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Is the STE worth it?


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Getting ready for my yellowed Mega STE to arrive next week, I set up an indoor Retr0bright setup. I picked up the highest rated 300-350nm terrarium light that gives off little to no heat and lined the rubber made box with aluminum foil. Tested it out on a yellowed Atari 600XL I treated the top case only and left the bottom untreated to compare. I got pretty good result in only 2 hours.

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Edited by adolobe
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Thanks everyone for the suggestions, but i bit the bullet and bought a Mega STE. It was just to good of a deal at $200 in my eye's

 

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 :)

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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 :)

 

From what I hear, in the UK the Mega STe is much more common than it is in the US.

So it sells a lot cheaper over there.

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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 :)

 

Thats a good deal, we all luck up sometimes. I recently picked up a complete in box like new SC1435 for $10. But like Official Ninja mentioned I've seen them go for way less on Ebay in the UK and Europe. Typically here int he states I've seen them hovering around $450-$600 depending on whats all included.

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  • 1 year later...

I have two conflicting ST set-ups:

 

1) A 520 STfm with TOS 1.02 and 2.5MB, an external floppy drive with Blitz copier add-on, standard mouse, RF cable and a ton of floppy disks.

 

2) A 520 STe with 2.06 and 4MB, an UltraSatan, trackball mouse and RGB cable.

 

In terms of style and performance, the STe wins hands down. Default 60Hz resolution and there isn't much in the high end spectrum that it won't run.

 

Having said that, the STfm gets the most love from me. The TOS 1.02 is ideal for old school disk gaming and I love the thrill of the chase when it comes to making back-ups of copy-protected disks. I use the RF cable and standard mouse as a point of principle.

 

So, yes the STe is worth it but it's no substitute for grass-roots ST.

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On STE advantages, if you are into demos and modern scene stuffs, many fantastic demoscene releases of the last years have been made for 4MB STEs and take advantage of them. However I agree with others if it goes for old existing games, in that case a 1040STFM is likel the most compatible bet with few gains on the STE side.

Anyone know any links to sites that contain disk images of good megademos for 4MB 1040STe machines? Any recommendations on demos I should try out?

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I have two conflicting ST set-ups:

 

1) A 520 STfm with TOS 1.02 and 2.5MB, an external floppy drive with Blitz copier add-on, standard mouse, RF cable and a ton of floppy disks.

 

2) A 520 STe with 2.06 and 4MB, an UltraSatan, trackball mouse and RGB cable.

 

In terms of style and performance, the STe wins hands down. Default 60Hz resolution and there isn't much in the high end spectrum that it won't run.

 

Having said that, the STfm gets the most love from me. The TOS 1.02 is ideal for old school disk gaming and I love the thrill of the chase when it comes to making back-ups of copy-protected disks. I use the RF cable and standard mouse as a point of principle.

 

So, yes the STe is worth it but it's no substitute for grass-roots ST.

 

Conflicting set-ups ? That's pretty funny to see :) I thought that machines are compatible on certain level .

Floppy copy in 2014 ??? Default 60 Hz ? - it has nothing with ST or STE - just depends from used TOS version language.

And you don't have factory STE, since having TOS 2.06. And that's what makes mostly troubles with games. Best would be to have dual TOS - 1.62 and 2.06 switchable.

For experienced user STE is not less compatible with games. I can run everything on my STE and Mega STE . Literally everything what runs on ST. There are some craps coded so poorly that work on specific TOS version only, which are of course poor and unplayable, so waste of time even to briefly check them.

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And you don't have factory STE, since having TOS 2.06. And that's what makes mostly troubles with games. Best would be to have dual TOS - 1.62 and 2.06 switchable.

 

 

UltraSatan compatibility is more or less spot on. I've used a virtual hard drive on Hatari and got pretty much the same results from 1.62 as 2.06. Floppy disk game compatibility is another matter (very erratic), but that's where the STfm comes in handy.

 

I'm able to use the UltraSatan with the STfm, but the 1.02 is a bit of a bottleneck in that regard. I had a very bad experience with the first game I tried (Treasure Trap) which put me off trying any more for a little while but I have found other games that work ok on 1.02 (Blood Money, Super STario Land, Giana Sisters, Dungeon Master and others).

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  • 2 weeks later...

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