Atari TV gadget
Someone on eBay is selling this, which is awesome not just because it's an Atari 130XE, but also because it was used to "roll script" on a cable TV channel somewhere, and has had hardware modifications to that end. I will now geek out for several paragraphs.
I used to love when the TV Guide channel would crash and you'd see an Amiga error message blinking over the commercials on the top half of the screen, while some random satellite channels scrolled up the bottom half of the screen. This was back when an entire half of the screen's real estate was dedicated to program listings, and not just the bottom third. Or what is it by now?
I remember being in upstate New York, back in 1992, and seeing their TV listings channel, and it was clearly powered by an Atari computer. Not only can I recognize that font from a mile away, it took me 2 seconds to find the letter on that page that was wrong. (The "J" should have no hint of a serif, despite the extra-wide ones on the "I".) It was almost as cool as the time I was watching Russian news on C-Span, and the timecode at the top of the screen was in that font. And that was almost as cool as the Pontiac commercial based on the Atari version of Spy Hunter, where all the text, including the fine-print disclaimer, was in that font.
I'd love to see what it does, but I'd certainly not be able to figure out the hardware without having my hardware-savvy friends come over and look at it on my behalf. And he might not get it working at all, and if he did, I might not be able to use it for any purpose at all...
But if it came with the software, it just might be worth it anyway.
I used to love when the TV Guide channel would crash and you'd see an Amiga error message blinking over the commercials on the top half of the screen, while some random satellite channels scrolled up the bottom half of the screen. This was back when an entire half of the screen's real estate was dedicated to program listings, and not just the bottom third. Or what is it by now?
I remember being in upstate New York, back in 1992, and seeing their TV listings channel, and it was clearly powered by an Atari computer. Not only can I recognize that font from a mile away, it took me 2 seconds to find the letter on that page that was wrong. (The "J" should have no hint of a serif, despite the extra-wide ones on the "I".) It was almost as cool as the time I was watching Russian news on C-Span, and the timecode at the top of the screen was in that font. And that was almost as cool as the Pontiac commercial based on the Atari version of Spy Hunter, where all the text, including the fine-print disclaimer, was in that font.
I'd love to see what it does, but I'd certainly not be able to figure out the hardware without having my hardware-savvy friends come over and look at it on my behalf. And he might not get it working at all, and if he did, I might not be able to use it for any purpose at all...
But if it came with the software, it just might be worth it anyway.