27 Sep
2007
27 Sep
'07
9:45 p.m.
Rumor has it that Chuck Guzis may have mentioned these words:
On 28 Sep 2007 at 3:29, Ensor wrote:
The *original* Atari 400? You must be joking, right? I had *microwave
ovens* with better keyboards than a 400! ;-) About the only worse keyboards
I can think of was either on the original Timex Sinclair 1000, or possibly
Tandy's MC-10.
> The obvious question is WTF didn't they
just put "normal" SCSI on
the ST?
Never could figure that one out, but then again
this is Atari we're
talking
about...? :-)
Oh, there was a lot of WTF on the ST. For example, why did the 400
and 800 have pretty decent keyboards, yet the more-expensive-and-
powerful ST have such an abomination for a keyboard?
For keyboards, I'd put it "middle of the road." It was better than the
chicklet keyboards of the CoCo1, prolly equalish (to maybe "barely better")
than the "not quite full travel" keyboard of the CoCo2, but not as nice as
the CoCo3 keyboards... and (obviously) no comparison whatsoever to the my
IBM Model M or the keyboard on my Tandy 200 lappytop.
But to pay $600 base (still about a grand, nicely equipped, IIRC) for a
computer that could spank a $2500 Mac... you'd need to make a few sacrifices.
I would have to say that IMHO, with the angled function buttons & sleek
lines, it was the most artistic (read: kewl) keyboard of the era... not
that it helps functionality at all... ;-)
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com |