Well, it's a long time ago, summer'93, when I bought my first Atari, 800 XE, with 64 KB RAM, tape recorder and ONE cassette with games for an incredible sum of money (5000 SK, that's about $150, quite a lot of money in our land :) For about 2 years I used this computer only for playing games, one cassette again and again... I think I was really elite in some games! :) (pioneers in computer gaming can tell you how f*cking hard they were... do you remember titles like Fred, Misja, Choplifter, International Karate, Henry's House, Gremlins, Eidolon, Fractalus, Spy vs Spy, Zybex, Draconus, Robbo, Jet Set Willy, Hacker, Encounter, Kik-Start, Drop Zone, Arcanoid, Alley Cat, Submission, Pitfall, Pitstop, Donkey Kong, Montezuma's Revenge, River Raid and many many more? - all these games I completed! :-) A big drawback of my configuration was an absence of any diskdrive and monitor. So I bought in 1997 my second Atari with diskdrive (this was the main reason, but keyboard of 800XE was totally unusable, too) and in 1998 I bought great Philips color monitor (RGB and composite video signal)

In 1997 happend another great thing - I bought 16 bit MegaSTE, 1 MB RAM, 48 MB HDD, SM124 monitor, simply professional workstation :) About 16 bit series of Atari computers I known from my father's work - one nice day I was there and I saw a box with "Atari 1040ST" sign, it was in some old computer store. In a moment I opened the box and started the computer (it worked!) But I couldn't get the computer home (because of byrocracy - it was "ownership of government of Slovak Republic" :-) So I nearly every day went to father's work to play with ST.. And that is only small step to buy own 16 bit Atari :) Of course, I connected MegaSTE to the Philips monitor and played games again :-) (I think I'm absolutly no.1 in Street Fighter II :-))

In 2001, finally, I bought my dreammachine, Falcon 030 (Phantom, 4 MB RAM, 80 MB HDD, no monitor) It's the newest machine in my Atari park and in 2003 I got a CT60 accelerator, really cool hardware!

So that was a short overview of my Atari history... but what about programming? As you could read, in my beginnings I only played games and I stayed by this "job" for about 2-3 years. Of course, I tried some things in BASIC language, my friends from school have got C64 and Didaktik (ZX Spectrum clone), so we experimented with "strange" commands - a friend-commodorist found LOCATE command - we tried it on our platform and so on... But real begin of my coding was sometime in 1998... I finally understood REAL meaning of LDA #0, STA 712 - it's equivalent to POKE 712,0 !! (change background color to black :) This stupid and clear (for everyone except me :) thing was the big step ahead, because I began to understand books I owned :-) And with great help of XI/Satantronic I was finally able to code something. On the Mega STE I was lazy to study 68000 assembler (it's true I haven't got many books about it, but I could find informations on the net) and I used it for games or as data-storage (2 GB disk is a lot of capacity in Atari world!) Things were changed when I bought my Falcy... I bought fantastic book about 68030 assembler at my school (!!!) and when I saw all demos for 1000 times :), I started after 6 months to learn the code...

OK, that's about me and Atari, here is my actual configuration of all Ataris I own :)


Computer CPU Data bus RAM Note
800XL 6502C/1.77 MHz 8 bit 320 KB QMEG OS, parallel port
130XE 65C02/1.77 MHz 8 bit 320 KB QMEG OS, stereo, Compy Shop/Rambo switch
Mega STE 68000/16 MHz 16 bit 4 MB FPU 68881/16 MHz, 2.1 GB SCSI HDD, Link96, TOS 2.06cz
TT030 68030/32 MHz (databus 16 MHz) 32 bit 2 MB ST-RAM/16 MB Fast-RAM FPU 68882/32 MHz, 1 GB SCSI HDD, TOS 3.06
Falcon030 68030/24 MHz & DSP56001/48 MHz & 68060/100 MHz 32 bit 14 MB ST-RAM/256 MB Fast-RAM CT60, Phantom, FPU 68882/24 MHz, 40 GB IDE HDD, IDE DVD/CD+-R(W), external 44.1 kHz clock, TOS 4.04
Falcon030 68030/16 MHz & DSP56001/32 MHz & 68060/100 MHz 32 bit 14 MB ST-RAM/128 MB Fast-RAM CT63, 8 GB IDE HDD, SCSI CD-RW, external 44.1 kHz clock, TOS 4.01

I own a lot of additional hardware, like:

OK, that's all I think, here are coming some words in Slovak about Atari computers, why we use them and so on :) And don't forget: Atari lives as long as all we have have fun!

Aky to ma vlastne zmysel? Preco zopar fanatikov vraza svoj volny cas a peniaze do 10 a viac rokov starych pocitacov, ktore dosahuju pomaly 1% vykonu sucasnych PC? Ak by sme to zobrali z ciste racionalneho hladiska - ziadny :) Ono je to ale viac ako nejaka nostalgia... je to v prvom rade zabava, clovek si vytvori k tymto pocitacom akysi vztah... Skuste si to porovnat s PCdlami - po pol roku zacina "stracat dych" a po roku ho mozte vyhodit, ich majitelia ich beru iba ako kus zeleza... nemusia sa one starat, cistit... pokazil sa? Nevadi, kupim predsa novy! Toto u zaryteho ataristu (commodoristu, amigistu, specristu, ...) nehrozi, taky clovek si strazi svoj stroj ako oko v hlave, fakticky ak by som si predstavil, ze by nas vykradli, tak prve co by mi prislo na um, ze ci ukradli aj Ataricka, az potom prachy a pod. Dalsie pozitivum je, ze ak sa clovek rozhodne naozaj seriozne sa venovat takymto "undergroundovym" masinam, tak sa toho strasne vela dozvie o vnutornej architekture pocitaca. Zoberte si taky klasicky priklad noveho majitela PC + Windows... v lepsom pripade sa dostane k niektoremu z vyssich programovacich jazykov (c/c++, povacsine zial visual basic), v tom horsom pripade ostane visiet na hrach, pripadne bude vediet klikat v exploderi. Taky atarista, ten samozrejme tiez zacina na hrach (asi ako kazdy), ale ak sa rozhodne programovat, tak jedina volba (u 8bitov urcite) je assembler (u vyssich pocitacov samozrejme ide aj C, Pascal atd, ale ak xcem robit operacie s grafikou, aby sa to rychlo hybalo, tak je to tiez jedina volba). No a kedze je assembler vlastne takou poslednou "branou" medzi skutocnymi obvodmi pocitaca a uzivatelom, je jasne, kolko sa tam toho da naucit... Jednoducho, teraz viem o funkcii kazdeho bytu v pamati, ako sa spotrebuje kazdy cyklus procesora, ako sa vykresluje kazdy pixel na obrazovku... Nevravim, ze toto sa neda naucit aj spatne, ale je to ovela namahavejsie, lebo teoria je jedna vec a prax druha a ja som sa toto de facto naucil priamym pouzivanim v praxi.

No a v neposlednom rade je to architektura samotnych pocitacov - ked si tak zoberieme, ze 8bity boli navrhovane pred 20timi rokmi, tak to je az neuveritelne, co vsetko tie masinky dokazu. Pozrite na take PCdla - vznikli na zaciatku 80tych rokov, a boli to uplne odpady. Atari ci Commodore zacali vyrabat tiez na zaciatku 80tych rokov, a dokazali toho 100x viac (farebna grafika, zvuk, podporujuce koprocesory, proste v tej dobe by kludne zniesli oznacenie multimedialne pocitace) Co sa tyka vyssich pocitacov (hlavne Falcon), tak je to podobne. I ked na Falconovi ma najviac fascinuje jeho procesor (mozno preto, ze ono je to uz dost zlozity stroj a uz mu nie som schopny az tak podrobne porozumiet ako "malemu" Atarku... zatial :), ide o typ 68030 od Motoroly (a jeho vykonnejsie varianty, 040 a 060). Podla mna su to najgenialnejsie procesory, ake boli kedy vymyslene. Ono sa to dost tazko vysvetluje niekomu, kto nerobi sa v tom nevyzna, ale ked niekoho takeho stretnem a bavime sa o rozdieloch medzi Intelom a Motorolou, tak mi jednoznacne da za pravdu.

Napriklad si zoberme procesory 8086 a 68000. Obidva sa oznacuju za 16 bitove, ale u obidvoch to nie je az tak celkom pravda :) 8086 vznikol ako pokracovatel rady 8080, pricom jeho vylepsenie spocivalo v roztiahnuti 8 bitovej zbernice na 16 a pridani instrukcii nasobenia a delenia. Naproti tomu 68000 bol PLNE 32 bitovy procesor (rok 1980!), lenze v tej dobe zariadenia vyuzivajuce 32 bitovu zbernicu bud neboli alebo boli drahe, tak ju zuzili na 16 bitov. Ked potom prisla era 32 bitovych pocitacov (80386, 68020), tak Motorole samozrejme nerobila problem 32 bitova zbernica ani pridavanie dalsich instrukcii. No lenze co Intel? Kedze 8086 mal v skutocnosti naozaj iba 8 bitove jadro, bolo potreba vyvinut takmer novy procesor. Lenze v tej dobe boli ich 8086 hojne vyuzivany pri programovani kancelarskeho softwaru a tak si z marketingovych dovodov nemohli dovolit zrusit spatnu kompatibilitu so starsimi procesormi. Takze vymysleli riesenie naozaj sebe podobne - od procesoru 80286 najdeme v intelackych procesoroch 2 rezimy prace - tzv. protected a virtual mode. V podstate sa jedna ako keby o 2 procesory v jednom. V jednom mode sa CPU tvari, ze o ziadnej cache pamati, nesegmentovanej pamati, rozsirenom instrukcnom subore, nevie a tvari sa ako obycajny 16 bitovy procak. No a v tom druhom mode sa zase tvari ako plnohodnotny 32 bit procesor, ale zase zabudnite na spatnu kompatibilitu s 808x typmi... takze si mozte sami utvorit nazor

Jednoducho, Atari si vybralo ten spravny procesor a spravnych hardwarovych vyvojarov :) Take PCdla, co je na nich zaujimave? Procesor, par doplnujucich obvodov a koniec. Vsetko sa pripaja na kartach, ziadna veda. Ale ked si otvorite akekolvek "nePC", tak tam vidite graficky procesor, tam zvukovy, henten ovlada klavesnicu a to vsetko v zajomnej harmonii a presnom casovani, aby to davalo jeden funkcny celok. Bohuzial, tato "celistvost" sa stala tymto pocitacom aj osudna - absolutne vo vsetkom prekonavali svojho konkurenta, IBM, ale zhruba v rokoch 1992-93 sa stala vec nevidana - ceny hardware zacali vyrazne klesat, a dovtedy drahe graficke a zvukove karty zacali byt pristupne aj pre normalnych ludi. No a kedze tam zacala byt velka konkurencia, ceny klesali a zrazu zacali byt uzavrete systemy ako Atari ci Amiga pre uzivatelov nezaujimave, pri PC sa totiz sami mohli rozhodnut kolko investuju do vykonu svojho pocitaca s moznostou neskorsieho upgradu... No a ked k tomu pripocitame vybornu marketingovu strategiu Intelu a Microsoftu, tak sa niet comu divit, ze "nekompatibilnych" pocitacov z trhu coraz viac ubudalo... V podstate jedinym konkurentom je uz dnes iba Apple, ale sami viete, ze to nie je nic svetoborne :-(

Mozno by vas este zaujimalo, ako je na tom Atari a Amiga dnes. Co sa Amigy tyka, tak ta bola vzdy o kusok dalej ako Atari, takze vydrzala s dychom o cosi dlhsie, ale dneska su uz na tom obaja rovnako - skrachovale :) Vlastnicke prava na meno Amiga putovali medzi roznymi organizaciami, momentalne sa na oficialnych strankach mozme docitat o aktualnom diani firmy Amiga, Inc. -- zaoberaju sa hlavne mobilnymi technologiami. Maju prava na AmigaOS 4.0 a hardware AmigaONE, ale priamo oni ho nevyrabaju... Atari bolo na tom podobne, vlastnicke prava presli najprv na JTS, potom Hasbro (ano, preto ste od nich mohli na PC vidiet tie rozne remaky starych Atari gamesiek) a nakoniec Infogrames (napisy Atari nosi momentalne na dresoch jeden francuzsky futbalovy tim :-), kde uz islo ciste o zneuzitie znamej znacky... Nadsenci, co ostali tymto znackam verni, tak tym uz ide iba o hobby programovanie - povacsine dema, kde sa snazime PCckarom ukazat, ze vsetko co stihaju oni, stihame aj my :), a ak si myslite, ze co uz len take uzasne moze predviest 10 ci dokonca 20 rokov stary stroj, tak to by ste sa teda set sakrametsky divili !!! Potom sa najdu ludia co necodia dema, ale robia aj "seriozny" software... proste just for fun! Este su tu ludia, co sice presedlali na PC, ale venuju sa vyvoju emulatorov, cross-platform assemblerov, roznych konvernych utilit (napr prehravanie hudieb z Atari na PC) a podobne...

Takze to by bolo k Atari vsetko, dufam, ze som vas prilis nenudil, ale aspon uz nebudem musiet ludom po x-ty raz vysvetlovat, ze ci mi uplne preskocilo, ked tvrdim, ze A T A R I  R U L E Z !!! :-)