jjung@koh-sun3.usc.edu (John Jung) (04/12/90)
In article <4740@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ins_bac@jhunix.UUCP (Ajay Choudhri) writes: >And to anybody who went to WOA, did Atari demo Gauntlet III for the Lynx?? No they didn't. The scuttlebutt I heard from some Atari people was that the labels were on backwards, or something like that. (I also heard a rumor that some of the chips were also on backwards, but I haven't heard any confirmation on it.) I was dying to get a copy myself, and was bummed the entire show... >If there's any other news about WOA, please share it with us here on the >net. There's not really a lot to say about the WoA show because it didn't seem like they had a lot of new and ready stuff to show off. Or maybe there were more people selling stuff than people making stuff. At any rate here's a brief run-down on what I remember from the show : Atari : The STacey, STe, and TT were all there and running smoothly. I don't think any of them crashed. The STacey was having things changed on the inside so that they could get a better FCC class approval. The screen was sometimes hard to see if you were looking at it the wrong angle, but I suspect that it was because of the LCD screen. The mouse control took a little getting used to since the track ball was in the palm of the hand, but it was quite useable. The TT is expected to start shipping at the end of the year, and developers should get them starting at the middle of the year. The keyboard feel was very similar to the Megas. (Which I like a lot.) THey don't know what software (if any) will be bundled with it, because it was at too early a stage. I didn't ask about the STe, but I presume it's waiting for FCC approval. I missed the STe on the first pass through the Atari booth because its case looked just like the 1040STs. The Atari CD Rom was also there, but it was getting little attention. (I think it works; I overheard one of the Atari guys say that one of the programs on the hard disk would make the ST recognize CR Rom.) DC Software : They were there demoing and selling copies of DC Desktop. I wasn't too interested in DC Desktop, so I didn't pay much attention to it. I think they were selling it for $20. (Sorry, I don't care for _any_ of the alternative Desktops...) Gadgets by Small : They were showing off the Spectre GCR and how well it worked with the STacey. I had heard previous rumors that the STacey and GCR were incompatible with each other; I guess they fixed it. GbS was also showing their 68030 accelerator board and it was four times faster than a regular ST (IMHO). GbS didn't give any official release date, but Dave did say that he had talked to some other vendors at the show and they wanted to support thing. GbS did say that if the thing is to be released, the 520's and 1040's would need a new case to make room for the board, but the Mega series would be unaffected. In the GbS talk, Dave said that he had just recently heard about a program called Ultrascript GCR, which allows the GCR to be able to print in 300 dpi with a laser printer. (I think he said the SLM 804.) Megamax : I was more interested in what they planned on improving with Laser C anything else in their booth. (So I didn't pay much attention to their paint [I think it was a paint] program.) Megamax did say that they were working on a fully ANSI compatible version of Laser C. They expect it to be ready by the middle of the year, and upgrade cost (though it was only a rough guess) would be $50. Like I said, there wasn't a lot of new stuff, although I might have missed some things because I wasn't interested in it. (And I only went on the first day, so more stuff might have gotten in after I left.) It was nice to be able to talk to the people behind the account names, like meeting John Townsend, Ken Bartedscher (yeah I probably misspelt it), Dave Small, Michael Venderman, and David Berkenmeyer (another name I probably misspelt :-). John P.S. Dave Small did wonder, at the GbS talk, which one ran faster : The TT or the 68030 accelerator board. Too bad I never found out which. (grin)