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Silicon Times Report Issue 0118
*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
_____________________________________
December 15, 1989 Vol III ~ No.118
=======================================================================
ST Report Online Magazine¿
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R.F. Mariano
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> Issue: #118 STReport¿ The Online Magazine of Choice!
--------------------
- The Editor's Podium - CPU REPORT
- CHAOS STRIKES BACK! - DIAMOND HD BACKUP
- MichTron Contest - US Robotics UG
- 40 FOLDERS EXPLAINED - ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL
---====**** MIKE MORAND LEAVES ATARI! ****====---
--==** DESKSET II NOW BUNDLED WITH SLM 804! **==--
==========================================================================
STReport's support BBS NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST BBS to
participate in Forem BBS's F-Net mail network. Or, Please call # 350
direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging ideas about
the Atari ST computers through an excellent International ST mail network.
==========================================================================
AVAILABLE ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ BIX
==========================================================================
> The Editor's Podium¿
Greetings.... Hmmm maybe that sounds too serious. There are a number
of issues confronting us in the Atari ST/TT community. Most are pleasant
in nature and will ultimately give us all many hours of computing
pleasure. As always, there are those that make the situation somewhat
tacky at times. Last issue we presented the figures released by Avant
Garde relating to the performance of PC Ditto II. Subsequently we posted
a statement concerning our intentions of preparing and publishing
accurate, hands-on comparisons between both PC Ditto II and PC Speed,
MichTron's entry into the PC emulator arena.
Below, the related post read..
"The complete listings provided by Avant Garde stating the performance
of the new PC DITTO II are presented for your perusal. STReport will
carry comprehensive test results of both PCDITTO II and PC SPEED shortly.
No attempt was made to present comparisons between the two devices because
neither device was on hand, yet. Once both are available for
benchmarking, each device will be installed in separate Mega2 computers,
with Tos 1.4 installed. The appropriate tests will then be run. In doing
the benchmarking in this manner, with all conditions being kept as equal
as possible, it is hoped that the most accurate comparison of the two
devices will result. Until such time, it is only proper to present the
results provided by the manufacturer(s)".
Frankly, Since STR had neither product to do an "equal footing"
compare, it was decided to furnish the PC Ditto specs as a listing for
informational purposes only. To take any liberties in attempting to
compare an optimal list to actual "in the field" hardware tests is, in
STReport's opinion, less than fair to PC Speed. Thus, the statement of
policy on behalf of STReport.
The Holidays are right around the corner, and we are pleased to
mention that David Harris has a big reason to celebrate this year, he was
recently appointed the new president of Atari Computers.
Congratulations are in order for Mr. Harris. Some folks may recognize
him from Atari Consumer products, he was prez in that division. Off the
record, he seems to be very well liked in the computing community by those
folks who know him or have had previous dealings with him. Lotsa luck
Dave!
Thanks for your continued support,
Ralph......
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> CPU REPORT¿
==========
Issue # 45
by Michael Arthur
Remember When....
In the Summer 1985 CES Show, Atari showed the 260 STD, a 256K Atari
ST which was made to gauge mass market interest in the ST, and when, after
some Atari officials had said that the ST may never have TOS in ROM, this
machine had TOS in ROMs, resulting in that the 260 STD had more memory
free for applications than the 520 ST (which didn't have TOS ROMs then)?
CPU Systems Roundup¿ XVI
========================
Practical Future Computer Systems III: The Price of Performance
----------------------------------------------------------------
Part II
In Part I of this Series, I showed a list of the most powerful Dream
Systems that could be configured in the low/middle end of the
microcomputer market, giving these systems (and the majority of home/small
business compute users) access to performance usually found in high end
microcomputers. While there were newer computers and peripherals that
could have been included, the list was generally accurate. Now I will
compare these "Practical" Dream Systems, stacking their various features
against each other to determine which ones you could safely consider the
"best".
And while this essay mainly concerns the greatest capabilities that
can be supplied for the major low/middle end microcomputers at a cost
which is reasonable to a large percentage of computer users, it can also
help to show which computer system in the low/middle end of the computer
market is both the most powerful, and a good example of "Power Without the
Price". However, due to the fact that changes in this market often come
slower than others, this Series will now appear only periodically, when
the changes in the Dream Systems available for the low/middle end of the
computer industry necessitate a closer look at how they will affect it....
Presented here is a Graph of the features of each Practical Dream System:
Practical Dream Systems List:
(Comparison of each Systems' Optimal Features)
_________________________________________________________________________
Dream |Processor(s)|System |Mass |Expansion|Graphics Displays |
System |Megs of RAM |Speed |Storage | Slots |Best Resolution(s) |
----------|------------|--------|----------|---------|-------------------|
IBM 386 |80386SX | 16 MHZ | 70 Meg | Seven |320*200*256 Colors |
System | Two Megs | |Hard Drive|IBM PC/AT|640*480*16 Colors |
----------|------------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
Mac SE/30 |68030/68882 | 16 MHZ | 40 Meg | One |512*342 w/Monochr. |
System | Two Megs | |Hard Drive| | |
----------|------------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
Amiga 2000|68020/68881 | 14 MHZ | 65 Meg | Seven |320*200*4096 Colors|
System | Three Megs | |Hard Drive|Zorro II |640*400 w/16 Colors|
----------|------------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
Apple IIgs|65816 Chip | 7 MHZ | 40 Meg | Three |320*200*4096 Colors|
System | Two Megs | |Hard Drive| II/IIgs |640*400 w/16 Colors|
----------|------------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
Mega 2 ST |68000 Chip | 16 MHZ | 44 Meg | One |320*200 w/16 Colors|
System | Two Megs | |Tape Drive| Mega ST |640*200 w/4 Colors|
----------'--------------------------------------------------------------'
In the Mega ST System, the term 'Tape Drive' refers to storage which
uses Removable Cartridges.
Based on both this graph and the System Descriptions, these Standings
have been made:
IBM 386 Dream System: Third Place
The IBM system is very well rounded in features, provides all the
power of a Dream System, and is priced reasonably enough for a large
percentage of computer owners. Also, its price/performance ratio has
stayed reasonable since the last Dream Systems Essay. This time, the ST
and Amiga Systems barely overcame it, and it has maintained a good
standing....
Mac SE/30 Comparison: The IBM is superior to the Mac SE/30 in the
number of Expansion Slots, graphics capabilities, and the amount of mass
storage, is equal in the amount of RAM, and is inferior in processing
speed. Since the Mac System also costs more, the IBM system scores higher
than the Macintosh system.
Amiga 2000 Comparison: The IBM is superior to the Amiga 2000 in the
amount of mass storage, is roughly equal in processing speed (given that
the IBM System doesn't have a math chip), their number of expansion slots,
graphics capabilities, and is inferior in the amount of RAM. The IBM and
Amiga Systems are roughly equal in many aspects, and the usual deciding
factor of price/performance cannot be used by itself, since both systems
are near the same price range. Therefore, the decision is based on
whether you think the amount of RAM in a system is more important than the
amount of mass storage. However, since the Amiga System has nearly the
same # of hard drive space as the IBM System, then it scores higher
overall than the IBM system, but only by an EXTREMELY tight margin....
Apple IIgs Comparison: The IBM is superior to the Apple IIgs in the
amount of mass storage, and processing speed, is equal in the number of
expansion slots and graphics capabilities, and is inferior in the amount
of RAM. Since the IBM System also costs less than the Apple IIgs system,
the IBM system scores MUCH higher than the Apple IIgs system.
Mega ST Comparison: The IBM is superior to the Mega ST in processor
speed, the number of expansion slots, and graphics capabilities. It is
inferior in the amount of Mass Storage, and its amount of RAM. However,
while mass storage and Megs of RAM may be more important than processor
speed, since the Mega ST System is less expensive, and that the "Power
Without the Price" test is valid here, the Mega ST scores higher than the
IBM system....
Macintosh SE/30 Dream System: Fourth Place
The Mac SE/30 System, while having superb processing speed, and
being well-balanced in itself, is very much inferior in graphics ability,
and is just a tad less versatile in other areas against other Systems. It
is also one of the most expensive systems, keeping it from becoming a top
contender....
Amiga 2000 Comparison: The Mac is superior in processing speed,
roughly equal in the amount of mass storage, and is inferior in the number
of expansion slots, the amount of RAM, and its graphics capabilities.
Also, since the Mac System costs much more, the Amiga system scores higher
than the Mac....
Apple IIgs Comparison: The Mac is superior to the Apple IIgs in
processing speed and amount of mass storage, and is inferior in the amount
of RAM, the number of expansion slots, and its graphics abilities. Also,
since the Apple IIgs actually costs MORE, then the Mac scores MUCH higher
than the IIgs System if you can live without color graphics....
Mega ST Comparison: The Mac is superior to the Mega ST in
processing speed, is equal in the number of expansion slots, and is
inferior in the amount of RAM, mass storage, and graphics ability. Since
the Mac also costs much more, the Mega ST scores MUCH higher than the Mac
System, despite its superior speed.
Amiga 2000 Dream System: First Place
In the first Dream Systems Essay, the Amiga 500 System was the least
expensive setup on the list, having a surprising amount of power, and
well-balanced features which made it a VERY good example of "Power Without
the Price". The Second time around, its greater processing speed clearly
gave it First Place. However, the Mac System has surpassed it in speed,
and the IBM System rivals it in versatility. While it has still
maintained First Place (due to scoring higher than the Mega ST System), it
has lost some of its edge....
However, since Atari is coming out with the STE, an extended version
of the Atari ST, and the new 68030 TT, the Amiga's advantage may be even
shakier than expected. But ONLY if Atari's new products are aimed at the
middle end of the computer market, and only if they provide a significant
enough improvement over both the ST, and its potential competitors....
Apple IIgs Comparison: The Amiga 500 is superior in the amount of
mass storage, processor speed, and the amount of RAM, is equal in graphics
capabilities, and is inferior in the number of expansion slots. Since the
Amiga is also less expensive, it blows away the IIgs System.
Mega ST Comparison: The Amiga 2000 is superior to the Mega ST
system in the number of Expansion Slots, processing speed, and graphics,
and is inferior in the amount of mass storage and RAM. Given that the
main focus was in price/performance, it is VERY hard to judge which system
is the best, since BOTH systems have similar prices, and roughly similar
capabilities. But with its support of the 68020 chip, and its greater #
of displayable colors, the Amiga system scores higher than the Mega ST
system....
Apple IIgs Dream System: Last Place
The Apple IIgs is, simply put, a real-life anomaly. In some areas,
such as graphics capabilities and expansion capabilities, it has top of
the line features. However, some aspects of the IIgs system, like its
slow 65816 processor, are a sorry sight to behold. Also, since it is
priced almost as high as a middle-end computer system, but does not have
the corresponding capabilities, the Apple IIgs has a bleak future indeed,
as an overpriced, underpowered computer with no obvious benefits does not
become TOO popular in the computer industry....
Mega ST Dream System: Second Place
Providing many of the capabilities found in middle end computer
systems, while being priced towards the low/middle end of the market, the
Mega ST system has an excellent price/performance rating. However, it
hasn't improved significantly since 1985, resulting in that other systems
are readying to surpass it in "Power Without the Price". With the STE and
TT030/2 coming soon, this predicament will surely be temporary, but the
current offerings by Atari are starting to slip behind its competitors in
the fierce microcomputer market....
And this, tragically, is also an indication of what could happen if
the Atari ST does not become the dominant standard in a market which it
currently has an advantage in....
So as to account for future developments, I have included a list of
Low/Middle End Entry Systems which would be affordable to almost all
computer users, so accurate comparisons can be made between present
Practical Dream Systems and future Entry systems. While some of these
systems simply make minor modifications on old systems, and while all of
these systems lack some "Dream System" features, as shown by Atari's STacy
Laptop, sometimes this is an easy tradeoff, which can result in a system
with VERY good price/performance, excellent functionality, and a computer
which can serve most home/small business user's needs as decently as a
higher-priced system....
Upcoming Systems' Features:
________________________________________________________________________
Dream |Main Chips,|MainChip|Mass |Expansion|Graphics Displays/ |
System |Megs of RAM|Speed |Storage |Slots |Best Resolution(s) |
----------|-----------|--------|----------|---------|-------------------|
Atari |68000 | 16 MHZ | 20 Meg | One |320*200 w/64 Colors|
Laptop ST | One Meg | |Hard Drive| Mega ST |640*200 w/4 Colors|
----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
IBM 8086 |Intel 80286| 8 MHZ | 40 Meg | Five |320*200*256 Colors|
System |640K of RAM| |Hard Drive|IBM PC AT|640*480 w/16 Colors|
----------|-----------+--------+----------+---------+-------------------|
Mac Plus |68000 |7.83 MHZ| 40 Meg | None |512*342 in Monochr.|
System | One Meg | |Hard Drive| | |
------------------------------------------------------------------------'
System #6, the Atari Laptop ST, comes with a 68000 chip, 1 Meg of RAM, an
internal 20 Megabyte Hard Drive, and a Mega ST Expansion Bus built in. To
enhance this system, John Russell Innovations' JS-4096 Color board (which
gives the Atari ST a 4096 Color Pallet compatible with the Atari STE)
would be used, as well as the Turbo 16 Accelerator Board made by FAST
Technologies, which uses a 16 MHZ 68000. Cost: Around 2400 dollars.
Resolutions: 320*200 with 16 Colors out of 4096
640*200 with 4 Colors out of 512
640*400 with Monochrome Resolution
Comparisons with Other Systems: While many of the features of Atari's
Laptop ST (or the Stacy) are similar to the features of both the Mega ST,
and the upcoming STE, the main difference is that it is a Laptop system,
having much of the functionality of the current Dream Systems in a
portable case. And since powerful Laptops could be considered Dream
Systems in themselves....
System #7, the IBM 80286 System, is a Tandy 1000 TL with 640K of RAM, five
IBM PC AT Expansion Slots, an ABCO 65 Megabyte Hard Disk, an Orchid
Designer VGA Board, and an Amdek 732 VGA Monitor. Cost: $2600.00....
EGA Resolutions:
320*200 with 16 Colors out of 64
640*350 with 16 Colors out of 64
VGA Resolutions:
320*200 with 256 Colors out of 256,000
640*480 with 16 Colors out of 256,000
Comparisons with Other Systems: This system, having powerful graphics, a
decent hard drive, and a good number of expansion slots, is a VERY
respectable IBM Entry System, which exemplifies "Power Without the Price"
for the IBM world. In fact, the only thing REALLY preventing this system
from matching the Amiga and Mega ST Dream Systems in price/performance is
its comparatively slow processor. However, this does not matter much to
beginning computer users, and systems similar to this IBM Entry System
have the potential to QUICKLY become a factor in the industry, taking over
the markets that could belong to the Atari ST....
System #8, the Mac Plus System, is an Apple Macintosh Plus with 1 Meg of
RAM onboard, an 8 MHZ 68000 chip, an AppleTalk LAN Port, and a 65 Megabyte
Hard Drive from ABCO Inc. Cost: $2300.00.
Mac Plus Resolution: 512*342 with monochrome resolution
Comparisons with other Systems: This Macintosh system, while having
sub-par graphics and no expansion capability, and even though there are
many systems with better price/performance ratios, will probably maintain
its bestseller status, simply because it is the low end of the Macintosh
line, and is one of the only choices for a Macintosh entry system....
The main objective to home/small business users, when configuring
their own computer system, isn't necessarily performance for its own sake,
but finding a system which has a decent price for its capabilities. In
the course of determining the system which provided the best ratio of
price/performance in this list, it seems that, just as in other aspects of
the computer industry, price has become less of a factor than performance
in quality computers.
Many of the Dream Systems which were too expensive before, such as
the IBM and Mac systems, have dropped in price to a reasonable level for
the middle end of the market, while keeping their versatility. But as the
Mega ST and Amiga Systems rose in price to the level of the IBM System,
one can see where increasing performance can often bring a somewhat
undesirable increase in pricing. But then, as shown by the Apple IIgs
system, price/performance is still an important part of the search for a
Practical Dream System. Interestingly enough, the competition between the
Amiga and Atari ST Systems shows that, in researching Practical Dream
Systems to show how powerful a computer system could become while still
being affordable, one could make an interesting assessment of the state of
the low/middle end of the microcomputer industry....
But ponder, if you will, this question:
1) Given that the prices of equally powerful computer systems are falling
greatly, and the price/performance of the above Dream Systems, will
Atari have to introduce a low-end version of the 68030 TT which
competes with the STE and Mega ST in order to stay in the forefront of
the low/middle end of the computer industry?
2) Will Atari introduce a Mega STE, which would combine the STE expanded
color pallet and 8 voice stereo sound with the Mega ST's expansion
slot and expandability, in order to completely upgrade the ST Line to
the STE while not making the Mega ST concept obsolete?
---==*==---
CPU REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿
=======================
Armonk, NY IBM has announced that it will introduce a RISC-based
---------- workstation, the IBM RT, by Late Autumn 1990. It will
use the MicroChannel Bus Architecture, and will have
both A/IX, IBM's version of Unix, and a new version of
OS/2 as its operating systems. It is rumored that IBM
will use the NextStep Graphical User Interface (which
it licensed from NeXT Inc.) as the standard GUI for
the IBM RT.
Also, IBM has reportedly licensed Silicon Graphics'
Geometry Engine, a graphics coprocessor chip used in
their Personal Iris workstations, which has made it
very popular for CAD/graphics applications. If this
is true, IBM may quickly become a powerful contender
in the workstation industry....
Calgary, Canada Sun Microsystems has established a Sun Porting Center
--------------- to help Software companies port their products to Sun
workstations. The third such Sun Center, it will
provide assistance for developing software for the
Sun 3, Sun 4, and SPARCStation. Given that Atari
products like the ATW probably won't have much good
software out for it when it first comes out, and that
such a Porting Center would help make the ATW more
attractive to large Software Companies....
Interestingly enough, Sun recently announced that it
plans to eliminate the Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0
microprocessors from its product lines, and for its
workstations to be based on the SPARC, a RISC chip
developed by Sun itself....
San Francisco, CA IBM is reportedly planning to bundle future PS/2's
----------------- with a new drive made by Toshiba which can store up to
4 Megabytes of data on a single floppy disk. Toshiba's
disk drive, which is compatible with both regular and
high density 3 1/2 inch disks, may become standard on
all of IBM's microcomputer/workstation products....
Toshiba has tried to make this product the next disk
drive standard for other two years, however, and while
this will help Toshiba's chances, Insite Peripheral's
new 'Floptical' Drive stores 20 Megs on a disk, and
with other companies making a bid for this market....
Cologne, FDR Gigatron, a West German company, has developed an
------------ Laptop Version of the Amiga, cloning the Amiga's
motherboard in the process. This new Laptop, to be
introduced in March 1990, at the CeBit show in
Hannover, will come with two proprietary Expansion
Slots, an 8 MHZ 68000, and 1 Meg of RAM standard. It
MAY come with AmigaDOS 1.4. Cost: DM 5000 (or $2400)
for one with an LCD Screen, and DM 7000 (or $3500.00)
for one with a gas plasma screen.
Gigatron's product line will feature 2 and 4 Meg Amiga
Laptops, and will have the option of an internal hard
disk drive. Curiously, Commodore is welcoming this
new Amiga Clone, even though it showed doubt about
it before. Given that a similar computer company
would probably be less "supporting" if it was already
developing a Laptop....
____________________________________________________________________
> MichTron Contest STReport InfoFile¿ Something for everyone!!
==================================
FLEETSTREET PUBLISHER V 3.0
===========================
With the release of 3.0 in sight. MichTron wants to have some clip
art worthy of this world class Desk Top Publishing program. So we are
going to have a contest running from today till Jan 31. With prizes to
the people who upload the most and the best clip art. Fleet Street
Publisher 3.0 supports the following art file formats:
Neochrome, Degas, .TNY, .IMG, .GEM.
The higher resolution pictures are naturally better for Desktop
Publishing. (For instance, 300dpi scans are best for most printers.)
Programs like Touchup and EasyDraw from Migraph are ideal for creating
DTP artwork. We recommend using .PI3 or .PI2 for Degas. (Remember,
color is not supported at this time.)
But to make things easier for everyone we are only going to accept
IMG files, and GEM Metafiles for the contest.
- Rules are simple. No duplications, will be accepted. Original and
scanned art work will be judged and prizes awarded separately there
will be NINE winners. See the list below to see the prize
categories and a list of prizes.
- When uploading, you must add the word CONTEST to the keywords.
- The contest will end Jan 31st. Winners will be notified via GEnie
mail within 2 weeks after the conclusion of the contest.
- Questions may be asked in the MichTron RT; Category 21, topic 5
----=====**=====----
Grand Prize Winner - Best Original Art
==================
First Place Prize - Fleet Street 3.0 (retail price $399),
Hyperfont (retail price $49.95), and
1 Free day on GEnie... 24 hours Free.
Second Place Prize 1 copy of Fleet Street 3.0
Third Place Prize 1 copy of Hyperfont
* Winner of the Grand place prize will be for original art ONLY.
Art must be in .IMG or GEM metafile format ONLY.
----=====**=====----
Most Uploads ... GEM METAFILES
============
First Place Prize - Fleet Street 3.0 (retail price $399),
Hyperfont (retail price $49.95), and
1 Free day on GEnie... 24 hours Free.
Second Place Prize 1 copy of Fleet Street 3.0
Third Place Prize 1 copy of Hyperfont
----=====**=====----
Most Uploads ... IMG format
============
First Place Prize - Fleet Street 3.0 (retail price $399),
Hyperfont (retail price $49.95), and
1 Free day on GEnie... 24 hours Free.
Second Place Prize 1 copy of Fleet Street 3.0
Third Place Prize 1 copy of Hyperfont
Total of NINE winners. Most clip art and best clip art.
Decisions of the judges is final.
__________________________________________________________________
> CHAOS STRIKES BACK! STR Spotlight¿ The DM sequel is superb!
=================================
CHAOS STRIKES BACK!
==================
from FTL
by Ron Brunk
Chaos is back, and with a vengeance. The long awaited sequel to
Dungeonmaster is out and it takes up the story from the conclusion of DM.
The premise of the game is that Chaos planned his previous defeat and
arranged for his return. Your mission is to find and destroy the four
corbums with which Chaos is absorbing all the manna in the world. You can
continue your adventures with the characters in a saved game from DM, or
you can make a new party from a selection of newer, more powerful heroes.
This continuation is made possible with the Chaos Strikes Back
utilities disk. To start with new characters you visit the Prison and
select characters as previously done in the Hall of Champions in DM. The
new champions are a diverse collection of creatures (birdmen, centaurs,
etc.). The other option is to load in a DM saved game and create a CSB
save game with your old characters at the beginning of the new dungeon.
At this point you are able to change your characters names, modify their
portraits, or use the "updated" pictures for the characters provided on
the disk which represent their increased levels (basically, they look
tougher and meaner). Once you have your party set up the way you want
them you have to save the party, boot up the game CSB, and resume with
that saved party.
The utilities disk also has an animation of the story of Chaos (worth
seeing once) and the Oracle for game hints. If you are in the dungeon and
get stuck you must save the game in the area that you are stuck, reboot
with the utilities disk, and select the Oracle and feed it the saved game.
You then select a word that most nearly describes your problem and you
will be provided progressively more detailed hints until you finally
figure it out. You then must reboot the game and load in the saved game
and continue. While an online oracle would at first seem the way to go,
upon consideration I think I prefer it this way since it discourages
casually consulting the Oracle each and every time you have a small
problem.
The game itself looks to be very tough. While many of the monsters
are familiar (mummies are still wimps), many have changed and grown
tougher (I've had little thieves take 2 MON fireballs and still get away
with my loot, and the little wizards are really tough this time around).
There are also new monsters including flying snake/lobsters(?), ant
fighters (similar to the blue meanies), and more.
The dungeon features are similar to DM with the addition of hidden
pits (distinguishable if you watch where you are going), and new puzzles
to solve. The layout consists of multiple small "levels" with a
bewildering array of transporters and pits continually sending you up and
(mostly) down. Many of the pits are "multi-level" eliciting a series of
screams from your party until you (finally) plummet all the way to the
bottom (a rope is of no use in this instance). In addition, the dungeon
changes as you progress in the game. Many times you will find yourself
travelling along a familiar corridor, only to discover a new passage that
wasn't there before or a stairway that was previously blocked is now open.
All of the above makes mapping extremely difficult, forcing you to keep
starting new portions of the dungeon until you begin recognizing sections
already mapped and can put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Once I've gotten a little further along in the dungeon I'll write a
more complete review. For one thing, I want to check through all the
permutations of spells to see if new ones are available. In any case,
Chaos Strikes Back is the best adventure game to come out since the
original Dungeonmaster and it is a perfect stocking stuffer to give
yourself (if you can wait that long.
______________________________________________________________________
> CHAOS STRIKES BACK! STReport OnLine¿ What the online pros think...
===================================
The packaging is nice but not overwhelming, similar to the original.
It consists of a box, manual (smaller than the first), a map and a coin.
The manual, as in the original, mostly describes the setting and
additionally some basic instructions on how to use the character editor
and game startup.
On the box, it states EXPANSION SET # 1
The game comes on two disks:
The "COPY PROTECTED DISK" and the "UTILITY DISK."
To play the game, you must generate a Prison save disk. This can be
achieved in one of two ways: picking new adventurers or using your old
tried and true originals. If you decide to choose new players, you enter
the Prison as you did in the original Dungeon Master with a Hall of
Champions. The characters there are all entirely new in both ability and
appearance. From my cursory look, they are divided into categories:
Insects Centaurs Ghouls Reptiles Pixies.
Although they each vary in talent the "mean" or average talent appears
to be the Adept, which should at least give you a baseline for where your
characters should be.
The graphic profiles are all new and are up to usual FTL standards.
If you decide to use your originals, as I did, you have the option of
modifying there appearance by means of a character editor. Not wanting to
delay my first advent into the Prison too long, I opted for a welcome
option of "updating" my characters appearance. All 24 characters in the
original have new and improved profiles that can be assigned to your
original characters. Essentially the new profiles reflect the enhanced
ablities your characters have after defeating Chaos in Dungeon Master.
When this is done, you "save" your game and load the game disk.
Short interlude...
When playing the original Dungeon Master, I think (hope) we all ran
across what we thought was an unbeatable point. For some it was the
Knights, others had problems with the Rock Monsters. My nemesis was the
purple worms. I hated them with a passion usually reserved for mass
murderers and IRS agents. I just couldn't get by them. You may remember
the part. The "My prisoner..." bit? Kill him and you unleash hordes of
purple worms. I called a friend who was also playing and asked for help.
Being the true friend he replied, "Hey, just handle it."
Needless to say I finally got through the purple worms and found
monsters which had purple worms bring in the morning paper.
Upon loading the game disk you start in complete darkness. "No
problem," I thought. Contemptuously chanting a light spell I turned my
seasoned champions to survey their surroundings.
Worms everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. Not at first of course. That
would destroy all hope. No, they generate just fast enough to think you
might get out of it. And these are not those pansy purple worms. These
are puke yellow daddy worms who have suspiciousminds and want to know
where the kids are. You didn't see them did you?
If by some masterly stroke of luck you get out of this room you are
instantly beset with other charming creatures.
The prison itself has the same walls as the dungeon. The monsters are
new and improved. Enjoy!
- Michael Wade
The story goes that Lord Chaos foresaw his defeat at the hands of your
Champions, so he created a Hidden Dungeon below the Mount Anaias dungeon,
and hid four concentrations of a magical ore that drains mana from the
world. When enough mana is drained away, the bond that fuses him to his
good side will be broken, freeing him again to dominate the world..
unfortunately, he's overlooked the little detail that this will also
destroy the universe... just a bad loser, I guess...
Your party of four Champions has been called back to Mount Anaias to
try to find and destroy the ore before the final cataclysm happens.
Naturally, Lord Chaos has created lots of NEW monsters to guard his Hidden
Dungeon... (as well as return performances by all your favorites from
Dungeon Master)
- Bob Retelle
___________________________________________________________________
> DIAMOND BACKUP STR Review¿ A hot, new and slick HD backup util.
=========================
Diamond Back--By Robert D. Luneski
==================================
by William Y. Baugh
Having been a hard drive owner for a few years now, the importance of
keeping a reliable and complete back up of the drive has not been lost on
me. What has been a problem is finding a back up program that is reliable
(in the sense of using TOS based instead of an image, more later), fast
(very important) and gives you the options that you would expect in a back
up program. Well, Bob Luneski has introduced to the ST user a new program
called Diamond Back which handles the aforementioned options quite nicely
and gives you a lot more.
Diamond Back is a fully GEM operated (it is extremely easy to use,
everything is chosen by mouse) file by file back up program that runs at
the speed of image file programs, but with the added protection of being
able to copy a file or files from the floppies back to the hard drive with
out the use of the back up programs' restore function. (Whew) What this
means is if you use an image file program, you would not be able to
restore your hard drive without using that same program (you can not even
get a directory of the disk from desktop!) The problems incurred here are
that, say, you lose one file from your D partition and want to retrieve it
from the back up. Well, with the image file programs out today, with the
exception of Charles Johnson's future, (to be released, Fat Back) you
cannot restore a single file, you must restore the entire partition!
With Diamond Back, all you need to do is locate the disk and file copy it
back to the partition.
Now, where a problem will arise with DB is that to optimize full (and
I repeat, FULL) disk space on the floppies, DB splits files. So, for
every disk that you have, there will be one split file per disk (at the
end of the disk) or if your real lucky and the files add up to the disk
size, then you'll have less. If the file you want to restore happens to
be the split file, you have to use the restore and specify the specific
file you want to retrieve. This is not too much of a problem, but a
problem to me nevertheless. Mr. Luneski has put a 'No Split' option in
the latest version of Diamond Back for the folks who did not want to use
the restore program. The only problem with this is Mr. Luneski does not
use an algorithm (like is used in George Woodsides' Turtle) that will set
up the directory for each floppy so that each floppy is optimally filled.
This really gets old when you have 400K left on a floppy and a 402K file
is next in line, well, you have to sacrifice the 400K and put in a new
disk.
To give an example of what this problem will entail, I backed up my C
partition, which was a whopping 5.8 megs in size, on my hard drive, which
is a 65 meg 29 ms Seagate ST-251-1 with an Adaptec 4070 controller and an
ICD Host Adapter running at 1:2 interleave (getting around 400K/sec
transfer). The following table shows the number of disks, the bytes free
remaining on the disk and the elapsed time it took to back up the 5.8
megs.
(I feel at this point I should give a brief background of Turtle for those
unfamiliar with it. Turtle is a public domain program which uses a RAM
disk exactly formatted like the floppies you are writing to. Turtle
writes to the RAM disk, then does a whole disk copy to the floppy. The
biggest drawback is for systems with memory constraints (like a 520,
single sided only), you have to dismantle your entire system to use Turtle
(remove accessories, auto programs, etc.))
Diamond Back Turtle
1. 0 1. 2048
2. 88064 2. 4096
3. 24576 3. 1024
4. 14336 4. 1024
5. 100352 5. 1024
6. 37888 6. 1024
7. 157696 7. 1024
8. 453632 8. N/A (End of Back up)
9. N/A (End of Back up) ------
AVERAGE 109568/disk 1609/disk
Time: 10:00 14:00
After seeing these results, I phoned Mr. Luneski and asked him if he
had any plans on programming an algorithm similar to Turtles' to handle
the non-split file option. His answer was that he didn't plan on doing
this, since the non-split file option was thrown in the later revisions to
appease a few of the die-hard people who were against split files. He did
say that in the next release he was going to include a separate program
that will recombine files in a multitude of ways so that you will not have
to use DB's restore function.
After looking at the times listed above I decided to back up the
drive with the split file option on and it took just over 7 minutes! The
amazing speed that DB displays is brought about by an ingenious idea of
Mr. Luneski's to write the FAT table in memory then, after the files have
been copied to the disk, it writes the FAT table. This allows the disk
head to track straight across the disk rather than doing the annoying
tracking back and forth, back and forth that we are so accustomed to.
I should mention that Diamond Back will allow you to do full and
incremental back ups and restores. You may specify paths or do searches
by wildcards. DB also lets you compress (DB LZH's) and encrypt (like
putting a password protection on your files) the files as they are going
to floppy.
While talking with Mr. Luneski on the phone, he mentioned a few new
ideas that he is going to include on the next upgrade. These are:
Increase restore speed 50-70% over the existing speed. Add support to
backing up to other partitions. Image back up option and Spectre support.
Also the writing to floppy speed has been optimized.
Having been working lately in the IBM world and seeing Fast Back (it's
tremendously fast), I feel that it is a standard for IBM users. Well, I
would like to see Diamond Back become a standard for the ST users. Mr.
Luneski has written a fine program (in his spare time I might add) and is
very supportive of the Atari computers. If you're in need for a fine back
up program, check this one out, it's well worth it.
___________________________________________________________________
> Probing the Future II STR Feature¿ Another look at problem Dealers...
=================================
We received the post listed below from Jeff Williams a very nice young
man who is genuinely concerned about the well being of the Atari
marketplace. We took exception to certain of his remarks but by no means
have we lost any respect for this gentleman. In fact, we thank him for
reading STReport and bringing out points that needed further explanation.
Category 26, Topic 9
Message 78 Mon Dec 11, 1989
JEFF.W [RTC Sysop] at 00:26 EST
The latest issue includes a suggestion that some dealers are participating
in price gouging by charging something in the neighborhood of $450 for the
520ST. I hope this was a misprint. Otherwise, it is a statement based
upon misinformation.
The article credits announcements at an SPA gathering that the list
price of the 520ST would be reduced to $299.95. Well, that just hasn't
happened and I find it offensive that dealers should be blamed for this.
What -has- happened in the pricing of 520ST's is that if a dealer
purchases a certain quantity of 520ST's from Atari, they can get a deal on
the price enabling them to sell each unit for $399.95 (a monitor is not
included in that price). If the dealer can not purchase that quantity of
units for whatever reason, they do not get the price break and obviously
cannot afford to lose money by selling them at an artificially low (for
the dealer) price.
If a dealer who cannot get the break in the price is selling a 520STfm
for $450, that is a pretty good deal. The dealer certainly isn't getting
rich off 520ST sales at that price.
I hope this will be investigated and a correction made in the next
issue. ST Report shouldn't be generating mistrust of Atari dealers based
upon information that is not accurate or current.
---====***====---
Jeff, There will be no corrections because there is no misinformation
in that article. A great deal of assumption is in evidence on your part
and I feel obliged to say you may also be somewhat jaded in your reply
because you are employed (part-time) by a dealer. Please remember, one
dealer does not the nation make. The bottom line price presented was
stated at the SPA conference as a goal being sought. Also, NO WHERE was a
monitor mentioned in the article as being part of the promotion in selling
the 520stf at 299.95. As for our STATING that the 299.95 was a set in
concrete announcement... we quote from the article; "The promotional price
is SUPPOSED TO BE 299.95, according to the statements made at the SPA
meeting, but we have found certain dealers trying to sell these same
computers at $450.00". Clearly, we indicate exactly what was said without
attempting to read anything into the information furnished. At this time
the pricing is 399.95..with $375.95 not being uncommon. Also, the below
300.00 price is close to happening.
Unfortunately, you are trying to blow off as misinformation, the fact
that there * ARE * dealers out there who are engaged in the "gouge" and
the "lowball market kill". The sooner those whose heads are in the sand
realize that this is a MAJOR problem that the Atari userbase has been
facing for some time the better for all parties concerned. Certainly, we
wish to believe that good dealers outnumber the questionable dealers by a
country mile, as a matter of fact, we most certainly believe that the
majority of dealers are first class. But that still does not address
problem of the unscrupulous dealers who readily take advantage of the
'newfie' at every turn or lowball the product to death. In any case, the
few dealers who are involved in these unsavory practices are bringing
about the departure of the "blue chip" dealers to other arenas.
Finally, there are those dealers who are STILL charging 175.00 or more
to install TOS 1.4 and asking more than 90.00 for the chipsets alone.
STReport stands by what was presented. And would be more than happy to
spotlight those dealers who are doing the right thing by their customers.
As we have done in the past with the "Golden Fuji" awards presented to
those dealers who keep the customer first by providing top notch service
and sales at fair prices. Conversely, we have presented a number of the
now famous, "Gouge Award" for those dealers who seem to delight in
squeezing the last dollar out of every customer.
Additionally, with the advent of Atari now bundling DESKSET II with
all SLM 804 laser printers, we find, much to our chagrin, that some "slick
operators are pulling the bundled Deskset II out and are selling it as a
shelf item for almost $400.00! Oh, dear.... this is the land of free
enterprise. One can easily see where Atari is trying to introduce DeskSet
II in an affordable manner, (by bundling with the SLM 804), only to have
the effort thwarted by enterprising dealers. Hopefully, they will see the
errors of their ways and allow the product to go out the door with the
Laser Printers or, at least allow the customer the choice of choosing
either DeskSet II or Ultrascript. We feel the postscript solution,
Ultrascript, should have remained the bundled product. Perhaps, in the
future, changes more to the postscript solution will be placed in effect.
The matter was fully investigated and found to be quite accurate in as
much as one of the dealers we have in mind had just received a large
shipment of 520stf machines and promptly put the FAT PRICE TAG on them. A
user then reads about the 'deal' in one of the online or hard copy
magazines, visits a dealer such as this, and gets had. This sir, is
exactly what the article is all about.
If a dealer has had a number of these machines in stock for over
thirty days or cannot afford to buy in the quantities needed to get the
price break, well that's business, he either goes with the flow or takes
a bath. That is one of the 'hard to take' facts of life when it comes to
being in business. Incidently, many companies afford discount allowances
to dealers who have product in stock and the advertised retail price is
lowered.
Look at it this way, there are two dealers in one city, one can
afford to take advantage of the quantity price break, the other cannot.
The one who has the lower price draws the people and sells his inventory,
(software etc), along with the discounted machines. He may not be "GETTING
RICH" from the discounted 520 sales but you can bet the "ADD ON" sales are
doing the trick. The guy with the higher prices ...well, he may sell his
after the other dealer is sold out.
Now comes the rough part, when there is only one dealer in a given
city or for that matter, in a region. Here, we have an exceedingly
tempting situation. You know, "the only game in town" type thing. How
about USED SC1224 color monitors (the JVC type) for $500.00??? How about
the majority of items at list price plus 10% for S&H? Sure there are
those who would say the buyer is able to say yes or no... But then is he?
If its the only dealer for miles around?
As far as your condemning statement; "STReport shouldn't be generating
mistrust of Atari dealers based on information that is not accurate or
current" It appears that you sir, have us TRIED and CONVICTED! Have you
sir, done all the needed research work to render such an officious
statement? We sir, at STReport try to do our best in presenting the whole
truthful story.
In the last few days this note came in .... Another dealer who
finds it easy to badmouth Atari's business dealings ... This all
sounds so familiar.
After a brief visit (and a disappointing one) to a local computer
store that had carried the St line quite religiously, I found out today
that they will no longer carry any St products but will gladly order Atari
products for you, no thanks, I can always call a mail order place myself.
But anyway, the manager told me the reason for the St line being
dropped was not the product or the demand but the policy that Atari
themselves has developed. Atari requires that distributors order hardware
in dollar amounts rather than quantity so that the stores may have to keep
10 or more machines on the floor or in stock because of the dollar amount
requirement.
This seems a bit ludicrous to me. He also mentioned that Atari will
now sell directly to the consumer via mail order and that it is impossible
for the distributor to make any money with the manufacturer undercutting
all of machines prices. Does Atari not realize that if the machine is not
seen then its impact may never be heard? Any insights on this problem
would be appreciated.
Looking for an explanation...
Billy Blaze
After checking into what this young man was told by this dealer, we
found the bulk of the information given to Mr. Blaze to be erroneous.
Naturally, we are not attempting to give all dealers a "black eye" but
when repeated complaints come in from legit dealers who are getting
clobbered by those dealers who seem to delight in LOWBALLING product out
the door and coupled with the exact opposites who try to squeeze the last
dollar out of every sale, we simply must begin to present these situations
for all eyes to see.
We have observed repeated complaints concerning the lack of servicing
dealers operating in New York City, that answer is simple... who in their
right mind would invest the long dollars needed to set up a service and
sales center only to get lowballed to death by J&R, who, by the way, now
have all the Atari products listed (with pictures) in their new mail order
catalog????? Or how about the dealer in the Washington D.C. area who is
busy lowballing exchange rates for defective merchandise and mail ordering
out Atari ST products at 10% above cost?
We know of no other way to get the full attention of the powers to be
and give cause to having these serious injustices being perpetrated upon
the majority of good, honest and straight forward dealers and users
corrected.
______________________________________________________________________
> 40 FOLDER BUG? STReport OnLine¿ Clarification of the 'bug rumor'.
==============================
ctsy GEnie RT
Category 14, Topic 10
Message 39 Tue Dec 12, 1989
MJANSEN [Mark @ Atari] at 20:54 EST
Allan Pratt asked me to post this message, which he wrote in response
to the same topic on UseNet.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: 40-folder limit has returned with a vengeance in TOS 1.4.
A user posted that TOS 1.4 was flawed with the same old 40 folder bug, A.
Pratt of Atari offers the following clarification.
He is wrong.
He says that the space where memory block descriptors are maintained
and the space where directory node descriptors are maintained overlap.
This is true. But this is no bug: both data structures, and some other
things, are dynamically allocated out of the same pool of memory (called
"the OS pool").
He says that using FOLDRXXX.PRG will alleviate the problem. He is
right, but not for the reason he thinks.
The root of all this evil is that the OS pool itself is statically
allocated. There is only so much room there, for directory descriptors,
memory block descriptors, and open-file descriptors. Using FOLDRXXX.PRG
adds more memory to be used for these things.
The original problem with the pool was that it was not only statically
allocated, but it was also managed poorly: once a piece of the pool was
used as (say) a memory descriptor, it was forever tagged as a memory
descriptor, and could never be used as a directory descriptor. Starting
with TOS 1.4, this is no longer the case. When something allocated from
pool is freed, the memory becomes available for any other data structure
which is allocated from the pool.
Furthermore, once a directory descriptor was allocated from the pool,
IT WAS NEVER FREED. It stood forever, recording its place in the
directory structure, even if you never used that directory again. And it
was allocated if you even so much as SAW the name of the directory in a
window, let alone actually opened that directory. I fixed that, too, so
only "active" directories take up memory in the pool, and others can be
freed when the memory is required for something else.
That's why I say that TOS 1.4 pushes the limits of the admittedly-evil
static OS pool farther away than previous OSes. And using FOLDRXXX.PRG
adds pool (for all its uses, not just folders), so you can push the limits
arbitrarily far.
Finally, CACHEXXX.PRG has nothing to do with any of this.
CACHEXXX.PRG adds sectors to the sector cache which GEMDOS uses, and
therefore saves disk accesses. The cache is managed with a "global
least-recently used" algorithm, which means that the last N sectors you
used are in the cache. You can see this most dramatically if you use "Show
Info" from the desktop on a hard disk drive with lots of subdirectories
and files. "Show Info" goes down the entire directory tree and reads each
sector of the FAT. Do it once, and the disk light will stay on for a
while. Do it again, and the same thing happens. Now run CACHE080.PRG and
try "Show Info" twice: the first time, the same thing happens. The second
time, the disk light doesn't come on at all, because all the sectors are
already cached. This speedup is even more dramatic with floppies!
Sectors are eligible for this cache when they are read by GEMDOS
itself (like directory and FAT sectors) or when they are not read in
whole-sector blocks. Disk reads which span entire sectors are transferred
directly from disk to their destination in user memory.
Please feel free to pass this message along, especially to the place where
Mr. Sudikatus' message appeared.
========================================================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt
========================================================================
Hope this clears things up.
Mark Jansen
Atari Corporation
______________________________________________________________
> STICK GRIPPER! STReport InfoFile¿ Life gets easier all the time..
================================
* NEW PRODUCT RELEASE *
Duggan DeZign Inc. proudly announces the release of a fantastic new
product directed at anyone who plays games on any personal computer! It's
called STIK-GRIPPER and it will give any game the true 'ARCADE FEEL'.
STIK-GRIPPER is a SOLID STEELJoystick clamp which is totally adjustable to
fit a wide variety of Joysticks! It allows one-handed Joystick operation
by clamping the joystick to the table top (protective pads and caps
included!). This is
a must for those games requiring both Keyboard and
Joystick control (especially FLIGHT SIMULATORS) as you can now operate
both at the same time! It also brings a whole new feel to any game as you
no longer have to hold the Joystick just like in the Arcades! It's ALL
STEEL construction makes STIK-GRIPPER tough enough to endure rugged play!
STIK-GRIPPER has a list price of only $18.95.
It is available thru your local dealer (ask for it!) or send a
cashier's check or money order to:
Duggan DeZign Inc.
16 Oak Ridge Dr.
West Warwick RI 02893
___________________________________________________________________
> ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿ Sayin' it like it is....
======================
- Sunnyvale, CA. ***** THE REVOLVING DOOR COMETH AGAIN! *****
--------------
MIKE MORAND, Atari Computers President has resigned...according to our
sources the separation was amicable as Mr. Morand "had a better offer".
Assuming the duties of president of Atari Computers is David Harris,
previously president of the consumer electronics division.
- Sunnyvale, CA. *** ULTRASCRIPT NO LONGER BUNDLED WITH SLM 804 ***
--------------
Many dealers are somewhat dismayed over the recent move by Atari to
replace Ultrascript with DESKSET II as the bundled program shipped with
the laser printer, SLM 804. Most now claim that Atari has effectively
lost the "postscript solution".
- St. Louis, MO. ***** LHARC FURTHER EXPLAINED *****
--------------
In the current version 0.51, the command line interpretation is done
in GFA. The coding/decoding is done in C. Oft-called routines have been
converted to assembler already. The C code is EXTREMELY tight. The
compiled code is very compact and fast - it has been produced by the Turbo
C compiler. The parts that have been converted to assembler show a speed
increase of not more than 10-20%, and they have been coded really tight.
Speed increase from further assembly coding will be very slight. Some
speed may be gained by buffering disk I/O. Don't count on more than 20%.
- Skokie IL. ***** DETAILS OF USR UPGRADE *****
---------
It is not just a rom upgrade. "The V.42 upgrades for existing HST's
will not be available to owners until sometime late January early
February, USR said. The modem will have to be sent to USR for board mods
to upgrade to V.42 compatibility. Turnaround time will be about 5-10
days. This upgrade is free to any modem if purchased after 10/1/89. Any
modem purchased prior to that date will be charged $50."
The 14.4 HST can go to 38.4 if you have a computer with an RS232 quick
enough to handle it. The ST is limited to 19.2 unless someone comes out
with a hardware replacement for the RS232 driver.
Please keep in mind you have to run flow control for any of this to
happen for you. the modem runs at 14.4, and on the ST you set your term
rate to 19.2. With mnp 5 data compression on the ST you can get up to
about 1800cps with ymodemG, but the trick is to get the protocol.
V.42 will have a new data compression in it so it will do the same
thing, but it will be a true modem standard instead of the Defacto one we
have now.
________________________________________________________________
> Hard Drive Info STReport InfoFile¿ Affordable Mass Storage
=================================
NEW 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)
RUGGED SEAGATE HARD DISK MECHANISMS
* ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS *
32mb #SG32238 549.00 42mb #SG44710 619.00
51mb #SGN4951 629.00 65mb #SG60101 689.00
80mb #SGN296 729.00 100mb #SG84011D 949.00
130mb #SG1244D 1099.00 145mb #SG3A421 1110.00
170mb #SGT41776 1389.00 260mb #SG1244Q 2169.00
320mb #SGN7788Q 3295.00
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)
****--> CALL; for SPECIAL HOLIDAY DISCOUNTS <--****
*** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms ***
ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> MAGIC SAC - PC-DITTO/II - SPECTRE/GCR
LARGER units are available - (special order only)
* Removable Media Devices NOW Available (44mb) Syquest 555 *
* SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICES *
EXTRA CARTRIDGES: 97.95 (anytime)
* SYQUEST 44MB (#555) REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE *
- SYQUEST 44 MB removable media drive - ICD ST Host Adapter
- ICD Mass Storage Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable
- Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply
(1) 44 MB Syquest Cart.
Completely Assembled and READY TO RUN!
ONLY $869.00
We would offer floppy drives.. but Computer Shopper has 'em at the right
price. And.. you can plug 'em right into our cabinets and power supplies.
Low-Boy OR Standard Case (designed with room for another 3.5 OR 5.25"
drive) They're made for user expansion! TRUE UPGRADE-ABILITY!
* TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
SPECIALLY PRICED $1529.00
* SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
- Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
50mb SQG51 $1299.00 30mb SQG38 $1219.00
65mb SQG09 $1339.00 85mb SQG96 $1399.00
LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
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_________________________________________
DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
Personal and Company Checks are accepted.
ORDER YOURS TODAY!
904-783-3319 9am - 8pm EDT
_______________________________________________________________
> A "Quotable Quote"
=================
"A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING IS STILL A WOLF!"
... Memorable Quotes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
STReport "Your Independent News Source" December 15, 1989
16/32bit Magazine copyright 1989 Vol. III ~ Issue #118
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors, staff, ST Report or CPU Report . Reprint permission is
hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. All reprints must include ST
Report or CPU Report and the author's name. All information presented
herein is believed correct, STReport or CPU Report, it's editors and staff
are not responsible for any use or misuse of information contained herein.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
