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88-531: Tass Times was released for the Atari ST , Amiga , Commodore 64 , Apple II , Apple IIGS , Mac , and IBM PC compatibles . It was the first commercial game for the II GS . The plot of the game involves the player getting sucked into Tonetown, a surreal alternate world seemingly based on a distillation of 1980s culture, with overtones of punk and new wave culture (such as pink hair, etc.). The word "Tass" in

176-480: A GEMDOS file system which became part of Atari TOS (for "The Operating System", colloquially known as the "Tramiel Operating System"). This gave the ST a fast, hierarchical file system , essential for hard drives , and provided programmers with function calls similar to MS-DOS . The Atari ST character set is based on codepage 437 . After six months of intensive effort following Tramiel's takeover, Atari announced

264-476: A pointer by employing some kind of pointing device . Text-only displays can also support windowing, as a way to maintain multiple independent display areas, such as multiple buffers in Emacs . Text windows are usually controlled by keyboard, though some also respond to the mouse. A graphical user interface (GUI) using windows as one of its main " metaphors " is called a windowing system , whose main components are

352-470: A 16-bit bus, which reduces performance and cost. In another cost-reduction measure, Atari shipped the Falcon in an inexpensive case much like that of the ST and ST . Aftermarket upgrade kits allow it to be put in a desktop or rack-mount case, with the keyboard separate. Released in 1992, the Falcon was discontinued by Atari the following year. In Europe, C-Lab licensed the Falcon design from Atari and released

440-549: A door. Macworld criticizes Tonetown's difficulty, as well as its graphics, expressing that "The games's graphics, although imaginative and professionally constructed, sometimes lack detail and are relegated to a small part of the screen", and suggests that a zoom feature would remedy this. Macworld inducted Tass Times in Tonetown into its 1987 Game Hall of Fame in the Adventure Game category, ahead of runners-up

528-404: A few months later and were included in new machines and as an upgrade for older machines. Atari originally intended to include GEM's GDOS (Graphical Device Operating System), which allows programs to send GEM VDI ( Virtual Device Interface ) commands to drivers loaded by GDOS. This allows developers to send VDI instructions to other devices simply by pointing to it. However, GDOS was not ready at

616-413: A few tears". Talking to Snarl during the final sequence reveals that Gramps himself had created him, using the hoop device and the three original animal specimens, and that he had captured Gramps with the intention of continuing his work at any cost. It is also hinted that Tonetown itself may have been created entirely by Gramps' imagination, who then discovered a way to physically travel to it. The game

704-429: A horizontal bar. The title bar is typically used to display the name of the application or the name of the open document, and may provide title bar buttons for minimizing, maximizing, closing or rolling up of application windows. These functions are typically placed in the top-right of the screen to allow fast and inaccurate inputs through barrier pointing . Typically title bars can be used to provide window motion enabling

792-555: A letter by Gilman Louie , head of Spectrum HoloByte . He stated that he had been warned by competitors that releasing a game like Falcon on the ST would fail because BBSs would widely disseminate it. Within 30 days of releasing the non- copy protected ST version, the game was available on BBSs with maps and code wheels . Because the ST market was smaller than that for the IBM PC, it was more vulnerable to piracy which, Louie said, seemed to be better organized and more widely accepted for

880-723: A list price of US$ 999 (equivalent to about $ 2,800 in 2023) in the US, BYTE hailed it as the first computer to break the $ 1000 per megabyte price barrier. Compute! noted that the 1040ST is the first computer with one megabyte of RAM to sell for less than $ 2,500. A limited number of 1040STFs shipped with a single-sided floppy drive. Initial sales were strong, especially in Europe, where Atari sold 75% of its computers. West Germany became Atari's strongest market, with small business owners using them for desktop publishing and CAD. To address this growing market segment, Atari introduced

968-449: A little under one year. Atari had intended to release the 130ST with 128 KB of RAM and the 260ST with 256 KB. However, the ST initially shipped without TOS in ROM and required booting TOS from floppy, taking 206 KB RAM away from applications. The 260ST was launched in Europe on a limited basis. Early models have six ROM sockets for easy upgrades to TOS. New ROMs were released

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1056-470: A low-cost desktop publishing package. A custom blitter coprocessor improved some graphics performance, but was not included in all models. Developers wanting to use it had to detect its presence in their programs. Properly written applications using the GEM API automatically make use of the blitter. In late 1989, Atari Corporation released the 520ST and 1040ST (also written STE), enhanced version of

1144-587: A new design with an integrated hard-drive enclosure. The final model of ST computer is the Falcon030. Like the TT, it is 68030-based, at 16 MHz, but with improved video modes and an on-board Motorola 56001 audio digital signal processor . Like the Atari STE , it supports sampling frequencies above 44.1 kHz; the sampling master clock is 98340 Hz (which can be divided by a number between 2 and 16 to get

1232-474: A player still deemed a "tourist" before Tonetown apparel and hairstyles can ever be purchased. The port for IBM PC compatibles allows use of a computer mouse . At the time of release, PC mice were rare and the programmers had to code their own routines to read a serial mouse. Compute! stated that the Amiga version of Tass Times in Tonetown was a "fascinating new game" with "superb color graphics", calling

1320-721: A single double-sided one, to avoid alienating early adopters . Some software uses formats which allow the full disk to be read by double-sided drives but still lets single-sided drives access side A of the disk. Many magazine coverdisks (such as the first 30 issues of ST Format ) were designed this way, as were a few games. The music in Carrier Command and the intro sequence in Populous are not accessible to single-sided drives, for example. STs with double-sided drives can read disks formatted by MS-DOS , but IBM PC compatibles can not read Atari disks because of differences in

1408-451: A single main application window. Some windows in macOS have a feature called a drawer, which is a pane that slides out the side of the window and to show extra options. Applications that can run either under a graphical user interface or in a text user interface may use different terminology. GNU Emacs uses the term "window" to refer to an area within its display while a traditional window, such as controlled by an X11 window manager,

1496-683: A single resolution of 640 × 400 at 71.25 Hz. The attached monitor determines available resolutions, so each application either supports both types of monitors or only one. Most ST games require colour with productivity software favouring the monochrome. The Philips CM8833-II was a popular color monitor for the Atari ST. Atari initially used single-sided 3.5 inch floppy disk drives that could store up to 360 KB. Later drives were double-sided and stored 720 KB. Some commercial software, particularly games, shipped by default on single-sided disks, even supplying two 360 KB floppies instead of

1584-519: A working area. In the working area, the document, image, folder contents or other main object is displayed. Around the working area, within the bounding window, there may be other smaller window areas, sometimes called panes or panels, showing relevant information or options. The working area of a single document interface holds only one main object. "Child windows" in multiple document interfaces , and tabs for example in many web browsers, can make several similar documents or main objects available within

1672-439: Is a graphical control element . It consists of a visual area containing some of the graphical user interface of the program it belongs to and is framed by a window decoration . It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows. It displays the output of and may allow input to one or more processes . Windows are primarily associated with graphical displays, where they can be manipulated with

1760-478: Is an example of the graphical text adventure genre. Somewhat like classical text adventures or the early Sierra games, players use text commands (e.g. "TAKE HOOPLET") to interact with the game, but like LucasArts adventure games (or the later Sierra games), they also use an intuitive GUI . The player viewed the world of the game through a small window at the top left of the screen in which their surroundings were displayed. Much like The Bard's Tale , this view

1848-453: Is based on CP/M-68K, a direct port of CP/M to the 68000. By 1985, CP/M was becoming increasingly outdated; it did not support subdirectories, for example. Digital Research was also in the process of building GEMDOS, a disk operating system for GEM, and debated whether a port of it could be completed in time for product delivery in June. The decision was eventually taken to port it, resulting in

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1936-427: Is called "non-client area". In the predominant layout for modern window decorations, the top bar contains the title of that window and buttons which perform windowing-related actions such as: The border exists primarily to allow the user to resize the window, but also to create a visual separation between the window's contents and the rest of the desktop environment . Window decorations are considered important for

2024-433: Is called a "frame". Any window can be split into the window decoration and the window's content, although some systems purposely eschew window decoration as a form of minimalism . The window decoration is a part of a window in most windowing systems . Window decoration typically consists of a title bar , usually along the top of each window and a minimal border around the other three sides. On Microsoft Windows this

2112-467: Is the first Atari with PCM audio; using a new chip, it added the ability to play back 8-bit (signed) samples at 6258 Hz, 12,517 Hz, 25,033 Hz, and even 50,066 Hz, via direct memory access (DMA). The channels are arranged as either a mono track or a track of LRLRLRLR... bytes. RAM is now much more simply upgradable via SIMMs . Two enhanced joystick ports were added (two normal joysticks can be plugged into each port with an adapter), with

2200-496: Is transported to the mysterious Tonetown world alongside Spot, discovering that "Spot", in this world, is not only sentient and capable of speech but is actually a celebrity resident named "Ennio the Legend". Ennio travels along with the player, providing commentary and advice as well alerting the player to danger. The player learns that Gramps' mysterious disappearance extends even into the Tonetown world, and may have been arranged by

2288-540: The Infocom text adventures released over the preceding year, in particular Bureaucracy and Stationfall . Macworld called Tass Times in Tonetown "something that seems a cross between Raw magazine, The Face , and the Bizarro World of DC Comics " and praised it as a fun game with a user-friendly interface. Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and

2376-586: The Mega STE , is an STE in a grey Atari TT case that had a switchable 16 MHz, dual-bus design (16-bit external, 32-bit internal), optional Motorola 68881 FPU , built-in 1.44 MB "HD" 3 1 ⁄ 2 -inch floppy disk drive, VME expansion slot, a network port (very similar to that used by Apple's LocalTalk ) and an optional built-in 3 1 ⁄ 2 " hard drive. It also shipped with TOS 2.00 (better support for hard drives, enhanced desktop interface, memory test, 1.44 MB floppy support, bug fixes). It

2464-564: The Motorola 68000 's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals. The ST was sold with either Atari's color monitor or less expensive monochrome monitor . Color graphics modes are available only on the former while the highest-resolution mode requires the monochrome monitor. Some models can display the color modes on a TV. In Germany and some other markets, the ST gained a foothold for CAD and desktop publishing . With built-in MIDI ports, it

2552-583: The Motorola 68000 . The Atari ST design was completed in five months in 1984, concluding with it being shown at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show. A custom sound processor called AMY had been in development at Atari, Inc. and was considered for the new ST computer design. The chip needed more time to complete, so AMY was dropped in favor of a commodity Yamaha YM2149F variant of the General Instrument AY-3-8910 . Soon after

2640-527: The display server and the window manager . The idea was developed at the Stanford Research Institute (led by Douglas Engelbart ). Their earliest systems supported multiple windows, but there was no obvious way to indicate boundaries between them (such as window borders, title bars , etc.). Research continued at Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center / PARC (led by Alan Kay ). They used overlapping windows. During

2728-415: The host running the application also appears frequently. Various methods ( menu -selections, escape sequences , setup parameters, command-line options – depending on the computing environment) may exist to give the end-user some control of title-bar text. Document-oriented applications like a text editor may display the filename or path of the document being edited. Most web browsers will render

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2816-462: The 1980s the term " WIMP ", which stands for window, icon, menu, pointer, was coined at PARC. Apple had worked with PARC briefly at that time. Apple developed an interface based on PARC's interface. It was first used on Apple's Lisa and later Macintosh computers. Microsoft was developing Office applications for the Mac at that time. Some speculate that this gave them access to Apple's OS before it

2904-617: The 520ST at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 1985. InfoWorld assessed the prototypes shown at computer shows as follows: Pilot production models of the Atari machine are much slicker than the hand-built models shown at earlier computer fairs; it doesn't look like a typical Commodore 64-style, corner-cutting, low-cost Jack Tramiel product of the past. Atari unexpectedly displayed

2992-453: The Amiga had almost none. After Atlanta COMDEX, The New York Times reported that "more than 100 software titles will be available for the [ST], most written by small software houses that desperately need work", and contrasted the "small, little-known companies" at Las Vegas with the larger ones like Electronic Arts and Activision , which planned Amiga applications. Trip Hawkins of Electronic Arts said, "I don't think Atari understands

3080-536: The Atari 520ST in June 1985. In March 1987, the two companies settled the dispute out of court in a closed decision. The lead architect of the new computer project at Tramel Technology and Atari Corporation was ex-Commodore employee Shiraz Shivji , who previously worked on the Commodore 64 's development. Different CPUs were investigated, including the 32-bit National Semiconductor NS32000 , but engineers were disappointed with its performance, and they moved to

3168-403: The Atari buyout, Microsoft suggested to Tramiel that it could port Windows to the platform, but the delivery date was out by two years. Another possibility was Digital Research , which was working on a new GUI-based system then known as Crystal, soon to become GEM . Another option was to write a new operating system, but this was rejected as Atari management was unsure whether the company had

3256-625: The C-Lab Falcon Mk I, identical to Atari's Falcon except for slight modifications to the audio circuitry. The Mk II added an internal 500 MB SCSI hard disk; and the Mk X further added a desktop case. C-Lab Falcons were also imported to the US by some Atari dealers. As with the Atari 8-bit computers , software publishers attributed their reluctance to produce Atari ST products in part to—as Compute! reported in 1988—the belief in

3344-465: The Centronics printer port can be used for joystick input, and several games used available adaptors that used the printer socket, providing two additional 9-pin joystick ports. The ST supports a monochrome or colour monitor. The colour hardware supports two resolutions: 320 × 200 pixels, with 16 of 512 colours; and 640 × 200, with 4 of 512 colours. The monochrome monitor was less expensive and has

3432-726: The ST at Atlanta COMDEX in May. Similarities to the original Macintosh and Tramiel's role in its development resulted in it being nicknamed Jackintosh . Atari's rapid development of the ST amazed many, but others were skeptical, citing its "cheap" appearance, Atari's uncertain financial health, and poor relations between Tramiel-led Commodore and software developers. Atari ST print advertisements stated, "America, We Built It For You", and quoted Atari president Sam Tramiel: "We promised. We delivered. With pride, determination, and good old ATARI know how". But Jack Tramiel admitted that sales of its earlier 8-bit systems were "very, very slow", Atari

3520-522: The ST or Amiga, and the majority of software companies were hesitant to support another platform beyond the IBM PC , Apple, and Commodore 64 . Philippe Kahn of Borland said, "These days, if I were a consumer, I'd stick with companies [such as Apple and IBM] I know will be around ". At Las Vegas COMDEX in November 1985, the industry was surprised by more than 30 companies exhibiting ST software while

3608-473: The ST or the Amiga. John C. Dvorak wrote that the public saw both Commodore and Atari as selling "cheap disposable" game machines, in part because of their computers' sophisticated graphics. The original 520ST case design was created by Ira Velinsky, Atari's chief Industrial Designer. It is wedge-shaped, with bold angular lines and a series of grilles cut into the rear for airflow. The keyboard has soft tactile feedback and rhomboid-shaped function keys across

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3696-528: The ST with improvements to the multimedia hardware and operating system. It features an increased color palette of 4,096 colors from the ST's 512 (though the maximum displayable palette without programming tricks is still limited to 16 in the lowest 320 × 200 resolution, and even fewer in higher resolutions), genlock support, and a blitter coprocessor (stylized as "BLiTTER") which can quickly move large blocks of data (particularly, graphics data) around in RAM. The STE

3784-547: The ST. After a meeting with Atari, one analyst said, "We've seen marketing strategies changed before our eyes". Tramiel's poor reputation influenced potential software developers. One said, "Dealing with Commodore is like dealing with Attila the Hun. I don't know if Tramiel will be following his old habits ... I don't see a lot of people rushing to get software on the machine." Large business-software companies like Lotus , Ashton-Tate , and Microsoft did not promise software for either

3872-457: The ST. He reported that the Amiga version sold in six weeks twice as much as the ST version in nine weeks, and that the Mac and PC versions had four times the sales. Computer Gaming World stated "This is certainly the clearest exposition ... we have seen to date" of why software companies produced less software for the ST than for other computers. Window (computing) In computing, a window

3960-516: The ST1 at Comdex in 1986. Renamed to Mega, it includes a high-quality detached keyboard, a stronger case to support the weight of a monitor, and an internal bus expansion connector. An optional 20 MB hard drive can be placed below or above the main case. Initially equipped with 2 or 4 MB of RAM (a 1 MB version, the Mega 1, followed), the Mega machines can be combined with Atari's laser printer for

4048-587: The SubGenius ). The ST was less expensive than most contemporaries, including the Macintosh Plus , and is faster than many. Largely as a result of its price and performance factor, the ST became fairly popular, especially in Europe where foreign-exchange rates amplified prices. The company's English advertising slogan of the era was "Power Without the Price". An Atari ST and terminal emulation software

4136-462: The actual sampling frequencies). It can play the STE sample frequencies (up to 50066 Hz) in 8 or 16 bit, mono or stereo, all by using the same DMA interface as the STE, with a few additions. It can both play back and record samples, with 8 mono channels and 4 stereo channels, allowing musicians to use it for recording to hard drive. Although the 68030 microprocessor can use 32-bit memory, the Falcon uses

4224-538: The added twist of the reality in which it is played. Get tass, stay tone-ly and find Gramps." Macworld reviewed the Macintosh version of Tass Times in Tonetown , calling it a "Challenging, unique game with [a] sense of humor." Macworld praises its gameplay, puzzles, and atmosphere, stating that "the game demands that you familiarize yourself with a vernacular and logic particular to Tonetown. ... Tass Times in Tonetown grows much tricker as you progress. What makes

4312-407: The border. Some window managers provide useless borders which are purely for decorative purposes and offer no window motion facility. These window managers do not allow windows to be resized by using a drag action on the border. The title bar is a graphical control element and part of the window decoration provided by some window managers. As a convention, it is located at the top of the window as

4400-676: The chipset. Tramiel countered by suing Amiga Corp. on August 13, 1984, seeking damages and an injunction to bar Amiga (and effectively Commodore) from producing anything with its technology. The lawsuit left the Amiga team in limbo during mid-1984. Commodore eventually moved forward, with plans to improve the chipset and develop an operating system . Commodore announced the Amiga 1000 with the Lorraine chipset in July 1985, but it wasn't available in quantity until 1986. The delay gave Atari time to deliver

4488-530: The console and home computer departments, in July. As executives and engineers left Commodore to join Tramel Technology, Commodore responded by filing lawsuits against four former engineers for infringement of trade secrets . The Tramiels did not purchase the employee contracts with the assets of Atari, Inc. and re-hired approximately 100 of the 900 former employees. Tramel Technology soon changed its name to Atari Corporation . Amid rumors that Tramiel

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4576-517: The contents of the HTML element title in their title bar, sometimes pre- or postfixed by the application name. Google Chrome and some versions of Mozilla Firefox place their tabs in the title bar. This makes it unnecessary to use the main window for the tabs, but usually results in the title becoming truncated. An asterisk at its beginning may be used to signify unsaved changes. The title bar often contains widgets for system commands relating to

4664-482: The cute but destructive "blobpet" and dangerous monsters. The blobpet also makes an appearance in the animated intro exclusive to the Apple II, Commodore 64, and PC ports. Gramps is eventually revealed to be Snarl's prisoner, held captive in an island office tower. After rescuing him, the player brings the group to a final confrontation with Snarl at his mansion, with Snarl possessing the Tonetown world's iteration of

4752-429: The design of the look and feel of an operating system and some systems allow for customization of the colors, styles and animation effects used. Window border is a window decoration component provided by some window managers, that appears around the active window . Some window managers may also display a border around background windows . Typically window borders enable the window to be resized or moved by dragging

4840-483: The entire ST computer line in 1993, shifting the company's focus to the Jaguar video game console. The Atari ST was born from the rivalry between home computer makers Atari, Inc. and Commodore International . Jay Miner , one of the designers of the custom chips in the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit computers , tried to convince Atari management to create a new chipset for a video game console and computer. When his idea

4928-440: The existence of a "higher-than-normal amount of software piracy". That year, WordPerfect threatened to discontinue the Atari ST version of its word processor because the company discovered that pirate bulletin board systems (BBSs) were distributing it, causing ST-Log to warn that "we had better put a stop to piracy now ... it can have harmful effects on the longevity and health of your computer". In 1989, magazines published

5016-547: The football for Charlie Brown , you can believe Jack Tramiel"; another said that because of its experience with Tramiel, "our interest in Atari is zero, zilch". Neither Atari nor Commodore could persuade large chains like ComputerLand or BusinessLand to sell its products. Observers criticized Atari's erratic discussion of its stated plans for the new computer, as it shifted between using mass merchandisers , specialty computer stores, and both. When asked at COMDEX, Atari executives could not name any computer stores that would carry

5104-489: The game so challenging is also what makes it unique: the novelty of Tonetown, its mores, and its inhabitants. These same qualities make many clues difficult to decipher." Macworld compares Tass Times in Tonetown's gameplay to other adventure games, including Déjà Vu , Uninvited , and Mindshadow . Macworld notes that Tonetown lacks an 'operate' command as Déjà Vu and Uninvited do, instead requiring context-sensitive verbs for actions, i.e typing "unlock" to unlock

5192-423: The game, and is used to complete the game at almost its very end. Hapless players can leave the book behind only to realize it is needed for game completion right when they are on the verge of completing it. Other scenarios include many possible instances of saving the game in situations in which death can never be avoided in time, such as in a location too far away from the shopping boutiques, so that Snarl will kill

5280-422: The game, the player must assimilate into Tonetown's culture, using guitar picks as currency and partaking in its party scene, its "tass" music, including the popular band The Daglets, and such delicacies as "GloBurgers". The player encounters technology unique to Tonetown such as the "zagtone" (a device that plays variable notes depending on what object it is struck against), as well as bizarre creatures including

5368-426: The hoop device. While Ennio holds Snarl at bay, Gramps activates the hoop and the player throws Snarl through it. The player enters the hoop and is returned to the "normal" world just outside Gramps' cabin, discovering that Snarl's arrival into the normal world has transformed him into three separate creatures - which the game's narrator describes as "a cute little pig, a darling raccoon, and a little crocodile shedding

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5456-435: The keyboard. An "FM" variant includes an RF modulator allowing a television to be used instead of a monitor. The trailing "F" and "FM" were often dropped in common usage. In BYTE magazine's March 1986 cover photo of the system, the name plate reads 1040ST but in the headline and article it's simply "1040ST". The 1040ST is one of the earliest personal computers shipped with a base RAM configuration of 1 MB. With

5544-405: The layout of data on track 0. Atari upgraded the basic design in 1986 with the 1040STF, stylized as 1040ST : essentially a 520ST with twice the RAM and with the power supply and a double-sided floppy drive built-in instead of external. This adds to the size of the machine, but reduces cable clutter. The joystick and mouse ports, formerly on the right side of the machine, are in a recess underneath

5632-485: The new connectors placed in more easily accessed locations on the side of the case. The enhanced joystick ports were re-used in the Atari Jaguar console and are compatible. The STE models initially had software and hardware conflicts resulting in some applications and video games written for the ST line being unstable or even completely unusable, primarily caused by programming direct hardware calls which bypassed

5720-485: The operating system. Furthermore, even having a joystick plugged in would sometimes cause strange behavior with a few applications (such as the WYSIWYG word-processor application 1st Word Plus ). Sleepwalker was the only STE-only game from a major publisher, but there were STe enhancements in games such as Another World , Zool and The Chaos Engine , as well as exclusives from smaller companies. The last STE machine,

5808-532: The required expertise. Digital Research was fully committed to the Intel platform, so a team from Atari was sent to the Digital Research headquarters to work with the "Monterey Team", which comprised a mixture of Atari and Digital Research engineers. Atari's Leonard Tramiel oversaw "Project Jason" (also known as The Operating System) for the ST series, named for designer and developer Jason Loveman. GEM

5896-558: The right to add a keyboard and market the complete computer, designated the 1850XLD. After leaving Commodore International in January 1984, Jack Tramiel formed Tramel (without an "i") Technology, Ltd. with his sons and other ex-Commodore employees and, in April, began planning a new computer. Interested in Atari's overseas manufacturing and worldwide distribution network, Tramiel negotiated with Warner in May and June 1984. He secured funding and bought Atari's consumer division, which included

5984-480: The same as the document's icon in the file manager. Some window managers display an icon or symbol to indicate that the contents of the window have not been saved or confirmed in some way: macOS displays a dot in the center of its close button; RISC OS appends an asterisk to the title. Some tiling window managers provide title bars which are purely for informative purposes and offer no controls or menus. These window managers do not allow windows to be moved around

6072-623: The software business. I'm still skeptical about its resources and its credibility." Although Michael Berlyn of Infocom promised that his company would quickly publish all of its games for the new computer, he doubted many others would soon do so. Spinnaker and Lifetree were more positive, both promising to release ST software. Spinnaker said that "Atari has a vastly improved attitude toward software developers. They are eager to give us technical support and machines". Lifetree said, "We are giving Atari high priority". Some, such as Software Publishing Corporation , were unsure of whether to develop for

6160-471: The story "unusual". Hartley and Pattie Lesser similarly commented on the game in their "The Role of Computers" column in Dragon #116 (1986), stating "This one is truly bizarre". Computer Gaming World ' s Charles Ardai agreed, stating that the "strange story" did not interest him. Roy Wagner reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World , and stated that "This game is a relatively easy adventure with

6248-472: The successor to the company's 8-bit home computers . The initial model, the Atari 520ST , had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available in July. It was the first personal computer with a bitmapped color graphical user interface , using a version of Digital Research 's GEM interface / operating system from February 1985. The Atari 1040ST , released in 1986 with 1 MB of memory,

6336-511: The time the ST started shipping and was included in software packages and with later ST machines. Later versions of GDOS support vector fonts . A limited set of GEM fonts were included in the ROMs, including the ST's standard 8x8 pixel graphical character set. It contains four characters which can be placed together in a square, forming the face of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs (the figurehead of the Church of

6424-413: The title bar: Note that a context menu may be available from some title bar buttons or by right-clicking. Some window managers display a small icon in the title bar that may vary according to the application on which it appears. The title bar icon may behave like a menu button, or may provide a context menu facility. macOS applications commonly have a proxy icon next to the window title that functions

6512-475: The title refers to an adjective used within the parallel world of Tonetown. Its basic meaning is somewhat akin to "cool" or "hip". Game designer Michael Berlyn gives the following source for the word: Muffy and I were employed there [at Harvard], teaching creative writing. And the motto of Harvard is 'Veritas,' which means 'truth.' We took to saying 'very tass' to mean, 'very true,' or 'too true.' Our students picked it up and started applying it to something that

6600-435: The top. It is an all-in-one unit, similar to earlier home computers like the Commodore 64 , but with a larger keyboard with cursor keys and a numeric keypad. The original has an external floppy drive (SF354) and AC adapter . Starting with the 1040ST, the floppy drive and power supply are integrated into the base unit. The ports on the 520ST remained largely unchanged over its history. Because of its bi-directional design,

6688-472: The villainous Franklin Snarl. Snarl, a surreal combination of a pig , a raccoon and (most obviously) a crocodile , is a ruthless business magnate. He is also a murderously hostile Tonetown nativist , openly violent to most "tourists" (foreigners) he encounters. His negative effects on the local culture had begun to attract media attention against him, culminating in the disappearance of Gramps. To progress in

6776-429: The window to be moved around the screen by grabbing the title bar and dragging it. Some window managers provide title bars which are purely for decorative purposes and offer no window motion facility. These window managers do not allow windows to be moved around the screen by using a drag action on the title bar. Default title-bar text often incorporates the name of the application and/or of its developer. The name of

6864-442: The window, such as a maximize , minimize , rollup and close buttons; and may include other content such as an application icon, a clock , etc. Some window managers provide title bar buttons which provide the facility to minimize, maximize, roll-up or close application windows. Some window managers may display the title bar buttons in the task bar or task panel, rather than in the title bars. The following buttons may appear in

6952-426: Was cool. So very tass turned into very hip or cool. The game's narrative begins with the player character inside a cabin belonging to "Gramps", a relative and inventor who has gone missing. While searching the cabin, the player activates one of Gramps' latest inventions: a device that resembles an electronically powered hoop. Gramps' pet dog, Spot, jumps through the active hoop and disappears. The player follows him and

7040-455: Was marketed as more affordable than a TT but more powerful than an ordinary ST. In 1990, Atari released the high-end workstation-oriented Atari TT030, based on a 32 MHz Motorola 68030 processor. The "TT" name ("Thirty-two/Thirty-two") continued the nomenclature because the 68030 chip has 32-bit buses both internally and externally. Originally planned with a 68020 CPU, the TT has improved graphics and more powerful support chips. The case has

7128-413: Was much cheaper than a Digital VT220 terminal, commonly needed by offices with central computers. By late 1985, the 520ST added an RF modulator for TV display. Computer Gaming World stated that Tramiel's poor pre-Atari reputation would likely make computer stores reluctant to deal with the company, hurting its distribution of the ST. One retailer said, "If you can believe Lucy when she holds

7216-401: Was negotiating to buy Atari, Amiga Corp. entered discussions with Commodore. This led to Commodore wanting to purchase Amiga Corporation outright, which Commodore believed would cancel any outstanding contracts, including Atari's. Instead of Amiga Corp. delivering Lorraine to Atari, Commodore delivered a check of $ 500,000 on Amiga's behalf, in effect returning the funds Atari invested in Amiga for

7304-401: Was out of cash, and employees feared that he would shut the company down. In early 1985, the 520ST shipped to the press, developers, and user groups , and in early July 1985 for general retail sales. It saved the company. By November, Atari stated that more than 50,000 520STs had been sold, "with U.S. sales alone well into five figures". The machine had gone from concept to store shelves in

7392-491: Was popular for music sequencing and as a controller of musical instruments among amateur and professional musicians. The Atari ST's primary competitor was the Amiga from Commodore . The 520ST and 1040ST were followed by the Mega series, the STE, and the portable STacy . In the early 1990s, Atari released three final evolutions of the ST with significant technical differences from the original models: TT030 (1990), Mega STE (1991), and Falcon (1992). Atari discontinued

7480-431: Was rejected, he left Atari to form a small think tank called Hi-Toro in 1982 and began designing the new "Lorraine" chipset. Hi-Toro, by then renamed Amiga, ran out of capital to complete Lorraine's development, and Atari, now owned by Warner Communications , paid Amiga to continue its work. In return, Atari received exclusive use of the Lorraine design for one year as a video game console. After that time, Atari had

7568-430: Was released and thus influenced the design of the windowing system in what would eventually be called Microsoft Windows . Windows are two dimensional objects arranged on a plane called the desktop metaphor . In a modern full-featured windowing system they can be resized, moved, hidden, restored or closed. Windows usually include other graphical objects, possibly including a menu-bar, toolbars, controls, icons and often

7656-410: Was static (or mostly so); it was not animated , though it was context-sensitive (players could click on objects in this window rather than typing their names). Like many text adventures of this era, Tass Times had its share of possible unwinnable situations in which players can discover themselves trapped. The most infamous of these is Gramps' lab book, which is found in his cabin at the start of

7744-631: Was the first home computer with a cost per kilobyte of RAM under US$ 1/KB. After Jack Tramiel purchased the assets of the Atari, Inc. consumer division in 1984 to create Atari Corporation, the 520ST was designed in five months by a small team led by Shiraz Shivji . Alongside the Macintosh , Amiga , Apple IIGS and Acorn Archimedes , the ST is part of a mid-1980s generation of computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256  KB or more of RAM, and mouse -controlled graphical user interfaces. "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", referring to

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