ST Report: 10-Aug-90 #632

From: Len Stys (aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 09/01/90-09:59:32 AM Z


From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Subject: ST Report: 10-Aug-90  #632
Date: Sat Sep  1 09:59:32 1990



  
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  August 10, 1990                                                 No.6.32
  =======================================================================

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 > 08/10/90: STReport? #6.32  The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine!
   -------------------------
     - The Editor's Desk      - CPU Report        - CPU MacNews
     - GFA GONE?              - LCACE Updates     - ISD Fonts
     - IBM or ST?             - BUG HUNT!!        - STR CONFIDENTIAL

                      * WHATS UP WITH PC DITTO II? *
                 * EYEWITNESS REPORTS (2) WOA SAN JOSE!! *
                     * DEVELOPER MIFFED AT FOSTER! *  

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 > The Editor's Podium?

     Ah yes..... WOA is behind us  once again  and GENCON  is this weekend.
 Fantastic!    The  exposure  Atari  is  getting of late is sure to put the
 computer line on everyone's lips yet.  The big 'inside story' is  that the
 TT030  is  ready  and  awaiting  approval,  in  fact,  the monitor has FCC
 approval now and the TT itself is in the process.  The 32Mhz version  is a
 daughter board  and has  been seen  in operation, of course, behind closed
 doors.  We will see the TT030 this fall.

     The STe DMA thingy is about to become  a thing  of the  past, it seems
 its a  problem of  REFLECTED SIGNALS..  on the  amplified DMA line that is
 causing the problems.   To make  a long  story short,  a range  of 10-20pf
 will bring an end to this situation.  incidently, ICD has found that three
 caps  strategically  placed  on  the  host  also  corrects  the reflection
 problem.   With the  new amplified  system, the DMA can handle up to a ten
 meter cable length.  The reflection was spotted  with   a 150Mhz  scope at
 maximum sensitivity and slowdown.  Another suggested method of eliminating
 the reflection is through proper termination packs.   Check the LS/244/245
 circuit.  Oh well it is soon to become a thing of the past.

     Please keep those letters flowing toward Atari asking that they please
 pay more attention to the US  market... it  the language  they understand.
 Keep  the  letters  pleasant  and  positive  but above all else, keep them
 flowing.  Remember a single letter has the impact of 20 phone  calls or so
 we are told by the analysts.

                                             Thanks for your support!

                                                        Ralph......




                        Hey Antonio.....  Be NICE!!




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 And you get free access to several  services  on  DELPHI  as  part  of the
 Advantage Perks.

     Other telecom  services may  have additional charges.  Canadian Tymnet
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 > CPU REPORT?
  
  
   Issue # 79
   ----------


 by Michael Arthur


 Remember When....

       In September  1979, Motorola introduced the 68000 microprocessor, or
 when, in January 1983,  Apple announced  the Lisa  microcomputer, and then
 introduced the Macintosh in January 1984?

       Or how  Atari introduced  the 520 ST in January 1985, with Commodore
 announcing the Amiga 1000 in July?



 CPU Dream Systems  VII
 ====================== 

          UNIX MACHINES, LOW-END WORKSTATIONS, AND A 68030 PARADE
          -------------------------------------------------------


       Part I of this Series featured a list  of "Peripherals  of Note", or
 computer  peripherals  and  systems  which  are  both  innovative  in  the
 microcomputer industry, and are unique in their perspective markets. While
 there were  probably newer  computers and peripherals that could have been
 included, the list was  generally accurate.   In  this section,  a list of
 "Dream Systems",  or configurations  of several powerful computer systems,
 has been formed in order to  analyze how  far current  computers can truly
 approach the "State of the Art" using current hardware peripherals.

       I have  chosen not  to include  variables like operating systems and
 software in  this analysis,  and to  concentrate on  the actual computers'
 hardware  capabilities,  the  greatest  amount  of  mass storage you could
 attain, and the best graphics that system could provide.   While operating
 systems and  software are a definite factor in a computer system, software
 can generally be easily added or  ported to  a computer  system.   Also, I
 wanted to  aim for  the best  hardware itself,  to which you could add the
 necessary software.  However,  since many  of the  high-end microcomputers
 featured here  are beginning to rival workstations in both performance and
 price, this essay  will  now  include  some  low-end  workstations  in its
 analysis, in  order to  both study the state of high-end microcomputers as
 compared to low-end workstations, and to see whether  these microcomputers
 outperform some workstations in certain aspects....


       After doing some research, I found several configurations that could
 truly claim to be "Dream Systems".  Shown in no particular order,  here is
 my list:


         (Warning:  Do not be surprised by the Retail Prices Shown.)



 System #1
 ---------
         - Cheetah Gold 425 with Hercules Graphics Station Card -

                 Total Cost of System: $17,500.00 Dollars

      This IBM Compatible is a system with a 25 MHZ 80486 chip, 8 Megabytes
 of RAM onboard, 3 PC AT and 3 EISA Expansion Slots, and  a SmartConnex/ISA
 Floppy/Hard Disk Controller from DTP Inc.

      To  further  enhance  this  system,  I would add a 1 Gigabyte Magneto
 Optical Drive  made by  Maxtor, which  uses Removable  Cartridges to store
 data, a Hercules Graphics Station Card with a TI 34010 Graphics Processor,
 a 3Com  Etherlink II  Card, which  provides an  Ethernet port,  and an NEC
 Multisync 4D Monitor.

 So with this system, you would have:

        Cheetah Gold 425 w/8 Megs of RAM  (Cost: $6000.00)
        DPT SmartConnex/ISA Disk Controller  (Cost: $365.00)

        Maxtor 1 Gigabyte Magneto-Optical Cartridge Drive  (Cost: $8000.00)
        Hercules Graphics Station Card  (Cost: $1024.00)
        3Com EtherLink Card  (Cost: $345.00)
        NEC Multisync 4D Monitor  (Cost: $1800.00)


 VGA Graphics Resolution: 320x200 with 256 Colors out of 256,000
                          640x480 with 16 Colors Displayable out of 256,000

 SuperVGA Resolutions: 640x480 with 256 Displayable Colors out of 256,000
                       800x600 with 16  Colors out of 256,000

 TIGA Resolutions:   512x480 w/16 Million Displayable Colors
                     1024x768 with 256 Colors out of 16 Million

 Faults with System:  None whatsoever.



 System #2
 ---------

                 - Macintosh IIfx w/SuperMac Video Board -

                          Total Cost:  $23,750.00


       This Macintosh  uses a  40 MHZ  68030 with a 40 MHZ 68882 Math Chip,
 Four Megabytes of RAM (and a 32K CPU Cache), 6 NuBus Expansion  Slots, and
 a  1.44  Meg  High  Density  Disk  Drive.    It  uses the SWIM (Sander-Woz
 Integrated Machine) Disk Controller chip to allow the Mac to read/write to
 MS-DOS and  OS/2 formatted disks.  Also added is a Mac IIfx DRAM Expansion
 Board, with 4 Megs of RAM. 

       To FURTHER enhance this system,  I  would  add  Mirror Technologies'
 RM600  Magneto-Optical  Drive,  which uses 650 Megabyte Removable/Erasable
 Cartridges like those found for the NeXT drive, an Adaptec Nodem, which is
 an  Ethernet  LAN  Interface  Unit  that  plugs  into the SCSI slot, and a
 National Semiconductor Maccelerate Board,  which is  a DMA  (Direct Memory
 Access) Controller  that makes  data transfer operations up to three times
 faster than before.

       Also, I would add a Taxan Ultravision 1000 Monitor to  accompany the
 SuperMac  Spectrum/24  Video  Card,  which  lets  the  Mac have a 1024x768
 display with 16 Million colors at the same  time, and  makes Mac Quickdraw
 operations display 5 - 10 times faster than before.


 So with this system you would have:

       Macintosh IIfx w/4 Megs of RAM  (Cost: $9900.00)
       One Apple Mac IIci 4 Meg DRAM Expansion Kit  (Cost: $1000.00)
       Maccelerate DMA Controller Card  (Cost: $600.00)

       Adaptec Nodem Ethernet Unit  (Cost: $500.00)
       Mirror RM600 Magneto-Optical Cartridge Drive (Cost: $3500.00)
       Spectrum/24 III Video Board  (Cost: $4500.00)
       Taxan 980 20-Inch Monitor  (Cost: $3700.00)


 Macintosh II Resolution:  640x400 with 256 Colors out of 16 Million

 With Spectrum/24 it has 1024x768 with 16 Million colors at the same time.


 Faults with System:  An extreme amount of add-in peripherals.  But other
                      than that, it is a SUPERB system....



 System #3
 ---------

           - Atari TT030/2 (32 MHZ Version) with 8 Megs of RAM -

                       Total System Cost: $10,700.00

      This is  an Atari  TT030/2, with  2 Megs of RAM, 1.44 Meg Disk Drive,
 AppleTalk Port, and 1 VME Expansion Slot as  Standard.   Since the  TT has
 SIMM Slots, I would add six 1 Megabyte SIMM Modules, for a total of 8 Megs
 of RAM onboard.

       To  improve  on  this  system,  I  would  add  a  Sony  650 Megabyte
 Magneto-Optical Cartridge  Drive, with an ICD Host Adapter to interface it
 with the TT, a Spectre GCR (with 128K Mac ROMs) from Gadgets By Small, and
 a PARSEC  Video Board from Datel Computers, for a 1024*768 resolution with
 4096 simultaneously displayable colors....


 So with this system you would have:

       Atari TT030/2 (Cost as stated by Atari in Europe: $3200.00 US)
       Sony 650 Meg Removable Drive with ICD Host Adapter (Cost:  $5000.00)
       Six 1 Megabyte SIMM Modules  (Cost: $600.00)
       Spectre GCR Mac Emulator  (Cost: $300.00)
       Mac 128K ROMs  (Cost:  Around $100.00)
       Datel PARSEC Color Board  (Cost: $1500.00)


 Atari STe Resolutions:  (Supported by TT)

       320*200 with 16 displayable colors out of a 4096 color palette
       640*200 with 4 Colors out of 4096
       640*400 in Monochrome

 Atari TT Resolutions:

       320*480 with 256 Displayable Colors outof 4096
       640*480 with 16 Colors out of 4096
      1280*960 in Monochrome

 PARSEC Resolution:

       1024*768 with 4096 colors displayable at the same time


 Faults with System:  There are VERY few hardware peripherals out for the
                      Atari ST, STe, or TT, thereby making expansion VERY
                      difficult.  However, since the ST/STe/TT have most of
                      the functions that third-party peripherals provide
                      already built-in, this is somewhat alleviated.


 System #4
 ---------

             - Amiga 3000/16 w/33 MHZ CSA Mega-Midget Racer -


                     Total Cost of System: $12,000.00


      This is an Amiga 3000 with a 16 MHZ 68030 and a 16 MHZ 68881 Floating
 Point  Math  Chip,  2  Megs  of  RAM  (with no CPU Cache) onboard, 2 PC AT
 Expansion Slots and 4 Zorro III (32-bit) Slots.  It  also has  an improved
 version of  the Amiga's  Enhanced Chip Set, which both boosts its graphics
 capabilities and features a Display  Enhancer  Chip  (known  in  the Amiga
 world as the Amber "FlickerFixer" chip).

       The reason  I featured  the CSA  Midget Racer Accelerator instead of
 the A3000/25 (which has a 25 MHZ 68030)  is because  the Amiga  3000 has a
 16 Mhz  memory subsystem  that slows  down system performance by inserting
 waitstates on a A3000/25.  Meaning  that  the  A3000/25  only  provides an
 increased processor  clock speed  (and a  relatively minor speed increase)
 compared to the A3000/16....

      With this system would be a GVP Impact SCSI Hard Disk Controller with
 6 Megs  of RAM  Onboard, a 650 Meg Magneto-Optical Tape Drive from Briwall
 Inc., a CSA Mega-Midget Racer with a 33 MHZ 68030 and a 33 MHZ  68882 Math
 Coprocessor, an  NEC Multisync  4D Monitor, and Commodore's Ethernet board
 for the Amiga.


 So with this system you would have:

        Amiga 3000/16 with Enhanced Chip Set  (Cost: $3500.00)
        GVP Impact SCSI HD Controller w/6 Megs of RAM  (Cost: $1200.00)
        CSA Mega-Midget Racer Accelerator  (Cost: $1700.00)

        Briwall 650 Meg Magneto-Optical Drive  (Cost: $4500.00)
        Commodore 1950 Multisync Monitor  (Cost: $800.00)
        Amiga Ethernet Board  (Cost: $300.00)


 Amiga Resolutions: (Not including Overscan)
                   320x200 with 32 colors out of 4096
                   320x200 with 64 colors out of 4096 (Extra Half-Brite)
                   320x200 with 4096 colors at the same time (HAM Mode)

                   640x200 with 4 to 32 colors
                   640x400 with 2 to 16 colors (interlaced)

 With Enhanced Chip Set:  (most capable graphics modes shown)

      640x256, with 64 displayable colors out of 4096
      1280x400, with 4 colors out of 64 (interlaced)


 Faults with System:   None....



 System #5
 ---------

                    - IBM RISC System/6000 Model 320 -

                      Total System Cost:  $17,000.00

       This is a IBM  PowerStation  320,  with  a  20  MHZ  POWER Processor
 Chipset, 8  Megs of  RAM (and  a 32K CPU Cache), 4 "Enhanced MicroChannel"
 Expansion Slots, a Color Graphics Adapter with a Geometry Engine  Chip and
 a color  monitor, and  a 1.44  Meg Disk Drive.  Along with this would be a
 3Com Ethernet Card for the RS/6000, and a 240 Megabyte Hard Drive.

       Interestingly enough, while the  POWER Chipset  does NOT  use either
 ROM Chips  or Microcode,  it IS  installed into  the RISC System/6000 as a
 CPU Planar Board.  Meaning that one can easily upgrade from a  20 MHZ Unit
 to 25  MHZ or 30 MHZ performance by simply replacing the CPU Planar Board,
 but that the POWER Chipset itself cannot be upgraded via the use of faster
 ROM Microcode....


 So with this system you have:

       IBM RS/6000 PowerStation Model 320  (Cost: $17,000.00)
       3Com Ethernet Card  (Bundled with System)
       240 Megabyte Hard Drive  (Bundled with System)
       Color Graphics Adapter w/Monitor  (Bundled with System)


 RISC System/6000 Resolution: 1280x1024 with 256 Colors out of 16 Million

 Faults of System:  Hard disk storage is comparatively weak, but an
                    excellent system, for the cost....



 System #6
 ---------

                  - Abaq Transputer w/300 Meg Hard Disk -

                     Total Cost of System: $30,000.00


       This is an Abaq Transputer with a 20 MHZ T800 Chip having a built-in
 Math Coprocessor, 4 Megs of RAM, and 4 Expansion Slots.   Along  with this
 would be  two Abaq  M112 Expansion  Cards, each  having 4 T800 Chips and 4
 Megs of DRAM onboard, and one Abaq F104 Expansion Card,  with 1  T800 chip
 and 1  Meg of  RAM standard,  for a  total of 10 T800 chips and 13 Megs of
 System RAM.   Since  Helios can  read/write to  MS-DOS disks,  and the ATW
 uses a  Mega ST Motherboard as an I/O processor, an ABCO 300 Megabyte Hard
 Drive for the ST should be able to be used.


 So with this system you have:

       Abaq Transputer w/4 Megs of RAM  (Cost: $8000.00)
       Two ATW M112 Expansion "Farm" Cards  (Cost: $12,000.00 total)
       ATW F104 Expansion "Farm" Card  (Cost: $2000.00)

       ATW X100 Ethernet Interface Card  (Cost: $1100.00)
       ABCO 650 Megabyte Hard Drive for the ST  (Cost: $3200.00)
       Taxan Ultravision 1000 Monitor  (Cost: $3700.00)


 Abaq Resolutions:  1280x960 with 16  Colors out of 16 Million
                    1024x768 with 256 Colors out of 16 Million
                     512x480 with 16 Million Colors at the same time
                     640x480 with 256 Colors out of 16 Million (this mode
                     has double-buffered screens for high speed animation)

 Faults of System:  Hard disk storage is decent, but comparatively
                    weak.  Also, it is the highest-costing system....




 Here is a Graph of the features of each Dream System:

                            Dream Systems List:
              (Comparison of each Systems' Optimal Features)
 _________________________________________________________________________ 
 Dream      |Main Chips,|MHZ Rate|Mass      |Expansion|Graphics Displays/ |
 System     |Megs of RAM| & MIPS |Storage   |  Slots  |Best Resolution(s) |
 -----------|-----------|--------|----------|---------|-------------------|
 IBM 486    |Intel 80486| 33 MHZ |1 Gigabyte|Three (6)|512*480,16 Million |
 System     |Eight Megs |        |Tape Drive|PC/AT Bus|1024*768,256 Colors|
 -----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
 Mac IIfx   |68030/68882| 40 MHZ |650 Meg   | Four (6)|640x400, 256 Colors|
 System     |Eight Megs |        |Tape Drive|NuBus    |1024x768,16 Million|
 -----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
 Atari TT030|68030/68882| 32 MHZ |650 Meg   | One (1) |640x480,  16 Colors|
 System     |Eight Megs |        |Tape Drive|VME Bus  |1024*768,4096Colors|
 -----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
 Amiga 3000 |68030/68882| 33 MHZ |650 Meg   | Two (4) |640x256,  64 Colors|
 System     |Eight Megs |        |Tape Drive|Zorro III|1280x200,  4 Colors|
 -----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
 IBM RS/6000|   POWER   | 20 MHZ |240 Meg   |Three (4)|    1280x1024      |
 System     |Eight Megs |        |Hard Drive|M-Channel| 16 Million Colors |
 -----------|-----------|--------|----------|---------|-------------------|
 ATW        | 10 T-800s | 20 MHZ |300 Meg   | Zero (4)|512*480, 16 Million|
 System     |  13 Megs  |        |Hard Drive|Abaq     |1280*960, 16 Colors|
 -----------'-------------------------------------------------------------'


       In the Mass Storage column, Tape  stands for  removable storage, and
 HD stands  for fixed,  or hard  disk storage.   VAX  MIPS is approximately
 1750 Dhrystones per Second.

       Also, the Expansion Slot Column now measures the number of available
 expansion slots  in each  Dream System AFTER installing the various add-in
 boards in each System  Configuration.   The number  in parentheses  is the
 total number of expansion slots in the system.


                             Dream Systems List:
                        Basic System Performance List
 _________________________________________________________________________
 Dream      |Dhrystones |Data Transfer| Linpack  |Size of Bus|Size,Type of|
 System     |in VAX MIPS|    Rate     |  MFLOPS  |Architectr.| CPU Cache  |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 IBM 486    |13-16 MIPS | 33 Megabytes| 1.2 - 1.5|  32 Bits  |No CPU Cache|
 System     |           |  Per Second |  MFLOPS  |    Wide   |            |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 Mac IIfx   |7 - 8 MIPS | 10 Megabytes|   0.29   |  32 Bits  |  32K SRAM  |
 System     |           | Per Second  |  MFLOPS  |    Wide   |            |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 Atari TT030|6 - 8 MIPS |    N/A      |    N/A   | 16/24 Bits|    N/A     |
 System     |           |             |          |    Wide   |            |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 Amiga 3000 |  5.8 - 7  |Up to 33 Megs|.12 - .15 |  32 Bits  |No CPU Cache|
 System     |    MIPS   | Per Second  |          |    Wide   |            |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 IBM RS/6000| 27.5 MIPS | 40 Megabytes|7.4 MFLOPS|  32 Bits  |  32K SRAM  |
 System     |           | Per Second  |          |    Wide   |            |
 -----------|-----------|-------------|----------|-----------|------------|
 ATW        |  60 MIPS  | 20 Megabytes|125 - 150 |  32 Bits  |4K SRAM Per |
 System     | Sustained | Per Second  |  MFLOPS  |    Wide   | Transputer |
 -----------'-------------------------------------------------------------'

   MFLOPS - Million Floating Point math Operations performed Per Second
       SRAM - Static RAM memory (many times faster than DRAM chips)
             MIPS - Million Instructions performed Per Second





 CPU AmigaNews?
 =============

          READYSOFT'S AMAX II: IMPROVED MAC EMULATION FOR THE AMIGA
          ---------------------------------------------------------

 Here's some information on A-Max II, primarily from ReadySoft's press
 releases:


       Version II  of A-Max is available in 2 configurations:  A-Max II and
 A-Max II Plus.  A-Max II  is  a  cartridge  that  plugs  into  the Amiga's
 external disk  drive port  and has  a connector for an Apple 800k external
 drive.  A-Max II Plus is an Amiga  2000 (or  greater) card  that gives you
 AppleTalk  and  Mac  MIDI  program  compatability  as well as allowing Mac
 format disks to be used in Amiga drives.

 A-Max II's features include: 

    - Access to partitions on hard drives during Mac emulation (supports
      most Amiga HD controllers

    - Access to Mac SCSI peripherals such as the LaserWriter IISC, hard
      drives, and scanners through your Amiga hard drive  controller's SCSI
      port.

    - Improved handling of Amiga accelerator boards, for maximum speed and
      compatability - software runs up to 5 times faster.

    - Plays Mac digitized sounds.

    - Supports the use of the Amiga Mouse, keyboard, serial, and parallel
      ports.

    - Reads Magic Sac and Spectre disk formats (Atari ST and Mac emulators)

    - Supports these monochrome resolutions: 640x400, 640x200 (scrolling),
      and 512x342 (Mac standard size).  Also supports 1008x800 resolution
      with the A2024 or Moniterm Viking monitor and overscan is also
      supported.

    - Supports PAL (640x512)

    - Uses all available Amiga RAM during Mac emulation.

    - A-Max II cartridge can be left connected to Amiga during Amiga use.

    - Built-in Apple Imagewriter emulation for 9 and 24 pin Epson & Epson
      compatable printers.

    - Transfer software included to convert files from AmigaDos TO & FROM
      A-Max & Mac formatted disks.

    - Built in recoverable bootable RAM disk.


 A-Max II Plus (includes all of above and the following):

    - Compatability with Appletalk networks and peripherals, for things
      such as direct Laserwriter printing.

    - Ability to read, write and format Mac 3.5 disks with standard Amiga
      3.5 disk drives.

    - 2 fully compatable Mac serial ports.

    - Greater compatability with Mac MIDI sequencer programs.

    - Board installs internally - no need for an external cartridge.

 A-Max II Plus will be available in Fall 1990.  Readysoft (who also makes
 Space Ace and Dragon's Lair for the ST and STe) can be contacted at:

                              ReadySoft Inc.
                             38 Wertheim Court
                           Unit 2 Richmond Hill
                          Ontario, Canada L4B 1B9
                              1-416-731-4175





 CPU MacNews?
 ===========

              CLARIS BECOMES WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF APPLE
              -----------------------------------------------

       Apple Computer has announced that Claris Corporation is now a wholly
 owned, independent subsidiary of Apple.  In April 1987, Apple had spun off
 its  applications  software  efforts  into  a majority-owned subsidiary of
 Apple, called Claris Corp.    Now,  while  Claris  remains  an independent
 entity (with  separate facilities  and personnel), its top management will
 report to Apple....

       Claris Corporation makes Appleworks  for the  Apple II/IIgs  line of
 computers,  as  well  as  MacWrite  II,  MacPaint  II,  MacDraw, and other
 applications for the Macintosh.    Now  that  it  is  fully  under Apple's
 ownership,  Claris  will  continue  developing and marketing its "flagship
 applications" (like Appleworks and MacWrite), producing  extensions to the
 Macintosh System Software, and developing products to link Macs with other
 computer systems.





     ________________________________________________________________





 > WOA SAN JOSE!! STR SHOW NEWS?   "lots of new and exciting things to buy!"
   ============================



 TWO EYEWITNESS REPORTS!!



                                             WORLD OF ATARI SHOW
                                             ===================



               San Jose, California ~ August 4th & 5th 1990


 by Jay Pierstorff


      The World of Atari show in San Jose  was a  small, but  high  quality
 show. Although  not the  largest event, in the Atari  community, this show
 still garnered 20+ dealers  & developers  and   well over  2000 attendees.
 Sales were  excellent for  all the  vendors  and the general consensus was
 that northern california was very  much in need of an Atari show!

                      AMONG THE DISPLAYS AT THE SHOW:

 Best Electronics       San Jose Computer        Beckemeyer Development
 Zubair Interfaces      STart Magazine           Codehead Software
 Carter Graphics        Branch Always Software   BRE Software
 Computer Safari        Sliccware Software       Michtron
 Paradise Computers     John Russell Innovations B & C Computers
                                and more! 
      
      There was lots of  new  and  exciting  things  to  buy  at  the show.
 Stacies and  STE's were  available from  San Jose  Computer, and  lots  of
 deals on Epyx Software titles. BRE Software had the Lynx video  games, and
 tons of  public domain  disks. Zubair  Interfaces was  selling their Z-Ram
 memory upgrades and they introduced a new   plug-in board  that allows any
 ST to  use an  IBM/XT style  keyboard.  The Codeheads were selling Lookit!
 and Popit!. Branch Always  was   moving lot's  of Quick  ST IIs  and Quick
 Utilities.  Computer   Safari    had  every  Pagestream  font  imaginable,
 including Softlogik's new  font disks  17,18, and  19. Atari  owners had a
 huge selection of  items to choose from, and great prices to tempt them!

      Atari  did  not  have  a  display,  but  personnel  showed up in full
 force. A scheduling conflict had their show display enroute to   Milwaukee
 for  the  GenCom  show.  Among  the  Atari  personnel Attending  were Sam,
 Leonard and Gary Tramiel, Bob Brodie, and Dan McNamee. 

      In all, WOA San Jose was a successful show. Vendors  had brisk sales,
 and Atarians got great deals on the latest hardware and Software!

     Well, it's  over and  boy am I tired! A good time was had by all. Most
 of the dealers  and  vendors  I  spoke  with  felt  that  even  though the
 attendance wasn't  quite up to the usual, people were spending more  money
 than usual.

                      ! We will definitely be back! 

     Saturday morning Sam &  Leonard Tramiel,  Bob Brodie,  Dan McNamee   &
 Gail Fisher  from Atari were on hand talking to lots of folks! Sam Tramiel
 even bought a new  joystick from  us! Now  it's known  as the  Sam Tramiel
 model! <hehe>  Well gang  if you  missed it  this time, don't miss another
 one!

                                              Jay @ Computer Safari



 REPORT II
 ---------



 M.MOTOGAWA [MEL]             at 20:59 PDT
  
   
  *** Do you know the way to San Jose?

  I was able to spend some time at the WOA in the San Jose Hyatt hotel
  over the weekend and must say that I had a pretty good time.

  It was a small show, from what I've read about other WOA's, this being
  my first. (Probably a couple of hundred people in the room when I was
  there. Didn't hear what the actual body count through the doors was
  over the two days.) But there are a lot of good buys and activity and
  from what I saw the dealers and developers were busy.

  Some of the prices were so good that I couldn't resist the urge to
  take the plunge, I'm now an STe enthusiast. B&C Computervisions and
  San Jose Computers had *busy* booths and you should have seen how
  many people lining up to buy old games at $5 a pop. B&C had super deals
  on hardware and that's where I picked up my STe.

  So who was there, Mel? 

  The Codeheads were selling LookIt and PopIt, their newest in a long
  line of superb assembly language miracles. They sure go out of their
  way to explain their programs and help you out. The booth was busy
  every time I checked.

  Darek, representing Branch Always Software, was there selling Quick
  ST II and Quick Tools Vol. I. His booth was pretty busy too, but I
  did get a chance to check out Quick Tools a little bit. If I remember
  right, I think he was showing Quick ST 2.2 which has the ability to
  enable/disable Quick ST and is even faster.

  Carter Graphics was selling a bunch of those removeable-media hd's.
  Had some real low fire-sale prices on software too.

  Zubair Interfaces were very helpful and had their full line of memory
  expanders and Z keys, the IBM keyboard interface. They had a mean deal
  on STe simms, so I picked up two. They were offering a $5 rebate on
  your old 256k simms and a 1 year warranty for the 1 meg 80ns simms. 

  Michtron was selling all their stuff at great prices. 

  JRI was there on Sunday showing their nice looking line of memory
  upgrades and accelerator boards.

  STart had a booth and was selling subs, old issues and answering
  questions about the new look, STart and Antic combined. Sounds like
  the new STart is going to be even better.

  Megamax had Script and Sculpt on sale and could answer your questions
  about Script 2.0. Sounds good and is supposed to be out real soon. I
  was surprised at how fast Script was in screen redraws.

  Talon Technology featured Supercharger on a multisync.

  BRE and the Kings Den had all the pd software you could think of.

  Beckemeyer Developement showed their line and their multitasking
  system.

  Of course, ST World was there giving away complementary issues and
  hosting the affair.

  Sliccware was showing Slicctop. I've never heard of it, but it
  appears to be a new type of desktop with some interesting features.

  Paradise Computers was there on Sunday. Don't know if they were
  selling SGS, but they looked busy too.

  Best had their usual huge cornucopia of ST, 8-bit stuff.

  Computer Safari had some of the latest UK mags and font disks for
  Pagestream. (Convinced me to pick up the Lightline series - nice!) I
  almost bought WordUp 3.0. When I went back on Sunday, I didn't see any
  copies left.

  That's about all that I can remember right now. A couple of user
  groups had booths outside the main floor. Got a chance to see a bunch
  of people you only read about. Sunday was more relaxed and not as
  crowded as Saturday when I dropped by around 11 a.m., which was nice.
  Overall I think it was a fine show. Everyone I talked to seemed happy
  and everyone who was there Saturday appeared to be there Sunday
  exhibiting again. Hope there will be another one in the area.


  



         _________________________________________________________






 > IBM or ST/TT STR SOUND OFF?      WHY ARE WE FACED WITH HAVING TO CHOOSE?
   ==========================





                                                  WHY MUST WE CHOOSE?
                                                  ==================


 by R.F. Mariano


     As most of us have noticed over the  last few  months, there  are more
 and more  STers going 'over' to MS-DOS.  The reason we don't mention Apple
 is easy, those STers that have the GCR MAC emulator seem to be content for
 the most part the way they are.  The only major complaint we hear there is
 the SLM 804 support.  Now,  back to  the users  switching to  IBM's MS-DOS
 world.
  
     Since the  WELL PUBLICIZED  release of Windows 3.0 and the powerful AD
 CAMPAIGNS detailing the many features of Windows, a great many more of the
 GEM preferring users are migrating to IBM.  The sad part is; no matter how
 many new suits you place on MS-DOS, its still the  same old  banana right?
 Wrong.   Not according  to the  new spec  sheets and promotions telling us
 that the Windows environment  and MS-DOS  4.1 will  soon be  released on a
 card thus giving it the speed and much desired protection against virii.
  
     Ok, so what does all this have to do with the current situation in the
 ST marketplace?  For openers, its easy to see why Windows has  had such an
 impact  on  the  US  Market..  Advertising.  Yessir, plain and simple they
 (Microsoft) are beating their drum and tooting their horn.   And the whole
 country knows  about the  availability of the product known as Windows 3.0
 as well as what it can do.  We (the  ST owners  and users)  sure know what
 our computers  can do, in fact, most of us will agree that our platform is
 far more powerful than most and the software available for  it is, without
 a doubt,  far more  stable and  reliable than  most other  platforms.  Why
 don't those prospective buyers know these  things?    That's  an  old, old
 story Atari  simply will not advertise these facts.  Instead, they promote
 everything but the power of the ST computer and its related software.   Oh
 sure there  will be  those who jump up and holler; "But they advertise the
 power of the ST for midi!"  This is true but then, where do  they do this?
 In the midi magazines.  How very original it is to preach to the choir.
    
     Repeatedly, we  have seen  where many  of the staunch Atari supporters
 have  literally  begged  Atari  to  advertise  in  magazines  like People,
 Reader's Digest and other non-computer or music related publications where
 the vast majority of non-computer owners can be reached.  But no... we see
 the few  and far  between ads  in ST dedicated magazines and publications.
 It appears that these publications are reaching folks who already own Sts!
 Does Atari do this to afford themselves an opportunity to proclaim to all;
 "See we DO advertise!"
  
     This is now the twilight zone for the ST and  Atari, yet  they fail to
 see the  handwriting on  the wall.  Or is it??  After having interviewed a
 number of folks who have purchased "386 clones",  the "jury"  still is not
 in.    The  reasons  are  many  but the predominant opinion is; "It's like
 using the old 8 bit, it's  clumsy,  it  has  too  many  commands  one must
 memorize."   Truth is  most of  these complaints  are fairly accurate.  Of
 course, with time any user can become accustomed to the  'quirks' of using
 MS-Dos.   For myself, I find that MS-DOS, even while there is a tremendous
 attraction because the size of the userbase and its support,  is crude and
 rather unfriendly.   Additionally,  one can readily find that the software
 available in the  Atari  ST  userbase  is  far  more  stable  (crashes are
 virtually non-existent) and of a very high calibre.  Why?  The best answer
 there is that the software and hardware developers are more  involved than
 just as  a 'money making' effort.  They really care and have a very strong
 desire to  provide  products  that  are  clearly  superior  that  which is
 available to the other platforms.
  
     "Atari's  lackluster  performance  and apparent lackadaisical attitude
 toward the USA Market has left most  of  us  between  a  rock  and  a hard
 place."  STReport's staff hears this almost every day.  From most dealers,
 developers and existing ST owners/users.  This is, in our  opinion, easily
 rectified  and   should  be   the  foremost   priority  on  Atari's  list.
 Advertising, (who cares if Amiga's  last  ad  campaign  failed!    The ads
 themselves  were  flawed.),  is  the foremost answer.  New users/customers
 cannot be garnered if they don't know of the company or the  fine computer
 products it  offers.   The ST, Stacy, Portfolio, Lynx, TT030, SLM 804, SLM
 605 Epson Laser Printer,  CDROM  504,  Megafile  60  and  the  Megafile 44
 removable  media  hard  disk  are  just  a  limited  list of fine hardware
 products that all provide a strong testimonial for Atari's hardware.   The
 shame is  nobody, other  than STers,  KNOW about the terrific hardware and
 the level of application available.  Atari must advertise.  How many times
 in the  last three  years have you read or heard that?  I know, many, many
 times.  The BIG  question is;  "If we  have heard  it so  many times, from
 every corner of the country, why hasn't Atari??  
  
     Perhaps  its  time,  once  again,  to  begin  a massive letter writing
 campaign directed at Atari, not to TV stations or third party hardware and
 software  developers,  straight  to  Atari.    Overload  their  mail room,
 inundate Sam's  desk with  positive, suggestion  filled mail.   Show Atari
 that  we,  the  enthusiastic  users  DO  care and want to see this company
 succeed in the USA.  As I sit in this office, surrounded by Atari computer
 equipment, it  becomes very  important to  try and  induce Atari to do the
 right thing in the USA.    So,  let's  all  try  by  sending  in positive,
 suggestion oriented  letters to  Sam.  Please, ask that they ADVERTISE and
 sell large quantities of computers through or by whatever means possible.


ps; there really is no choice, the ST series of computers is still #1!




        ___________________________________________________________





 > ISD FONTS STR InfoFile?           Professional Fonts from ISD
   ======================



 August 7, 1990


                 PROFESSIONAL FONTS FOR USE IN CALAMUS!! 

 All the following AGFA Compugraphic fonts are available now.

 COMPUGRAPHIC FONTS
 ------------------

 Antique Olive                Baskerville II
 Bauer Bodoni                 Brush
 CG Century Schoolbook        CG Omega
 CG Palacio                   CG Times
 CG Triumvirate               Coronet
 Dom Casual                   Eras
 Friz Quadrata                Futura II
 Garamond                     Garth Gothic
 Greek and Math San Serif     Greek and Math Serif
 Helios Rounded               ITC American Typewriter
 ITC Avant Garde Gothic       ITC Garamond
 ITC Korinna                  ITC Lubalin Graph
 ITC Novarese Book            ITC Souvenir
 ITC Zapf Chancery            Isabella
 Lucia Script                 Modern Blackletter
 Old English                  Park Avenue
 Quill                        Raphael
 Revue                        Schneidler
 Signet Roundhand             Sovenir Gothic
 Typewriter Large Elite       Uncial
 Univers                      Wedding Text
               Zapf Dingbats


 These Linotype Fonts will be available for use in Calamus
 in September 1990.

 LINOTYPE FONTS
 --------------

 Aachen                       Antique Olive
 Bodoni                       Broadway
 Clarendon                    Cooper Black
 Eurostile                    Frutiger Italic
 Futura                       Futura Condensed
 Futura Italic                Glypha
 Goudy Old Style              Helvetica I
 Helvetica II                 Helvetica III
 Linotype Centennial          Linotype Centennial Italic
 New Century Schoolbook       News Gothic
 Optima                       Palatino
 Peignot                      Stempel Garamond
 Times Ten                    Trump Medieaval
 Trump Medieaval Italic       Univers
 Univers Condensed            VAG rounded

 These URW fonts will also be available for use in Calamus
 in September 1990

 URW FONTS
 ---------

 Aachen                       Accolade
 Albertus                     Algerian
 Alte Schwabacher             Alternative Gothic
 American Uncial              Americana
 Annlie                       Antique Olive
 Arnold Boecklin              Arsis 
 Aster                        Augusta Open
 Balloon                      Balloon Drop Shadow
 Balmoral                     Barbedor
 Baskerville 90               Baskerville Old Face
 Belshaw                      Belwe
 Bembo                        Berling
 Bernard Antique              Bernard Fashion
 Beton                        Binner
 Blippo Black                 Blizzard
 Bodoni                       Bodoni 90
 Bottleneck                   Bramley
 Brighton                     Britannic
 Broadway                     Broadway Engraved
 Brody                        Bronx
 Brush Script                 Buster
 Buxom                        Candice
 Candida 90                   Carousel
 Caslon Black                 Caslon Graphique
 Castle                       Caxton
 Century                      Century Old Style
 Century Schoolbook           Chelmsford
 Cheltenhem                   Chesterfield
 Chisel                       Chromium One
 Clearface Gothic             Columna Solid
 Commercial Script            Compacta
 Conference                   Congress
 Cooper Black                 Copperplate
 Corinthian                   Cortez
 Countdown                    Croissant
 Data 70                      Davida
 Dom Casual                   Dynamo
 Edwardian                    Egizio
 Egyptian 505                 Egyptienne
 Eihorn                       Eurostile
 Fette Fraktur                Fette Gotisch
 Flange                       Folio 90
 Frankfurter                  Frankfurter Highlight
 Frankfurter Inline           Franklin Gothic
 Freestyle Script             Futura (letreset)
 Futura 90                    Futura Black
 Futura Display               Futura Script
 Fyler                        Galadriel
 Garamond 90                  Gill Kayo
 Gill Sans                    Gill Serie
 Gothic Outline Title         Goudy Catalogue
 Goudy Handtooled             Goudy Serie
 Hadfield                     Harlow
 Harlow Solid                 Hawthorn
 Horatio                      ITC American Typewriter
 ITC Avant Garde Gothic       ITC Barcelona
 ITC Bauhaus                  ITC Benguiat
 ITC Benguiat Gothic          ITC Berkeley Old Style
 ITC Bolt                     ITC Bookman
 ITC Caslon # 224             ITC Century
 ITC Cheltenham               ITC Clearface
 ITC Cushing                  ITC Elan
 ITC Eras                     ITC Esprit
 ITC Fenice                   ITC Flora
 ITC Franklin Gothic          ITC Friz Quadrata
 ITC Galliard                 ITC Gamma
 ITC Garamond                 ITC Giovanni
 ITC Golden Types             ITC Goudy Sans
 ITC Honda                    ITC Isadora
 ITC Italia                   ITC Jamille
 ITC Kabel                    ITC Korinna 
 ITC Leawood                  ITC Lubalin Graph
 ITC Machine                  ITC Manhatten
 ITC Mixage                   ITC Modern #26
 ITC New Baskerville          ITC NewText
 ITC Novarese                 ITC Pacella
 ITC Panache                  ITC Pioneer
 ITC Quay                     ITC Quorum
 ITC Serif Gothic             ITC Slimbach
 ITC Souvenir                 ITC Stone Informal
 ITC Stone Sans               ITC Stone Serif
 ITC Symbol                   ITC Tiepolo
 ITC Tiffany                  ITC Usherwood
 ITC Veljovic                 ITC Weidemann
 ITC Zapf Book                ITC Zapf Chancery
 ITC Zapf International       Jenson Old Style
 Kalligraphia                 Knightsbridge
 Lazybones                    Le griffe
 Lindsay                      Litera
 Magnus                       Nimbus Sans Text
 Octopuss                     Odin
 Paddington                   Palace Script
 Perpetua                     Phyllis
 Phyllis Intitials            Plantin
 Plaza                        Plaza Initials
 Plaza Swash                  Pricetown
 Proteus                      Pump
 Revue                        Rialto
 Rockwell                     Roman Script
 Romana Display               Romic
 Schneidler Amalthea 90       Schneidler Mediaeval 90
 Serifa 90                    Serpentine
 Shamrock                     Shelley
 Slogan                       Springfield
 Squire                       Stencil
 Stentor                      Stilla
 Stop                         Stratford
 Stymie                       Superstar
 Tango                        Tarragon
 Thorowgood                   Thunderbird
 Timeless                     Times
 Titus                        URW Antiqua
 Univers                      University
 Vag Rundschrift              Van Dijk
 Victorian                    Vivaldi
 Vladimir Script              Volta 90
 Washington                   Weiss Rundotisch
 Windsor                      Zipper

 These fonts may be obtained by contacting us directly at:

                           ISD Marketing, Inc., 
                     2651 John John Street, Unit #3, 
                             Markham, Ontario,
                             Canada, L3R 2W5 
                Tel: (416) 479-1880 * Fax: (416) 479-1880 
                                    or
                         in Email on CIS or GEnie.





             ________________________________________________




 > LCACE STR SHOW NEWS?             "Chicago Area AtariFest"
   ===================



               **** Chicago Area AtariFest Announced ****
  
      Lake  County  Atari  Computer  Enthusiasts  are   proud  to  announce
 "Chicago Area  AtariFest" to  be held  November 11th  (Sunday) 1990 at the
 American Legion Gurnee Post located at W. Grand and Il.  Rt. 21.  The show
 will open to the public at 10:00 AM and will run until 4:00 PM. 

     General  admission  will  be  $2.00  in  advance,  $3.00  at the door.
 Children under 6 will be admitted  free  with  a  paying  adult.  All paid
 admissions will have a chance at one of several valuable door prizes to be
 awarded at various times during the day.

     For  more  information  on   advance  ticket   sales,  commercial  and
 individual  exhibition   space  availability,  as  well  as  general  show
 information,  please  contact  LCACE  at  P.O.  Box  8788,   Waukegan,  IL
 60079-8788. A  special show  message base  is available on the Python BBS,
 708-680-5105 300/1200/2400 24hrs.
  
      Vendors and Developers!  A  great  way  to  build  awareness  of your
 products  is  to  hold  a  product  seminar at the Chicago Area AtariFest.
 Please  contact  the  show  organizers  at  the  above  address  for  more
 information on participating in a show seminar.




         _________________________________________________________





 > GFA GONE! STR InfoFile?
   ======================

 ctsy GEnie

                  WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE WORLD ANYMORE!

               Why we have to close the complete Categorie!


 The following post from Rolf Hilchner, is untouched and complete.

 Message 1         Mon Aug 06, 1990
 HILCHNER [Rolf]              at 11:58 EDT
  
 Explanation,  why  we  have  to  close  the complete categorie on GFA Data
 Media!

 -----------------------------------------------------------

 As Rolf Hilchner was the founder of GFA Systemtechnik, he decided - as the
 sysop of the Deutschland RT - to start a categorie on GFA and GFA products
 like GFA-BASIC. As he did know,  that GFA  was not  represented in  the US
 anymore   since the  10th of  July, he wanted to provide the interested US
 user of GFA products  with latest  information and  other ideas!  For that
 reason and  for the  reason, to  have english GFA- software, Rolf Hilchner
 phoned Les Player, the  managing director  of GFA  Data Media  UK. Ltd. in
 England up.  Les was very interested in having a path to the states. After
 that call the GFA Data Media CORNER was installed. Users  were quite happy
 to see  this category  on the Deutschland RT. So questions on GFA products
 began to be placed in this category. Rolf  Hilchner got  all the questions
 printed out  and send  by FAX to GFA Data Media immediatly! But he did not
 get any response from GFA, except two information  sheets on  new GFA Data
 Media program on paper. (So the sysop had to type it in on his on! 

 As no  feedback came  on technical question Rolf Hilchner decided to phone
 up his former company, GFA Systemtechnik  in Dusseldorf.  Dr. Buscher, the
 Vice President  of GFA  explained, that  GFA was  not interested in the US
 user at this time (GFA want's to open up it's own subsidiary in the states
 at the  end of this year). And also, he said is GFA going to charge German
 users for technical support. Therefor Dr. Buscher said, would it be unfair
 to German  users, if  GFA would  give technical  support free of charge on
 GEnie! But, if GFA Data Media UK Ltd. wants to do this,  it would  be fine
 to  him.  That  was,  were  the  conversation  for logical reason stopped.
 Hilchner once again gave Les Player in England a ring. One agreed  to wait
 up to  today, either GFA data Media will give the requested information to
 US users or Hilchner would close the category down.

 Today, Hilchner phoned Les Player up once again, and heard,   that nothing
 has been  done so far. So Hilchner said, the only decicion he now can make
 is to close to category. Les Player agreed to that in a  not very friendly
 way.  SO, THERE IS NO OTHER POSSIBILITY AS TO CLOSE THE CATEGORY!!!

                              I am really sorry for that.

                                   Rolf Hilchner

 P.S.: This announcement will stay for about 2 weeks, until the
       category will be closed!
  ------------

 Topic 6 has been closed.  No replies allowed

 Topic 7         Mon Aug 06, 1990
 D.A.BRUMLEVE                 at 23:40 CDT
 Sub: GFAese, a variant of German & English  

  This topic has been created for the discussion of GFAese.
  Please understand that this topic is destined to disappear with
  the others in this category in due course...

 Last reply in this topic

 Category 13,  Topic 7
 Message 4         Tue Aug 07, 1990
 HILCHNER [Rolf]              at 05:27 EDT
  
 Dorothe, I  do not agree to the fact, you stated out, that GFA did allways
 NOT cared on their users in the US, up to mid 88, with me  still beeing on
 top  of  GFA  management,  we  were  very  happy  with  our UD distributor
 MichTron, and we DO had a very good  opinion on  giving support  to all of
 GFA  users  worldwide,  we  had  a  one  support  division  with up to 3-4
 employees, who did support  either  by  telephone  or  mail.  And  the did
 "nothing else" than support"

 But in  mid 88  it was ME, Rolf Hilchner, who did a big mistake! I thought
 of changing all distributors worldwide into GFA onwned  subsidiaries. This
 brought  MichTron  into  a  bad  situation  of  loosing it's major selling
 products, so the moved  to HiSoft,  which i  can understand  right now (of
 course you  Gordon know,  what exactly  hapened and that i am not that bad
 [:)] ). After MichTron did that, a lot of things crossed the GFA plans, to
 open up  the US  subsidiary and  I was looking for another US distributor,
 because i was upset about MichTron!  This was  a real  hard job  to find a
 new one.  So finally  we did find Antic. This was the time, when i changed
 the job, or better to say i had  to  change  the  job.  And  the  rest you
 know........

 So what  i learned  out of  this is,  stay with  what you  have, it is NOT
 allways better to get 100% of the pie, sometimes only  a piece  of the pie
 is better than the whole pie!

 BTW,  MichTron  is  the  exclusive  distributor  for  TEXT  III Layout and
 WordLayout 6.0 in the US for our new company, the HILCHNER Daten & Medien!
 WordLayout 6.0 is a program on the PC, which is very simular to SIGNUM for
 the ST, it even can convert SIGNUM fonts  to WordLayout  fonts. The output
 on either  24 dot  printer or  inkjet- ot laserprinter comes VERY close to
 the SIGNUM output, but is  much  much  faster  and  the  program  has more
 features!  So  enough  for  promotion.....  I finally found my way back to
 Michtron. Gordon and me are friends again (true Gordon?).


 But as i see, that there is a demand for GFA product help, i would like to
 leave this  category in  our Deutschland  RT, if  someone like you Dorothe
 would do the sysoping for this category (with a free flag of  course!). So
 Dorothe, if  you would  like to do that, than leave me a message E-Mail to
 HILCHNER or anybody else, who is interested of  doing this  can E-Mail and
 this category will stay!

 Rolf Hilchner

 P.S.: I think  that a GFA category withhin the Deutschland RT is a good
       idea for the reason, that we are IN Germany and therefor get the
       information much faster!

  ------------




      ______________________________________________________________




 > C-Manship STR Spotlight?        "....teaches both C and GEM"
   =======================




                            Taylor Ridge Books
                                P.O. Box 48
                           Manchester, CT  06040
                              (203) 643-9673


 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 CONTACT: TAYLOR RIDGE BOOKS

 (203) 643-9673




           LEARN TO PROGRAM THE ATARI ST WITH C-MANSHIP COMPLETE
           =====================================================


      Manchester, CT.  August 8, 1990--Taylor Ridge Books has announced the
 release of C-manship Complete, the popular C and  GEM programming tutorial
 originally published  in ST-Log  magazine.  Written by Clayton Walnum, the
 former editor of ST-Log,  C-manship Complete  guides readers  through both
 the  basics  of  C  programming  and the complexities of the GEM operating
 system.   The 400-page  book is  $19.95.   A disk  version, which includes
 both the book and two single-sided disks, is available for $29.95.

      "C-manship  is   the  only   book  that   teaches  both  C  and  GEM4
 programming," says Clayton  Walnum.    "Everything  you  need  to  know to
 program your Atari ST in C is covered in C-manship Complete."

      C-manship  Complete  begins  with  the  basics of C programming, then
 progresses to  such advanced  topics as  the VDI,  alert boxes, customized
 mice,  file  selectors,  raster  operations,  dialog  boxes, windows, desk
 accessories, animation,  and more.   The  book concludes  with an in-depth
 "take-apart" of  a large-scale GEM application.  Dozens of sample programs
 are included.

      C-manship Complete can be ordered from  Taylor Ridge  Books, P.O. Box
 48,  Manchester,  CT  06040  at  the  prices  listed above plus $2.00 P&H.
 Connecticut residents must include 8% sales tax.





         _________________________________________________________





 > DEVELOPER MIFFED! STR FOCUS?            "just a marketing guy".
   ===========================




                        DEVELOPER MIFFED AT ATARI!
                        ==========================



 by David Beckemeyer

     In the August 1990 issue of Start magazine there is  an article called
 "Multitasking On  The ST".   In this article Frank Foster from Atari Corp.
 is quoted as saying that Micro  RTX and  MT C-Shell  "[work] but  not very
 well" and that all current multitasking systems for the ST are "kludges".

     Micro  RTX  and  MT  C-Shell  are  products  developed and marketed by
 Beckemeyer Development.  These are multitasking software products  for the
 Atari ST.  They were first released in 1986 and have been steadily updated
 and improved  upon  since  that  time.    Beckemeyer  Development recently
 released a shareware version of Micro RTX so that all Atari ST users could
 have access to true multitasking. As anyone who uses these programs knows,
 the statement that they don't work very well is simply untrue.

 Aside from that issue, is this any way to run a business Atari?

     Beckemeyer Development  released their first Atari ST software product
 in 1985.  Beckemeyer Development is one of the few  vendors that  has been
 able to  survive the turbulent Atari years.  As we are all too well aware,
 most Atari ST software developers that  existed at  the beginning  of 1986
 are no longer in the Atari ST business.  Many simply couldn't handle Atari
 Corp. policies and politics.  In  fact, it  seems like  only a  handful of
 Atari personnel  were able  to stick  with Atari  all these  years.  Frank
 Foster wasn't at Atari Corp. in 1986.  (He was with another company, which
 I believe no longer focuses on the ST market.)

     Do  you  think  this  is  an  appropriate way for Atari to treat their
 long-term loyal software developers?   Atari  expects  vendors  to produce
 software for  their system  and support  it, while  at the same time, they
 attack those same vendors in official Atari Corp. statements to the press.

     I spoke with Frank Foster at  the San  Jose World  of Atari  show this
 past weekend,  and he admitted to me that he has never actually seen Micro
 RTX nor MT C-Shell and that  he doesn't  really know  anything about them.
 He also said that he is "just a marketing guy".

     Well we all know it's really good marketing strategy to tell the world
 your own  possibly someday  to be  released product  that doesn't actually
 exist for  sale yet  is better than sliced toast and anything that already
 exists which might  be  mentioned  as  possible  competition  to  your own
 product  is  a  "kludge"  and  doesn't  work very well. This is especially
 recommended when you don't  actually know  anything about  the product you
 need to discredit.

     I don't remember seeing a disclaimer that "Frank Foster doesn't really
 know what he's talking about" in  the  Start  article.    I  guess they're
 assuming  that  this  will  be  perfectly  clear  to  anyone who reads the
 article.

     I don't think so.  Some people might just read that article and assume
 that Frank  Foster, the Atari Corp. representative, is the expert and that
 he would know what works and what doesn't work.

     Since this  issue has  surfaced I  have received  numerous letters and
 telephone  calls  of  encouragement.    Many  users  of  my  software have
 contacted me to tell me how useful they find MT C-Shell and/or  Micro RTX.
 I  have  no  idea  how  many  people  haven't called or ordered MT C-Shell
 because they read the Start article.  While demonstrating MT  C-Shell with
 the GEM  Visual Shell,  we did have a number of people who had the courage
 to mention that "Atari says this  operating system  doesn't work".   I was
 able to  prove to  those people that came to the booth that it does indeed
 work by showing them and letting them try  it themselves.   Who  knows how
 many I  couldn't convince because they ignored the booth entirely based on
 the comments in the article.

     I am outraged by the comments in the Start article. Not only  are they
 untrue, but they are without any basis at all.  Frank Foster admitted that
 he was unfamiliar with the products  -- how  could he  know how  well they
 work if he has never even used them and knows nothing about them?

     Beckemeyer Development  is an official registered Atari developer, has
 been since 1985. Atari now calls the members of the  developer program the
 "Atari  Development  Partners".    Now  I  see just how Atari treats their
 "partners".

     Does this seem like a wise thing for Atari to do?   If you  think this
 isn't the  way you  would like to see Atari representatives behave, please
 write Frank Foster, or even Jack or Sam Tramiel and tell them so.

     Also, if any of you users out there using MT C-Shell and/or  Micro RTX
 would like  to help  me dispute  Atari's claims  that they don't work very
 well, please contact me at (415)  530-9637, or  here via  email, or  by US
 Mail at:

                          Beckemeyer Development
                               PO Box 21575
                             Oakland, CA 94620

     We've been  in the   Atari St business since 1985 and they have done a
 lot of things to us, but this really is going too far!

                              Thanks for your support.

                                   David Beckemeyer
                         President - Beckemeyer Development



 Editor Note:
     While it is disturbing to find that such remarks occurred,  it becomes
 painfully apparent  that Frank Foster may very well have been mis-informed
 or just plain given bad information.  It has been brought to our attention
 that there  is an  individual (a  lesser executive) who would like to send
 Frank Foster through the  revolving door.   In  fact, after  having looked
 into this  situation, it certainly looks like this is more of Mr X's handy
 work.
  
     Please bear  in  mind,  Frank  Foster  has  done  more  positive image
 enhancement for Atari Corp. in just the last year than Mr X has in his two
 years at Atari.  In reality, all Mr X has managed to do is give the entire
 userbase a  bag full of empty promises and doubletalk.  Not to mention the
 number of folks  this  corporate  warrior  has  alienated  with  his slimy
 "behind the scenes finagling.






          _______________________________________________________






 > PCD II STR Spotlight?                   Are they still there???
   ====================




 ctsy GEnie

 JSCROGGINS   posts;
  
 Tomorrow will  be 11 months since my son sent his money order for PC-Ditto
 II. He has not received anything.   His  messages to  A/G went unanswered.
 They apparently  cannot be  reached by telephone and apparently don't care
 much about their customers.

 Two questions:

 1.  Has anybody out there waited longer?

 2.  Are they still in business and honoring requests for refunds?

  ------------

 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP]  posts;
  
 JSCROGGINS:

 We are in the process of trying to confirm wether AG is  still in business
 or not. I will let you know as soon as we do. 
  ------------


 RRWELDIN  posts;
  
  Gordon, I  have two  products that  I feel  stuck with  and PCD II is NOT
 one.  In fact both problem products were distributed by  MichTron!    I do
 not regret  the purchase  of PCD II and would not hesitate to  buy another
 today weather AvantGarde has survived the garbage  (like yours)  they have
 been put  through or not.  They had a  timing problem with SOME ST's and a
 Bliter problem when the  boards  were first released and both  were fix in
 a prompt and professional manor.

 I  have  been  using  pc-Ditto  II  for  five  month  now without a hitch.
 pc-Ditto II has performed flawlessly and as much  as I  hate to  admit it,
 I'm using  some DOS  programs now  more than ST programs because they work
 faster with pc-Ditto II than the advertised equivalent? Atari programs.

 I have read ALL of the messages  on  Genie  and  CIS  in  the  pc-Ditto II
 topics  and  all  the  belly  aching,  complaining,  irascible people were
 treated  with  respect  and  had  the  REAL  problems  taken  care  of  by
 AvantGarde.

 When I see an HONEST HARD WORKING company dumped on the way AvantGarde has
 been so often in the past few month it really turns my stomach.

                              Proud and happy pc-Ditto II owner!!
                                        .........Ron

  ------------


 A.VACHON  posts;
  
 I haven't received my PC Ditto II yet, either.
  ------------


 GAM   posts;
  
 Well GORDON!!! There are many of us who I pass these msgs  onto 100% agree
 with Jim  - Lots are completly happy with our PCDITTO-II.  An all who have
 followed this topic blow by blow are well aware of  the arrows  you tossed
 AVANTGARDE's  way,  and  I  think  were  all  aware  of  your  motives. If
 AVANTGARDE has gone by the wayside,  I would  have to  blame a  lot of the
 bologna passed  around on  this board  as the  cause. AVANTGARDE has their
 share of problems, Were all aware its people  like you  who have  helped a
 tense situation  become even  worse.. I  think you'll find you have lossed
 more friends then you made. 

  ------------


 GAM     posts;
  
 If you havent received your PCDITTOII I recommend spending a buck and send
 ing a  certified return  receipt letter  to AVANTGARDE  asking status. I c
 called them about 3 weeks ago because I hadn't received mine ordered early
 Oct. they responded withing 3 days with my board. It appears there down to
 just a handful of people who's order haven't been filled yet... later gary

  ------------


 J.ALLEN27   posts;
  
 I saw a good man and a good company go to developer  hell.   You help push
 them  there   Gordon,  I  expressed  my  confidence  in  AG  through  past
 experience.  As opposed to trashing someone out of hatred.  The new ATonce
 emulator is  exactly the HW I envisioned based on Bills goals. I only wish
 Bill had the HW design expereiience to  have  built  what  he  set  out to
 build.  Next time you build a product Gordon, let us know and we'll take a
 look. Hope you have a better time of it then Bill did.

  ------------


 COMMENTARY
 ==========

     It is a sad day indeed  when one  finds one  developer wishing  ill to
 another in  an extremely veiled manner.  The real culprit, as Harry Truman
 used to say, was where the  buck stops.   There  is no  way anyone  can be
 blamed for  the problems  AG is  experiencing.   It has been brought on by
 themselves and they have only themselves to blame.
  
     In a  competitive  market  a  rather  questionable  practice  known as
 clamping or  locking the market down is looked upon as a rather outrageous
 and money loosing practice. It is  designed to  preclude the  incursion of
 any competitor  no matter how enticing the offering may be.  Why?  Because
 the original product, though not delivered,  is fully  paid for.   This is
 exactly what  AG did  when they came into the hardware IBM emulator market
 with a "fantastic offer" of $150.00  to  current  owners  of  the software
 version of  the product.   No  where did anyone say that the wait would be
 close to a year, and that  the device(s)  would not  even closely resemble
 the prototype shown at its announcement.  The most significantly important
 occurance was the time lag between the first unit shipped,  "to the press"
 and the  actual shipping  of the mass produced product to the users.  Once
 this began, there was  an immediate  flood of  failed units.   Then, folks
 found that  the phone  line into  AG were  "very busy" or as the operators
 told many users, they were out of order.
  
     Many individuals volunteered their  services  to  help  AG  along with
 their public  relations overload  and in all cases but a few, there was no
 response to the offers  and those  who did  get a  response were rebuffed.
 Additionally, AG  literally "dropped  out" from GEnie and the other online
 services without  so much  as an  announcement, reassuring  or other wise.
 Instead they let it be known indirectly, that they were 'annoyed' with the
 complaints they were receiving online.  ...therefore the dropout.
  
     There are those who submit that AG played the "delay game" to the hilt
 thus eating  up the  30 day  refund rule.... Others say they never had any
 intention to do the right thing once the PCD II units began  dropping like
 flies.  Nobody made any of the decisions for AG, they did this themselves.
 When Bill Teal was spotted at a movie theatre during  the business  day on
 friday 8/10,  an attempt  was made  to ask about the current situation the
 inquiring individual (known well to Teal) was ignored completely.
  
     In closing, not Gordon or anybody  else  had  any  direct  or indirect
 influence on  the current  AG situation .... The glory or in this case the
 sadness is only theirs.  AG is responsible  for this  situation sad  as it
 may be.  All the posturing and finger pointing will change nothing.







         _________________________________________________________





 > THE FLIP SIDE! STR FOCUS?         A different viewpoint!
   ========================




                                        A LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
                                        =========================



  By Michael Lee


  I am sorry that I missed putting out a column last week but I warned  you
  folks that I might miss a week every once in a while.  But there has been
  enough  new,  exciting and positive happenings in this last week to  more
  than make up for it.

                               ---------------
  
  Do you remember what I told you in my first column?  "...who knows, Atari
  still might give some support to the WOA show".  That's exactly what they
  did last weekend.  Despite the conflict with the Gencon show, Atari still
  was able to supply some equipment to the WOA show. Not only that, but Sam
  and Leonard Tramiel,  Elie Kenan, John Townsend, Dan MacNamee, Bob Brodie
  and other Atari personnel were also in attendance at the show, talking to
  people,  buying products and getting a general feel for what the American
  user had to say.

  I will not go into too much detail about the show as I am sure that there
  will be a more detailed report about it elsewhere in this issue but  some
  of the bright spots were Charles and John, The Codeheads, introducing and
  selling  their  new LookIt and PopIt programs.  Darek Mihocka  of  Branch
  Always Software was showing and selling his new Quick Tools Vol 1 and was
  showing  a Quick ST 2.2 which has the ability to enable/disable Quick  ST
  and is even faster than the current version.  One vendor that was selling
  Word Up 3.0,  sold out of all their units by Sunday and wished that  they
  had brought more.  Michtron sold out of 3 or 4 titles and had good  sales
  on all of their software. Almost every vendor was expressed pleasure with
  their sales and most wished they'd brought more stock.

  It was estimated that the total attendance for the show was  2,000.  When
  you figure in the negative publicity that preceded the show,  that it was
  also competing with the county fair, and the Glendale show is next month,
  I'd have to say that it was a resounding success.  The announced death of
  the Atari market and shows may have been premature, to say the least.

                               ---------------

  Here is something that might interest some of our readers,  according  to
  Sheldon Winick (of Computer Studio - Asheville, NC),  Atari had a bad run
  of SC1224 (color)  monitors 1 to 1 1/2 years ago.   If you own one of the
  serial  numbered  units in question and it fails because of  the  defect,
  Atari  will still replace the unit free of charge even though it is  past
  it's  90  day warranty.  How's that for a company  standing  behind  it's
  product!!!

    Category 14, Topic 40
    Message 204 Fri Aug 03, 1990
    S.WINICK at 05:21 EDT
    
    Recall,  if you will the problem with the new design SC1224 monitors  a
    year and a half or so ago. Atari stood behind that one fully, including
    voluntarily extending the warranty period for the serial numbered units
    in question.  I had many customers carry back dead SC1224's long  after
    the original 90-day warranty had expired expecting a large repair bill,
    only  to  find  they were immediately given  a  NEW  replacement  color
    monitor on the spot.

    Category 14, Topic 40
    Message 210 Sat Aug 04, 1990
    S.WINICK at 07:57 EDT

    There  was one run of what turned out to be defective SC1224's a  while
    back. As soon as the defect was detected, Atari notified its dealers of
    the  problem and voluntarily offered to extend the warranty period  for
    any customer who had one of the units in question.  Your dealer has all
    the  details  and  its really a matter that will  be  handled  directly
    between  each  customer and his or her local dealer.  The  decision  to
    either  repair the monitors or replace it with a new one is strictly  a
    matter between the dealer and his customer,  but we have replaced quite
    a few of those units with new monitors under Atari's extended warranty.

                               ---------------
  
  Are  you a STe owner or thinking of buying one?  It looks as if the  Hard
  drive "trashing" problem that has been reported on some STe's is starting
  to get narrowed down.  Here's what one user on Genie reported....

    Category 14, Topic 40
    Message 227 Tue Aug 07, 1990
    R.STEFFA at 21:40 MDT

    ...I  have a homemade drive with the old ICD host adaptor.  I tried  it
    with about eight STe's and it worked with none. I took the STe that had
    performed best with the hard drive home to work on the  problem,  which
    turned out to be in the host adaptor.

    ICD used 74HC logic to receive the critical Chip Select and Acknowledge
    signals.  This is a poor choice for a line receiver on a cable,  as the
    guaranteed high switching voltage is 3.15 volts. TTL logic may not have
    an output that goes that high.  In addition,  the pullup resistors used
    on those two lines were 10Kohms.

    If you change those 10K resistors to 2K or less,  your problem is  very
    likely to go away, as mine did. If you have more than one device on the
    DMA bus only the last one should have these terminators.  74LS244's are
    a  perfectly good choice for driving the cable.  The only thing  I  can
    fault Atari on is not specifying receivers and terminators for the  DMA
    bus.

    These  two  signals  are to be found on pins 9 and 14  of  the  19  pin
    connector.

                               ---------------
  
  Until next week....remember, things are getting better every day in every
  way.





     _________________________________________________________________








 > BEST MOUSE MOD STR InfoFile?        "designed for total comfort"
   ===========================





          MODIFICATION OF "BEST MOUSE" FOR USE WITH A MOUSE PAD.
          ======================================================



 by Mark Bombard


      This  modification  is  not  authorized  by Best Electronics. Any
 damage  to  the  mouse or it's parts due to inept craftsmanship is not
 my, nor Best Electronic's responsibility. It works for me, and it will
 work for you. If you take your time.

      "BEST  MOUSE"  is  a  replacement  mouse  for  the  ST from "BEST
 ELECTRONICS."  It surpasses the ST mouse by a hundred fold. The shape,
 rounded edges and top, is designed for total comfort. It fits right in
 the palm of your hand. The buttons are tight, silent, and precise. The
 cord  is  longer  and  more  flexable. And all internal parts are user
 serviceable,  available  from Best Electronics 2021 Alameda Suite 290,
 San Jose, Ca. 95126. Phone# (408) 243-6950. All things considered this
 mouse  is  a  dream  come  true  for  any  ST  user.  (EXCEPT  FOR ONE
 THING!!!!!).  This mouse does not like mouse pads. The kind with a 1/4
 inch   foam rubber backing and nylon surface anyway. It has a tendency
 to  rock, and for some unknown reason it doesn't glide smoothly on the
 pad.  These  problems  only happen when you use a mouse pad. I however
 like mouse pads, so I set out to fix this annoying design flaw.

      First,  the  rocking.  The  Best  Mouse  only  has (3) feet. So I
 figured  to  stop the rocking I could add (2) more feet. I just called
 Best  Electronics  and  ordered  a set of (3) teflon replacement feet.
 Actually  I  had  to order 2 sets because the minimum order was $5.00.
 One set cost $3.00. When they came I just peeled off the paper backing
 and stuck them on, and no more rocking. That was easy.

      Second,  getting  it  to  move  more freely on a mouse pad. After
 close  examination with a straight edge and a flash light, the problem
 was  clear. The door on the bottom that lets you insert the mouse ball
 sticks  out too far. And when the weight of your hand is on the mouse,
 that  door drags on the pad making it real sluggish. An obvious design
 flaw.  I  took the door off and proceeded to sand it down (on the side
 that  faces me). I used #120 grit paper. This took a while, even using
 a belt sander. "A NOTE OF CAUTION.") (Although this piece is made from
 high  quality plastic there are small tabs on it that can, if your not
 careful, break off. So handle it with care. And if you use an electric
 belt  sander  to  sand  this  door,  only apply gentle pressure to the
 piece.  It  gets warm fast.) Every once in a while check your progress
 by thoroughly cleaning any dust from the door and testing the fit. The
 object  is  to  get the door flush with the bottom of the mouse. After
 you  get  the  door  to your liking, reassemble it and check it out. I
 think you'll be very happy with the result.

      Oh!  by  the  way,  I'm not sure, but I think the sanding part of
 this  mod.  could  void your 90 day warranty. Not that you'll need it.
 "This mouse is built to last!"


                            Mark Bombard

                            Flying Monkey Studios





       _____________________________________________________________




 > BUG HUNT! STR FOCUS?             "We dare you to find a bug!"
   ===================





                    *--------------------------------*
                    |                                |
                    | THE CODEHEAD SOFTWARE BUG HUNT |
                    |                                |
                    *--------------------------------*


  CodeHead Software's "LookIt! & PopIt!" comes with a "NO-STING"
  guarantee.  We think this software is pretty bug-free (but we've been
  wrong before).  Don't take our word for it.  We dare you to find a bug. 
  If you do, we'll give you 50% off on the purchase of any CodeHead
  Software product. 


  Here's what to do:


  1.  Buy a copy of "LookIt! & PopIt!" from any dealer, mail-order house,
      or directly from CodeHead Software.


  2.  Find a bug!  If you can find anything in the Lookit Program or the
      PopIt accessory that doesn't work like we say it does (make sure you
      read the manual AND the README file on the disk), you've found a
      "bug". 


  3.  Decide which product you'd like to purchase for 50% off and report
      the bug to CodeHead Software using the form below.  If you print
      this file, the report form will line up as page 2.  The following
      products are available:

                Product Name       List Price    Hunter's price!
                ------------       ----------    ---------------
                G+Plus               $34.95       $17.48
                MultiDesk             29.95        14.98
                HotWire               39.95        19.98
                HotWire Plus          59.95        29.98
                MaxiFile              34.95        17.48
                CodeHead Utilities    34.95        17.48
                MIDIMAX               49.95        24.98
                Lookit! & PopIt!      39.95        19.98


  4.  Send your Bug Report Form, a check or credit card number, and proof
      of LookIt! & PopIt! purchase (registration card, receipt, or master
      disk) to:

                CodeHead Software
                P.O. Box 74090
                Los Angeles, CA 90004


  5.  If you have any questions, feel free to call us at (213) 386-5735. 
      Our hours are 9am-1pm (Pacific time) Monday through Friday.  This
      offer expires on December 31, 1990. 


               ----==== JOIN THE CODEHEAD BUG HUNT NOW! ====----






                     CODEHEAD SOFTWARE BUG REPORT FORM
                     ---------------------------------


         Name: _____________________________________________________

       Street: _____________________________________________________

         City: ____________________ State: _____ Zipcode: __________

        Phone: ______________________________

       Product you are purchasing at 50% off: ______________________

                                       Bug Hunter's Price: _________

                 Shipping (US-$2, Canada-$3, Overseas-$5): _________

                                                    Total: _________

       Credit Card: _____________________________ Expires: _________


       BUG DETAILS:

       Type of computer (520ST, 1040ST, MegaST): ___________________

       System memory (512K, 1 MEG, 2 MEG, 2.5MEG, 4 MEG): __________

       Operating system version, if known (1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6): ____

       Which program contains the bug (LookIt, PopIt)? _____________

       Is the bug repeatable? _______

       List the AUTO programs present when the bug occurred:

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________

       List the desk accessories installed when the bug occurred:

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________


       Describe the bug: ___________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________

       _____________________________________________________________





            ___________________________________________________




 > STReport CONFIDENTIAL?            "BLOCKBUSTER ATARI NEWS FIRST!"
   =====================



 - Sunnyvale, CA.                      ASCII GROUP TO HANDLE ATARI PRODUCTS
   --------------


     OVERHEARD at WOA.... An Atari rep saying that they had recently signed
 on  THE  ASCII  GROUP  with  over   400  stocking   locations  nationwide.
 Apparently, the  ASCII Group  is a wholesale sales operation gearing up to
 sell Atari hardware (computers, etc..) 



 - Sunnyvale, CA.                                 ON THE ROAD AGAIN........
   -------------


     Off to Milwaukee tomorrow for the GENCON game convention. I'll  be out
 of  the  office  'till  next  Tues.    Rumor has it that a delegation from
 Chicago is going to spirit  me  away  to  a  Lake  County  ACE  meeting on
 Saturday.


 - New York City, NY                        MOV DEVICES MAY HAVE SHORT LIFE
   -----------------

     MOVs are  almost universally  used in surge protectors both for the AC
 line and modems on Ma Bell lines.  They range from 3.95  Radio Shack types
 to very  expensive units  like American Power,they all use MOV devices and
 all will fail in time.  MOVs, Metal Oxide Varistors, work fine for a while
 but  seem  to  have  a  finite  lifespan  and  eventually will fail, often
 without any indication of failure.  The shame is a  $20,000 piece  of test
 equipment is needed to establish if the MOV is still up to par.



 - Sunnyvale, CA.                         ELIE KENAN IS CAPABLE OF MIRACLES
   --------------

     Considering  the  enormous  task...    what  about  the size of France
 compared to  the USA?  These are  the comments  most heard  about the task
 ahead of  Elie.  STReport has the utmost confidence in Elie and once again
 affirms its wholehearted support for him.    In  the  rumor  mill,  we are
 willing to  bet he  has a firm grip on the situation and has Atari well on
 the road to recovery before Fall Comdex.  Also, forget about Boston.

  
 - Chicago, IL.                                    ULTRASCRIPT GCR IS REAL!
   ------------

     According  to  our  roving  reporter,  easy  now,  we  said  roving!  
 Ultrascript is about to release a version that is GCR specific!!  That is,
 it will allow the GCR to take full  advantage of  the SLM  series of Laser
 printers while the ST is in MAC mode.  This is definitely good news to all
 the GCR enthusiasts.







        __________________________________________________________
         







 > Hard Disks STR InfoFile?             Affordable Mass Storage....
   =======================




                      NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!!
                      ===============================


                      ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC.
              P.O. Box 6672  Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672
                                Est.  1985
                 _________________________________________

                   Voice: 904-783-3319  10 AM - 4 PM EDT
                     BBS: 904-786-4176   12-24-96 HST
                    FAX: 904-783-3319  12 PM - 6 AM EDT
                 _________________________________________
                                        
                   HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET
                   _____________________________________
                                        
   All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST
                 are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s).
                                        
             -ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE-
                 (you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!)
                   (all cables and connectors installed)
                                        
    * ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS *
     * ICD ADVANTAGE+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED *
                  * SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS *

         51mb #SGN4951   519.95              65mb #SG60101   649.95
         80mb #SGN296    709.95             100mb #SG84011D  839.95
        120mb #SGN120FH  989.95             120mb #SG120DD  1128.95
        170mb #SGN2962  1369.95             260mb #SG60102  1849.95

          WE HAVE A COMPLETE LINE OF 3.5 LOW PROFILE HARD DRIVES
                                    for
           USE IN MEGA ST COMPUTERS AND RELATED CONFIGURATIONS.

         20mb #AI020SC   379.95              30mb #AIO3OSC   419.95
         50mb #AI050SC   449.95              65mb #AI065SC   499.95
                           85mb #AI085SC  $559.95

               >>> ALL ABCO DRIVES ARE HIGH SPEED UNITS <<<
                      (500 - 600k per sec @ 23 -33ms)

           CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS
                           FROM 30mb @ $419.00!
                      Ask about our "REBATE SPECIALS"

                                 --==*==--

                      SHIPPING AND INSURANCE INCLUDED

               ============================================

       * SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE *

          - SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE         - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A
          - ICD Utility Software        - 3' DMA Cable 
          - Fan & Clock                 - Multi-Unit Power Supply
                          (1) 44 MB Syquest Cart.

                  COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN!
                     >> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$849.00__ <<
                             >> W/O CART __$799.00__ <<

                      *** SPECIAL SYQUEST OFFER!! ***
    ORDER YOUR CUSTOM SYQUEST UNIT NOW AND GET A SECOND COMPLETE UNIT!
                       ***** for $50.00 LESS! *****

      -> DO IT YOURSELF BARE SYQUEST UNITS $600.00ea  2 for $1100.00
                    Syquest Mechanism - 2 year warranty

   * TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
                        SPECIALLY PRICED  $1539.00 

    * SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
         - Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
          50mb SQG51   $1179.00           30mb SQG38    $1099.00
          65mb SQG09   $1239.00           85mb SQG96    $1299.00
                       
                 LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS

                      CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE
           Listed above are a sampling of the systems available.
      Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations
    (over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited)
                                     
            *** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms ***

  ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - PC-DITTO/II - SPECTRE/GCR
             LARGER units are available - (special order only)

                        NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED!

       - Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets -
                   Keyboard Custom Cables Call for Info
                      ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED

                       -* 12 month FULL Guarantee *-
                         (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE)

                 QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE!
                 _________________________________________

                     DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
                         please, call for details

                 Personal and Company Checks are accepted.

                        ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY!

           CALL: 1-800-562-4037   -=**=-    CALL: 1-904-783-3319
           Customer Orders ONLY               Customer Service
                                9am - 8pm EDT
                                Tues thru Sat






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 > A "Quotable Quote"?
   =================




                   "WHAT GOES AROUND, .....COMES AROUND"


                                        ....An old Country Boy Truth!
  
  
  
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 STReport?             "Your Independent News Source"       August 10, 1990
 16/32bit Magazine           copyright = 1990                    No.6.32
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
 the  editors,  staff,  STReport?  CPU/STR?  or  ST Report?.  Permission to
 reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted.   Each reprint
 must include  the name of the publication, date, issue #  and the author's
 name.  The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in
 any way  without prior  written permission.   The contents, at the time of
 publication, are   believed  to  be  reasonably  accurate.    The editors,
 contributors and/or  staff are  not responsible  for either the use/misuse
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