NOTICE: This article originally appeared in the February issue of Atari Interface Magazine and may be freely distributed or reprinted in non-profit User Group publications as long as the article's author and Atari Interface Magazine are credited AND this notice is reprinted with the article. All other publications must obtain written permission from Unicorn Publications, 3487 Braeburn Circle, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, Phone: (313) 973-8825 before using this article. Quick ST 1.8 The Software Screen Accelerator by Bill Rayl Look out, Turbo ST...you've got competition and it's catching up FAST! Darek Mihocka and Ignac Kolenko of Branch Always Software have released their first commercial software product, Quick ST, which offers speedups comparable to Turbo ST at a fraction of the cost. Quick ST was originally released as part of the shareware Quick Utilities. Although much slower and less compatible with other software than Turbo ST in those earlier releases, Quick ST was an instant favorite of many who felt Turbo ST was a little pricey. Most Turbo ST owners, such as myself, didn't really pay that much attention to Quick ST...Turbo ST was just plain faster. Well, times change! Quick ST is now a commercial product and is a very serious contender for anyone wanting to squeeze more speed out of their machine. Benchmark Results Having the luxury of both Turbo ST and Quick ST, I decided to do some testing using Quick Index (part of the above mentioned Quick Utilities). Here's the results on my 520ST with 1 meg upgrade, monochrome monitor, TOS 1.4, no blitter and only Charles Johnson's Desk Manager and Atari's TOS14Fix installed at bootup: Test Quick ST 1.8 Turbo ST 1.57 BIOS Text 323% 315% BIOS String 1263% 1255% BIOS Scroll 134% 133% GEM 208% 224% As you can see, Quick ST is slightly FASTER than Turbo ST 1.57 in all the text functions...and not too far off in GEM speedup! Both programs are faster on a color monitor. In all fairness, I must point out SofTrek has recently released version 1.6 of Turbo ST, but comparisons in the README file on the Quick ST disk show Quick ST 1.8 still beats Turbo ST 1.6 in the BIOS Text and BIOS String tests. Overall, the slight differences in percentage points seem to put Turbo ST and Quick ST at just about even...if you're into making decisions purely on benchmark statistics alone. Odious Comparisons Apart from similar results in the benchmarks, Quick ST and Turbo ST have a couple more similarities. First, both products have separate versions for color and monochrome monitor users. But, even here there are differences. Turbo ST is a desk accessory, and as such, users who own both monitors either rename the proper accessory at bootup (perhaps by using Desk Manager) or use the larger version of Turbo ST that supports both monitors. With Quick ST, both color and mono versions reside in the AUTO folder and the proper one will boot at startup. No mess, no fuss. Both programs also support custom desktop fonts, such as those loaded by Charles Johnson's Fontrix accessory (boy, that guy's name keeps creeping in here!). However, Turbo ST seems to have trouble with multiple changes of the desktop font...it kept reverting back to my very first font choice, no matter how many times I tried to change it. When I told Quick ST I wanted to change the font, it listened. SofTrek and Branch Always Software both have very good upgrade policies. SofTrek will upgrade Turbo ST if you send them your original disk and $5 and they have a special upgrade policy for qualifying user groups. (Call SofTrek at 407-657-4611 for details.) Not to be outdone, Branch Always will send a new version of Quick ST on disk for only $3 to any registered owner (no need to send in your original disk) and will do Email upgrades on CompuServe and GEnie absolutely FREE. Two other very important reasons why you might consider buying Quick ST over Turbo ST are memory usage and price...in both cases, Quick ST weighs in about half of Turbo ST. The full version of Turbo ST uses over 50K of memory and the individual color and mono versions use about 40K each. The mono version of Quick ST uses around 20K, while the color version uses only 16K. A "stripped down," slower version of Quick ST is included that takes up only 10K of memory. As for price, Turbo ST retails for $49, while Quick ST is an unbelievably low $19.95! Other Features For those fortunate enough to have a 19" Moniterm monitor, Quick ST is sure to make you happy...providing "the same level of speed on a 1280x960 screen as it can on a 640x400 screen." Sorry, I can't test this out (boy, am I ever!). Branch Always promises to support any high rez monitors that become available for the ST. Version 1.8 of Quick ST also fixes one of the most annoying "features" of previous versions. When quickly moving the cursor in a text editor or word processor, the cursor would disappear during the move. This sure made it hard to know just how far you'd actually moved the cursor without stopping. That has, thankfully, been fixed. Quick ST 1.8 also supports the HI50 program allowing 50-line output to monochrome monitors. I've tested Quick ST with piles of software, both commercial and public domain, and it has performed like a champ with such packages as LDW Power, Flash, ST Writer, SuperBase Pro, PageStream, BB/ST, CBreeze (Quick ST does not speed up the "tiny" text mode in this program, but it does support "large" and "medium" modes), and Hotwire/MaxiFile. Of course, I haven't used Quick ST as long and comfortably as I have used Turbo ST...but I have found no incompatibilities as yet. Also included on the Quick ST disk is a copy of the Quick Index benchmarking software, the Quick View text file viewer and a demo version of Quick ST 1.8 that can be uploaded to your favorite BBS. With Quick ST 1.8 around, SofTrek's super fast version 2.0 of Turbo ST (as shown at many AtariFests in 1989) can't be released too soon...for SofTrek's sake! Quick ST $19.95 Branch Always Software P.O. Box 2624, Station B Kitchener, Ontario, CANADA N2H 6N2 (519) 570-4340