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ft typical window-choked screen<br />
produced under the ftT^TI<br />
operating system.<br />
The 13<br />
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of 'bang' for the buck.<br />
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sensible keyboard layouton<br />
the ifflUKi] you have to<br />
go back to the alpha key<br />
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i<br />
NEWS & VIEWS<br />
SPECIAL CES EDITION<br />
You may be wondering hou 'Uncle Jack1 Tramiel (the<br />
former brains at Commodore who is responsible for the<br />
C-64 and is now the BOSS at ATARI) was taking all<br />
this hooplah from his old camp. Well, it sure wasn't<br />
lying down: J.T. and a good segment of the original<br />
Conmodore staff were 20 yards away showing (true to<br />
style) a product line that must have APPLE & IBPI<br />
talking to themselves. How does $700 sound for a<br />
COLOR 128K 'macintosh' clone with a 1O-Meg hard<br />
drive? ATARI calls it the 130ST (a 520K version, the<br />
52QST was also shown).<br />
With specs-ta-price figures like that, you may be<br />
asking yourself why you don't just f<strong>org</strong>et Conroodore<br />
(the C-128 notwithstanding) and put your money down<br />
on one of the ST's? I've got a couple of reasons for<br />
you:<br />
First of all, it is still not at all certain that<br />
ATARI can even survive long enough to bring these<br />
products to market- the media is constantly relating<br />
various money, political and legal woes that continue<br />
to plague the post-Tramiel company.<br />
Second, even should ATARI stay solvent, there is Jack<br />
Tramiel's legendary image to overcome of a man who<br />
makes promises easily, and keeps them with<br />
difficulty. This anxiety was not alleviated by his<br />
staff at C.E.S. when they would not let anyone touch<br />
the demo units that were set up (and stories<br />
abounding about technicians up all the night before<br />
still wire-wrapping the innards and patching-in<br />
segments of unfinished software so that there would<br />
be something to show at the showI)<br />
Third, our subscription-card questionnaires have<br />
revealed that the average amount spent by our<br />
subscribers on C-64 products in 1984 alone was<br />
$1,500! Why should you dump that kind of investment<br />
to buy-in to a big question-mark like ATARI when you<br />
can get a C-128 for $300, give the C-64 to the kids,<br />
keep using your favorite products, and spend<br />
selectively on the 128 and CP/H products that you<br />
really want?<br />
Fourth, if DEC's GEPI operating system (which makes<br />
the 5T so 'Mac-like') catches on via the ATARI<br />
machines, it is highly likely that GEPI will be<br />
parted-over to other machines (an IBPI version is<br />
already thought to be in development) and the C-128<br />
could end up running in 4 modes instead of 3! (of<br />
course, you wouldn't run as fast or with the same<br />
graphics resolution, but co-processors and virtual<br />
screens could take care of that.)<br />
Lastly, I wouldn't buy an ATARI ST even if they were<br />
on the shelves now until I see Conmodore's 32-bit<br />
'ATTIGA-fTACHIft1. Conroodore wasn't saying a peep<br />
about it, but the expectation now is that the<br />
Lorraine [as it is also known) will be shown at<br />
Chicago in June. Judging even by the features shown<br />
a year ago on a prototype, the Lorraine will<br />
out-perform the ATARI machines in a number of<br />
significant ways.<br />
Continued on pg. 5?
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