Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 10:24:01 GMT
Lines: 44
The Falcon 030 was seen for the first time in Australia at the home
computer show in Melbourne. Coincidentally, next door (in the same building)
to where I am doing exams at the moment.
They had two Falcons on display, one in a darker than
usual atari ST case, the other in a lighter shade. Both seemed to be still
very early development machines. They had some nice hi-res colour pics...
which they unrolled and faded in different ways. The machine was equipped
with a 65 mB internal drive and 4 meg ram.
Unfortunately, no multi TOS was present on the falcons displayed
After questioning the rep, (who seemed to know what he was talking
about with regards to the specs etc....ie he didn't talk vapour ), said that
multi-tos was nearly ready and would be shipped with the initial release of
the machine.
Tos 4.0, with its colour icons, was the system it was using. What
I forgot to tell the rep was whether this desktop, was the NEWDESK, or
just the TT's desktop. I get the feeling it was the TT's desktop, as the
icons didn't have sound assocaited with them, and the overall desktop stilll
had a very GEM'ish look and feel to it. ( thoough visibly quicker in window
updates ).
They didn't really have any decent software to show. Probably the
most impressive thing, was a little public domain program (no flashy colours
on screen, just GEM text and icon boxes, afraid to say) which did real time
sound manipulation.....I particuliar like the Wemberly stadium effect....
When you spoke into the microphone, you would get back instantaneusly your
voice as if in the stadium......great stuff.....boy could I have some fun with that. The rep, confirmed that a virtual modem could be possible, but wasn't sure
whether TELECOMM would approve such a device....
As for the price.....well I was told under $2000 (AUS) for the 4mb,
65 Mb HD version........pretty impressive.
Overall, I thought the machine really just wasn't displayed as well as
it should have. If I it was up to me to display....I'd look at doing a hyped
up karaoke......with full on video clip graphics etc....You need that type
of thing to attract the morons.....Oh well, you have to realize that they
were struggling for availability of software.
Release date.........January-February ....
I think I'll buy one.....great for a sampler alongside my synthesiser.
Daniel.
danieldr@ecr.mu.oz.au @ee.mu.oz.au @cs.mu.oz.au
University of Melbourne
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
