rjung@nunki.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) (04/23/89)
I have just come back from attending the first(?) World of Atari show, at
the Disneyland hotel in Anaheim. Since there's probably some interest from all
Atarians at what took place, I'll spill my guts (somebody clean that mess up).
The show runs April 22, 10:00am - 6:00pm, and April 23, 10:00am - 5:00pm.
I arrived through the doors at about 10:30am, paid $5 for a ticket, and
walked in. This was a "buyer's show", which meant that every other booth was
trying to get you to buy something. The crowds were already 5-men deep at
10:00 in the morning, though it tapered off to a more manageable level later
in the day.
WHAT'S NEW?
I would estimate that over 40 different firms and groups were at the show,
each showing a combination of new and old products. To keep this thing from
going too long, I'll just touch on the highlights:
ATARI CORP. was showing off the Moniterm 19" monitor, the Calamus DTP
program, the new Megafile 44 hard drive, and their up-and-coming WordFlair
word processing program. Everything was running fine, and Atari expects to
have the last two products available around June or July of this year.
(For information about the STacy, the PC Portfolio, the TT and the ATW, see
below)
GADGETS BY SMALL was demonstrating the Spectre GCR. The cartridge has a
cable to let you hook up an internal- or external ST disk drive so that it
will read Mac disks directly. It is expected to be available in August (FCC
approval pending), with a retail price of $300. Owners of the Spectre can
trade it in for $100 credit towards the GCR.
AVANT-GARDE was showing PC-Ditto II, running Microsoft's Flight Simulator
on the Atari ST. I am not familliar with how fast an IBM PC runs FS in its
native enviroment, but this demo was not slow in any noticeable way. According
to their literature, PCD2 has a Norton SI rating of 3.0. The price is $300.
SUPRA was showing off their line of hard drive equipments for the Atari
computers. Nothing new to report, though.
The DIAMOND GOS was being demonstrated (no sign of GOE anywhere). It looks
a LOT more like the GEM system now, and appears to be available for sale.
It comes with (I think) a paint application and a word pocessor. It comes on a
piggy-back cartridge, and is transparent as DOS to the system. Rumors fly that
Atari wants to market the Diamond with future 8-bits.
ARTISAN software was demonstrating two ST programs: Word Quest, which makes
word search puzzles, runs in color and monochrome; and Graph Maker, which
(natch) makes graphs.
HAPPY COMPUTERS was selling the Discovery cartridge (for the ST) and Happy
upgrades (for the 8-bits). They also announced a new product called
Quick*verter, which allows for easy conversion between Spectre, Magic Sac,
GEM, and Macintosh format disks.
GRIBNIF SOFTWARE (what does "Gribnif" mean?) was showing and selling NeoDesk
version 2.0. It allows custom file icons, keyboard reboot, fast windowing
routes, and lots of other features. All this for $50.
SEYMOR/RADIX presented a new piece of hardware called DVT VCR. It allows
you to back up your hard drive on VCR tape (up to 360 megabytes). The box
connects your system to the VCR by the cartridge port. Price is $250.
IMAGEN was selling Ultrascript for the Atari SLM804/Dot matrix/HP Inkjet
printers. Apparently Atari Corp. will control distribution of the "SLM 804-
only" version, while Imagen gets to hawk the Dot matrix/HP Inkjet version
by themselves. Rumors were that Ultrascript will also work with the HP
Laserjet with no problem. Price is around $200.
CODEHEAD SOFWARE was showing Hotwire and MIDIMax. Hotwire is a utility of
benefit for hard drive users; A given file/pathname can be assigned to any
user-defined keystroke, and executed from the Desktop with one press. MIDIMax
allows the creation of MIDI "macros" for storage or playback, which can be
triggered by any MIDI event. Both products are priced under $50.
SIERRA ON-LINE was showing a videotape featuring the latest of their
adventure programs: Gold Rush, Space Quest III, King's Quest IV, Police Quest
II, Leisure Suit Larry II, and Manhunter: New York. The games that aren't
already available for the ST will be converted "very soon".
A new(?) company, ARTISTECH DEVELOPMENT, was showing off Da Vinci, an
art/animation/drafting tool. Written completely in assembly, this program
ofers a lot of "features for artists by artists" (work on 12 pictures at once
on a 520 ST!) at high speed. This is expected to be released in July for
about $100.
MIGRAPH had Touch-Up for sale, and announced a forthcoming hand-held
scanner. The Migraph Scanner package will scan any type of printed material,
and turn it into .IMG, .PC*, .TIF, MacPaint, Printmaster, and more. It will
come bundled with scanning software and an image-editing accessory. No
price or release date announced.
BECKMEYER DEVELOPMENT TOOLS talked about Micro C-Shell, MT C-Shell,
Micro Make, and Micro C-Tools.
Both ANTIC SOFTWARE and STart were present, though in seperate booths.
Antic had no new ST programs to demonstrate, though I did notice "Interiors
Design Disk", a CAD-3D collection of chairs, shelves, and other such forms.
They also announced that the GFA BASIC 3.0 compiler will be available in
June/July.
ST-LOG and STart were offering discount subscription rates.
DISCLAIMER:
There were many other firms and dealers who were present who I did not
mention above, due to either ignorance, forgetfulness, or misinformation. If
anyone wants to correct/add on to this, go ahead.
BESIDES THE BOOTHS...
Sig Hartmann gave a speech to a packed crowd on "the future of Atari". He
reaffirmed Atari's policy of not announcing any product "unless it will be
available for sale within 60 days". Thus, while he acknowledged some truth to
the rumors regarding the Atari TT, the ATW, an Atari networking system, and
new graphics resolutions, he did not say anything specific. Sig also reported
that the US market will get the FIRST shipments of the STacy and the Portfolio,
to the tulmultious cheer of the crowd.
Atari personnel also reaffirmed their desire to "attack" the US market in
1989, primarily through the STacy, the PC Portfolio, and increased public
relations. Though their advertising budget "has tripled", Sig says that Atari
will keep advertising in the hands of local district managers. Thus, no
prime-time nationwide commercials or TIME Magazine spots in the near future.
Though I had to leave before this happened, there is/was a music concert
scheduled for 7:30pm on April 22. Only 1000 people allowed in, with tickets at
$5 each. Music by Mick Fleetwood and Michael Pinder (of Moody Blues) was
supplemented with a limited-engagement showing of the STacy (it's up and
running), the PC Portfolio (also), and the first public playing of the new
Holtz MIDI Board.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, even though the freeway drive was terrible (this
IS Los Angeles, right? B-), and Disneyland's prices were extortionary. There
is already talk of another World of Atari Show next year; I sure hope so!
--R.J.
B-)
=============================================================================
Disclaimer: This message was written with my authorization
# ## #
# ## # Mailing address: rjung@nunki.usc.edu
## ## ## (It's easier to just use the reply function, tho)
#### ## ####david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) (04/26/89)
In article <3571@nunki.usc.edu> rjung@nunki.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) writes: > BECKMEYER DEVELOPMENT TOOLS talked about Micro C-Shell, MT C-Shell, >Micro Make, and Micro C-Tools. Actually the featured product at the BDT booth was TURBOPOS, our new multiuser business package. We also featured Hard Disk Toolkit and Hard Disk Sentry; and we did have MT C-Shell and the Visual Shell running on a Mega-4. Also there was a meeting on TOS 1.4. Sig said that it was out for ROM production and that devlopers would be able to get PROMs "soon" at about $50. The implication was that it may be six months or more before ROMs are readily available to end-users. No discussion of the ARGV decision, although I spoke briefly with Ken about it. -- David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.UUCP) | "Adios amigos. And, as they say when Beckemeyer Development Tools | the boys are scratching the bad ones, 478 Santa Clara Ave. Oakland, CA 94610 | 'Stay a long time, Cowboy!'" UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax}!unisoft!bdt!david | - Jo Mora