When did the ST stop being made?

[tyranthraxus]

What was the last year the ST was sold commerically? And did any of you

notice its passing at the time or had you moved on?

 

As a C=64 owner I had more interest in the Amiga line and came close

to buying an A2500 but opted for a 386 about 10-11 years ago. At the

time I remember the ST and Amiga were still being sold at national

chains but a few years later there were only a couple speciality stores.

By the time Commodore had died I didn't notice among all the hype

for Pentiums and Windows 95.

 

John

[+davidcalgary29]

I'm fairly sure that the Falcon -- and other latter-day STs -- were sold in Canada at least until 1993. I always thought that Atari Canada did an excellent job marketing to the country with the limited resources it had, and the ST line probably retained its popularity here longer than it did in the U.S. Note how many auctions the ST on eBay seem to originate in Canada?

 

In any case, I know that some clones are still being made in Europe today.

 

My local Amiga club has also told me that Amiga, Corp. is to release a computer in the New Year entitled "The One". I don't have the specs on this.

[RucasRiot]

That's true. Germany also embraced the ST, and an interesting fact: eBay.de is the only eBay with an Atari ST category.

[sonnenhexer]

Yeah, there you can see how popular the ST was here in germany.

 

Michael

[Joey Kay]

I always thought that Atari Canada did an excellent job marketing to the country with the limited resources it had, and the ST line probably retained its popularity here longer than it did in the U.S. Note how many auctions the ST on eBay seem to originate in Canada?  

 

Agreed. Atari Canada did a wonderful job of pushing its products (with a fair deal of success) here in Canada... much better than Atari US. Atari Canada was constantly holding promotions in conjunction with major Canadian manufacturers (there were always Atari video game giveaways with various candy companies and ST's were prizes in loads of contests from hot chocolate to golf tourneys...)

 

And how could we forget all those classic late 80's Canadian TV series with "Computers supplied by Atari (Canada) Corp." listed in the credits...

 

And Atari Canada even had upgrade programs for all their hardware at one time or another... you could upgrade your 5200 to a 7800 for a few bucks, as well as upgrade your 8-bit to a 520 ST for a couple hundred bucks when Atari was about to switch over to the STe...

 

I could go on forever on how much better Atari Canada was than Atari US...

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

[Gunstar]

I assume you mean upgrade TO the 7800 or ST by trading in your 5200 or 8-bit? Just so we don't get a lot of people asking how to upgrade their hardware...

[somePUNK]

i know where i live in canada you see as many atari computers as apples or comondors when out yard saling.

[DracIsBack]

I actually wasn't really impressed with Atari Canada, though I do remember that ST promo.

 

I had an Atari 7800 and found that Atari Canada didn't know their head from their rear-end when it came to that system. When I'd ask them where to purchase 7800 games in the stores, they mixed up their dealers all the time. I go to one store looking for 7800 games and they only carried the 2600. I'd go to another looking for XE games and find the 7800 games. It was just wacked.

 

I also tried ordering from them directly. More often than not, they didn't carry the games they had in the states. When I tried to order the games on their list, have of them weren't in stock. Other times, they wouldn't list games that they had for sale (DARK CHAMBERS comes to mind). They were slow to ship, shipped from items and didn't refund money when they didn't have something you ordered in stock.

 

I just wasn't really impressed with them.

[Joey Kay]

I also tried ordering from them directly. More often than not, they didn't carry the games they had in the states. When I tried to order the games on their list, have of them weren't in stock. Other times, they wouldn't list games that they had for sale (DARK CHAMBERS comes to mind). They were slow to ship, shipped from items and didn't refund money when they didn't have something you ordered in stock

 

Weird... I had the exact opposite experience with direct mail order from Atari Canada.

 

Aside from their inability to get Mean 18 Golf (which they refunded me), they shipped everything FAST FAST FAST. Whenever I would order a video game, it would almost always arrive one week after I sent the letter out.

 

When ordering over the phone with credit cards they were great (always incredibly friendly) and they really were superb regarding customer service. I think the last time I ordered from them was the summer of '92, shortly before they were, as Sam Tramiel put it, "Right-sized".

 

Maybe they just liked me better than you

 

Although, I would agree it was weird how they didn't carry some of the software that Atari US carried... especially considering how they usually had their hands on Atari hardware before Atari US!

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

[+davidcalgary29]

I wish we could get somone who worked at Atari Canada online!

Ah, well. I still have fond memories of bringing my 1050 back again and again to their Markham shop...until I learned how to put that drive belt back on (and save myself some $60).

 

By the way, does anyone know that TAF has kicked the bucket, or nearly so? I was shocked when I found out that the club has been comatose for the last two years or so...