Issue 51: Jan 2005
Features
- | Foreword
- | Tip of the day
- | Am I The Last One?
- | Atari Font
- | Roger's Code Workshop: Part 1
Reviews
- | Ausbruch
- | Zview
M@ilbox
| Am I The Last One? The slow decline of the "pure" Atari user, by CiH Am I possibly the last man left standing with a pure Atari set-up for my mainstream computing needs? I get the impression that just about everyone else has got some kind of non-Atari machine lurking on their workstation, whether it is a Wintel, Linux, or Mac? I've got a situation where my needs have been met perfectly well by my existing Atari set-up until now. I've owned a Falcon, in fact more than one lately, since 1993, and they have kept up reasonably well with the changes to date. A little judicious spending on extra hardware has helped here! Let's take a typical home user's definition of "mainstream". This may consist of various forms of internet use, the inevitable media use and games, the odd letter written to the taxman, and maybe swapping the latest recipe for bakewell tarts. Well perhaps not the last two? Now to make life easier, assume that I'm not too bothered with having the latest of everything. This would also tend to apply to almost anyone else not using the very latest hardware. I tend to think for most things, the Atari still has the ability to perform decently. There are several good quality legacy applications still out there, and even some newer stuff still being developed. For example, I tend to think of Zview. This is a smart gallery browser which looks really good on modern Atari desktops. Apart from being a brilliant picture viewer, it is intended to be able to work with digital cameras, once the various USB projects such as EtherNat are realised. This is a major hobbyist area that Atari TOS machines have missed out on up to now. Historically, the Atari series, particularly the Falcon, Milan, and higher end clones have proved to be adaptable and competent machines. There has always been a strong and dedicated user sub-culture, proud of the "real ale" virtues of their efficient Atari set-up, over the fake flashiness of lesser but more popular alternatives. For me, the high-point of this user culture peaked in the mid-to-late '90s, around the time that Atari Computing magazine was active. But even then, the rot was already starting to set in. More and more people reluctantly started to add a Wintel member to their family. Reluctantly at first, then with more enthusiasm, as they started to find things that it could do, but their Atari couldn't. Some of these have defected wholesale, but many others kept their Atari on, albeit in a slightly curious state as "cherished hardware", where it was still appreciated but only switched on during high days and holidays. Some of you, I hope, still consider their Atari as useful on a daily basis. The trend away accelerated with the growth of the internet, and a slow but sure increase in the requirements to make best use of that. It was a relatively easy matter to get on-line back in 1997-98, with a large and active Atarian community taking the plunge together and helping each other out as problems arose. Nowadays with the rise of broadband, this only seems to be feasible with some kind of mainstream hardware already in place? Still, if anyone can say different, that they managed to bluff their way onto broadband access, with nothing but a lone Falcon or Milan, especially managing to negotiate their way through the clueless helpdesks of NTL and other mainstream service providers without total loss of hair and goodwill to the world, then I take my non-existent hat off to them! And then you can tell us how you did it! Especially when their world view of "Atari" starts and ends with something wood-panelled and made in 1978... The other Atari loyalists are those nice people on the demo scene of course. But even here, just about everyone has got some sort of mainstream machine on their desktop as well. The assumption is, that cherished and ageing hardware has to be conserved carefully for coding and development purposes. There is the condition of nostalgia by proxy, as many people have got an emulated version of the Atari that they loved in their carefree youth. That is showing the right attitude, but with the "wrong" hardware! Still, it's the thought that counts. So the question from the beginning of the article that I'm coming back to remind you with, is to see if there are any other survivors out there sharing my situation, or am I really the last one? I'm sad to say that there may be an end to this era fairly soon. I will probably need to get something a bit more mainstream to connect to broadband. My Falcon will still be very much part of this brave new world, indeed very much at the centre of things. We've just heard that the EtherNat has been successfully tested, and an Atari set-up seems to be a good bet for internet security through obscurity. I'm quietly pleased that I've kept going on a strict Atari diet up to 2005, when most rational people would have declared this set-up obsolete in 1995! What are your thoughts on plodding a lonely Atari road in this cynical age, and the difficulties thus faced? Some feedback for the next issue would be nice.
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