Welcome to the Slipstream (My computer history)

What is the slipstream you may ask. Well with all honesty, I don't know. It use to be a column that I wrote for a local Atari User group. That is, back in the days when my trusty Atari ST was my main computer. Most people think of Atari and automatically think: "Oh, I had one of those things. I use to have Pack-man and Pitfall for it!" Well the 2600 was what got Atari on the map but the Atari St was a great computer. It was a Motorola 68000 based, 16 bit computer with an operating system called GEM (short for Graphic Environment Manager). It wasn't the best OS in the world, but it definitely beat Windows 3.1. You have to realize, this was all happening way back in 1986.

The ST wasn't my first computer, I actually started with a Commodore 64 back in school doing word processing and some programming (I hated type writers). I wrote a drawing program with it. It wasn't very good but it worked.. What a pain in the *$&^$& this computer was. Saving to tape (I didn't have a disk drive) and trying to figure out how to print. But for a $199.00 what could you expect.

I also got into Commodores Amiga for a while. I bought a 500 and played around with it for a few years along with my first IBM clone. I had tried out an IBM PC earlier but had always hated DOS. It just seemed so backwards compared to the Atari and Amiga O.S.'s. At least now, the PC world (OS-wise) has come along way.

Now I have all but abandoned my ST (yes I still have it). I've gave it to my son and now even he has abandoned it for my PC. It plays better games! I slowly am starting to feel the grip on my computer slipping. What happens when the next kid wants to use one? I guess it only gets worse from here...!

These Days...