** 1 page feature / 940 words **

Those were the days...

Xav goes all dewy eyed and reveals his nostalgic side

My earliest memories of Atari revolve around my uncle's purchase of a 2600 games console. I was awe-struck by its high-resolution colour graphics and state-of-the-art sound. Much pestering ensued, and eventually my parents found enough pennies down the back of the sofa for us to buy our own.

Back in those days we were a one TV family, and we had to stop commanding missiles whenever Coronation Street was on. So, much pestering ensued, until I received a ZX81 (with 16k RAM pack) and a black and white TV for Christmas. Now no amount of soap could diminish the thrill of spending hours rolling my fingers over the less-than-responsive keyboard as I copied some code from a magazine - only to find that the resultant game was usually dire.

And there my thirst for ever more power began. I needed colour. I needed sound. I needed the loading speed that only a cartridge could provide. Of course, to get all this I had to drop down to a machine with only 5k of RAM, but Radar Rat Race on my Vic 20 purged such annoyances from my mind.

** ATARI600.JPG here **
** Caption **
With my technolust becoming ever more developed, it wasn't long before my eye began to wander. I spotted an Atari 600 at a car boot sale, and much pestering ensued
** /caption **

In an attempt to discover its secrets I bought a copy of the 8-bit magazine Page 6, and there it was - the Holy Grail of computing, a picture of an STFM. That picture adorned my wall for almost a year as I solemnly concluded no amount of pestering would persuade my parents to part with the œ260 I needed. There was no option - I would have to get a job!

For six weeks during the school holidays I slaved at a bookbinders. Each evening my wounded hands began to heal, until I opened them the following day to the zipper-like sound of a hundred paper-cuts all tearing loose. But I survived and, clutching a wad of cash, took a trip to the nearest Atari stockist.

"Of course," I was informed, "for an extra tenner you could have our bonus pack." Much pestering ensued. My parents lent me the money. Retrospectively, they should have held out - the bonus pack consisted of some mouse/joystick extenders, a mouse mat and a copy of Metacomco BASIC. The extenders lasted two years, BASIC was dumped after a week but the mouse mat is still in use.

Some time later...

As the years passed I spent many hours with that STFM. Even after I had purchased a Falcon, it was still the machine I chose to take to university. But I was used to more power and more speed, so I upgraded it. First my DIY rack conversion, then more RAM. Next came 12 MIDI ports and a TOS upgrade. The T28 accelerator proved too much for it, leading to a slightly unstable system which I eventually replaced with a dirt-cheap deal on a Mega STe. Nevertheless, the STFM still served as a great terminal into my flatmate's Linux box - via a home-made serial lead which ran out of his sixth floor window, round two corners and into my fifth floor room. I'm just glad nobody caught us hanging precariously from the windows, fishing for cables with a broom.

That first year at university also saw the purchase of a second-hand Jaguar. I "accidentally" bought it just as I was supposed to be revising for my exams, and the whole flat decided to universally abandon work in favour of Tempest 2000 and Alien Vs Predator. Unfortunately these didn't lend themselves well to multiple players, so my Linux owning flatmate was persuaded to buy an old STe. A quick bit of soldering later, and six of us were hooked up to Dynablasters. Revision? Who needs it?

In fact the more I think about it, the more I realise just how large a part the sign of the Fuji has played in my life. The formation of my schoolboy band was a direct result of my need to use the music department's ST to print out some homework. One of my best friends introduced himself because he spotted me reading a copy of Atari World. The Mega STe bore the brunt of my project reports at university, while the crystal clear display of its SM125 eased away the many hundreds of hours I spent writing a novel (unpublished). And during those times when life was too tough and I needed some escapism, there was Warwick Allison's beautifully GEM'd version of NetHack.

These days my Falcon sits in a tower case. Alongside it stands a Mac (primarily for music, but also running MagiCMac and Stella, the 2600 emulator). Alongside that stands a Linux box running STonX (an ST emulator) and Stella (again) - whenever I'm not playing Warwick Allison's beautifully Linux'd version of NetHack of course!

You see, things don't change so much. I've personally got too much history tied up with the Atari name to just abandon the platform. I'll be running an Atari system, in one way or another, for many years yet. And there's always the internet to keep me in touch with like-minded people via the newsgroups - but I apologise if I'm not around much. I've got plans you see: As soon as someone releases a Nuon-based system, I'll be far too busy playing Tempest 3000. Because, whatever has happened to the company, the spirit of Atari and the people it has touched, still lives on.