Shredder11

Back in 2010 / 11 I remember trying to use some known working TOS 2.06 UK ROMS from an STe, in a Mega STe and it did not work and the TOS chips got really hot. So I asked someone in the Atari community to burn me some 2.06 UK for the Mega Ste and those worked. Not sure what the difference was between them though.

The problems I had were entirely hardware related, and all the proposed software or driver solutions never worked. The VIA and SiS were not terrible in themselves, but they were VERY picky about what other hardware they would work with especially soundcards. Once I went with Intel every single bit of hardware since including soundcards have just simply worked, without the need to find solutions or workarounds. In a nutshell the VIA + AMD combo were generally ok for gamers at the time, but useless for pro musicians and people doing multimedia stuff. In hindsight back in 2000 I should have kept using my Atari STE 4MB machine sync'd to my nice Fostex DMT8 v2 multitrack recorder and Steinberg Cubase sequencer, for another few years until around say 2005/7 when computing power had moved on enough to replace the bombproof Atari ST + digital recorder setups that people had been using throughout the 1990s.

Yep although mine was still working when I got rid of it. Once I had some money to buy my own PC at the beginning of 2002, I chose an ASUS TUSL2-C motherboard with Celeron 1200 (now has PIII 1400S as of 2024) and GeForce 2 MX400 AGP (FX5900XT since 2004), and has been extensively upgraded over the years and is still in use; fantastic machine. Lessons learned from those early donated PCs? Always stick with Intel chipsets! Had endless problems prior to this, due to those PCs having VIA or SiS chipsets.

I used a Zip Stick and it was decent, although nowhere near as good as the original Kempston Pro it was cloned from. I also owned the original Kempston and it was excellent, but the Powerplay Cruiser improved upon the usability aspects and added useful features.

My Atari STE 1MB + SM124 was bought used from a friend in September 1994, who had moved to the Sega Megadrive in early 1992. I used that STE purely for pro music with Steinberg Cubase and later upgraded it with 4MB and more MIDI ports. I moved from that to a desktop PC donated by my uncle in June 2000, which was an old PC Chips M571 v3.2(A) board with a Cyrix 6x86 P166+ 166MHz (running at stock speed of 133MHz). Terrible machine for gaming unless really old DOS titles were installed. It did not have AGP and relied upon PCI graphics cards, or worse the onboard GPU using shared memory.

My preference has always been the Cruiser Powerplay of which I have two, and they are easily found to buy online especially Ebay. Built like a tank and can take some real abuse. Arcade machine quality of build and performance. Very precise and the stick stiffness can be adjusted via a collar on the base of the shaft. The top of the stick has a flat head, making those fast action games requiring "waggling" much easier. There are suction feet to make it stick and stay in a fixed position on a suitable table surface if you so desire. I used mine with the Atari STE / Falcon 030 / Mega STE, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum 48K and 128K/+3, Commodore 64.

Looks a nice example. I remember shipping one of my Falcon 030 machines to a man in BC Canada in 2012. The total cost to ship was about a third of the price the Falcon sold for.

There are still people on here that used the dedicated Atari forum for music, and that has now been moved to a new area on there. https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=21 and there is this long running topic from 2004, with the last post from 2020 https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=106 Not forgetting this active Facebook group with 2000 members Atari ST musicians network

I tried a couple of USB Floppy Disk drives with no luck, but then found the DELL FDDM-101 which is a laptop drive with a USB port on the side. It seems to have less reliance on the Windows operating system for drive commands, e.g. carries it on the floppy drive itself like a desktop one would do. Handles 720KB properly too. Plenty around on Ebay and I got mine years ago for almost nothing. However I mostly use my IBM Thinkpad G41 with its built-in floppy drive, and that laptop cost me £10 and I upgraded the CPU, RAM and added an SSD drive to max the specifications out. I reserve this as a retro machine for 8 and 16 bit emulation.

I used a "Monitor Master" switch box for years and years with zero issues and nothing broken in the slightest. I still have a spare as I bought a couple of them back then.

The red flag I got when doing a quick search on her, was the support for "diversity" which as we know is code for destruction of nations by (((globalists))). Then she is also into AI and we know what the public corporate face of that has been pushing of late with their talking heads (Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg etc). So both of those things have got her a pat on the back from the system. So if at some point she begins pushing LGBTQ+ then I will know for sure, that she is working towards nefarious goals and the wrong kind of people.

Some potential buyer is bound to ask if everything in the photo is included...

According to this interview her age is 18. Seems very likeable kind of girl, not an airhead either and of course easy on the eye. Might become the next Jeri Ellsworth? Short Instagram video clip

I forgot about the other game Downfall that was for the Falcon 030, which can also use the Jagpad controller. YouTube video link below: Atari Falcon 030 (UK) Demonstration using Jagpad controller with a few games

There was a free game released in late 2009 called r0x, where you dodged asteroids made especially for the 4MB STe and the Enhanced Joystick Ports. Very addictive and well made game and even works on the Falcon 030, although the online demos do not show it at its best, e.g. the super smooth parallax scrolling. The joystick to use in those special ports is the Jagpad, which was very cheap to buy when I got one ten years ago from Ebay UK. r0x (Atari STE) (2009) - Official webpage with download links Another free STe game that came out recently is this, and it is multiplayer using all the availble ports etc. FROGS for ATARI STe V1.2 - Webpage with download link Another free 1MB STe game from 2017 is a homebrew of the classic Pole Position arcade game, which is close to perfect with 60fps and full use of DMA chip. https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=327993&sid=adb2f12868cb27f3d91fd73e50cb542f#p327993Pole Position arcade conversion with download link YouTube Demo Video - Atari ST Pole Position - release candidate 27 September 2017

There was also the Hydra ethernet cartridge board from around 2010 which was the NetUSBee minus the USB port, and the USB had barely any uses due to lack of hardware drivers. Might as well buy one and have a muck around with it and then sell it on to someone else.

After watching jookie's videos showing his device, my mind is blown by the greatness of it!

Good old simbo!

I have a HxC SD Floppy Emulator but I also covered my bases, by getting a IBM Thinkpad G40 (barely used and like new) which has an internal floppy drive and DVD/CD drive, plus Parallel Port so this makes an ideal companion computer for my retro computers. I already own a couple of desktop PCs with internal floppy drives, plus I have some Dell external USB floppy drives which work with 720KB and 1.44MB disks.

I bought mine from France though.

Wow I must have been ultra lucky getting mine for the equivalent of $83 at todays rate of conversion (I got mine in 2011). Mine is a 4MB + MC68001 FPU + 120MB HDD French model that I converted into a UK model (I replaced the TOS to 2.06 UK & keyboard), although it lacks the RF socket on the back; apparently models intended for certain markets had this feature removed. It's a great computer and might even become my main Atari

Not forgetting the rather good http://atarimusic.net/

Wow you should be very proud of yourself indeed!

On a different point, I think I have read that the USA Falcons performed better with audio/MIDI applications like Cubase Audio, due to the better components in certain parts of it.

Hey sounds like good old Diamond Dave and I assume Van Halen