charles@c3engr.UUCP (Charles Green) (04/17/88)
While browsing in the Commodore section of Babbage's recently (their Atari
8-bit section is pretty sparse, and I've noticed several titles packaged for
both C64 and Atari), I noticed "Gateway to Apshai" for only $3.99. The only
hitch was that it was for the Atari XE, and I have an XL. But I thought it
would give me an incentive to finally get going on one of those compatible
memory upgrades, so I got it anyway.
When I got home, it occurred to me that if it ran on a 64K Commodore, why
would they need the extra memory of an XE? To my knowledge, that's the only
fundamental difference between the XL and XE, so I began to wonder how it
would fail to run on my machine.
Anyway, the game seems to run just fine, which leads me to wonder: a) How
much "XE" software is there that will run on an XL, and: b) Why wouldn't
the manufacturer state "XL/XE" on the package?? Wouldn't that only increase
his sales?
Of course, the bad news is, I just lost my incentive to upgrade...
--
Charles Green {{decvax!decuac,dolqci}!c3pe,netsys!cucstud!c3engr}!charles
"Forget..."-Spock,"Requiem for Methuselah" "Remember..."-Spock,"Wrath of Khan"rjung@nunki.usc.edu (Robert Jung) (04/18/88)
In article <2491@c3engr.UUCP> charles@c3engr.UUCP (Charles Green) writes: >While browsing in the Commodore section of Babbage's recently,... >I noticed "Gateway to Apshai" for only $3.99. The only >hitch was that it was for the Atari XE, and I have an XL... >Anyway, the game seems to run just fine, which leads me to wonder: a) How >much "XE" software is there that will run on an XL, and: b) Why wouldn't >the manufacturer state "XL/XE" on the package?? Wouldn't that only increase >his sales? All we're talking here is a problem in packaging. Epyx probably put "XE" on the box because that's the only 8-bit Atari they know of. Besides, there *is* the 64K 65XE (which is an 800XL in a new case B-). Usually, if a program requires all 128K of the 130XE, it will specifically say so on the back of the box. Most programs, however, are written to see how much RAM you have, and configure itself accordingly (Typesetter, for instance, comes with a 64K version and a 128K version)...If it just writes "For the Atari XE", that's equvalent to saying "*NOT* for the ST line". Don't panic, somebody in packaging just screwed up a tad. --R.J. B-) ______________________________________________________________________________ Bitnet: rjung@castor.usc.edu "Who needs an Amiga?" = == = = == = Power WithOUT the Price = == = ===== == ===== Just because it's 8-bits doesn't make it obsolete. ==== == ====