grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Graham Thomas) (02/02/90)
From article <2013@atari.UUCP>, by kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher): > Am I being paranoid, or has there really been a proclivity on the part > of the press (UK and elsewhere) to slam the STE??? I've heard more > negative rumours and outright lies about the STE than any other recent > Atari development. I wonder why this is? > I too think the STE's been slammed a little unfairly. Perhaps it stems from confusion about some of its features, leading to over-high expectations. Some people thought the STE would be able to display lots more colours on screen at once, without special tricks. When they found out you could still only have 16 in low-res (albeit from a wider choice) they were disappointed. Premature references to an 'Amiga basher' increased this disappointment. Also, the way they were introduced in the UK didn't help. They came in 'through the back door' without any proper announcement (and, in one version I heard, as a result of Atari UK's bad estimates of the amount of stock they'd need before Christmas). It doesn't help either that the STE doesn't come with its own manual (there's a loose 'addendum' sheet to the STFM manual), doesn't come with any demo programs (or even an enhanced control panel accessory, I think) which take advantage of its new features, and doesn't come with any of the fixes which Allan Pratt posted here a while ago. Non-technical users who are bothered about the bug that prevents bootup in medium-res first have to find out about the fix then have to get it from somewhere - which isn't always easy. No doubt later shipments will overcome these teething troubles (well, we live in hope). In the meantime, just to show all is not doom and gloom, I have a friend who's just bought a 1040 STE and is really pleased with it. Graham -- Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma EARN/BITNET: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk ARPA: grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk UUCP: grahamt@syma.uucp Phone: +44 273 686758