###################################### # # # Z M A G A Z I N E # # # ###################################### American Publishing Enterprises, Inc Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, New Jersey 08846-0074 BBS: (201) 968-8148 300/1200 Issue #106 May 16, 1988 Publisher/Editor Ron Kovacs ______________________________________ Contents ______________________________________ |*| Editors Desk |*| Atari News Update |*| Comdex Report from Antic Online |*| New BBS Network Announced |*| Readers Viewpoint [M. Ranger] |*| Last Request |*| Delphi Confrence Highlights |*| BBS Systems Update ______________________________________ Editors Desk ______________________________________ by Ron Kovacs There is much to talk about this week within the Atari community. Atari Corp has started the Computer Division with Mr. Babbit taking over as President. With this news, there are confidential sources telling us that Atari is going to advertise the ST on CABLE stations only. This along with other ST news can be found in ST-REPORT. I have included excerpts from a Delphi confrence last week with Niel Harris. Much of the confrence subject matter deals with the ST market, again refer to ST-Report magazine for the full confrence highlights. ______________________________________ Atari News Update ______________________________________ Compiled from NewsNet ATARI CORP CORPORATE EARNINGS Latest Period Year Earlier ------------------------------------- Atari Corp (1st Q) $169,232,000 $65,133,000 $5,674,000 (.10) a-$9,365,000(.16) a-Net from operations. ATARI FIRST-QUARTER EARNINGS DOWN NEARLY 63 PERCENT AT $5.7 MILLION -------------------------------------- SUNNYVALE, Calif. (MAY 13) UPI - Atari Corp. reported earnings in the first quarter of 1988 fell nearly 63 percent to $5.7 million or 10 cents a share, down from $15.3 million or 26 cents a share in the same period last year. However, revenues for the Sunnyvale- based maker of personal computers and video games rose to $169.2 million in the quarter ended April 2, up more than 61 percent compared to $65.1 million in the first quarter of 1987, the company said in a statement released late Thursday. Atari blamed the downturn in its earnings on losses incurred by the Federated Group Inc., its retail subsidiary, which it acquired in October 1987. The Federated division reported a pre-tax operating loss of $9.6 million on sales of $71.5 million in the first quarter of 1988. Not counting that loss, Atari's earnings would have been $15.29 million in the first quarter up marginally over $15.28 million last year, the company said. First quarter results last year were boosted by a $5.9 million credit related to accounting changes, the company said. -The losses incurred by Federated ... continue to adversely impact Atari's earnings,- said Sam Tramiel, Atari's president. But he added that Federated -is now approaching a breakeven point and we forsee a small loss or a small profit in the second and third quarters,- and -a modest profit- in the fourth quarter. -Further action is being taken to reduce costs, improve product mix and margin, and to increase sales,- Tramiel said. FRIDAY'S AMEX 10 MOST ACTIVE STOCKS ------------------------------------- NEW YORK (MAY 13) - The 10 most active stocks in American Stock Exchange composite trading Friday: Stock Sales Last Net Chg. Sothebys 1,143,800 18 1/8 unch Dome Pet 1,008,400 1 1-16 off 1-16 Amdahl Corp 621,400 47 up 3/4 ICH Corp 499,800 7 5/8 off 1/8 Lorimar Tel 267,000 12 3/4 off 1/4 Wang Lab B 187,700 10 5/8 off 1/4 Viacom 187,300 25 1/4 up 1/8 Horn & Har 176,600 7 1/8 up 3/4 Atari Corp 158,300 7 5/8 unch Texas Air 147,200 10 7/8 up 1/4 ______________________________________ Comdex Reports ______________________________________ ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. REPORT FROM ATLANTA Spring Comdex Report Number 1 by Andrew Reese, START Editor (Atlanta, GA, May 9, 1988) Atari was at the spring Computer Dealers Exposition (COMDEX) in force this year with a large display area designed around the theme of ST/Mega solutions to business problems. Atari itself did not show any new hardware, but third-part developers presented several exciting add-ons for Atari 68000-based machines and the software houses caught a lot of interest with some highly professional packages. Although it was not in the booth, word has it that Atari's new 68030-based UNIX machine is progressing nicely, thank you, in the R&D Labs at Atari, Inc.'s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Contrary to some earlier press reports, it is not a -stock- Motorola UNIX design, but instead is a custom Atari design with six proprietary chips on the motherboard. The last of the custom chips has been received from the chip house and installed on the new prototype PC board. This baby cooks along at 16 MHz+ and right now the development looks to be on schedule. Watch the pages of START and Antic's ST Resource for more details of this giant step up in the Atari line. We'll have more news about other Atari developments, but let's turn our attention to the two add-ons that were shown by third-party developers. The first is the amazing ST Accelerator from Megabyte Computers of Webster, Texas. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of having their car stolen (with their demo computers, hard drive and Accelerator inside!), Megabyte demo'ed their hard-wire 16 MHz mod for the ST. Yes, that's right: 16 Mhz clock rate or twice the standard ST clock rate! Installation of the add-on board is not for the cautious or technically inexperienced, however -- it requires the removal of the 68000 and the addition of a turbo board, a 68000-16 chip and a panel switch for choosing turbo/standard rate from the keyboard. Speed can be switched in the middle of an application and let me tell you that it sure makes the ST F-L-Y! It hasn't been tested on all applications yet and there are certainly times when a mere 8 MHz is plenty fast enough (want to go against the Dark Lord at twice the real-time speed??), but since it is easily switchable, it looks like a winner for any power ST user. Should be available within the month; I put my order in! And for the power user with math- intensive software needs -- like CAD, graphics, spreadsheets, etc. -- plug Xetec's XCEL hardware floating point math processor into your cartridge port. Improvements in math calculations are dramatic: on the order of 2-30 times! XCEL is complete and awaiting FCC approval, which should take no more than two months. Price? $199. Compare that to the price of an 80387 chip! One note, however, XCEL does require that the software be recompiled using their custom math libraries, so you won't see any immediate improvement in off -the-shelf software, but more than one leading developer of ST power software told me that they would be more than happy to support the new processor. The ST desktop publishing market is certainly getting crowded -- and with quality products as good as or better than anything available on those -Brand X- machines. Timeworks showed their nifty Desktop Publisher ST, now available at $129, SoftLogik's powerful Publishing Partner Professional is getting closer to its announced June release (they really want to kill all the bugs first and it sure looks like they're doing it) and ISD was demo'ing their marvelous Calamus DTP package, due on the market within the next several months. Which to choose? We'll test them all and give you our recommendations over the next few months in the pages of START and Antic's ST Resource. If you liked Barbarian from Psygnosis, get ready for Obliterator. It uses the same interface, but is set in the future. Great graphics and sound and now shipping. Microprose was featuring Gunship on the ST in their booth and announced that they were shooting for a September release of the ST version of Pirates, their hot new game on those other computers. Microprose promises that they will take full advantage of the ST's capabilities; their past performance with Silent Service, F-16 Strike Eagle and Gunship seems to bear this out. Antic showed the newest version of Cyber Paint, Version 2.0. This is truly fantastic graphics and animation software from the incredibly creative mind of Jim Kent, who brought you the first version AND Aegis Animator. For stand-alone 2D animation, there's nothing that can touch it on the ST -- and nothing in its price range on any other computer. Period. Also being shown was Antic's first venture into the Amiga world. Now, don't panic, folks, Antic's not leaving you Atarians behind. PHASAR, the popular ST home accounting package has been ported over to the Amiga to a very favorable reception. Antic also showed several other new ST packages including new design disks for CAD-3D and Shadow, a background terminal program that lets you go online and download files in the background while word processing or whatever at the same time. ATLANTA, MAY 10, 1988 -- The second day in Atlanta featured with thunderstorms, traffic jams and record crowds at COMDEX. It also featured Atari and Commodore sharing the dais without bloodshed in a presentation called -Alternate Systems in Niche Markets: Amigas and Ataris.- Neil Harris, now the Director of Product Management for the Computer Division of Atari U.S., and Ken Weber Vice President of Sales for Commodore, traded jibes and optimistic views of their respective markets, but the bottomline seemed to be that the two companies will now target their marketing at specific -niche- markets. What this means is that you will probably see ad campaigns aimed at specific uses of the two computers. Commodore is aiming at the -Desktop Presentation- market, while Atari is focusing their efforts on such uses as MIDI and Desktop Publishing. Atari is not shy about declaring or displaying their intentions: the Atari booth at this primarily business -related show is notable for the predominance of monochrome monitors and business-related software. Now if the DRAM shortage eases a bit, Atari should be well positioned for a strong push in the third and fourth quarters of the year. Speaking of monitors, one of the most dramatic developments in ST displays was unveiled today when ISD hooked up a 19-inch high resolution Moniterm monitor to a Mega 4 and displayed their Calamus DTP package in crisp, bright 1280-by-960 resolution. The display requires a videocard that plugs into the Mega's internal bus port and using a patched TOS on disk to get around the TOS-in-ROM video definitions. Pricing and availability has not been set for this spectacular product, but look for it during the second half of the year. Oh, and it can put out a high-resolution color signal, too... While it's not an Atari product, I have to mention that RasterOps of Cupertino, California displayed an amazing display for the Mac II. Their TrueColor 104 board and Model1948 Monitor combine to display 1024 by 768 pixels with 24 bit planes per pixel. In plain language, this means 786,432 colors on the screen at once from a palette of 16.7 million colors! Sigh! But this graphics power definitely has with a price -- the board and monitor are each $3195 -- and that's on top of the price of a Mac II. (Oh, even the swivel and tilt base for the 19-inch monitor costs...are you ready?..$295!) Back to Atari. Atari's CD-ROM player was shown in its final production version. The developer's systems should be shipping within a few weeks and you should be seeing it in your local Atari dealers this summer. Atari waited to sell the CD-ROM until they could get it out the door at their chosen price, in this case $599. That's half of what Apple's recently- announced CD-ROM will list at and the Atari CD-ROM will play audio CD's as well. With the Atari's support of High Sierra and other major formats, software should become available quickly. If you've been wondering when you can buy the new TOS ROM's, the short answer is that you can't -- for now. This upgrade was an interim re-design and a second upgrade is in the works. Atari has been soliciting suggestions for re-works on the various online services and are now finalizing their plans for redesign. They are focusing their attention right now on the GEMDOS portion of the ROM's with an eye toward greatly increasing the speed of screen operations. Look for these ROM's to hit the market in the fall. The price for what Atari annouonced as a -major improvement- has not been set. If you're worried about viruses infecting your ST's operating system, you can breathe a small sigh of relief -- Neil Harris announced that Atari U.S. has yet to see any evidence of a virus on the ST. With TOS in ROM, St'ers are a bit safer than other brands with significant portions of their operating systems on disk (I won't mention any names, but their initials are MS-DOS, Mac and Amiga). As Harris said, -No one is going to come to your house with an EPROM burner!- (Oh, and by the way, rumor has it that a minor virus even infected the Amiga Developer's conference recently held in Washington, D.C.!) Robtek Ltd. announced two new programs for the ST, available now. Dizzy Wizard is -the game that Marble Madness should have been.- While I haven't been able to boot it up at the show, the screen displays on the packaging look great. $19.95. Aimed at the low-end DTP market, Home Publisher has many of the same basic features as higher-priced programs, but at a cost of $39.95. Scott, Foresman and Company announced a new book of interest to the ST community. -Learning C on the Atari ST- looks like a good tutorial and reference for budding C programmers -- and also for those old flowers among us. If you have a lot of disks or just need a convenient system to store those you have, Seima International Corp. showed their Exponent modular drawer and attache-style systems. Each drawer holds 180 3-1/2-inch disks and lists for $69.95, while the attache case holds 64 disks in a convenient hard plastic case that lists for $39.95. Looks like an attractive Italian import. SBT announced their Series Six upgrades to their Database Accounting Library. Final debugging of the ST version is about complete, so look for these new products within the next few months -- and look for a review of these powerful packages in the October, 1988 issue of START, on sale September 1st. One of the most remarkable new products for the ST was shown by Intersect Software, makers of Interlink. Revolver allows the user to -take a picture- of the ST's memory at any time, during any application, and save it to disk in compressed format. Then, when you want to come back to it, you just -roll it in- and you're back where you were -- exactly where you were, whether you were about to be killed by a monster in a game or were checking the fourth quarter's performance of your company in a spreadsheet. It should be available at the end of June for a price of $49.95. Michtron will be shipping Leatherneck for the ST within a few weeks. This Viet Nam-style combat game is slated to list at $39.95. Also due to be released soon is Paperboy, a port from the popular arcade game. It's from Mindscape and will list at $49.95. ATLANTA, MAY 11, 1988 -- Day 3 of the Computer Dealers Exposition (COMDEX) dawned bright and clear and the show floor was jammed with suits and nerds. Expectations are that by the time all of us make our way through the show, our number will have set a new record for a Spring COMDEX of over 60,000! That's a lot of suits and nerds, folks. More news of interest to Atarians: * -- Liz and Kevin Mitchell of Migraph were displaying EZ-Draw with Supercharger, their fine DTP/page layout package; expect to see some further refinements of this versatile package in the months to come. * -- Neocept was proudly displaying their word processor package called Word Up. They're making improvements and enhancements every day and upgrading their purchasers' copies diligently. If you haven't taken a look at this very capable WYSIWYG program, do so before choosing among the wealth of Atari word processors available now. Word Up has some excellent features not found in any other package I've seen. * -- Michtron has announced a whole series of new products centered around their emerging standard BASIC, GFA BASIC. GFA BASIC Training ReBoot Camp is their new beginners guide to programming in GFA. It presumes no prior experience in programming and takes you step-by-step through the development of your program; $19.95, out now. At the other end of the spectrum from -ReBoot- is The GFA BASIC Programmers Reference Guide, Vol. 1. This is the first half of the definitive work on GFA BASIC by George W. Miller. It should hit the bookstores in late June with a bang; $29.95 for 576 pages of all you ever wanted to know about GFA BASIC. GFA BASIC 3.0 was announced at CeBIT, the Hannover computer show, and will be shipping in mid- July. It adds over 300 new commands to GFA BASIC and a substantial increase in speed: 40 to 60 percent! Finally, the GFA-BASIC Reference Card is shipping with a $4.95 price tag. Michtron also showed GFA Draft, Juggler II, Master CAD and Utilities Plus -- it looks like Gordon and company have been very busy this spring! * -- ICD was showing their quiet and convenient line of ST hard drives called the FA-ST Hard Drive. Available in sizes to fit almost every need and budget from 20 meg at $699.95 to 100 meg (dual 50's) at $1699.95. Or if you already have an IBM-compatible hard drive lying around, they have a kit to transform that paperweight into an asset for your ST. Ask for the FA-ST Hard Drive Kit. Or look for the ST Host Adapter at $135.95 if you want to build up your own drive from components available for IBM's, etc.; $135.95. And there's still more options available for hard drives from ICD - -check with your dealer. ______________________________________ NEW NETWORK FORMING FOR ATARI SYSOPS ______________________________________ by Kirk Demarest A core group of sysops of Atari-based BBS systems have announced the formation of a national network. The fledgling network now consists of six BBS systems, located in Delaware, Missouri, Georgia, New Jersey, and Louisiana. The group's goal is to have 50-60 BBS systems as part of the network by July 1st. The purpose of the new network is to promote Atari computers and Atari based BBS systems, and to encourage users of member systems to call other -member- systems, enabling each BBS system to develop a -national- following. Sysops of Atari-based BBS systems who are interested in joining the new network are asked to call the Medieval Castle II at 201 752-2818 and leave feedback, or call the Schwarzer Drache BBS at 816 637-6163, and leave E-Mail for Kirk Demarest. Please post the number of your BBS system, with a voice number for callback. ______________________________________ From the Reader's Viewpoint. ______________________________________ W.A.U.G. - A Growing Club ??? by M. Ranger I joined W.A.U.G. last year, at the first (Sept.) meeting. Which was right after the MAGIC show. There was alot of interest in ATARI that night, but not very many members (10 or 15) in attendance. I could see that the officers of this club had a lot of potential. i.e. putting out their own newsletter in protest to disagreements with MAM. And having a speaker from a mail order house show his wares. Plus not having a complete computer to do DEMO's, was a small disapointment. All this going on in a public library basement. Compared to what they've grown into today, they've come a long way. A club with 30 to 35 people in attendance, coming together in a College class room, with a 20' monitor for demo's and members willing to show off their special interest, on both an 8-bit and ST system, but a little shy to ask questions. But it's still a big acomplishment by the officers. To make this club a good source of information for ATARI computer owners. I feel that after the elections in June that the officers should be awarded. With a dinner at Cottage Inn Pizza, paid by the members, and only for the officers...THANK YOU, W.A.U.G. officers. BUT, and there is always a but, how about this; I also think that W.A.U.G. could do more for the members or to phrase it better; what can the members do for the club, to make the meeting more interesting. A very young president once said; -Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country-; John F. Kenndy. Well club members how about it? What can YOU do for your club. Later in this article I will list some of the ideas I've devised to help OUR club. For example I've volunteered my time and energy to be your Magazine Librarian, and bringing in (my personal stock-pile of) old and new pre-owned 8-bit software for sale. And I hope to find someone to carry on the my librarians job when I stept-down to enter myself for nomiation for the 8-bit librarians' job. I know there are other members (not officers) that are willing to offer their time and services to the improvement of the club. So why don't you ??? If it's because you don't know what needs to be done, I've compiled a list of ideas I have for our club, which could be adapted to any ones' club. Granted this is not a complete list, you may have more or better ideas then this. But it will be a start, and something for us to discuss at up coming meetings...... 1.) The club could use a person or persons to hold 8-bit or ST SIG (Special Interest Group) meeting once a month at their home, and give a report to the main club meeting once a month. 2.) We could use ALL W.A.U.G. members to attend the monthly meetings, not just 30%, but 100%. If every member attended and brought one person to join this year we could be as big a MACE (maybe) within a couple years time. W.A.U.G. is still growing and moving. Out of the small class room to a computer store showroom. (See W.A.U.G. club minutes for details.) 3.) Members to offer to DEMO of new/old software/hardware. And offer to bring in their software/ hardware for the demo. The clubs equipment my not always be available every meeting, but a large effort is given to make sure it is there though. And as I understand it W.A.U.G. only owns the 800XL and and INDUS disk drive. The ST is brought in by a couple of the members (Bill/ Patty), so if they leave or are unable to attend a meeting we have no ST to show demo's on. Plus to have more than one machine to show demo's, during and after the clubs' business reports would be a great benifit. 4.) Members to submit their favorite collection of software to both the ST/8-bit disk libraries. For addition to the mass amount of PD software we already have now, but you can never have to much. You could also submit a copy of your own personal disk library. To help the librarians make a DOM (disk of the month), for sale and/or raffle at the clubs' meetings. 5.) Someone to be in-charge of running a FREE drawing at the clubs' meetings for a 8-bit and ST DOM. In order to drum up interest in the software libraries. Which is where a clubs' bread and butter comes from, if there is no interest in the clubs' software library than there will be no interest in the club. Cause members will go somewhere else and spend their money on someone elses' library. 6.) ARTICLES for MAM. I can't stress this point enough, the magazine is there for you to use, not abuse. ATARI Corp. is not going to promote your favorite software/ hardware or application technique, so you have to. If it is left up to the editors of MAM to find/ search for interesting articles for the next issue they will sooner or later stop for lack of profit or interest. If costs for things like access to CompuServe/ GEnie/ Delphi/ Long distance BBS's start to be added to the cost of printing each issue, than I guarantee MAM will not be around for long. So it is up to you to help keep ATARI and MAM alive and well. 7.) We desperately need someone to volunteer to be a remote users secretary for W.A.U.G.. We receive several letters each month from ATARIANS all over the country asking for information about OUR club. We need someone to write these people back with the address to MAM for a subscription and to mail them a copy of our disk libraries. If you are interested please contact me or one of the W.A.U.G. officers. Or BETTER YET why not come to one of the officers' meetings, you're always welcome, it's your club too. Doug, Craig and I have several letters that need to be addressed. In closing I'd like to remind you that Rick has volunteered his services and studio for MIDI SIG meetings, so contact him if you're interested and I hope to hear a SIG report at the next meeting. Also lets show some interest in the MIDI SIG, who knows we may be able to come up with a W.A.U.G. song/ record good enough to hit the TOP 10 list (wishful thinking)...Thank You, and happy ATARIN'... Michael Ranger ______________________________________ Last Request ______________________________________ The following was captured from GEnie, and sent here for publication. Msg# : 164 Lines: Extended Read: 7 Sent : Apr 20, 1988 at 8:24 AM To : ALL From : SYSOP at MegaHertz of Indiana Subj : Postcard ---------- Category 1, Topic 42 Message 1 Tue Apr 12, 1988 S.OLEJNICZAK at 20:26 EDT I have found the following notice on the bulletin board in our office. Even if you do not send a post card, please forward it to other BBSs that you use. It is a worthwhile cause. from: RMJ SECURITIES Corporation 199 Water Street New York, New York 10038 Telephone (212)-668-5250 TO: ALL EMPLOYEES Our London Office just informed us that there is a seven year old buy who is terminally with cancer. His last and only request is that he would be able to be listed in the -The Guiness Book of World Records- for receiving the most postcards. If you wish to send him one, please write to: David c/o Miss McWilliams St. Martinde Porres' Infant School Luton, Bedfordshire, England ______________________________________ Delphi Confrence Highlights ______________________________________ Edited by Ron Kovacs for ZMagazine .Andy> Let's start, shall we? Welcome to all and thanks to Neil Harris for joining us from his busy schedule at COMDEX. To start, I'd like to reiterate that this CO is a formal one. To ask a question (after I say questions will be taken... in just a minute), type in a '?' and I'll put you on the list. I'll keep you informed of when your turn is coming up. Let's keep this meeting running as smoothly as possible; I know it'll get emotional. Thanks again... Before I start taking questions, let me start by asking something: Neil, most of us are aware of a change in the Atari structure. What is in the works for the computer side of Atari and what can you tell us what we're going to see in the way of enhancements and such from you folks. GA. Neil> We have several new people on board in the US computer division (now called -Atari Computer-). The division is headed by Chuck Babbitt, whose title is president. There is also a new vp of sales, Tony Gould. Changed have been made to the field sales organization to promote the business activities of computer specialty retailers -- specifically, we have stopped using distributors and are in the process of hiring direct, Atari-employed sales reps throughout the country. We are also beefing up the marketing organization at Sunnyvale -- we've already added a new telemarketing group, a newsletter person, and are seeking to fill additional marketing positions. Also, we changed PR agencies, scaling back our old agency and adding a computer specialty firm. We hope to shortly hire an ad agency. Reading the tea leaves, I have to think this means that corporate management is getting very serious about the USA>..they would not be letting us spend the money to do all this otherwise. ga Andy> Ok, if we can get a show of '?', I'll start with other questions. JLSTOKES> Has Atari made any progress finding a source for drams or otherwise found a way to increase production and distribution of STs in the U.S. ga Neil> I don't know the answer to that. However, when the problem first became apparent, Sam ramiel predicted that its duration would be in the 6 month range. Judging by the planning in the US organization, I would have to speculate that there is a good likelihood of greatly improved product availability before too terribly long. D.F.Scott.(CS)> Neil, a report in Computer + Software News states that Atari is planning to set up a training program for Federated Group store clerks who will be selling computers specifically--PCs, Amigas, and STs. This has led some to respond that Atari is trying to become the next Tandy, and is working to lock out its specialty channel from receiving premiere shipments of new products. As Product Marketing Director, how do you intend to establish a comfortable balance between your specialty stores and your direct sales force in regions with Federated Group stores? GA Neil> It is an interesting issue. The management of Federated intends for those stores to become more competitive in the computer business. They feel that the way to become competitive is by enhancing their sales force and support organizations. I think that it healthy! If Federated proves capable of operating at the same levels of capability as current computer specialty dealers, I think that is very healthy for the Atari marketplace. We have a long way to go to become Tandy. And Federated stores are not a thing like Radio Shack stores. ga D.F.Scott.(CS)> If Federated becomes too competitive, and if Atari has no.. ..third-party distributors, where do the single Atari stores turn? GA Neil> Dealers in Federated territories have been buying from Atari on a direct basis all along, through sales reps employed by Atari. This policy will continue. Are you suggesting that we restrain Federated from becoming competitive? ga D.F.Scott.(CS)> I'm suggesting that tari has created ties to small stores which feel just as threatened by the name Federated as they are by -Egghead.- If Atari can sell its own brand direct, and for less, and these stores have no choice but to buy from their competitor, won't they be forced to lock you out? Neil> The point is, Federated is NOT trying to achieve market share in computers through predatory pricing policies. They are not as cutthroat in pricing currently as they were before the acquisition by Atari. We had been doing business with Federated (and another similar chain, Leachmere in New England) for years. There were many dealer complaints that Federated's prices were too low. Now that Atari owns them, the idea is to compete on the basis of support rather than price. I believe that this is healthy. I think you are making an error in semantics, DF -- we are NOT tied to small dealers. We want our current small dealers to grow with us into big dealers! And that's what the dealers have told us they want to do. D.F.Scott.(CS)> I was basically voicing the opinions of analysts. Neil> One last comment regarding Federated. What I hope for most is that, through owning and operating the Federated Group, our management becomes more sympathetic to the needs of the retailers in advertising, collateral materials, training, etc. The valuable experience we're gaining with this retailing venture can be applied to helping our dealer base. REXREADE> Will Federated offer Service? Neil> Are you applying for a job? I believe that Federated is looking to provide service, yes. REXREADE> not a chance.......just want to know because if such is the case then the little dealer is in trouble trying to grow and compete in both areas. For the complete confrence reprint, read issue #35 of ST-Report magazine. ______________________________________ BBS Systems Update ______________________________________ by Ron Kovacs If your BBS system carries ZMagazine, you are encouraged to let us know! We want to get you registered for future plans and access to the SysOp base on the Syndicate. ______________________________________ ZMagazine Locations ______________________________________ Zmag has areas on CompuServe and GEnie. We are also headquartered on the Syndicate BBS (201) 968-8148 and Stairway to Heaven BBS. (216) 784- 0574. Zmagazine is an online magazine part of Amercan Publishing Enterprises, Inc. Publishers of ST-Report Magazine. Stay tuned for 2 new magazines. ______________________________________ ZMAGAZINE (ISSUE #106) May 16, 1988 (c)1988 APEInc All Rights Reserved ______________________________________