the Atari And Me files(last updated around 2010)
History
Well, 2010-2015 I had a job. I lived alone and had some time and a lot of room to get my Atari stuff done. Around 2015, my brother and his housemate(and tgheir three dogs) moved in. Very one sided. I ended up in the garage that was split into two rooms. Most of my stuff is in storage..to do anything is a chore. No room to do projects easily, and their schedules impact the noise I can make. I am way behind on all projects. I can ocassionally do Atari things, and I still get a few electronic things made..such as Christmas trees using LEDs.

I no longer have that job, and in 2021 started the plans to change things.

History
TV Typewriter|I had been building a TV Typewriter from Radio Electronics magazine since the article first appeared. For displaying two pages of text, it had 2K of text ram. It was made of a main board, with smaller boards that plugged in for cursor, 1K ram #1, 1K ram #2, and uart board to save data to cassette. It really never worked. I was going to make all new circuit boards, but was then able to afford to buy a computer. The Apple was too expensive, the CoCo and Pet didn't have the right abilities, and the Timex had to share screen and edit memory(so you couldn't see the screen when a program ran). This left the Atari.
First Atari Computer|I bought my first Atari in June 1981. It was an 800(original) with 32K of ram. I opted to get the extra ram instead of the program recorder. With 32K ram, multiple graphics modes, Basic language, sound, and the rest, it beat the pants off anything the TV Typewriter could do. I am glad I didn't waste anymore time with it. Not that the Atari was perfect. The Basic wasn't Microsoft and it had no parallel port. But I soon learned it had many more advanced features. And, I still have it! I have a 256K ram card and a Bit3 80 column text card for it. I do not use it much since the XL series came out that are much easier to upgrade and have a better keyboard. I don't use the XE as the keyboard was to mushy and they are harder to upgrade than an XL.
Well, I soon found that a cassette was a must, so I plunked down the money for that in Sep. Six months or so later, I got a bank loan for $500.00 so I could buy my first 810 (96K)disk drive.
Standard Periperals|Then I bought an ATR8000 in April 1983. It could use standard disk drives, modems, and printers, and had a 48K printer buffer. The first printer was a Gemini 10X dot matrix in the summer of 1983(I still have it and use it), which was changed to a HP Deskjet about 1995, and I got a Canon color inkjet in 1998. I can also use the HP 6L laser printer on it. No, not for graphics. The printer must support Epson at least which the Canon does. The Laser makes fast work of text documents, labels, etc. I went to 360k drives about 1985. I still use that ATR today! I added a 1 meg floppy to it around 1994. I decided to NOT add 3.5" drives to my setup. I didn't want to have to keep up with two disk formats. And, I have plenty of 5.25" disks available.

		Here is my VERY OLD 8 bit work space. Has 2 computers, a 256K XL and a 1 meg XL. Also, the Canon BJ printer, the Gemini, the ATR8000(2 actually), monitors, disks, and lots of reference. Click the pic for a larger stereo view(66K).
		And my VERY OLD ST work area. The Mac was to be for scanning and I was planning a Newton connection. The shelves hold most of my reference books and my magazine collection. It also holds my extra magazines. Click the pic for a larger stereo view(46K).

AACE|I must have gone to my first Atari club meeting in October of 1981. At "ABC Computers and Telephones". By the following spring, the group moved to Kleberg hall, I had joined, and I volunteered to help with the newsletter. It was a cut and paste thing. Tape showing on the copies. It wasn't long before I was the Editor, getting articles from people and places, getting advertising, and copying/mailing it. My Gemini 10X got a real workout. At the height of the group, early 1985, we were sending out over 300, 20 page letter size issues, to Members, Groups, and Dealers in the US, most via Bulk Rate mail, and around the world. By then we were going to San Antonio and Dallas to visit their meetings. We were also receiving an exchange newsletter stack that averaged two to three feet high each month. We would have 40 people at the Thursday night meeting, and for a short time after the ST made an impact(1986), we would have 50 to 60 people AND their systems at our Saturday library meetings. We also started the ATR-8000 Special Interest Group, with its newsletter section. Membership info for that SIG was even included with ATRs that the manufacturer sold. At that time I was newsletter editor, treasurer, and 8 bit librarian. I was starting to get others interested in taking over. But, ST users did not get involved as much as the A8ers, but also decided that the group belonged to them-the New and Powerful computer. Politics got in the way. And the group starting falling apart. We quickly fell to 25% of our highest, and languished at about 10-15% for many years, at different locations. We created ST, Portfolio, and Midi libraries. AACE fell apart completely about 1994ish. No more meetings, no more anything. I still have the libraries. At the height of the club, I had 100+ friends, or so I thought. While I keep in touch with a few from the last days of the club, I have contact with only one from the early days...Dave Mann. He is the one that brought the A8 library copy from Houston and founded our club back in 1981. You'd think that a few out the 300-400 members over the years would still be interested. I have a lot of great memories from the 1980s with the club. I put a lot into it. So far, it was the best time of my life. I wonder if the others ever remember? I wonder if they feel the loss? Did they leave because of the ST? Because too little new stuff was coming out? I could have developed a lot more commercial stuff if I didn't have to invest so much time keeping the club running.
DAL-ACE|The visits to this group and the vendors basement were very enjoyable. Several of us would go up during the year. Made friends there too. DAL-ACE died way too many years ago, probably due to politics as well. For several years, visits to AAAUA in San Antonio supplied me with my fix, but, they too are suffering major downsizing, so the trips there are not as much fun. Nor are the ones to AUNT in Dallas now that the Infomart was sold, forcing the events to spread to different days and places as scheduled. Weekly conferencing on Compuserve, Genie, and Delphi with many dozens of people from around the world was a lot of fun. Those are over. Web chats aren't the same, but are now familiar.


And then|I still have a lot of projects planned for my 8 bits including a neat new case and a new hobby/business. The ST is another story. I use it to supplement my web site work(or did till dialup access ended in dec99)-not to browse-it really can't, the software for it for serious applications have fallen way...way...way behind as has its hardware. Even the stuff released these days is inadequate. Maybe I'll have better results with a Milan or whatever. I do not find the ST that much fun to program, though I do some utilities with GFA Basic. I suppose it has to do with needing to spend A LOT of time learning about the system/Gem architecture. I don't have that time anymore. See the ST area on the Atari page. The A8s are slower and have even lower screen resolution than the ST, but they are a heck of a lot of fun to program. I wrote a Basic program that would print a picture in 4 gray shades instead of binary(vertical stripes). It took 45 minutes to print the picture. In one half of a very profitable day, I recoded most of it into assembly. It ran the very first time! And it only took 5 minutes to print the picture! I had an enormous smile for days after. Eventually, I'll expand it for 16 patterns and then colors.
Speaking of web sites, that is the main Atari contact today. I check in with a lot of them. AtariAge is one of the main places to meet now.

The 8 bit Atari can still do a suprising amount, and I for one plan to explore it all.