The Year In Review
Fill in the blank: "19__ Is The Year Of Atari." For the past several years, overzealous Atari-magazine editors have announced that the coming year would he the big one for Atari, the year the computer maker would really make its mark. This misplaced enthusiasm hasn't been without reason. With all the hot new hardware either planned or actually released by Atari in that time, every year did indeed seem like the year.

1990, as it turned out, would not he one of those years. Unavailable products slowed domestic sales, and new hardware releases suffered delay after delay. Even the Lynx, though readily available, suffered from a lack of compatible games.

But, finally, there's a glimmer of hope on the Atari horizon. The STE and the TT were released, the Lynx has plenty of game cartridges, and Portfolio sales continue to be healthy. 1991 may not he the year of Atari, but they're going to make a damn good bid for it.

The Year In START
A lot can happen in a year, and, as many of you know, plenty has happened at START. Major changes in staff and design, conversion to desktop publishing and the recent inclusion of Antic magazine mark some of the highlights. And can you believe we've published well over 100 product reviews? In a recent conversation with one of our advertisers, I decried the lack of space that START can give reviews because there are more products out there than we have editorial room for. The advertiser shot back with, "Oh, come on, hardly anything has come out this year." One need only open up the pages of this month's issue to see that's not the case.

And Speaking Of The TT
After a long wait, we finally got our hands on a TT, Atari's new computer based on the Motorola 68030 microchip. START's TT includes 2MB of RAM (expandable to 27MB), a built-in 40MB hard drive, and a clock speed of a screaming 32MHz. It also includes the new TT Desktop, which goes beyond a simple GEM enhancement.

The TT looks like a hot machine and promises to be big seller for Atari, but I'll not go into any great detail here. Watch for a full review in the February 1991 issue.

The START Disk
When you boot up this month's START disk you'll notice a significant difference from past disks-there's more to it, twice more in fact. The START disk is now double sided and packed with more great programs and utilities than ever before.