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Software we wanted, but never got


jhd

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Ok, the topic title is a bit awkward, but I am talking about software that we wanted for our classic computers, but that we were never able to obtain -- it may have been too expensive, not available at retail, or it simply did not exist. 

 

For example, I very badly wanted a decent word processor in the 1980s. Alas, I had a Coco, and a 32x16 screen, all upper-case text was not really the optimal choice. There were some decent programs advertised/reviewed in magazines, but they were either far too expensive or just unavailable in Canada. 

 

I explored any number of magazine type-in programs which worked to varying degrees, but it was not until I received access to a PC and WordPerfect 4.2 in 1988 that I found software that truly met my needs.

 

Another example is a Pascal compiler. There were several available for the Coco, but everything required a disk drive (which I did not have). Again it was a few years before I got a PC and Turbo Pascal. 

 

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I guess for me it was Desktop Publishing software for my Atari 8-bit.   Something more advanced than Print Shop which was all the rage at the time.   I was looking at something like Newsroom that gave a lot of flexibility in page layout/fonts/images even on a crappy dot matrix printer.   But there was nothing like that on Atari at the time.   I guess Newsroom did eventually get ported to Atari after I moved on.

 

As for languages,  I was a teen with paper route money and couldn't stomach paying over a hundred dollars for some compiler/assembler.   I really wanted to get into assembly language and the gold standard was MAC/65.   But it was too hard to justify the cost so I made due with a type-in assembler written in BASIC that I found in a book.   I enhanced it a bit.    It was fine for small programs,  terrible for larger ones (hard to debug)

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10 minutes ago, zzip said:

I guess for me it was Desktop Publishing software for my Atari 8-bit.   Something more advanced than Print Shop which was all the rage at the time.   I was looking at something like Newsroom that gave a lot of flexibility in page layout/fonts/images even on a crappy dot matrix printer.   But there was nothing like that on Atari at the time.   I guess Newsroom did eventually get ported to Atari after I moved on.

 

As for languages,  I was a teen with paper route money and couldn't stomach paying over a hundred dollars for some compiler/assembler.   I really wanted to get into assembly language and the gold standard was MAC/65.   But it was too hard to justify the cost so I made due with a type-in assembler written in BASIC that I found in a book.   I enhanced it a bit.    It was fine for small programs,  terrible for larger ones (hard to debug)

 

Something like this...  ?   (german only)   Desktop Atari

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Of course, there were some games I wanted on my TI which other platforms had.  I was especially disappointed to see some titles on the ColecoVision and not the TI.  After that I feel like I chose the right path.  There was a litany of software available for my C64 and C128.  Most of what I needed on the 128 was provided by GEOS 128 and some independent developers (like the excellent Zed text editor, DesTerm 128, and QWK reader.)  Then I moved to the Amiga, and while I could not play the now unending swath of DOS and Windows games being released, I could still do a lot of amazing things with my computer that were difficult or expensive on my friends' PCs.

 

I had a digital music collection before any of my friends.  Mind you, I did use my buddy's Windows machine (cannot remember if it was 3.11 or 95) to copy CD audio tracks, but that was mostly out of convenience.  Then I uploaded the WAV files to my Amiga via a dial-up shell and converted them to 22kHz (sometimes 11kHz to save space) Fibonacci Delta compressed IFFs.

 

Although... when I put some thought to it... if there was one title I really, really, really deep in my soul wanted for the Amiga... that would be You Don't Know Jack!  That game simply screams for an Amiga port.

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6 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

Of course, there were some games I wanted on my TI which other platforms had.  I was especially disappointed to see some titles on the ColecoVision and not the TI.  After that I feel like I chose the right path.  There was a litany of software available for my C64 and C128.  Most of what I needed on the 128 was provided by GEOS 128 and some independent developers (like the excellent Zed text editor, DesTerm 128, and QWK reader.)  Then I moved to the Amiga, and while I could not play the now unending swath of DOS and Windows games being released, I could still do a lot of amazing things with my computer that were difficult or expensive on my friends' PCs.

 

I had a digital music collection before any of my friends.  Mind you, I did use my buddy's Windows machine (cannot remember if it was 3.11 or 95) to copy CD audio tracks, but that was mostly out of convenience.  Then I uploaded the WAV files to my Amiga via a dial-up shell and converted them to 22kHz (sometimes 11kHz to save space) Fibonacci Delta compressed IFFs.

 

Although... when I put some thought to it... if there was one title I really, really, really deep in my soul wanted for the Amiga... that would be You Don't Know Jack!  That game simply screams for an Amiga port.

It's interesting you mention the CV because looking at the titles they offered it's a shame there wasn't more (argh, I can't think of the word I want to use) common ground between the two.  I definitely found myself wishing that some of the Colecovision titles became available for the 994A.

 

Spanning the topic a little bit, I do kinda wish that Activision(?) would put out a definitive Infocom set in a 'modern' package.  I had the Lost Treasures of Infocom volumes in the 90s but they're long lost to the ether.  Those were cool, too, because they had the big books and everything!

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Back when, I had an actual scholastic need for a functional mac emulator / runtime environment.

This was because my teachers insisted that all computer-typed homework must be in claris works format, because that is what was on all the school's macs.

 

The trouble, was that I was a PC kid. (and no, the PC version of claris works did not interoperate well with the mac version at all.)

 

There was a bit of software called ARDI Executor, which was basically a mac runtime environment coupled with a 68k jit emulator. It wasn't the prettiest thing, but it could run older claris works meant for system 6 and 7, and could work with mac formatted diskettes.

 

There was a demo, but it had... restrictions... that made it unsuitable for my needs, but hinted that the full version would do what I needed.

I remember begging for a copy from my folks, and being met with dumbfounded expressions of why I would want or need such a thing.

 

I made due without it-- hunting for copies of Fusion instead.  I ultimately got some shoestring and bailing wire together with Fusion and pirate mac roms, but I still wanted that copy of ARDI executor. Never did get it. The company folded long before I became employed, and thus able to make the purchase myself. Its available as an open sourced project now, I understand, but my need for it has long elapsed, and I am better served with SheepShaver or Basilisk II these days.

 

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/25615-ardi-executor

(thats one for windows, apparently-- but my system was a 486sx, and having windows running was a show stopper on performance. I needed/wanted the dos version.)

 

just for completeness, along with

 

https://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/fusion

(which runs on DOS, and can reasonably run 68k mac OS 7 on such a vintage rig. It's what I ultimately ended up using instead to get around the format wars BS my teachers were pushing.)

 

 

Edited by wierd_w
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Much of the early astronomy software written for 8086 - 486 systems. Loved the colorful line graphics and graphs and charts these proggies would make. They still look technical today and would be ideal background material when making youtube vids. But of course they were serious back in the day and presumably had good accuracy. Celestial mechanics has been a well understood topic for centuries.

 

Seems the only hope of getting such stuff would be users donating disks and hard drives. A few programs that did survive to today are SkyGlobe and Dance of The Planets. Periodically a copy of the latter shows up on ebay as do the manuals. I so waited 4 that 4 the longest time ever. And just prior to these pandemic times I got the full version, authorized by Arc Science Simulations no less.

https://arcscience.com/dance-of-the-planets/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyglobe

 

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I wanted a Word Processor, Print Shop, Newsroom DTP and nice paint program like Rambrandt for my 130XE...but not only I couldn't get a printer but I also needed a special interface because of Atari's "brilliant" SIO port.  Plus after using Macs in high school I really wanted to have the Diamond OS cart even if it's only for simple file management.

 

After getting a STe with standard ports and a proper GUI, I was able to get both a printer & modem from Walmart that I needed for college.  Also found a nice WP on a magazine coverdisk and later a GDOS based drawing program to take care of my very simple DTP/Art needs.

 

Maybe someday I'll emulate my "dream" 8-bit setup using Altirra...

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49 minutes ago, MrMaddog said:

I wanted a Word Processor, Print Shop, Newsroom DTP and nice paint program like Rambrandt for my 130XE...but not only I couldn't get a printer but I also needed a special interface because of Atari's "brilliant" SIO port.  Plus after using Macs in high school I really wanted to have the Diamond OS cart even if it's only for simple file management.

 

After getting a STe with standard ports and a proper GUI, I was able to get both a printer & modem from Walmart that I needed for college.  Also found a nice WP on a magazine coverdisk and later a GDOS based drawing program to take care of my very simple DTP/Art needs.

 

Maybe someday I'll emulate my "dream" 8-bit setup using Altirra...

I did get an Okimate 10 with the SIO module,  and wanted a DTP program to really put it through its paces.    The Okimate was kind of a crap printer though.   The only thing it had going for it was color printing, which was rare at the time.   But it was very slow.   The "thermal transfer" tech it used made the ribbons inefficient so it went through lots of ribbons,  and it needed high-quality glossy paper to get acceptable results-  the thermal transfer waxy ink didn't stick properly to draft-quality rough paper.

 

When I got an ST, I got a Star NX1000.   It didn't have color, but had other feature to make up for that, and it was a lot faster, the ribbons lasted a long time, it could print well on any type of computer paper

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