                         THE ATARI STEE
                         --------------

An exclusive report by Leon O'Reilly

     Here's  some red hot news about the future of the Atari  ST! 
They  will be releasing a spanking new Amiga-thrashing ST in  the 
near  future,  and I will reveal its specifications.  But  first, 
read on.

     Which  is the king of the 16-Bits?  This has always  been  a 
tough  question  with  an  answer hotly  disputed  by  owners  of 
different machines. It is a lot harder to resolve than the battle 
of  the 8-Bits (Spectrum owners didn't tend to boast about  their 
machines!!). 
In the early days of the ST and Amiga,  the ST was way ahead 
in  terms of sales of computers and software production  -  there 
was  a lot more software out for the ST than Amiga.  Most  people 
went  for  the  ST simply because  it  was  cheaper.  Then  Atari 
upgraded  the  ST  to include a double sided disk  drive  and  an 
improved operating system.  The Amiga's sales were now level with 
the  ST.  The path was clear for either one of this company's  to 
sprint ahead and capture a greater share of the 16-Bit market.
     Atari made their move by announcing the imminent release  of 
the  STE.  The  specifications  which were leaked  to  the  press 
included:
8 Channel stereo sound
256 colours on screen
     Of  course  these features were never included  in  the  STE 
(though  the  TT  has 256 colours on screen but  only  5  channel 
sound). The STE did have the following advanced features:
4096 colour palette
2 channel stereo PCM sound
Hardware Scrolling
Blitter
Genlock Capabilities
Faster disk drive 
New DMA chip (That messes up hard drives!)
Enhanced operating system
Extra  Joystick/Lightgun ports (That no-one has found the use  of 
yet!)
     As  soon  the STE was released,  the ST's  market  began  to 
disappear  and the Amiga's sales rocketed.  This doesn't seem  to 
make  much sense - an old ST with separate half meg drive and  an 
operating system that had to be loaded from disk was perceived as 
better  than  the STE by the computer buying  public.  A  lot  of 
heavily biased articles in New Computer Express didn't help, they 
seemed to run a smear campaign against the STE with  rent-a-quote 
programmers complaining about the lack of such essential items as 
a barrel shifting blitter. The fault wasn't with the computer but 
with programmers who are too lazy to make decent sprite  routines 
and  would prefer to have custom chips to do the majority of  the 
work  for  them.  The programmers who appeared in  NCE  in  these 
articles just showed their ignorance and idleness.  
    Although  the  STE  has been out for over  a  year,  no  STE-
specific software has yet been released,  though there are a  few 
demos.  A  few games haven't been released on the ST because  the 
programmers have claimed the ST 'Can't handle the scrolling'  (It 
probably   could  if  they  wrote  some   decent   Sync-Scrolling 
routines). The point is that the STE could've easily done justice 
to  these  games and arguably featured better versions  than  the 
Amiga lame-machine could.
     Commodore  haven't  really  upgraded  the  Amiga  since  its 
initial release and yet it has sold steadily and is now a  market 
leader.  There were problems with the original ST (nothing that a 
good programmer couldn't get round!) and Atari have on the  whole 
rectified  these with the STE (though they've got no  praise  for 
this).
     If  they  hadn't rushed the release of the  first  ST's  and 
put  in the FM soundchip they were originally  going  to,  things 
would be very different.

     Over the last month things have been changing.  Amiga  sales 
are  down,  but STs are selling amazingly well - they sold  three 
months stock of Family Cirriculum packs in three weeks!  Now  you 
can buy 2Mb STEs for 329, I can see these sales really booming.
     Atari  still have a lot of catching up to do,  but with  the 
release of the STEE they should blow away the rest of the  16-Bit 
market.  These  are the features of this new computer  from  some 
very reliable sources:
1.44 Megabyte internal floppy drive
4 meg hard cards
16Mhz proccessor
256 colours on screen
All TT graphics resolutions displayed
16 Channel stereo sound
64-Bit Jaguar technology used
Extra Custom Chips
     
     The 1.44Mb drive will be useful,  it can read 720K and  360K 
floppies  as well as high density disks.  Imagine the demos  that 
could  be compressed onto one disk.  Very long sample demos  will 
also be possible.
     The  4  Meg hard cards have been included to make  the  STEE 
compatible with ST book and the STyle (ST pad).  This are also  a 
large data storage medium!
     The proccessor is a very nippy 16Mhz which really leaves the 
Amiga in the dust. And you thought 8Mhz was fast!
     The  STE  can display all TT graphics  resolutions  so  that 
means 256 colours on screen.  There maybe other enhanced graphics 
resolutions...maybe 4096 colours on screen or more!  The  palette 
will  contain  at least 4096 colours and will  most  likely  have 
more.
     There will be an excellent 16 channel sound and the  YM2149F 
will  be  kept  in to give compatibility  with  the  lesser  STs. 
(Besides  this old 3 Channel chip does more than  produce  sound, 
it  helps  control  some of the inner  workings  of  the  ST.) 16 
channel  sound  will  be  stunning  -  Amiga  owners  never  stop 
bragging  about their sound capabilities and they only have  four 
channel sound!
     The extra custom chips will control functions like  sprites, 
sound,   graphics  etc.  and  should  give  the  machine  greater 
flexibility.

     If this machine does retain these specifications, Atari have 
a  winner on their hands.  This machine doesn't only trample  the 
Amiga  into the ground,  it gives the Archie a good run  for  its 
money, having better sound capabilities and much more software. 
     The STEE will be released in the USA in spring 1992 and will 
cost about 450. This is future of the 16-bit home computer! Wow!

