What's New in the ST World
BY STEPHEN MORTIMER, START CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
AND THE START STAFF
Calamus Outline-Super Text Effects
Calamus Outline, the newest member of the Calamus DTP family of products,
lets you manipulate text, letter and font attributes and achieve results
on a par with those produced by PostScnpt illustrating programs. Text can
be made to follow any type of path you desire; it can be circular on a
Bezier curve or around a box. Predefined functions let you superimpose
text onto objects such as cones, cylinders or globes. Additionally, the
text can be filled with gradient shading patterns or stretched and distorted
by actually manipulating the control points of the font. A calculator function
allows complex mathematical special effects to be created and stored for
later use. Calamus Outline also doubles as a drawing package with Bezier
curves, gradient fills and other complex objects. The resulting files can
be imported into Calamus DTP. No price has been set. For more information,
contact ISD Marketing at 2651 John Street, Unit 3, Markham, Ontario, L3R-2W5,
Canada, (416) 479-1880.
Calamus Outline is a
vector graphic editing
program that lets you
manipulate text, letter
and font attributes.
You can send text along
any path, including waves,
circular text and
more.
Compuserve Goes Continental
In its first step toward worldwide expansion, CompuServe, Inc. will expand its online service to Europe, beginning with England and Switzerland. In Switzerland, the service will be available in German, which points toward the German market as the next logical expansion site. European customers will access local systems (with local rates) that have gateways to the Atari Forums on CompuServe's U.S. mainframes. There will be small additional surcharges, according to Ron Luks, manager of CompuServe's Atari Forums, but the overall cost of accessing CompuServe's Atari areas (and other U.S. Forums in general) from Europe will be significantly less than it is now.
Luks said that reverse gateways would eventually be available also. Among other things, this will give U.S. customers access to public domain software on European online databases. For more information, contact CompuServe's Corporate Headquarters at 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd., P.O. Box 20212. Columbus, OH 43220, (614) 457-8600.
Software that the ST Deserves
Antonio Salerno, Atari's new director of software marketing, has established a definitive and formal beta-testing process in an effort to improve the quality of Atari software and help speed its development. Salerno joined Atari from Borland International, publishers of Turbo C and Turbo Pascal. Eight new products, including Desk Set II, Wordflair and Hyperplan, are set for release this year. The software generally tries to fill a niche that current software does not cover. "Atari wants to release software that the ST deserves," says Salerno, who hints that the best is yet to come: "There is an exciting range of products still to be announced."
Atari Unveils Portable Game System
At the Consumer Electronics Show on June 3 in Chicago, Atari President Sam Tramiel unveiled Atari's revolutionary Portable Color Entertainment System. The hand-held PCES features a 31/2-inch color LCD screen with a resolution of 160 by 102 pixels and can display 16 colors at once from a palette of 4,096. The screen is flanked by four control buttons on one side and a joypad on the other
In Monster Demolition for Atari's new PCES, you are
transformed Into a huge, dangerous and deeply annoyed
monster as you roam through the game and destroy
everything you can.
Atari's hand-held Portable
Color Entertainment System,
developed by Epyx, features
a 31/2-inch color LCD screen
with a resolution of
160 by 102 pixels and can display 16
colors at once from a
palette of 4,096.
A 16mHz 65C02 processor is at the heart of the system. The ComLink network lets you interconnect up to eight systems for head-to-head competition, and you can also plug in headphones for private listening. The image on the screen can be flipped vertically so left-handed users can use the joypad easily.
The PCES, developed by Epyx, was acquired through an arrangement wherein Atari became a part owner of Epyx. Epyx has already developed six games for the PCES, which is scheduled to be released in August or September. National press coverage praised the PCES and claimed it was better than the recently introduced Nintendo Game Boy. The PCES will retail for $149.95.
Dot Dot Dot
TOS 1.4 is gradually being distributed to more and more people. Registered developers now can purchase the six-chip ROM set, but no general release date has been announced by Atari. . . According to Sig Hartmann, vice president of Fortune 500 sales at Atari, a government technology show was a big hit for Atari. At the show, Atari displayed the Portfolio pocket PC to an enthusiastic crowd. The response to the product has been enormous. . . Migraph has decided to remove the unpopular anti-theft PSK device from Touch-Up! version 1.5. The PSK is a hardware key that connects to the parallel port on the ST. Users can order version 1.5 from Migraph and then send in their PSK for a $15 rebate Migraph is also preparing Easy-Draw 3.0 for release. This new version supports B-Spline curves and lets you trace bit images manually. It's a stepping stone to Migraph Illustrator, which is scheduled to be released in 1990. . . Toad Computers has an answer to the Megafile 44: The Toadfile 44, 44-megabyte removable hard disk. Based on the same technology as the Atari unit, a Syquest mechanism, the drive retails for $899, compared to $1,199 for the Megafile 44. It uses an ICD controller and software to control the drive. Cartridges sell for about $100.
WordPerfect has released another upgrade to their popular word processor. To order the upgrade, contact WordPerfect customer support.
Stephen Mortimer is a contributing editor for START. He lives in Binghamton, New York.
If you have a hot Atari news item, let us know at News, Notes & Quotes, START Magazine 544 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.