Go Hi-Res!

According to the reader survey, most of the Atari Computing readership 
uses a colour monitor with their STs, this just WILL NOT DO! The purpose 
of this article is to dispell some of the common rumours about mono and to 
try and pursuade you to change.

The most common misconception is that mono is boring. This is complete 
rubbish, check out any ST PD library's games section. GEM NetHack, the 
Ishar games and Oxyd are notable examples of good mono games. If you miss 
colour games once you have mono then simply get the telly out once in a 
while and use that. Alternatively use a colour emulator, there are quite a 
few hanging about. Since games are a little thin on the ground anyway, why 
not purchase a games console and play on that, leaving your Atari free to 
do proper things with.

You may find that when using a colour monitor you can get headaches from 
trying to read text , but a mono image is so much sharper. With 640x400 
you get a lot more workspace, four times more in fact. With the increased 
resolution you really do get a good idea of what you're doing. I used to 
have to type documents using a mono emulator, I didn't really have any 
idea of what the page would look like, but with mono it's WYSIWYG. Also, 
attempting to display web pages in colour on an a ST is a total waste of 
time. When displayed in high res, web pages are a lot more readable but 
the images do look a little rubbish because of CAB's poor (but fast) 
dithering routines.
	
Another simple gain from using mono is that it actually saves memory. For 
starters, mono icons use far less memory than colour ones. Most of you 
colour users will probably use a virtual screen program but they seriously 
hog memory and don't talk to me about mono emulators, they're pathetic!

These days most software that comes out for our platform expects a 
resolution of 640x400 or above. Try running any of the Cadenza software in 
lower resolutions. Perhaps colour is suitable for the gamer, but a real ST 
user ought to be running mono.

According to a recent survey with over 56000000 participants, an 
overwhelming 98% said they would prefer to use a mono ST once they had 
seen the difference. If you don't think you'd like mono then borrow a mono 
monitor from a friend(!) for a week and you'll most likely want to switch 
over... Okay so maybe that isn't possible anymore but trust me you'll 
benefit from a mono monitor.
	
You may think that images look poor in mono but they don't if you use the 
right program. The excellant Speed-Of-Light GIF/JPEG viewer by Stuart 
Denman can do a wonderful job on a mono image.
	
And if it's availability that bothers you then any mono VGA monitor can be 
adapted to work with an Atari so no excuses! I've seen adverts in PC mags 
for refurb mono VGA monitors starting at œ30 before.

Matt Burton