The Atari ST

The history of The Atari Corporation is in itself a history in part of the home computer industry both in the UK and the states. Originally ATARI was part of Warner Brothers and was the first and most successful of the early console manufacturers with the 2600 being the most well known. The graphics and sound were nothing like as sophisticated as the later japanese consoles but were a considerable advance on the 'PONG' machines available at the time. And yet it was not to last and the emergence of the home computer (Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64 etc...) virtually killed the 2600 overnight. ATARI was then bought out by Jack Tramiel, former boss of Commodore Business Machines who then promptly went into competition with his former company with a series of 8 bit computers which were on the whole very good but found it difficult to compete in an already crowded market (see MonoCall Issue 1). What was needed was something different and that something was the ATARI ST.

The old 8 bit case was expanded and the central processor was replaced by the Motorola 68000 processor running at 8 Mhz. The old 8 bit disk drives were adapted for the new machine and a new soundchip (AY-3812) was used. Originally there were to be three ST models with a 260ST containing 256k of RAM and a 130ST containing 128k of RAM principally to keep the prices down but both of these models were never launched. ATARI instead aimed the new 512k machine at the then very successful APPLE Macintosh machines and the price of 899 pounds for an ST with a monitor reflects that. Only later could the price be brought in line with the home market.

But these early machines were not the ST we know today. They were not sold with TV modulators and disk drives were external to the case. Much of the interior of the case was filled with small and therefore expensive chips with a huge bank of 16 memory chips 256k each in size. This makes memory upgrades rather difficult. Now might also be the time to quash several myths about the ST. The ST in the name does not refer to Jack Tramiel's son (Sam) but instead means Sixteen Thirty-Two which refers to the central processor which has eight address registers and eight data registers all 32 bits wide but with a 24 bit address bus and a 16 bit data bus (hence 16/32). The operating system is dubbed TOS and means The Operating System NOT Tramiel Operating System as many would have you believe. GEM, the ST's Graphical Environment Manager is a port from the PC and is therefore a little slow. It cannot multi-task without additional software unlike the Sinclair QL and the Amiga although the later FALCON can.

So what did you get for your money. The ST came in avery large beige coloured case with a reasonable keyboard built-in. The ST had a whole range of very useful ports on the back. The one port you won't find is a cassette port as disk was the order of the day for this new, thrusting and thoroughly modern machine. There is the usual RS232 port for modems but also a parallel port for printers. There was also both a composite and RGB monitor output ports and a MIDI port which made it a favourite machine with music studio's. You will also find a floppy disk port and a hard drive socket. There is also a ROM port for a 128k plug-in ROM. These last two items may have been deleted on later models. There are also two joystick ports although one is used for the supplied mouse.

The operating system and GUI were supplied on ROM although the BASIC was on floppy. GEM is a now forgotten but very good Graphical User Interface and makes the machine very useable. The TOS operating system has elements of CP/M-68k and CP/M-86 within it to enable GEM to run. The FALCON has an upgraded version of TOS to add multi-tasking. Graphics capabilities are good although sound is a little disappointing. All in all a very good machine.

There then came a series of revisions to the new machine over a period of several years. Regretably I am unable to remember the dates that these occurred. The STM was introduced which incorporated a built-in Modulator which meant it could be plugged into a domestic TV.

Then came the most significant upgrade which was the STFM containing a 3.5 inch floppy drive. This introduced several problems. The older external drives could access 82 tracks and these spare tracks were used by software suppliers for protection routines which the new drives could not read and so quite a lot of software would not only not run on the new machines but would result in horrible grinding noises from the drive trying to access the extra non-existent tracks. Also the new drives only had a single head (presumably to keep costs down) reducing by half the capacity of the floppy disk because unlike 3 inch disks, 3.5 inchers cannot turned over to access the other side of the disk. Not a particularly good design. Suffice to say that the Amiga suffered from neither of these problems.

The MegaST was different machine entirely with full disk drives and extra memory. These were likewise considerably more expensive. The later STE was the machine that should have been built from the start. Full twin head disk drives and easy memory upgrades via SIMM's were a very welcome addition. Throughout most of this transition the ST was 100 pounds cheaper than the Amiga at 299 pounds, even the later STE and yet the Amiga eventually gained market share and Atari seemed to give up the fight.

The final machine was the FALCON which seems to be a superior machine but very few seem to have been built. The LYNX and JAGUAR consoles helped to keep the company alive but they also eventually ceased production. The ST is still supported by user groups but there are no magazines to be found at the newagents these days.

The ST is still a fine machine and on sale at most car boot sales for silly money. The STE is the best machine to get or a MegaST if you can find one. Software also seems to turn up quite often but as always only buy a machine if it has software with it. You won't find ST software in abundance in the shops anymore. And beware of the disk drive problem. Unless the earlier drive has been upgraded to a double sided drive then later software will not work and upgrading the drives is notoriously difficilt. But don't let that put you off buying a piece of computing history and at a fraction of the price of a secondhand Amiga. Happy Hunting!