >still a better deal than a Mac SE because of color. And they are inarguably >dirt-cheap. If only they had more presence in the US and could emulate more >machines (like, sure, Amiga!) they'd be more successful. The other thing I noticed was color. We were both running Barbarian, the only software we had in common. His looked rather bland in color. It's good, don't get me wrong, and without an Amiga next to it you may not even notice a difference. However, My Amiga 1000 had a better range of colors and sounded better in comparison to this particular ST. //B//
dtiberio@libws3.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (12/04/90)
Answer to question about a500 power switch: I remember reading that the power switch is on the power supply so that there would be no more "accidentally hitting the switch with your mouse." This must mean that some older models have the witch on the console, or maybe from the 64/128 machines people hit the switch with their mouse often. David Tiberio SUNY Stony Brook 2-3605 AMIGA Toto Productions DDD Men
jac423@leah.albany.edu (Julius Andrew Cisek) (12/05/90)
>My Amiga 1000 had a better range of colors and sounded >better in comparison to this particular ST. I used to have an Atari 520ST and my brother had the 1040ST. We both switched to Amigas 2 years ago. Sound on the ST was MUCH worse than the Amiga. To get the ST to sample required giant clock cycles from the CPU (there is no dedicated sampler hardware). I used to have an Atari 800 before the ST and the sound on the 8-bit was better than the ST sound. The MIDI interface is nice, but has no THRU which makes it rediculous for a professional. Most people with a serious MIDI setup end up buying a serial MIDI interface (with multiple outs, thrus, etc.) anyway. TOS functionality is poor, but it does LOOK a lot better than WB (in my opinion, anyways). Floppies are much faster on the ST but they have two formats: single and double sided, which makes software distribution a major pain (I had two single sided floppies with my 500 and 360K is just not enough, you should have seen me trying to compile something...) (actually, I think they've gone to DS disks as the standard, but I feel bad for the users who still have SS drives (like the poor chap I sold my machine to :)) Graphics are good, but Amiga color and blitter make them pale in comparison. The only thing going for the ST is the excellent music software support. This is too bad. I wish the ST would just go away and let the music people notice the Amiga more. (I hope I don't get any letters saying how great MIDI software on the Amiga is. If you think so, you haven't seen the stuff on the ST). -- | // .______. J.Cisek CSC MiniSystems "i don't want the world, \_o_/ | | \X/--|UU UUU| jac423@leah.albany.edu i just want your half..." \\| | | AMIGA |______| Amiga Student On Campus Consultant SUNY@Albany, USA \\ |