4 ms·

Actually, it can do a fair impression as well: Crownland has transparent parallax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN5fSp0XGzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN

Actually, it can do a fair impression as well: Crownland has transparent parallax https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN5fSp0XGzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN5fSp0XGzI You're right about the bonkers 3D! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwcN9FraNjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwcN9FraNjQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KatdrdEVEwY&t=532s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KatdrdEVEwY&t=532s I think the main thing was that Atari (pre83 company) abandoned the 8 bit line too early, and didn't make the 5200 cross-compatible.

sirwhinesalot 1y ago
Oh yeah, for sure. Atari was horrifically mismanaged.
- mrighele 1y ago
  It's not like Commodore was managed much better, in the end.
cmrdporcupine 1y ago
I dunno, Tramiel's Atari Corp kept the 8-bit line going for years after the changeover, adding new models. And they even had relative success later in places like Poland. One problem is that these kinds of architectures that relied on special custom chips have inevitable obsolescence built in. When your "API" for graphics programming is a custom chipset at a certain clock rate with certain capabilities, it's just not going to scale up past a certain point. You get initial superpowers, but then Moore's law just makes it pointless. See also: Amiga.
- bluGill 1y ago
  Tramiel arguably mismanaged Atari worse than Warner brothers. Sure Tramiel cared about computers, but his management style was hostile to getting anything done. I agree that the custom chips were a dead end. However the ST line could have beat the mac if management was any good. (as could/should the Amiga, though I was Atari locked at the time and so I didn't pay attention to what they were doing)
  - cmrdporcupine 1y ago
    I mean I agree about Tramiel management. I was an Atari ST user from 86? 87? to 92. But I also think there's just no way Atari Corp could have taken on e.g. Apple regardless of management. They simply didn't have the capital, market penetration, etc. to carve out a segment that big. Apple was already a big deal and although the Macintosh was not really a big success at that point, there was a giant company behind it with top tier talent, and lots of cash.
p0w3n3d 1y ago
This Crownland you have linked is a madness of an excellent developer's work, mostly quirks (I guess). According to my knowledge such a fast horizontal scrolling and colourful background is impossible in standard Atari with standard coding. And it seems those are Polish guys (https://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4520 https://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4520) -- EDIT -- I found it: only version for Atari 130XE (i.e. 128KB RAM - this is not the standard, I guess it could run with cartdrige on 65 XL/XE maybe?), year 2006/2007 (fresh :) )

sirwhinesalot 1y ago

Oh yeah, for sure. Atari was horrifically mismanaged.

mrighele 1y ago
It's not like Commodore was managed much better, in the end.

cmrdporcupine 1y ago

I dunno, Tramiel's Atari Corp kept the 8-bit line going for years after the changeover, adding new models. And they even had relative success later in places like Poland. One problem is that these kinds of architectures that relied on special custom chips have inevitable obsolescence built in. When your "API" for graphics programming is a custom chipset at a certain clock rate with certain capabilities, it's just not going to scale up past a certain point. You get initial superpowers, but then Moore's law just makes it pointless. See also: Amiga.

bluGill 1y ago
Tramiel arguably mismanaged Atari worse than Warner brothers. Sure Tramiel cared about computers, but his management style was hostile to getting anything done. I agree that the custom chips were a dead end. However the ST line could have beat the mac if management was any good. (as could/should the Amiga, though I was Atari locked at the time and so I didn't pay attention to what they were doing)
- cmrdporcupine 1y ago
  I mean I agree about Tramiel management. I was an Atari ST user from 86? 87? to 92. But I also think there's just no way Atari Corp could have taken on e.g. Apple regardless of management. They simply didn't have the capital, market penetration, etc. to carve out a segment that big. Apple was already a big deal and although the Macintosh was not really a big success at that point, there was a giant company behind it with top tier talent, and lots of cash.

p0w3n3d 1y ago

This Crownland you have linked is a madness of an excellent developer's work, mostly quirks (I guess). According to my knowledge such a fast horizontal scrolling and colourful background is impossible in standard Atari with standard coding. And it seems those are Polish guys (https://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4520 https://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4520) -- EDIT -- I found it: only version for Atari 130XE (i.e. 128KB RAM - this is not the standard, I guess it could run with cartdrige on 65 XL/XE maybe?), year 2006/2007 (fresh :) )