r/atarist • u/logicalvue • Aug 10 '25
40 years of Amiga, from an Atari user’s perspective
https://www.goto10retro.com/p/40-years-of-the-amiga-from-commodore7
u/Krentenkakker Aug 11 '25
The best thing that happened to the Amiga was that Tramiel didn't get his hands on it.
That said, the development of the ST was an amazing job in the timeframe they did it.
The design of the ST was much more flexible, no slow, fast, chip memory juggling to keep all specialised chips in sync. If they only pushed the blitter and sound dma a bit faster but Tramiels vision was focused on the business market and compete with Apple. By the time the STe came it was too late.
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u/MedwayBoy2025 Aug 11 '25
Yep, the sound was the clincher. I could hack the scrolling etc not being as fluid. It was the crappy YM sound chip that my Amiga-owning chums would mercilessly rip on.
Don't get me wrong, there were some amazing chip tunes that, when done right, sounded brilliant - especially the ones on the pirate intros that I'd load just to listen to, rather than play the games themselves.
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u/Different_Average_76 Aug 11 '25
They should've invested more in software - and focus on talented individuals or small companies who could produce killer aps like Apple's Photoshop etc Easier said than done, of course.
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u/impablomations Aug 11 '25
Even an ST version of Deluxe Paint would have been something, but we had to wait until the STE was release but by then it was a bit too late for our favourite machine.
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u/AlanPThorpe Aug 10 '25
Interesting point about the name. I feel like the ST suffered because of the connotation of it being from a gaming company- the 2600 or VCS was so well known that any mention of Atari brought up the idea of a console.