ST Mouse, Software

[madhatter667]

Hey guys,

I nabbed an 520ST computer off of craigslist... pretty much complete, the only iffy thing is the mouse. I'd like to find a replacement. Atari brand if possible (I really like the look of having the Atari Fuji logo on the mouse... call me odd).

 

I am also looking to get games for this thing. Disk, or cartridge... I'm ok with copied games if I cannot get originals, as the only 'legit" disks this thing came with were the ST Language, 1st Word, and Silent Service. I'd be willing to buy blank floppies and send them if all else failed.

[Rybags]

The ST mouse kinda sucks. The early Mac mice were about the only ones ever made that were worse.

 

You could just get an Amiga mouse and rewire it.

 

Or, there are adaptors which allow you to use a PS2 mouse - I think some even allow you to select different tracking rates.

 

Games - well, there are probably 1,000 or near enough "menu" disks from cracking groups which you can just download. And probably all the games ever made

[madhatter667]

I've seen the cracked games, but am new as all get out to Atari computers. Are games such as that actually used on the STs? Or are they for use with modern PCs?

[Rybags]

Both. You'll need floppy imaging software to put most of them on 3.5" DD floppies to use on the real machine. Someone else should know the "best" program to use.

[madhatter667]

Interesting. I do have a disc full of game ROMs, and I nabbed FloImg for writing to floppies. I am unsure about the disks though...

I have the SF314 Disk Drive (Dual Density)... are these disks strictly 720K? Or can I use the 1.44Mb ones? Some of the ROMs are larger than 720k, which sort of points to the latter and not the former.

I pretty much missed out on the floppy disk era of computing. I understand what they are, and that there were a few different formats... but not a whole lot else. I've been doing web searches and what not... but I still feel like a total n00b about all of this. It's fun, and I am learning bit by bit.