THE START READER SURVEY--IT'S YOUR TURN

On the back side of this page you'll find the most comprehensive reader survey ever presented in START magazine.

Our editorial goal is to publish an invaluable resource for your ST, one which you'll save and reference again and again. In order to do this, we're asking you to tell us who you are, what kind of system you have, what you like about START and how we can improve. Please take the time to answer the questions. We'll use your responses to make START even better.

Thanks for your help. The results will be published in the October 1990 issue.

Alive and Kicking
Last January's NAMM show was significant for Atari and served as further proof that the ST is alive and kicking in the United States. In a booth/studio that made the other computer companies' pale by comparison (IBM was in a small booth in another building, Commodore was literally in the farthest corner and Apple didn't even show up), the Stacy, the Hotz Box and multitasking TOS -formally dubbed MIDI-tasking by Atari - were shown.

Atari's presence at this semi-annual music trade show was significant for two reasons: 1) everything they showed was real- the multitasking environment actually works and the Stacy and Hotz Box are shipping, albeit in their high-end configurations; 2) it was the clearest evidence to date that Atari is serious about the entertainment/music market. Thanks to the persistent efforts of Frank Foster, Director of Specialty Markets, and the entertainment division as a whole (which also handles the Lynx game system, another big winner), Atari is making an impressive comeback in the U.S. computer market.

pc-ditto II and Other Concerns
START has received a flurry of calls and letters concerning the whereabouts of Avant-Garde's pc-ditto II. After a number of false starts, the long-awaited hardware-based PC emulator is shipping. There were problems with the first production run (i.e., the product simply didn't work), but these have reportedly been taken care of. Watch for a full review of pc ditto II in the July 1990 issue.

And last but never least: the handsome young man on the cover of the February issue is my son Tommy. His credit was inadvertently omitted from the masthead. Isn't he the cutest baby in the world?