Venturing into the Atari STe Land

[Paradroid90]

Good Evening My Fellow Amibayers

As promised to my good friend Blues I thought I would just you my first impressions of a machine I have never owned and always fancied having a play about with which was the Atari STe.

I have recently acquired one and I must say that using it is quite good in the 21st century and I have listed the good points below.

1 - Easy Memory upgrade to 4mb - Nice and Easy Upgrade which has already been completed on the STe was upgrading the memory to 4mb which just involved changing the current 4x256kb simms to 4x1mb 30pin simms. I have attached an image from sys info showing the upgrade completed

2 - Easy Transfer of 720k disk images - using Flo-img to transfer .st disk images back to blank disks was so easy which has allowed me to transfer some software onto some 3.5inch disks I had knocking about in my leftover drawers.

3 - Demo Scene - Another cool point that compression of 4mb demos on the Atari STe - i.e Strange Robots managed to fit on one 720k disk

I have attached some images of the start of the adventure into STe land and if anyone has any advice then please let me know.

Thanks for looking

 

[BluesBrothers]

Nice


As for advice,... well I won't get techie on you, others are far more qualified than I, but just keep it fun fella. Enjoy

BB

 

[Paradroid90]

Thanks Rob and see I did some images as promised

Not bad for a weeks worth of work lol.

 

[BluesBrothers]

When's she going Bl0nde?

 

[Paradroid90]

Probably in the summer buddy

 

[kerkyra2007]

Very nice my friend.
I had the same desire and aquired the big opposite of Amiga and enjoyed it very much.
I added an IDE connection from here and now my STE has a Hard Disk as well.

 

[Paradroid90]

Thanks for the positive response

Mmmmmm I was thinking of adding a HD solution next but the Ultra Satan which looks very impressive might be a bit outside my budget at the mo.

Thanks for the Linky

 

[kerkyra2007]

Check your dma chip as if it is the old one cannot work with Ultrasatan. Do not waste your money.
This is the reason I got this IDE CPU adapter.

 

[Geraldine]

Thanks for the positive response

Mmmmmm I was thinking of adding a HD solution next but the Ultra Satan which looks very impressive might be a bit outside my budget at the mo.

Thanks for the Linky

Nice pictures Paradroid90 I recently got a STe up and running again and had a similar dilemma about what to do about an HD. So I opted for an HxC instead. Here have a look at this post.

 

[Paradroid90]

Just out of Interest how can I tell I have the old DMA chip?

Also thanks for the links guys but will prob go down the IDE route from Atari Forum might think of putting a 16mhz 68000 in at the same time

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I have been a lifelong fan of the Atari STE. Basically lusted after an Amiga 500 but my parents could not afford one at the time so I pushed for the STE. They got it for me one christmas and I was happy

Bought a 1mb upgrade for it from First Computer Centre (I think that was the place?)

Friend of mine was a prolific disk-swapper so I had an instant game collection. Got into music and art and bought those things original. Games were a throwaway thing for me!

I still have a bunch of STE's and some STFM's.

As for the dma issue, the only way to tell 100% sure is to lift the lid, keyboard out and then remove the disk drive! The dma lives under the drive.

I cannot remember the dma code off my head but google will tell you.
Dam things are not socketed so if you do have a dodgy one then its time to crack open the soldering iron and also obtain a good chip.

EDIT: Over time I had the chance of the Amiga I had lusted over. I sold the STE to pay for it. Over time I missed that old Atari! So many years later I made a point of getting all this stuff back.

 

[protek]

I've always had a soft spot for the ST. My friends had 520 STFMs back in the good old days and I wanted one too but went for PC instead. Nowadays, I'm a happy owner of an STE with 4MB TOS 2.06 and IDE interface. I've also managed to get most of the Super Pack floppies. Test Drive on the ST was breath taking back then and it is still fun. I actually don't suck so much at it any more.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

Oh and some must get upgrades:

Lotharek's Satandisk ultra (metal cased edition) and his NetUSBee device.

An HxC aswell!

I did want to get an IDE device but left it too late for that, so went for the Satandisk instead.

Also grab a usb/ps2 mouse converter. Old mice can be a bit... well the wheels clog up over time as the ball gets dirty! can be a pita.

 

[Paradroid90]

Thanks once again guys

When looking on system info it shows that it was manufactured Jan 1990 and has TOS 1.62.

To save me taking it apart again what are the chances its going to be bad?

ie on the Atari Forum it was stated that it was only the original batch

 

[Starteck2002]

it's far easier to check the chip by opening the machine up. Look for a chip under the floppy drive with C025913-38 PH23-030 written on it - if you have that it's the bad DMA chip so no ultrasatan for you you but IDE or HxC are still two viable upgrades.

I'm waiting on my IDE board from AlanH - guessing I was probably one of the last to get one Mine is going into my Mega STe as soon as it arrives.

 

[RobA1200]

hi

would it be bad to thread crash and say I'm
In the same boat - just even more novice regarding a 1040 STf - or should u start a new thread?

sorry! and thanks!!

 

[Starteck2002]

I only 'left' the atari scene as I visitied a friends house and he had a 286 PC with SVGA monitor and windows 3.0 - that didn't impress me but the windows wallpaper was a collage of er...well.... lets just say 'ladies toilet parts' in glorious full colour - i just had to ge me one o' them

I sold the atari stuff (a mega st2, megafile 30, thousands of disks) and bought myself my first PC which had huge ESDI drives and was a bit of a monster to drive. Always missed the Atari from then on. Now I have a 4mb STe, a 4mb Mega STe and by Wednesday an Atari TT so getting right back into it all again. If you have questions, feel free to ask and I'll help out as best I can.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I only 'left' the atari scene as I visitied a friends house and he had a 286 PC with SVGA monitor and windows 3.0 - that didn't impress me but the windows wallpaper was a collage of er...well.... lets just say 'ladies toilet parts' in glorious full colour - i just had to ge me one o' them

I sold the atari stuff (a mega st2, megafile 30, thousands of disks) and bought myself my first PC which had huge ESDI drives and was a bit of a monster to drive. Always missed the Atari from then on. Now I have a 4mb STe, a 4mb Mega STe and by Wednesday an Atari TT so getting right back into it all again. If you have questions, feel free to ask and I'll help out as best I can.

You little Jammy dodger you lol!

A TT. That was the pinnacle of the Atari ST ownage for me back in the early 1990's and I knew that it would always be a pipedream

The holy grail as it were!

Then the Falcon came out and I wanted one of those! I have a silly idea that, well if I ever pull my thumb out will come together and involves:

Atari STE
HxC
4MB
NOS Falcon keyboard
4160 STE badge

I have everything here. I am buried in stuff and also work/family takes centre stage at the moment. I will do this one day.

 

[NovaCoder]

Good Evening My Fellow Amibayers

As promised to my good friend Blues I thought I would just you my first impressions of a machine I have never owned and always fancied having a play about with which was the Atari STe.

I have recently acquired one and I must say that using it is quite good in the 21st century and I have listed the good points below.


Thanks for looking

Hiya,

Always liked the ST, I used to have an STFM back in the day (too poor to afford an Amiga).

I think this is kind of Atari I'd buy if I was after one, very nice

 

[Paradroid90]

Thanks for all the comments again guys

Have not got around to checking the DMA chip yet but will do soon.

Can anyone recommend and other STe only demos and Utilities to use

Thanks Again