Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the Atari Falcon

A prolonged journey in a feverish dream?

The tall stranger with no name looms out of the blazing sun. He is dressed in clothing which has both seen better days and the abuse from the long months and years spent in the desert, topped off with a characteristic patterned poncho and a battered wide-brimmed hat. He sits on an equally worn and shabby horse. The camera closes in and the years of experiences and traumas can be seen in every seemingly minor facial detail, every scar and blemish, every tic and movement of the smallest muscles. All have a story to tell.

1992..

The very beginning. For most Atarians, 1992 was the year of wild rumours following an initial announcement. What space-race wonders we were going to get from Atari, with a machine that was going to restart a mission to Mars all on its own. If the fevered forum chat was to be believed. The tall stranger had heard it all before, but for some long lost reason, memories of the previous times had lain disregarded and he listened to and believed all the wild stories with all of his heart.

1993..

As time wore on, the rumours clarified into specifications and (p)reviews. What was actually coming down the line was a tad less world-shaking than the early tall tales, but still worthy of attention. After many delays and unlikely stories, the Atari Falcon 030 was almost ready to meet its public.

Eventually the tall stranger was able to lay his hands on the mythical beast. This involved many (mis)adventures, further delays and a journey to a hazardous land south of a river , but the end goal was there at last. Was this worth all the months of time and effort?

The first answer did not clarify or satisfy. What came out of the box was very nice, but only a 'bit better' than what the stranger currently enjoyed, Atari-wise. Further answers exploring the worth and capabilities of the bird would have to wait.

But only for a short time, as fellow enthusiasts crafted pocket-sized masterpieces of the coding art to exploit the new hardware at the earliest moments. The tall stranger enthusiastically received something called a 'mod-file player' from a dangerous renegade called 'Griff'. It made the Falcon sound louder and clearer than any Atarian hardware made beforehand, and possibly since.

Before too long, the first examples of what the tall stranger was really seeking came to the Falcon. These were strange and random programs called 'demos'. The seminal work in this very early period was the 'Termfin demo', where 'Termfin' stood for something not at all suitable for family audiences and was created by a talented bunch of Amiga melonfarmers called 'Sanity'.

Another team with a very intense and narrow vision was asking the question 'Warum'? and getting back some promising answers with plasma and early 3-D objects.

1994..

A year shimmers into the following one and the pace quickens. The tall stranger is enjoying what he is getting and declares himself very happy in the electronic pages of a circular shaped magazine that he has taken control of. There is a sense of even bigger and more majestic things to come. Some associates of the tall stranger are taking an active part and games are being prepared. In this year, we found out what a 'Cycadelic Knockout' could do to an unprepared nervous system. We also learned that 'Car Washing was Forbidden' for a very good reason. In other areas of interest, Lasers came with men and the music played on, louder and faster and with more channels than four.

In the meanwhile, events elsewhere at the Atari Corp cattle ranch decided that the Falcon, seemingly the promised wunderchild and shining last hope two years previously, was not going to be part of their future. The Falcon 030, along with speculated successors and the rest of their computer family was to be abruptly displaced in favour of the Jaguar console. From this news, the tall stranger and others grimly set about keeping their birds alive with renewed resolution.

1995..

This year was the peak for the early scene activities in many areas. Demo making hit new heights, with various outlaw bands being 'Obnoxious', asking whether 'R U Xperienced', and wanting to take a closer look at your 'EKO System'. Meanwhile, an Anglo-German group of varmints were 'Enraged' but the tall stranger was most entranced by the search for the 'Lost Blubb'! This involved much music and dancing!

Meanwhile, he had twice the fun with 'Double Bobble' and went off-planet to try his luck at 'Moon Games', but this last item has to be taken with a sprinkle of 'Stardust', otherwise we could get an 'Obsession'!

The electronically circular publication reached new heights with a special version dedicated entirely to living within the Falcon's domains being made. A small and crowded party at the tall stranger's residence in the Rushden badlands announced its release to the world. Also the Falcon could play ever more tunes and draw and paint to the 'Apex' of its abilities, how could things get more awesome than that?

1996..

In part, the following year struggled a bit. There were some promising movements from an Aggressive party in cold northern lands to start with. The tall stranger undertook a prolonged journey to a far away cool land where a 'Symposium' was being held. He picked up quite a few mental scars from that expedition, not to mention one very definite near miss for something more physical at a railway station in the centre of Hamburg!

The demos did not reach the heights of the previous year, apart from some sensational size coding made into a 'Gherkin Salad' and something spiritually fiery which awesome to look at but the tall stranger was appalled by the brutality with which an innocent bible was bashed. The big demos are represented by a confused 'Joint Venture' which seems to be little more than a clearing out the cupboard exercise. Cunningly exploiting the yawning chasms in the market, some very senior father figures push their unique point of view into the public's gaze.

There was more excitement in the gaming to come, with a preview of a 'Running' game. The wait for this is 'Spice'd up with an exciting Defender clone and the treats continue with a preview of some of Willies Adventures. This last one appears to have got stuck in a Spaghetti Western film set to this very day?

Meanwhile, the electronic circular magazine is pulling off some impressive feats of being produced to a deadline for an Atari show. Signs of future greatness are amply shown off by a modest and hugely 'Tat'lented gentleman who was as handy with a six-shooter as he was with his code. We will hear more from him soon, oh yes!

1997..

A recovery from the slightly flattened previous year commences. New voices from out East are heard properly for the first time as a 'Firestarter' attempts to set the demo scene prairie ablaze. The fiery theme continues with an 'Ignis' attempt from Pandemonium, and more heat is piled on by a 'Sili Con Carne' of a demo. However, the greatest feat of the year leaps forth in a sparkling moment of 'Sonolumineszenz' with the Falcon pushed to new heights of 3-D textured objectifying from the enigmatic Tat. Did this rock? Oh yes it did!

The tall stranger manages to find a degree of inner peace and stop 'Running' with a full version of the keenly awaited preview finally landing. The Falcon is showing itself capable of exotic skills such as emulating the Commodore 64 sound chip's saloon bar piano qualities. The tall stranger opens some new horizons as he starts to teach his Falcon to use the telegraphic email internetwork.

This was also the year when the first questions about expanding the basic capabilities of the Falcon to keep up with the new wave of PeeCee settlers were asked. In part they were answered by a 'Nemesis'. Something which nearly happened to the poor innocent motherboard of the tall stranger's machine and contributed yet more scarring to his already damaged features.

1998..

The Polish posse continues to do battle on behalf of the bird by offering the choice of 'Any Colour You Like' and with a touch of inspired 'Insanity'. There is also a Scandinavian revival, with some seriously miniature coding which seemingly went on '4-Ever' and chose to spank the hitherto unexploited and optional 68882 maths co-processor which had been otherwise left languishing in the jailhouse. This started a boom in 4ktros, many of which using this hardware as well but with one missing a New Beat and feeling a bit 'Blue'. Some other outlaws who liked to call themselves sometimes dead went on to bigger things and fell into an infinite tunnel of a 'Dream Dimension'.

Another ultimate moment in gaming came with the 'Crown of Creation' awarded to connoisseurs of three dimensional motion. The tall stranger redoubles his efforts to contact the outside world and gets online into the 'Dodge City' of the internet with the help of hand-built scripts and modem telegraphs and things. In a generally busy year, he also undertakes another real world journey to a near-arctic land to seek further 'Finnish'ed truth and revelations and vodka and saunas. It is found and some of it impressively with even older computing creatures than the Falcon.

This is also the year where the tall stranger is seriously distracted by someone who was not quite a Sondra Locke lookalike, so scenish activities diminish somewhat at this time.

Towards the end of that year, the tall stranger seeks companionship for his original Falcon, now feeling the full weight of years of hard work and play, and finds a suitable companion in a cold high hall thusly purchased from a less tall stranger with a Floppy Shop that he is closing down.

There was also a big gunfright this year with the then rival 'Undercover Gang' in the Not-OK Corral.

No-one won. Some Atarian cowboys have had enough and leave the prairie.

1999..

For this year before the millennium, the tall stranger felt the strange but seductive call of the next big Easter event. The not-quite-a-Sondra-Locke- lookalike felt he was committing an 'Error in Line' by going but she eventually relented.

This year had a lot of regretful partings, as we were left to grope around in the 'Binliner' for Tat's last outburst of creation for the Falcon. On the other hand, some other people were proving they were 'Alive' and having major 'Fun' in doing so. The Falcon proved it could 'Whip' around the screen in a sound to light sense. It also learned more new tricks by getting its claws into the MPEG 3 musical compressed wax cylinder, a defiant gesture of keeping up with the modern most PeeCees.

Not learning his lesson from the Nemesis incident, the tall stranger chooses to seriously upgrade his second Falcon. 'Frenchie Czuba' was trying to make his successor, the Phenix fly, but in the meantime created the Centurbo 2 fer sure! After some 'issues' were cured with the help of the medicine man, Czuba himself, this eventually settled in and remains installed to this day!

As the year neared its end, excitement built up as the universe, as mankind understood it, got ready to reset its system clock. If the hype was to be believed. Would the tall stranger, his horse and the Falcon come through?

2000..

He did, and his Falcon too!

The tall stranger felt more of a wanderlust than usual this year, taking in no less than three journeys to Siliventure, Alt 2 and STNICCC 2000. The first of these was attended by an epic pilgrimage involving many horses confined under a sheet of metal and connected to some wheels, to meet up with a Grey man for the first time in his home town way out East.

Expectations for the Falcon had been frozen since the immortal 1997 hoe-down at Bremen, but things started to turn 'Upside Down' for the locals, with some seriously 'Hardcore' activity from the big Swedes.

The tall stranger was invited to eat 'Manchester sausages' over Helsinki way, later on in the summer.

In transforming sound, many people could become an Ace at doing so, in a New Beat!

The year end saw the final parting with the Electronic circular Maggie, after ten long and glorious years, this weary horse was put out to pasture in a land of rain and windmills, but a new beast called 'Alive', ridden with a co-conspirator 'The Larnac Kid' took over.

2001..

The scene was set for the ultimate showdown at Dresden.

For the second 'Error in Line', there were no fewer than five contenders for the baddest demo dude in town, and a clown.

The Coffeine Kid and Rock Solid Olli were wiped out in the first exchange. The clown, who was a Pizza seller, sensibly ran for cover. This left three desperado's for the final confrontation.

NoCrew McGrew cried "Wait!" but caught a hail of lead in the chest for a well-deserved third place. This left the two favourites, facing each other, pistol hands twitching over holsters.

The expected favourite, 'Evil Gizmo' of the Dead Hackers gang swaggered in the sunlight, expecting to win by default and use of accelerators. However, the swift and shady 'Escape Dude' let fly with his DSP in one smooth and deadly movement, the winner was there for all to see. He mused as if not quite sure how he had done it, "Hmmm?" he said.

Gamewise, things were moving away from the Falcon by this time, but a disaster was a blessing in disguise, especially if it was a Painium Disaster!

2002..

For the last five years, the Falcon had been a faithful workhorse, attending to the tall strangers online needs. It would continue to do so for a few more years yet. This year saw the arrival of a High Wire for the tall stranger to view the online world in lofty contemplation.

It clearly smelt of a trap, the tall stranger retrospectively realised that he had known this when he first contemplated the PeeCee scene in its Easter love nest . However whispered hope had overridden his normal caution. In March 2002, the tall stranger found himself catapulted from his comfortable spaghetti western world into another movie genre, a disaster movie crossed with a prison camp, crossed with a horror flick at the Mekka Symposium. Eventually, after many bleary days without sleep and too much currywurst, the tall stranger with no name crawled away, thankfully.

But from the wreckage a new hope started to arise with the tireless Frenchie Czuba, he who had a stillborn Phenix, chose to make the Falcon fly even higher and faster with his new CT60. Was the tall stranger going to miss out? Of course not!

In the meantime, a new age for digital circular magazines arrived, with a garlic twist, not to mention a lot of disks!

The rest of 2002 can be covered by the phrase "Thin period".

2003..

The bird is now ten! The tall stranger reflects how they have grown older together. In view of advancing years, this year is quieter, but not dead, as another Easter escapade takes place.

There is a third Error, it is in Line for part three. Demos are 'Underscore'd and the 'Beams' are blinding him, but the latter not yet to the point where it is released. These are not the only highlights, as a galaxy-smashing 'Delta' was made for a bit of 'Fun' earlier that year.

Captain Nemo sets off on an expedition to 'Track' something called 'Ace'. Triumphant noises emit from his speakers when he finds it.

As a special treat, Frenchie Czuba was able to unleash his finished latest creation on an eagerly waiting Atari world, as the CT60 arrived. The tall stranger enlisted the help of a perpetually happy cartoon ginger cat to install it. Once running, he pronounced it as awesome and probably the final word in upgrades.

Which was almost correct.

2004..

Both the tall stranger and his Falcon soldiered on quietly. Falcon got very heated with the CT60 in the summertime, but the tall stranger blew an extra breath of fresh air on it, so Falcy was happy again. Falcy found itself travelling with the tall stranger to strange places in Holland. Sometimes it even helped out at the party with the competition entries.

By this time, the tall stranger had taken to making stuff under a rude pseudonym which was comically received.

Was a quiet but contented year.. Setting the pattern for later years, but there are still highlights, oh yes!

2005..

A big change comes for 2005! A small computer from an expensive fruit manufacturer takes the lead on the desktop. This was born from the tall stranger's need to access a wider version of the inter telegraph network. An area where the Falcon had been somewhat left out.

Meanwhile, the Falcon sees the first fruits from the CT60 interest, with many small demos and intros shown whilst crying Acidic Tears. It shows off the family Daguerrotype images in a more awesome gallery created by the masked avenger, Zorro. He has also offered ways to tell the Falcon what the weather is doing too.

About this time, the Falcon showed it still had the abilities for new games and tricks, with the help of the CT60, it could impersonate a bunch of whole different computers, and some consoles too! Frodo and Sonic the Hedgehog both would have been proud!

2006 onward..

The tall stranger is lured in by the reality distortion field generated by the expensive fruit manufacturer. The Falcon is switched on less of the time. Nevertheless there are still some great times to be had.

In 2006, the Falcon burst new eardrums of expectation with a 'Supernatural' effort at Easter time. This was followed by a 'Derealisation' that things might have peaked. In a fit of nostalgia and 'Menace', the non-expanded Falcon hit new heights of wowness too. The tall stranger was ecstatic. Even an old game was rescued from a watery grave, H2O style.

After that, things are less well documented and go "Uuuhm" for a time. For one thing, it is the final end of electronical circular publications, as "Alive" is no longer.

Sure, there are still lots of happenings. We are invited to 'Quake' in our boots by the Duke of Nukem, Mikro the grand master. He goes on to bring some of the crowning Amiga demo's to the Falcon, from the exotic flower growers, the Black Lotus, to universal acclaim. The Swedish kids take some 'Codeine' to relieve their hang over symptoms. There are rumours and sightings of unreleased glories from the Ephidrena gang.

The promise of further enhancements to the Falcon always hang tantalisingly in the near future with a Super Videl. Some improvements are realised with the Czuba Kid hanging his expansion port off it. In the meantime, the good folk of the Atari scene find themselves diverted by earlier family members with the Atari STe reaching a new golden age in these years. Unfortunately, limited coding time means that other family members have to collect dust for a while.

The tall stranger's own Falcon is really feeling the effects of the long years and many bruising upgrades now, and spends more time ill than working. Attempts to revive it with love and new Compact Flash media are partially successful, until the fateful day where nothing more than an unblinking green keyboard light comes on, sans screen, sans sound, sans everything!

2012

But we are now twenty. There is new life, a continuation for this year.

The tall stranger finds himself with spare loot, uncharacteristically. A replacement for the dying machine is found and obtained. This new family member comes with a CTPCI included with a screen-bustin' graphics card. There is also access to the outside whorl through the addition of USB ports. It is not necessarily the end for the faithful original, as this is being sent to be rehomed and hopefully restarted to a returned legend of the early scene, 'Doug Apex Little'. Not to mention that the second Falcon is still very much alive and strong.

So the tall stranger with no name looms out of the blazing sun, dressed in clothing which has both seen better days and the abuse from the long months and years spent in the desert, topped off with a characteristic patterned poncho and a battered wide-brimmed hat. He sits on an equally worn and shabby horse. The camera closes in and the years of experiences and traumas can be seen in every seemingly minor facial detail, every scar and blemish, every tic and movement of the smallest muscles. His story is now told.

He has come back home to the Sillyventure, to celebrate and commemorate the last twenty years, and perhaps to get inspiration for the next twenty years as well?

CiH for Mag! - Oct 2012.

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