WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:21.160 This is not a graphics shop or a music studio. 00:21.160 --> 00:23.240 It's the San Jose Police Department. 00:23.240 --> 00:26.840 The officers here wanted a computer system that could not only handle the routine business 00:26.840 --> 00:30.640 applications but one that could also help them recreate the scene of an accident or 00:30.640 --> 00:33.660 the scene of a crime to help them in their investigations. 00:33.660 --> 00:38.600 They ended up not with a PC compatible or a Macintosh but with an Atari ST. 00:38.600 --> 00:42.440 You know people have stereotypes and sometimes we have stereotypes about computers. 00:42.440 --> 00:45.880 Today we're going to try to help you break at least one stereotype as we look at the 00:45.880 --> 01:12.400 power and the versatility of the Atari ST on this edition of the Computer Chronicles. 01:12.400 --> 01:18.440 Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by McGraw-Hill, publishers of Byte Magazine 01:18.440 --> 01:21.760 and Bix, the Byte Information Exchange. 01:21.760 --> 01:27.640 In print and online, Byte and Bix serve computer professionals worldwide with detailed information 01:27.640 --> 01:36.520 on new hardware, software and technologies. 01:36.520 --> 01:37.840 Welcome to the Computer Chronicles. 01:37.840 --> 01:40.320 I'm Stuart Shafae and this is Gary Kildall. 01:40.320 --> 01:43.080 And Gary what we have here is no ordinary flight simulator. 01:43.080 --> 01:46.880 This particular input device is the actual remote radio controller you use to run these 01:46.880 --> 01:49.240 radio controlled model airplanes and helicopters. 01:49.240 --> 01:52.760 So before you go out and crash your $2,000 model, you can do the identical moves to run 01:52.760 --> 01:53.760 the same plane here on the screen. 01:53.760 --> 01:56.920 Well you know I crashed one of his little helicopters a couple years ago so I think 01:56.920 --> 01:57.920 I'm a good customer for this product. 01:57.920 --> 01:58.920 199 bucks. 01:58.920 --> 01:59.920 It's called Aero Chopper Gary. 01:59.920 --> 02:00.920 It's cheaper. 02:00.920 --> 02:03.160 The interesting thing is this takes a lot of horsepower to run this kind of simulation. 02:03.160 --> 02:05.640 It was written first for an Atari ST. 02:05.640 --> 02:08.200 The question I have for you though has to do with the Atari we saw at the very beginning 02:08.200 --> 02:10.480 of the program at the San Jose Police Department. 02:10.480 --> 02:14.520 That Atari was set up to read not only Atari software but it could read Mac disks, MS-DOS 02:14.520 --> 02:15.520 disks. 02:15.520 --> 02:19.000 Is it possible to be able to buy a nice low cost machine like the Atari and run any software? 02:19.000 --> 02:23.320 Well I think it's a good idea in principle of course but even though this is a 68K processor 02:23.320 --> 02:26.600 in here, it's not a Mac and so there's going to be some hardware considerations that some 02:26.600 --> 02:28.400 of the software is going to expect. 02:28.400 --> 02:31.600 And so we can't expect that all software is going to run. 02:31.600 --> 02:34.200 It also depends on the kind of simulation you're doing. 02:34.200 --> 02:37.920 Whether it's a coprocessor which means it's going to run at high speed or whether it's 02:37.920 --> 02:40.160 a software emulation where each instruction is interpreted. 02:40.160 --> 02:43.040 That can be four or five times slower than the real thing. 02:43.040 --> 02:44.480 The Atari ST has an advantage. 02:44.480 --> 02:49.080 The disks get themselves however, are IBM compatible in the sense that the data format 02:49.080 --> 02:50.080 is the same. 02:50.080 --> 02:51.080 Thanks to DRI's gem system. 02:51.080 --> 02:54.120 Gary, we're going to focus on the Atari ST today. 02:54.120 --> 02:58.080 We'll see some new applications for it, paint programs, high end desktop publishing CAD 02:58.080 --> 03:01.560 applications and we'll see how the ST can run Mac software. 03:01.560 --> 03:04.940 Now when you talk about the Atari ST, of course you have to talk about music. 03:04.940 --> 03:09.080 We begin by visiting a college where you can get a degree in music engineering thanks to 03:09.080 --> 03:16.280 the Atari ST. 03:16.280 --> 03:21.560 While the personal computer has become a favorite tool of the business world, its talents extend 03:21.560 --> 03:27.080 well beyond dreary spreadsheets and color coded pie charts. 03:27.080 --> 03:32.640 With a little additional hardware, it's also becoming a tool of choice for artists, musicians 03:32.640 --> 03:34.400 and composers. 03:34.400 --> 03:39.760 At Cogswell College, a technical school about 40 miles south of San Francisco, students 03:39.760 --> 03:46.000 are using the Atari ST to learn a new way to compose and perform music with the help 03:46.000 --> 03:52.960 of a hardware interface called MIDI or Musical Instrument Digital Interface. 03:52.960 --> 03:59.760 The most important features that MIDI brings is it allows you to record just the performance 03:59.760 --> 04:01.560 separate of sounds. 04:01.560 --> 04:04.840 So I can record a performance and then decide after the fact, would I want that to be a 04:04.840 --> 04:07.840 flute, would I want that to be a violin. 04:07.840 --> 04:11.060 Another thing that MIDI makes it possible to do is wholesale editing. 04:11.060 --> 04:15.440 You can just go in and take whole blocks of material and move it around and reposition 04:15.440 --> 04:18.400 it in different kinds of ways. 04:18.400 --> 04:24.000 The musical studio at Cogswell has stacks of familiar hardware such as electronic keyboards 04:24.000 --> 04:25.760 and synthesizers. 04:25.760 --> 04:30.520 But the musical output is composed through the software which assembles and modifies 04:30.520 --> 04:32.840 the different tracks. 04:32.840 --> 04:38.480 Cogswell uses a software package called Notator from Digidesign to create and edit the musical 04:38.480 --> 04:42.200 scores in real time. 04:42.200 --> 04:48.400 The program permits changes in key, tempo or instrument to be inserted and played back 04:48.400 --> 04:49.640 immediately. 04:49.640 --> 04:56.320 And the user can choose between a variety of real time data displays. 04:56.320 --> 05:03.640 Cogswell also uses MasterTracks Pro from Passport Designs, a sequencer that provides 64 multi-channel 05:03.640 --> 05:09.320 recording tracks and familiar looking tape recorder type controls. 05:09.320 --> 05:15.320 To a composer with a traditional education, the electronics might seem overwhelming. 05:15.320 --> 05:18.720 But the school's instructor doesn't see that as a problem. 05:18.720 --> 05:21.960 We aren't throwing musical theory out the window. 05:21.960 --> 05:23.080 We're using music theory. 05:23.080 --> 05:25.160 We're employing these things as tools. 05:25.160 --> 05:29.360 And business I think is a lot like the computers were about five years ago. 05:29.360 --> 05:31.880 This is a new program. 05:31.880 --> 05:35.360 And education's scrambling to keep up with technology. 05:35.360 --> 05:50.040 With us in the studio now is Vincent DeFilippo. 05:50.040 --> 05:53.960 He's an Atari specialist from the Winter Circle Computer Store in Berkeley, California. 05:53.960 --> 05:56.600 And sitting next to Vincent, Jim Kent, the author of Cyberpaint. 05:56.600 --> 05:57.600 Gary? 05:57.600 --> 06:01.520 Jim, I think everybody likes the philosophy of Commodore and Atari as far as pricing. 06:01.520 --> 06:03.840 You get a lot of computing bang for your buck. 06:03.840 --> 06:07.320 What else is it about the Atari that led you to choose that as a platform for your Cyberpaint 06:07.320 --> 06:08.320 program? 06:08.320 --> 06:10.760 There were two main things. 06:10.760 --> 06:17.240 The 68,000 processor so I didn't have to deal with strange memory segmentations. 06:17.240 --> 06:19.240 And its color. 06:19.240 --> 06:20.240 Okay. 06:20.240 --> 06:21.240 Yeah. 06:21.240 --> 06:22.240 So color's important. 06:22.240 --> 06:23.240 Okay. 06:23.240 --> 06:24.240 So what is Cyberpaint? 06:24.240 --> 06:25.240 What does Cyberpaint do? 06:25.240 --> 06:32.120 Cyberpaint is a program useful for animation, video sort of work. 06:32.120 --> 06:36.920 It's basically a paint program that lets you paint over lots and lots of frames. 06:36.920 --> 06:38.720 With some special effects on top of that. 06:38.720 --> 06:39.720 Okay. 06:39.720 --> 06:40.720 We're going to take a look at that. 06:40.720 --> 06:41.720 Show us what you can do with Cyberpaint. 06:41.720 --> 06:42.720 I should explain here real quickly. 06:42.720 --> 06:43.720 We have two Ataris here. 06:43.720 --> 06:44.720 We don't need all this equipment. 06:44.720 --> 06:45.720 We're on Cyberpaint. 06:45.720 --> 06:46.720 Right. 06:46.720 --> 06:48.720 It's two separate systems for what's going to come up later. 06:48.720 --> 06:49.720 Go ahead, Jim. 06:49.720 --> 06:50.720 Okay. 06:50.720 --> 06:52.880 First I'd just like to show you something someone's done with it. 06:52.880 --> 06:57.800 This is an animation some people did in France. 06:57.800 --> 06:58.800 That's pretty spectacular. 06:58.800 --> 07:02.080 Sort of a robot monster coming out from under the sea, huh? 07:02.080 --> 07:03.080 Yeah. 07:03.080 --> 07:04.080 He walks behind the branch there, too. 07:04.080 --> 07:05.080 Yeah. 07:05.080 --> 07:07.000 Here your titles come again. 07:07.000 --> 07:09.000 That's a real popular use of Cyberpaint, titling. 07:09.000 --> 07:12.560 So this might be like a movie opening or something like that. 07:12.560 --> 07:13.560 Yes. 07:13.560 --> 07:14.560 Yeah. 07:14.560 --> 07:15.560 Great. 07:15.560 --> 07:17.920 So here you've seen it. 07:17.920 --> 07:19.840 These are your basic Cyberpaint controls. 07:19.840 --> 07:21.120 It's a little bit like a VCR. 07:21.120 --> 07:25.920 You can go pop to the first frame, pop to the last. 07:25.920 --> 07:29.680 You can go backwards fast, forwards fast. 07:29.680 --> 07:34.680 Or what's really fun is you can just sort of wiggle this guy and control it directly. 07:34.680 --> 07:38.240 That shows you the frame number there at the bottom. 07:38.240 --> 07:39.240 Yes, it does. 07:39.240 --> 07:44.000 It's our famous number on the knob slider. 07:44.000 --> 07:47.480 So anyway, this is basically a paint system. 07:47.480 --> 07:49.600 Let me do a little bit of painting with it. 07:49.600 --> 07:51.240 I've got a pretty big brush. 07:51.240 --> 07:56.640 Make sure I'm in draw. 07:56.640 --> 07:57.640 Yes. 07:57.640 --> 07:59.800 And let's see. 07:59.800 --> 08:01.280 Let's add some waves to the water. 08:01.280 --> 08:02.280 Really silly. 08:02.280 --> 08:03.280 That's all right. 08:03.280 --> 08:06.080 So you're doing some real-time work here. 08:06.080 --> 08:07.080 Yeah. 08:07.080 --> 08:12.280 And you're going to give us a little oil spill there, isn't it? 08:12.280 --> 08:13.280 Hopefully not. 08:13.280 --> 08:14.280 Okay. 08:14.280 --> 08:17.360 So the red showed you the last frame then? 08:17.360 --> 08:18.360 Yes. 08:18.360 --> 08:20.320 And you can kind of use that as a basis for your... 08:20.320 --> 08:21.600 Okay, so that's your reference point. 08:21.600 --> 08:23.600 You're laying on frame after frame. 08:23.600 --> 08:24.600 Uh-huh. 08:24.600 --> 08:29.400 And of course it would take a while to do 151 frames. 08:29.400 --> 08:30.400 Right. 08:30.400 --> 08:31.400 But anyways. 08:31.400 --> 08:32.400 Let's pollute. 08:32.400 --> 08:40.200 Now this could have also been a sequence that you brought in that you prepared using Cyberpaint 08:40.200 --> 08:41.200 at another time also. 08:41.200 --> 08:44.720 Yeah, if you'd like to see that. 08:44.720 --> 08:46.240 That's one of the main uses of this actually. 08:46.240 --> 08:48.320 And I've got a really amusing animation I wanted to show you. 08:48.320 --> 08:49.320 Just go here. 08:49.320 --> 08:50.320 Go load overlay. 08:50.320 --> 09:01.320 It brings up the standard Atari file requester. 09:01.320 --> 09:05.920 And this is Cyber B done by Maurice Molinot. 09:05.920 --> 09:08.080 This was done in a 3D system. 09:08.080 --> 09:11.200 You can see... 09:11.200 --> 09:14.640 So you're merging two animations, isn't it? 09:14.640 --> 09:15.640 Yes. 09:15.640 --> 09:25.080 So you have a little bee that's flapping its wings, rolling around its eyeballs, and going 09:25.080 --> 09:26.960 on top of the other one. 09:26.960 --> 09:30.480 So Jim, this is like traditional animation techniques where you paint one frame after 09:30.480 --> 09:33.080 the next in sequence, is that correct? 09:33.080 --> 09:35.160 You can do that, but you're not restricted to that. 09:35.160 --> 09:39.760 There's a lot of stuff built in to make it much easier for you. 09:39.760 --> 09:41.840 One is just this compositing thing. 09:41.840 --> 09:46.880 Let me show you something else. 09:46.880 --> 09:57.880 I'm going to cut out a little clip and rotate this. 09:57.880 --> 10:00.880 That's for sure. 10:00.880 --> 10:04.880 That could be a set of frames that you'd store in there. 10:04.880 --> 10:06.760 Yeah, certainly. 10:06.760 --> 10:13.000 So say make it go over 180. 10:13.000 --> 10:15.720 It takes it a little bit while to compute it right now. 10:15.720 --> 10:19.560 Jim, going back to Gary's question, what are the benefits of doing something like CyberPaint 10:19.560 --> 10:20.760 on the Atari ST? 10:20.760 --> 10:25.320 We think of the Amiga in a similar vein, or even compared to the Macintosh, for example. 10:25.320 --> 10:31.440 Well, the main advantage over a Mac is it's in color and it's cheap. 10:31.440 --> 10:38.120 The major benefit over an Amiga is that it tends to be a lot more reliable. 10:38.120 --> 10:44.000 I've lost so many floppy disks running on an Amiga, I've sort of gotten depressed about 10:44.000 --> 10:45.000 it. 10:45.000 --> 10:48.320 Well, Vincent, there's a little cartridge right here that says Spectre 128 stuck to 10:48.320 --> 10:50.120 the side of this 1040. 10:50.120 --> 10:52.560 And also, it looks like a Mac screen on that Atari. 10:52.560 --> 10:54.200 Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on here? 10:54.200 --> 10:55.200 Sure. 10:55.200 --> 10:56.200 This is a Spectre 128. 10:56.200 --> 10:58.680 This is our Macintosh emulation for the Atari. 10:58.680 --> 11:02.200 I'm in a popular application called HyperCard right now. 11:02.200 --> 11:04.960 HyperCard is kind of like a launcher, among other things. 11:04.960 --> 11:07.480 It's kind of a language, multiple use. 11:07.480 --> 11:13.480 So I can just simply click on an item and voila, I'm in that application. 11:13.480 --> 11:16.160 Like this one happens to be a periodical table. 11:16.160 --> 11:17.160 So I can look up whatever. 11:17.160 --> 11:18.160 We're familiar with HyperCard. 11:18.160 --> 11:21.360 Why don't you tell us about how you're running HyperCard inside the Atari. 11:21.360 --> 11:23.120 What's the Spectre 128 doing here? 11:23.120 --> 11:28.720 Okay, the Spectre 128 offers you to hold the Macintosh ROMs, which is the basic Macintosh 11:28.720 --> 11:30.040 operating system. 11:30.040 --> 11:35.680 And since the Atari and Macintosh are basically the same style processor and whatnot, it was 11:35.680 --> 11:41.160 not easily, but easily to do and to make a conversion for it. 11:41.160 --> 11:44.720 And since the Atari had the cartridge port, that's what they used to bring the Macintosh 11:44.720 --> 11:46.640 ROMs to the Atari operating system. 11:46.640 --> 11:48.800 Are there any restrictions on the use? 11:48.800 --> 11:50.480 Some programs don't run? 11:50.480 --> 11:51.480 Yes. 11:51.480 --> 11:55.240 The programs that tend to run are what are called well-behaved programs. 11:55.240 --> 11:58.320 The ones that go through the toolbox. 11:58.320 --> 12:02.440 Ones that will not run are usually like games or something like that where the authors try 12:02.440 --> 12:07.320 to go to the hardware to try to get faster screens or better sound, something like that. 12:07.320 --> 12:08.920 Those kind of programs will not run. 12:08.920 --> 12:13.080 When you talk about emulation too, how's the performance of something like HyperCard running 12:13.080 --> 12:15.400 on the Atari compared to running it on the Mac in the first place? 12:15.400 --> 12:17.080 How about 20% faster? 12:17.080 --> 12:18.080 Really? 12:18.080 --> 12:19.080 Yes. 12:19.080 --> 12:20.080 Why? 12:20.080 --> 12:22.480 Because the Atari is a faster processor than the Mac Plus. 12:22.480 --> 12:25.360 Well, the price is a lot better too. 12:25.360 --> 12:26.360 You bet. 12:26.360 --> 12:29.000 Now, are there any problems with copyrights and so forth? 12:29.000 --> 12:32.600 We know all over that Apple is very careful about releasing these things. 12:32.600 --> 12:34.280 Do you have any problems with that? 12:34.280 --> 12:37.360 No, because we actually use an actual Mac product. 12:37.360 --> 12:39.480 We're not cloning them or copying them or anything like this. 12:39.480 --> 12:43.320 There are actual Mac ROMs in the expected cartridge. 12:43.320 --> 12:46.360 Is there a product out there that can do the same thing with the MS-DOS software on the 12:46.360 --> 12:47.360 Atari? 12:47.360 --> 12:48.360 Yes, there is. 12:48.360 --> 12:49.360 There's a program called PC Ditto. 12:49.360 --> 12:53.560 It's coming out with a hardware version to actually bring it running up at IBM speeds. 12:53.560 --> 12:56.520 In that case, it is a software emulation currently. 12:56.520 --> 12:58.200 Currently, it's a software emulation. 12:58.200 --> 13:00.360 And how's the performance of that? 13:00.360 --> 13:06.520 The performance on PC Ditto currently right now is like running a 1 megahertz IBM. 13:06.520 --> 13:08.000 You can sleep between some things. 13:08.000 --> 13:11.000 Four times slower than the earliest PCs. 13:11.000 --> 13:13.240 Well, gentlemen, thank you very much. 13:13.240 --> 13:16.680 There's a very interesting research project going on at the Steinhardt Aquarium in San 13:16.680 --> 13:20.360 Francisco trying to get dolphins and human beings to communicate. 13:20.360 --> 13:24.520 And the computer system they're using to support that experiment is an Atari ST. 13:24.520 --> 13:28.480 Wendy Woods has the report. 13:28.480 --> 13:34.960 Two dolphins named Thetis and Amphi and three seals, Reno, Geraldine and Missy, have for 13:34.960 --> 13:40.620 the last three years been able to communicate with researchers with the help of a computer. 13:40.620 --> 13:45.520 At the Steinhardt Aquarium in San Francisco, researchers have provided them with a series 13:45.520 --> 13:51.160 of underwater pipes, each of which, when pressed, sounds a different tone. 13:51.160 --> 13:54.240 Each tone represents a different object. 13:54.240 --> 14:00.600 Fish is the most popular, but they can also request a ball, a ring, hands-on petting or 14:00.600 --> 14:02.560 a spray of water. 14:02.560 --> 14:08.480 An Atari ST computer perched in a hut built above the aquarium records every key the animals 14:08.480 --> 14:12.080 press and the exact time the request is made. 14:12.080 --> 14:17.680 The researchers call this environmental enhancement or a way of improving life for those stuck 14:17.680 --> 14:19.720 in the proverbial pool. 14:19.720 --> 14:25.520 But more than just entertain the animals, the Atari ST is gathering important data. 14:25.520 --> 14:30.000 I think we are seeing interesting patterns. 14:30.000 --> 14:35.580 The fact that the seal is the most consistent at the apparatus I think was something that 14:35.580 --> 14:38.260 maybe we didn't expect originally. 14:38.260 --> 14:42.080 Other patterns will emerge as the researchers analyze the data. 14:42.080 --> 14:46.800 Eric Carlson, a University of San Francisco graduate student, wrote the program which 14:46.800 --> 14:51.340 controls the pipes using GFA Basic from Mictron. 14:51.340 --> 14:55.320 I think it's an ideal computer for this. 14:55.320 --> 14:59.840 The access to the ports is very good. 14:59.840 --> 15:07.040 And additionally, the language that I chose to use here was basic. 15:07.040 --> 15:11.880 The sound generating capabilities of the Atari were very helpful. 15:11.880 --> 15:16.960 And also, it's nice to have a graphical interface. 15:16.960 --> 15:22.920 The graphical interface allows the researcher to immediately see which key an animal pressed, 15:22.920 --> 15:26.680 allowing them to concentrate more on their observations. 15:26.680 --> 15:32.160 In addition to the ST, researchers record the animals' reactions using a barcode reader 15:32.160 --> 15:38.360 interfaced to a Tandy portable, and record their own observations on audio tape. 15:38.360 --> 15:42.920 The next step of the project will be to allow the creatures to play music. 15:42.920 --> 15:47.820 The ST will be interfaced to three audio tape decks. 15:47.820 --> 16:05.160 At the Steinhardt Aquarium in San Francisco for the Computer Chronicles, I'm Wendy Woods. 16:05.160 --> 16:07.360 With us in the studio now is Nathan Pettation. 16:07.360 --> 16:09.920 He's president of ISD Marketing in Toronto. 16:09.920 --> 16:12.960 And sitting next to Nathan, Andrew Rees, editor of Start Magazine. 16:12.960 --> 16:16.720 Stuart, it seems like whenever anybody says Atari, they think of the game machine. 16:16.720 --> 16:18.400 We've got a stack of machines. 16:18.400 --> 16:23.080 Over here we've got a stack of machines that certainly isn't the standard Atari setup. 16:23.080 --> 16:26.760 Andrew, could you tell us a little bit about what this hardware configuration is? 16:26.760 --> 16:28.800 We've got a laser printer and so forth. 16:28.800 --> 16:34.040 This is all Atari hardware except for the monitor, the Viking monitor. 16:34.040 --> 16:40.320 What we have is a Mega 4 ST4, 4 megabytes of memory, 68,000 processor. 16:40.320 --> 16:43.860 Under it is a 30 meg hard drive, Megafile 30. 16:43.860 --> 16:49.320 This is the SLM 804 printer from Atari and in between is the interface board. 16:49.320 --> 16:52.920 Now what would the hardware configuration cost for something like this? 16:52.920 --> 16:54.880 Excluding the monitor, it's $39.95. 16:54.880 --> 16:57.800 Which would be less than you might pay for just a laser printer. 16:57.800 --> 16:58.800 That's right. 16:58.800 --> 17:01.360 Now Andrew, tell us a little bit about Dynacad, your product. 17:01.360 --> 17:06.080 Dynacad is a product of ISD and that's again Nathan's company. 17:06.080 --> 17:13.080 It's a professional solution on the Atari and it is as good as any CAD program I've 17:13.080 --> 17:14.080 ever seen. 17:14.080 --> 17:16.200 Well, let's take a look at it. 17:16.200 --> 17:19.160 You have the choices of the gem drop down menus. 17:19.160 --> 17:24.840 There are keyboard equivalents plus there's a very nice set of nested icon menus. 17:24.840 --> 17:27.440 Right now we have a frame up with a grid. 17:27.440 --> 17:28.720 You can see the dot pattern. 17:28.720 --> 17:31.840 That's the grid set at quarter inch intervals. 17:31.840 --> 17:37.600 Let's just first of all zoom in on a portion of it by zoom window. 17:37.600 --> 17:45.200 Let's just grab a corner of the screen and I can see the dot pattern is larger. 17:45.200 --> 17:57.200 Now I'm on the insert menu and we'll just put in a box somewhere around there. 17:57.200 --> 18:06.440 Now, one of the nice features of Dynacad is that it has built in Bezier and B-splines. 18:06.440 --> 18:12.000 So what we can do now is add tabs to this box as if we were going to be doing a mounting 18:12.000 --> 18:13.960 plate. 18:13.960 --> 18:17.600 First of all, it has entity snap which means you can choose an entity. 18:17.600 --> 18:20.800 At this point we're choosing to place a point at the end. 18:20.800 --> 18:28.760 Now we'll go to the location and we can put, you can see the rubber band line. 18:28.760 --> 18:38.920 And go back, excuse me, see where I am. 18:38.920 --> 18:42.080 And go to entity snap. 18:42.080 --> 18:44.600 Now right click. 18:44.600 --> 18:45.600 Yeah. 18:45.600 --> 18:50.440 How would Dynacad compare say to AutoCAD most people are familiar with as a kind of standard 18:50.440 --> 18:51.440 CAD package? 18:51.440 --> 18:56.800 It is faster and it has a much better interface. 18:56.800 --> 19:00.920 It's the equivalent of AutoCAD version 10. 19:00.920 --> 19:02.720 It has the 3D. 19:02.720 --> 19:04.720 And price wise how does it compare? 19:04.720 --> 19:05.720 This package is $695. 19:05.720 --> 19:12.680 Do you have any opposition to the sale because of Atari, brand name Atari? 19:12.680 --> 19:15.600 People look at the equipment and say well it's doing the job. 19:15.600 --> 19:20.600 There's always that but the price comparison makes this much the better. 19:20.600 --> 19:22.960 How about reliability? 19:22.960 --> 19:29.240 I've owned an Atari 520 myself that I've improved to 2.5 meg and I've had it for two years and 19:29.240 --> 19:32.640 I've never had any downtime except when I burned out my sound chip. 19:32.640 --> 19:34.920 And I did that myself. 19:34.920 --> 19:37.160 Can I ask you to kind of get out of Dynacad right now? 19:37.160 --> 19:41.840 We want to take a look at Calamus which is the other Atari program which Nathan's company 19:41.840 --> 19:42.840 has. 19:42.840 --> 19:45.800 And while we do that, Nathan tell us a bit about Calamus which is desktop publishing, 19:45.800 --> 19:46.800 right? 19:46.800 --> 19:47.800 Yes. 19:47.800 --> 19:51.920 Calamus was our entry into professional desktop publishing based on the Atari platform. 19:51.920 --> 19:55.560 You can sort of grab the mouse there and put it on your right hand side. 19:55.560 --> 19:58.560 I'm just going to load it up now. 19:58.560 --> 19:59.560 Go ahead. 19:59.560 --> 20:00.560 Okay. 20:00.560 --> 20:05.120 We've, it was, this was intended as a professional level entry. 20:05.120 --> 20:12.040 It has something over 350 separate features and it works quite well. 20:12.040 --> 20:16.880 Different icons, again nested icons, in the top right hand corner is a help area that 20:16.880 --> 20:20.680 indicates exactly what I'm pointing at, rotated text, group frames, etc. 20:20.680 --> 20:25.560 If I go in and I open a frame, one of the better features of Calamus is it has its own 20:25.560 --> 20:27.160 built in text editor. 20:27.160 --> 20:32.880 I can type in anything that I want fairly quickly and easily and you can see it in the 20:32.880 --> 20:34.080 editor as you see. 20:34.080 --> 20:36.160 I can even see my mistakes if I make any. 20:36.160 --> 20:43.840 If I double click on the style, I can very easily change the point size and send it back 20:43.840 --> 20:48.080 in there to something that we can see. 20:48.080 --> 20:50.200 Okay. 20:50.200 --> 20:55.200 Loading in, it's fairly simple, highlight, change it, center the text, anything like 20:55.200 --> 20:56.200 that. 20:56.200 --> 21:02.080 You can create, I haven't loaded in other fonts but it's very simple to go in and load 21:02.080 --> 21:03.080 a font. 21:03.080 --> 21:05.200 It takes literally seconds. 21:05.200 --> 21:06.360 Okay. 21:06.360 --> 21:11.760 I can go and say highlight COM, go into our font preview and you can see it gives you 21:11.760 --> 21:17.760 a good representation of the font itself and change the point size to let's say 70 for 21:17.760 --> 21:19.200 this, not 7, 10. 21:19.200 --> 21:23.840 It goes up to 999 and as simple as that I've changed it and you can see the representation 21:23.840 --> 21:25.080 on the screen. 21:25.080 --> 21:29.240 If I go in this quickly and easily, I can create a macro for that particular style. 21:29.240 --> 21:32.640 Let's just call it A and we'll just save that style. 21:32.640 --> 21:33.640 You got that macro. 21:33.640 --> 21:38.560 If I put the cursor here and hit control A, I change the style of the following document. 21:38.560 --> 21:45.360 I created beforehand a little more sophisticated layout. 21:45.360 --> 21:52.600 It has three columns, it has headlines, vector graphic image, et cetera, something that for 21:52.600 --> 21:55.880 a more professional application. 21:55.880 --> 22:01.200 And I want to bring it in so that I can show you exactly what it's capable of and how fast 22:01.200 --> 22:03.480 it prints on the Atari laser printer. 22:03.480 --> 22:05.640 It's just going to bring up the print document. 22:05.640 --> 22:10.920 I think there's 12 frames in there and we'll just send it over to the printer. 22:10.920 --> 22:14.240 It's going to take dramatically less time than it would with PostScript printers that 22:14.240 --> 22:15.240 we're used to. 22:15.240 --> 22:20.720 So if there's a graphic in the middle of this, can you handle both vector graphics and image? 22:20.720 --> 22:21.720 That's correct. 22:21.720 --> 22:31.920 We handle pretty much every major picture format and vector graphic, Calamus' own and 22:31.920 --> 22:39.200 vector graphic files, gem meta files, et cetera. 22:39.200 --> 22:40.720 In terms of fonts, you're talking about fonts. 22:40.720 --> 22:42.560 How many different kinds of fonts do you have? 22:42.560 --> 22:44.640 We have our own fonts that we ship the package with. 22:44.640 --> 22:46.440 We have a couple of families available. 22:46.440 --> 22:49.520 We also have a font editor that has six more families with it. 22:49.520 --> 22:53.200 These are all outline vector fonts, same technology as these. 22:53.200 --> 22:57.160 And as well, we signed a license agreement with CompuGraphics Corporation and we originally 22:57.160 --> 23:00.040 have converted 31 of their font families as well. 23:00.040 --> 23:01.760 And your hard copy is already here, by the way. 23:01.760 --> 23:02.760 And that's what we're using. 23:02.760 --> 23:03.760 These are CompuGraphics fonts. 23:03.760 --> 23:09.280 And if I just hold that up to the screen, get the OK out of the way, you can see it's 23:09.280 --> 23:10.280 what you see is what you get. 23:10.280 --> 23:14.000 What I was going to ask you about the speed factor, now tell me, compare this to say using 23:14.000 --> 23:16.360 Postgres, using PageMaker, and so on. 23:16.360 --> 23:20.920 It's dramatically, because of the DMA output on the Atari laser printer, I believe it outputs 23:20.920 --> 23:24.320 at 9,600,000 bits per second through the DMA port. 23:24.320 --> 23:28.120 So there's really no comparison to the parallel or serial port that the printers have been 23:28.120 --> 23:29.120 using before. 23:29.120 --> 23:30.800 We have just about a minute left. 23:30.800 --> 23:34.560 Andy, this whole thing we've been seeing during this whole program is the power of the Atari 23:34.560 --> 23:39.400 package here and a lot of the software that's so competitive and yet so much less expensive. 23:39.400 --> 23:40.400 Is this going to turn around? 23:40.400 --> 23:44.080 Are people in the United States going to see the Atari the way they seem to see it in Europe? 23:44.080 --> 23:45.080 I think so. 23:45.080 --> 23:49.240 Part of the problem has been that Atari was short of DRAMs and directed what output they 23:49.240 --> 23:50.840 had to Europe. 23:50.840 --> 23:54.440 Also 1989 is Atari's year, according to them. 23:54.440 --> 23:57.600 And they are going to make a major push into this market. 23:57.600 --> 24:03.000 And there's already been mass advertising and pricing bargains. 24:03.000 --> 24:04.640 On price, what's the price of Calamus? 24:04.640 --> 24:06.920 Calamus retails for $299. 24:06.920 --> 24:11.960 So again, on the Atari platform as a professional solution, there's nothing that comes close 24:11.960 --> 24:12.960 in the market today. 24:12.960 --> 24:14.520 Gentlemen, thank you very much. 24:14.520 --> 24:16.560 That's our updated look at the Atari ST. 24:16.560 --> 24:31.520 We'll be back in just a minute with this week's computer news. 24:31.520 --> 24:35.800 In the random access file this week, reports that Apple will release a new Macintosh next 24:35.800 --> 24:38.120 month dubbed the 2C-I. 24:38.120 --> 24:44.240 It'll be an improvement on the 2C-X using the same 68030 CPU, but running at 25 megahertz 24:44.240 --> 24:45.720 rather than 16. 24:45.720 --> 24:50.640 The new 2C-I also will reportedly have video capabilities on the main board. 24:50.640 --> 24:54.100 The retail price expected to be around $8,000. 24:54.100 --> 24:58.760 This is the week of the Macworld Expo in Boston, and word there is that the Mac laptop will 24:58.760 --> 25:00.640 be introduced next month. 25:00.640 --> 25:04.720 Among the new Mac products announced at the Macworld Expo was an accelerator board for 25:04.720 --> 25:08.960 the Mac 2 and Mac 2X that will triple its speed to 50 megahertz. 25:08.960 --> 25:13.040 Also Keytronics has introduced its first professional series keyboard for the Mac. 25:13.040 --> 25:16.920 The Mac Pro keyboard comes bundled with Macro software. 25:16.920 --> 25:22.880 A British software firm says it has discovered a new MS-DOS virus called Datacrime. 25:22.880 --> 25:28.300 It warns that the virus is triggered to damage hard disks on October 12th by attaching itself 25:28.300 --> 25:29.640 to com files. 25:29.640 --> 25:33.920 The virus was apparently released in March of this year, and may be sitting around silently 25:33.920 --> 25:36.760 waiting to attack in October. 25:36.760 --> 25:39.400 First Lotus started shipping 123 release 3. 25:39.400 --> 25:45.280 Now it has followed up with release 2.2 for users having only 512K of RAM or less. 25:45.280 --> 25:48.520 The new version of 123 comes with the Always add-in. 25:48.520 --> 25:52.280 It features file linking and better support for networks and add-ins. 25:52.280 --> 25:55.040 Lotus users can upgrade for $150. 25:55.040 --> 25:59.480 If you bought 123 within the past year, you're entitled to a free upgrade. 25:59.480 --> 26:03.560 IBM has announced the first product using its new 4 megabit memory chip. 26:03.560 --> 26:08.840 The chip will be on a new memory expansion card for the PS2 models 70 and 80. 26:08.840 --> 26:13.440 K Pro has come out with a new low-cost 286 computer called the KC2. 26:13.440 --> 26:20.320 It will retail for $1,195, including 640K, monochrome monitor, 8 slots, and 12 megahertz 26:20.320 --> 26:23.880 speed with zero wait state design. 26:23.880 --> 26:28.000 The federal courts have said that AT&T is now free to enter the electronic publishing 26:28.000 --> 26:32.760 business, lifting the ban on Ma Bell that was imposed in 1982. 26:32.760 --> 26:37.480 No word yet from AT&T about their first move, though electronic yellow pages is a likely 26:37.480 --> 26:38.480 first step. 26:38.480 --> 26:43.000 Meanwhile, Prodigy has moved into Houston as it continues to expand its user base. 26:43.000 --> 26:49.720 The Prodigy goal is to access 40% of the nation's PC users by mid-1990. 26:49.720 --> 26:53.160 More details came out this week about the new NEC Color laptop. 26:53.160 --> 26:57.560 It's a 286 machine with a 40 megabyte hard drive and two floppy drives. 26:57.560 --> 26:59.160 It's a hefty 19 pounds. 26:59.160 --> 27:03.880 It'll sell for about $5,000, but at the moment is being released only in Japan. 27:03.880 --> 27:08.760 Finally, if you like to watch your diet, there's a new program out called Well Aware. 27:08.760 --> 27:13.840 It was designed by a doctor and it features a database of over 3,000 foods and their ingredients 27:13.840 --> 27:15.120 and additives. 27:15.120 --> 27:20.000 It's designed primarily to help people suffering from food-related allergies to identify the 27:20.000 --> 27:22.600 particular foods that are causing the problem. 27:22.600 --> 27:26.120 Well Aware runs on a PC and sells for $99. 27:26.120 --> 27:27.120 That's it for this week's Chronicles. 27:27.120 --> 27:29.240 We'll see you next time. 27:29.240 --> 27:35.360 The Computer Chronicles is made possible in part by McGraw-Hill, publishers of Byte magazine 27:35.360 --> 27:38.680 and Bix, the Byte Information Exchange. 27:38.680 --> 27:44.520 In print and online, Byte and Bix serve computer professionals worldwide with detailed information 27:44.520 --> 27:48.840 on new hardware, software, and technologies. 27:48.840 --> 27:55.560 For a transcript of this week's Computer Chronicles, send $4 to PTV Publications, Post Office Box 27:55.560 --> 28:00.280 701, Kent, Ohio, 44240. 28:00.280 --> 28:27.600 Please indicate program date.