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Comment by sanity31415 | Hacker News Reader

My parents got me an Atari 800XL for my 8th birthday in 1985. It came with a very terse list of Basic commands along with a few program listings from which I learned how to program.

Stuck with Atari over the years, through an 520STfm, and even a Falcon 030 - before eventually switching to a PC running Linux in the late 90s while a student.

Last year I went on eBay and bought one of these (I have no idea where the original one ended up), was so much fun.

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When I think about what clueless Atari execs did to the machine and company, driven by ignorance and greed, it makes me really mad. It was such a good machine and they were desperate to not let any 3rd party make money, hence software, for it they essentially killed the company (amongst other bone-headed mistakes).

You think Atari execs were bad? Don't even get me started with Commodore.

I started with a VIC 20, then a Commodore 64, then an Amiga 1000, before getting my first PC running DOS. The Amiga was the best computer hands down. Shame about the Commodore board idiots. Always love the work of Jack Tramiel and Chuck Peddle.

Grew up with C64 then A500 all the way to Athlon K75.

After that, I was an adult and I got a job and could afford more frequent updates.

Yes, it hurts to think about CBM management, and what they did to the Amiga.

Very efficient that it was Jack Tramiel for both (for a while)

I got my 800 when I was 16, so I'm a bit older than you. I, too, had a 520ST. I later added a daughterboard bringing it up to a full 1MB RAM, and also make a little mod to expose a composite video connector on the back panel.

I never met anybody who had a Falcon, though. Very cool.

I think you mean 1M of RAM, not 1G.

Indeed. Corrected, while it still lets me.

The Magic Sack by David Small made your ST a Mac!

PC-Ditto (a NEC V20 chip on a daughter card soldered to the 68000!) made your ST a PC!

Awesome hacker box, those STs.

dude, same! Got mine in 1985 (i was 9, not 8) and it was THE machine that got me hooked on computers. BASIC coding, playing Missile Command, so classic.

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