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Profile Atarian: Lawrence Armstrong |
Next, when I was in a department store, I saw a kiosk that was like an
arcade machine, except it featured something I had never heard of
before--the Atari 800XL. At the time, I couldn't believe how good the
graphics were when compared to the 2600. I knew right then I had to get
one. I enjoyed this system for several years, especially the 1050 disk
drive. My favorite games on this system were many of the same cartridge
games that were available on the 2600--Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Dig Dug,
Defender, and Galaxian.
Then, in 1986, something revolutionary happened, I moved up to the 520 ST. Due to cost, I went with the basic model with single-sided floppy disk and monochrome monitor. I eventually traded the 800 XL in on accessories for this system. This system was a huge leap forward and to this day remains my favorite class of Atari technology. My favorite game on this system is probably Strider 2 or Curse of the Azure Bonds.
In about 1992, I decided to upgrade to something with better graphics.
At the time the choice was the very high-end TT030, Falcon, and Mega
ST(e). The TT030 was awesome but it wasn't very compatible, especially
with games, and it was very expensive. Next was the Falcon. It had the
kind of graphics I wanted, but again was expensive and the compatibility
was an issue. I went with the Mega ST(e). I have to say that overall
this is the best Atari model that I ever had. It was very fast and had
expansion capabilities. If only I could have afforded a graphics card
and an SVGA monitor. At the time, it would have cost around $1,200. I
really enjoyed this system and I even had over 120 megs of hard disk
storage, which went mostly unused. Most game disks were copy protected
and wouldn't run from the hard disk any way.
I eventually traded this system in on a Falcon. I really wish I could have afforded to get an optimal configuration of this system, but at the time Atari was winding down their computer division to focus on the Jaguar. I eventually sold the Falcon before I wanted to because the cost, relative to other computers, was becoming a factor in such areas as price of memory and hard disk storage.
My last Atari system was the Jaguar, which was eventually traded in on a
Playstation. My favorite game on the Jaguar was Alien vs. Predator.
I remain a fan of this system because I believe it was one of the most
capable pieces of hardware made by Atari. It was a TRUE 64-bit
system--two 64-bit RISC chips--and had the best graphics rendering speed
of any Atari system. And hey, there's always Ebay, or better yet Best
Electronics. I am currently planning on buying another one. Other
systems I've owned include a Lynx, a second-hand 400, which was in mint
condition, a 520ST(fm) with 2.5 megs, and also a 1200XL.
When I was installing a hard drive on the Mega ST(e), I noticed a bit of glue or paste from the manufacturing process on one of the chips on the mother board. I decided to brush it off with my finger. Although I was standing on a tile floor, I had static charge and I heard a little tick when I touched the chip. It killed the system! After a local dealer failed to fix it they directed me to Atari customer service. I called them and talked on the phone to Bob Brodie, and explained what had happened. I shipped my computer off to Atari. They repaired it, upgraded the 720k floppy disk to 1.44, and shipped it back to me with a bill that read $0.00. That's right. They fixed it for free!