What is an STF?

[Foebane]

Is this an alternative name for the original Atari ST? Why does Steven Seagal in his Steem SSE emulator call it this?

 

I know that the F stands for Floppy, but then again, the STE also has a floppy drive, so why not just call it an ST?

 

I just find it a nuisance that the systems emulated on Steem are "STE, STF and Mega ST 4". If the STF is the original Atari ST, why isn't it first in the list?

 

[the Goat]

The original Atari ST didn't have the built in floppy drive. So the STF is definitely a separate hardware build.

 

I've got no idea why your emulator doesn't allow vanilla ST as a choice.

[zzip]

Is this an alternative name for the original Atari ST? Why does Steven Seagal in his Steem SSE emulator call it this?

 

I know that the F stands for Floppy, but then again, the STE also has a floppy drive, so why not just call it an ST?

 

I just find it a nuisance that the systems emulated on Steem are "STE, STF and Mega ST 4". If the STF is the original Atari ST, why isn't it first in the list?

Original ST - floppy was external.

 

When the 1040ST came out, it included an internal floppy, so STf started to be used to indicate internal floppy.

 

Later 520's and 1040's added an RF Modulator for TV/composite video, and they were called STfm

 

Finally, the STe was released with a bunch of enhancements, but instead of STfme or whatever, they just got called STe

 

From an emulation standpoint, there isn't a whole lot of difference between ST, STf and STfm.

[Foebane]

I knew it was that, but I'm guessing that Steem SSE is using STF because of the floppy access available in the Drive Manager?

 

In any case, I would prefer to go by the general brand name, Atari ST, or the enhanced version, the Atari STE.

[zzip]

I knew it was that, but I'm guessing that Steem SSE is using STF because of the floppy access available in the Drive Manager?

 

In any case, I would prefer to go by the general brand name, Atari ST, or the enhanced version, the Atari STE.

Who knows? Maybe because the originally ST required disk loading the TOS, and the STf's do not? I'd prefer they stuck with ST too.

[Lynxpro]

Original ST - floppy was external.

 

When the 1040ST came out, it included an internal floppy, so STf started to be used to indicate internal floppy.

 

Later 520's and 1040's added an RF Modulator for TV/composite video, and they were called STfm

 

Finally, the STe was released with a bunch of enhancements, but instead of STfme or whatever, they just got called STe

 

From an emulation standpoint, there isn't a whole lot of difference between ST, STf and STfm.

 

 

The Atari 1040STfme! What a name.... Someone should crank out some labels for that.

[+rdemming]

Finally, the STe was released with a bunch of enhancements, but instead of STfme or whatever, they just got called STe

As all STEs have a modulator and a floppy drive, there is no need to make a distinction between models as there is only one (apart from memory size). That why I think they only called it STE.

[Junosix]

French STEs didn't have a modulator.

[ijor]

I knew it was that, but I'm guessing that Steem SSE is using STF because of the floppy access available in the Drive Manager?

 

Not really. It is just a rather common way to distinguish the older, non STe models. You could use the ST term if you prefer. But ST is more generic and some people might include the STe variants under the ST term.

 

For Steem what matters if its STe or non STe. As have been said, the difference between plain ST,STF,STM and STFM are not much relevant for emulations purposes.

[+rdemming]

French STEs didn't have a modulator.

 

So there is also only one French STE model

 

This makes me wonder if there were regular STs with modular in France. I suspect there was not as there was also no 7800 with SECAM modulator (French 7800 had a SCARTvideo board). But was it because adding a SECAM modulator is so much more difficult than NTSC/PAL and the SECAM region too small to bother or was it because SCART was the standard on televisions in France at that time.

I must say I never used the modulator output on ST(E)s, RGB via SCART is so much better.

 

Robert

[cbmbsw]

French STEs didn't have a modulator.

LOL...thumb up..greetz to france..

[cbmbsw]

Show u mine STF...1 meg ram...and an internal floppy no fm modulation...no E...but fully working...31 years after manufacturing...

 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419848025056475&set=g.2260264734&type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419848111723133&set=g.2260264734&type=1&theater

[tjlazer]

4160STfme !

[danr]

I can just imagine askine for the "eff me" edition...

[+slx]

On 5/26/2017 at 1:46 PM, rdemming said:

But was it because adding a SECAM modulator is so much more difficult than NTSC/PAL and the SECAM region too small to bother or was it because SCART was the standard on televisions in France at that time.

 

France introduced a requirement for TVs to include a SCART port in 1980. There are different theories about the reasons, there is a EU document criticizing this as a protectionist measure and I don’t know whether it also required devices to have SCART output but it was certainly more convenient to implement than a SECAM modulator (which required a dedicated FGTIA chip on the 8-bits and resulted in a reduced color output on the VCS). When everyone has video input, why bother and sell them RF output?

 

The French 7800 uses the same video connector and pinout as the STs but can be a bit fickle with VCS color output. 

[ParanoidLittleMan]

It's not RF modulator what is really different, but Secam color encoder. While NTSC and PAL are similar - that's why 1377 supports both.

SCART as protectionist measure ? What the H. ? Purpose of SCART is better picture and sound quality. And is actually universal. Has place for practically all possible signals existing in analog TV/video era. Then, it was not mandatory to have Scart on TV-s sold in Eu. Video input was mandatory.

Btw. I saw interesting thing in one C64 what came to my service from France originally - it had RGB out. And internal by TV used PAL decoder circuit for getting RGB from composite. That was only way in C64, because no RGB signals accessible - video chip generates only composite output.

 

And yes, no sense to add RF modulator and PAL or NTSC encoder in Secam country. Although, later, in nineties multi standard TVs were more spread, so for sure many sold in France supported PAL. Even better if RGB too .

[Paul Westphal]

At one point, Atari considered naming a model they were working on " STD " .. Good thing they didn't