bryan@ihuxf.UUCP (Bryan K. DeLaney) (01/17/85)
ANTIC ONLINE NEWS - SPECIAL BULLETIN Permission to reprint or excerpt is granted only if the following line appears at the top of the article: ANTIC SPECIAL BULLETIN, REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT 1985, ANTIC PUBLISHING INC. CES-ATARI FINAL WRAP-UP by NAT FRIEDLAND, Antic Editor LAS VEGAS - The January 1985 CES show looked like the arrival of vindication for those who believed in the Atari Computer. The spectacular hardware and software shown at the crowded Atari exhibit was clearly superior and dramatically lower priced than anything brought by Commodore or the Japanese MSX contingent. Model numbers - and to some extent, prices - still seem to be in a state of flux. But here is the best information ANTIC has as of now. 16-BIT COMPUTERS - The 130ST (128K) is $399. A suddenly announced 260ST (256K) will be $499. And the top of the line 520ST (512K) is $599. The ST operating environment, GEM by Digital Research, will make it easy for software developers to transport programs originally written for the Macintosh and IBM PC environments. 8-BIT COMPUTERS - The 65XE which replaces the 800XL will continue at under $120. The 130XE is "well under $200" - or approaching $150. We also had our first look at the 65XEP luggable, under $400, including a 3 1/2" disk drive and a very clear 5" green monitor. These computers are all compatible with Atari's earlier 8-bits. When the polyphonic AMIE sound chip is finished around March, it's supposed to go into an alternate 64K machine to be called the 65XEM. DELIVERY DATES for everything in this story is supposed to fall between 30 days and the start of the second quarter. PRINTERS - $150 for the slow (12 cps) but true letter-quality daisywheel, $150 for the 80 cps dot matrix that produces graphics virtually as sharp as the Apple Imagewriter. $150 for the 50 cps non-impact color printer that produces very clear text, and $99 for a black-only 20-cps non-impact model. All of these printers seem much sturdier and more professional than any printer that has ever carried the Atari name. They all work with both the 8-bit and the 16-bit lines, under different interfaces and model numbers. In fact, Atari printers and monitors will now be marketed for IBM, Apple and Commodore computers, under the Atarisoft name. MONITORS - The XC1411 composite color 14" is under $200. The XM128, about $150, is the crisp 12" green monitor with built-in 80-column card that works with the new Atari software on XE computers. Specifically for the 16-bit ST line is the very impressive 12" RGB analog color monitor, SC1224 under $300, that's capable of showing 512 colors onscreen. You can also get this model with a built-in 3 1/2" disk drive attachment. And there's an extra high resolution monochrome monitor, the SM124, for the STs at under $200. The Atari exhibit area featured a wall of color monitors, which often displayed the spectacular graphics demos which Atari has been making available to users groups. Doug Crockford's BALL1 has been put on CompuServe by ANTIC. And Jim St. Louis' & Russ Karas' animated high-res robot and rocket ship are starting to be seen nationwide. DISK DRIVES - The 500K SF354 3 1/2" drive is under $200. And they are now also talking about a 250K 3 1/2" drive, the SF324, for around $150. Not yet shown was the under-$600 SH317 hard disk with 10MB, and there's also some discussion of a 15MB hard disk. Speed of all these new drives is announced as a phenomenal 1.3 megabytes per second for the STs. For the XEs they're hoping to boost the speed to 30,000 from the current 19,200. The 1050 disk drive will be gradually replaced for 5 1/4" floppies by the compatible XF521, around $150, which has true double density and matches the new XE look. The new compatible Disk Operating System 2.5 was developed by Bill Wilkinson of OSS, the father of Atari DOS. TELECOMMUNICATIONS - The $49.95 XM301 direct-connect 300-baud modem is slightly larger than a cigarette pack and comes bundled with software for uploading and downloading. The long-awaited Learning Phone cartridge for accessing Plato was featured, in-store availability should begin in February and the price may be as low as $25. The Plato cartridge was also being demonstrated with MPP's new low-cost 1,200-baud modem.