Conference hydra::amiga_v1

180.0. "Tidbits from the show" by SSDEVO::YESSE () Mon Nov 17 1986 16:13

For what it's worth, I thought some of you may be interested in some
news items from the Comdex computer show in Las Vegas:

	- Most major players were there: IBM, Atari, Compaq, etc.
	  Atari booth was swamped with 520/1040 prospects.
	  Interesting to note who WASN'T there: Commodore, DEC, and Apple!

	- Of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of machines I could see,
	  most of course were IBM PCs/clones. Many MACs, about a dozen
	  Amigas. The Amigas were used to demonstrate color printers,
	  software (mostly games) and disk drives. I saw 2 20 Meg drives
	  for the Amiga, each retailing around $1200. 

	- Got a chance to speak with a rep from AmigaWorld. He had attended
	  the developers conference, and altho he couldn't reveal details
	  he affirmed the Amiga appears to be on a steady growth path,
	  particularly with the next machine (Ranger) coming out next year.
	  AmigaWorld hopes to go monthly by next summer, if revenues
	  continue building.

	- Monitor freaks:  Magnavox showed a new color monitor that surpassed
	  anything I've ever seen. It's close to a grand, but the sharpness
	  rivals that of a VT220.

Lots of whizzy products, including a black box you can hook up to your computer
and give verbal commands (400 word vocabulary, speaker-dependent) for about
$1000. Also a compact trackball with buttons, to replace your mouse (great
for Marble Madness..). Still an IBM world there, though...wish I could have
seen the Amiga show back east!

Keith Y.