We have a very good technical staff writer that writes for the Syracuse Herald Journal/Syracuse Herald American newsspaper's. His name is Al Fasoldt. He is also a syusop in that he runs the newsspaper's telesystem, and since he's in the progress of up-dating it, has turned off the up-loads and d-loads of all files....EVEN text files that you can read on line. So that brings me to doing this today... Today in the STAR'S magazine he wrote two stories about the ATARI-ST...And since i can't access the files at the his telesystem computer he runs for the newssspaer...I'm reprinting both storys about the ATARI-ST computer PART I is called -> Technofile -->>> Users keep the ST alive PART II is called -> Bytes & Pieces -->>> ST wizard thanks fans lavishly BOTH STORIES ARE FOUND IN THE "STARS" MAGAZINE OCTOBER 27 1991 PART I Technofile Users Keep The ST Alive by-> Al Fasoldt reprinted by-> Gerald Kieffer \ /\ / \ / \ / \/ \/ hen you think of personal computers, two kinds come to mind right away - the IBM-PC and all of its clones, and the Apple Macintosh. But there are two other kinds that seldom get any attention from the press. They're the Commodore Amiga and the Atari-ST. Although both are largely unknown, the Amiga is widely used for certain kinds of graphics. As a result, if you spend time with devotedPC users, you're more likely to find someone who owns an Amiga. But the ST is right out there in lala land, stuck with two big problems. THE FIRST IS the fack that nearly everyone knows that Atari makes video games, and so most people assume that the ST must be some sort of game computer. Atari could have surmounted this misimpression by advertising the ST for what it is - a powerful PC that works like a Macintosh yet costs half as much. But that brings the second problem. In the six years since the ST was introduced, Atari itself hasn't known what to do with its amazing invention. The company hasn't advertised it ( except for a few,ineffectual ads when the ST first came out ), and it has stood by as dealer after dealer dropped the ST from their lines. DESPITE THIS, the ST - unlike other unusual PCs from such companies as Texas Instruments, Coleco, Timex and Osborne - has refused to die. Much of the credit should go to one man, Bob Brodie, who has spent the last few years as Atari's user group coordinator. Brodie was the point man in Atari's efforts to supply greatly needed support to the hundreds oflonely ST user groups across the country. Brodie was recently promoted to director of communications for the Atari, a job that should give him a better chance of restoring the ST's chances of success. BUT A GREAT DEAL of credit belongs to the user groups themselves. They have constantly pressured Atari's top management to reverse course, and many of the users have even publicly ridiculed the Tramiel family, which bought the ailing company and still runs it and holds most of the stock. What has happened in the small world of STcomputers is almost unthinkable in the multibillion-dollar domain of Apples and IBMs: Customers rallied amoung themselves to keep their favorite product alive. There is little doubt that without active user groups providing help for their members and for other, smaller user groups, Atari would have let the ST fade from the American market in favor of more lucrative countries such as Germany. ( The ST is very popular in Germany, where consumers do not identify the name "Atari" with video games.) ONE WAY THAT user groups for any computer maintain interest in their PCs is to sponsor computer fairs. For ST fans, the big event of the fall is a weekend Atari computer festival in the nation's capital sponsored by the Washington Area Atari Computer Enthusiasts. My wife and I, both ST users, attended the fair to find out how the ST was doing in a world filled with other kinds of PCs. What we saw was proof that the ST would be around for many years to come. We also saw that Atari's management is beginning to take the American market seriously, with four new models planned for the coming year - theTT, a much more powerful version of the ST: the STbook, a notebook computer with a battery life of five to eight hours; the STylus, a notebook computer that has a pen for user input instead of a keyboard, and a fourth model that Atari's top programmers refused to discuss at the festival. WE ALSO SAW a desktop-publishing program called Calamus SL, which Mac users themselves say is superior to anything available for the Mavintosh,a along with other professional graphics programs that rank at the top of graphics programs for any kind of PC. Also on display were custom STs that ran faster than any other stock PCs you can buy. But what we didn't see made just as big an impression. Except for a wonderful display of graphics programs for children, we saw no video games. If this is a potent, the ST may indeed be both alive AND well. END PART I PART II BYTES & PIECES ST Wizard Thanks Fans Lavisly BY-> AL FASOLDT reprinted by-> Gerald Kieffer _______ I I I I here was bedlam in Reston, Va., a town near Washington, Two weeks ago. A man at the front of a confrence room at the Sheraton was passing out free Macintoshes - hundreds of them. It was Dave Small at his best. Small, the inventor of the plug-in device that turns ST computers into Macs, told the crowd of ST users at a computer fair that he wanted to thank them for helping make his unusual product a success. And he reached into a large box and tossed $300 Spectre 128 emulator cartridges out to the fans. The crowd reacted like pigeons that haden't been fed for weeks, grabbing the palm-sized devices as they sailed across the room. I WAS IN THE audience, returning with my wife, Nancy, from our honeymoon in the mountains. I didn't catch an emulator ( somebody alongside me did a flanking maneuver and deflected the one that was coming my way ), but I did get to see Dave Small and his miracles in action. The first, of course, is his Mac emulator. With the ST's screen size being larger than the standard Mac's, an ST-Mac is a beauty to behold. Two million STs have been sold worldwide, and thousands upon thousands turn themselves into Apple Macintoshes every day at the click of a mouse. The second was something he calls the SST. It's an ST that runs at 40 megahertz. It's faster in every way than Apple's most expensive Macintosh, and a lot cheaper, too. DAVE SMALL IS one reason the ST hasn't disappeared from the American market. The company that makes the ST, Atari, had nearly abandoned the U.S. market for Europe, but Small and a few others have helped keep interest alive here. It's paying off. An advanced ST, called the TT, is now available to consumers in this country. The crowd in Reston gave the TT's that were being demonstrated there high marks. But they gave their biggest thanks in the cheers that went out for Dave Small. END PART II ***** Al Fasoldt is a computer trainer and editor at the Syracuse Newspapers. ***** Write to him c/o Stars, P.O. Box 4915, Syracuse, NY 13221, or send ***** E-mail to "A.Fasoldt" on GEnie telecommunications service or to the ***** system operator, Al Fasoldt, of the Syracuse Newspapers Telesystem at ***** 315-470-2027 using 7-E-1 half duplex. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The above two stories were reprinted by me -> Gerald Kieffer If Al Fasoldt would like to contact me i can be reached at Delphi "GKieffer" or 315-468-0600 ######### Unfortunatly since i'm not that rich...if you do call me YOU'LL have to do so at your own expense. end OCTOBER 27 - 1991