peters@pulman.DEC (Don Peters, APO-1/F8, 289-1242) (01/29/86)
Last nite I attended our local Atari user group meeting, took some notes,
and posted them to our local notes file within the Digital network. I then
wondered if any of you out there in USENET land would also have an interest.
Since there was lots of good Atari info I hadn't seen before, I am posting
a copy of the message below.
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While sitting in on last nite's ABUG meeting I took a few notes, and thought
I'd share them with those of you who are interested but couldn't made the
meeting for one reason or another.
There were two ST's and one 800 set up running demos at the meeting. One
of the St's was a monochrome. 8-bit and 16-bit library updates were discussed
and I gave a review of the ST info I'd gathered in these notes files, the
USENET network, and the news at the recent BCS ST meeting, as well as the
info I gathered from my call to Atari (which is now in this notes file). I
also gathered a few new ST programs from Dave Davis.
The subject of 1 meg upgrades for the ST came up. Both Harry Steel (the
former ABUG librarian) and John Hajinlian do them, or know someone who
will do them, at a cost ranging from $125 to $150 (also, see below).
But by far the most interesting event was the talk by Thom of Compuclub of
Natick, Ma. I would judge his talk easily the most enjoyable and informative
of any ABUG or BCS ST meeting I've attended so far. Even when I left at
10:30 there still was a small group clustered around him asking questions.
And he gave a LONG presentation.
I'll try to give a brief (very, considering the length of his talk) summary
of what Thom had to say. Those of you who were there, feel free to add.
A very brief intro to the game "Alternate Realities" was shown, and the claim
was made that this was possibly the best graphic adventure yet for the Atari!
However, early versions were sold with a bad disk that prematurely caused you
to die of a "bad disease".
Atariwriter plus is out for $37, and PLATO is out for $20.
The rest pertains to the ST:
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Philon Basic, 250 p. manual, is out for $75, but no graphics or GEM interface
Henry's Basic, an interpreter, is 6 x faster than ST Basic, but has no graphics
or GEM interface either.
Atari is working on a hardware emulator for the IBM PC, using an 8088 CPU
in a box that plugs into the hard disk slot, to cost less than $300. It now
runs 80% the speed of the PC, but is expected to improve.
The CPM emulator is selling for $38.
The 1040 will be shipping Thursday, for $200 more than the 520ST.
Compuclub sells the 1 meg upgrade for $130 installed. This may be the best
deal going since they are an Atari dealer, can also install the TOS ROMs
and also the battery powered clock option (these things are a few dollars
extra, however)
The TOS ROMs are probably 2-3 weeks away from general availability.
Unix for the ST looks to be 60-75 days away.
The OS9 operating system will sell for less than $100.
A DBASE II close is coming out for $75 & will be called H&D Base
If your ST kept failing when new, it was due to a faulty power pak. The
newer power paks do not have this problem. If you haven't seen it on your
ST, don't worry.
520STs with the new ROMs in them are supposed to be coming in 8 days.
An ST cart having a clock in it is coming out by Softlogic in about 2-3 weeks.
Thom just saw a beta test version of it. It'll cost $50.
A very brief demo of the "Borrowed Time" game was given - it appeared to have
nice (semi-static) graphics.
Intuit, a 1-2-3 clone which now runs on an IBM PC, is 2 months away.
The Atari hard disk (one of the two?) is 20 meg in size and will sell for $799.
The Bit Bucket, in Newton, Ma, has one now, and loves it. It has a built-in
coprocessor, is a 5 1/2" drive, and you can hang up to 8 of em on an ST.
Atari will have an expansion port that will hang on the hard disk port, and
will sell for $75.
A beta test of GEM Draw was demoed - it looked pretty good.
Lechmere Sales is selling the ST now, and Sears is considering it now.
Compuclub sells 6' disk drive cables for $20, so you can buy one, cut it
up and use it for experiments.
Thom says that the few people he has seen who have used Modula II for the
ST think it's spectacular.
The language APL is less than 30 days away (its by Phylon). Phylon and
Atari also have COBOL coming.
A brief discussion of Atari and Amiga ensued, and Thom said Atari really
didn't see itself competing with Amiga, since they were after different
markets.
Compuclub sells the 520ST for $850, $700 for the mono version. The 1040ST
will go for $1150, 950 for the mono version. LOGO, BASIC, and 1stWord will
be the software shipped with them.
Thom said to watch out if you are trying to save money on an ST system,
since Atari is coming out with a 14" color monitor for the ST which is
about $100 cheaper but has less resolution than the current color monitor.
Be aware of which monitor you are getting when you buy a packaged system.
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Thats the end of my notes. If you would like to confirm any of this (or
argue about its validity), give Thom a call at Compuclub, at
(617)879-5232. But call after about 11:30 am EST since I think they
start their business day about then. I have no connection with Compuclub
except that I did buy my ST there about 4 months ago.
/Don Peters, Digital, 617-689-1242/
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