[Coco] [CoCo] Atari and Amiga comparison

[Dan Olson]

I'm sure this subject could be debated forever, but here's my 2 cents 
worth.  I have a coco1 and coco2, no coco3.  Our first computer was an 
Atari 1040ST, and I was never overly impressed.  I'm more of a hardware 
guy, so that's where I'm coming from.  I was never impressed with the 
console and Atari's weird DIN connectors, compaired to the PCs we were 
using at school.  Now I've taken an interest in "retro-computing" and have 
computers that I never had access to when they were new.  I think the 8 
bit Ataris are much more impressive than the ST series, even though older, 
they're much more easily expanded, and are very impressive when you 
consider the design is older than the coco1!  The Amiga impresses me 
because is has good graphics, gets 880k on an off-the-shelf 3.5" floppy, 
and can do quite a bit without many CPU cycles.  Also, re the 6809 vs 
68000, as a hardware guy I'd say that the extra address and data lines, 
not to mention registers, makes the 68k flat out and away the best 
processor.

 	Dan


On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 RJRTTY at aol.com wrote:

> People
>
> In the course of adapting my  converter to these machines I have
> had to acquire them for testing  purposes.    Because of this I have been
> able to compare them  personally with the coco3.  I have always wanted
> one of these machines  because of all the "hoopla" in the press about
> them when they came  out.   A number of things discouraged me from
> owning one at the  time.   Price, the fact that I already had the coco3 and
> a limited  amount of time available to become familiar with another
> machine.   Little things like that and the biggy "I just never got around
> to  it".
>
> Well I have them now and I have to tell you I am  not all that impressed.
> Don't get me wrong.   The 68000 was a great  processor in its day and
> these machines were great advancements to personal  computing but
> I think the coco3 compares favorably with them.    They didn't display
> more simultaneous colors than the coco tho they had  bigger palettes.
> The Amiga had the "HAM" mode but it was convoluted and  inconvenient
> to use.  Sock's enhanced display modes for the coco3 are as  useful
> and show more colors.   Great for still images like the  Amiga HAM  mode.
>
> I guess they just don't live up to the  mystique that surrounded them for
> me at the time.   In my opinion,  the 6809 ( and 6309 now) was still a viable
> alternative during the 68000's  prime.  The only thing missing in the coco3
> was 8 bit task registers  that could allow it to access 2 meg ram natively and
> 8 bit palette registers  for a 256 color palette.   But even without these the
> coco3 held it  own with these machines and seemed more appropriate for
> the experimenters  among us to use for special purposes.
>
> The one thing I  like the most about the Amiga is the internal disk drive and
> the external  power supply.    I think my next personal project will be to
> put  a
> 1.44 M drive into a coco3 enclosure and modify it for use with an  external
> 12V "brick" type power supply.   The same thing Bob did on  his website.
>
> What I am saying is I don't think I  missed much.  Looking back on it now
> I am glad I was a coco  person.  No regrets.  See you all at the fest.
>
> Roy
>
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