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What kept Atari from finishing the AMY chips and putting them in the STEs?


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Would have been a nice feature to have, but to myself as an STFM owner at the time, the STE seemed to be too little, too late as a lot of publishers had switched to Amiga 1st, ST version to follow (and were sending Amiga versions of games to UK mags 1st, as they knew they'd score higher, then mags would simply feature ST version in later issue under Updates..sections), or if software was coming from USA, PC and Amiga only.

 

Some UK publishers said Atari made very little fuss about STE, simply brought it to them, showed what it could do over the STFM, then simply took it away again.Little-to-no fanfare.

 

It sounded as if Atari (UK) were resigned to fact Amiga had won this round, STE little more than a vain attempt to try and close gap between Amiga and St, with coders then favouring the Amiga hardware....

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Would have been a nice feature to have, but to myself as an STFM owner at the time, the STE seemed to be too little, too late as a lot of publishers had switched to Amiga 1st, ST version to follow (and were sending Amiga versions of games to UK mags 1st, as they knew they'd score higher, then mags would simply feature ST version in later issue under Updates..sections), or if software was coming from USA, PC and Amiga only.

 

Some UK publishers said Atari made very little fuss about STE, simply brought it to them, showed what it could do over the STFM, then simply took it away again.Little-to-no fanfare.

 

It sounded as if Atari (UK) were resigned to fact Amiga had won this round, STE little more than a vain attempt to try and close gap between Amiga and St, with coders then favouring the Amiga hardware....

 

Since the STE "broke" compatibility anyway, they should've bumped the CPU up to a 16Mhz 68000 at the very least, if not moving up to the 68020. That would've sparked some interest on the publishers' parts. The other thing they failed at was not even matching the Amiga's stock 32 color mode. Mind you, VGA was already out at the time. 32 colors should've been the bare minimum - actually, matching the Sega Genesis would've been better - but they stuck with 16. An STE with a 68020, Sega Genesis matching low res color capabilities [or VGA which had been rumored at the time], RAM upgradable to 8MB with SIMMs, and either the audio we ended up with in the STE or with an AMY would've been totally kick ass and the publishers would've reacted favorably.

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Since the STE "broke" compatibility anyway...

That's not quite right. The 1040 STe is the only 1040 I've ever used and I've never come across a single incompatibility problem. I know there are a few out there, but to say it "broke" compatibility to such an extent that it would have been better to forsake it altogether in favor of greater power is inaccurate. The STe, even with its quirks, is a better ST. But as was said, it was much too little and too late.

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I second that. STE did not broke compatibility. Actually, only incompatible thing is moving TOS ROM to different address space. That caused crashes and problems with some SW, not only games, but Atari could say that problematic SW was not coded clean. I think that it was consequence of not wisely chosen original TOS address area by ST - where simply was no space for larger ROM than 192 KB .

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Think you also need to look at the seemingly change in focus Atari had given the ST range by time STE was being market, the 2-page adverts in likes of Raze etc were promoting the ST Range (Mega and 520STE) as serious home micro's that you'd use for buisness, music, art and ALSO games, with the Curriculum‎pack getting mentioned a lot.

 

Without going into detail here, i talked about the STE when interviewing for ST Gamer, to all extents it appears to have been a stop-game and Atari planning to push the gaming side onto the Panther console....

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Would have been a nice feature to have, but to myself as an STFM owner at the time, the STE seemed to be too little, too late as a lot of publishers had switched to Amiga 1st, ST version to follow (and were sending Amiga versions of games to UK mags 1st, as they knew they'd score higher, then mags would simply feature ST version in later issue under Updates..sections), or if software was coming from USA, PC and Amiga only.

 

Some UK publishers said Atari made very little fuss about STE, simply brought it to them, showed what it could do over the STFM, then simply took it away again.Little-to-no fanfare.

 

It sounded as if Atari (UK) were resigned to fact Amiga had won this round, STE little more

than a vain attempt to try and close gap between Amiga and St, with coders then favouring the Amiga hardware....

As an Atari dealer not so much, Atari had won the first round 85 to 88, the cheaper a500 won the next mostly due to atari limit or none at all supply to the USA after that. I concede nothing to Amiga exct that atari themselves had a supply problem or supply choice rather.

Edited by atarian63
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That's not quite right. The 1040 STe is the only 1040 I've ever used and I've never come across a single incompatibility problem. I know there are a few out there, but to say it "broke" compatibility to such an extent that it would have been better to forsake it altogether in favor of greater power is inaccurate. The STe, even with its quirks, is a better ST. But as was said, it was much too little and too late.

 

I can tell you with certainty that Sierra's Conquests of Camelot stops with an error message (forget exactly what it said, we're talking 1992 here) right at the last part on my 1040 STe. I was so disappointed. I put so many countless hours into that game...

 

But I bought many games and programs back in the day for my beloved STe. That was the only time I ever had an issue. I just wish the issue had been in the beginning of the game instead. :)

Edited by Zap!
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