atarian1

That is sharp! It looks like the Atari forum is the place for all the lost info on all things Atari. Unfortunately for Atari though as after that came the Federated stores debacle and the beginning of the decline. If I remember, there was 2 Ataris listed because they either offered a class B stock or a bond or maybe both. I will have to dig up an old Journal or Times to try and recall which it was. So what happened to that economics guru? I hope he did not become a trader LOL. I lost contact with him, but the last time I talked to him in the early 90s, he was "going to be rich" running an Amway business. Gorf: Yeah, I know. But as with other threads here, it's nice reminisce about "what could have been..."

Good memory! One of the players linked to the investigation was Atari's President Ray Kassar and he was fined without admission of guilt (ah those funny insider trading scandals). As for Atari Corporation, I believe the highest it ever went was about 25. Very briefly though if I remember. You're right. That just reminded me, Atari did peak around 31, not 12. During the 1987-88 heyday, after it reached that peak, the stock split. I remember because a self-proclaimed economics guru classmate kept asking what a stock split was and why there were 2 Ataris listed. (anyone who claims to be an economics guru and doesn't know what a stock split is, is a total idiot)

$1200??!! Wow, I would have sold some of my Atari stock if that really happened and be filthy rich. Alas, I don't know where you got this info, but as a long time Atari stockholder back then, it was NEVER worth $1200 a share. In fact, I can't recall a stock ever going that high. The highest Atari stock ever went was 12 3/4 in all the years it was public (1986-1996). I remember it hit that mark twice - once in 1987 (or 88) when they were riding high on ST sales before the DRAM crisis and Federated fiasco hit them hard, and the second time during the Fall/Winter before the Jaguar was released. Back in the 80s, Atari was part of Warner Communications. (remember? ) Warner Communications reached a peak of 54 during the golden age of Atari video games in 1983. Then crashed to 29 (or something like that) in a week! Insider trading allegations popped up too. Fun times...

I bought my Lynx through the Atari Stockholders Discount Sale in 1990. That was my graduation present along with Electrocop and Blue Lightning. I remember bringing it to school to oohs and aaahs and trying to tell people it is NOT a Game Gear and it really was an Atari. (The ignorant people at my school thought Atari went out of business back in 1984. Don't even get me started about the ST Desktop Publishing (DTP) system. Digressing... School Journalism Dept. (SJD): "We have to raise $10,000 for a Mac and laser printer for our school paper. Me:"Just buy an Atari ST DTP system with Spectre GCR for $3000." SJD:"Pfft! Stop peddling your stupid game machine to us!" They never got their Mac DTP system, but raised...yes, $3000 that was never spent. End of Digression.) Back to the topic...so where did everyone else get their Lynx?

Not true. It's the Zip drive that you can't boot off of as your only drive (unless you rig up a power supply to the ACSI/SCSI host adapter and use a hard disk driver that supported booting off SCSI ID 5) Syquest drives were high quality drives that followed SCSI standards which worked on all known SCSI systems. Iomega Zip drives were cheap quality drives that didn't follow all SCSI standards which caused problems like the above.

Atari was going out of business at the time due to Warner's inept management of the company. Jack Tramiel needed to get something out the door to sell or his purchase of Atari would have been a failure. It took 6 months to design the ST, and I think they did an amazing job in such a short period of time. The 520ST was a good balance of advanced technology at a low price which I think is what Tramiel was aiming for. Not to design the best, but a balance of good graphics, sound, OS, etc. It's too bad they didn't give the STE better specs when it came out to better compete more with the Amiga.

I think this is very deceiving. The "case and keyboard" could be understood as meaning the computer too. After all, the computer is inside the case and keyboard. This person does NOT give a clear description of what is included. The half-assed description deceives people into thinking it's a complete computer. Look at the 2nd picture. Someone can easily think the back of the keyboard unit is the computer. The photo cannot be enlarged so one can't closely examine it. Not everyone knows what the inside of a Falcon looks like. To me, it's clear this person is trying to deceive people by not taking good photos and playing word games to extort someone doesn't know the inside of an ST/Falcon. What this person should have done is taken a photo of all the parts separately. Shielding and case should NOT be put together and the keyboard should NOT be flipped around. Then clearly state in the description "This auction is for the keyboard and case/shielding ONLY" (emphasize ONLY). Not some half-assed "you get what you see" bullsh**. I would neg this guy taking advantage of ST/Falcon newbies who don't know what the inside of a Falcon looks like. Not everyone cares about ripping their computer apart. P.S. I am not affiliated in anyway with this auction.

From your description, it could be either the computer or monitor. Are you handy with a soldering iron and have a SVGA monitor? If so, you could build a monitor adapter which will allow you to use the monochrome resolutions on a SVGA monitor. Instructions are available here: Notator ST-VGA cable page. By the way, please don't drop your ST. (I really hate it when people give that mythical advice. ) It can do more harm than good. To fix the loose chips problem that sometimes occurs in old 1040STs, open up the computer and press the chips down into their sockets. Much safer and more reliable. Lastly, where are you? Maybe someone here who lives nearby can help you.

I know they avoided a cart port to avoid problems with the old software, but it seems the Flashback 2 got kinda trumped by a NES replacement clone that came out last year. I saw what they call a Generation NEX game console designed to play both the regular NES carts and the Famicon carts. It's big selling point is that it can play at least 97% of the original carts. After seeing that, I started thinking that the FB 2 might have been able to have a slot for original carts. But the Generation NEX is NOT an official Nintendo device. It's a clone done by a third party. I'm sure someone can do the same thing with the 2600 as long as Atari doesn't mind.

Those JROK boards don't look like they have the correct sync format. The Jaguar (like the Atari ST computers) has a separate horizontal sync pin and a separate vertical sync pin. These boards look like they only have one sync pin which is probably some form of composite sync which the Jaguar doesn't support.

I don't think they would have a problem exchanging it. My first Elevator Action also didn't work. I was only able to test it after I got home, so I kinda freaked out too. However, I went to CGE the next year and told them what happened, and they exchanged it with no problem.

All software should come out on floppy. I don't agree with nathanallan's answer, as very few Atari ST owners have CD-ROM drives. Every ST has a floppy and ST programs are not that big. Putting software on CD would force people to spend $90+ to equip their ST with a CD-ROM (It's the SCSI-ACSI adapter that costs the most). I don't think casual ST gamers will spend $$$ on this. Casual gamers seem more numerous than the hardcore ST owners/gamers. I say a little cheaper than cartridge-based software since floppies are cheaper. I would say $5-$10. It depends on how much your time programming the game is worth as floppies are cheap. If a cartridge-based game with manual and box costs $40, then the ST based game with floppy, box and manual should be about $20 (basically, whatever the cost of the box and manual are which I'm guess is $20 each). Sure. If it works on the other platforms, I don't see why it wouldn't work on the ST.

I have and played it. It was a great game. A little off beat by its use of "Acts" like a play instead of a straight forward adventure. To answer your questions: 1. It certainly looks like an exact port of the PC version. I believe all the SCI (Sierra Creative Interpreter) game files were interchangeable between computers. That's why once a game was finished in SCI, other versions were released shortly after the PC version. While great, it also means that if more colors or higher resolution were available, it would not be used due to the PC version's limitation. Basically, the screenshots would look the same as the PC version. 2. Yes, the MIDI support was awesome! That was the best part of Sierra games. Especially in this game, it helped create the eerie mood of the Louisiana bayou plantations where it was set. You hear the crickets, creeky footsteps, grandfather clocks going off, etc. Sierra really took this to great depths more than other developers. Only the Roland MT32 was fully supported. A generic driver was available, but no sound effects like the ones I mentioned above are heard - just music. 3. The minimum requirements were a 1 MB ST. That's it. A hard disk is strongly recommended. I remember finally getting a hard drive and it sped loading/saving up SO fast! No more disk swapping too. 4. Like I said above, I'm pretty sure it was a direct port of the PC version. 5. It came on 4 double-sided disks. Completely hard disk installable with no on-disk copy protection (you need a fingerprint code in the box contents to bypass the copy protection question when the game first loads up). The only Atari-specific item was an Atari ST Reference Card containing machine-specific instructions such as how to save/load a game, how to install a game, key commands, etc. I'd like to see your site when you're done!

You're lucky you got your items. I was sent a broken sampler and after opening a case with Paypal, they sided with the seller and case closed. Same reason too - as long as you receive something, that's it. Total BS! I left a negative feedback, but he replied to it saying he's working things out with me! Not true! But EBay won't allow me to reply to his lies in his feedback. More Total BS! :x

You obviously did not live through the 80s as pastels were IN. I think they make the XEGS different from the other systems and makes it stand apart from the plain boxy NES. In fact, I thought all the systems in that time looked cool...except for the plain boxy NES=boring.

I'd look for electronics supply stores for one. The one I myself have been eyeing is this one at Jameco: Meanwell RPT-65F Power Supply It may not provide the 85W that the Atari power supply gives, but I don't think it's needed as the newer Falcon ICs/electronics don't eat up as much power as the ST. However, since it had an expansion slot and used an ancient notebook hard drive, Atari decided to be safe and install a larger power supply just to be safe. I think as long as you don't use the expansion slot and you use a more modern notebook hard drive (say, >800MB), this power supply should do just fine. If my ST power supply craps out, I'd definitely get this. Brand new, smaller, more powerful and a 2 year warranty. I can't believe Best and B&C are charging $70 for the crappy Atari power supply with a 90 day warranty. The only negative is that you have to find a way to mount the power supply to the Atari bracket. Nothing hard if you got some cheap punchboard and a dremel drill handy.

You might want to try OmniFlop which claims to read the strange Atari ST variant disks (plus a whole bunch of other vintage equipment formats. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it's worth a try.

I used The Music Studio a long time ago as my main music program. It was either The Music Studio ($60) or Notator ($700) - nothing in between impressed me. Don't use the MIDI input feature - it's useless. I struggled with it for a long time and gave up. The Music Studio has the best manual note-by-note entry system I've used (even better than Notator). Basically, pick a note, place it on the staff - that's it. I wish all music programs were like this. Why does every program insist on auto-correction everything? You'll want to use Track mode. This allows up to 4 tracks to be used. Great for multiple instrument arrangements. The colors may be hard to distinguish (track #14 and 15 shades of blue are too close), so watch for that. So, I remember using instrument 15 for drumson track 4, and instrument one on track 1 for vocals, and other instruments in between on the other two tracks. To assign which patch on the FB01 will play on which track, go to MIDI Parameters. This will list all 15 instruments, their name, MIDI channel, patch number and octave range of each track. It should be pretty easy to figure out. If you like The Music Studio and want to upgrade, I recommend Cubase Lite. You can download it off of Tim's Atari MIDI World. It has great real-time entry, lots of tracks and a score editor to edit your music.

The best looking computers: Atari 520ST and MegaST were definitely at the top of my list. When they were placed in TV shows as part of the Tramiel's meager product placement ad campaign, you can easily distinguish it from other computers. Just look for the parallelogram function keys and ventilation slots! I remember seeing other things being influenced by those parallelogram theme. The one that sticks out is on Wheel of Fortune. Just look at the late 80s shows, and you'll see the parallelogram name tags. Cool It was just SO different and cool looking from any other computer or electronic device out there at the time. The Atari MegaSTe and TT030 case designs were just a little lower than the MegaST case. It was again, different from anything out there with it distinguished hard drive bay to the right. However, it was a bit on the big side, but still looked cool. The Atari XE and 1040ST were ok, but they looked a bit bulky. At least they spruced it up a bit with the Falcon by have dark grey keys. The Atari 600/800XL were good too. The 1200XL was too bulky again. Commodore did a fair job in their case design. The only Amigas that looked good were the 600, 1200 and 3000. I don't know what happened to the other models, but they just looked like the standard boring beige computer cases. The C64C was nice, but all the other 8-bits were ugly, especially the original C64, VIC-20. Bleah! I think they were too thick. Compare them to the 800XL and C64C which was lower and thinner. i don't know...something just didn't look right. The worst looking machines were the Apples and IBMs (and clones). Apple IIs and IBM/Clones were boring, ugly and bulky. The case design was an afterthought. Although they tried to improve this with the IIC and IIGS, it wasn't enough (in my opinion) and they still looked like every other computer at the time. The monitor and CPU in one design of the Mac was (and still is) a dumb idea. It was different, but looked ugly and was hard (and dangerous) to service, hack, and upgrade. One wrong touch on the monitor tube will give you a shock of your life (if you survive). In fact, I never considered a Mac until the Mac Mini came out. I was a frustrated Windows user who wanted to jump ship, but didn't want to spend $2000 on a PowerMac (ugly silver vented case too) or a hard to service, hack, and upgrade iMac. It took Apple long enough time to get their heads together and see the market for the Mac Mini. The Atari/Commodore CPU and keyboard in one box design was much better than the Mac monitor and CPU in one box design.

The most compatible STs with ST games is the 1040STf or 1040STfm. A relatively small number of games aren't compatible with the STe, but you really don't need expandibility if you're just playing games. There are also a small number of STe only games available that won't work on the STf or STFM. There is no ST that plays all games, but the 1040STf or 1040STfm are the most compatible. 1MB is enough for games. Hi Steve, Will all of the Atari ST games work on the following Atari ST Computers 1040st, 1040 stf,1040 ste. I just want to get a Atari Computer to play games. Thank You Joseph [email protected]

It has been around for a while. It looks like a nice hack. Be aware that it's not 100% AHDI compatible. Some finicky software may not like it (off the top of my head...Notator). The drivers are custom drivers that are not AHDI compatible. So if you generally use cleanly written software, then it just may work. Otherwise, you're better off with a hard drive connected to the ACSI port with an AHDI compatible driver. (I prefer using the ACSI port myself anyday)

You need a program called MAKE1MEG.TOS. Where to find it, I do not know, but that's the program you should be looking for. Why not keep the 1040ST around as you game ST and your MegaSTE as your 'serious' ST? That way, you can avoid this.

Unfortunately, a good piano teaching program was never released on the ST. People have tried and failed over the years. I tried all of them that I know of, but they all had their flaws. Music Construction Set is not a teaching program. It's a music program that allows you to enter notes on a staff and play it back thru the ST sound chip or MIDI synth. If you want a program like this, I prefer The Music Studio/88 by Activision/Audio Light. Music Studio is a much easier and powerful program than Music Construction Set if you are going to use MIDI. MCS only allows 3 tracks while MS/88 allows 15 tracks. Take Note and Pianistics are theory programs to practice your theory skills. They don't help practice sight reading, fingering, etc. The 4 programs that Crash noted from MIDImouse have good intentions, but I got pissed off at the CONSTANT handholding every time you make a mistake. Every time I hit 2 keys by accident, it would INSIST on telling me I did that in 15 seconds for each mistake. I kept yelling "I KNOW I SCREWED UP YOU &^%* PROGRAM! MOVE ON!", but noooo. Those 15 seconds for every mistake add up, and I guarantee you will lose patience like I did. The sad truth is, the best piano teaching programs are on Windows machines. Just stay away from Teach Me Piano/Deluxe from Voyetra (buggier than Windows... ). Piano Suite and EMedia Keyboard Method are good. Alfred is OK, but too beginner's for me. I haven't tried Play Piano. You could just use the Atari as a MIDI playback machine like I do a lot...

To repeat again (and to go throught this debate yet again)...Videogames were dead at the time. Everyone was moving towards to home/personal computers, and it was the only way for Atari to survive. The Tramiels put all their eggs into the ST which turned out to be the smart move. If they put all their eggs into the 7800, I don't think they would have survived. Most people wrote off Atari videogames. The videogame market was just not there until Nintendo revived it. From your message, I personally don't think you were paying attention (or knew) what the market was like in 1984-85. Anyone who lived through it knew it was a bleak time for videogames. Whoa! Hold on there! Where did this come from? That is NOT true that Atari sat on the Lynx for two years. That's hogwash. Every article I've read said the Lynx (codename Handy) was in constant development by Epyx up to its debut at the 1989 CES. Atari didn't even know about the Handy until right before the 1989 CES when Epyx approached Atari to market the Handy because of their financial troubles. They signed an agreement and Handy became the Atari Portable Color Entertainment System (APCES) which later became the Lynx. The APCES was the hit of the CES show and overshadowed the Gameboy. Lynx and Gameboy were released only a month or two apart in 1989. You need to get your facts straight.

It looks like you have a TOS 2.06 upgrade in your STE. Check the Desktop Info under the Desk menu when you reach the GEM desktop. If the copyright date is 1985-91, then you have TOS 2.06. TOS 2.06 is the only version of TOS on the ST/STE that I know of that boots up with the Atari logo and a memory test.