Scouting, Volume 74, Number 4, September 1986 Page: 20
90, E1-E24, [16] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Left, Commodore's Amiga has 256K RAM that
can be upgraded to 512K. It comes with a 3.5-
inch disk drive, mouse, and numeric keypad and
lists for $1,295. It's capable of producing 4,096
colors and is equipped with a sophisticated
sound chip that can reproduce stereo sound.
Above, Atari's 520ST has 512K RAM and lists
for $999 with a 3.5-inch disk drive, mouse,
and color monitor. The ST offers a built-in
hard-disk drive interface and music ports to con-
nect synthesizers and electronic instruments.
gust, he said.
Mindscape of Northbrook, 111., has
had hits such as Balance of Power,
which stimulates the political events
that could lead to a nuclear war. "The
Amiga is the more impressive ma-
chine, because of its use of color and
full stereo sound," said Roger Buoy,
president of Mindscape. "We also have
a better working relationship with
Commodore."
Buoy estimates 100,000 Atari STs
have been sold worldwide, but only
30,000 of those have been in the
United States. Close to 50,000 Amigas
have been sold in this country and an-
other 10,000 internationally, Buoy
says. Among the products Mindscape
has for the Amiga but not the ST is
The Halley Project, a "real-time" ex-
ploration of the solar system.
The company is also doing products
for both machines, including Bra-
taccas, an interactive cartoon-style
adventure game set in a city. Balance
of Power will be available on both
computers in September or October,
Buoy added.
Flight Simulator, one of the most
popular software programs of all time,
is also coming to both the Amiga and
Atari ST. Functionally, the two new
versions are the same, said Chris
Green, project engineer at Sublogic
Corporation in Champaign, 111. "The
graphics are faster on the Amiga, the
animation's smoother, and the
sound's better—we're using digitized
stereo sound on the Amiga."
Another high-flying software pub-
lisher, Microprose of Hunt Valley, Md.,
is leaning toward the Atari ST, al-
though it has put a lot of research and
development into Amiga software. Si-
lent Service, a simulation of subma-
rine warfare during World War II, went
on sale for the Atari ST August 1, said
Fred Schmidt, director of marketing
and communications at Microprose.
By Christmas, Microprose will have
two more ST programs: Gunship and
F15 Strike Eagle. All three games are
conversions from the Commodore 64
world with significantly enhanced
graphics for the Atari ST. Amiga ver-
sions of these products are several
months behind.
With highly creative companies like
Electronic Arts and Mindscape behind
it, the Amiga has the lead on computer
games—for now.
Word processing
We could go on all day playing these
neat new games, but that's just the tip
of the iceberg. These are full-featured
personal computers, able to perform
any task faster and better than any
other computer in their price range.
Attach a printer to them and you
have two of the most advanced word
processing systems ever sold, with
"windows" that let you look at parts of
different papers at the same time,
"mice" that let you move around your
text with ease, and gobs of user help
that keep you from running back to
the software manual every five
minutes.
Several publishers now have word
processors for both the Amiga and
Atari ST. On balance, the products are
not household names. Unless you are
fortunate enough to purchase an add-
on that lets either computer run IBM
PC software—add-ons not yet widely
available or affordable—you won't find
WordStar, Word Perfect, Multimate, or
other popular, professional word proc-
essors for either computer—yet. But
Word Perfect, which has received rave
reviews in publications such as Info-
World, is soon due out on the Amiga.
On the Atari front, a version of Micro-
soft Word is promised. Also, a best-
selling Commodore 64 program,
Paperclip from Batteries Included, is
due out this fall as Paperclip Elite, ac-
cording to company president Michael
Reichmann.
Atari and Commodore each bundle
a word processor with their machines:
with the ST comes 1st Word, and with
the Amiga comes Textcraft. Each fea-
tures Macintosh-like drop-down
menus, windows to display your data,
and "Icons" that explain many word
processing functions with pictures,
not words. Each is easy to learn and
use. Textcraft makes better use of
color and features a strong report
writer for those last-minute term
papers.
Other strong candidates in the word
processing area include Scribble, an
Amiga program from Micro Systems
Software, and Habawriter for the Atari
ST from Haba Systems. The advan-
tage of these word processors is that
they're not mere conversions from
other, less powerful personal com-
puters. Each is designed specially to
take advantage of the new computers'
power.
Nowadays, it seems anyone can put
together a fairly decent word proc-
essor on any computer, so in the fu-
ture, look for add-ons to word
processing programs for the Atari ST
or Amiga that go the extra mile. For
instance. Batteries Included just re-
leased Thunder!, a real-time spelling
checker for the Atari ST.
If you're using virtually any Atari
ST word processor, Thunder! will
check each word as you type it against
a 50,000-word dictionary, and in-
stantly tell you if you misspelled a
word ("real-time" means right now!).
It's the most advanced spelling
checker available on any personal
computer right now, and it runs only
on the Atari ST. Batteries Included is
enthusiastic about the Amiga, but res-
ervations about its higher price, as
well as the difficulties of programming
the computer, have kept the firm's
Amiga projects on the back burner.
So give the Atari ST the lead on in-
novations in word processsing this
year.
The Future
No one can be certain that both
computers will survive the ever-tur-
bulent personal computer marketing
wars. "Atari's over the hump," claims
Jan Lewis, a computer industry ana-
lyst. "Amiga's not gotten past the
hardest part—getting momentum in
the small business area."
Both companies, however, have
management hardened by previous
wars in this and other consumer in-
dustries. With any luck, the competi-
tion will continue for a long time—and
the buying public will benefit. H
£20
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 74, Number 4, September 1986, periodical, September 1986; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353661/m1/66/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.