sjl@amdahl.UUCP (Steve Langdon) (07/19/85)
Things have been kind of quiet in this group recently, which is odd
since if Atari's public statements were true the 520ST should be on
retailers shelves. Has any one seen one for sale? Someone claimed
that the 520ST was available in Canada, but there have been no recent
postings to tell us how wonderful the "Jackintosh" is when you buy
it and take it home.
What is happening to the user group machines? I saw one enthusiastic
posting about a VT52 (clearly state of the art) emulator. What else
can one do with the machines that have been shipped? Has the "mixup"
continued and the software somehow got lost?
--
Stephen J. Langdon ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun,nsc}!amdahl!sjl
[ The article above is not an official statement from any organization
in the known universe. ]hen@bu-cs.UUCP (Bill Henneman) (07/21/85)
I ordered one with a color monitor from The Bit Bucket in Newton, MA on July 13. They offered a B-W version as a loaner on July 15, which is when the got their first shipment. I declined, but if a dealer can offer loaners, the supply must be copious. All the software I saw was "in a state of development", i.e., menu options were not implemented. Bill Henneman BostonU
steve@kontron.UUCP (Steve McIntosh) (07/23/85)
> What is happening to the user group machines? I saw one enthusiastic > posting about a VT52 (clearly state of the art) emulator. What else > can one do with the machines that have been shipped? Has the "mixup" > continued and the software somehow got lost? > Stephen J. Langdon ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun,nsc}!amdahl!sjl Judging from the traffic on CompuServes ATARISIG, most of the machines for the users groups have arrived. There have been a few minor problems with the machines, but all-in-all it seems that the people with ST's love them. The July 22 issue of (I think) Electronic News quotes the Atari VP of marketing and sales - they say they are shipping 20,000 a week and expect to ramp up to 30-35,000 in a month or so. However, the west coast distributer has not yet recieved any. "Your ST is in the mail". The Official anouncement of the Commodore Amiga is due to happen this week, and rumor has it that Commodore already has stock on hand ready to ship. - Steve McIntosh, Kontron Electronics, Irvine CA. ".. where we are going, we dont need -roads-."
jdf@ptsfd.UUCP (Jack Fine) (07/24/85)
For those of you (on the west coast in particular) who have purchased the 520ST I was wondering about a couple of things. Does the 520ST come with any software? Are you getting a color screen with your purchases? What are you paying for the machine? What kinds of options are available and at what price? (I mean add-on options i.e. harddisk?) Does it have full 80-column editing and can it also handle 40-column? What is the documentation like, lengthy, technical, simple-minded etc.? I am obviously real interested in buying a 520ST especially since the announcement of the CD-ROM. But before I do I want to know more about it. Thank you for the information. Jack Fine *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
bob@harpo.UUCP (07/25/85)
The Atari 520 reached Gemini Electronics near Morristown , N. J. last week. The dealer, who is an Atari enthusiast, sent them all back---defective-- He expects another shipment this week. I got the impression the factory confirmed some bad ones got out. I hope this was an isolated incident.
vr0z05@unido.UUCP (07/25/85)
[And this line for the old byte eater]
Please post answers to the net, I'm interested too.
Uwe Hoch
Computer Science Department, University of Dortmund
4600 Dortmund 50, P.O. Box 500500, W.-Germany
E-mail address UUCP: philabs!{hpfcla!hpbbn, mcvax}!unido!vr0z05mroddy@enmasse.UUCP (Mark Roddy) (07/25/85)
[re anyone seen an st?] Yeah I have one at home. [What came with it?] Essentially nothing. What you get is the hardware package (computer, monitor, ssdd 3.5 driver,) and GEM/TOS, and LOGO (or is it NO GO :-}) Gem seems to have a few bugs, i.e. it is possible to confuse it as to which windows are where. TOS is okay so far (the machine has been running for three days- one crash so far.) The printer interface is not configurable from the desktop. The real time clock isn't battery backed up, and the start-up doesn't require you to set it. (Bummer if you have a hard disk and want to do incremental backups.) The documentation is worse than horrible. The TOS guide is totally superficial, and the LOGO manual is actually the worst users manual I have ever seen. A lot of retailers have returned units as DOA. But it appears that there were two production QA flaws: loose chips and too long pins on some of the pc boards (shorting onto the case or something.) There is absolutely no mention of Basic or ROMTOS upgrades- although Canadian buyers insist that they received coupons for Basic, and Atari has claimed that TOS proms will be available (free?) to package purchasers. The VT52 emulator is somewhat flakey about cursor addressing, and has absolutely zero file transfer capability. There is no software available for developers except through Atari, and the procedure for obtaining development software from Atari is less than straight-forward. But all of this aside, the damn thing is cute! It clearly outperforms the MAC, and the desktop is an excellent environment. (Word of warning, this machine is better suited as a workstation than the ultimate game machine. If you want stereo 3D graphic animation, buy an Amiga when it materializes.) Best advice: if you want to do development for the ST, go get one now and badger atari for the development software, if you want to use the thing, wait till september. Happy HACKING. -- Mark Roddy Net working, Just reading the news. (harvard!talcott!panda!enmasse!mroddy)
tynor@gitpyr.UUCP (Steve Tynor) (07/27/85)
>There is no software available for developers except through Atari, >and the procedure for obtaining development software from Atari is >less than straight-forward. > ... >Best advice: if you want to do development for the ST, go get one now and >badger atari for the development software, if you want to use the thing, >wait till september. If you want to be an ATARI ST developer, buy a development system directly from ATARI. I got mine for the cost of the system plus $300 for the development package (C compiler, linker, assembler, resource editor, kermit (for file transfer), lots of documentation.) I don't know why you say say that getting development software is less than straight-forward... All I had to do was send a check. >The VT52 emulator is somewhat flakey about cursor addressing, and has >absolutely zero file transfer capability. I use kermit for file transfer (it's more reliable than standard file transfer anyway....) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Semper ubi sub puri ubi. Steve Tynor Georgia Instutute of Technology ...{akgua, allegra, amd, harpo, hplabs, ihnp4, masscomp, ut-ngp, rlgvax, sb1, uf-cgrl, unmvax, ut-sally} !gatech!gitpyr!tynor -- Steve Tynor Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,masscomp,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!tynor
tim@callan.UUCP (Tim Smith) (08/06/85)
> What is happening to the user group machines? I saw one enthusiastic > posting about a VT52 (clearly state of the art) emulator. What else This is about as ridiculous as a "state of the art" adm3a emulator! :-) -- Tim Smith ihnp4!{cithep,wlbr!callan}!tim