Atari Falcon(atarimuseum.nl)
40 pointsby debo_8 hours ago7 comments
  • tjansen37 minutes ago
    Oh, wow, the Falcon was so cool when it came out, especially the 56k DSP. Back then computer magazines were quite technical, and there were articles about the 56k and how to program it. I remember seeing the Falcon at some local Atari trade fair and desperately wanted to have it. Unfortunately it was way way too expensive for me as a teenager. And even then, Atari fans dreamed that the Falcon would take off, and the announced MultiTOS would bring people back. But deep down everybody knew that it didn’t have a chance against PCs.
  • KingOfCodersan hour ago
    Falcon030 was an eye popping machine.

    Had an Amiga 4000/40 back then and it was clear for some time this era went down. Wanted a Falcon030 but couldn't get one, there was a lot of hope in the DSP to turn things around against PCs (for gfx). Got a Bebox instead, with it's dual CPU (back then!) but that didn't also take off. Switched to PCs then.

  • steve1977an hour ago
    The company C-Lab that is mentioned in the article was the initial home of the Creator and Notator sequencers. Those would later evolve into Notator Logic and then Logic, now under the Emagic brand. Until Emagic got bought by Apple. The sequencer still lives on as Apple Logic Pro.

    The also mentioned Cubase also still exists. The Cubase Audio Falcon version already included some native effects like reverb, thanks to the 56000 DSP. While not comparable in quality to what we have today, it would give musicians a glimpse into what would become Virtual Studio Technology (VST) a few years later.

    So, that little computer has quite a bit of legacy in the music production world.

    • bitwize8 minutes ago
      C-Lab invested at least as much effort into the copy protection system (which involved a cartridge-port dongle) as into Creator and Notator themselves. Gerhard wanted to be paid for his extraordinary effort.

      Last I knew, the copy protection stands unbroken, even though some people had gotten partial emulation of the dongle working.

      i'm sure claude will figure it out soon

  • radley6 hours ago
    Interesting timing. They just announced the Atari 800XL Hybrid Gaming Console, coming out in April:

    https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/atari-800xl-hybrid-ga...

  • caran hour ago
    Someone rebuilt the Falcon from scratch, seen recently at the VCF West. Pretty insane.

    https://re-falcon.com

  • MiroslavPokorny2 hours ago
    Only ever saw an Atari once at a Harvey Norman window. Never knew anyone with any Atari computer, everyone had a Commodore.
    • steve19772 hours ago
      They were pretty common in Europe at the time. And basically ubiquitous in home recording studios.
  • orionblastar7 hours ago
    The Atari Falcon was an awesome GEM-based computer. It paired with the Amiga 3000.
    • steve19772 hours ago
      What set the Falcon apart from Amiga, especially for music production, was built-in MIDI (as its ST predecessors) and a Motorola 56000 DSP. It was probably the first affordable home computer that allowed 8-track digital recording in essentially CD quality.
    • rjrjrjrj5 hours ago
      More comparable to the Amiga 1200, I think.
      • empressplay3 hours ago
        Falcon had an 030, 1200 an 020
        • rjrjrjrj3 hours ago
          Sure, but there wasn’t that much of a difference between the 030 and 020.

          Falcon and 1200 had the same form factor. They are the final 80s-style home computer for their respective brands.