AppleTalk/LocalTalk driver for Atari ST's

[Curt Vendel]

Hi,

 

I spoke with Leonard Tramiel regarding the AppleTalk compatible RS422 ports on the STE, TT and Falcon computers. I asked if Atari itself ever worked on an official driver to allow the ST's to connect and use Apple peripherals and shares. He said no, that Atari never developed anything and never worked on making a driver.

 

 

So... has anyone ever tried writing an Appletalk "ATP" Driver to allow Atari Falcons to connect to Appleshares using the older Apple Talk Protocol? AppleTalk was nothing more than a RS422 network so the hardware is very simple, its just a matter of getting a driver written that would access the hardware and allow the STE, TT and Falcons to be able to talk on the network, either to each other or to an Apple Mac running a Share.

 

Be very curious to know if this was ever tried by anyone over the past 25+ years.

 

 

[Curt Vendel]

Well, a quick check and this looks VERY promising:

 

http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/

[ParanoidLittleMan]

It was on Mega STE, not STE .

I remember that we discussed about it many years (about 12) ago. But even then it was not interesting anymore. There were already LAN solutions for Ataris.

Before it people used serial RS232 connections and PARCP to connect to PCs. Or Atari to Atari - what was possible with MIDI too, of course.

[stirrell]

It always seemed weird to me that a company known so much for cost-cutting would have added ports to these machines without any plans to use them. I have no idea what cost the ports would add to each unit but it has always just struck me as odd.

[Curt Vendel]

It always seemed weird to me that a company known so much for cost-cutting would have added ports to these machines without any plans to use them. I have no idea what cost the ports would add to each unit but it has always just struck me as odd.

They are just RS422 ports, not much in the way of cost. I'm sure it was more than made up for in the PR benefits, but its a shame it was never utilized. Sure there is Ethernec and other LAN solutions but it would've been a big plus to have been able to use an ST on a AppleTalk network and access Appleserver shares or even the possibility of printing to a Laserwiter... While Atari's have TCP/IP, doing something like having a Netbeui stack or to be able to access SMB protocols and access a Windows share from an ST would also be a big plus.

[Christos]

They are just RS422 ports, not much in the way of cost. I'm sure it was more than made up for in the PR benefits, but its a shame it was never utilized. Sure there is Ethernec and other LAN solutions but it would've been a big plus to have been able to use an ST on a AppleTalk network and access Appleserver shares or even the possibility of printing to a Laserwiter... While Atari's have TCP/IP, doing something like having a Netbeui stack or to be able to access SMB protocols and access a Windows share from an ST would also be a big plus.

 

You can access samba shares from an ST. If you have lots of RAM and run mint you can also have nfs. I remember reading that it was possible to use the RS422 port as a serial port but nothing about Appletalk compatibility.

Edited January 17, 2019 by Christos

[+Nezgar]

It always seemed weird to me that a company known so much for cost-cutting would have added ports to these machines without any plans to use them. I have no idea what cost the ports would add to each unit but it has always just struck me as odd.

Adding MIDI ports worked out well for them at the time, though. I guess they figured some developers might try to take advantage of them, even if they had no plans themselves. Just like VME bus and Enhanced joystick ports...

[stirrell]

When the Falcon came out I was in college at UMaine which had a huge AppleTalk Network on campus. I remember thinking how cool it would be to be able to connect to the network and print to the laser printers at the library. Instead I made due with trying to configure software to get online using my 2400 baud modem. I never got it working reliably.

[Lynxpro]

They are just RS422 ports, not much in the way of cost. I'm sure it was more than made up for in the PR benefits, but its a shame it was never utilized. Sure there is Ethernec and other LAN solutions but it would've been a big plus to have been able to use an ST on a AppleTalk network and access Appleserver shares or even the possibility of printing to a Laserwiter... While Atari's have TCP/IP, doing something like having a Netbeui stack or to be able to access SMB protocols and access a Windows share from an ST would also be a big plus.

 

It seemed pretty weird to me why they'd stick a port on there and not write a driver for it unless Apple hit them up with a C&D over alluding to potential AppleTalk compatibility.

 

I think it would be a worthwhile project. After all, a lot of Atari ST/TT/Falcon enthusiasts also ended up with Macs due to Atari Corp's demise. Getting them all to work together over an AppleTalk network would be pretty cool.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

 

It seemed pretty weird to me why they'd stick a port on there and not write a driver for it unless Apple hit them up with a C&D over alluding to potential AppleTalk compatibility.

 

But there are another examples of port not supported by Atari, and not even by SW developers: STE enhanced joystick analog inputs. In this case it's not driver SW what is missed, but joystick with analog stick We could add here STE DMA audio too - no any support in TOS, instead it we have bad audio levels in mixer, so PSG audio is about 6x louder than DMA. Fixed for first time in Falcon.