Hi:
SAS/Assist was and is a great product for doing tasks and generating SAS code. However, in my opinion, SAS Enterprise Guide is really a better alternative than SAS/Assist for generating SAS code and executing that code on SAS on a server. SAS Enterprise Guide has a more modern interface than SAS/Assist, is easier to use and in my opinion, is more intuitive to use.
Every SAS release comes with a What's New section in the documentation, so if you look in the documentation (The first link in the Contents is What's New) or go to the support site and search for What's New, you will find a What's New for SAS 9 and 9.1 that outlines what was added or enhanced between SAS 8.2 and SAS 9.1.
It really is impossible to quote prices. You can contact the SAS representative for your company or call SAS to get the name of a representative in your area or for your industry.
cynthia