Letters @~This issue, a few more comments on the Falcon, techy problems on @~the ST and Amiga, comments on the 'helpfulness' of software @~houses, Humbug and Jacaranda Jim updates, news from Romania, @~ST/PC emulation, serious stuff, desktops and STOS. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~First, a letter from Alex van Kaam, Holland Well, I finally did it, I bought myself a PC. I was thinking about a Falcon but then I thought about all the Atari computers I have had, from my old 600XL up to my Mega 4 ST and in the end they were all dead ends. The only software game I can buy here lies in Eindhoven (DAF-Philips) and it is called Barbarian II from Palace Software and it was produced in 1988! So I have to order from the UK and every time I see a good RPG and order it, I get a note back saying it isn't coming out on the ST. The Falcon is probably superior but I'm afraid Atari will ruin it again and again. @~It was Alex who first mentioned the Falcon to me and I know of @~quite a other few people who had planned to replace their STs @~with Falcons, because of the lack of ST software about, but @~Atari have been so darn slow that they've given up and got PCs @~instead. I'm afraid Atari have lost a lot of potential @~customers for the Falcon this way; once people get disillusioned @~with a company, it's impossible to get them back. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~Now some more comments on the Falcon from Richard Hewison, Luton Dear Syntax, I promise that this will be my last word on the subject, but I just had to reply to the letter from whoever this Bitmap Kid really is regarding my letter about his original Atari Falcon article. I write not from the heart but from experience of the industry and from a knowledge of market forces and simple economics. So Atari isn't a dirty word within the industry? Maybe the author should try speaking to the retailers (shops), distributors and the major publishers in this country, as they would back up my original remarks. Granted, there are a large number of serious applications in development (image processors, other graphic programs, audio and video samplers, music packages etc) but none of these will give the machine what it needs most to succeed - MASS MARKET APPEAL. Without this, the machine is certain to fail. I did try to point this out in my original letter when I compared the Falcon's ultimate fate to that of the Acorn Archimedes. So the industry is getting very excited about the Falcon? Really? Says who? Speaking as someone who works in the industry and has done so for over five years, I decided to give a few companies a call to gauge exactly how 'excited' they are. I won't mention the individuals by name, but some of the comments I got included "You must be joking", "The Atari what?" and "The fact that it's Atari sums it up". The glossy Atari mags are falling over themselves to paint a rosy future for the machine, but then they have to. They're not likely to sell many issues if they predicted doom and gloom around the corner! Software publishers plan at least two years ahead, and the Falcon isn't even being considered by most of them, (unlike the 3DO system which also isn't out, yet the interest surrounding that machine is massive both in Europe and the U.S). The fact that the Falcon isn't officially released yet is irrelevant. Without mass market software available within the first year of the Falcon's release, it will go belly up. The 'sad people who dismiss the machine long before they have given it the slightest chance' are the very same people whose decisions greatly affect the industry as a whole, i.e the publishers in charge of the software houses and the retailers. If they decide to ignore a machine, it is purely from an economic point of view which is the most important factor they have to consider when planning for the future. It may not be fair to strangle the machine before its birth, but that is what has happened. It's ironic that the author says that "fools are the only people who take rumours as 100% truth". I don't know where he got the idea about an 'excited' industry but I'll bet it wasn't from the horse's mouth. I'm all for enthusiasm, but COLD HARD FACTS suggest that the Falcon will join the pile of other technically sound machines that failed to catch on. I would still like to be proved wrong (maybe in a year or two's time) but I'm 100% confident that I won't be! @~End of discussion, folks, until we can actually SEE how the @~Falcon does and what software IS released for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~Now a technical query from Bill Commons, Margate I want to connect my ST and Amiga together so that I can transfer text between them. I bought a null modem cable and was advised to get Ncomm for the Amiga but I can't find out about the ST side. I can't seem to get the Ncomm program to do anything either, it will load a file but then just sits there, regardless of what keys I press. @~I know several of you have both STs and Amigas so can anyone @~help Bill? If so, please write to me and I'll pass the answer on @~to him and also put it into the mag in the hopes it may also @~help someone else. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~Some comments on a software house from Ron Rainbird, Holmes Chapel @~Just to set the scene, Ron had been stuck in Abandoned Places 2 @~for some time, though he has now solved that particular problem. .... Now then! I have three times telephoned the relevant software house, International Computer Entertainment (ICE for short) requesting advice on this problem and each time I have been told that the person to help me is out of the office at that moment but that if I left my telephone number, he would ring me as soon as he returned. I complied with this instruction on each of the three occasions, but each time no reply was forthcoming. I then wrote to the Managing Director privately, outlining this apparent cavalier treatment of a customer, so far without success. @~Ron rang me later and spoke more about the problems he has had @~with ICE (and Abandoned Places, for that matter, which seems to @~have the most user-UNfriendly save routine on the Amiga. Only @~one save is allowed and though you can back up your save disk, @~you have to be careful not to get the disks mixed up as you'll @~find doors which were previously unlocked are now locked. @~This is what has happened to Ron and I hope he doesn't have to @~replay the game which is what he suspects he will have to do. @~But he wanted me to mention these problems in case anyone was @~considering buying the game. Reviews of AP2 by both Ron and @~Brian Burke will be in NEXT issue. @~One other thing Ron mentioned was that ICE were selling a hint @~book plus a disk, with a saved game from half way through the @~game, for a tenner. You wouldn't believe the trouble he had @~getting them to send his order though they were really quick @~cashing his cheque. 'Oh, hasn't it arrived yet? We'll send @~another one' was a typical quote. Finally he told them he was @~reviewing the game for three specialist fanzines - the order @~came the next day! @~Was it worth œ10? Not really; it was a collection of Xeroxed @~sheets, rather than a book as advertised, and as for the disk @~... it wasn't there at all. 0/10 marks to ICE for customer @~service. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~and next some Humbug and Jacaranda Jim news from Graham Cluley, Berkhamsted In the latest version of HUMBUG (v5.00), I have included an on-line hints feature. This is only available to registered players, and works along the same sort of lines as some of the old Magnetic Scrolls games (the user has to enter a code to see the hint). I've built the same feature into JIM. @~Both games are updated in the library though, of course, not @~with the hints feature. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~International news from Neil Shipman, Coalpit Heath Out of the blue I recently received a postcard from Romania. This is what it said: Dear Sir, Greetings from Romania! You will be surprised to get a letter from a perfect stranger. I am a really Atari enthusiast. I didn't found software, peripherals or magazines for Atari in Ro. I should particularly like to know if you can help me with my Atari. Yours sincerely, TATIANA STR.ALEEA PODUL GIURGIULUI. NR.1. BL.14. SC.4. AP.103. SECT.5. OP7. COD 75407. BUCURESTI. ROMANIA. I don't know where Tatiana got my name and address but it was probably from an old issue of Atari ST User in which I advertised software for sale. I'm now using my PC 99% of the time and have already sold off most of my ST stuff but I have sent her a few ST disks. Some other readers with STs might like to send something too. (Don't Romanians have great postal addresses?!) On the subject of Mapping raised by Mongoose in the last issue, I used to map every adventure when I first started playing. But, as time went on, I found that I could retain the layout of a reasonable size adventure in my head ("Big Head!" some of you cry) and now I hardly ever bother to put pen to paper. This can sometimes mean that I miss or forget something and consequently find myself having to backtrack. It does mean though that when I come to re-play a game - and some I've looked at 3 or 4 times in the last decade - I do approach it afresh and don't have a map with virtually the full solution temptingly close to hand. @~There are more comments on mapping in the Articles section. @~Leading on from Neil's closing comments, how many of you replay @~games? I find there are too many new ones backed up, waiting to @~be played. I only replay games in order to write and then check @~my solution. What about the rest of you? ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~Kjell Robertsen recently bought a PC and mentioned to me that he @~was running his old ST software on it. Intrigued, I asked for @~more details and this is what he said: From Kjell Robertsen, Norway There isn't much to say about the Gemulator, really. It is a shareware program that is available from most BBS, but you also need a TOS ROM-reader that fits into one of the PC's expansion slots. The ROM-reader comes with TOS 2.06 installed but you can use any version of TOS. The Gemulator will happily run any program compatible with the installed TOS version except games that use the joystick. Monkey Island didn't work but then it doesn't work on 2.06-based STs either. Graphic software looks better on the Gemulator than it would on an ST. To run ST software without any loss of speed you'd need at least a 486DX and 8 megabytes of memory. If you have a 386, forget it unless you have something like the Norton Supercache installed. It is far too slow. So if you have a lot of ST software the Gemulator is a good idea. It is available from Purple Mountain Computers, 15600NE 8ST STE A3-412 Belevue, WA 98008, USA and costs $300. @~There was a review of the Gemulator in the October issue of @~PC Home magazine. You can also buy it (the Gemulator, that is!) @~through the ST Club for just under œ200. ------------------------------------------------------------------ @~And finally, comments on the idea of including 'serious' stuff @~(you mean adventures aren't serious?! ) in SynTax and a @~useful package from MT Software from: Piotr Tyminski, Warsaw [On the disk is] an experimental thing regarding the utility program 'Runner'. Why experimental? I think what James Judge suggested in the last issue (regarding reviews of "serious" things) was quite interesting. Maybe it should not be exactly the same as is covered by the glossy mags (and there's still an excellent "ST Applications" for the serious user!) but maybe just those bits everybody wanted to know but were afraid to ask or a review of a utility which, for some reason, may be useful for a wider audience etc. Although I know quite a lot (don't worry, it's only me who thinks so) about replacement desktops it was a great pleasure to read an interesting article written by James comparing shareware alternatives. Don't blame me then (it's actually James' fault) for being tempted to add a word about alternative desktops. Just read the article - except for being a good thing in itself 'Runner' offers quite extraordinary possibilities which may be of interest to SynTax readers. Recently I got an idea that it wouldn't be stupid to start learning some programming. I bought 'Beginner's Guide to STOS Basic' by MT Software and I'm simply delighted with it. The price is not the lowest in the world (some forty quid) but it's great value for money. The whole thing comes in a plastic ring bound cover with two disks and is superbly written. I'm really impressed with it and would recommend it to anyone who thinks about learning STOS. With a full version of STOS (plus compiler) given away with it, it shouldn't be missed. @~The MT Software package sounds as though it would have been @~useful when we were writing the ST version of SynTax. Heaven @~knows the manual wasn't much use sometimes!