Oh, ST Format, what were you thinking? The proclamations, the hyperbole, the... desperation? Six years before the Matrix and someone had definitely taken the blue pill...
It is indisputable that when the Atari ST arrived in 1985, it shook up the home computing market. However, by the time of this 1993 issue of Future Publishing's ST Format, things were not so rosy. A lack of focus, bad business decisions, and a complete disregard to actually developing the platform during the intervening period (something rivals Commodore were similarly guilty of until what turned out be a last desperate attempt with their 1992 refresh) had hammered ST users and it was pretty clear that the platform's days were numbered.
Unless you believe the cover. And, gentle reader, you really shouldn't.
Straight in with the news and the announcement of a £90 price cut to the STFM! Ok, not exactly a price cut per se given that the machine had been out of production for over a year, but a re-introduction of the base 512Kb STFM that originally launched in 1986 at a highly attractive price of £159. Sure, but even a reader back then should have questioned a) what the market was for the thing and b) just exactly how much was Atari going to make as a profit off such a low figure. The claim of 150,000 sales in 1993 sealed the deal. Whatever they were drinking at Atari HQ, it had a hefty percentage on the label. "Well placed" sources also stated that the 520 STE would drop to £199 and the 1040 STE to £249. There is a feature about the STFM later on which we'll get to, but for now... I'm pretty sure the Bearded One would have been weeping on his bike.... And as for the cover shout, no, there were not 150,000 new users, there was no additional stock on sale yet and... You get my point.
In other news, peripheral and software provider Gasteiner were being threatened by Sega over the use of the name Mega Drive, with the former giving their ST hard drives that moniker, and the latter, well, you can guess.
There's also a brief report on the 7th International Computer Show, the most interesting (meaning laughable) tidbit being the 286 PC emulator board for the Falcon. Yeah, it was planned to be cheap (£200), but a 286 in 1993? In the PC world by this time, the 386 was making way to it's more advanced successor, and of the big name manufacturers in the UK market, only Amstrad, IBM and Olivetti still had some bargain basement 286's for sale.
A brief round up of the latest software available for the Falcon proved that some people were trying with the 32-bit wonder machine even if Atari really weren't, before we get to the first of the features: using your ST for productivity purposes. Word processing, programming, desktop publishing, and music are just some of the uses still valid for your 16-bitter, and the following round up of external floppy disk drives would have been handy for both serious and leisure users, given that multi-disk games were very much a fact of life now. Only one drive was high density capable, but it cost nearly twice as much as the double density competition and was only suitable for Mega STE and TT owners.
We detour through some gaming guides and a platformer round up before reaching the STFM future feature. It's all spun very positively for the audience, maybe to cheer them up as they see their favourite computer fall behind. There's a funny little graph focussing on Gallup reported software sales, with the ST coming out on top with 5.7% of total software sales in 1992. The other formats featured include Amstrad's then out of production CPC on 3.9%, Atari's own Lynx at 0.7%, Sega's Gamegear (which had only been out since April 1991) at 4.4%, the NES at 4.6% and the SNES at 3.7%. Considering the latter arrived in the UK in April '92, I'm not sure the graph passes even the most cursory of examinations, and what about the other 77%?
A second graph showing ST sales over the years is another "awww, bless" moment, and, you know what, good on ST Format for trying. I mean, this initiative would go nowhere, and the ST would effectively be abandoned before the year was out, but you've got to admire the optimism. It's not all one sided happy clapping, and the comments from devs and retailers are extremely telling, with one HMV sales rep saying that in some stores, Mac software was outselling ST offerings. Ouch!
Still, there would be a follow up piece in the next issue, but that does not concern us today. Instead, to the games!
Civilization racks up a deserved 92%, whereas AV8B Harrier Assault falters with 62%. The Greatest, a compilation featuring Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker, Lure of the Temptress and Shuttle (talk about varied), scores 91% despite the latter title really not matching the quality of the other two. Six other games are also rated, with No Second Prize reaching the heights of 87%, and Wild Streets plumbing the depths with 38%. Nine reviews in total. Meanwhile, in the corresponding Amiga Format, there were 9 full-price reviews (including Lemmings 2, Walker, B-17 Flying Fortress and Chuck Rock 2), 9 budget offerings and two compilations. Intriguingly, the Amiga version of The Greatest swaps Shuttle for Dune, and I think Amiga owners scored there.
Back to the ST, and there's serious software too. Desktop Publishing stalwart Calamus has a new version, Calamus S, achieving a 91% score, 3D Construction Kit 2 almost matches it at 90%, and Convector Professional 1.00J slightly disappoints with 75% but gains kudos for the Airplane gag in the review title.
Canon leads the way with hardware, its BJ-200 bubblejet printer rating an excellent 92% (albeit for £468.83!), whereas Spectravideo's Freewheel steering wheel only manages a steady 76%. A duo of screens finish off the hardware, both with scores in the 70's. Silica Systems were flogging a Viewtek 12" greyscale option for £69, and comes across as a great medium resolution mono option. Gasteiner, however, want £149 for their 14" VGA mono offering, which the mag thinks is a tad over-priced for a high res option, but nonetheless not too shabby.
Several pages of Public Domain software follow up, as do tutorials for Crack Art (an art package which desperately requires rebranding), and assembly programming. The usual letters page provides company to a readers art gallery section, before we hit the final page and obligatory humorous End Zone.
And now, a break for commercials:
The First Computer Centre has pride of place as soon as you open the mag and they'd see you right for your ST hardware needs. A barebones Falcon would set you back just under £600, but a useable spec would bump that to nearly a grand! Not to labour the point, but in the DOS world, that dosh would get you a well-specc'd 386 and another £50 to £100 would guarantee a 486/25 with the same amount of RAM but double the hard drive space.
If funds were more limited, the existing STE range would be yours for £229, although bumping the RAM to at least 1 meg was advisable. The 1040 Family Pack looked a bit better for those wanting to do more than just play games.
Other formats were available too, starting with the Amiga, and the fact that the A500 Plus was still being advertised (as well as being £50 cheaper than the "better" A600), shows that the big C really fucked up the low-end switch. There isn't an HD-free A1200 though (maybe trying to shift the remaining 68000-based stock or get Falcons out of the door?), but you could ask about Archimedes pricing, which at this point would have meant the A3010 or maybe the A4000... And let's not forget about consoles - that Mega Drive plus Sonic or Olympic Gold for £125. Bargain for the time, and a sign that no matter how cheap the ST could do, if it was just games that kids were interested in, consoles were the better option for most.
There's a wide array of printers too, from the evergreen Star LC20 to more heavy duty laser options, and at those prices, you really needed a genuine use case to buy one. Finally, for those of a professional bent (or just wanting something better than a TV), the selection of monitors reveals the period defining Philips CM8833 in its Mk2 guise, as well as a couple of high-res mono monitors.
Special Reserve have a couple of pages dedicated to their ST wares, and there's many a worthy title on offer. Quite a few under a tenner too, and that Lynx 2 appealed to me back then, even though I never had the cash to spare at the time. What is interesting is that they don't have any actual Atari computers to sell. Some accessories, disks and the like, but no ST hardware. Hmmm...
Ladbroke Computing were, however, another hardware dealer and they could set you up with a 520 STE for £219. Ok, so a few quid cheaper than The First Computer Centre, but you have to wonder what exactly were the profit margins when a punter walked away with a box, but there again...
The newsworthy Gasteiner were cheaper still, with the base STE at just £209, and that 4/65 spec Falcon for £899! You'd still need a monitor on top of that to get the best out of the Falcon, and that would have taken the overall package well into 486 territory.
Rubysoft have a dual-format software listing advert, with ST and Amiga versions listed where appropriate. This was not necessarily a good thing as it highlights exactly which games you couldn't buy on your favourite home computer. There again, you'd already have some idea of that by this point just by rocking up to your local games store... when such things existed.
Eagle Software are another games retailer, although this time with a focus on ST-only releases. As you can see (possibly with the aid of a magnifying glass), the ST library was large and varied, so even new buyers in 1993 would have had a good array to choose from. Not many new games, granted, but a hefty back catalogue.
Naturally, it wouldn't be a 1990's magazine without a Silica ad, and here they show off the main sellers Atari were offering. Not the cheapest by any means (see above), at least the adverts were packed with information which would help those all important buying deliberations.
So there we have ST Format. Still kicking with 108 pages in total, and an ABC of 62,210 (July to December 1992). That ABC was down from a high of 70,258 in early 1991, dipping to 65,202 in the second half of that year, rising slightly to 69,059 in early 1992. However, this particular issue would be in the 52,810 bracket, and as the ST's fortunes declined, so did this magazine's readership. Nothing new there, and although the final ABC figures were for the second half of 1995 stated a circulation of 14,379 readers, the mag itself last until its September 1996 issue, by which point it had outlived the ST, the Jaguar and Atari themselves. No shame there, and a good run for the Future-published periodical.
Where to next, I wonder...
