Jack Tramiel & the Atari PC2, PC3, PC4 (Mitac) & PC5 - Atari's line of IBM compatibles explained

Рет қаралды 1,630

Күн бұрын

In this 2nd chapter, we dive into the complete history of the Atari PC line of computers. After the PC1, Jack focussed on expandability and ... power without the price!
#Atari #AtariPC #AtariPC1 #AtariPC2 #AtariPC3 #AtariPC4 #AtariPC5 #MITAC #JackTramiel #NEAT #AmericanMegatrends #Intel #AMD #GEM #Windows3.0 #Commodore #MSDOS
00:00 Intro - Atari and IBM
01:15 Atari PC2 - Atari's Fasttrack to Redemption
04:52 Atari PC3 - The XT Resurrection
07:10 NEAT - Atari's Gamble in Reverse Engineering
09:43 Mitac - Atari's Mistery Rebrand
11:24 Atari PC4 - Configured for Greatness
14:40 Atari PC5 - Atari's Mainboard Shift
17:02 Ending - Leonard Tramiel
I'm eternally grateful to Jeff Fulton ( @IntoTheVerticalBlank ) for the incredible narration. Thank you for all your efforts!
And ctrl-alt-rees ( @ctrlaltrees ) for being a wonderful Leonard Tramiel.
Finally, Olav Pawlenko for all the help and /|\ friendship.
Thanks so much.
More Atari PC :
www.ataripc.net/
www.atari-computermuseum.de/
If you like the video and want to see more, give it a thumbs up!
The best Atari related publications
www.microzeit.com/
www.zafinnbooks.com/
www.greyfoxbooks.com/
Atari music in this episode :
Ouacances / Tomchi : demozoo.org/music/159042/
Mutative / 505 & Michu : demozoo.org/music/55611/
Warryorz / Tao : demozoo.org/music/60338/
Font Compil 3 / Acid : demozoo.org/music/111409/
Revive Me / AiO : demozoo.org/music/66676/
Purrfect Cheetah / Jess : demozoo.org/music/277312/
Sweet / 505 : demozoo.org/music/111040/
Jag fyller Assn till Bredden / Bagarn : demozoo.org/music/115272/
Friendly Atari Channels :
The Joy of Sticks : / thejoyofsticks
Wasabim : / isharps3
Atari Crypt : / ataristdemoscene
Gears of Games : / gearsofgameschannel
IntoTheVerticalBlank : / @intotheverticalblank
Hundgirrid Channel : / @hundgirridchannel6733
STereotypic STeist : / @stahlkiefer
Want to be in this list? Let me know!
A big cheers to Marko Latvanen over @ www.atarimania.com/ and Stefan Benz @ demozoo.org/
Thank you all for watching. Support the channel by liking and/or subscribing.
Visit us at www.atarilegend.com
STAY ATARI

Пікірлер: 49

@user-bz9sj8mh5d 7 ай бұрын

Great video! I've always been curious about Atari's foray into the PC clone business. Nice to see the collaboration with other Atarian KZfaqrs also!

@jrherita 7 ай бұрын

This is a really interesting history - I always saw the Atari PCs as a waste of engineering resources vs. making the ST better (and I still somewhat see it this way - Interesting they kept evolving the PC line while the ST stayed at 8 MHz during the same time). The CHIPS - C&T chipsets were really good back in the day - it was easily my favorite 486 chipset as it was faster than pretty much every other chipset available in the ~ 33-66 MHz days. The Cherry keyboard for the early Atari PCs is impressive. Thanks Atari Legend for putting this together -- beautiful footage and great editing! (Last comment - really feels like Jack Tramiel's Atari was about making a profit and dishing it back to Commodore vs. actually establishing a brand that would stand the test of time).

@retropuffer2986 7 ай бұрын

Very thorough professional documentary! Very detailed. I was fascinated with the features Atari was adding to their clones like in chapter 8. Also loved the Atari logo in the fan vent holes!

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

It’s too bad Atari Corp didn’t license the Blitter chip that the ex-Atari Inc crew at MindSet created for their semi-PC compatible MindSet computer line. [the truly multimedia computer line that predated the Amiga]. Jack Tramiel even considered buying that company before the Atari purchase.

@ctrlaltrees 7 ай бұрын

Great video as always! Loving the editing in this one and the excellent voiceover from Jeff. Good stuff. 👍

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot Rees.

@DonVintaggio 7 ай бұрын

Great video edition and loved the firing miniature in the bookshelf at 4:33 😄

@cronos42 7 ай бұрын

Your videos are getting more and more professional. This one is the best so far!

@powerofvintage9442 7 ай бұрын

Seriously, I love these videos! Great story and so much detail. Really amazed at how many iterations that Atari went through in really such a short period of time.

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Atari's history is intriguing, to say the least. I'm hooked at making these history documentary videos about Atari, its hard and software and the people surrounding the company, because I learn so much in the process. I love it...

@CarFul 7 ай бұрын

Awesome narrative indeed … at first I thought it was a perfect text-to-speech … but this was even better👍😀

@steveafulton 7 ай бұрын

The story of the Atari800 -> IBM PC is crazy. Early IBM PC could have really used a Pokey and a GTIA chip at the very least.

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

I agree. Fascinating history...

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

That would’ve required creating an enhanced CGIA/ANTIC combo that could output both 80-Column mode and at higher resolutions plus compatibility with the 8088. IBM wanted 80-Column support and they didn’t want to use the Z80 or 6502 for their PC. That would’ve also required Jay Miner and others not leaving Atari over management telling them to hold their horses with their demand to immediately build a 68000 based computer.

@freddyvretrozone2849 7 ай бұрын

Cool video. I am the proud owner of a like new PC2 with doc, floppy...

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Cherish it. The one you see in the vid is mine, and I am proud. Happy and thankful to be able to buy it...

@YouStEeLz 6 ай бұрын

Thanks, another amazing video as usual. However, just my $0.02, I would recommend to adjust your lighting setting for the machine shots. The key light MUST be white, color should be used from behing the object for ambiance and define the edges, and/or the sides.

@AtariLegend 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for this. I was rewatching the video lately and I have to agree that the computer photos have too much color, the natural tint is gone. Honestly, I don't know what I am doing on a technical level, I just try to make nice photos. So thank you for your honesty and I will literally do what you have written down here. I have a white light, but I usually use it on the sides of the machines. I am also gonna try and use a diffuser of some sort to avoid reflections on screen. It is not always easy. I am completely uneducated at this photography aspect, obviously...

@IntoTheVerticalBlank 7 ай бұрын

Awesome job, AL!

@DaveVelociraptor 7 ай бұрын

Merry Christmas!

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

We will speak soon. This video took a bit longer than anticipated. Merry Christmas.

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

James Morgan was Atari Inc’s CEO, not the CEO of Warner Communications. That was Steve Ross. Jack Tramiel’s TTL company bought the assets of Atari Inc’s Consumer Division in July 1984. And yes, back in the late 1970s, Steve Ross did want a partnership with IBM. He wanted IBM to take a 50% ownership stake in Atari and administer it like the Warner-Amex Cable division which was co-owned by American Express but Warner really called the shots. Jim Titsler, the Atari engineer who designed the 1600XL - and later the Atari [Corp] PC-1 - had originally designed a dual processor computer that used a 6502 and a 68000…

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the info Jeremy. Some mistakes from my side apparently. I will add these in the description. I did not know Titsler designed the PC1 😮 And Shakti ran 6502 and 8086, not 60186...as mentioned in the video..

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

@@AtariLegend no prob. I love your vids! Double check the Jim Titsler info. Because there’s also conflicting info on him working on the ST. And if he didn’t work on the ST, what was he doing at Atari Corp during that time since he was one of the former Atari Inc employees retained by Tramiel’s TTL/Atari Corp.

@tellyjoossens4186 3 ай бұрын

I own an Atari PC3 and PC4LC. At that time IBM also already had AT machines, even 386 one's. Compared to the IBM XT class machines the PC3 was a much better deal value/money. 8mhz speed, mfm hdd, ega display, etc... in a much smaller and more modern case. My PC4LC (stands for low cost, also know as the ABC/30) was comparable with the standard ibm AT but again at a much smaller price. I changed the 8mhz cpu to a 12mhz one, making it almost as fast as a regular PC4. Although I enjoyed the PC3 for years and upgraded it to the max(vga, xtide, v20 cpu, umb card, sound card) I'm thinking about selling it and let someone else enjoy it.

@AtariLegend 3 ай бұрын

I understand the selling thought. This hobby goes in waves. When I sell, there is always a point in time I regret it deeply. Maybe it is just me :-) and finding a replacement is getting harder... I think the PC4 is Atari's best PC... I never heard of the PC4LC. Too bad, it should have been in the video. But at one point, Atari released so many Frankenstein pc's, I lost count. I even have an ABC 60 with a PC4x board inside...Spare parts straight from Atari, I guess...

@tellyjoossens4186 3 ай бұрын

Indeed maybe I regret it later, since it was my first pc and owned since new. With the years going by the monitor went bad and the keyboard stopped working. Sadly junked those in the days not seeing that one day it could cost a fortune to find those again. Using a lcd monitor and at 2 xt keyboard convertor keeps it running but because of that and more gaming abilities I rather like to use the pc4lc. The pc4lc is one rare beast indeed. Being the 'low cost' version of the pc4 it uses the same case and motherboard design as the pc3 and pc4 but has fewer expansion slots (only 3) and the onboard Paradise graphics supports vga internally but it outputs ega on a 9-pin connector. It also was clocked lower and by default only had 512kb or an optional 640kb of memory installed. I upgraded it with sips to 1024kb, Tseng 4000 svga card and upgraded the cpu. Also run it on a passive cooled pico atx psu to prevent the original psu blowing up the system one day. I you're interested in pictures of the pc4lc motherboard, I can mail you some if you like.

@AtariLegend 3 ай бұрын

@@tellyjoossens4186 I think photos would be a must for ataripc.net ...

@HerculesMays 3 ай бұрын

Hey there, I'm a big fan of Atari computers and I'd definitely be interested in an Atari PC clone, never had one before!

@AtariLegend 3 ай бұрын

@@HerculesMays easiest to find them in Germany or the Netherlands.

@AtariCrypt 6 ай бұрын

Fantastic video mate!!! Incredible content. So much content - the time taken to research & develop this must have taken ages. Now get back to real computers running TOS 😂 Happy new year 👍🏻

@AtariLegend 6 ай бұрын

Thanks so much. Yes, this has taken me months and loads of late night research sessions (also to find the old articles in magazines and such). But I am very happy with the result... Thanks Steve

@AtariCrypt 6 ай бұрын

@@AtariLegend keep on rocking /|\

@MistaMaddog247 7 ай бұрын

Real good video! I'm glad the Atari PC line had success in Europe along with the Mega STs for business use. Sadly in the U$A companies only buy either IBMs or cheap clones, the Atari brand name was still associated with game machines that they were still selling in the States. Anyway the PC1 was a good fit for home or small offices that need an affordable PC clone and it àcomplimented the Mega ST. But for corporate environments, in the States at least, they might have been better off selling under a different brand name and only use Atari for home based consumers.

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Exactly. And Atari just was not capable of supporting big companies the way other clone manufacturers could do like Dell or Compaq. Totally different business model. But interesting history nonetheless. Thanks for the great comment...

@texmex3343 7 ай бұрын

I've never seen a single Atari PC in France? I've only seen models up to and including the 1040 ST.

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

Atari Corp wouldn’t have cracked open the corporate market but there’s no reason they couldn’t have went the consumer route like crummy Packard Bell did here in the States. That only required kissing up to Sears and CompUSA. It’s not like “Packard Bell” was a more trusted brand than “Atari”. I mean, most people thought they were an HP knock-off brand. It certainly didn’t stop them from becoming the #1 home PC brand that truly brought PC compatibles to American homes throughout the 1990s.Atari and Commodore both were capable of that but their own ST and Amiga lines - with their superiorities - blinded from the necessary pivot. Much like Sony stubbornly refusing to drop BetaMax in favor of VHS once it was crystal-clear that that inferior standard would win.

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

@@TheJeremyHolloway interesting. And let's face it, 'kissing up to Sears and ...' wasn't something Jack was capable off, I think ;)

@TheJeremyHolloway 7 ай бұрын

@@AtariLegend well, Sears did sell the Commodore 64 back when Jack was still at Commodore. He could’ve tried selling the Atari PC line at Federated as a test run before offering them to Sears, Montgomery Ward, Walmart, CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.

@IntoTheVerticalBlank 7 ай бұрын

Hey, I recognize that voice!

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

Hero!

@w.w.7148 7 ай бұрын

I really like the information in your videos, but did you ever consider to leave all those unnecessary (loud) tiny sound effects out? It destroys the content.

@AtariLegend 7 ай бұрын

I don't know. It did cross my mind, but it is a bit my style. I will definitely take it into consideration. Thanks for the feedback. I will at least see if I can tone it down...