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This latest move is an effort to break into the huge Spectrum software market, and maybe it really is clean-up time as Atari pulls from the hat such classics as Pacman, Centipede and Donkey Kong, and the rights the company possess to Williams' Defender. Ever since the release of the Spectrum, companies have been churning out lookalikes, but few have proved good enough to encourage more than passing customer interest. And those that were well accepted often found themselves swamped by writs alleging copyright infringement, thus calling for cosmetic changes to the title and/or graphics. Theoretically, with any number of Spectrum users still awaiting an excellent version of Defender and Pacman, Atari should do well releasing them themselves or becoming the official licensee. However, the company says it is going to charge £14.99, not for the complete set, but for each game! Perhaps millionaire Atari 400 owners might consider this cheap, but your | average Spectrum user is
liable to stand there agog at
such a price tag. How long
will it take for Atari UK to
realise that the British
computer market is not about
people buying cheap micros
and vastly expensive
software? It's a policy that's
done the company little good
in the past and one that's
unlikely to fare much better
for it in the future - Texas
Instruments, please copy. For Atari's own machines programmers are apparently offered exceptionally good deals in the form of 35 per cent royalties on the retail price. This pans out to at least a tenner a program - twice the price of your average Spectrum tape, and at least ten times the royalty that many Spectrum programmers can expect. Atari is even said to be tempting Spectrum program writers with £10,000 advances.
Another practice that's become painfully obvious these days is the advertising of a new world-beating product, months before anything is ever likely to become available. An award of some kind must go to Sinclair Research, who advertised the Microdrive as 'coming soon' a full 16 | months before Sir Clive's tree
was to bear fruit. And
neighbourly rival, Acorn,
comes high in the stakes too
with its announcement of the
Electron micro at the same
time as the Spectrum's
appearance - a year before
the machine's real launch
was to actually take place.
And, of course, even though
both products are now
officially 'launched', it's still
pretty hard to get either for
love or money. Turning to software another product famous for its late arrival has been Terror-Daktil 4D, from Melbourne House. It took at least two months to materialise, following the usual flamboyant Melbourne House launch. No official reason was ever given for the delay, though after about a month a member of Melbourne House's staff was heard to admit that it was still being de-bugged! And talking of late-comers, whatever happened to the Trickstick from East London Robotics? According to the blurb, it's the ultimate in joysticks, with hitherto unavailable control. Shown in prototype form many months ago and advertised in full colour double pages for almost as long, at the time of writing we are still all waiting to sample the goods. In many ways, the home computer market is becoming increasingly more commercial and professional. Yet still companies insist on launching product that's just a gap in the managing director's wallet. It's easy to argue that Spectrum enthusiasts are well used to waits of this kind - even so, disappointed customers are unlikely to provide the soundest of bases for most company's long term commercial success. |
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