Mega Boosting the Mega ST

In this video we cram a load of goodness into a Mega ST4. Putting a TF536 68030 @ 50mhz accelerator and a mega bus to ISA adapter with VGA card.
Digital Voyage by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/

[@jarnailbrar6732]

great video. nice to see ST still running.

[@theamigashow9506]

Nice. I always wondered if those accelerators would work! The ST4 is great looking machine.

[@jrherita]

Very nice! I grew up with a 520STm then a 1040STf. (The 520ST ran our BBS). I always wondered about the Mega’s so it was neat to see the insides. also very cool seeing the ET4000 upgrade here - I have an ET4000 slated to go into a Mega STE I bought a few years back that I need to get to. I like this channel. Subbed!

[@powerofvintage9442]

Very cool! The ET4000 is cool in the ST, but of limited use. It works with software that plays well with the TOS / GEM environment, but pretty much everything else isn't compatible.

[@jrherita]

@@powerofvintage9442 That’s fair - I’m just an old BBS nerd and want to see actual proper 80 column 16 color ANSI graphics when connecting to a BBS.. Connect 95/97 or one of those ‘later’ terminal programs should be TOS complaint and allow this. Just something to mess around with :). I may also try to do a little retro developing on the ST itself, so the screen real estate will help a lot for code..

[@FindecanorNotGmail]

One thing I really like about the Atari ST cases is that the box screws have square holes, so as to tell them apart from screws that hold things in place inside the case.

[@sublimemauser5904]

Great video. Both those upgrades I eventually wanna add to my Mega ST or Mega STE. Godspeed for your channel too.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@mrt.7146]

No way you get to put a Tseng Labs ET4000 in an Atari ST-line of computers .... that's so amazing 🤩🤩🤩

[@slaapliedje]

Apparently the PiStorm adapted to the ST supports a virtual ET4000... so I am waiting to get ahold of one of those!

[@mrt.7146]

@@slaapliedjethat sounds pretty sweet 🤩

[@markbauermeister5449]

I got a Mega ST 4 myself fairly recently. One that came modified by its previous owner. Amongst other things, it has two internal floppy drives.

[@MikeBrookenz]

Your videos are awesome, please keep creating them.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Thank you very much. That is the intent!

[@BM-jy6cb]

I appreciate you posting this, and it's interesting to see inside a mega st, but - no disrespect here - isn't this a case of a broom with a new handle and a new brush? I mean, new processor, new ram, new rom, new graphics card, cf card instead of the original hdd, new desktop, and even a new psu! Is it really an ST any more? I guess you could argue you can play (some) original games, but would it not be easier and a lot cheaper just to use an emulator on a pc?

[@powerofvintage9442]

First off, no offence taken at all! To each their own. If my purpose was to simply play old games, then an emulator is easily the best way to play these games (or the Amiga versions of them). I find part of the fun of vintage computing is the tinkering. Getting them up and running, adding hardware that had been available at the time I used these computers but was far out of my reach as a young teenager.

[@letsgooutdoorsusa]

Nice

[@retroarchamiga2977]

great job . appreciated

[@powerofvintage9442]

Thanks!

[@Barcrest]

For a long while i always thought the 1040 STFM had a blitter as well as the extra memory.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Some of the STFM boards actually have a spot for the blitter to be added into, mostly the later ones.

[@MotownBatman]

New Sub! Dryden, MI! Never had an ST or any atari computer: Just my First Love, the 7800 Wouldnt Mind having one & Cleaning it up for Dads room of Junk as Mom calls it lol

[@powerofvintage9442]

Thank you! I call them "vintage", my wife and boys call them "old"

[@MotownBatman]

@@powerofvintage9442 "Dads BatCave of Nerd Junk" is my den at home lol

[@The-Weekend-Warrior]

My God, put some black tape over the EEPROM's window man :D:D:D Nice and inspirational video... I'm off ordering a meanwell PSU to fit in my MegaST :D

[@powerofvintage9442]

hah! agree about the tape over the windows. I had just burned them and kept them uncovered in case I needed to erase and re-write the EMUTos image.

[@slaapliedje]

​@@powerofvintage9442Ha, some of those do not erase so easily!

[@jamesfmackenzie]

Love the video! Were you able to find a TF536 assembled, or did you assembly yourself? Also, did you look at the exxos “ST Edition”?

[@powerofvintage9442]

I tried to assemble my own initially...failed miserably (it was the first time I'd tried SMD soldering...not a good first project). I got the original built by an individual from the Exxos forum prior to the ST edition being really fleshed out. That one seems like it fixes some of the incompatibilities that I've encountered with this one.

[@dhonzik]

I had a 1040ST in the mid 80's with a PC Ditto card to DOS. I would love to get another one

[@powerofvintage9442]

Those were super cool upgrades running DOS on the Atari

[@TPau65]

Wow, a really spiced up Mega and in really good shape! 👌 According your video(s): You should use a clamp microphone or similar, as your audio is barely understandable most of the time from 10:30 onwards (opening the case).

[@powerofvintage9442]

Thanks a ton!

[@LAG09]

Huh? I had no idea you could use terrible fire boards on Atari ST's, but considering how similar they were to the Amiga's on the CPU side of things it should've been obvious.

[@terriblefire2]

The TF was tested early on the ST

[@timcross3461]

Wow, great video! I have 2x1040s,2x520s, and just recently got 2xMega/2s. I love the simple ide/tos solution you originally had in there. Are there gerbers available for that or can you post a link to where I can buy? I am more of a Apple/Commodore but would love to get more into Atari.

[@powerofvintage9442]

The TOS switcher is built by Jurgen Van Radecke and can be found here: www.van-radecke.de/STUFF/tfhh_HW_info.pdf The IDE solution is integrated with the TF536. These are the same as are used on Amiga 500's, but with an Atari ST firmware. You can find these many locations, but will need to request a different firmware. There is however, an ST version of the TF536 sold in Exxos' store: www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ this includes both the TOS decoder, TOS and the accelerator all in one...a much better solution than what I have.

[@timcross3461]

Ah, thanks for that. It must have been wishful thinking to so easily have an IDE interface on ST. Thanks for the links, I will check them out.

[@powerofvintage9442]

@@timcross3461 If you're simply looking for a hard drive option, the Ultrasatan, is excellent and I will be doing a build and overview of the ACSI2SD probably this upcoming weekend.

[@fredflintstone505]

I had a Mega ST2 and solded sockets on the motherboard and upgraded it to 4mb.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Fun project and a great upgrade.

[@fredflintstone505]

@@powerofvintage9442 I did that mod about 32 years ago.

[@winstonsmith478]

That's a pretty minty looking ST4. Not much yellowing if any.

[@powerofvintage9442]

To be fair I did retrobrite it about 4 years ago right after I picked it up. It's kept the nice color well.

[@computeraisle]

I have a Mega 4 in an AT fliptop case, an SST030, a Genlock adapter, and a 450mb Seagate SCSI hard drive. I was always going to try and put in an CD drive, I wonder if I could find a SCSI Dvd unit somewhere? I have plenty of bays!

[@powerofvintage9442]

Easiest place to find scsi CD drives seems to be early 90's Mac / Quadras and such

[@peddersoldchap]

Does the IDE interface of this accelerator still works on the MEGA 1?

[@powerofvintage9442]

Yes it does with EMUtos as the replacement ROM instead of TOS 2.06. You need at least TOS 2.06 or the equivalent EMUtos in order to run the accelerator. The main reason I use EMUtos is exactly for the IDE compatibility. Additionally, you don’t need any hard disk drivers (EMUtos has them baked in) and if you use a CF card, it is fully compatible with modern PC’s and makes transferring programs a piece of cake.

[@tellyjoossens4186]

Never had an Atari ST. I only have an Atari PC3 and Atari PC4LC, still I stay intrigued about the ST's. Who knows, someday...

[@powerofvintage9442]

Would love to see a PC3 / PC4 Atari. Those and the Commodore PC's are really fun bits of history (if you can't beat them, join them)

[@franktovar1237]

​@@powerofvintage9442 I have an Atari PC 3 but it is the 8088 version not the 286. I do have AT Speed 286 installed on my Mega ST2(4 megs) with the 1.44HD floppy. My keyboard is giving me trouble. Do you have a video on cleaning the Mega ST keyboard?

[@NoobixCube]

You've likely already seen these, but just in case you haven't, Steve Jones, a long time staple of the Commodore scene and maker of the Checkmate series of cases, is releasing a retro monitor. It's an LCD rather than a CRT, so take that for all the pros and cons as usual, but the important thing is it's not a wide-screen ratio, aesthetically it's in keeping with the older Commodore and Atari monitors, it has a bit of depth to it so it doesn't look like a sleek modern flat-panel, and it has these slot connectors for various input modules, so it will be flexible enough to do just about any retro computer or console. Sure, it doesn't have the charm and softness of a real CRT, but you might find it more convenient to use and easier to film for KZbin, being an LCD. Personally I'd like to see them with a slightly curved and slightly diffuse lens over the screen, to ape the geometry and fuzziness of a real CRT a little, but I can see why others might think that's a bit too far into the naff.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Agreed, and they are super cool!

[@slaapliedje]

I ordered two... I havve decided recently that for most things... I hate wide screen displays... in fact, earlier I hooked my Syeam Deck up to a VGA 17" CRT screen so I could play Starflight through the Genesis collection. Ha!

[@nikolaidisharalambos6396]

Can we modify the body of laptop and put inside more modern specs hardware? Such a beautiful body does not manufacture nowadays design

[@fradd182]

Didnt know that Mega Sts have blitter and mechanical keyboard. Though, that 030 CPU is probably faster than the inbuilt blitter.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Yeah, you have to disable the blitter in order to keep things running properly.

[@DirkDierickx]

do you have links where to purchase this hardware? thx.

[@powerofvintage9442]

The TF536 (ST edition) can be found here: www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ Mine is NOT this version, but this one I linked to is much better and has a lot more functionality. The Mega bus to ISA slot can be found on ebay here: www.ebay.com/itm/196066385298?hash=item2da6779d92:g:JkYAAOSwicNlI9Yy&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NjFb76EcFT1KLB7JovUhFLtB99fwaqATlqCev%2B5rTfoDapkRzdEEXTgyQwr2RWTSWaaMk01LNqg6fr%2B%2FYEQL0N65hcBi7fdCR4yikuN2UiZes1h9z985v2z%2Fy7n4jwDZessRksNHBqLWrwC8XF1NIGxE3wWoXDj997%2B%2F5jMZdAggz3EPgrhsEfBar3YuLw38Al5KfE457baFdtbrWlitLFs7y2IxZINQh2%2F8KgiNRIoazMa3fmOyvdakzgIRCUiY7ov4RYht4Nh8Xu%2FcWIPe6w%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4akvvz3Yg This is a better version as well!

[@glencoco9159]

Did you paint that dell monitor white?🐞

[@powerofvintage9442]

Yep sure did. Part of modifying an old Dell computer and monitor for my kids...they've since grown out of it so I use it now with some retro computers.

[@plechaim]

I wonder if Atari were still making computers we would have seen the Atari GIGA ? Or perhaps the Atari TS ? 🤔

[@powerofvintage9442]

Hah! Given how much they had marketed the 64bit aspect of the Jaguar, they may have tried capitalizing on that aspect.

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

Atari TS? Dont you mean Atari SS?

[@matthiasbreiter4177]

ULTRA TSE Hawk

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

@@matthiasbreiter4177 dont think so, TS is wrong since there is nothing "thirtytwo" on todays CPUs, it has to be "Sixtyfour" " Sixtyfour" or "SS", next revision might be the "SSE" (poor intel lol), but hawk? Really? Isnt hawk just evolutionary? Would not be Eagle more revolutionary? ROFL

[@georg6876]

@@madigorfkgoogle9349 I don't think Atari "SS" would have gone down well with Holocaust survivor Jack Tramiel

[@gondorianslayer4250]

i guess my comment was deleted, lol. so what atari computers would you recommend that has a dspchip?

[@powerofvintage9442]

That’s weird about the comment. To answer your question, only the Falcon has the DSP.

[@gondorianslayer4250]

​@@powerofvintage9442I guess someone at KZbin hates me, lol. I saw something that 1040 has a DSP chip.

[@powerofvintage9442]

@@gondorianslayer4250 There isn't a DSP chip in either my 1040STF, 1040STe, Mega ST, Mega STe, or 520ST. I'm not aware of any upgrade available as it wasn't stock.

[@gondorianslayer4250]

​@@powerofvintage9442gotcha, so I must of misread it or got the machines mixed up.

[@retroarchamiga2977]

1040 ste atari compatible ?

[@powerofvintage9442]

Not if they are STE exclusive titles. Any games still use the standard video and audio systems on the Mega ST.

[@markae0]

I have an Atari PC and the motherboard looks near identical.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Always wanted one of those systems!

[@jinxterx]

Don't you have a mouse?

[@powerofvintage9442]

Yes, but when testing it's a pain to plug and unplug from the keyboard ports on the underside. Holding "Alt" and using the arrow keys is the quick and dirty solution :)

[@DarrenHughes-Hybrid]

1 Thought: how much can you upgrade a system and you are no longer “playing” with a vintage computer? I mean, if you upgrade a vintage computer to a point, why not just buy a system with the advanced features you want and leave the vintage system for people that want a vintage experience.

[@powerofvintage9442]

Great thought. In this case, these upgrades are equivalent to era appropriate upgrades that existed at the time. 1 - There were VGA adapter cards designed for the Mega ST (see crazydots cards) and 2 - the 68030 CPU used in the TF536 is also era appropriate. Were either common, not really...but they were the kinds of upgrades I dreamed of when I was a young lad.

[@georg6876]

You're thinking too much. Just have fun :)

[@DarrenHughes-Hybrid]

@@powerofvintage9442That is great to hear. Thank you!

[@elemar5]

Often times you only need to say often.

[@Mrshoujo]

Need only

[@zoeyzhang9866]

Informative share! Wondering if any custom PCBs may help for upcoming content? Would love to sponsor and reach any YT collab together if there's a chance! (PCBWay zoey)