Amiga, AtariST, soft repos [was: Re: Looking for: 68000 C compilers]

[Ethan O'Toole]

> (especially if they started with MS DOS, as I observed). OTOH, in
> retrospect, I wonder if I would spent the money wiser by choosing
> AtariST or going straight to 286 (not the same experience, I know, but
> cheap and easier to sell away). Or, if I wanted it really cheap, C128

I grew up Atari 8bit then MS-DOS but watched Amiga and Atari ST.

I now dabble with both machines. To me the Amiga seems better in most 
ways. The hard drive interfaces were probably just as expensive then. ASCI 
or whatever their custom SCSI implementation is on the Atari.  The colors 
are better on the Amiga. The sound seems mostly better on the Amiga 
(skipping the midi factor of the Atari ST since that requires buying 
expensive synths or tone modules or samplers. No standard here.) The 
community hacking of the Amiga seems larger, and the accessory market 
seems way bigger on the Amiga. The Atari high res mono monitor is better 
than the Amigas headache inducing stuff but you had to forgo color to get 
that.

A friend growing up was an Atari ST guy and I think he fairly recently 
picked up both a Falcon 030 and an Amiga 1200 and made some sort comment 
about how the experience made him sad that he realizes the Amiga was 
pretty much better in every way.

If you DO get an Atari ST, I recommend the UltraSatan dual SD card 
emulator for a hard drive. Still having a bit of a time trying to bulk 
transfer software games and apps onto the Atari ST.

And need a C-Lab Notator Dongle for the Atari ST.


YMMV


--
: Ethan O'Toole