The Hotz Box...

[Clint Thompson]

Now... I just recently watched one of the older Computer Chronicles and the show was at NAMM and showing the Hotz Box MIDI keyboard/input device for the Atari ST range... and in it the voice-over lady stated

that the device sold for less than $200 ?!?!

 

I look on the web and many claim it sold for $6,000.... Anyone else

have light to shed on this?

 

Clint Thompson

[Ayreon]

I can't shed much light on this, but i remember seeing a demostration of this "weird but cool machine" at the ATARI Expo in Eindhoven. Never ever heard about it again till today.

[Gunstar]

I remember reading about this "keyboard" years ago in all the Atari mags; Antic, Analog, STLOG, Start, etc. I always wanted one, but then I needed an ST first...IIRC, it was supposed to retail for under $200. I think that is right, but, I'm not sure if it was ever officially released or not. I know that they did shows with both Jim(?) Hotz and Fleetwood Mac demonstrating it. Supposedly you could program it with the song you wanted to play, then play your song on it's keyboard like normal, but if you missed a key or whatever, the Hotz box would catch the mistake and still play the correct note, etc. Lots of other cool features too. It may be that it sells for a large amount today because it is rare, but I'm pretty sure $200 or about that was the target price. I'll see if I can locate something on it in some of my old mags...

 

I'm positive that articles, reviews and ads for it could be found in old keyboard/musician magazines of the day as well.

[+Allan]

Here's a bunch of articles on the Hotz box from Start magazine.

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n9/ho...smidimagic.html

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv5n2/hotzmidi.html

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n4/ro...ockandroll.html

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n5/davemason.html

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n1/ma...kswithmidi.html

 

http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=61...&n=0&query=hotz

 

Allan

[atarian1]

The $200 price was for the low end model.

 

There was supposed to have been a whole line of Hotz Boxes ranging from the low end $200 to thousands of $$$. Atari never quite figured out what to do (ie how to mass market) with the Hotz Box, so they reverted the marketing rights of the Hotz Box back to Jimmy Hotz. I don't think any Hotz Box went into mass production because I doubt he had the production line capability that Atari had. So the only way to get one was to become good buddies with Jimmy Hotz and then beg him to build you one from scratch and cough up the $$$ for one of these beauties.

[lais]

Read this article

http://www.myatari.org/issues/nov2001/hotz.htm