What Computer Did You Move To After The Atari 8-Bits?

[+MrFish]

In 1991 I got my first Macintosh: a Performa 200, which is the equivalent of a Classic II with 4MB of RAM. I upgraded it to the max for the machine of 10MB, and eventually added a SyQuest external drive. Rather behind the times considering what was out, but it was a big step up for me in terms of functionality. Also got what was then a very new breakthrough in terms of price for quality: a StyleWriter black and white Inkjet printer for $299.

 

I also started using IBM PC compatibles with Windows 3.1 (and DOS only machines in some labs) regularly for the first time, in my college's computer labs.

Edited June 11, 2016 by MrFish

[flashjazzcat]

Direct jump from Atari 8-bit to IBM compatible PC as daily runner in... ahem... 2002.

[+MrFish]

ahem... 2002.

 

Haha... I don't feel like I was so behind the times then. When did you get the first Atari?

[flashjazzcat]

 

When did you get the first Atari?

 

1987 or '88... I forget exactly. I know it was dead by 1991 (Ingot PSU, presumably). Replacement ran for eleven years until temporarily retired.

[Dmitry]

I was Atari 8bit from 1981 - 87 And managed to own 400/800xl/130xe ... the 800xl was what I owned the longest and used the most. After that I was Atari ST, then Amiga, then late 90s got a used and old power Mac 6100...but the speed still blew me away....been a happy Mac user ever since...running a power Mac 2009 right now....sounds old but it is awesome fast . 12 core x5690 Xeon with 33gb of ram and aan am delete squid running quad ssd drive...omg not tempted by any purchase, lol... Also I toss a pc in the mix grime time to time as a second machine...work issued hp i5 laptop, right now

[Dmitry]

Lol should have read 32gb not 33... Also have a MacBook... It's great but been in repair a few times

[RickR]

I went to an IBM compatible PC my senior year of college...1989.

[+MrFish]

Eh... It looks like I already did a general "mini" poll on this subject, within the "Leaving and Returning to the Atari 8-bits" poll. Anyway, this is a little more fine-grained.

 

I'm gonna bump that poll up though -- and a couple others -- to give some of the newer folks and those who didn't participate before an opportunity.

[+kheller2]

Hmm, technically after the A8 I went to PC/DOS (1993) then UNIX(BSD, '94) then W95, then MacOS 7/8 ('97/98). Once Mac OS X was out I never used Windows again personally unless I had too. UNIX under that GUI was perfect for me to do real work.

[+Stephen]

First was a 400 in 1982, I got a 130XE in 88, used it until my drive died in 91. At that time I got my driver's license, so girls and cars took all my time for a while, then in late 94, early 95 got a 486-DX4-100 and have been on Windows PCs ever since.

[Frankie]

Shortly after going off to college in 85 my Atari was left for UNIX.

[+MrFish]

Shortly after going off to college in 85 my Atari was left for UNIX.

 

Unix isn't a computer Frankie, it's an operating system.

[oracle_jedi]

Bought a 520ST in 1987 with an SF354 disk drive, but save for a handful of great games, was always underwhelmed by it.

 

Got more into programming and wanted to run Turbo Pascal and Turbo C. Used PC Ditto and was about to buy a hardware emulator when I had the epiphany; "If I am trying so hard to make the ST think its a PC, sell the ST and buy a PC". I did that in 1989 or 1990.

 

I still use my 8-bit Ataris. I have never missed the ST.

Edited June 11, 2016 by oracle_jedi

[Brentarian]

1200XL in 1983, 800XL w/Rambo in 1987.

286 PC compatible in 1990 running MS-DOS and Windows 3.0. I had to have a 2MB ISA card in the 286 just to run Windows and man was it slow! I never put my Ataris away until I got married in 1997. Fortunately, PC Xformer and other emulators later allowed me to get my Atari fix whenever I needed that quick pick me up. Getting back to using real Atari hardware in the past few years has been great!

[ClausB]

In '85 my employer put an IBM AT on my desk and kept me supplied with the latest PC compatibles for years. So I didn't need a powerful home machine. I did try an ST for a while but sold it in disappointment and kept the 800 working until '97 when I brought home a surplus '486. In 2010 I finally realized that I get paid for fighting Windows at work but not at home and I bought a Macbook.

[ACML]

Atari 400 in 1981, later upgraded to 32K and mechanical keyboard.

Atari 800 in 1983

Atari 800XL in 1986, upgraded to 256K and ATR-8000 (CP/M)

IBM XT compatible 1988

Atari 1200XL 1991, just for fun, heck they were giving these things away for next to nothing.

 

Stayed IBM x86 ever since 1988

XT, AT, 486, Pentium, Pentium III, AMD Athlon, AMD Phenom II, Core i7

 

Currently own (2) 400, (2) 800, and (2) 1200XL

[Frankie]

 

Unix isn't a computer Frankie, it's an operating system.

 

Ok, ok. It was PDP-11

[Marius]

In right order:

 

1. Timex Sinclair 1000 (which was actually a ZX81) 1983-1985

2. Atari 800XL 1984 - 1990; and 1994 till today

3. Apple //c 1990 - 1992 (but I still have it)

4. IBM Clone 1992

5. Atari ST 1992 - 2002

6. IBM Clone again 1998 - 2006

7. Apple iMac G5 2006 - 2014

8. Apple MacBook Pro 2011- now

 

 

My most favorite machines from this list were:

 

1. Atari 800XL

2. Atari ST

3. iMac G5

4. Apple //c

 

I have extremely fond memories of my Atari XL and ST, but I have to admit that the iMac G5 is a very close #3. It was my first Mac since a long time on PC. It came with OS X Tiger and I was EXTREMELY happy with that computer.

 

I mention my Apple //c too. It was the computer I started using after I sold my Atari 800xl. The Apple //c was more for serious stuff. I learned typing on it and I made all my homework with AppleWorks.

 

I studied music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Back in that time 'everybody' had an Atari ST. I made all my musical arrangements with Cubase and my music notation with ScorePerfect and later with Notator Logic. I also used a brilliant WYSIWYG wordprocessor called That's Write and I did not some nice DTP with Calamus. Yes the Atari ST was an important machine for me. Although I am no longer interested in Atari ST (I can do everything what the ST was able to, on my MacBook Pro and better) I have good memories.

 

The Atari 8bit is unique for me. I can not replace it by an emulator. I loved it from day one, and I still can not imagine a life without atari 8bit.

In 1990 I sold all my a8 stuff except some parts of my collection. I always did regret that I sold it, so in 1994 I got a chance to get back in a8 scene.

[ricortes]

Mostly IBM compatibles and rather early. *BUT* Atari wasn't my first computer, I put together a Quest Super Elf from a kit and expanded it to 4k. Thing was, back then the Atari was not only a huge advancement in terms of quality and technology, it was also ahead of everything else in terms of price and performance. Pricing out my Elf, it was just over $100 for the SBC, $70 for the power supply, $139 for the 4k expansion board. Video was composite b&w at something like 64x200 pixels and storage was just a cassette recorder. I used an open frame green phosphor monitor that I bought broken from Haltek and repaired. Basically ~$600 for a crappy computer. The Atari computers with 320x192 graphics, 16k memory, and keyboards were like Scotty just beamed me up to the bridge of the enterprise. At one time or another I have owned most home computers but I never found one I liked better then the Atari. I did buy a ST out of some misplaced sense of loyalty but took it down when things like higher modem speeds made it obsolete for mundane usage.

 

The IBM compatibles First one was a Sanyo MBC 550 I think. Also had an Olivetti 8086<8> but didn't use it much. In that mix was an Epson XT clone that I used the heck out of. Finally got a 8 MHz Tandy 1000TX 80286 machine at a parking lot sale that became probably my most used computer of all time. The Tandy was compatible enough and fast enough to last me until the VGA era when it became obsolete.

[+slx]

Atari Mega ST2 (later upgraded to 4MB) with SM124 in 1987. I had to pass on my 800 in the family and missed the games and the programming as I never got into programming seriously on the ST. Had I known at the time that the Amiga was the true heir of the Atari I would have looked at it a bit closer but as the early Amigas had less RAM and reportedly some software troubles and I used the ST for a lot of word processing the SM124 won me over.

 

The ST was followed by a used TT with a graphics card around '91 or '92. I succumbed to the call of the PC in 1996 as I found the internet experience on my TT (with CAB) to be lacking.

 

In 2008 I changed to Macs but I still don't know whether I should have left out Windows and moved to Macs straight away in '96. (I didn't then because I knew no one to "share" Mac software with and probably because PCs were cheaper.) I built both my PCs myself and upgraded them after some time but always bought great (and expensive) components that I probably didn't really need.

Edited June 12, 2016 by slx

[emkay]

Not sure what to chose. When I bought the ST, I still used the A8. When I had the Amiga, using the A8 was spare. After 1992, when I bought the first PC, the A8 went for over a decade to the Attic. The internet made it possible to re-check the A8 stuff, and opened a "windows" to some further development. Well, while it worked with the graphics, the sound stuff is still like a balky horse

[zylon]

Never had an Atari 8-bit back then or even saw one. The area I lived in was almost all Commodore and Apple. First time I saw an Atari computer was at a used game store in '99 or 2000. It was a 400 computer and we knew nothing about it at all.

We went from Vic-20, to C64, and then to Tandy 1000's.

[16/32]

I had the 800xl from 1985 - 1990 then move to the trusty old 104STfm till 1996, from i moved to PC

[JD6502]

Hmmm.... not sure how to vote here. Other 16\32 is closest, but misleading. I bought an XE in '86. Around '92 I bought a guy's 8 bit collection, which included an XE and XL. In '97 my sister gave me a Win 95 PC, but hardly touched it. In 2010 that I bought an HP Mini 'cause I'd heard vague information about something called the "interweb" (or something like that) and wanted to check it out. One of the first things i did was search for an SPO 256 chip to complete a DIY speech synthesizer for my Atari. ( An outfit in Britain had some-shipping cost more than the chip ). So while it's true that I spend more hours on the Mini, I'm not sure I can say that I ever actually have "moved on". I guess you need to add a "Never did" check box.

[RodCastler]

being a proud owner of one back in the day, made me wish IBM PCs had their own place on the list, separate from the clones. Would have brought some data I am curious about...