#st-log

The "modern relief for modern problems" in this issue were a bit more helpful, perhaps, than "submerging your computer alongside other oversized novelty items." One piece, "The 8-Bit Blues," did deal with owning a "trusty antiquated 8-bit machine." Along with its technical topics, ST-Log examined word processors for the Atari ST, some using "text only" and others using the GEM graphical user interface.

This issue's cover art was reproduced inside to lead into a type-in game. Reports from the June CES were bullish on software for Atari computers. Arthur Leyenberger's "The End User" column responded at length to someone asking why ANALOG wasn't covering the Amiga given Jay Miner, designer of the Atari 800, had worked on it; Leyenberger insisted "Atari's hallmark has always been value" and "the ST wins, hands down" when "all aspects of the two—graphics, sound, memory, disk drives, amount of available software, and, yes, price" were examined. One piece near the front of the magazine, "Counting without fingers," offered a not altogether serious capsule history of digital computers.

Varied programming languages for Atari computers were the lead focus of this issue. An editorial comment looked ahead to ST-Log spinning off into a separate magazine. A report on the West Coast Computer Faire (in its tenth year) paid particular attention to the "Mac Cartridge," despite a tossed-off comment that "Considering the computing power to price ratio, the Amiga and ST have made the Mac all but obsolete." (The magazine suggested that Apple, rather than fearing obliteration by this new gadget, sell the old ROM chips being returned during Macintosh Plus upgrades to help make its OS the industry standard.)

The first standalone issue of ST-Log kept Atari ST graphics on its cover to talk up a new graphics demo that involved ray tracing (and, perhaps, still strove to tweak the Amiga's "Boing Ball.") One letter-writer wondered about previous coverage of the ST not helping "ST-Amiga-Mac owners" who saw their computers as "useful enhancers of life, not business tools or hobbies." Arthur Leyenberger took a look at the "Magic Sac," noting the official company line was that it would help Mac owners run their programs "faster and on a larger screen" (given you needed to not just put Macintosh ROM chips into the cartridge but read Macintosh disks using a Mac before transferring their data over a serial cable) but supposing ST users would acquire the chips and software by one means or another, which just might perhaps mean less ST-native software. On the very next page, though, Ian Chadwick described how he'd dropped in on an Apple dealer to ask for a copy of MacPaint and wound up carting in his ST with Magic Sac (which "looks as if it rests on a Sargasso Sea of wires, compared to the Mac") to leave everyone in the store agog. Near the end of his piece, though, he did mention that to print from MacPaint on an ST, you still needed to hook up an Apple ImageWriter...

With the 8-bit Atari family tree drawn out on its cover, this issue interviewed Atari's product manager of the XE line (who did say a bit about the ST as well). Lee H. Pappas' editorial insisted ANALOG was sticking with the earlier Ataris even as people complained about the "Paperweight" program and interpreted covers as having 8-bit Ataris "being hacked apart, dissolving, or shrinking into oblivion." An article discussed how to make the best use of computer paint programs, using the graphic adapted from Star Trek on the ST-log cover to show what could be done with palette changes.

General suggestions for getting through adventure games, a review of a program that promised to create them for you, a type-in adventure, and the conclusion of a tutorial on how to write your own adventures provided the cover focus for this issue. Atari ST coverage now had its own internal title page and table of contents, although behind "ST-Log" Arthur Leyenberger's "The End User" column warned that "the rampant pirating of ST programs" jeopardized the computer itself. Coverage of the winter Consumer Electronics Show went to lengths describing all of Atari's new offerings, which included "what, at first, seemed to be two very puzzling products", the 2600JR and 7800 ProSystem video game machines. One type-in program called "Paperweight" promised to use "the 400/800 self destruct vector (SDV)", given "being put into a closet to rot forever is a degrading death for an elegant machine. Hari-kari is a far more fitting and dignified death"; the article ended with the editorial content the program was included "in honor of the month of April."

This issue isn't on the Internet Archive, although it is available elsewhere. Its "entertainment" issue included an interview with "the head of the team responsible for" a recent adventure game (ready to boast about how much better it was than Infocom's and multiple game reviews, with a focus on imports from Britain. One author explained how he'd set about replacing a chip on his ST motherboard (which was less "goof proofed" than the 8-bit Ataris) and got into slight difficulties doing that.

The "Atari status report" in this issue was split into an "8-bit section" and an ST section; the first mentioned Atari was beginning to advertise on television again and becoming more comfortable with calling its low-end computers "game machines," while the second promised "the TTs are coming" ("Thirty-two/Thirty-two" befitting the Motorola 68020 as opposed to "Sixteen/Thirty-two," an altogether accurate description of the 68000's external and internal architecture) and a "blitter" chip for the ST. Game reviews included one for Infocom and Brian Moriarty's opus Trinity, which concluded "despite its serious overtones, Trinity is a blast."