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From: K538915@CZHRZU1A.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Re: Repost due to SCORE failure (LONG)
Message-ID: <8706241904.AA03975@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Mon, 22-Jun-87 12:06:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8706241904.AA03975
Posted: Mon Jun 22 12:06:12 1987
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ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Jim Omura writes:
>In article <8706162240.AA07496@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> IHLS400@INDYCMS.BITNET.UUCP
...
>>don't think it will be a major concern for Atari, since I don't think
>>they will sell all that many of them without the blitter.  (Gossip

>     I'm glad that they are going ahead with sales without the Blitter.
>My opinion is exactly 180 degrees from most people.  To me the Blitter
>is the *least* important thing about the Mega ST's.  The other improvements
>are paramount and make the ST a "real computer".  The biggest problem
>was the lack of a real expansion buss.  We have software capable of

Even if the Blitter would have not been the most important thing about
the Mega ST's, you can't denie that it would have helped the ST with
something which is painfully slow (even if not so slow as on a 8086):
screen I/O, a lot of applications could have profited from the facilites
a Blitter would have offered.
 But what I think is far more important: a working Mega-ST production
with Blitter would have given us some measure of the technical competence
of Atari (not just in the design itself, but also in turning a design
into a REAL product). As the situation presents itself, it would be
foolhardy to expect TT's and EST's from a company that just manages to
hack a battery backed-up clock into its original design. More so the Blitter
farce even shows the amount of incompetence in the management of Atari,
any self respecting company would have given the project up a long time ago
instead of pouring more money into it.
...
>     The 40 folder limit could be cleaned up without a Blitter.  As I
>understand it, it will be.

As I understand, it will NOT be. The only thing Atari has admitted, is
that they have/are/will be working on a new version of GEMDOS for release
some time in the future, as far as we know this could just be another proof
for the amount of competence in HYPE that Atari has.
BTW a more supicous person than I am, could suggest that Atari has been
systematically avoiding the publishing of fixes:

        HD boot fix: been available Atari internally for a long time,
                     but probably will never be distributed. HDB 2.3
                     is probably better anyway!

        40 folder fix: FOLDRXXX was obviously procduced as a quick
                       'save our face' operation after GEMBOOT was
                       made avaiable, with no intent on ever really
                       distributing it (a nice touch was the way
                       Atari leaked it out that they had a fix via
                       Atari Germany, just to complain later it had been
                       pirated!).

>     Interesting.  I seem to be in complete disagreement with you,
>except that we hope and wish that Atari will be responsive to customers
>(which I feel they have been and are to the best of their ability and
>thus seem in disagreement there) and I think we agree that Atari should
>go ahead with the Mega without the Blitter for now.

Yes, Allan and Landon do a good job of answering techincal questions, I'm
sure THEY won't have trouble finding jobs, when Atari collapses.

                            Simon Poole
                            K538915@CZHRZU1A.BITNET