krslam Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I've got nice, working, stock versions of the 520ST, 1040STF, 1040STE, and MegaST4. If I were to cut back to just 1 ST machine, which would you recommend? Primary use would be to play games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzac Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Either the 1040STe or the MegaST depending on your preference between being able to play STe only or enhanced games or the comfort and ergonomics that are possible only in the Mega series and the TT... ....or, sell them all and get a MegaSTe, you get the best of both worlds. STe features, ergonomics of detached keyboard, no more fiddling around to connect mouse and joystick and integrated hard drive on the case... I love my MegaSTe and TT, they’re the ones I use most Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ataricrypt Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 STe 1040 for me. Easy upgrade, plus access to enhanced games along with other stuff like stereo music. Depends on your tastes n usage of course. However, u may not have anything STe enhanced but are playing stock ST games? Then I'd keep the STf... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 I agree that STE is what is worth to keep - because STE enhanced features using games - there are originals and some which are enhanced later (like Giana) . Mega STE is best indeed, and can work faster (16 MHz). But since gaming is target it is not actually good idea - TOS 2.06 is really not for gaming. Unless using some older TOS version in it (patched for MSTE) . And something to consider: you stay at one Atari by choice. And it stops working 3 days later . You have 0 Ataris then. Repair may be problematic and expensive. This is not joking, messing - machines are very old and break more and more often. So, maybe keep it all, and fate will decide which one will be the one ... Plus, you have sources for components. This is how my Mega ST still works - took components from other, broken STs . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 This question seems to come up quite a bit. I agree with the consensus though - because of the STe's enhanced capabilities, I would go with it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hwlngmad Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 1040 STe imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 11, 2020 Share Posted February 11, 2020 Out of the ones you have, I'd keep the 1040STe, while some were saying that the Mega STe if you could get one would be the way to go, it is missing ONE thing that the 1040STe has, and that is the extended joystick ports (also known as the Jaguar controller ports). But then I only know really of one game that works with those that will work on the STe, and that's the modded OIDs! Which arguably is a good reason to keep that one! Mega STe, I found (having been my first ST) was very incompatible back in the day, but is far less affected now than it was because of all the patches. What I would suggest; keep the 1040STe, upgrade it to 4mb of RAM and one of the various TOS switchers out there. If you can get a 3+ way (I think Exxos has a 4 way flash chip?) then put in 1.4, 1.62 and 2.06 TOS in it. That way you get the full range of compatibility. Throw an UltraSatan on there, and you're set for everything, maybe add a Gotek if you want to go that route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 9 hours ago, leech said: ... the extended joystick ports (also known as the Jaguar controller ports). But then I only know really of one game that works with those that will work on the STe, and that's the modded OIDs! Which arguably is a good reason to keep that one! ... Why is it that every time I see exclamation mark, there is something wrong written ? ? There are multiple games which can use STE extended joystick ports. Some originals, some are updated/patched. And they are for Jagpads, which are digital controls, or in other word - no analog controller on them, like movable stick for left-right and up-down gradual control (present on most of newer USB sticks). But there is HW for sensing analog inputs (2 axes) in STE and Falcon, only that Atari never made controller using them. So, I decided to play little with those inputs on my STE, and concluded that game OIDS is ideal candidate for that. Used some older analogue joystick for PC - surely much easier to adapt for STE than some USB one. And it was really easy - I mean HW adapter - just some soldering and couple connectors. Was little more with SW, and additionally I made modded Steem too, because original Steem has no analog input support - surely not to blame it's authors to not supporting something for what was no SW and HW - games and analog stick good for those ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 But is there a list of games that can use that port that will run on the STE? I know of several that will run on the Falcon. With the exception of your modded OIDs, I don't know of any games that were made for the ST that can use them. And even in that case, you had to modify OIDs, it obviously wasn't written with that support, because it was released before the STe. Yeah, an actual analog controller would have been sweet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 @ParanoidLittleMan I just had a crazy thought! How cool would it be to build up adapters for the 5200 analog controllers (keep it Atari!) and hack around in the ST version of Star Raiders for analog support? More on topic, yeah stick with the STe. It is the more capable machine in your list. And I think you can even add the 16mhz cpu to it, and it's easier to carry around than the Mega STe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted February 12, 2020 Share Posted February 12, 2020 After short googling here's list: https://gamesx.com/controldata/ejp_faq.htm And much more ? What reminded me that actually there was one game what used analog inputs - Moonspeeder. But only left-right, so 1 axe. All this with STE and it's barely used extra HW is known sad story. SW houses, programmers somehow did not care to invest little money and effort in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 9 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said: After short googling here's list: https://gamesx.com/controldata/ejp_faq.htm And much more ? What reminded me that actually there was one game what used analog inputs - Moonspeeder. But only left-right, so 1 axe. All this with STE and it's barely used extra HW is known sad story. SW houses, programmers somehow did not care to invest little money and effort in it. Ha, I know that site loaded for me earlier, it seems to be down now. I thought Moonspeeder was a Falcon only game. Trying to remember when the Power Pad was released, since that would have been the first controller to actually work with the Extended Joystick Ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 STe. Regarding Enhanced ports: there is also DynaBusters by tSCc which can be played by six players at same time! you need to build adapters for enhanced ports so you can plug two normal joystick in each port! game is so much fun so it is worth the effort :) https://youtube.com/watch?v=B-w1HqHMhBg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 If I remember correct, there were some passive joystick adapters for parallel port, for more than 2 players. Moonspeeder is Falcon only game. Did not say that works on STE ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 9 hours ago, ParanoidLittleMan said: If I remember correct, there were some passive joystick adapters for parallel port, for more than 2 players. Moonspeeder is Falcon only game. Did not say that works on STE ? Ah, yes the original question in the thread was about which he should keep, but a Falcon was not listed. Then it was suggested that a Mega STe would be great for the 16mhz, but I said the only thing missing would be the extended joystick ports, but I wondered if there were any games that actually worked with them that wasn't Falcon Only (and I mentioned the exception of course of your epic modification of OIDs, which I need to find the time to play more of!) Sadly, that link you posted seems to have a flakey uptime, as when I try to browse it, half the time it times out. (Of course it could be me..) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzac Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 The MegaSTe suggestion was merely to combine the best of the STe with the best of the MegaST :) all these years I have never used the extended ports on my STes... hard drive capabilities from the start, TOS 2.06, kinda doesn’t need all the upgrades a standard STe would receive... but if the purpose is to keep a single machine from that list then I’d say the STe too ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally1 Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I am going to buck the trend and say "520" all the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally1 Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Reason being: Data longevity. File integrity. Processes of purity, Or, ASCII olam ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Only the purity argument makes any sense to me. The rest, nope.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally1 Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Our L-rd isn't dark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 If I had to sell my stuff and was only to keep one Atari 16-32bit model for playing games it would be either an ST Book (don't have one of those!) or one of my two Mega STE units. The 16mhz CPU comes in very handy, not just the blitter. There is an excellent site that has many fixed/trained games to download so 16mhz compatibility isn't that important. If it was just for display and not actually use it then probably my boxed Atari 260ST. Would keep that over my Atari PC1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 11 hours ago, Wally1 said: Our L-rd isn't dark ? Irrelevant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 10 hours ago, oky2000 said: If I had to sell my stuff and was only to keep one Atari 16-32bit model for playing games it would be either an ST Book (don't have one of those!) or one of my two Mega STE units. The 16mhz CPU comes in very handy, not just the blitter. There is an excellent site that has many fixed/trained games to download so 16mhz compatibility isn't that important. If it was just for display and not actually use it then probably my boxed Atari 260ST. Would keep that over my Atari PC1. I'm not sure which is stranger... that you'd keep a 260ST for display, you have an Atari PC1... or that you DON'T have a ST Book... Whenever I see things about the PC1, it actually makes me kind of sad, because it was legitimately better than most IBM compatibles at the time. But it really didn't sell any significant number, as far as I am aware. Didn't it basically disappear because Atari never marketed (even less than everything else they did?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 On 2/26/2020 at 7:37 AM, leech said: I'm not sure which is stranger... that you'd keep a 260ST for display, you have an Atari PC1... or that you DON'T have a ST Book... Whenever I see things about the PC1, it actually makes me kind of sad, because it was legitimately better than most IBM compatibles at the time. But it really didn't sell any significant number, as far as I am aware. Didn't it basically disappear because Atari never marketed (even less than everything else they did?) I have seen as many ST Books for sale as Commodore 65 prototypes so there's that, but really I would never use it. The 260ST is the same as a 520ST with TOS loaded on disk (marketing thing) and the Atari PC-1 just turned up in a lot a local ebay reseller got and offered it to me before listing it (but again I don't have an EGA monitor for it so again it's for display only). If the Mega STEs were boxed then it's a no brainer, but they are loose and have some yellowing (or a bit of damage) but are all full spec HD floppy, Hard disk drive and 4mb RAM etc so make nice machines for music/graphics/games (especially Gauntlet 1 that could sure use that extra oomph of 16mhz). The Atari PC1 uses the awful 8088 type of tech, which is about 400% slower on executing code than an 8086 at the same speed like the identically priced Amstrad 1512 of the time so it's not ideal for playing games or running code in DOS BUT I think in the era of CGA to EGA 8086 or 286 gaming if you have any taste you would play the Amiga version or C64/Atari version (Defender of the Crown and Rocket Ranger are classic examples as are classics like Zaxxon/Buck Rogers etc ditto Atari 8bit computers of course). What IS nice about the PC1 is that it makes all other budget XT class PCs look like a palette of concrete blocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 <cough> I'd play the Atari ST versions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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