Message-ID: <308@inuxa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 23:14:01 EST
Article-I.D.: inuxa.308
Posted: Mon Jan 7 23:14:01 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 02:08:31 EST
Organization: AT&T Consumer Products Div., Indianapolis
Lines: 119
Another ANTIC report from CES85.
This report is of special interest
to software developers. Jack
Tramiel comments on the ATARI
philosophy toward software
development support and the new
line in statements before the
Software Publishers Association.
ANTIC ONLINE NEWS
SPECIAL BULLETIN
Permission to reprint or
excerpt is granted only if the
following credit line appears
at the top of the article:
ANTIC SPECIAL BULLETIN,
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
COPYRIGHT 1985, ANTIC
PUBLISHING INC.
Tramiel opens Atari up to
software artists
Sunday, 6 January 1985
by MICHAEL CIRAOLO, Associate
Editor, Antic
Las Vegas--Atari chief Jack
Tramiel promised the Software
Publishers Association that he
would open Atari up to software
developers.
"I'll open the new
Atari machines up the way Apple
opened up the Apple II,"
Tramiel said. "I need your
help, and will give you any
support you need."
Tramiel promised
technical and financial support
for those writing software for
his new ST line of 16-bit,
68000-based personal computers.
The former head of
Commodore also said he would
try to put the new ST machines
in the hands of software
developers by the end of
January, three months before
the computers are available on
retail store shelves.
Software publishers
reacted with a wait-and-see,
yet warm attitude to Tramiel's
announcement.
Tramiel said he was
expecting entertainment,
business, educational and
scientific software.
"We are serving
everyone," Tramiel said,
stressing that the ST line was
a series of personal computers,
not home machines.
Tramiel said he would
give financial support to "any
young man with good ideas who
is starting a business. I'll
give him some money for the
work he's doing for us."
When asked about
continued support for the 8-bit
XE series, Tramiel told
publishers that he would
support an entire line of XE
computers and peripherals as
long as the consumer continued
buying them.
Tramiel said that he
had been working with Digital
Research for over nine months
on the ST design. He stated
that Tramiel Technologies Ltd.
would have brought the ST
series to market, even if he
had not bought Atari from
Warner Communications. Tramiel
said that the sophisticated
consumer was "bored with the
6502 technology," and that the
ST series was the "most
exciting upgrade path"
available at the lowest
possible price.
At the end of the
conference, Tramiel answered a
question regarding disk drives
with a very surprising quote.
"Atari will be introducing a 15
Megabyte hard disk compatible
for the ST series for under
$400 before June CES."