Atari Charles Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Hi, I don't claim to know a lot about the Atari line of computers, but how would you compaire the graphics, sound, and usefullness of an Atari 8 bit computer compaired to the Commdore 64. I am just curious as I may get an Atari 8 bit Computer sometime in the future. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 The Commodore screen always felt slightly "stretched" to me and it could take an eternity to load a game off of disk if you didn't use FastLoad. I owned both back in the day but my C64 has been boxed up for a good 10 years now and my 800XL still gets fairly regular usage to this day. I always a bit of an Atari-whore, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 The Atari has a better colour range and more flexible display generally, the C64's screen handling in bitmap mode and hardware sprites are better, the Atari has a faster CPU and the SID is better than the POKEY. i refuse (as a biased party) to estimate how much better each of these is. =-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emkay Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 The difference? The ATARI can do things a C64 cannot do. The C64 can do things an Atari cannot do. So while the A8 exists since 1978, C64 was created approx. 5 years later with a lot more of knowledge of what is needed to optimize the machine with less costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starraider Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Graphics: - Atari: more overall Colors, very flexible - C64: more colorful Sprites Sound: It is being said that the C64 has the better overall soundqualities. I, personally, like the pokey sound better (especially the sound fx), maybe just bc they sound more familiar to me.... Usefulness: - Well, how do you use a vintage 8-Bit Computer today? For me it's a nice and beautiful hobby. But I guess if you compare the usefulness in 1980's standards, they are both equal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Both machines were good machines and had a lot of fun games to play it. I never owned a C64 but I had friends who did and some of the games were fun. Have you have fun when you get your Atari 8-bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 The comparison isn't exactly a fair one since they were designed about 3-4 years apart. However, the Atari 8-bit was exceptionally well-engineered and flexible for its time (It's sort of the forefather of the Amiga). The 64's more modern chipset usually has the upper hand in gaming, but architecturally it is a simpler computer. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Charles Posted January 31, 2004 Author Share Posted January 31, 2004 One day, I'd like to get an Atari 8 bit but some of the auctions on ebay get insane pricewise. Is there an Atari 8 bit computer that you fellow formites could recommend to me? It'd be partially for games and partially for using as a synth. I think the sound chips in these things could do the trcik, but is there a cartridge desgined to do this? Theres that big bulky Atari, I think its the Atari 800 that I love the look of. Really neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kheffington Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I would say go for an Atari 130XE, nice small machine. Can usually be had on the cheap side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Charles Posted February 1, 2004 Author Share Posted February 1, 2004 Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 SID is better than the POKEY ...for music. For game sounds, the POKEY's four channels with identical capabilities is a clear winner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 SID is better than the POKEY ...for music. For game sounds, the POKEY's four channels with identical capabilities is a clear winner. Three channels with filters, a large selection of waveforms and the option of ring modulation versus four channels... i stand by my original statement. =-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fröhn Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 atari xl/xe: - more colors - faster cpu - more flexible display - display lists - better basic c64: - better ability to use it's colors - better sprites - better sound - DOS in rom, so no annoying booting for using disk drives there's also a number of features where both machines are on par with each other, like for example soft scrolling, character mode etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starraider Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 - DOS in rom, so no annoying booting for using disk drives OK, but the AtariDOS is much more userfriendly and I like the menu-driven appearance of it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sack-c0s Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 SID is better than the POKEY ...for music. For game sounds, the POKEY's four channels with identical capabilities is a clear winner. Three channels with filters, a large selection of waveforms and the option of ring modulation versus four channels... i stand by my original statement. =-) and the SID being able to actually *hit* a note at 10 paces goes down nicely too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 SID is better than the POKEY ...for music. For game sounds, the POKEY's four channels with identical capabilities is a clear winner. Three channels with filters, a large selection of waveforms and the option of ring modulation versus four channels... i stand by my original statement. =-) Have you an example for good sfx on c64? While I love c64 music (since galway) I also never liked the sound fx much (well the heartbeat in winter games was cool). But this has nothing to do with the number of channels. A good example of great sfx on the A8 is imho Alley cat. Matthias Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Anyone got some game screenshots so we can do a side by side comparison? Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmutzpuppe Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Anyone got some game screenshots so we can do a side by side comparison? Tempest I think there are good and bad examples on both side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 I think there are good and bad examples on both side. Probably, but I just like seeing that kind of thing. I always use to dig those Parker Brothers ads where they showed all the screenshots from the various systems for the same game (Popeye, Frogger, Q*Bert, etc.). I also remember seeing one like that for Double Dragon. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fröhn Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Anyone got some game screenshots so we can do a side by side comparison? hmm comparing the same game on two platforms usually is not a good choice to compare platforms. example: spectrum users looking at c64 games. what they choose is typically good spectrum games and look out for versions of them on c64. what they get to see is usually a 1:1 port from spectrum to c64, they will not see any of the c64s sound or graphics abilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+davidcalgary29 Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Anyone got some game screenshots so we can do a side by side comparison? Tempest My favourite side-by-side comparison has always been "Mr. Do!"; conversions for both the C64 and Atari are superb, and very closely approximate the arcade game. I find -- for some reason -- the graphics in the C64 version to be a little better, whereas the Atari version (strangely enough) has better music (to me). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starraider Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Anyone got some game screenshots so we can do a side by side comparison? Tempest If a game was being converted from the Atari to the Commodore, the Atari-Version was looking better and vice versa... Later in the Eighties most Atari-Versions looked rather ugly, bc they were cheap and fast conversions of Commodore-Games, almost never showing the potential of the Atari. A bad example is "The Pawn" from Magnetic Scrolls. On the C64 it used multicolored Graphics and everybody was enthusiastic about this version and hailed the C64. On the Atari it was dull 4-Color Graphics, like they never heard of things like the Display List... Positive Examples are the Lucasfilm games, which all look, sound and feel better on the Ataris or Alternative Reality, International Karate, Dropzone, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 Have you an example for good sfx on c64?While I love c64 music (since galway) I also never liked the sound fx much (well the heartbeat in winter games was cool). But this has nothing to do with the number of channels. A good example of great sfx on the A8 is imho Alley cat. Hmm, let me 'ave a quick thunk and i'll pull some random examples from memory; Martin Walker's effects for Armalyte has are the fairly typical shedload of bangs and thuds which sound good with the bass up and the firing and bigger explosions are very meaty and Walker's own games Hunter's Moon and Citadel both have some great pulse width and ring mod stuff. David Whittaker had what almost amounts to a library of spacey sounds, most of which turn up in my favourite game of all time <b>IO</b>. If we're limiting it to "real world" sounds as opposed to sci-fi stuff, Last V8 has a nice klaxon, Thing Bounces Back (Coil Cop in NTSC-Land) makes some lovely ring modulated "boing!" noises during play (as does the titles tune =-) or the dire first (as opposed to dire second) conversion of Double Dragon put out by Melbourne House has some nice if slightly unusual punch and reaction sounds. And as far as channels go, if we're including sampled sound then Simon Pick's Slimey's Mine shouts it's head off without slowing the (fairly busy) game down (it even snores when paused!) and the fabby Turbocharge by Chris Butler manages to simulate four channel sound without using note multiplexing or samples; listen to the SID file tunes two to six are all in two channels and the sound effects (tune seven onwards) play at the same time with no drop-off. The sound for the last one was done by Cosine by the way, under the name Sonix Systems (our music division =-) Our own Cyberwing does a nice line in spacey sounds too, but it's best to play the game rather than use the SID. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 sometimes i am fed up with this kind of system a vs system b wars... and must to agree with föhn... same is always happening to "us" atarians...we choose what we think "best atari games" and look to the counter part on other platforms... of course we choose often games which (luckily) look better (from our point of view) or sound better etc... and it's not just the hardware its even the software and the coder and the designer and the game concept etc... which we had to consider... f.e. a game on c64 designed for 32 multiplexed 12x21 hardware sprites + scrolling detailed background will not be good to convert to atari... i would say it's even impossible... nowadays games are designed to become multiplatform franchises so now we have this "interesting" phenomenom... games on gamecube, xbox, ps2 look 99% equal and just some minor changes in terms of sound or online features... and this wasn't in the 80s... it's of course something different when you convert an arcade game to different platforms like 2600,coleco,intelivision,5200 etc... then you can compare each version... the only once who seem to know both machines might be archer mclean as he coded both versions of international karate?... and look how similar both versions are... i remember andrew uridium talking in a happy computer interview that he likes atari machines as well... but we never have seen any code from him on our machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 3, 2004 Share Posted February 3, 2004 and btw... i count the game neverending story as first MCS game in history... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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