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Inside the 1040ST

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Re: Inside the 1040ST

#51

Post by ajross »

People didn't see it at the time, but the Atari ST was the first signal of the End of the Platform Computer.

On paper, this should have been perfect: it was a maximally cost-reduced 68k board with capabilities that met or exceeded everything on the market. It was faster than a Mac Plus or PC/AT and 3x cheaper than either, it had an EGA level framebuffer (though the color monitor was still a TV tube). I had one of these and loved it, and was sure it was the best computer in the world.

But it tanked, and it tanked because it didn't run Lotus 1-2-3, or Excel, or Netware, and you couldn't buy a VGA or ethernet card for it out of the back of Byte magazine.

Computers in 1984 were still small enough that you could just throw a good/cheap computer (c.f. the C64) with junk software (c.f. the C64) at the market and have the software vendors figure out everything by writing to the bare metal.

Computers in 1986 needed frameworks and commonality and ecosystems (above this level, note that diskless Sun 3's with 4.2BSD and NFS were reaching market at this moment too). And that meant just shipping something cheaper wasn't enough any more.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#52

Post by j45 »

thom wrote: post #11

Nothing but happy memories about this machine. My dad wrote books about programming microcomputers throughout the 80s so we were very lucky to grow up around a menagerie of machines, but somehow this one has the warmest place in my heart. I suppose I was even aware that it was inferior to the Amiga, but that did nothing to cheapen the hours I spent playing Rock Star Ate My Hamster, Player Manager and Xenon II (which…

Same here. It was like visiting the future a little early.

The IBM XT it sat next to looked depressing in comparison.

And there has never been a game like

Revenge of the Mutant Camels since.

Or a tweener that was as simple and powerful as the one I used then.

And.. I think I’m off to go look for an emulator.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#53

Post by j45 »

thomasfl wrote: post #26

An Atari 1040ST i combination with a sampler, like Akai S-900 or Roland W-30, and a synth with keybs, was a gret combo back then. As the first computer with built in midi-interface, it became very popular with musicians.

What’s amazing is how capable that setup would still be today

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#54

Post by j45 »

The comments here reminded me of all the ST Format magazine I threw out.. and probably should have put on eBay for someone else to enjoy.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#55

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #46
timbit42 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What made it faster than a Mac? Clock speed, low wait states, or something else?

Yeah, slightly higher clock and bus rate. That and it ran at 640x400, so more screen real estate. So people would use the Macintosh emulators on them (piece of hardware that plugged in the Mac ROMs and some floppy adapter stuff) and get a machine far cheaper than (and superior to) a standard Mac of the time. Biggest problem was getting the ROMs. If I recall the products were SpectreGCR & Magic Sac. https://en.wikiped…

Hrm. Had no problem with the ROMs at all. They came integrated into the cracked version which also eliminated the need for hardware. Just two floppies. Made the rounds in schoolyards at the time ;->

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#56

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

alexisread wrote: post #18

A fantastic machine, could have been so much more though: TBH I think bigger impacts would have come from a few tweaks to the ST hardware: Autocad started life on the ST with the Cyber series of products - including a full expansion port as the cartridge port would allow for high-colour videocards, which the lack of forced them to migrate to other platforms. Similarly for DTP which was huge on the ST at launch. The A…

Gier frisst Hirn! Greed eats brain, minimum viable product, in hindsight always sucked.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#57

Post by LargoLasskhyfv »

lttlrck wrote: post #5

I had a 520ST and upgraded the RAM by soldering in 16 x RAM chips into empty slots in the top left. Good times.

You had empty slots? Lucky you! I soldered mine on top of the existing ones, with the exception of a few pins, which had to be wirewrapped to some other chip.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#58

Post by CWuestefeld »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #46
timbit42 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What made it faster than a Mac? Clock speed, low wait states, or something else?

Yeah, slightly higher clock and bus rate. That and it ran at 640x400, so more screen real estate. So people would use the Macintosh emulators on them (piece of hardware that plugged in the Mac ROMs and some floppy adapter stuff) and get a machine far cheaper than (and superior to) a standard Mac of the time. Biggest problem was getting the ROMs. If I recall the products were SpectreGCR & Magic Sac. https://en.wikiped…

> people would use the Macintosh emulators on them

Can confirm, my roomie and I both did.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#59

Post by alexisread »

alexisread wrote: post #18

A fantastic machine, could have been so much more though: TBH I think bigger impacts would have come from a few tweaks to the ST hardware: Autocad started life on the ST with the Cyber series of products - including a full expansion port as the cartridge port would allow for high-colour videocards, which the lack of forced them to migrate to other platforms. Similarly for DTP which was huge on the ST at launch. The A…

Edit Thanks djmips, it should be Autodesk 3D Studio Max rather than Autocad, editing is locked on the post now.

Re: Inside the 1040ST

#60

Post by alexisread »

djmips wrote: post #30
alexisread wrote: post #18

A fantastic machine, could have been so much more though: TBH I think bigger impacts would have come from a few tweaks to the ST hardware: Autocad started life on the ST with the Cyber series of products - including a full expansion port as the cartridge port would allow for high-colour videocards, which the lack of forced them to migrate to other platforms. Similarly for DTP which was huge on the ST at launch. The A…

I know you meant Autodesk 3D Studio Max (not AutoCad) but just pointing it out in case you want to edit your good post.

Thanks, I appended a note :)
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