To Blitter or not to Blitter, that's here the question

[twh/f2]

Howdy *.*!

 

I have a question related to my Mega ST2. I often heared, that MEGA ST computers have a "Blitter" installed, when they were released. Unfortunately, my MEGA ST doesn't have a Blitter ... at least I think so.

 

When I replaced my floppy drive I discovered an empty socket. It's the socket shown in the picture, under this link:

 

http://www.have-mail.de/megast/blitter.jpg

 

Would it be possible, to install a simple blitter-chip and start over with blitter-enabled software?

 

My second question: What has to be done, when my MEGA ST2 should be upgraded to 4 Mb? I've discovered, that the solderings points are already on the mainboard. This looks like "just clash some memory chips on there and power on". Is that right? Which ic's are needed, in order to work with 4MB?

 

http://www.have-mail.de/megast/ram.jpg

 

thanks for any help.

[Gunstar]

I have similiar questions about my 1040ST. I want to upgrade it as much as possible, adding memory up to the 4meg limit, adding expanded graphic cards and of course adding the blitter to the empty blitter "spot" on my 1040 mother board. Is there a lot of software that will take advantage of this blitter if I install it? i have yet to come across any software that REQUIRES a blitter chip...and what is the best version of TOS for a 1040? 1.X? 2.X? higher?

[sonnenhexer]

Upgrading the mem should be relativly easy, when I upgraded my 260 I just plugged out a chip, inserted a socket with RAM and plugged the chip in that socket.

 

The Blitter is best for graphic, so only graphic-programs will take advantage of the Blitter.

AFAIK there is no program that requires the Blitter, all use it to enhace the graphic-performance.

 

If you could use a TOS 2.x in a 1040, I don´t know, you can try it.

For taking advantage of the Blitter, you must have at least TOS 1.2 (1.02), the so called "Blitter-TOS".

 

Greets

 

Michael

[Gunstar]

Thanks for the info! I will upgrade to the blitter, because I use graphic intensive programs and games. I'll also get 1.2 TOS, I think I only have 1.0. I'll go ahead and get a 4meg upgrade kit while I'm at it.

[atarian1]

twh/f2,

 

One of two Mega 4s I have are just like yours - the blitter socket is empty. When I first got it, I thought something was wrong with it because the "Blitter" option in the menu was absent. When I opened it up, I discovered the empty socket.

 

I wonder if someone took the blitter out or if Atari forgot to put them in? I bought my first Mega 4 when it came out, and it had a blitter. Maybe we have prototypes??? It would really p*** me off if someone deliberately took it out and resold it!!!

 

It looks like you can install some RAM chips to upgrade your Mega 2 to 4MB. Just buy the right size and speed as the other chips in your machine. Also, you need to solder in 3 resistors. I can't recall exactly, but I believe you need 3 33 Ohm resistors and they go into the R71, R72 and R74 blank spots in the lower left hand corner of your picture. Too bad 1040STs didn't have blank spots to add RAM to upgrade to 4MB!

[Jetboot Jack]

Keep in mind not all 1040/520 systems can accept the blitter... The ST blitter is an extremely limited bit of silicon, its NOT like the Amiga Blitter, its a simple fast memory copier, with little logic operations it can perform on the data...

 

Of my stable of ST/STE machines I have 2 MegaST with blitters fitted and notice NO difference in software performance.

 

Games and most ST programs will not be affected by the blitter since you had to write custom code to support it - you need to look for software that explicitly uses it (I can think of none off the top of my head - DTP maybe?)...

 

A better poposal to get more ST graphic performance is to upgrade to an STE (or better yet a TT or Falcon) the larger palette, more audio and better hardware is a marginal upgrade, but worth it for those few programs and demos that use its power...

 

sTeVE

[atarian1]

Of my stable of ST/STE machines I have 2 MegaST with blitters fitted and notice NO difference in software performance.

 

 

On my MegaST with blitter, I definitely see a difference. Windows pop up and close faster. The window scrolling is faster too. The desktop definitely is faster. (Not as fast as NVDI installed though )

 

Too bad more games don't take advantage of the blitter.

[+Sauron]

Jetboot Jack said it best. There's really not much of a point in installing a blitter in any pre-STE system. You're much better off shopping around for an STE/TT/Falcon. There are VERY FEW programs which take advantage of the blitter, and almost all of them require the color palette of the STE systems.