¢DIAMOND¢by S.J.Murray, 26/2/93.¢¢¢Diamond - The End?¢¢ A few Futurians have recently written to me requesting details of where to buy the Diamond GOS operating system. Unfortunately, I have a double helping of bad news for them and all other potential Diamond users:¢¢ I telephoned Reeve Software in Warrenville, USA requesting details and spoke to a very pleasant lady (probably Alan Reeve's mother - he ran the business with his parents). She informed me that Alan had recently stopped selling the Diamond system due to lack of sales. He had to order his super-cartridges in quantities of 100 and as sales had fallen to about two or three per week he reluctantly decided to stop production. I expressed my disappointment at losing such a wonderful system and she then told me that Diamond had been very popular in the USA but sales had declined as the 8-Bit became less popular. I then gave my thanks and said goodbye.¢¢ Drat! I was under the impression that Diamond was still available from Reeve Software, albeit in limited quanties. Where could I turn to now....???? Ah-ha! B&C ComputerVisions! I hastily looked up their telephone number and dialed the fourteen digits. "Hello - B&C - How may I help you?". I crossed my fingers and asked if they sold the Diamond system by Reeve Software. The reply was...¢¢ "I'm sorry, it's not available any more."¢¢ I said "thanks anyway" and hung up. Double drat! The whole reason for my Diamond column within Futura was to let you see what a wonderful system Diamond GOS is (was?), and to hopefully persuade some of you to support Alan Reeve by purchasing it from the USA. Now that Diamond has recently become unavailable I must reluctantly stop producing my Diamond column. I do not wish to detail and explain a system you cannot readily purchase.¢¢ Obviously, I would advise any 8-Bitter to purchase Diamond if he/she saw it at a flea market or computer show. I paid 20 pounds for mine and now that I have used it I would advise you to pay anything up to it's original cost in the UK of 40-50 pounds. You won't regret it. Also, try placing an advertisement in Page 6 (Contact) or Micro Mart.¢¢ If you have tried and cannot purchase Diamond in the UK please write to me detailing how much you would be willing to pay for it. I will then write to my contacts in the USA and Canada asking them to keep a look out for it in local stores and private ads. With a bit of luck you'll soon be Diamond-mining.¢¢ I plan to write to Alan Reeve in the near future to ask him if he would be willing to release Diamond GOS (disk version), Diamond Paint and Diamond Write as ShareWare with a $10-20 registration fee for each. It seems a shame to let such a great series of 8-Bit programs disappear into Atari Classic history. I'll let you know his response within a future issue of Futura. Until then, there will be no more Diamond. Hopefully, it will soon return. Bye for now!¢
