Message-ID: <309@inuxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Jan-85 09:21:12 EST
Article-I.D.: inuxa.309
Posted: Wed Jan 16 09:21:12 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Jan-85 04:48:39 EST
Organization: AT&T Consumer Products Div., Indianapolis
Lines: 141



 ANTIC ONLINE NEWS - SPECIAL BULLETIN

 Permission to reprint or excerpt is
granted only if the following line
appears at the top of the article:

 ANTIC SPECIAL BULLETIN,
 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
 COPYRIGHT 1985, ANTIC
 PUBLISHING INC.

 CES-ATARI FINAL WRAP-UP

 by NAT FRIEDLAND, Antic Editor

 LAS VEGAS - The January 1985 CES show
looked like the arrival of vindication
for those who believed in the Atari
Computer.  The spectacular hardware and
software shown at the crowded Atari
exhibit was clearly superior and
dramatically lower priced than anything
brought by Commodore or the Japanese
MSX contingent.

 Model numbers - and to some extent,
prices - still seem to be in a state of
flux.  But here is the best information
ANTIC has as of now.

 16-BIT COMPUTERS - The 130ST (128K) is
$399.  A suddenly announced 260ST
(256K) will be $499.  And the top of
the line 520ST (512K) is $599.  The ST
operating environment, GEM by Digital
Research, will make it easy for
software developers to transport
programs originally written for the
Macintosh and IBM PC environments.

 8-BIT COMPUTERS - The 65XE which
replaces the 800XL will continue at
under $120.  The 130XE is "well under
$200" - or approaching $150.  We also
had our first look at the 65XEP
luggable, under $400, including a 3
1/2" disk drive and a very clear 5"
green monitor.  These computers are all
compatible with Atari's earlier 8-bits.
When the polyphonic AMIE sound chip is
finished around March, it's supposed to
go into an alternate 64K machine to be
called the 65XEM.

 DELIVERY DATES for everything in this
story is supposed to fall between 30
days and the start of the second
quarter.

 PRINTERS - $150 for the slow (12 cps)
but true letter-quality daisywheel,
$150 for the 80 cps dot matrix that
produces graphics virtually as sharp as
the Apple Imagewriter.
 $150 for the 50 cps non-impact color
printer that produces very clear text,
and $99 for a black-only 20-cps
non-impact model.  All of these
printers seem much sturdier and more
professional than any printer that has
ever carried the Atari name.  They all
work with both the 8-bit and the 16-bit
lines, under different interfaces and
model numbers.
 In fact, Atari printers and monitors
will now be marketed for IBM, Apple and
Commodore computers, under the
Atarisoft name.

 MONITORS - The XC1411 composite color
14" is under $200.  The XM128, about
$150, is the crisp 12" green monitor
with built-in 80-column card that works
with the new Atari software on XE
computers.  Specifically for the 16-bit
ST line is the very impressive 12" RGB
analog color monitor, SC1224 under
$300, that's capable of showing 512
colors onscreen.  You can also get this
model with a built-in 3 1/2" disk drive
attachment. And there's an extra high
resolution monochrome monitor, the
SM124, for the STs at under $200.
 The Atari exhibit area featured a wall
of color monitors, which often
displayed the spectacular graphics
demos which Atari has been making
available to users groups.  Doug
Crockford's BALL1 has been put on
CompuServe by ANTIC.  And Jim St.
Louis' & Russ Karas' animated high-res
robot and rocket ship are starting to
be seen nationwide.

 DISK DRIVES - The 500K SF354 3 1/2"
drive is under $200.  And they are now
also talking about a 250K 3 1/2" drive,
the SF324, for around $150.  Not yet
shown was the under-$600 SH317 hard
disk with 10MB, and there's also some
discussion of a 15MB hard disk.  Speed
of all these new drives is announced as
a phenomenal 1.3 megabytes per second
for the STs.  For the XEs they're
hoping to boost the speed to 30,000
from the current 19,200.
 The 1050 disk drive will be gradually
replaced for 5 1/4" floppies by the
compatible XF521, around $150, which
has true double density and matches the
new XE look.  The new compatible Disk
Operating System 2.5 was developed by
Bill Wilkinson of OSS, the father of
Atari DOS.

 TELECOMMUNICATIONS - The $49.95 XM301
direct-connect 300-baud modem is
slightly larger than a cigarette pack
and comes bundled with software for
uploading and downloading. The
long-awaited Learning Phone cartridge
for accessing Plato was featured,
in-store availability should begin in
February and the price may be as low as
$25.  The Plato cartridge was also
being demonstrated with MPP's new
low-cost 1,200-baud modem.