🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob Brodie visited our user group, ST ACE  (ST Atari Computer Enthusiasts)
of Santa Rosa, California last night (Thursday, Feb. 15).  He is a down-to-
Earth sort of fellow, and didn't seem likely to let anything "slip out"
unintentially, even if "greased up" (sic).  He showed a STACY, an STe, and
a Lynx.

The STACY looks and feels very nice.  They have been having problems with
the vendor who supplies the internal hard disk drives, which is hampering
production.  (Note:  I work for a large electronics company and this sort
of thing happens all of the time.  Projects slip, manufacturing is held up
for all sorts of reasons.  This is not unique to Atari!).  Bob clearly 
stated that initial advertising will be directed at the MIDI market (e.g.
musicians), so don't expect widespread, general advertising.  The music
people have responded very favorably to the product so far.  Eventually, Atari
hopes to capitalize on the Mac emulation market, with the help of the
very cabable Spectre GCR.  Initial production will be of the high-end
4 MByte RAM version, with internal 40 MByte hard-drive.  There will also
be a 2 MByte version of this beast as well.  Further along will be the
1 MByte version, with two floppy drives, aimed especially at the educational
market (Johnny's first computer for college, etc.) 

The STe looked and behaved much like a standard ST.  Bob demo'd a game
that supposedly showed off the improved sounds and graphics, but as a
mono [ read serious! :-) ] user, the improvement may have been lost on me.

The Lynx (the handheld color game machine) also looked nice, and judging
by the reaction of the kids present at the meeting who played with it, it
should be a successful product assuming the little beggars can talk Mom or
Dad out of $159!  The Lynx is supposedly availabe through the Sears mail-order
network right now.  Bob also showed the commercial that ran in the New York
area during the last holiday season - it was a very well-done commercial
(This is the "bathroom" commercial, for those who might have heard of it).

Bob impressed me as an honest, caring individual who is doing the best he
can. Perhaps with his help, Atari's notoriously poor relationships with user    groups, programmers, customers, dealers (have I left anyone out?) will improve.

Humbly submitted by:

Dave Ballo
HP - Signal Analysis Division
Rohnert Park, California