jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (08/18/87)
First, I had a chance to see Word Perfect being demonstrated to
somebody else. Me? I couldn't get that close. It was *busy*.
This is a purely ST version. I have to emphasize this point because
I watched Word Star running on the ST under the MS-DOS emulator. The
speed looked livable. Putting it into perspective, it didn't look
slower than First Word, so if you can tolerate First Word speed, I
think the MS-DOS emulator is practical. On the demonstration machine
the outrigger 5 1/4" floppy was A: and the internal 3 1/2" was B:
Nothing wrong with that, but it surprised me.
The Translator One was also demonstrated which, when used with
Magic Sac allows you to use Mac disks on the *internal* drive as well
as the external drive. That took me by surprise. I wouldn't have
expected it to work on the internal drive. I've heard that many Mac
developers are now buying an ST and Magic Sac for various reasons. I
can only speculate the reasons.
Game of the day for me was Cashman by Michtron. This is a very
playable arcade style game with many screens.
I found the much vaunted multi-user kill a happy-face game dull.
I won. If I lost I might have gotten into it. Probably it depends
on who's playing with you.
It was with great pleasure that I finally meet Jim Tittsler!
Unfortunately, like all else, he was busy and I didn't want to take
too much of his time. There was something of a steady stream of
people asking just about everything possible and Jim wracking his
brain and coming up with miracles (answers :-). Nice ta see ya Jim!
All in all it looks like a strong year for the ST. I'm happy to
say that Antic "Cyber kit" (CAD-3D, Cybersmash, CyberPaint, CyberPancake-
mix and drink maker, or whatever) and the Spectrum 512 program were
blowing peoples minds absolutely. Although this was a "by invitation only"
show, so that there was a limit to the attendance, there was pretty
consistently a noticable bunching up of people at the Antic display
where Chiasseze and Page (the authors of Flash!) were demonstrating this
stuff. I'm also happy to say that I had the opportunity to help produce
one or two of the demo files they used (on CyberPaint).
I think CyberPaint is going to be one of the keystone products for
the Mega's. It gives the big memory machines meaning. It's also a
"non-computerist's" tool. The CAD-3D related Cyber products are wonderful,
but realistically, they are oriented to mechanically minded people.
CAD-3D has come a long way in that respect, and the new mouse controls for
moving objects makes a big difference, but to create an animation still
requires thinking like a programmer.
Flicker style animation is easily understood. If you want to
demonstrate it without a computer, you just need a pad of paper and a
pencil. Just about anybody can understand it. Furthermore, the
Flicker/CyberPaint user interface is the best I've ever seen. If you
have used Flicker for a while and gone back to Neo or Degas Elite, you
notice it. Flicker just doesn't seem to get in your way as much as
Neo and Degas Elite. CyberPaint is even better. I won't go into details
about all the new features, because you're going to hear a lot about
CyberPaint in the future, but for the straight-ahead artist, the biggest
feature is the undo, which means you can bull ahead with your work
and worry a bit less about mistakes. But that's just for the straight
ahead artists. For the animation freaks, well you'd better look for
a real review somewhere (like in Byte :-) because it's a mammoth.
It's not just Flicker anymore.
And this comes back full circle to the Mega ST. Flicker/CyberPaint
is a great art package and a fun animation tool on the 1040ST, but it
really comes alive with 2 - 4 Meg. I'm going to have to get an upgrade
somehow. I'm not sure exactly how right now, but I'm going to *have* to
do it.
THIS IS NOT A REVIEW. It never has been and never will be.
(So there! :-)
--
Jim Omura, 2A King George's Drive, Toronto, (416) 652-3880
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