Stock 1040STf vs expanded (4 mb) STFm (which is best for gaming?)

[edwinvanpoeijer]

Hi,

 

I'm now the lucky owner of two 1040ST(f), one is a stock version in very very good shape and the other one is in good shape and has a 4 mb memory expansion build in.

Because i only need one i'm having trouble deciding which one i will sell.

 

One would say, keep the expanded one but i'm only going play games on the ST, so my question which one is likely more compatible with most games?

Has the 4 mb memory expansion any use for games or only for some large demos and other applications?

 

[anzac]

As far as i recall, there is several software (games and apps) that *need* 1MB to work.

 

More than that, only a few programs will use the extra memory in a way that makes a difference. if it was me, i would check carefully the versions of the machines to see which one has the best TOS and use that one. Being ST[f(m?)] TOS 1.4 would be ideal.

 

Since you were specific enough to say ST(f) and not ST(fm), i would guess they are early models and probably have TOS 1.2, tops.

 

Considering the problems early ST versions had with memory upgrades, i would say there is a chance that the 4MB machine got a TOS upgrade along with the memory upgrade. something to check.

 

As for having the two units, specially if they are close models, i would seriously consider keeping both so you can source parts from the other if needed. buying a couple of parts online will quickly exceed the value you might get sellling the machine, but that´s just my opinion.

if your primary machine keeps stable and working, you can still sell the other one at any time. ST computers will only get more rare and more valuable with time now, so... consider an investment...

Edited July 14, 2016 by anzac

[exxosuk]

Keep the 4MB one. You may want to run a hard drive in the future, so 1MB games will need some more RAM to run the hard drive drivers. You can always add a switch to 1MB, or there are software to fool the machine into thinking its got 1MB.

[edwinvanpoeijer]

Thanks for the tips, the one with 4mb is a STfm and the other one a STf.

I think i'll keep the 4 mb and this weekend i'm going to pickup another STf, luckily there are still ST's overhere in the Netherlands.

[+rdemming]

Some games crash with 4MB because they clear the available memory one byte/word/long-word too far (off by one bug). On less than 4MB machines this will not be a problem since writes to non existing memory below the 4MB boundary are ignored but above the 4MB boundary the memory controller will generate an address-error and the program bombs out.

In most games with this "bug" it can be solved with a little program that makes the ST thinks it has less than 4MB memory.

 

Robert

[edwinvanpoeijer]

@rdemming

Do you know which program that is?

I need to make some time to dive into this whole ST world

[+rdemming]

@rdemming

Do you know which program that is?

I need to make some time to dive into this whole ST world

 

Back in the time I wrote my own that had two methods, limiting the size in the OS and disabling the second memory bank in the memory control register (the second had better compatibility). It must be on a floppy somewhere...

 

But after a little searching I found another program here. Search for "512K" on that page.

 

Robert

[edwinvanpoeijer]

 

Back in the time I wrote my own that had two methods, limiting the size in the OS and disabling the second memory bank in the memory control register (the second had better compatibility). It must be on a floppy somewhere...

 

But after a little searching I found another program here. Search for "512K" on that page.

 

Robert

Thanks for the info