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From: mend...@aero.ARPA (Lee Mendoza)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Electronic Arts and the Atari ST
Message-ID: <498@aero.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 10-Oct-85 00:34:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: aero.498
Posted: Thu Oct 10 00:34:47 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 04:22:27 EDT
Reply-To: mend...@aero.UUCP (Lee Mendoza)
Organization: The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Lines: 99
Here is another posting for Mike Boiko of Digital Equipment Corp., who is still
unable to post directly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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_
******************************************************************************
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
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graffiti!peter
From: p...@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: Electronic Arts and the Atari ST, Cut&Paste.
Message-ID: <305@graffiti.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 12:24:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: graffiti.305
Posted: Tue Oct 15 12:24:48 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Oct-85 08:04:34 EDT
References: <498@aero.ARPA>
Organization: The Power Elite, Houston, TX
Lines: 7
It seems that EA, like many other people, have learned from past association
with Jack (Of *course* it's really 64K) Tramiel. I hope the new C= management
is sufficiently intelligent that they don't just follow in Jack's footsteps.
Does anyone know how to use Cut&Paste with normal ATARI-dos files on the 800?
-- Peter (of course the 800 is the better machine) da Silva.
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From: zari...@bnrmtv.UUCP (Kenneth Zarifes)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: Electronic Arts and the Atari ST
Message-ID: <193@bnrmtv.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Oct-85 19:09:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: bnrmtv.193
Posted: Tue Oct 15 19:09:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Oct-85 23:48:39 EDT
References: <498@aero.ARPA>
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 29
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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_
>
> ******************************************************************************
>
> 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.
Trip Hawkin's letter sounds reasonable and accurate to me. It seems like
a very rational stand for a company to take. I cannot see anything "appalling"
anywhere in the letter.
I am *very* interested in why this letter offends you. I have some guesses
but I could be wrong.
Kenneth Zarifes
amdhal!bnrmtv!zarifes
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ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!well!ptsfa!aum!freed
From: f...@aum.UUCP (Erik Freed)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: Electronic Arts and the Atari ST
Message-ID: <386@aum.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Oct-85 09:38:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: aum.386
Posted: Wed Oct 16 09:38:04 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 08:04:51 EDT
References: <498@aero.ARPA>
Organization: The Aurora Systems Bunch
Lines: 10
Regarding "Trip's" letter... It is obvious that he feels very threatened
by the ST as well he might. Unless the Amiga gets a fanatical following
it will probably not compete with the ST especially with the way the
ST has caught on in Europe.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Erik James Freed
Aurora Systems
San Francisco, CA
{dual,ptsfa}!aum!freed
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From: tur...@saber.UUCP (D'arc Angel)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: Electronic Arts and the Atari ST
Message-ID: <1812@saber.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Oct-85 10:51:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: saber.1812
Posted: Sun Oct 20 10:51:41 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Oct-85 03:43:42 EDT
References: <498@aero.ARPA> <386@aum.UUCP>
Organization: The Houses of the Holy
Lines: 21
> Regarding "Trip's" letter... It is obvious that he feels very threatened
> by the ST as well he might. Unless the Amiga gets a fanatical following
> it will probably not compete with the ST especially with the way the
> ST has caught on in Europe.
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
the story i heard was that Amiga was paying EA to develope S/W, hence the
bias on EA's part. Amiga's philosophy seems to be if you spend million on
advertising you can sell anything; Atari seems to believe if you save the
customer money you can sell anything. i don't know about you but i'll stick
with Atari.
--
god bless Lily St. Cyr
-Rocky Horror Picture Show
Name: James Turner
Mail: Imagen Corp. 2650 San Tomas Expressway, P.O. Box 58101
Santa Clara, CA 95052-9400
AT&T: (408) 986-9400
UUCP: ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!imagen!negami!turner