Yes Minitel was liked. Just as I like my ancient Commodore 64. And my amish neighbors like horse-drawn carriages. That doesn't mean the government should be wasting taxpayer dollars building obsolete C64s and carriages. Turn-over the job to the free market to make the carriages.
So basically government interference & protectionism of (1) their old 70s technology Minitel monopoly and then (2) the 90s/2000s-era Telecom monopoly hindered innovation and slowed the growth of web usage in France. Sounds like a prime example of whyt government should not interfere with the free market's natural processes (except basic workers' rights protections).
Just have to lock yourself in the bomb shelter with your MREs and wait for the zombies to rot. Then come-out and rebuild society.
*
*Anybody know where I can get cheap MREs?
"The moral of this story? People who own 7800s are assholes."
That's nice.
I had both the 7800 for the classic 70s/80s arcade games, plus an Amiga, so I was playing 16 bit games like Populous in the 80s, while everyone else was still doing the shitty-looking NES or SMS.
- 1 Overrated
Awwww somebody couldn't handle the facts. Yes Atari had 128 colors. Yes it only had only 2 sprites. And yes it was the # 1 selling computer of 1981 and 82, until C64 was released.
The Atari 800 computer had 128 colors for better still images (great for nude girls), but only 2 sprites, so it was hard for programmers to make "speedy" arcade-style games like they did for the Commodore with its 8 sprites.
The C64 was also about half the cost, so it started outselling the Atari after just six months and remained #1 from 1983 to 86.
Pole Position is one of many games that Atari had the exclusive rights to sell in North America. They even went so far as to add an "atari banner" flying over the racetrack.
ATARI FORCE - In the year 2005 Earth is facing ecological devastation and Atari is the savior of the world, and so too are their "Atari Force" superheroes! Try not to laugh too much. I literally bought the game just so I could read the comic (the game was not bad either). I was also a loyal reader of Atari Age which was just a glorified advertisement for new games released every other month.
Description - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Force
Whole series - http://www.atariage.com/comics/index.html
Geek Encyclopedia - http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/AtariForce/
Jay Miner - Another guy who revolutionized computing, but Steve Jobs gets all the credit & media attention while Jay gets nothing.
And don't blame Atari. Blame the idiots at Warner Communications who decided in 1983 to sell-off the company on the belief that videogaming was a "fad" whose time had passed. Warners stopped funding the Amiga company, so naturally they needed to look for new funding..... they discovered Commodore who bought them out wholesale.
Crap. If only I had an iPhone so I could download..... wait I already did that twelve years ago. (Thank you Stella emulator.) I prefer playing the console versions since you only need one joystick & one button vs. the 10 confusing buttons needed to play Missile Command Arcade or Defender Arcade.
Never thought of it that way. You think we'll see a Linux distribution that fits on 128 bytes?
Of course the Atari didn't actually run on just 128 bytes. It was hard-programmed with 4K of internal ROM commands, plus the 2 or 4K in the cartridge that the programmer had full control over. The biggest cartridge ever made was 32K (Jr.PacMan; a great game). ----- The 128 byte RAM limitation meant the background was only 40 pixels wide! That same resolution was later used in their 1979 computers: 40x240, 80x240, and so on.
I upgraded to an Atari 7800 "prosystem" which also had a Commodore Semiconductor 6502.
Ordered it online! (Yes kids Atari had an online store in the 80s.) That was a really nice system with great near-arcade perfect games..... 128 sprites (no damn flicker)..... 256 colors at 320x240..... too bad it barely sold.
I used to allow the invaders to wipe-out my shields (they disappear when the invaders move to row 3), because the shields just got in the way of my firing. If you want a REAL challenge, try the version with invisible invaders. Getting that last invisible guy is nigh impossible (I never got past wave 2). 128 games in one cartridge!
One flaw with Atari games is that they were often too easy. I could play Invaders and Missile Command for hours & hours and not die. I was annoyed when they started eliminating the harder game variations & just made you play the default game.
Atari is barely remembered by today's 20-somethings, but back in the 70s and early 80s they were # 1. They had the number one console (Atari VCS/2600) from 1977 to 84, and the number one computer (Atari 800) in 1981 and 82.
I still love those old Atari 2600 games better than many modern games. Point, shoot, rack-up a million points. Brag to your friends.
"the "people" on those shows are already behaving pretty much like bonobo chimps."
Is this some kind of Republican crack against our president??? (justkidding)
This used to be one of my favorite channels. Along with "Wild" Discovery, History, Scifi, and Animal. The last one's not too bad, but NatGeo and the others have turned-into reality shows.
Yeah I know. Complain, complain. Well I can't help if all these channels start looking alike, instead of their original mission. NOW I spend most of my time watching the free broadcast channels: RetroTV, ThisTV, AntennaTV..... they are what AMC and TVland used to be. (Though it's probably only a matter of time til they jump-the-shark and start inserting reality shows.)
With your bare hands?!?
