Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – SEP84.DOC

This post includes the contents of SEP84.DOC. This appears to be a report that gives details on the usage of the SIG (how many hours each user spent in the SIG, etc.). This is in the from of an e-mail from someone named KELLY who was presumably an employee of Delphi. The e-mail is dated October 4th, 1984.

Source: Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – SEP84.DOC

Atari Jaguar

Atari Jaguar ad

“Here’s something to gnaw on. The new Jaguar interactive multimedia system has a mind blowing 64 bits of power, compared to a simply 16 bits for the competition. 64 bits means 16 million colors in a 3D world. Breakneck speeds. Cat-like control. And special effects like you see in the movies.

How does it sound? Well, if this ad had a volume button your mother would be yelling at you to turn it down. Car crashes, alien screeches, jet engines and other bone rattling stereo CD quality sounds will make you jump out of your seat.

When you do, make sure to run to the nearest store. Everyone else will be there chomping at the bit to buy one.

What we’re really saying is Jaguar’s 64 bits eats the competition alive. Sink your teeth into it and you’ll see what we mean. Get Bit by Jaguar.”

The Atari Jaguar was Atari’s last attempt at a home console. The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 and discontinued in 1996 after selling only 250,000 units.

The Jaguar had a lot going for it when it was released. It was the most powerful system available (even if the 64-bits claim was a bit of an exageration… it would more accurately be called a 32-bit system) and it was affordable. However, the multi-chip design made it difficult to program for and there were too few 3rd party releases and without quality software, no system can survive. In addition, the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation were released in 1995 and for the most part, these were technically superior systems, easier to program for and had more 3rd party software. Despite the price advantage (the Jaguar was much cheaper at only $149) and the release of a CD peripheral, it just could not compete.

This failure was pretty much the end of Atari. Atari left the home video game market for good and Hasbro Interactive bought out Atari in the late 1990s.

However, the Jaguar lives on. The patents were released to the public domain and homebrew games are still being developed for the console. Jaguar hardware also lived a little longer as the basis for the Atari arcade games Area 51 (1995), Maximum Force (1996) and the combo version (1998).

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (085-088)

All of these photos were likely taken in the early 1970s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (085-088)

Price Pointe (Computer Shopper, May 1996)

This ad is from the May 1996 issue of Computer Shopper. While Computer Shopper was a quality magazine with good editorial content, it was best known for the hundreds of vendors that advertised in its pages for desktop systems, laptops, computer parts of all kinds, and anything else you can think of that is computer related. The May 1996 issue had nearly 900 pages and this was probably near the height of its popularity.

This ad is one of hundreds of similar ads throughout this magazine. There were so many vendors it could be difficult to chose one. You could flip through the magazine trying to compare prices but an add would only contain a small cross section of the thousands of products that the vendor probably had. In this case, Price Pointe advertises over 30,000 products in stock. I'm sure within a few years as the .com boom came, 99% were probably out of business. I mean who has ever heard of Price Pointe, the vendor in this ad?

This ad is pretty typical and offers a small cross section of the things you could find in this magazine. Some highlights include:

• Networking - At this point in time, motherboards did not typically have built in networking features. The average user didn't even have a use for one as broadband was not widely available yet. But if you did need networking at this time you would probably be buying a 10mbps PCI or ISA card for about $100. Hubs and switches were vastly more expensive than today with a 6 port hub setting you back nearly $1000.


• Modems - If you were buying a modem for dial-up internet or BBS use, then you would be getting a 14.4bps or 28.8 bps modem. Though prices varied based on brand and specific features, a 14.4bps modem would be about $100 and a 28.8bps modem would be about $200.


• Monitors - The vast majority of people at this time would have a 15" or 17" CRT monitor (though some would have a 14" or if you had the money, a 21"). A modest 15" monitor would cost you $350 and up. ViewSonic, Mag, CTX, and NEC are all brands I recognize though I don't remember ever seeing a Nokia monitor.


• Notebooks - At this time, notebook computers were significantly less affordable than they are now. Speeds in this add range from 75-MHz 486 based machines (~$2000) to 133-MHz Pentium systems (~$4300 and up). Most had 8MB of RAM and 800MB to 1.2GB hard drives. Brands such as Texas Instruments, AST, Hewlett Packard, Digital, and Toshiba are advertised here.


• Hard Drives - You could get a 635MB IDE drive for as little as $173 but a 2.1 GB SCSI drive would set you back $700 or more. Seagate and Western Digital are brands probably familiar to most but Conner disappeared in the 90s. They were once known for producing quality drives but ran into financial difficulties and were purchased by Seagate.

...and much more.