Atari Falcon 030 Nostalgia Nerd

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This. Is the atari falcon, one of the greatest computers, ever made but. Sent, for you people have heard of it it's almost like atari we're trying to keep it a secret. What. Happened and why, is that it's. 1989. The. Atari st range, has been in production for four years, but. Its traction into homes has, been limited, until. Now, with. New tempting, game bundles, appearing, in shops the, st FM has become an appealing, and cost-effective. Choice for bringing a true computer into. The home the. 16-bit, st, was far more powerful than these spectrums, and commodore, 64's, found, in most households, of the time and bundled. With a whopping 20 games the, sub 400-pound. Price tag was, a tantalizing. Temptation. However. Its hardware, capabilities. Still, lagged behind that, of the amiga 500 and, atari, knew, they'd need to do something, to keep up. The. First attempt to bounds for scales came, in B form of the Atari ST II an. Enhanced. ST which had been in development since, at least. 1987. Original. Specifications. Had detailed, a 640, by 240. Screen, resolution. With. 256. On-screen, colors a significant. Improvement. Over VST. However. On launch, of Obst had, an expanded, color palette from 512. To. 4096. It was, still restricted, to, Amiga 16. On screen, without, programming tricks. Really. The point has been missed it's, all very well having extra, colors but what's the use of you can't display more on screen on. The plus side additional, genlock support, for video editing was, added along with a blitter, coprocessor. Which put the machine more, on par with the amigas, graphical, capabilities a. New, PCM. Oh chip was also added to play back 8-bit samples, and somewhat, make up for the limited a wise sound chip found, in earlier models, although. The ste, was a moderate, improvement over, existing hardware. It's high compatibility, with. The original system was, if anything its, downfall, given. BST was far more abundant. Software, developers, stuck to making games for the original, machine rather. Than releasing titles, for the handful, of ste. Owners, some. Games did come with enhancements, for the ste but, most of these were half-hearted. And couldn't, tempt amiga owners and future. Amiga owners away, from their enhanced chipset. Capabilities. What's, more they mostly, arrived too, late to make an impact on ste, sales. Asmin, nineties began people were starting to focus their energy, and indeed. Money, on either, the amiga or a japanese, console, for gaming. But. In typical Atari, fashion, alongside, the ste, they, had also been developing, a number of other machines including. The TT and a, machine known as the Atari, transputer. The, transputer was a high-end workstation. Released, in 1989. With minimal, sales it ran on Helius, OS and was incompatible, with the ST range whilst. BTT although, intended, as a UNIX, workstation, would end up really as just a beefier, ST, with, TT standing, for 32 32, rather. Than B 16 32 obvious. T this. Is a naming convention because. Of the TT, also, has a 32-bit. Data bus paired, with a Motorola 6800. 30 CPU. Offering significant. Performance, improvements. Over previous machines. Both. Of these machines weren't, bad at all but they were expensive. And therefore pretty. Unsuccessful. Failing. To find a suitable market, niche mostly. They just weren't taken seriously, as professional. Machines and the TT was, too expensive to, be viewed as a suitable, ST upgrade. Luckily, Atari, were also sticking true to their brands origins, and a, number of game systems, were in the pipeline the. Atari handheld, Lynx had already launched, in September. 1989. And sales, were thankfully, ahead of their new desktop machines at the least the. Lynx was also a generation. Ahead of contemporary. Rival, handhelds. In terms, of technical specifications. Atari. Had also been developing, the Panther and with a nudge from ex Sinclair, research employees.

Martin, Brennan and John Matheson a more, 3d. Capable, console, called, the, Jaguar, the Panther. Was jeepers release first, in 1991. And lined, up to challenge console. Was like four Sega Megadrive in the, meantime it was down to the st and links, to carry the brand but. Times, were changing, and if Atari weren't careful, they'd, lose the home computer market entirely. In. Early. 1991. The atari lynx 2 was, launched, to try and boost sales whilst. Me panther console, was, dropped, so atari could focus on the jaguar, the, jaguars divert meant was moving faster, than anticipated, but. Atari, not being a company to have too few, pies on the table, they began another two projects, known, as sparrow, and falcon. Unfazed. By the lack of success of previous machines, Jack, Trammell the CEO, of Atari, corporation knew, that a new machine was required, to, compete with the Amiga and more, importantly, to Jack the, rising, dominance, of the IBM pc compatibl. 1991. Attempt, to break this market was to repackage, the ste, in a desktop case crammed, in some TT features, and sell, it as a business machine known, as the mega ste. Following. Suit with the mega st and mega st, 2 which, came some years previous, it, was cheaper, than VT t less. Capable. Member TT and somewhat. Of a backwards, step in, this area, of the market but. Like the TT it was still pretty. Unsuccessful, Atari, even, needed something better all they needed to change tact. The. Original Falcon specification. Was therefore intended, to blow other computers, clear, out of the water a powerful. Motorola, 6800, 40, CPU, was suspect, to be at its core a CPU. Which could easily compete. With, the abundance, of Intel, 386 processors. The. TTS, fast, RAM was also a consideration. For inclusion, along, with a fast expansion, bus and extensive. Upgrade, paths developed. By Atari in Texas, and are led by John Horton this, was a computer designed, to enter the PC, market alongside. This, Sparrow, was, more of an upgrade card, for VST, using, an as yet undecided. Motorola, processor, and lacking, the faster, bus and expansion. Options of the Falcon, this was being developed by Ataris Israel. Operation, led, by Marsha, gal and air da VL if we, step outside of, Ataris walls at this point knowledge. Of an upcoming Jaguar. Console, was, already public, but. There was also speculation of, a Jaguar, based computer. Floating. About sources. From Atari also, suggest there were plans to make the Falcon and the Jaguar, semi compatible, or develop, a Jaguar, card for a falcon at least but, Jack Tramel was against, the notion and pushed, for them to be unique systems, in. Late, 1991. Would-be Jaguar, computer, rumors quashed Atari. Seemed, to reluctantly, confirm, they were working, on a super, TT, machine called, the foul Caen incorporating. A motorola, 68000, 40, CPU, and a, possible built-in, cd-rom. This, was a machine of the average, Atari, users, dreams, but. This was, a short-lived. Dream, as only a few months after their admission, this, Falcon, was, pushed aside and, instead. The sparrow project, was stepped up to take its place and the, B divert the name of F x1 one.

Could Speculate, that this decision, was down to B dwindling, finances of, Atari, corporation, the. Sparrow used many existing, components. Making, it cheap and quick, whilst. For super TT Falcon, needed, further investment. And resources. Tricky. Especially when, the Jaguars development, was well underway. It's. Clear, from B sparrows, December, 1991. Revision. 10 design, specs, that this was the Machine destined, to be the Falcon we, would soon all know and love all, the, specifications, are present, as is the intention, to be a compatible. High-performance. Extension, of B Atari ST II, architecture. So. Aside, from the St book which would arrive in the UK early, in 1992. The new year had a seemingly, cleaner, plan, for Atari to, launch the, sparrow as their next computer and the, Jaguar, as a brand-new advanced. Console, it was. Around this point but companies, such as a magitek, who were working on Raiden. Dino. Dudes and. Road. Riot, for me now counselled atari, panther console were, asked, instead, to begin porting, code to, the sparrow, richard. Miller, was currently Ataris, president, of research, and development and was responsible, for leading the new projects, and was, apparently keen to make the sparrow into a system his mother could use stating. You can never underestimate, the, consumer, so, the computer, should, be just as good as the consumer CD player or television. The, specifications. Were been hammered out to, make it affordable. But capable. Sporting. A motorola, 6800. 30 16. Megahertz cpu. A, blitter. Graphics, coprocessor, at 16, megahertz offering 64, million pixels, per second, a DMA. Engine. Offering fast memory access to and from scuzzy, audio. Peripherals, etc. A Motorola. 5600. 132. Megahertz. Digital, signal, processor, unit and, an. Optional, Motorola 6, to. Floating-point. Mathematic. Coprocessor. Unit, of course, let's not forget the powerful. VY del video, controller, offering. 260. Mm. 144. Colors chunky. 16-bit, true color and various. Bit plane modes now. This all sounds reasonable enough that pretty awesome, in fact but, there is a small caveat, although. The video bus was, 32, bits wide the, main processor, bus is still only 16 bits, somewhat. Limiting for Falcons performance, but, from Ataris perspective, saving. Money at the same time still heavily rooted in the, esti specifications. Back. In reality Atari, might have been soldiering, on oblivious. To the nightmare, they were facing. But owners of VST were becoming rightly, concerned, about the dwindling supply, of games for their beloved systems, the, lack of content, aimed at their machine on TV, and the media and even for shrinking, size of their favorite, magazines, this, is from Jenny Smith who lives the King Edward Avenue Hastings, in East Sussex hi Jen she, says dear Andy and violet I'm getting fed up for watching computer shows that don't even mention my computer, I know you've got an Atari ST well we, do have one here in the studio and if you're an ST owner look out for some software reviews for you in later program companies. Like Special Reserve we're reporting, for ST game sales now, only accounted, for, 13%.

Of Their, orders, 20%. Down on the previous year and amiga. Games were out selling st iterations, by five to one in shops, like WH, Smith in, fact Commodore 64, game sales were, actually faring, better thanks. In part to be terminated, to bundle, but. Reassurance. Was provided. In the form of this new almighty. Machine, just. Around the corner. Throughout. 1992. News, on this new machine was, few and far between the. Other mention, tantalizing. Glimpses, of hope and numerous. Mentions, of the multimedia, future, provided, sustenance for, existing esti, owners, at, the height of summer the details were more forthcoming in, late July the first images of a new machine leaked, through to us courtesy, of ST user magazine, the. Sparrow prototype. Had now taken on the full falcon, persona, or at least adopted, its name as we, falcon --zero 30 and was, about to receive judgment, it, wasn't yet in the new colors Frankenstein. With a white keyboard, and Sparrow, card case with, the production coloring, still, undetermined. In fact the Eternals were still different, at this point sporting, only toss, 2.07. Ataris, operating, system and an, array of incomplete. Components. But, the question was had the cost-saving. Measures of atari produced. A machine good enough to satisfy the hungry, desires of st. Owners, was. This per machine we needed to carry the atari brand into. The late 90s with. Phrases, like better, sound capability. Than compact, discs true, color 16-bit, mode and the multitasking. Toss operating, system being thrown about the, signs seemed promising, in other, magazines there was talk of a high-density, floppy, drive, and that digital. Signal processor, which made the average atari fan moist, to, the touch game. Developers, even started, to air bare views I'll be, very interested in developing stuff for it I've, prayed, for this kind of move for a long time the. Only qualms, I have is the price of PCs is falling, all of the time us, gold would love to produce software, for such a sophisticated machine. However. We're going to wait and see what kind of price the machine has released at and which, other houses support it every. Other sound like a user stream but, Etheria have to be very clever to gain substantial support, the Falcon could be a monster. If marketed, correctly it. Must be pushed by Atari as a serious. Machine, Atari. Must not promote it as a games platform that, would be the kiss of death, for the machine. This. Mixed, but excited, bag of feelings was shared throughout Atari itself, and this, led to a war raging, between Atari, UK, and Atari Germany, over who would control development of the machine Atari. Germany, wanted befall Caen to be viewed as a serious, computer, at feelings, very much shared, by Jack and his son Sam, Trammell, however. Atari UK, wanted the Falcon to be poised for gaming, as well following, the st in its most successful domain. And providing. An upgrade path for gamers he might have always jumped, ship to the amiga or PC. Initially. Commodore was concerned, by, this new machine david. Pleasants, head of Commodore UK stated. When, we first heard about the Falcon, we were really worried as it was more powerful than amigas, up and coming machine the a 1200. Appearing. They were trying to go head-to-head with the PC, we, knew we had already won. In. The October. Issue of Atari ST user, Sam, Trammell even confirms that a falcon o 30 has, no interest, in going up against, the Amiga Atari seemed. To be going directly, for the throat of the PC, market, which was. A bold move to save at least, in. Any case Atari, Germany, had won the battle fears. But the falcon might detract from the Jaguar, had helped seal the deal and so, this is where we'd witness the initial launch at, the SiC düsseldorf, Atari, fair on the 21st, of August 1992. As. Well as a spinning, falcon display there was a lengthy, presentation, demonstrating. For graphics new, multitask, operating system and the, various, features enough. To make atari aficionados. Drool, from, here to kingdom come. If chancel hitted on anything if on two girls 606. And guys teach me, the, machines, exterior, was itself very modest looking mostly like a discolored. St, but, sporting, a multi-coloured, falcon. Badge. It. Seems atari were planning a completely, new case from, her following year but wanted to test the wind before committing, some. Felt it wasn't enough to stand out as a new machine and this lack of commitment in itself felt, a bit half-hearted.

And Concerning. Frankly. Very from a personal, perspective it, didn't, bother me there was something about that original, st case bathed in these new alien, colors which, made me just lust after this machine, and that, lust didn't, diminish so, i was over for damn moon to receive one myself, earlier. This year oh. Yes. Falcon. Hmm. Anyway. The. Machine was launched in France and the UK shortly, after Germany at the September, European, computer, trade show with, an entry price of $4.99 for. One megabyte model up to 999. Pounds, for the fully kitted version. Proving. Atari Germany, had won the battle and the Falcon was poised and ready to, be pitched as a serious, computer, to, rival, the PC. Now. That's not to say he couldn't but, for most part it was well ahead of PC. Hardware at the time but. The PC market was so strong, at this point it was nearly impossible to. Take it on in general, terms, coupled. With the Falcons hefty price tag there was a confusing, mixture, of raised eyebrows, sunken. Stomachs, and extreme, excitement of, a falcon o30 in. A situation. Strange, for, us Europeans. At the time the, USA, launch actually, followed, our own with, an unveiling at the Southern California, computer, fair on B 12 of September, and even. A fully kitted Falcon, was given away to, lucky entrant jason, spoor. The American, rollout would be a somewhat more subdued, affair, though indicative. Of be less than favorable success. Previous. Models had attained, in their, home country, regardless. With news and previews, spilling out left right and center anticipation. Was rife even. TV programs, such as bad influence, started, talking, about Atari, again why. Well, this might be one of the reasons why it's Ataris new baby the polkan it might have been waiting for this well, for. A couple of minutes including. A live demonstration, of this miraculous, machine it's. A brand new revolutionary piece, of equipment, so what's the new about it well inside. It's got something called the DSP. A digital, signal, processor. Andy, crane may have given a rather brief demonstration, but thankfully, we can go one better let's, take a look at my own model. Look. At this wondrous, machine, so many options and, so much potential. First. Up connectivity. The. Back looks familiar but offers a number of new options over the ST, over. Here is the DSP, port allowing direct access, to the DSP chip a 3.5. Millimeter stereo, out, 3.5. Millimeter, microphone, in a scuzzy. 2 port for CD, hard, drives and burr like a video, port allowing connection, to both standard, and VGA. Monitors, the, RF, TV, output also, still remains, a, 25. Pin parallel, port an rs-232. 9, pin serial connection, a local. Area network port. Power, socket, and of course the reset, switch on. The left side we've got the usual MIDI port cartridge. Port and enhanced, joystick, connections, the same you'll find on the Atari Jaguar then. On the right we have a high-density disk drive as standard. For all you sadists. Out there don't worry the standard, 9 pin mouse and joystick, ports still, remain tucked away underneath, the. You'll, note the fan, cutaway, next to it something. You of course won't see on an ST now. My particular Falcon also has a screen, I card, installed, allowing. For video capture but of course this, isn't standard, equipment, okay. To, start with I'll be connecting, up to an LCD VGA, monitor, for the best picture, quality. We. Get the usual Atari boot screen and this, one has a pre-installed, IDE, hard drive. Drivers. Are loaded and then we boot straight into the new multi toss operating, system. The. Gem desktop, has really taken an upgrade, this time around, and you. Can actually choose whether the machine runs toss or multi, toss, early. Machines didn't, actually have multi toss built into ROM so, they needed to load it from the hard drive assuming. You had a hard, drive model, you, also really need a reasonable, amount of RAM for multitasking. Thankfully. This machine has a whopping 14, megabytes which, is actually the factory, limit, rather. Interesting, levy multitasking. Features, of the new OS are actually derived from an ST operating. System extension, called mint, developed. By Eric R Smith, mint, originally, stood for mint, is not, toss, but.

Atari Simply, licensed, the software, told, the world that it now stands for mint is now toss and, provided. It as an alternative, kernel, to work alongside the new desktop, like. Vats where new OS was multitasking ready. We. Could spend all day exploring. But let's just cover some essentials. Ever, moment, we're running in 80-column. 256. Color mode which, gives us a resolution of 640, by 480, but. We can slip into a true color 40, column mode or, even use standard. Esti resolutions, for compatibility, the. Falcon can clearly Drive all of these through, the VGA monitor, without issue however. If we load up a program which dynamically, switches, to a resolution, outside. Of your monitors, range then, you might get an issue however. If, I plug into a standard TV through, RF, things. May be a tad more fuzzy, but, switching resolutions. Is no longer an issue the. TV isn't a great pairing with the Falcon and a, decent multi sync monitor would be far superior, but, it suffices for this example at least. You. Can't drive, a monitor, at the same time as TV, mode you should note as it runs slightly different resolutions, to compensate, but. I feel it's worth pointing out but we now have overscan, meaning, the entire picture can, fit in the screen doing, away with the huge borders, of the esti the. Falcon also has a built-in speaker so. You can hear sound, when hooked up to a VGA, monitor, even, without external speakers, or where it is quite, tinny. Using. The esti compatible, resolutions, of 320, by 240, in, colours 640. By 200, with 4 colors and 640. By 400. With 2 colors you can see most esti software, will work absolutely fine, on, this beast. We. Can use the original music maker for example, or even an, array of games found, with the esti power pack but, this, feels like a massive. Waste of. Power so. Instead let's try using some features of the DSP, that bad, influence, episode we were just watching the featured this clip of an D recording, and a, distorting, his voice using, the Falcon, you. Can do it from the CD or if you've got a microphone like this you, can do it from microphone, so I saw it just record something in Mary. Cruz, Mars, it. Play that back to make sure it's there and the thing Merry. Christmas. Now how can we improve that well it can do effects you can harmonize, if you also have to be reasonably fluent in German because this software so new but, the English program hasn't been written yet and I move, this.

Bit Save down a bit there and that. Much of my voice off, a bit like that play, it back and then, see if that improves my singing. Yeah. Well possibly, I remember it clear as day so. I thought, I'd try my own version using. Exactly, the same software, it's even in German, which is understandable. Given, this is a German, machine. So. First I'll need to record the, line. Seems. About, right, then. I'll apply some distortions. That's. One lifelong, dream, fulfilled. So, happy, days, of. Course the Falcon is capable, of even, more amazing. Feats, check. Out how fast it can run frontier, elite - for example. Compared. To it running on an ST you, can see this is how the game was always meant, to be played. Sometimes. His folk have also made some highly impressive demos, for. The hardware. Anyway. Let's. Get back to, the Falcon story. Impressively. Despite, reeling, back on their original design both. Technically, and aesthetically. Atari. Had created, something of magnitude. Offering. Audio video, and digital, processing. Capabilities, which, knocked a most competition, for six areas. The Falcon excelled in were also four kind of niches where, we saw ears really prick up with. Eager anticipation unit, started, appearing on shelves, in late, 1992. Alongside. The, predicted, price tag starting, from 499. Pounds, over, way to $12.99. For a fully kitted out harddrive, model however, due, to what Atari, called. Insurmountable. Quality, control, issues, it, wouldn't be until early 1993. That. Falcons, would ship in reasonable, numbers and, with, reasonable, quality, in the, US models, were on sale for under a thousand dollars but, dealers had to be signed up with a new agreement, meaning, of availability. Was painfully, restricted. But. Even as these machines, appeared Atari. Were yet again talking, about the launch of our old friend, a falcon. 0:40. The. Leftover, threads from the original Falcon project still, seemed to be crawling, along complete. Of a shiny case called. Via micro, box it was very likely a refinement, of a case they had hoped the, first machine, would have it. Looks incredibly, like a PlayStation. 2 and indeed. Is a source of Sony's inspiration. Even, being mentioned in Sony's, patent, application. There. Was even still talk of a cd-rom, kited, version making an appearance an idea. Which had been floating around for some years Atari. Had been trying to get in on the multimedia, experience. Since, the late 80s, would be doomed Atari, CD, AR 504, system designed, to plug into VST, with. Better timing Atari, could have led the pack in this area but like many of their projects, may seem to be best at just, talking, about them whilst pouring, money down the well in, essence, this was much like what they were doing, by announcing, a new Falcon immediately. After their current model went, on sale I'm. Sure they expected, it to be encouraging. For Atari, owners, but in reality it, just discouraged. Even the few people who could afford the Falcon from shelling out in the first place instead, they chose to hold off for a few months for this even better machine. By. This point, the Amiga 1200, had, also, landed, and was, kicking up a much bigger fuss, especially. With its established, amiga gaming, base eager. For those shiny, aga, graphics. But, this new machine is being sold on it's fantastic, graphics and colors apparently, it has up to 17.

Million Different, colors available, whatever. That means. Of. Course. It pushed the Falcon, was a more competent, machine than. The 1200, even, for gaming and despite, the squabbles, and the. 1200. Can disabilities. Thousand, on-screen colors from a palette of 16.7. Million yeah, maybe but. As in static ham mode the Falcon uses eight bits to store data for each pixel, giving. 65536. Animated, on-screen, colors, yeah. So the. 1200, has real multitasking. So, does the Falcon, Maruti, OS is a fully pre-emptive, operating, system with adaptive, prioritization. And inter-process, communication. But, all we need to do is look back at the ste, and CB, issue demand. If there's no demand, no games welcome. And aside. From Ataris. Miserable. Marketing, tactics, failing. To ignite the imaginations, of gamers, and their, core audience another. Reason for their lack of demand was, for price, people. Didn't, want to and indeed, couldn't, stump, up Neo Geo comparable. Dosh for such a high investment, risk, the. Amiga 1200 on, the other hand was, a hundred pounds cheaper and already, had a much wider game, library, you. Gave the Amiga and PC, inferno. That's. Not to say games didn't, come I remember opening up ST format, and seeing Robinson's. Requiem, from her first time and being, staggered. Here, was an open-world simulation. Game with a first-person view, running. On an Atari not. An Atari I could ever afford but. Of course I could dream whined. On 25 years vote, and that dream is reality, to. Go with my machine here in fact is a brand, new copy of Robinson's. Requiem, but, I'm going to open right, now and play. Oh, it's. On CD, I've. Only got a disk drive and, there we have yet another expense. Which, was just unobtainable. Of a typical gamer of the, early to mid 90s. But. Let's not forget Atari, Germany. Especially, weren't. Even pushing this machine for the gaming market this, was a serious, computer, and although, it was already carving, out a niche it, wasn't a very large one and much of it was still occupied by its older sister VST. In. The UK both Atari and its supporters, were, doing their best Atari. UK's, marketing, manager, devil still had managed, to encourage, games master to, feature her Falcon first of all why the new machines Atari, Falcon is famed at the home user as a revolutionary, new home computer, all-singing. All-dancing and. There was even the possibility of it being the games world phoning, computer, for, the new sky one series, small. Fish maybe but in fact Atari, UK, seemed, keen on still, trying to push the Falcon for, its gaming merits, there, was even news popping up of a new gaming control, pad especially former, machine similar. To the Lynx in layout that with 16, additional.

Programmable. Buttons of, course we all know what came to be of bet but, it's interesting to note that accessories. For now at least were. Being designed with both the Falcon and the upcoming Jaguar. In mind as. 1993. Pressed, on Falcon, news started. To die off and for. Most publications, it was business as usual, the, ST models were still on sale at the time and by, April the s TFM, had been slashed from, 249. Pounds to, 159. Really. As a last-ditch, attempt, to keep a format alive the, STA followed, shortly after, despite, price slash and denials, Atari. Had hoped ST models would sell some 150,000. Units by, the end of the year when. Quizzed about at Commodore UK's, manager, Kelly Sumner, didn't, show concern, and interpreted. The move as like. Where they didn't stock with a view, the thing altogether it. Wouldn't be long before Sumner, was proved right. The. Falcon continued, on sadly, no, 0:40, model came no, new case arrived in fact a very little really happened, by, the end of 1993, magazines. Were still trying to tell us the virtues, of this wondrous, computer, with, more advertising, actually, coming from third-party producers. Van, Atari itself. Replacement. Cases were popping up along, with CD, drives and other accessories, trying, to help the system limp, on it, was clear that many of these companies either depended. On Atari survival. Or were just diehard. Fans themselves. By. The end of the year bob guido general. Manager of Atari Europe claimed. Some, 14,000. Falcons had been sold with, around 4,000. Still in stock this. Slow rate of sale did, nothing to change prices, however and base, Falcom models were still priced at, 499. Pounds. Appearing, so what defiant, alongside, their, price slashed elders but. That new kid on the block was, starting to make some serious noise, Atari. Themselves. Were expecting, the Jaguar, to make some serious waves and were pouring all their time effort and indeed, money into, the 64 bit wonder console. Optimism. Was so high or more likely hope, but, Sam Trammell who had taken over the atari range from his father jack confirmed. They were planning, a check your computer. Proving. Yet again that, just when Atari corporation were looking focused, they, were still pouring ideas, and cash out quicker, than a shell suit on a slide. One. Promising, aspect, was Viteri had now jumped, on the marketing, bandwagon. Having, neglected this crucial, element of business for years even. During the Falcons launch. But. Jankura was now witnessing, big launch events and an, even bigger marketing, campaign, but, marketing, costs, money and unless, it came flooding back pretty, quick, the, business was in serious, trouble, it's. With this in mind but production a war machines above am a jaguar was massively, stepped, down this wasn't only worrying for atari computer, owners it was also a kick in the face for those who had just forked out for, a falcon. In. Early. 1994. Sam's words were we, couldn't spend enough money to give a falcon a significant, market share and pair to the PC we're. Continuing, to make computers, and we will provide the nest market set we're in, it.

Was A very important, decision for us to downsize, the company lower our risk in the computer business and, put ourselves behind, the jaguar by, the middle of 1994. The news was in Ataris. Net sales for 1993. Were twenty eight point eight million dollars compared, to one hundred and twenty seven point three million, for, nineteen ninety two to. Help keep the company going Time Warner increased, their interest in the firm and twenty, five percent to, twenty seven percent with, Sam remarking. As a result, of increased, spending for marketing, activities, and until, such times as shipments, of the Jaguar product Armada. Substantial. Volume we, do not expect to achieve profitability. Support. For the Falcon had now officially. Been, pulled and, everything. Was on the Jaguars, success. Users. Of the Falcon were left teetering, a new version of toss had, been in development but. Hadn't made it to official, release however. Toss, 4.04. Had, fixed numerous, bugs in the audio system and improved. Of running generally, the, problem was if you hadn't upgraded, to the new version already Atari. Weren't, going to help you meaning, third parties, were again picking up four pieces as we. Falcon lights began to dim surplus. Stock of systems would, gradually, fall in price suggesting. The end of the road. Then. In 1995. Something, happened something, promising. The. Music companies cielab decided, to buy up existing Falcon, stock and start, shipping model, as themselves, an optimistic, move which I clearly remember reading, about at the time. These. Designs, came in a number of variations, starting. With B mark one which was essentially, a standard, Falcon, followed, by the mark two offering. Some improvements. For audio professionals such. As accepting, line in audio, without the need of a preamp, and finally. The system ended with the Falcon, Mark X mounted. In a you rack case with plenty of space for mounting. And expansion. Options, cielab. Weren't the only German company getting in on existing atari technology, either. Jisub's. Had snapped up the TT specifications. To, create an upgraded, desktop, called the eagle, offering. Compatibility. With existing machines. But, providing, workstation. Quality graphics and audio, capabilities. However. These machines were, never going to revive a brand, and send, them belting, into houses across the country, instead. It just offered a small glimmer, of hope for atari, owners, pushing. Sales of a falcon hub buy another few thousand, curiously. At around the same time, the, amiga 1200 was itself being revived by Amiga, technologies, following. Commodores, own problems, one. Can only think that if Commodore, and Atari had, knitted together at the end there, still might be something, here today. Games. And applications would, still filter through to the Falcon even, tantalizing. Glimpses, of a future that could have been with, games such as substation. A doom clone finally. Arriving for ste, and falcon, machines but. For most Atari fans the once heralded computer. Was now a stranded. Ship becoming. Increasingly small. In a vast sea of other more, generic, machines, which, embraced, the multimedia age. That. Odd island, of dedicated, audio and video professionals, carried, on blissfully, still more, than content with what their falcons offered and they would do for some years but really, 1995. Marked, the end of the line it. Also meant that unique developments, never, published, their Falcon enhanced, version of the brilliant, obsession, pinball, game just, one of the many losses in this story games, like space junk, - were also dropped, from the Falcon and moved, to the Jaguar. It's, a sad fate, for, a machine which offered so much and had, so much potential, but as with all these commercial, failures there were groups of people who realized, how good it was and really, began to put it through its paces as, usual. It would be up to fans and hobbyists, to pick up the slack and trust. Me there's, a video there it is oh right, the. Falcon may not have a big cat name like the Jaguar but, it's at least has, the, same number of lives if not, more. Thank. You for watching my video on the glorious, a tiny Falcon I hope you, enjoyed, it I wish, to say thanks, to my patrons. Who contributed, voiceovers, for this video you guys were absolutely fantastic.

I, Also, wish to thank my other, patrons, you, guys for watching the, internet for being such an amazing resource, and, of. Course these, people over, on the left who helped out with this video in, other ways. So. I've got to say really, thanks. For watching have, a great evening.

2018-10-19

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