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Part 1: Rediscovering The Atari ST
In 2018, after our mother handed away and we spent months cleansing out her home, we determined, as twin brothers who fairly actually “grew up Atari”, that we might begin a podcast about retro gaming for Atari platforms. That podcast turned “Into The Vertical Blank: Generation Atari” which has now run for nearly 5 years with nearly 75 episodes”, and nonetheless going robust.
What began as a really informal and light-hearted nostalgia journey, took a sudden flip into deep dialog concerning the that means of Atari in our lives, memoir, interviews, and shortly after, a rising have to not solely speak concerning the previous, however relive it as effectively. We weren’t even considering a lot concerning the ST after we began the podcast, no less than Steve wasn’t, as a substitute we focused on the Atari 8-bit, 7800 and 2600 in addition to the coin-ops we beloved like Asteroids and Star Wars. But little by little, because the episodes rolled out, The Atari ST got here increasingly into focus. As we talked concerning the ST, it turned clear that whereas we had enjoyable with the opposite Atari machines and platforms, it was the Atari ST that was, fairly actually, an important machine we ever owned.
Part 2: Our Short Atari ST History
In life, is there something good that you simply purchase from the trunk of a automotive?
We bought a 520ST in January of 1987 from that trunk. The trunk of a automotive, owned by a man named Art, the eventual proprietor of the Computer Games Plus retailer entrance in Orange, CA. We paid him in money, and drove away with our future.
We’d been following Atari for years, enjoying arcade coin-ops, our trusty Atari VCS 2600, and the Atari 800 laptop your dad purchased us in 1983, 2nd hand from his good friend who had grown out of it. By 1987 we knew Jack Tramiel from Commodore had taken over the Atari shopper division in July 1984. We additionally knew the Atari 800 in your desk is getting previous. It was nonetheless enjoyable, however there’s so little software program popping out for it that it was apparent its days had been numbered. When we learn in Antic and Analog Magazine that the brand new Atari 520 ST computer systems, those that had been scarce within the USA since they had been launched in late 1985, would quickly be extensively obtainable within the USA, we knew the time had come. We made the acquisition for our seventeenth birthday, with cash we collected for Christmas, our birthday, and from promoting the trusty Atari 8-bit laptop gear.
The cash we invested within the Atari was most likely one of the best cash we ever spent as twin brothers. The 520 ST was our recreation console and our writing and learning instrument for varsity. We made animations with Cyberpaint for varsity tasks, took notes on it for school, we wrote our first completed recreation on the Atari ST, and Steve even wrote his first printed journal article on it.
In that point, we by no means seen that the ST was not the identical laptop because the Amiga. If we had recognized in 1987 that J. Miner, one of many principales who designed the Atari 8-bit, was additionally a major determine within the Amiga, we would have been swayed in that course as a substitute of Atari.
Might have.
But then, there was POWER WITHOUT THE PRICE.
The slogan from Atari Corp. that was value its weight in gold,When we purchased our 520 ST , monochrome monitor and disc drive for $599 in January 1987, the most cost effective Amiga was greater than twice the worth.Jack Tramiel, no matter his faults, was the person who made 16-bit computer systems obtainable to lower-middle-class youngsters like us who couldn’t afford them every other method. We will at all times be grateful that he made it potential.
The ST was actually a lot better than the CGA and EGA PCs of the time, and it rocked over the Apple II ,COCo and C64. It wasn’t competing with the Amiga in our minds and expertise, it was competing with every thing else. We had been having an excessive amount of enjoyable enjoying video games and creating our personal future to actually care concerning the competitors anyway.
And how about these video games?
The Atari ST was our 16-bit gaming powerhouse. In an age when our mates in highschool had been enjoying Zelda on their NESs, we had been enjoying Dungeon Master on the Atari ST, and there was merely no comparability between the 2.
For no less than 2 years within the 80’s, the Atari ST was the premiere gaming platform in Europe, and right here within the USA we had been the beneficiaries of that success. Because Atari’s viewers had “become more selective”, we needed to drive our crappy inexperienced Toyota Corolla on the 2-hour turn-around journey to Computer Games Plus (now open as a store-front as a substitute of simply the trunk of Art’s automotive) to purchase ST video games. It was a wonderful trek each couple months, as we returned with a stack of latest imported video games from corporations like Psygnosis, Ocean, Infogrames, Domark, The Bitmap Brothers, and U.S. Gold, plus a pair shiny British magazines named ST Action and ST Format. It was gaming nirvana, however one thing we shared principally alone collectively as few different folks had STs within the USA. It was like our personal secret world of 16-bit amazement ½ decade earlier than our mates performed 16-bit video games on the IBM 286, Sega Genesis, or Super Nintendo.
In the summer season of 1988 we upgraded to the 1040STF, this time on credit score from the native Federated Group retailer, then owned by Atari Corp. From then till 1992, the ST was every thing – Game machine, phrase processor, research support, Cobol improvement machine, video titler, animation machine, recreation improvement machine, and ultimately an IBM AT Emulator.
In 1992, with pressures from faculty and work, we invested in an 386 DX-40, and entered the realm of the PC. It was bittersweet, as a result of as we lavished ourselves in 265-color /VGA graphics and SoundBlaster Pro sounds, we stated goodbye to our beloved Atari computer systems, those that acquired us via Jr. High, High School, and practically via faculty. As the pc age raced via the 90’s and 2000’s, we by no means imagined there can be a time after we would return to our Atari machines.
The day we bought the 1040 STf from Federated Group
-1040 STf with built-in double density floppy drive
–SM124: Monochrome monitor (from unique ST)
-SC1224: Color monitor
-Degas
-Cyberpaint
-Atari 2600 Trac-ball
Part 3: Jeff’s Journey To ST Rediscovery
You’ll discover that two guys write this column, myself (Jeff) and my twin brother Steve. We have shared this ST journey collectively since 1987, however I used to be the one who first despatched us on the trail of rediscovery. For 25 years The Atari ST lay dormant. After getting our first 386DX-40 in 1992, it was PC DOS/Windows with no turning again. In 2017, Getting the ST setup to run previous video games was not for the faint of coronary heart. The machine was dusty and previous in a field stuffed with recreation disks and manuals. Some of the keys had fallen off and the ability wire was nowhere to be discovered.
I scavenged an influence wire from an previous PC Tower, which labored as a result of from the 1988 1040STF on, Atari went to an inner energy provide structure which allowed for using commonplace 3 prong PC energy cables, whereas additionally limiting the life of every machine attributable to inner capacitor issues. This machine’s inner energy labored and I used to be in a position to get the flickery previous ST SM1224 Color monitor to perform too. I plugged in a normal Atari joystick, the ST commonplace 9 pin mouse, put Anco Kick Off 2 within the drive and fired her up!
The recreation disk ran and the joystick labored, and I had a stunning time enjoying the unlicensed names of previous Division 1 English Footballers via the paces of an excellent quick motion contest. It was a pleasure to relive certainly one of my favourite all time laptop video games.
What adopted subsequent was an obsession…
I noticed on Twitter that Randy from the Antic Atari 8bit Podcast had a Boxed 1040STFM on the market. The SFTM added TV Modulation to the machine so it may output, though poorly, to a normal colour TV. When that arrived I hooked all of it up and it labored completely. Even the SM1224 monitor regarded higher so probably the flickering was a product of the previous 1040STF’s video connection. I performed a number of extra video games on this machine – 1943 and Commando come to thoughts. Both are good ports with Commando being one of many higher all time ports of that arcade machine.
I needed to play Blitter chip, enhanced Stereo Audio and Hard Drive video games although and that will imply one other buy. The blitter chip was within the Mega and STE fashions, and the STE additionally added enhanced sound and extra. The 1040 STE with 4 MB ram turned my dream. They appeared to solely be obtainable for about $500 + transport from the UK.
This was a little bit an excessive amount of for my blood on the time, however I discovered somebody on Craigslist promoting a Mega 2 and Mega 4 ST together with 2 laborious drives and a bunch of IBM and Mac Atari software program and jumped at the $400 price ticket for all of it. The Mega 2 functioned correctly, however wanted a Mega exterior keyboard to work. I used to be capable of finding one for $100 on Ebay, hooked all of it up with the Seagate 30MB laborious drive that got here with the Mega’ and proceeded to play the ST recreation Crash Time Plumber and some different video games that required the Mega 2 blitter however didn’t want the STE sound capabilities.
The SM1224 monitor was clunky and small, so I bought a “DIN to VGA” cable from Atari Sales and attached the machine to VGA via an costly VGA15hz (what the STs output for colour) to VGA 72hz converter field. This labored nice and I may use my HD TV or a Standard VGA monitor with the Mega 2..
But I nonetheless needed a 1040STE. About 6 months later I plunged, buying a 4MB upgraded 1040STE from the UK. Because of the inner energy provide, I additionally want a 120v to 240v step up converter field. To get one of the best video, I wanted an RGB DIN to SCART cable after which a SCART to HDMI converter field. I changed the Seagate 30MB with an Ultra Satan SD card answer as a tough drive substitute and likewise swapped the floppy drive with a Gotex USB floppy substitute. After a number of hours of formatting disks and creating floppy disk photographs, I got here out on the opposite facet with a 4 MB Atari STE full colour show on any monitor and the flexibility to make use of any software program or play any recreation that was ever launched for the platform. If a recreation was / will not be STE appropriate (some don’t work) and there’s no repair obtainable, I may at all times use the 1040 STFM I bought from Randy (Antic Podcast). This was simply concerning the time we acquired critical about our podcast, and shortly after, I acquired Steve hooked again on the Atari ST as effectively.
Modern ST Nirvana Achieved.
As it turned out, we would have left the Atari ST for some time, however the Atari ST by no means left us.
Jeff’s Current “Ultimate STe Setup”
- Atari “4160STE” 4MB STE with new Badge
- ArcadeR Micro Switch New Retro Joystick
- Step up 120 to 240 energy converter (This is a UK machine getting used within the uSA)
- Ultra Satan Hard Drive Replacement (hidden behind machine)
- Atari Sales ST DIN to VGA Cable
- Dell Multisync Monitor Capable of 15hz (STE Low), 60hz (VGA) and 72hz (ST High)
- Mini-Sound Bar to play STE Stereo
- ST 9 Pin to Ps2 Mouse connector
- Playing STE Only recreation Alien Blast
Two brothers who grew up with an Atari ST and are nonetheless speaking about it!
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