Computer Shopper - UK (2019-12)

117117

RETRO

ISSUE 382|COMPUTER SHOPPER|DECEMBER 2019

machineto have built-in MIDI In and Out
ports, it becameafavouriteamong musicians.
Even so,Tramiel’stough reputation
preceded him.Retailers were reluctantto do
deals, and there were battles with software
companies (Lucasfilm managedto get
out of apre-arranged partnership with
Atari, with an unimpressedSteve
Arnold, who headed the
company’s Games Group,
comparingTramiel to Jabba the
Hutt). Tramiel also delighted in any
problems Commodore was having and,by
the lat e1980s, it appearedAtari had turned
itself around and was ontop.

MEGA SUCCESS

The ST saved Atari. It ledto versions with
built-in floppydrives andabusiness model
called the Mega. There was anSTEversion
adding more colours and stereo sound.
Tramiel would flyto Germanyfortrade shows
in orderto promotethese machines and he
would often sta ynear Hanover.
At that point, however,Tramiel lookedto
become less hands-on, and son Sam became
president and CEO,seeing Atari through the
less-than-successful eraof the handheldLynx
and 64-bit console,the Jaguar.Tramiel,
meanwhile,showed his ongoing desireto
ensure the memoryof those terrible war years

survived. He co-founded the UnitedStates

Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington

DC in 1993, which has since attracted more

than 40 million visitors, and he became

involved in other charitable projects,too.

He also returnedto Atari forashort spell

in 1995 when Sam sufferedaheart attack,

before selling the companyto Jugi Tandon

Storage in 1996, becomingaboard member

of the renamed JTS Corporation and moving

to MonteSereno in Californiato retire.

This brought an endto his corporatelife,

and his attention moved backto the

personal. In this, he showedasofter side

and he becameever more determinedto keep

the memoriesof the Holocaust alive.

Indeed, he wasforever indebted not justto

those who helped him–in2 003, he unveiled a

plaque at the museum inscribed: “ToVernon

WTott, My Liberator and Hero”–but to those

who had been killed. He wantedto keep their

memories alive as best he could. As such,

when he diedof heart failure,aged 83, in 2012,

he did so having leftalegacy in more ways

than one,ensuring his journeyfrom the

concentration campto acaptain of the

computer industry will never beforgotten.

DOWNLOADINTEL

DRIVERS FOR RETRO

SCALING SUPPORT

Intel’s newly released Ice Lake
10th-gen Core mobile
processors make playing
retro games onaPCafar
crisper experience if you’re
luckyenough to have the latest
GPU –sol ong as you download
the beta drivers, anyway.
The driversoffer pure integer
scaling, which scales up existing
pixels by awhole number
multiplier,asw ell as nearest
neighbour interpolationto fill
in the missing colourvalues of
upscaled images so that the
result is less blurry on a
modern screen.
Intel says it will also make
future indie titles look better.
“We’re listeningto our
community.You wantedaway to
experience pixel-art games at
their best so we createdRetro
Scaling. Enhance the latest indie
releases and timeless classics so

theylook their best on modern

HD displays,”saysthe firm.

Get holdof the driversby

visitingtinyurl.com/382retro1.

SOUND OFFWITH

ANAMSTRAD CPC

If you’d like better audio

capabilities from an Amstrad

CPC 464, 664 or 6128, then you

ought to sound out this

wonderful projectby Michael

Wessel. He’s createdahardware

expansion card called

LambdaSpeak3that emulates

Amstrad’sofficial SSA-1 speech

synthesiser and stereo amplifier.

What’s more,ita lso offers

four-channel PCM sample

playback so that the CPC can be

used withadrum machine

sequencer program.

Fitted with an Epson

S1V30120 TTS chip running

DECtalk 5, it’s capableof natural

sounding speech and can control

an MP3 player or MIDI module

thanks to its UARTinterface.

Indeed, version 53of the

firmware was recently

released,offering afull

duplex MIDI in/out

real-time mode.

“The main excitement

and motivationforthe

project came from

being ableto bring

DECtalkto the CPC –

the most versatile and

natural sounding

text-to-speech engine that exists

‘on achip’,” We ssel tells us.

“In the 80s, DECtalk hardware

synthesisers were outof the

price rangeforthe hobbyist and

cost thousandsof dollars.”

Youcan get the full lowdown

on the project, completewith

information about its

components and linksto files, by

going totinyurl.com/382retro2.

Wessel says he is alsooffering

fully assembled versionsforsale,

costing from £90 depending on

the required options, sofeel free

to approach him via the site.

RETRO

In and

mongm

putation

reluctant

with soft

agedtoget

ership with

eve

the

in any

avi ng and

ari had t

versions

usiness model

an STEversion

Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington

DC in 1993, which has since attracted more

and he becameever more determinedto keep

the memoriesof the Holocaust alive.

Out

musicians.

on

nt to do

oftware

et

th

and,by

turned

with survived. He co-founded the UnitedStates

➡When JackTramiel took over Atari, he axed the
high-end 800 XL models infavour of redesigned
versionsof the lower-end machines