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Note 249.0 CES Show No replies
AUTHOR::MACDONALD 52 lines 10-JAN-1987 00:39
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Billed as the largest CES ever, the Consumer Electronics Show opened
today in Las Vegas surrounded by brilliant clear blue skies and
snow-capped mountains. Just yesterday, it was *snowing* in some
portions of Las Vegas, and once the clouds cleared out last night,
everything was nice and icy! In spite of this unusually cold weather,
the first day opened at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the
usual amount of long lines, crowded walkways and convention hustle.
The first good news from the show is that The Commodore Show, held in
San Francisco the past several years has NOT been cancelled!!! It
has, instead, been expanded to three days, in a much larger capacity
location, and looks like it will be THE show for both Commodore and
Amiga owners, both from vendor exhibits and speakers. Watch for more
information as it is available. Right now, advance tickets can be
obtained by calling:
800-252-SWAP Registration for one day is $10, all three days for $15.
This includes both booth area and the workshops.
Now....back to my first trip through the Commodore booth...yes, I
spent the ENTIRE day in the CBM exhibit! <<smile!>>
Almost every computer related firm is at least located in the same
place this time <<whew!>>. As you enter the West Hall, the FIRST
booth you see is a good-sized Atari booth. Not being disheartened by
that, I trudged on past it to locate the promised Commodore exhibit.
Just 2 more booths down the road, there it was....a two story haven
of Commodore computers!
They were not only THERE, will a full staff of experienced support
people and third party developers, but a contingent of Commodore
executives. It was the largest amount of FLOOR space in the entire
West Hall, and that does not count the second story!
The booth was divided into sections, one for the 64/128, another for
the new Commodore PC 10 and 20 and probably the most amount of space
was devoted to the Amiga! A brief tour of the booth follows:
PC 10-20 News:
-------------
This is a full blown MS DOS clone, the PC 10 comes with a 360K Floppy
disk and 512K, the PC 20 comes with 2 Floppy drives and 640K, both
have 5 slots. One of the amazing things about THIS clone is that it
comes with this special built-in graphics display card which makes
your monochrome display compatible with IBM CGA and MDA Hercules and
Plantronics video modes. Also, unlike mail-order clones, this one
will come WITH an RS 232 and a centronics parallel port.
There was also an AT model sitting on the desktop with a sign on it
which said that "This item has no yet received FCC approval". The AT
was running MicroSoft Windows, the PC's were running Ventura
Publishing's desktop publishing program, Lotus and several other
demos.
The PC 10 will LIST for 999, the PC 20 for 1199. Both computers, as
well as the AT when it is ready will be marketed through distributors
and a dealer network. These computers are not slated for mass market
merchandising.
Commodore 64 and 128 Displays:
-------------------
----------
An interesting item grabbed my attention as the FIRST computer I ran
across in the C-128 area, and that was a C-128D. This is the C128
with a built in disk drive and a detatched keyboard which has been
sweeping the market Europe. This was not NEWS to me, I knew they
existed, the surprising thing was yet another note tagged to it which
stated that THIS computer had not yet received FCC approval...! Read
between THOSE lines!
Sharing the Commodore space we visited with:
* SOFTSYNC (Accountant Inc)
* Batteries Included (PaperClip II)
* Timeworks (Word Writer 3, Word Writer 128 ver 4.2)
* Epyx (Game Masters Series: Submarine)
* Activision (Aliens)
* XETEC (Lt. Kernal hard drive)
Amiga Displays:
--------------
The Amiga area was mobbed. Developers were having to take TURNS
demoing their programs! The most noticeable news here was the
complete absence of any announcements of the much rumoured A-500 mass
market Amiga or the much hoped for A-2000. I did not even get a
chance to look at the majority of the Amiga exhibits, but I did see:
* Electronic Arts
* Activision
* Liquid Light
* DigiView/Paint
* Mimetics
....and lots more!
Now...remember I said that there was a second floor? Well, the
stairway to the second floor was chained off. Rumours are that those
'invited' to that hallowed area were sworn to absolute secrecy until
a specific date by the Vice President of Amiga marketing. Hmmmm....!
No, I don't know what the date is, *I* did not seek an invitation!!!
And...the news from the Atari booth is that they, too, are jumping on
the MS-Dos Clone band wagon. Its called the Atari PC, and will be
MASS MARKETED as a complete system, including monochrome monitor for
$699. It has a serial and parallel port, 512K, 1 Floppy disk, comes
with both MS DOS and GEM and will be bundled with several other
applications. No slots, tho. Atari has added an expansion bus to it,
which you'll be able to hook up a separate expansion box
(toaster-like) which will act as slots for any regular MS DOS
expansion.
Atari's other news is the MEGA ST 1, MEGA ST 2 and MEGA ST 3. Yes,
that '1,2, and 3' refer to RAM. This is going to be a full blown
$1100-1500 ST system with a detatched keyboard, battery backed up
clock, blitter chip, built in expansion bus and a 3.5 inch drive. To
be marketed with this computer will be Atari's Laser Printer, their
$1500 entry into the desktop publishing market discussed last week in
InfoWorld. Both products will be available in March, according to an
Atari spokesman.
The enthusiasm is high here at CES from dealers, developers,
distributors, press and users! I have already plundered what press
releases there were available in the press room, and will be scanning
them for new information and spec sheets as soon as I get home. More
news tommorrow and the next day from the other exhibits in the West
Hall:
* Progressive Peripherals
* Abacus Software
* Hearsay, Inc
* Timeworks
* Spinnaker
* Springboard
* Star Micronics
* Okidata
* Unison World
* Berkeley Softworks
* Infocomm
Stay Tuned! Friday night is the Electronic Arts reception, as well as
the Amiga World one, Saturday evening, the *Ship dinner with so me of
our favorite friends from online and others we're meeting here in
Vegas. Wish you all were here...we are having a BLAST !!!
*deb!* on the spot!
|
|
CES JANUARY 1987
DAYS 2 AND 3
Remember Day 1 when I mentioned the room upstairs in the Commodore exhibit?!!
It's still chained off, but I do have some information for you!!
They are displaying two Amigas: the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000.
The Amiga 500 is a 512K machine in a single box (similar to the C128 body
but higher in the back), one disk drive, and expansion box. The price is
said to be in the $599 retail bracket (without monitor).
The Amiga 2000 features the 68000 series chip (I don't know why). It sports
a battery back-up clock/calendar, built-in Sidecar, and is either 512K or
1 Meg (depending on who you talk to).
The other news from upstairs:
* A Commodore/Amiga hard drive that is supposedly on the low end of the
price range. (This item was on display.)
* Future plans -- Commodore/Amiga is looking at building their own
expansion boards and SCSI interfaces at a lower cost than what others
are offering.
Rumor has it that Commodore was prepared to show all the upstairs products *IF*
Atari had pulled any surprises. But instead...no surprises. So the plan
is for the Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 to make their first *official*
announcement at an upcoming German show. They will be out and READY TO SELL
before the June CES!!
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Other Amiga information
-----------------------
INTERACTIVE VIDEO SYSTEMS
* A preliminary model of their expansion box with 7 slots. They had it
up and running with no crashes. It should be ready in a few months.
$400 - $500.
* Future plans for a pure SCSI interface to hook in the expansion box.
ELECTRONIC ARTS
* The most amazing interactive graphics adventure I have EVER seen!!
Rescue from Atlantis--I will write about this program in great detail
later; it was FANTASTIC!!
* Bard's Tale has been shipped and should be at the dealers by now.
MINDSCAPE
* From the folks who brought us Defender of the Crown...3 more programs
soon (Sinbad, SDI, and one that escapes me right now). After these
three new programs are marketed for the Amiga, Mindscape will begin
the Commodore 64 versions of all four programs!!
PROGRESSIVE PERIPHERALS
* Plans are in the works for a 2 Meg RAM card for the Amiga.
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Commodore Information
---------------------
PROGRESSIVE PERIPHERALS
* Vizastar 128 will be marketed by Progressive and is shipping now.
* Device 9 was NOT shown.
JCT
* The hard drive was there, but no warm bodies to talk about it.
XETEC
* The Lt. Kernal (the old Fiscal Info) was there. It was the hottest
thing I've seen for the Commodore world!!
GEOS 128
* I will be meeting with the Berkeley folks tomorrow, but from what I
could see so far, GEOS 128 *looks* like Hi-Res 80-column material!
More on this tomorrow!!
And last but not least, there was a new Welsh company showing their
music program. It contained both a music tutor as well as a creation mode.
This program creates completely executable code!! It looked good.
And that's it for Days 2 and 3. There has been lots to see, lots of old
friends to visit with and new friends to meet! Wish you were all here!
Stay tuned for more information as we gather it together!
*deb!*
|
| I spoke with Harv, the Amiga Club chairman on Plink last nite, and I
gleaned the following info from him. (Harv was at CES, but did NOT go
into the upstairs booth)
DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE ONLY RUMOURS!!! DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING UNTIL
YOU SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES!!
Harv claimed that the Amiga 500 was intended as a replacement for
the 1000 model. It is a 100% compatible repackaging job, intended
to bring the Amiga styling more in line with the C64C/C128 models.
The unit will retail for $595.00, sans monitor. The 500 has a single
built-in drive, and the full Amiga chip set, w/parallel & serial ports,
1.2 in ROM, 512K, etc. It does in fact pass the 68000 buss thru. But,
get this, the buss exits on the LEFT SIDE! This means that all
expansion hardware for the 1000 will either not work, or have to be
mounted backwards, or an adapter will be needed.
Harv and another Amiga Zone Sysop also claimed that the A1000 was in
fact out of production, waiting to be replaced by the 500.
I found all of this very hard to believe, for the following reasons:
If the 1000 is out of production, and the 500 is not due until
June of '87, where is the volume going to come from? I find
hard to believe that CBM has stockpiled 50,000 Amiga 1000 to
them thru June.
The Sidecar now becomes a non-issue, since the Amiga 2500 will
have the bus and Sidecar built-in. Why go thru all the trouble
of making the Sidecar for a soon-to-be-obsolete plastic box?
I pointed all this out to Harv, and asked him what his sources were,
and he claimed that it came from Jay Miner himself! Now, I don't know
if Jay Miner would EVER reveal CBM's plans, but if this rumor is true,
then I'll be plenty pissed! If they stop production of the 1000, and
have a non-standard buss/peripheral interface for the 500, then all
third party hardware efforts (hard drives, external ram, etc) will
promptly grind to a halt.
I sincerely hope that CBM realizes that it was the risktakers who
bought the A1000 that pulled them into the red.
|
| Re: .8
Well, the latest rumor is that the Amiga 1000 is NOT out of production,
nor is it planned to be put to pasture. As you may know, CBM contracts
out to Sanyo for the A1000, and apparently, a large production run
has been completed, and a new contract needs to be created before
more 1000s can be built. I wonder if the prices will have to be
adjusted due to the drop of the yen?
This comes from a 'highly placed source from CBM', thru Plink, and
thru the filters of a half a dozen other people, directly to you.
Still no more news of the A500 left hand buss, or whatever. But,
John Foust of Amazing Computing has seen and touched the 500 and
2000, and promises a full report, with gobs of pictures, in the
middle of February (read March issue).
|