Flash@UMass.BITNET (Rick Flashman) (12/06/86)
Wait a Minute, it is "under development"? Breakout was SHIPPED with the
first ST's! Am I to understand that a program that was shipped with the
first ST's and that is available from Atari's own BBS and GEnie and every
other decent BBS in the nation, all of suddent changed to a program
"under development"?
I worked for an Atari Dealer for a while, and it is fascinating
watching Atari change its prices of things. We were informed that the
ROM upgrade would be $30, then they added the blitter, and it would be
$50, then when all the dealers showed interest, it went up to $70,
now it is around $120. Fun. GDOS was announced as a FREE piece of
software to be distributed. Then they put a price on it. Now, they are
not even ready to release it. The New version of Basic is supposed to
be free when finished. HA! I bet Atari will put a price on that too.
Having to buy GDOS separate, reminds me of IBM which requires you
to buy MS-DOS as a add-on option.
I called Sub-Logic, Monochrome Flight Simulator ][ will be out in
January.
Did you realize how N. Harris has stopped answering user questions
here, but HOW FAST his breakout complaint flew out? Wow. If only user
support was that fast.
Where is Microsoft Write? The dealer news tell us that is was
supposed to ship Nov. 1. Atari is now running an Ad in Newsweek with
a picture of it. I think there is a law somewhere against advertising a
computer with software that does not exist. "Remember Amiga with their
ads claiming to be IBM compatible that got stopped..."
Anyone seen EZTOS? I friend got it on DELPHI, seems someone out
there is writting a replacement to GEM with GDOS or equivalent in it,
and NICE windows and REAL ICONS that is pretty compatible. But it was
a preliminary version. If that is ever finished, the last people will
use the desktop is to load EZTOS and go on. (It is 30K). But Atari might
find some competition there.
BTW, Atari's Printer port on the ST is NOT all that STANDARD. If you
are trying to hook a Okidata dot-matrix printer to an ST, talk first to
your local Atari dealer. There are cable modifications that must be made
cause Atari did not use a standard connection....some voltages are
messed up or something. Need a tech for that one.
Now that 1st Word and Logo are NOT being shipped with ST. I think
you guys at Atari should STOP saying on the BOX that they are. Already
several friends of mine have gotten their ST's with the colorfull box
claiming $200 of software inside. Yet, LOGO and 1stWord of course are
not with it. Leaving the Control Panel, Vt52, and Basic. ($200 at what?
IBM prices?)
What ever happened to Atari's IBM emulator? All of a sudden Atari
seems to have forgotten it ever existed. Wasn't it supposed to ship
by X-Mass?
BTW, don't try buying a double sided drive this X-Mass. They are NOT
available ANYWHERE. I called every distributor, and every mail order
place there is. Not until AFTER X-Mass. Smart move from Atari to SKIP
the X-Mass holidays.
Well, enough for now. Got a computer fair to get ready for, us with
ST's in a sea of clones!
Rickgrunau_b@husc4.harvard.edu (justin grunau) (12/07/86)
In response to Flash@Umass.BITNET, I have to say that I agree with the balance of what he said. In particular, I have to go with his sentiments regarding the rather noticeable disparity between Neil Harris's immediate reaction to the BREAKOUT.ACC posting and his total lack of interest in the user questions that have appeared lately (of course, I am responsible for a disproportionate quantity of these questions, so I guess you could say I am biased). In fairness, of course, we have no idea how often Mr. Harris logs onto a newsnet host, and we can't expect him to read every single back article if he has been offline for a long time. Also, I suspect that the period just before Christmas is probably rather busy for most people at Atari. Still, it would have been nice to have seen some sort of acknowledgement. However, I have to say that a few of the complaints in the article I am responding to were a little extreme. Although I agree that it is a little much to say that GDOS will be free one minute and then give it a price, etc., I don't think it is much of a crime to be a little late in releasing something. After all, it can happen to anybody, and it certainly isn't intentional. I, for one, am very glad that Atari is taking its time to release the IBM emulation box. Considering that many people claim to have seen it running the Microsoft Flight Simulator sometime over the summer, to have it released six months later can only mean that they are increasing its compatability level to something close to 100% (at least, that is what I am hoping). Just to be a spreader of unsubstantiated rumours, a local BBS (Boston Area) has it that a rather large (national) retailer was recently at Atari and has heard that the IBM emulation box will not be released until about March, but that it will (1) include a 5.25" drive, (2) be fully compatible, and (3) cost about $600. This seems somewhat consistent, since the earlier estimates were without a drive and were set at about $300. It's steap, but frankly it seems reasonable to me. JJMG
neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) (12/09/86)
In article <861206121604.000009B1.AAWY.MA@UMass>, Flash@UMass.BITNET (Rick Flashman) writes: > Wait a Minute, it is "under development"? Breakout was SHIPPED with the > first ST's! Am I to understand that a program that was shipped with the > first ST's and that is available from Atari's own BBS and GEnie and every > other decent BBS in the nation, all of suddent changed to a program > "under development"? BREAKOUT.ACC was NEVER packed out with ST's, nor is it available on the Atari Base BBS. (I just looked, to make sure). If it's on GEnie it will disappear shortly. > I worked for an Atari Dealer for a while, and it is fascinating > watching Atari change its prices of things. We were informed that the > ROM upgrade would be $30, then they added the blitter, and it would be > $50, then when all the dealers showed interest, it went up to $70, > now it is around $120. The original ROMs were available for $30, as an upgrade to people with RAM-based systems. Once those people were taken care of, the price of ROMs went up -- we were taking a small loss on each set at the smaller price, as a concession to people who needed them. Now they're spare parts. The poster seems to be confusing the ROMs with the upcoming "blitter" upgrade. > The New version of Basic is supposed to be free when finished. HA! I bet > Atari will put a price on that too. Correct. We never said it will be free. It won't cost very much, though. > Did you realize how N. Harris has stopped answering user questions Funny, I hadn't noticed that.... -- --->Neil @ Atari ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 US Mail: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 "Loose chips sink ships."