🚀 go-pugleaf

Norman R. Frech <nfrech@ALMSA-1.ARPA>, writes:

>  Richard K. Lloyd, ,backbone-!mcvax!ukc!mupsy!liv-cs!SQRKL writes:
>
>>
>> In article <1894@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>, neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) writes:
>>
>> [Lots of (well-justified) bad-mouthing about Carrier Command deleted]
>> >
>> > On the plus side:It has the fastest,smoothest, solid 3D graphics I have eve
>> > seen on any micro.
>>
>> Ahem ! I think you've not seen Zarch on the Archimedes ! It completely
>> outclasses Carrier Command in all departments.
>
>  I would like to see one of these mythical Archimedes machines.  I know
>  plenty of people who have PCs, Macs, STs, Amigas but I have yet to
>  meet someone who has one of beasts.

The Archimedes really does exist, in two forms the 300 series and the
440 (we're still waiting for the 410 - thats a 440 with 1MB and no
hard disk). The 300's have been available from Acorn dealers in the
UK since September '87.

>  ..................................  Are they restricted to England?

As far as I know, yes. A few machines might have slipped out of the
country by some back door but I don't believe that Acorn is shipping
overseas. They got badly stung when they last tried to enter the U.S.
market, so they're probably a bit wary of trying it again !

>  Are we going to have a 'my Archimedes can beat your st with half a
>  meg tied behind its back' wars?

Probably ! The Archimedes is the better machine, more colours on screen,
higher resolutions, sound is about Amiga quality and its very fast !
Acorn have a PC emulator (like PC Ditto) but it runs at about the speed
of a standard 4.77Mhz PC (I seem to remember the authors of the program
being reported as saying that it wasn't particulary well optimised !).

The big drawbacks are:

i) Price - twice the cost in the UK of the equivalent ST/Amiga.
Acorn have a bad habit of perceiving their products as "Rolls Royces"
and pricing them appropriately.

ii) Software - limited market penetration = limited support. About Five
word processors, a couple of spreadsheets, three games, all the languages
available are from Acorn (I think).

iii) The operating system. This has been designed so that people who
are familiar with the BBC Micro will feel at home. The windowing interface
helps.

This may improve:

 - Computer Concepts have written their own multi-tasking OS for their
   applications (they are developing a DTP package amongst others).
   This OS (Impulse) may be available separately.

 - A improved version of the OS is under development at Acorn which,
   among other things, supposedly adds multitasking to the system.

Overall, its a nice machine - but its 2-300 pounds too expensive !




JANET  keith@uk.ac.salford.sysd
ARPA:  keith@sysd.salford.ac.uk
PHONE: +44 61 737 7010
POST:  3-S, Computer Centre, Salford University, Salford, M5 4WT, U.K.