🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is another posting for Mike Boiko of Digital Equipment Corp., who is still
unable to post directly.

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	Well ST fans there's not much I can say about this note,(it pretty much
speaks for itself) except to say that this came across our internal net the 
other day and I felt obligated to pass it on....
	
	I would be very interested in any comments anyone might have concerning
this note. Please post responses to net.micro.atari.
				
						    _Mike Boiko_

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The following text is comprised of a letter sent to this store from a
customer.  Obviously Mr. McClary had written Electronic Arts about their
product line for the 520ST, and got the following response. Mr. McClary
attached a note to the copy of this letter sent to me that said; "Hope you
will share this with your users group or upload it on BBS's and get people
to write EA."  Well, I found the letter quite appalling, and I am sure that
the majority of the Atari community will also.  So, in response to Mr.
McClary's request I am sending a copy of this letter to Antic, Analog and
the new Atari Corporation. I am also sending a copy of the letter I wrote
Electronic Arts in response to their criticism of the ST to the same
aforementioned companies in the hope that these letters will be printed for
all Atari owners to read, including those who are presently unable to access
Compuserve.

Electronic Arts letter reads as follows:


"September 12, 1985



Mr. J.L. McClary
3222 Clearwater Drive
Cleveland, TN  37311


Dear Mr. McClary:

Thank you for the compliments on our products and for asking about our
product plans for the Atari 520ST.

Electronic Arts is in favor of industry hardware standardization.  For this
reason, EA is supporting the Commodore Amiga because it is the best
designed, best supported, and most powerful new 16 bit computer, by a wide
margin. We would like to see it become a success, and eventually and
industry standard.

EA is also interested in supporting hardware systems that come from
companies that can properly support our development efforts, and which have
the financial resources to properly develop service and sales channels, and
the marketing resources to develop and maintain a large customer base.  Due
to the confusion in the marketplace, it is especially important for a
company to have a large advertising budget in order to educate consumers
about the benefits of home computing. In EA's opinion, only Apple, Commodore
and IBM are in this position in today's market, and as a result, we fully
support their machines (Apple II and Macintosh, Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga,
and IBM PC) and compatible machines like the Tandy 1000 and the Compaq
product line. We believe all these machines represent good value in
computing, and we are not swayed simply by the pricing of the Atari ST,
which we believe to be misleading.  For example, the Atari 520ST is touted
as a 512K system, when in fact more than half the memory is used for GEM, a
user-interface inferior to Macintosh's and Amiga's, both of which are stored
in user ROM and not deducted from the RAM available to the user. We are
familiar with the marketing practices, support, and reliability of machines
built by companies operated by the current Atari management, and we are not
anxious to repeat that experience.

Put simply, the Atari ST is a completely incompatible machine from a company
that lacks the resources or the interest to support it fully. Ironically,
the consumers most likely to buy the Atari ST are currently in Atari 800
user groups.  You may not realize that the current Atari management are the
same people who, while they were running Commodore helped BURY the old Atari
and many of it's software developers.  You also may not be aware of the fact
that the designer of the Amiga is Jay Miner, who used to work at Atari and
DESIGNED THE ATARI 800!

NEVERTHELESS, we are currently developing Marble Madness and Financial
Cookbook for the ST, in order to learn more about the machine and it's
market potential; and once we can see some sales history for those products,
which will be out in early 1986, we will consider expanding our efforts if
we are proven to be mistaken about everything that has been written above.

I appreciate your interest and hope that you will share my views with your
users group.


Regards,



Trip Hawkins
President
Electronic Arts