RIP Jack Tramiel

CiDeRmAn

Sad loss, passed on the 8th of April, the dad of the Vic-20 and the C64, and grand rival if us Spectrum owners,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/9205839/Jack-Tramiel.html

a5y

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sad loss, passed on the 8th of April, the dad of the Vic-20 and the C64, and grand rival if us Spectrum owners,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/9205839/Jack-Tramiel.html

I'm after checking and this hasn't its own thread yet (a rare instance of me catching one of my mistakes before blurting something out first), though it has been mentioned once or twice before.

For the convenience of anyone reading this, or some clever moderating thread-merging thing I won't pretend to understand, some other internal links.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78038249&postcount=6958

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78040084&postcount=6960

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78048590&postcount=6967

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=78040500&postcount=161

I can honestly say I've far more interest in reading a biography of Tramiel than I have reading Jobs', and I'm an industrial design degree holding Macbook owner.

CiDeRmAn

Well, apologies for the re-post then, I'll leave it up anyways, as I think he deserves it.

KeRbDoG

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sad loss, passed on the 8th of April, the dad of the Vic-20 and the C64, and grand rival if us Spectrum owners,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/9205839/Jack-Tramiel.html

Don't forget the Atari ST also

Steve X2

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Don't forget the Atari ST also

A lot of people forget(or don't know) about his involvement in that one.

.

CiDeRmAn

What a lot of people don't realise is the competition to be the OS for the future.
You had the ST, the Amiga, the Mac and the PC all showing off a software suite for business, hoping that their model would become the one that was adopted, and we all know that Microsoft won that one, mostly by licencing the OS to PC manufacturers instead of locking it to one manufacterers product.
Even at that, the PC as a base didn't guarantee success, just look at OS/2 Warp.
Even the superior Amiga OS couldn't make it, so it was a pity when the ST couldn't cut the mustard in it's company.
I suppose as a games machine in the late 80's it had a following but I always remember it as an also-ran, never up to the challenge of the Amiga while the 90's beckoned and left both Atari and Commodore in the dust with the Japanese never allowing an American console/gaming product dominate, even in the American market, until the Xbox 360.

By the sounds of it, Mr Tramiel simply didn't have the head for the 80's market, nepotism when he took over Atari leading to the sacking of the existing management and replacing them with family.
Still, it made great reading back in the day, and he certainly was a strong, colourful character, rather than the rather milquetoast Sir Clive.

Doge

This is going to be another repost, but it is seriously worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk

The interview doesn't actually kick in until here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NBvbsPNBIyk#t=1015s

Steve Wozniak (Apple), Bill Lowe (IBM) and Adam Chowaniec (Commodore Amiga) also join the stage 38 mins in, and there is a few of the original Atari guys asking questions in the audience.

doxy

As a spectrum owner I was always so jealous of those C64 people and their non-monochromatic graphics. I'd never dare admit it though :pac:

Skerries

doxy wrote: »

As a spectrum owner I was always so jealous of those C64 people and their non-monochromatic graphics. I'd never dare admit it though :pac:

watch what you're saying as that is broaching on heresy :mad:

Manic Miner Forever!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v47oE1ZylCg

CiDeRmAn

Now now, we'll have some respect, at least the C64 had proper sound and a decent keyboard.
And I'll take full fat Uridium over the nice but just one calorie Speccy edition.

But, then again, Quazatron kicked the more famous Paradroid's ass!

Skerries

i'm not listening! i'm not listening!