New found undocumented Atari hard drive cage for A8's?

[Sugarland]

Anyone know what this is?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-Unique-One-of-Kind-Fabricated-ATARI-ST-Computer-System-MEGA-STE-/122352967731

 

The listing says Mega ST or STE but he is guessing. I see Copyright 1984 on a board (last image). That puts it in the 8bit time frame. It has the 800's style 8bit ATARI logo on the front top of the case, too (pic 3). Brown theme logo sticker. Also the ST-225 was made in 1984 and is 20MB. The am2764-3dc chip says copyright 1982. Sorry if you were bidding on this but if it's undocumented A8 hardware I feel it needs recognition as a development project that never released(?). I've never seen or heard of that cage. Any ideas?

 

edit: oh, pic 9 shows copyright 1986-1987 so that does put it in the ST time frame... Also the grey metal case does look more XE/ST style. Hard to know. Maybe Atari was trying to use up more old inventory and release an 8bit hard drive expansion for the XE's?

[jaybird3rd]

We've also been discussing it over here ...

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262138-what-do-you-suppose-this-is/?do=findComment&comment=3694144

 

As I mentioned in the other thread, I don't think this was manufactured by Atari; it seems more like a drive cage that somebody put together out of off-the-shelf parts. The only connection to Atari is the case badges, which were recycled from other products.

[Sugarland]

Oh thank you very much.

[_The Doctor__]

we all used to hack up a case and badge them....

[re-atari]

Anyone know what this is?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atari-Unique-One-of-Kind-Fabricated-ATARI-ST-Computer-System-MEGA-STE-/122352967731

 

The listing says Mega ST or STE but he is guessing. I see Copyright 1984 on a board (last image). That puts it in the 8bit time frame. It has the 800's style 8bit ATARI logo on the front top of the case, too (pic 3). Brown theme logo sticker. Also the ST-225 was made in 1984 and is 20MB. The am2764-3dc chip says copyright 1982. Sorry if you were bidding on this but if it's undocumented A8 hardware I feel it needs recognition as a development project that never released(?). I've never seen or heard of that cage. Any ideas?

 

edit: oh, pic 9 shows copyright 1986-1987 so that does put it in the ST time frame... Also the grey metal case does look more XE/ST style. Hard to know. Maybe Atari was trying to use up more old inventory and release an 8bit hard drive expansion for the XE's?

I agree this looks like a homebrew casing that just got a Atari label slammed on. The labels aren't even outlined properly, look at the nametag. Seems to be a peripheral for the ST line containing a SCSI to ST512 interface by Berkeley Microsystems. It might very well be a homebrew project by a former Atari employee, that would be in line with the seller's description.

Someone wrote a question in the eBay listing, stating it might be a Transputer. Which it definitely is not, I remember seeing photo's of a Atari T800 board and casing in a German computer magazine early 1988. This casing and board don't look anything like it.

 

Do check out the other items the seller has on offer. For those interested he has a BIT3 80-column card for the 800 for sale. Buy-direct price is a bit steep though, at US$ 150. Which is more or less in line with his asking prices for the other items, like a 3,5" Teac floppy drive at 'only' US$ 25.

 

re-atari

[electronizer]

I'm guessing the seller is the person who ended up buying most of the collection I posted about here:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/261905-selling-atari-8-bitst-collection-san-francisco-bay-area-local-pickup-only/?do=findComment&comment=3692328

 

I recall seeing that enclosure on a bench along with a massive RGB CRT monitor.

 

Definitely stay tuned, he may have some other interesting items coming up for sale soon!