Most liked posts in thread: Atari ST wanted

I didn't check for the 800XL so far, sorry @Vyper68, I'll do that soon. I certainly have a spare Atari ST, no 520, only 1040 (STF or STE). I'm ok with swaps. Will look for a fitting ST tomorrow.

 

Sometimes see ST's cheap on EBay as well Richie. They never seem to sell for anything near the price of Amiga, especially the STFM.

If you get one, do you have anytihng planned for it yet? Mine has been a bit ignored but I want to try changing that next year and get a hard drive device to play around with. Although I've got an Amiga, the ST was my first 16 bit computer and I have a massive soft spot for it. Even built up my first business around it, selling and setting up the machines and running a Public Domain library. Great times

 

I got my ST in a bundle of Amiga stuff, turned it on twice and it just sat there as I had little interest in it (hence the sale). I do have an ST gamebase but I have to say that I rarely ever touch it unless Steem (st emu) gets a release.

Don't detest the ST but liked my Amiga a lot more..

 

Best of luck Richie, I don't have an ST any more, sold it a couple of years ago..Hope someone can help.

 

I was an ST bloke from the get-go. I picked up a 520STFM secondhand from a local game shop called “Chips” and was definitely in the ST camp until the A1200 came out. My brother got an A500 for Christmas and I have to say at the time I wasn’t impressed. I know it’s bonkers but I just didn’t like the sound on the Amiga at the time, these days I feel different of course but back then I didn’t like it.
I wasn’t a fan of Amiga DOS and Workbench and I preferred the Atari’s GEM environment. I also had a MIDI keyboard and that was used quite a lot as I was interested in music at the time. Each to their own, I would just like another one as using Hatari or Steem is not the same.

 

Well done, Richie, for speaking up for the ST.

Credit where credit's due - midi music was where it's strength was at and I hated all the Amiga guru meditation error crashes but for me personally, when all considered, the Amiga 500 seemed to steal the show with it's improved graphics and sound - the demos and game conversions written for the Amiga nearly always seemed to be superior, I found.

 

I could list a bunch of reasons not to like a machine, whereas you only need one reason to love a machine..

Simple as that, as you know I go where the good games are, no fan boys here, I just didn't see stuff I liked as much on the ST or they got ported to the Amiga and sometimes improved, mostly NOT. DOS's are divisive things, I like anything where the mouse does most of the work and both ST and Amiga had that vibe going, it certainly was a welcome change from so much typing on the C64 and Atari 8 bit. Shame Atari pitched the ST as a business machine with some games on it and yes, you could run a business from one, my mates in Strategic Software Plus ran the entire thing from an ST. Annoying because it sort of made the word game a bit dirty on the ST, something too lowbrow for the machine, which lost them sales as it could play games very well.

What is nice about the ST is that it's ideal for modders like yourself, a nice open architecture just waiting for devices to be wired on to it.

Hope you find one Richie and do something amazing on it..

 

Nothing wrong with the ST (well sprites and hardware scrolling might have been nice, 1 sprite for the mouse pointer was daft), it was a good machine but for me, pitched badly. Had they pitched' all around entertainment system then I think more would have treated it for games. but as you say, it carved a healthy niche with the midi side, the then go to midi machine.

 

As an ST fan, I have got several units (520 & 1040STF, 520STE, Mega ST2, SF354 external floppy disk drive), but they are all AZERTY and French TOS.

I can sell you a 520STF or 1040STF if you want one of them, but maybe you would have to consider changing the keyboard and/or TOS. Once again, not a good deal for someone in the UK... You better should have a look on Gumtree maybe?

 

Careful Richie, you could start sounding like Charles Aznavour..

 

Atari ST in need of restoration, spotted on Gumtree:

https://www.gumtree.com/p/desktop-workstation-pcs/vintage-atari-1040-st-/1422273611

 

I'm the same, Rich - used to have a spare 520STFM - went out the door for about £20 2-3 yrs ago.

I thought you had a couple of guys on here about to sort you with an 800XL - Klyde and Alex?