E n t e r t h E . . .
STS is never tired when it comes to telling you insane stories ! My head is
actually filled with tons of them and weren't I a lazy sucker I would have
written down all of them... I surely started some short stories but never went
further a couple of pages :) Anyway I liked the funny story I wrote for UMD8730
and thought I could bore you once again (dunno if anyone reads this actually
since I received no peculiar feedback to my previous attempt ;(
It all started at the HUNO party 2003 where I spent some time talking to my
Atari fellows about our future. Said things were something like that : How long
will our beloved computers survive ? I'm not discussing the flamboyant passion
that burns inside us no no, but more the longevity of the electronic components
inside our STs and Falcons. My STe is almost *13* years old now and it has
suffered from a few minor incidents over the last decade : fucked up scart
cable, power supply got fried once too... Nothing serious thanks to the help of
my father and our Sceners who provided me with replacement items. So far so
good then but what will I do the day my ST just refuses to work anymore ? Let's
have a look in a possible version of our future...
Year 2005, Sts diary March 12th file ID 12032005 ... .. . .
Yesterday as I was working on our special issue of ALIVE celebrating the
20th anniversary of the ST, my harddrive started to fuck up. Luckily I had
enough time to backup all completed files. And that was a GOOD idea since I
found out tonight that my ST just didn't launch at all !
Year 2005, Sts diary March 14th file ID 14032005 ... .. . .
I brought the "cadaver" of my STe to my father and stayed by his side,
anxiously waiting for the verdict as if I was about to lose a relative in a
tricky surgery process...
Unfortunately it didn't take him long to announce the worst piece of news I
expected to hear one day : my STe is plain dead ! Various parts are so strongly
damaged that it's not worth trying to fix them ;( I first refused to believe it
as if such thing was impossible. Then I felt a pinch in my heart, my throat got
dry, my blood was running faster. Somehow I panicked : how could I ever spend
even a single day without knowing my STe is lying on my desk ? I NEED to find
another STe as soon as possible !
Year 2005, Sts diary March 18th file ID 18032005 ... .. . .
I posted several messages on DHS and ATARI.ORG but I haven't had any
positive answer yet... I finally decided to individually mail all my ATARI
contacts. As shit seems to produce more shit I heard about other Sceners whose
machine also passed out :( Are our STs programmed to self destruction 20 years
later ?? Is it a curse cast by an evil Peecee sorcerer ?? Or just a fucking
ironic coincidence ??
Year 2005, Sts diary March 19th file ID 04062005 ... .. . .
Every day more and more friends who tell me about incidents and crashes
with their ST as if some sort of twisted cycle had started. I was unhappily
surprised to find out that it was almost impossible to find secondhand STs !
People who still have several ATARIs don't want to sell them, just to make sure
they can fix one of them when required :( Tho I understand their fear it leaves
me STless and I cannot stand it anymore !
Year 2005, Sts diary March 21st file ID 21032005 ... .. . .
The news came as a shock : Error In Line 4 was cancelled !! So many people
got demotivated (almost depressed !) as their ST broke down that they just
unregistered to the party !!! Organizers decided that the number of people left
was not sufficient to make the party profitable :( It makes me so sad, I need
to feel the ATARI vibe again !
As a consequence I started to use STEEM on my Peecee to keep the good old
feeling alive. How ironic ? I'm currently using this Peecee as a virtual Atari.
I have to find a way to go on with the special issue of ALIVE, delayed after
the demise of my STe. Of course the editor's shell won't work under STeem so
that I have to work blindly and hope it works fine in the end. I'm really sad
to admit that if this issue comes out, it'll be thanks to a damn peecee....
Year 2005, Sts diary June 30th file ID 30062005 ... .. . .
I have just released this special issue of ALIVE but I feel a sour taste in
my mouth... Last week more STs refused to work, now being nothing more than
cold plastic boxes :( The other day on IRC two Sceners were fighting over the
price of secondhand computers... Tho I keep posting ads here and there, I've
started to get convinced that I'll never find another ATARI again :(
Year 2005, Sts diary December 24th file ID 24122005 ... .. . .
Until last year Xmas eve brought happy memories to me of that night when I
was given my STe... I used to clean it, paint it black again and spend some
hours watching good old demos or playing games... Now, all of that is gone... I
considered using STeem to reactivate the feeling but I gave up the idea. how
could a peecee remind me of the ST I cherished so long ? How have I dared
believe it in the first place ? This is definitely the end of an era. Now I
wonder how long the last machines will survive and what will happen once the
last ATARI dies away....
.
.
.
.
Year 2067, Xerox diary January 1st file ID 01012011 ... .. . .
I found this file while browsing thru the many floppies in this cardbox.
Dunno why Mam and Dad are so eager to sell my grandfather's house. Sebastien
has only been buried for 4 days ! They told me he was say a bit loony and that
they have to be quick if they want to sell the house before customers hear
about his reputation. I've never thought he was crazy ! I remember when he took
me to the Cyberdome and run that hacked program some friends of his had coded.
He simply called it "Atari Rebirth"...
Too me it was a nice time spent with someone I loved. He showed me old
games and demos from the ancient times. I never really believed these ATARI
computers had been real but I didn't want to disappoint him. Now that I have
found this file, I start to understand his feelings and his passion for this
computer. Hard to get when computers are intergrated everywhere now !
Along with the floppies I found a copy of the "Atari Rebirth" program.
Maybe I can use it and get in touch with other users logged in. Then who knows,
we could try to have these "demo crews" become true again ? I can paint, others
surely have skills... Yeah I'm pretty sure we can do things !
Grandpa would be so proud of me !
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