Atari74user

Like many here, I evolved to an ST from an 800XL around '88. It was purely a games machine for a few years, I was captivated by any Bitmap Brothers title. I started swapping menu disks at school, collected magazines with cover disks which opened up other software. I was getting into music, and stared messing around with ST samplers and trackers in the early 90s. Similarly, along the same timeline as my music interest during the early to mid 90s, I purchased a hard drive, SyQuest drives, DTP and word processing software, namely Atari Works, Papyrus and Calamus, as well as utility software such as XBoot 3 and NVDI, along with upgrades like a TOS switcher, OverScan and more memory. These applications saw me through my education, producing school and college work. I also purchased various music and MIDI based software for my music interest, from Breakthru to Cubase, Replay 16, Squash it! and so on. My ST remained my main computer until about 2003 / 2004. After this date to now, it remains set up in my MIDI studio, along with my Falcon. It's actually never been in storage. Like all old equipment, music equipment included, they happily remain stable and legitimate for modern day use, providing they are maintained (hiccups along the way), alongside modern day equipment.

Here we go, one from Silica here. I very much remember these ads, Gasteiner I bought a few things from way back when, always wanted to visit. I purchased a lot from System Solutions, they were pretty big along with Gasteiner in the UK, not forgetting Compo and the HiSoft peeps. I remember buying some 8-bit stuff from Silica, so always scrutinised their glossy ads. Anyway, memory lane aside, Mega STE at £449 which I vaguely recall, with 2mb. I did a quick search circa 1992/93 in ST Format.

Also, one of the biggest differences between the Mega ST and the Mega STE other than casing are the BUS ports: Mega ST Has a bespoke MegaBus expansion port, unique to this machine. First ST to have a BLiTTER as standard as already mentioned, runs at 8MHz with a 512 colour palette. Mega STE Has a VME expansion bus, like the TT, and of course has 8-bit DMA stereo sound, like the 520 and 1040 STEs, as well as a 4096 colour palette as mentioned. Also has BLiTTER, and can run at 16MHz switchable back to 8MHz.

Well done SainT! I guess quite a few people have been waiting for this, but nice to see progress and things are getting ever closer to an end point. Hope the UK is represented somewhere in terms of retailers etc... EU at worst from a shipment perspective, but good work, it is appreciated.

These are selling like hot cakes, or maybe we need to re-define that term...these are selling like RetroHQ Jaguar SD Cartridges. Good to see this kick off and a flurry of activity! 👍

Good work, fair price in my opinion for what it will offer! Good work on the above move too for the same reasons for those that like to 'cash in' on the Atari community, on eBay and beyond!

That's cool, appreciate that response Al. Please keep them coming, through all of your combined efforts, it does not go unnoticed for sure! Can't resist Speedball 2, in beautiful red, ordered.

Curious, is there anything in the pipeline for someone like Gaztee to stock any of these new titles for European customers. As much as I am wanting Speedball 2, I am not sure I can justify $100 inclusive of shipping for a Jaguar cart, as much as I am pleased new conversions and the Jaguar is being supported. I have had no issues with supporting the new titles, but purchasing direct from the US only option, with the possibility of import charges is for me meaning customers outside of the US are being priced out. Just thought I'd ask, and food for thought. I am not b1tching here in the slightest, just curious.

Well I'm done! Awesome, thanks!

Hands down it has to be Xenon 2 for me, but then anything Bitmap Brothers I am a sucker for, beautiful games. My least favourite Bitmap Brothers title was Cadaver, but the rest were gold! Speedball 2 or Gods anyone...drool!

Looking very good, the wait will certainly be worth it. The menu is starting to look really polished, great news, great work!

So yes, any ST with M in it's title will have a modulator by and large, E for enhanced and amongst other things as standard have the stereo RCAs, but also a modulator. Power supply, all STs from the STF onwards had a built in power supply, 3 pronged kettled cord. Those prior to the STF (260ST / 520ST / 520ST+/ 520STM) had an external power supply and used DIN style power to connect to the external brick.

That's correct, because it plugs into the ACSI port.

No worries, actually for the Unicorn, see Alan's thread at Atari Forum, some useful info: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=25276

Arguably the Unicorn, for my purposes at least as it essentially allows me to use a USB stick for transferring for >1 file transfers. However the PARCP-USB is easier to set up, the Unicorn is cool, but was tedious to set up, probably because I had / have a GigaFile connected to the thru port. This guy's blog and vlogs are handy and informative: https://www.youtube.com/user/jamesfmackenzie/videos?shelf_id=0&sort=dd&view=0 In terms of transfer rates, I have not measured, measuring rates, connection speeds, MIDI timing is just not my interest, if it feels fast or I can hear things are in time in terms of MIDI, that's all the measurement I need for my personal uses. Can't vouch for anything LibUSB, can't help with that I am afraid.

...PARCP-USB as you say: https://joy.sophics.cz/parcp/parcp-usb.html, this is pretty good! I tend to use both Unicorn and PARCP, as and when.

Hi, I believe it was IMS who made the Protezoa editor. Interval Music Systems were formally Drumware. Here we go: http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/proteus-editors-dr-t-s-editor-ims-protezoa/312

Cool, I like Chis' (aka Exxos) stuff. Bought a whole load of stuff for my ST, inc. PSU, a wise choice!

That's cool, and whole lot of gig. I sourced my own dual IDE to CF adaptor and stuck a total of 8gb in my Falcon. It too has 14mb and an FPU, I managed to get one of the second batch of CT60e's, and sorted myself out with 512mb of DDR RAM and a 68060, just need a PSU, probably will be a Pico, then I will put it altogether, just haven't the time unfortunately, but looking forward to it. Hoping to get some 3D printing done for a nice neat PSU solution so everything is housed neatly with no bodges.

Truly crazy, everything seems to be 'rare' or limited these days! Even burgers come in Limited Edition, seriously, it's 'food'!

In some ways yes, the comparison could be argued as more of a departure as you say, like the 400/800 to XL/XE. Many do see the Atari 260ST through to Atari TT and Falcon as the ST line, they are of course all TOS based. However in terms of pure ST line, as mentioned by ParaniodLittleMan, they all have compatibility nuances, but there is compatibility, just not 100% between all models. There were Falcon compatible, enhanced and exclusive games. Not a great deal in real terms, but for example: http://christophe.bray.free.fr/informatique/falcon/falcon_jeux.htm If you want to sell your car and/or a kidney: https://www.ebay.com/itm/FALCON-030-Atari-Games-LlamaZap-Ishar1-3-DinoD-SteelT-Running4WD-MoonS-Gravon/263689578060?hash=item3d651fa64c:g:eY0AAOSwX7BaYIJB

No legitimate 060, only the prototypes, the Atari Falcon itself, then C-Lab took over with the C-Lab Falcon, C-Lab Falcon MKII and MKX which were all 030. The accelerator of choice these days for the Falcon are the CT6Xs, whether CT60, CT63 or CT60e which as the name suggests are 060 based. A beautiful machine, I am not really into emulators, I just can't get excited about them in the slightest for my tastes, useful, just don't come close in terms of user experience. It's all about the machines themselves, the ownership and collection. As for a fully maxed out Falcon, it's debatable, but arguably 14mb, bigger HD, possibly internal CF or SD via an IDE conversion,. On top of that, a CT60 of some flavour, the latest was the CT60e, 512mb of CT60 ram, and possibly a graphics card, Svetlana or SuperVidel. All makes a beautiful machine, arguably more beautiful.

Yes it is a good article. The author approached the Atari Forum community last year in preparation for the article: http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=30794 The other articles, including others of iconic music machines are also really interesting.

You will most likely have to export or save as, as MIDI Type 0 or 1 SMF (Standard MIDI File), and import the same. Apologies if this is all 'suck eggs'!

Hi, yeah MIDI files should be a universal format. In terms of getting them across to your PC, I guess take your pick: 1. By floppy (MS-DOS formatted): https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/2016/01/30/use-floppy-disk-to-transfer-files-from-pc-to-st/ 2. Any of the other peripherals available, UltraSatan or GigaFile for SD, Unicorn USB for USB, PARCP / PARCP-USB for Parallel port / USB transfers and NETUSBee. The same guy's blog mentions pretty much all of these, which is quite handy: https://www.jamesfmackenzie.com/sitemap/#atari-st He also has a Youtube vlog with the same: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYogysZmib79X1zFqZ1--zA