EDITORIAL

As this issue goes to press, the Antic editors are tabulating the results of the July 1988 reader survey. An in-depth analysis of the survey will appear next month in the November Antic along with highlights of the May 1988 Jack Tramiel letter-writing campaign--including Atari's responses. But even while the survey results are still being counted, some very striking trends have immediately become evident.

The survey appeared in the first of three staple-bound 64-page summer issues, by coincidence. Naturally the reduced format was very much on readers' minds. Many of you made it clear that you don't like thinner magazines, and you don't like stapled covers where you can't read information on the spine.

Okay, Antic listens! Since the majority clearly wants more pages and a return to our previous non-stapled covers, we're giving it to you--starting right here in this issue. Actually, these reductions were only an experiment for the summer months, when our numbers indicate that fewer persons are using their Ataris. But the people who sign checks around here weren't delighted with the thinner look either, so it's likely that your preferred Antic format is here to stay!

And while we're at it, we'll stop jumping story continuations across multiple pages too. This is something else that lots of you asked for.

ST ENTERTAINMENT ONLY

Antic wants to congratulate its ST-only sister magazine, START, for achieving monthly publication this autumn after starting out as a quarterly in 1986. Now that Antic no longer has a timeliness advantage over START, the editors and publishers are re-evaluating ST coverage within Antic in order to avoid duplication with the all-ST monthly.

Next month the Antic's ST section will be renamed the ST ENTERTAINMENT Resource and its primary goal will be to review all new ST games as soon as they are issued.

For 8-bit owners, this ST change means that you will now get a bonus of MORE 8-bit pages and MORE 8-bit disk space with each issue of Antic! That's because future issues of this magazine won't run ST type-in listings or ST disk bonuses. Also, The Catalog won't have ST software pages appearing in coming Antic issues.

This should rightfully be considered a significant victory for Antic 8-bit readers, according to the overwhelming trends expressed in the July 1988 survey. And this magazine's publishers are open to going even further out for the 8-bit market in coming months. But what happens next is largely up to you--the Atari 8-bit user.

In the next few months there'll be a lot more breakthrough news, such as two GEOS-type graphic desktop interfaces coming for the Atari 8-bit. But what we need from you right now is your new Antic Disk subscription (or an upgrade of your non-disk subscription). For only $59.85, you get 12 double-sided disks of Antic--quality Atari 8-bit software--the best value ever offered here.

Nat Friedland
Editor, Antic