516 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
516 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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________________________^^^________
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ZMAGAZINE SPECIAL ISSUE
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ATARI NEWS JUNE 27, 1986
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Ron Kovacs-Editor Middlesex, NJ
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___________________________________
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Xx News From Atari Corp
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SUMMERTIME PROMOTIONS
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As if the Summer wasn't hot
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enough, Atari has launched three
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computer promotions designed to
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make things even hotter.
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For the 520ST, we are offering
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a free monochrome monitor when you
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purchase a 520ST cpu and one SF354
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disk drive. We expect to see a
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variety of promotions based on this
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one. A complete monochrome system
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for $499 is one good attraction, as
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is the 520ST for $199 with purchase
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of drive and monitor.
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For the 8-bit computers we have
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two promotions. We have added some
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software to spice up the 65XE
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package. The position of this
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promotion is as an advanced game
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machine, and we are bundling 4
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software cartridges and a joystick
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with the 65XE CPU. The packages
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are: Star Raiders, Pac Man, Donkey
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Kong, and Sky Writer. This is an
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$85 value of free products with an
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under-$100 computer! We expect
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this to be a great attraction as
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the video game market heats up
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again this year.
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The second 8-bit promotion is
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our continuing 130XE package deal.
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Get a 130XE with a disk drive and a
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printer, plus the AtariWriter Plus
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word processing program and four
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other software titles (Music
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Composer, Star Raiders, Defender,
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and Home Filing Manager), for only
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$399. A version of this package
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with the 65XE in place of the 130XE
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is also available at a $349 list
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price.
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CES REPORT: Atari Sparking PC Comeback
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Atari's leadership in the
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comeback for personal computers was
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apparent than at the recent
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Consumer Electronics Show in
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Chicago.
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Although computer products
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were in a section of the show floor
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that is not exactly prime territory
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Atari's booth attracted huge crowds
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throughout the show. The feeling
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was more upbeat than it has been
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for several years. There were more
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exhibitors and attendees than in
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the past few CE Shows. A strong
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sign of Atari's role in the
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comeback was the presense of Atari
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computers in virtually every booth
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in the computer section.
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Atari had the biggest and most
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prominent booth in the computer
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section. The entrance was flanked
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by two special displays: -See the
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Power of Atari- featuring video
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digitizers, and -Hear the Power of
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Atari- with music synthesizers.
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These exhibits were divided evenly
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into 8-bit and ST products.
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Within the booth 36 tables
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were set aside for third party
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software developers. Again, half
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the displays were for XE products
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and the other half were for ST.
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Atari was careful to emphasize both
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sides of our computer product lines
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in a show of overall strength and
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support. Despite the predominance
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of publicity for the ST line, the
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XE computers are still alive and
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doing well.
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The move toward added presence
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of the 8-bit products proved to be
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well timed, thanks to Atari's
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biggest competitor in this market.
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Commodore was present in only a
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small way, with a room tucked far
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away from the main floor. A few
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visitors were able to see company
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personnel trying to generate some
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enthusiasm for their latest attempt
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to generate corporate revenue --
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the -64C- computer. This
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repackaging of the venerable
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Commodore 64 managed to add little
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in the way of utility, simply
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adding a new disk of software
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along with a new case design. For
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this they have raised the suggested
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price to $200.
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There did seem to be some
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enthusiasm among mass merchants,
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all right. Most of them paid quick
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visits to the Atari booth to talk
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business. It looks like Commodore
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is trying to replace the 64 with
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the XE. Thanks, guys!
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Back to the Atari world, many
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of the software vendors at CES had
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new announcements of products.
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Batteries Included has announced a
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wide range of ST titles in the
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productivity category, including
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Thunder!, their realtime spelling
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checker; I*S Talk, a terminal
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program with a slew of features
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(also including spelling checker);
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DEGAS Elite, an enhanced version of
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their top-selling title; PaperClip
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Elite, an advanced wordprocessor;
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HomePack ST, an enhanced version of
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their 8-bit best seller; and more,
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bringing their product line to an
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even dozen ST titles by year's end.
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MicroProse had Silas Warner, the
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author of many top-selling computer
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games like Castle Wolfenstein and
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Robotwars, demonstrating a
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beautiful version of his new Silent
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Service for the ST. Baudville,
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Epyx, Firebird, and Strategic
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Simulations were some of the
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software companies showing ST
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titles for the first time in their
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booths. Many other vendors
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announced expanded support of all
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Atari products at the show (or
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immediately after).
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Atari was also helped by two
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user groups in the area, the
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Chicagoland Atari User Group
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(CLAUG) and the Suburban Chicago
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Atarians (SCAT). A word of advice
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to dealers -- don't underestimate
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the ability of user groups in your
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area! They have often shown they
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are willing and able to come to the
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aid of Atarians. Atari is proud to
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have such a devoted collection of
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users. Thanks, folks!
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ST MONITOR CABLES AND CONNECTORS
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AVAILABLE
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A small company in the
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Pittsburgh area is now selling ST
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monitor cables and connectors.
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Many customers have asked us for
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these cables for connecting 520ST's
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(with modulators) to video cassette
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recorders. Now it is possible.
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You can get just the
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connectors for wiring your own
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cables, or you can buy cables with
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RCA plugs or with ST monitor plugs
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(for use as replacements or for
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longer cables), or they will make
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special customized cables for you.
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Contact At Your Service, 2856
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Leechburg Road, Lower Burrell, PA
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15068, Attn: Mark Spires, or call
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412-335-4477.
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LATEST SOFTWARE TITLES FROM ATARI
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CORP.
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The newest release from Atari
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this month is DB Master One, an
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enhanced and improved version from
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the one given away as part of a
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promotion last Christmas. We think
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you'll be impressed. This package
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is available now in inventory from
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Atari.
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Brand new in Atari's line of
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products is dbMan, the database
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from Versasoft. Atari has picked
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up the marketing rights to this
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product. It is available for
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immediate shipment. Just to
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refresh you, this package is a
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dBase III clone with many extra
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features. Later in this issue we
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talk about some of the ways we're
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using databases in our own
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operations here at Atari
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headquarters.
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For the 8-bit computers, we
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want to remind you that the Atari
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Planetarium and Star Raiders II are
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also available in current
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inventory. Both of these titles
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have been very well received at the
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recent CES and Comdex shows, as
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well as in favorable reviews in
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upcoming issues of computer
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magazines.
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NEW SOFTWARE PRODUCTS ANNOUNCED BY
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THIRD PARTIES
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Aside from the flood of
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announcements at Comdex and CES,
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many other companies have jumped on
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the Atari bandwagon lately. It's
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nice to have momentum!
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Baudville Inc. has three new
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titles of home and educational
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software: Video Vegas (blackjack,
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poker, slots, and keno), Guitar
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Wizard (teaches guitar playing),
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and Ted Bear's Rainy Day Games for
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young people. These products are
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available for the 8-bit Atari
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computers. Their phone number is
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616-957-3036.
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Epyx has released new products
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for the 8-bit and the ST lines.
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World Karate Championship for the
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8-bitters is a realistic graphic
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animation of the martial arts. For
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the ST, Epyx is shipping Rogue and
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their revamped Temple of Apshai
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Trilogy. Epyx plans to release
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Winter Games, World Games, Super
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Cycle, and Championship Wrestling
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for the ST series as well.
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Polarware/Penguin Software has
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released Oo-Topos for the ST.
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Polarware has drastically cut
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prices on their software titles to
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make them even more attractive to
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the public -- currently they are
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selling most games at a $19.95 list
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price.
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Strategic Simulations (SSI)
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has released Gettysburg: The
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Turning Point for the 8-bit Atari
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computers. At CES they were
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showing off preliminary versions of
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Phantasie for the ST, scheduled for
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release in late Summer.
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For the 8-bit products,
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Batteries Included is shipping
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Paper Clip with Spell Check, a word
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processor with integrated
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dictionary.
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ST SOFTWARE: THE LATEST IN DESK
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ACCESSORIES
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The latest highlights in the
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ST software world are some very
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powerful desk accessories. These
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programs stay resident in memory
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and provide features that can be
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used at any time by programs which
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take advantage of the GEM
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environment.
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From Michtron, we have
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Cornerman. This program is much
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more powerful than the acclaimed
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Sidekick package for the PC. It
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includes features like: a full
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ASCII chart in a scrolling window;
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a calculator with decimal, hex,
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binary, and octal functions; a note
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pad; a phone dialer; a clock (which
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appears in the upper right corner
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of any GEM screen); and many more.
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Cornerman is probably most suited
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for a 1040ST, since it uses up
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quite a bit of RAM, but it has
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quickly found itself to be
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indispensible in my ST.
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A recent arrival here will
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probably give Cornerman a run for
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its money. Macro Manager from Blue
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Moon Software (distributed by
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Shanner International) is a very
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complete accessory. It's
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calculator works in algebraic or
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reverse polish notation and also
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includes financial functions. It
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also contains a weekly planner with
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project time reporting; electronic
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card file database; alarm clock
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calendar; and an electronic
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typewriter feature.
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One of the most necessary
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products is the latest from
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Batteries Included, called Thunder
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(a poke at Turbo Lightning?).
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Thunder is a realtime spelling
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checker for GEM applications.
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While you are typing, it checks
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your spelling and rings the bell if
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you make an error. By clicking on
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the desk accessory menu, it will
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tell you what word was wrong and
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offers you a choice of corrections.
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Thunder comes with a 50,000 word
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dictionary. It is expandable to 2
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more dictionaries, one with
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supplemental words and the other
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with replacement words -- you give
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it a word and an automatic
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replacement, for words you commonly
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misspell and for abbreviations
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which are automatically expanded
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for you.
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MORE THAN 200 FREE ST PROGRAMS
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AVAILABLE
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Did you know that there are
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more than 200 public domain
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programs for the ST available from
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a central source, not to mention
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the more than 100 ST pictures and
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100 8-bit programs? If you were
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signing into the Atari Corp. BBS
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regularly, you'd know this and a
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lot more. The Atari Base is the
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official BBS of Atari Corp. located
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at headquarters in Sunnyvale.
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You can also get any questions you
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have answered by our staff experts.
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There is a private section for
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dealers and for service centers as
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well.
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Speaking of service centers,
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Randy Hain, Atari's manager of
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service, will be getting active in
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the Atari BBS as well to provide
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up-to-the-minute information to
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registered service centers. So
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make sure you're tuned in to
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Atari's own information exchange.
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The Atari Base BBS can be
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reached by any computer with modem
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by calling 408-745-5308, any time
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any day, 300 or 1200 baud.
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ST APPLICATIONS NOTE: DATABASE
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MANAGEMENT
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One of the strongest uses for
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a computer is to manage your data.
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Recently there have been several
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strong software titles for the
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Atari ST computers in this category
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Two of these, DB Master One and
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dbMan, have found their way into
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many different departments here at
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Atari. We thought we'd share our
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experiences.
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Sam Tramiel's secretary uses
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DB Master One to manage his
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business cards. As the president
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of Atari, Sam meets a multitude of
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people. Rather than deal with an
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unweildy pile of cards, he has them
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typed into this program. When he
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needs to contact someone, the
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information is available almost
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instantly. This particular ST is
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equipped with a monochrome monitor
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to take advantage of the very high
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resolution, displaying 50 lines of
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information on the screen at a time
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In the service department,
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Randy Hain also uses DB Master One.
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He keeps track of service centers
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and applicants. He has created
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many custom report formats for his
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own use and for use by others in
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the company. For example, when the
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customer relations department asked
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for a list of all service centers
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with complete addresses so
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customers can be referred to them,
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he quickly changed one of the
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existing reports to create the
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customized one that was needed.
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Both of these departments
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started using DB Master One with
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its original release last Winter.
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Since then, they passed reports of
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problems and requests for
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additional features back to the
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program's designers. Most of their
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requests were implemented in the
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latest release which has just
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become available to you.
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For more sophisticated data
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management tasks, we are making
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extensive use of dbMan. With the
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features of dBase III, we have
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drawn on the experience of people
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in the company to create very
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complete applications.
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The customer relations
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department is using the ST for
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order processing. They process a
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tremendous number of requests for
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manuals, spare parts, and other
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items. Instead of typing and
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filing and manual report
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generation, the entire process of
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order entry and reporting is
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automated. The inventory items and
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their descriptions are in one file,
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open orders are in another, and
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sales tax for the state in a third.
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Orders go through the system faster
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and more accurately than ever.
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Because dbMan is a true relational
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database, more files can be added
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as the department learns how this
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program can help them even more.
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We don't just start with the
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solution, it grows as we think of
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more ways it can help us.
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Likewise, the finance
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department uses dbMan to store and
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track outstanding loaner systems to
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members of the press and others.
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Each system can be tracked so we
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always know what our outstanding
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inventory is, which machines are
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overdue, and who within Atari is
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responsible for each computer sent.
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This information was impossible to
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maintain with the older manual
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system.
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As time goes by we are finding
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more and more ST's cropping up
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within our own company. Along with
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the applications mentioned here
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already, we find them used by
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secretaries for word processing, by
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the controller and other finance
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people as spreadsheets, by the data
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processing department as terminals,
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and of course by the programmers as
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development tools. It may seem
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obvious that Atari would use its
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own computers, but there were
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once many IBM PC's and
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DisplayWriters and Wang systems
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here to do the same jobs that are
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now being done better by our own
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inexpensive ST systems. Our
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Chairman makes us all work our
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hardest and save every penny we can
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-- the ST is part of the way we do
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our jobs.
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-----------------------------------
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Zmagazine Special Issue June 27,th
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Atari Computer News
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-----------------------------------
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