Commodore Loadstar 81 Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I've just recently acquired a 1040STfm. It's my first ST, and I'm given to understand that it will run the majority of ST games, except for those few games specifically made to take advantage of the superior hardware in an STe/Mega/Falcon. If I want to be able to access the largest possible library of games, what would you recommend for a second ST? My gut tells me to wait until I can find a Falcon, but are there many games that will not run on either a regular ST or a Falcon and must run on an STe? Or is the Falcon mostly backwards-compatible with STe-specific software? I haven't been able to find an answer to this question anywhere online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Payne Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 (edited) There are others more knowledgeable than myself but I do know that you're going to pay a pretty penny for a Falcon. There are some games that do take advantage of the Falcon's speed, resolution, and color palet but I don't there are enough to warrent paying that kind of money. Now, if you want to run Mint, I think a Falcon, with 14 megs, is what you want. I think if you're looking for the best bang for you're buck, I think the mega STE is the best choice since it ran at 16 mhz, which helped compensate for some slow games...and it's nice looking to boot. There might be some games that have compatability issew with older TOS versions but you could always get switchable TOS. My two cents. Time for the experts to skool me. oh, and welcome to the 16-bit Atari world. Edited March 8, 2014 by Justin Payne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 For my gaming STs I have a 512k STFM with TOS 1.02, and a 1040 STe. This covers almost everything apart from Falcon games. Early games often don't like the STe and later games usually are compatible and need 1mb (and may if your lucky take advantage of the hardware). The Mega STe will give you a bump in some polygon games in 16mhz mode, and some 2D stuff as well though it normally runs to fast. It is quite expensive for a chance to run Frontier at a playable speed though. It is a nice machine though if your pocket will allow it. A lot of games that ran on the STe will in fact run on the Falcon, though you often do have to use Backwards (which turns off some of the Falcons more exotic features) to get them to work. So I think you have one half pretty sorted with your STFM, you can always find that utility that hides the extra memory if you want to run an early game. The other half depends on you pocket a bit I guess.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CyranoJ Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Backwards is pretty useless at, well, Backwards-ness. I was really disappointed at how much it fails to make work. Most (all?) of the 'good' games (and a large chunk of the 'not so good') are now patched for use on the Falcon (And, along with it, HD Install) - Although for gaming, I'd go with a MegaSTE + HD solution. Except I probably wouldn't, I'd go with Steem Engine and a 360 controller, and pocket the change. But that's just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 (edited) There is number of ST games which will never work on Falcon - not so much, maybe 10-20. Because used special techniques, like overscan, scroll tricks. Actually, the whole idea 'higher-end' games is not really good, especially now, 25 years after ST era. All this games are poor for today technical standards. Not to mention interest for even poorer ones - like 8-bit games, arcade consoles etc. To answer on concrete question about access on largest library: I would recommend an Atari STE. This is good especially if you have already an ST. Buying Falcon will mean much more money to pay, while number of Falcon-only games is not big. If you want some extra speed, better go on Mega STE - although it may cost now much more than some STE. Yes, a lot of games is now fixed for Falcon, but it means not always that work flawless on it - sound is often much worse than on some ST, STE, TT . So, I would say STE, if have money Mega STE, and mass storage device - with Flash cards, and not some classic hard disk. If want to play Falcon games Falcon is only choice. Edited March 8, 2014 by ParanoidLittleMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Backwards is pretty useless at, well, Backwards-ness. I was really disappointed at how much it fails to make work. True, it is also a pain the arse to have to set it up rather than just running a game and it working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
English Invader Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 I have an 520STe (2.06, 4MB) an 520STfm (1.02, 2.5MB) and a couple of off the shelf STfms. The first ST runs all the high end stuff like r0x and Sleepwalker. It's also great for the UltraSatan and hard disk games. It can be a bit fickle with some of the older disk games; I haven't been able to get Chase HQ to work and I have to use the original 4 disk version of Ghostbusters II; it won't accept the budget 2 disk versions. There isn't much that won't work on my 2.5MB ST. The old games that won't work on the 2.06 work just fine on the 1.02, but the 1.02 is very limiting when it comes to the UltraSatan so both machines cover different areas. The extra memory I have on my main STs also comes in handy for the Blitz copier I use to make back-ups of copy-protected software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 but the 1.02 is very limiting when it comes to the UltraSatan so both machines cover different areas. The extra memory I have on my main STs also comes in handy for the Blitz copier I use to make back-ups of copy-protected software. If you install BigDOS on your 1.02 you'll see a massive increase in disk access speed, solving all those slow TOS 1.02 hard disk blues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GadgetUK Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Personally I use the STFM (with 4Mb Marpet and TOS 1.04). Worth getting an Ultra Satan then you can run games from SD HDD. Most of the ST library works fine. I have an STe but there really aren't that many games that run on the STe and not on the STFM. Best option if you want to spend more money is an STe as it contains the blitter, hardware scrolling, stereo DMA audio and is easy to upgrade to 4Mb with SIMMs. If you've got lots of money, look for the Mega STe. My STFM now has a Blitter, runs at 16Mhz (no cache or fast ROM - yet) but I would prefer the Mega STe if they weren't so expensive and hard to find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelmischief Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 The vast majority of "good" games have been "converted" to allow for play on Falcons/TTs and from a hard disk. Please look here... http://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd.php 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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