Editorial
It looks like a good fall. The memory chip shortage appears to be easing (at least for one-megabyte chips) and Atari has settled its lawsuit with Micron, once again buying some chips domestically. Atari remains very profitable, despite the weight of Federated losses and--stop the presses!--Atari will increase its allocation of STs for the U.S. this fall.
For START, this issue is a milestone: our first monthly issue. We want to thank all START's readers and subscribers again for making this possible. We'll try to live up to--or exceed--your expectations.
You may have noticed a new look in this issue and in START's Special Issue #4--Games and Entertainment. We hope you like it; we have a new graphic design team onboard since Marni Tapscott, our previous Art Director, left START to have a baby (some loyalty!). We'll miss her, but we're fortunate to have two newcomers: Rick ginger, Art Director and Chris Mason, Director of Creative Services. Assisting them is Dwight Been, who's worked on START since our Winter 1986 issue as a freelance paste-up artist and as of our Winter 1987 issue has served as START's Production Manager. Thanks to the efforts of these experienced designers, you'll see more exciting, colorful new layouts in the months to come. A computer magazine shouldn't just read well, it should also look good!
In this issue we focus on Brain Power, yours and your computer's. Directing the ST's 68000 brain is the programmer's job, yet even programmers would agree that programming, particularly independent development, is an unusual profession. You may make millions--or zero. Who better than Tom Hudson to tell you the pitfalls and rewards of being an independent software developer? And if you're in the market for a new programming language (or an update), David Plotkin helps you choose a BASIC for your ST efforts and Arick Anders surveys the C's.
Or do you just want to improve your own brain? To help you, we've included on your START disk a fine educational program called The Vocabularian. It's tailor made to help anyone learn a foreign language--or any other subject. It's one of the best drill programs we've seen anywhere and we've included twenty lessons in Spanish vocabulary to get you started.
If your educational need is to visualize relationships among objects (to learn the parts of a blood cell, for example), then ST Microscope may be just your ticket. It's a unique computerized graphics microscope that you can customize with your own pictures to show just about anything that can be drawn. You'll find two starter sets of slides: a human neuron and a red blood cell at various levels of "magnification" to give you the idea (and maybe help you get an A on that biology test at the same time).
And, of course, we have our usual top-notch columns. You'll find tips on setting up pc-ditto, checking out your floppy disks, using the easiest and hardest online services, picking your next game, planning your next animation and the conclusion of our 3-part series on using resource files in GFA BASIC.
What can I say? That's an issue-and-a-half! I hope you enjoy this October issue.
See you next month.
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Andrew Reese |