Why is the ST never mentioned in documentaries?

[high voltage]

Hey cool

 

[+save2600]

On top of MKI, we were also treated to a version of MKII and a couple of Street Fighter's. Incredibly ambitious titles that really pushed the hardware. Graphics, sounds and music are all outstanding. Wish I could say the same for the gameplay.

(The MK's hold up better in that regard IIRC)

 

 

[oky2000]

Wow a lot more responses than I thought. Thanks to everyone who participated in my topic lamenting the lack of coverage of a revolutionary machine being covered in the real history of retro world wide (ie not just NES PC DOS combination of the USA or Famicom/NES of Japan in the 80s) Of course for those in the USA it was probably off the radar for the general public that much I understand but it's not like it flopped (and the NES flopped in the EU badly and still is mentioned everywhere as if it took off all around the world....Harrier Attack a horrible game on CPC/ZX/C64 outsold all sales of Zelda and Mario 3 on NES in the EU lol so don't believe the hype)

 

For those outside the UK I can tell you the ST was absolutely huge and for at least a year it was 8 bits and ST only (due to the clusterfudge that was Commodore not even promoting the Amiga 1000 and taking nearly a year to release a PAL version in the EU!!!!!)

 

Like I said the ST was a real upgrade to traditional home computers that did EVERYTHING, not just games like the C64/ZX, like the Amstrad CPC or Acorn BBC Micro series of home computers. I owned one in summer 1986 (520STM) and apart from games I spent ages writing programs on FAST ST BASIC and also months of hard work drawing many pictures in Neochrome (which was light years ahead of what any CPC or C64 could do for pixel art). I even bought the original sampler for it from Microdeal and it was a real revolution. No PC or 8 bit could do anything like it and for the record Neochrome is a nicer package than the first two releases of Dpaint because the mouse cursor control feels right. The original STM is also one of the most beautiful case designs in my opinion for an all in one, the Amiga 500 looked like a melted Commodore 128 and came with already slightly pre-yellowed colour vs the cool blue/grey colour of the ST and it's funky rhomboid function keys. So what if in the wrong hands it couldn't do horizontal scrolling, it still hosts the best home conversion of Gauntlet 1 for me and as that is my favourite arcade game it was the right machine for the right time (mid 80s).

 

It's really sad after 7-8 million units sold it is not mentioned anywhere, although I accept most documentaries are US centric and the ones for UK concentrate on Sinclair rubbish or the totally redundant £800 Acorn BBC Model B (a fine machine for 1982 but it really limited sales outside the school funded computer rooms)

 

And to add insult to injury nobody ever asked Jack about the ST it's always about the C64 (which of course in the EU was a massive part of retro gaming as we abandoned £30 cart based systems in early 1983 so there was no video games crash at all and the C64 was a big part of the ZX/CPC/C64 fuelled UK/EU retrogaming scene of course and consoles ALL failed after the 2600 era)

 

I borrowed a 80186 PC for programming project at school in the summer of 1987 and I had an STM and believe me when I tell you this £2500 PC was worse than a C64 in every way for business use (8 char filenames only FFS) let alone an ST running GEM and the coding I had to do was absolutely horrible compared to the port of the same project for FAST ST BASIC. Why it never sold outside the EU I will neven know, IIRC in 1988 it was down to £299 vs £580 for Amiga 500.

 

I have a lot of catching up to do

Edited February 23, 2016 by oky2000

[calimero]

 

http://www.grumpyoldgamers.co.uk/index.php?/topic/4215-the-richard-costello-interview/

 

 

 

and here we go again:

 

"Atari should have introduced the Amiga when they had the chance.

The ST was a panic reaction they had when they realised they had lost the

Amiga and needed a 16-bit machine."

 

what the fuck is wrong with these people?

 

Jack Tramiel never intend to make computer around Amiga (Lorraine) chipset (like no Apple, Sony, HP... and goods know who else turn down Amiga team)

and ST certainly was no PANIC REACTION!

[Christos]

There is nothing wrong with these people actually. This story has been repeated so many times that people just believe it. And people don't care enough to look into it. Also it's a story that suits Amiga fans very well.

[atarian63]

" Once the Amiga appeared the ST started to die. Initially games were being written

for the ST and were ported to the Amiga which was sustainable given the Amiga was

more powerful. But once games were developed for the Amiga and took advantage of

its hardware the ST required its own version which doubled the costs. The ST game

sales then began to slump and that was that.

 

When I wrote Mortal Kombat on the Amiga, there was no ST development happening at

Probe that I recall. It was all Nintendo and Sega by then."

 

A UK Coders point of view.

Which probably didn't see a reduction until mid 89 that was when we saw European import decrease on st

http://www.grumpyoldgamers.co.uk/index.php?/topic/4215-the-richard-costello-interview/

we did not see much of a reduction in ST imports until mid 89, so not much Amiga effect for a few years. Edited February 24, 2016 by atarian63