The early days (3/10) - the Atari phase
I heard a rumor. My brother had a friend whose brother had a brand new computer… Intrigued, I arrived at the friend’s place, whose brother was the happy owner of an Atari 520 STF. This was a mythical machine whose prowess I had read about in the first issue of Génération4. But I approached it unsuspecting, jaded, not expecting much. On paper the screen resolution for the ST was the same as for the Amstrad (320 * 200), the sound processor was quite similar (3 channels, soundchip tunes), and thus I thought both machines would be of comparable quality, with maybe a performance edge for the ST since it was running at a higher clock frequency…
Not at all! What a mistake I made that day, to lower my guard!
First image, first shock.
First note, first slap in the face.
Goldrunner. Head on. I could have thrown myself head first against a wall, the effects would have been the same.
Mouth open, staring eyes. What can I say? Impossible to explain in human words. Complete and utter disbelief.
Ruthless, the brother of the alleged “friend” (a friend, right?! (*)) shows off one game after the other, while my body and soul tremble with jealousy.
And then, then, to finish me off with a sadistic pleasure, he ran… a demo! A fucking demo! And not the lousiest one: the L.C.D. from The Exceptions!
I eat this at point-blank, the impossible comes true in front of me, TEX, Mad Max and his gang for an intense and concentrated mix of extreme code, mindblowing music, never seen before, never heard before, unreal.
As a final kick in the nuts, and to make sure I go back home with my brain in my socks, he presses the RESET button… And I witness my first Reset demo, made of digitized applause samples ripped from 10th Frame. That’s it, I’m done. Overdose. I have seen too much in too little time. My saturated mind does not register anymore what goes on around me. I must leave.
I go back home on autopilot, in zombie mode. Disgusted. Absolutely and terminally disgusted. I do not understand how the two machines, ST and CPC, with similar specs on paper, can be so different. I do not understand and I do not bloody care! I need a ST. In two days or two years, no matter how long it takes, I must have an Atari. How else could it be?
The transition period is unclear in my mind. I guess I kept playing on my CPC, a bit sad. But anyway, you guessed it, one day I finally got a ST.
I got an ST, and it changed everything.
The first days were incredible. I was in awe of even the beep sound effect from the Atari’s keyboard, it was so pure and crystal clear! I was amazed by Barbarian from Psygnosis. Just as the CPC was a different world compared to the Apple IIe, the ST was another galaxy compared to the CPC. There was no competition here. I experienced almost a big slap a week, and always came back asking for more. One day I bought Captain Blood. And when I heard the intro music, the first digital music I heard in my life, I just went bonkers. There was a gaping hole between this and my little music from The Temple of the Sun, and I was dizzy, looking straight into the abyss. At this point there was only one thing left to do: I laughed frantically, thinking the future would be eventful and tumultuous.
As it turned out, I was right about that.
(*) Despite what I wrote above, we became very good friends afterwards. I spent countless hours at that guy’s place, watching ST demos or playing ST games. That person was Amaury Aubel, now working as Head of Effects for DreamWorks.
May 23rd, 2013 at 3:24 am
Haha… sounds like a more extreme version of my own experience …
Only real contact with computers was a Spectrum my folks borrowed and played with one summer … good fun, flashing colours, berpy sounds, but I was a bit too young to really get what was going on, despite being pressed into service as a trained monkey typing in my dad’s handwritten code. After that, some worthy but unimpressive BBC Micros and PC Jr type machines at school.
Then a more hip teacher brings in his 800XL for some reason and lets us play Donkey Kong on it in wet breaktimes if we’re good, or derp about on BASIC when that got boring.
Yes. I then wanted a computer for christmas. And as it was about the only name I knew other than the naff “Nimbus” and “Sinclair”, it had to be AN ATARI. Heaven knows how things would have panned out if he’d had a VIC, C64 or - heaven forfend - an Amiga instead.
I mean, the graphics came in more than eight eye-rending colours, the sound effects were exciting, and you could control things using a funny stick-shaped device, not just the keys.
My parents couldn’t afford a brand new machine, so at one point they, me, and my younger brother ended up in the dining room of some guy whose rather vague “Atari computer for quick sale” classified newspaper ad they answered. A 1040 STF, all singing, all dancing, with a box of discs, colour monitor, second drive and a couple of joysticks.
Demonstration time. The guy roots out a funny looking cartridge - about the right size but really thin, and with a dirty handwritten label that appears to have “XCNOW” written on it. Shoves it in the side of the computer where it disappears like magic. Flips the power switch and turns the monitor volume up.
It’s a pirate version of Xenon. Me + Brother damn near fall out of our chairs.
And, after a moments being shown where the fire button is, are impossible to shift for quite some time. That crafty son of a bitch then, of course, also followed up with Goldrunner, and Speedball.
Sold, immediately, at the asking price, as mum & dad knew it would be more than their sanity’s worth to say no. They had to sell our old caravan to cover the rather higher than expected cost (as it wasn’t a fusty old 8-bit).
Best investment ever.
Still got that orange-on-blue Xenon disc somewhere. It’s got a lot to answer for.
May 23rd, 2013 at 3:26 am
Damn you, newline mangling Wordpress widget!
Also, forgot to say, love the bit about the Dreamworks guy
… going on recent performance, he definitely hasn’t lost his love of captivating effects that trigger the childish, manically-grinning “whooooaa” bit in your mind.
May 23rd, 2013 at 3:27 am
(Second edit: And, you know what? In all that time, I never did find a version of Donkey Kong for the ST. Huh.)