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Status of 1.2.1 and upcoming Price Change



Dear Folks,

Here's the status of 1.2.1:

	The binders and slipcases are back from the printers
	The manual is at the printers
	All new features have been added and debugged
	A very small handful of critical bugs are still being fixed
	Our ad in the upcoming NeXTWORLD has been finished and sent
	Our dealers are in the process of learning what Executor's
		all about

We hope to put everything together starting next week.  Originally the plans  
were to have the manuals back on Monday, but there was some confusion and  
it's not clear the printer can make that deadline.

Here is a list of all the commercial software that we have been working with  
of late.  Some of this is borrowed and will have to be returned soon, but we  
expect to get much more software to test, once our ad is out in NeXTWORLD  
and we look real enough for ISV's to send us their software.

Has been tested, runs very well:
	Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego 1.0
	Crystal Quest 2.20Z
	Excel 3.0A
	Excel 4.0
	Managing Your Money 4.0
	MacLinkPlus PC 6.0 (Translators only)
	Word 4.0{D,E}
	Word 5.0
	Leprechaun 3.0 (Needs Pretend Sound)
	Quicken 3.0
	SimAnt 1.0
	Resorcerer 1.0

Hasn't been tested much, runs pretty well:
	CricketGraph 1.3.2
	FileMakerPro 1.0v2
	FractaSketch 1.39
	Fontographer 3.5
	MacInTax 1992 9.01
	MacPaint 2.0 (has printing problems)
	MacProjectII 2.5v1 (has printing problems)
	MacWriteII 1.1v1
	MacMoney V3.52
	MacMoneyBeta
	MandelMovie 1.88
	SuperPaint 1.1MS (requires Refresh)
	Resolve
	TeachText 1.2 (has printing problems)


Hasn't been tested much, limps:
	ClarisCad			scrolling problems
	HyperCard			varied		
	MacDrawII			scrolling problems
	MacDrawPro			scrolling problems
	PageMaker			varied
	Quark XPress			varied

Does not run at all:
	GreatWorks			bad trap patching
	InteractivePhysicsII		I don't yet know
	MacGraphX			makes color calls we don't have
	Nisus				bad trap patching
	Studio1				I don't yet know
	ThinkC 4.0			Not 32-bit clean (we don't have 5.0)
	
Here is a list of publicly redistributable (shareware, freeware, demoware)  
that we've been testing on.

Has been tested, runs very well:
	Amazing
	Artillery
	BinHex v5.0
	BlackBox
	Cairo ShootOut
	Engel's Enigma
	Globe
	GunShy 1.0
	Hangman 9.0
	Hot Air Baloon 2.1
	IAGO
	KillerFrogs DEMO
	MacYahtzee
	Mines
	Missle Game
	MotorBike
	Precision Cribbage
	Reversi
	Risk
	Shanghai DEMO 2.0
	Stuntcopter 1.2
	Units
	A-S Baseball
	blackjack 2.0
	Darts
	LawnZapper
	Lazlife 2.0c
	Phraze Craze
	SilverFingers DEMO
	Super MANDELZOOM 1.0
	

Hasn't been tested much, runs pretty well:
	1000 Miles (has cache problems when doing "About ...")
	KaleidaGraph 2.0 DEMO
	Orion V1.0
	Pleiades 1.0
	ResorcererDEMO 1.0
	SimCity DEMO
	Speedometer 3.01
	TeleWar DEMO (Needs Refresh, can't use serial ports)
	Biorhythm II (can't print)

Hasn't been tested much, limps:
	Backgammon (has bad code; will die unexpectedly)
	DiskLib 1.82
	More 1.1c DEMO
	MultiFlow II 1.0 DEMO
	Write Idea DEMO

Does not run at all:
	Monopoly V4.0
	Canfield 2.0 (has cache problems)
	Adventure (weird use of TextEdit)
	Arkanoid (can't allocate alternate audio and sound buffers)
	Dungeon of Doom (not 32-bit clean)
	Galaxis 1.02 (Executes _AddDrive trap)
	MacBzone 1.3.1 (SIGFPE in CopyBits)
	MacMan 1.0.2 (jumps to location 0)
	Polyominoes (quits)
	Stuffit 1.5 (doesn't like our filesystem)
	Zork (weird use of TextEdit)

We also have a couple of CD-ROMs of Publicly Distributable stuff that we  
test under Executor.  Once we're back in the black, we'll buy the latest  
BMUG or BCS CD-ROM and start testing that stuff a little more methodically.   
Executor 1.2.1 and the copy of HFS_XFer supplied with it will read Mac  
formatted CD-ROMs.

Feel free to send us additions or corrections to our list.  Once 1.2.1 is  
out we're going to try to get a new copy of the list out to our dealers  
every month.

Executor 1.3 should be out at the end of this year, or early in the new  
year.  It will take advantage of NeXTSTEP 3.0 better than 1.2.1 does and  
should have many more applications running under it.

===========================================================================

Beginning October 1, we will be discontinue our pricing scheme that is based  
on the number of "big ticket" apps you wish to run.  We've had problems  
explaining that pricing scheme since day one.  To be honest, several people  
advised us against such a scheme, but I personally thought it was worth  
trying.  We will Grandfather in all the people who have already purchased  
Executor under that scheme, but you will not be entitled to free upgrades.   
The new retail price is $360 for a copy of Executor that attempts to run  
anything, but still has the compatibility problems described above.   
However, that price includes a year of free upgrades, and in that time we  
honestly expect to have most things running exceedingly well.  The  
educational price is $180; you get exactly what the non-educational people  
get, but your floppy, slipcase and manual are stamped "Educational Version".   
College and University students and faculty qualify for the educational  
prices.

Note, the above prices are retail, it is expected that some dealers will  
offer discounts.  Because of this, we've changed our program for conversion  
from limited copies to unrestricted copies:

If you qualify for an educational discount, then we will upgrade you to an  
unrestricted version for $140 minus what you've already paid per copy.    If  
you've already paid more than that, we'll try to work something out (we  
don't want our early supporters to feel cheated).  This means that any  
educational user who has paid for Word and Excel support will automatically  
be converted to unrestricted support, and get free updates until October  
1993.  Most of these conversions will be done automatically when we ship  
Executor 1.2.1 and our new binders/slipcases/manuals.  However, it doesn't  
hurt to send us proof of educational userness.

If you don't qualify for an educational discount, the above paragraph  
applies to you, except the difference is from $280.  We have definitely sold  
some unrestricted versions at a higher price, and we will be contacting  
those individuals to discuss the situation (if you're one of them, you can  
e-mail us or call us).  Again, we don't want our early customers to feel  
cheated by buying early.

==========================================================================

A letter detailing the above changes will be sent with your copy of Executor  
1.2.1.  I hope you understand why we're changing things the way we are.  I  
believe we'll all profit from this change, since the added revenue will  
allow us to progress to complete emulation significantly faster.

As always, your comments are appreciated.  This mailing list has been  
awfully quiet of late; I've had my head firmly embedded in our emulator  
since I got back from my non-honeymoon (we didn't go anywhere, but I stayed  
away from computers for a week).

		--Cliff		ctm@ardi.com