The Atari ST Story | Nostalgia Nerd

[@JyotiMishra]

THANK YOU for the mention (I'm White Town) and representing the almighty ST! I currently have four in a cupboard upstairs and Lotharek's FPGA version too. I can tell you, as of 2020, *nothing* comes close to touching the ST still in terms of MIDI timing tightness and usability. Maybe Reaper on a good day, if the wind's blowing right. WIthout the rock-solid timing of the ST (synced to my Tascam 688 via its built-in FSK), Your Woman would not have sounded like it sounds.

[@bluebull399]

White Town - Your Woman was a monumental day for bedroom musicians. When your song hit the charts it gave us the realization that people can and are making a success of bedroom music production. I loved that song not just because it was a good song, but because you could sit there and deconstruct the song in your head and think, "I could probably recreate that on my setup!"

[@supafly8558]

Wow! A tune back in the day

[@MatttheDad]

Owned your tape!

[@radiusone216]

I remember Your Woman being played on Radio One (I think it was Mark Radcliffe's show who pushed it maybe when he was hosting the breakfast show, I can't exactly remember). The song went to number one or two didn't it? I know it was a while ago but congratulations that is an amazing achievement. I think I read somewhere Aphex Twin used an Atari ST for songs that ended up on Selected Ambient Works volume 1 and 2 so just your music and Aphex Twin coming from the Atari ST makes it a pretty legendary system

[@JyotiMishra]

@@bluebull399 Thank you!!

[@Techmoan]

Brilliant job. It's important to have a video like this done from a UK perspective, and you're bang on about the ST being to the Amiga what the Speccy was to the C64, that's exactly how it felt to me too. I remember that I got a very early STFM, and it came with a single sided (360k?) floppy drive, which I later upgraded with a double sided one...which involved taking a hacksaw to the case...good old days.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Thanks very much! Yes, the early ones did come with 360k drives. 720kb drives were snuck in as an unofficial upgrade as production progressed, leading to a smaller eject button and your hacksaw related issue. I hope it turned out ok? :O

[@Storm_.]

I am from the same generation as you man, although I have recently aquired my childhood dream machines: Atari Falcon and Atari TT :) I'm currently having a lot of fun playing around with them

[@parakart]

I remember hacksawing the case for the floppy drive and soldering the extra half meg of memory onto the board

[@poeterritory]

The PC disk compatibility for the ST was a godsend. I was able to take 4 years of work and port them when I upgraded to PC in 1992. I still have those files. There is something cool about having something that old.

[@pametnaradionica]

Yap! I still keep mine too. :D

[@jeroenrnl]

*downgraded to a PC 😋

[@david-spliso1928]

Yes it always had PC format compatibility. Absolutely brilliant.

[@patchso]

I actually transferred all of my stuff from an Amiga 1200 to an iMac. Not a straightforward task!

[@mrdonsmith]

Great video! Remember STart magazine? It was dedicated to the Atari ST platform and I was a columnist for that publication. I'll never forget stopping in Chicago and browsing a magazine rack and seeing the first edition. I was just thrilled to see my column inside. I was a national columnist! The column was called 'By the Numbers by Don Smith. I also ran a popular Atari ST BBS in my Houston (TX) apartment and I called it 'The AtariST'.

[@OfficialSonOfRock]

i was about 10 years old at that time. I devoured those magazines. I'm sure I read your columns many a time.

[@simpletongeek]

Amazingly, I'm reading those magazines now. I'm interested in this article about lexicor phase 4 3D programs. Can't find anything on KZbin, though. Cyber 3D is also missing? Or maybe I just need to look harder?

[@rapscallion3506]

Yep!!!! I remember many a night dialing in from 300 then 1200 then 2400 then 9600 and then 19200 into that BBS... I was addicted.

[@thealaskan1635]

Do you think Tramiels badly managed ATARI?

[@rapscallion3506]

@@thealaskan1635 He was definitely a no-holds-bar competitor which probably contributed to his family's overreach. Among others, STart, ST Applications, ST Log and Current Notes were my reading favs. I still have quite a collection of the magazines and disks.

[@simonp5788]

I've just discovered your videos. Being an old git at 50 I remember all these systems well. Really enjoying the channel. Keep up the good work.

[@baronbokaj]

Atari has influenced my whole life. I truly enjoyed your amazing video, sent me on a trip down nostalgia road. As a teenager, I was hooked by the Arcade-machines, spent a fortune on Defender and Pac-Man. Bought my first computer a second hand Atari 800 because of the games but soon found out that the best "game" was Atari Basic. Wrote a lot of simple games like slot-machines and mace-games before I stepped up to an Atari Mega 2 and Mark Williams C. Spent a lot of time creating a horse racing game which I eventually sold to Commodore (oh the irony) intended for their CD-TV. The game went into lengthy development to fit the hardware, but Commodore went bankrupt before it could be released. My devotion for computers brought me into a career as a computer graphics designer, handling dedicated systems like the FCG Beacon and later the Dutch Aesthedes. Started my own design firm and got Atari Scandinavia as one of my clients, creating campaigns and packaging for the Atari 520 ST, and later the Atari TT desktop bundled with the revolutionary Calamus dtp-program. Glorious days, still got a couple of Atari computers including rarities as the Stacy4 and the Atari Portfolio. Speaking of irony, the game I’m most known for is a traditional board game called Dungeon Quest.

[@matthewbromley8115]

I have this computer in perfect conditions! Message for pictures.

[@Pablo123456x]

30 minutes, this is a documentary. Well done!

[@billant2]

Yep, the Amiga video was close to an hour... just a bit more happening there... but both fun machines... while they lasted.

[@zebunker]

It's a wikifacts info video.

[@MrSammotube]

I had an Atari STE 1040 STE and was the only machine I had from 1986-1996 and only stopped because I broke it by taking it apart! It was so awesome, had RCA stereo jacks, TV out, 4 controller ports and MIDI ports (we needed this and no other machine could offer this for the price). I doubt if I can ever again buy a machine that lasts a decade in terms of daily driver, so kudos to Atari!

[@MultiMidden]

It was exceptional value for money, by early 1987 in the UK the 520STFM (£399 inc VAT) could be bought for less than Acorn's 128k 6502-based BBC Master (£450 inc VAT).

[@matthewbromley8115]

I have this computer in perfect conditions! Message for pictures.

[@hrnekbezucha]

Knowing it was designed in super short time and on budget this is much more impressive machine than I thought.

[@ChristianBehnke]

Oh man, what a trip down memory lane. I remember my dad bringing home a 520ST with colour monitor in the late 80's, then we upgraded to a 1040STF a few years later. I learned so much of my computer fundamentals on those things, including graphics, music, gaming, BBS's, even some early programming. I wish we still had those old computers just so I could relive those early digital days! ♥️

[@IMDRanged]

My family took advantage of the Atari ST MIDI ports in the back and invested in a MIDI connectable Casio synthesizer keyboard. Helped us learn all about music.

[@robintst]

This was very informative and entertaining, great work! Big shout out to the ST camp from myself, an Amiga guy. Those were just fun times for all of us. I sometimes miss the days of all the diverse system architectures and operating systems.

[@BlackburnBigdragon]

I miss the glory days of just being able to sit down at my computer, turn it on, and have it be a blank canvas where I could just write a program to make it do whatever the heck I wanted it to. A time when the computer came with the manual that actually gave you all the instructions for how to do just that and not only that, gave you the full schematic of the workings of the chips so you could get them to do what you wanted them to do. Nowadays, you don't get a manual with the computer. If you want to write a program, you need to get a separate program in order to even program the thing. Then you need to figure out what language you want to use because different languages are better for different types of purposes, then you need to get a big book or take a course to learn the big complex language. I used to write so many games and programs on my C64. I ran a C64 BBS back in the day. Times have really changed a LOT and have gotten a LOT more complicated since then.

[@PeteOliva]

BlackburnBigdragon good comment! I think a lot of that early computing spirit lives on but in apps and open source OS like Android. I think app development is where that early programming culture kind of lives on.

[@OpenGL4ever]

@BlackburnBigdragon Well, today you get a C and C++ compiler for free. That's something that wasn't possible in the past, you had to pay for the compiler. Your C64 had an inbuilt basic interpreter but to write fast software you had to write your code in assembler or buy a compiler for a fast high level language like C or Pascal. Then you say you got plenty of documentation shipped with your computer, that is true, but today you get plenty of information over every aspect a programmer might need over a modern PC on the Internet. Even IDEs are free. The times to program software were never better than today. The only drawback are the Internet itself which can distract from programming, the high amount of free available software which makes programming your own software less motivating and the fact, that it is much more difficult to get a foot into the industry with your own software. But technically everything is easier today. It's only not that much fun anymore, because you have plenty of RAM and performance available. Squeezing out the last bit to minimize code size or improve your code is less and less important and rewarding and that makes programming boring. Today you can even use fat and slow scripting languages like java script and no one cares about optimization. Writing in assembler on a tiny machine with only a couple of kbytes of RAM available was much more fun.

[@ryanyoder7573]

OpenGL4ever well said. I'm afraid you were on the opposite side of the flame wars between DirectX and OpenGL back in the day as I am a massive MSFT fanboy and evangelized DirectX from Direct Draw 1.0

[@FutureChaosTV]

So, using Unity and other high level tools is more difficult than low level coding? I think you might have a condition known as "Nostalgia". ;-) Also, please tell me how to document the billions and billions of transistors in modern CPUs?

[@duncanwalduck7715]

There *was* a free C compiler - I got a 'public domain' one, Sozobon, from a mail order soft-library, i.e. for 'cost'. It was part of the GNU project. Reading the on-disc manual was mostly learning about the GNU Public License, for better or worse. I got almost nothing done on it, though: I mean I hardly even used it for a "hello world". Going back and forth between editor(s)/compiler/debugger, all shockingly non-GUI, and any on-disk documentation was a PITA without any multi-tasking or multiple console windows. I also hadn't got a clue about module linking or how to link into OS features beyond stdio, although I had a printed manual for GEM/TOS which remained largely Greek to me. I think that was from a bookshop and not included. My 'background' was the BBC Micro where I was spoilt rotten with manuals, dev tools and utils, but ultimately rather limited. Back on the ST, compiling even the simplest thing was also almost always a case of going for tea. Learning to think in POSIX was also not going to come overnight. I did find GFA basic to be fairly swanky, though - a full IDE, but that was a cover-disk find from a magazine: knock-down but not 'free'. It was also quite a hindrance that I never sunk the £70 for a second floppy drive (the price never seemed to drop), or hard disk (oh joy), or even had a dedicated monitor. Whilst my tube for a while was a Trinitron, I never went to it through SCART (if that was even likely to be a thing - I plead ignorance). Anyway, it's not true that you don't get paper manuals today: every PC motherboard I've bought new since 15 years ago came with one, though the online versions available to our connected age cut out the rummaging. They seem very comparable to my STe manual, in fact //iirc: all pin-outs, changing of settings and a certain amount of obligatory 'idiot proofing'.

[@boelwerkr]

The Atari ST has a special place in my heart because it was the first computer i owned and the first computer i bought from my own money . My parents gave us pocket money and we could it save or buy things with it. I saved it for years and had enough to by a used 520STFM at the age of 12. But with only a little bit of software and only two games after my father screened all of the disks. But GFA-Basic 2.0 was part of it. Also being the only one on the hole school with an ST, i got into software development. Primary to write games for my self. I realized back then that writing a game is much more fun than playing it. :-)

[@nyccollin]

Your father screened all of the disks? As in, he looked through everything? Why? What was he hoping to find?

[@boelwerkr]

@@nyccollin He searched for inappropriate games and software. He deleted most the disks i had gotten. No idea what the content was. Most titles sounded like games. He really disliked games with killing, hitting or weapons in them. Took him two weeks to get through all of them.

[@OneEyedJack1970]

Xould you write decent games in GFA BASIC?

[@boelwerkr]

@@OneEyedJack1970 I could not, but there are a lot of good games written with GFA-Basic

[@BazT47]

Loving the Quick and Silva music in the background!. Love it on the Amiga

[@JoyVisionStudio]

These are high quality and informative videos and I recognize the work that goes into them. Very nice work! :D

[@user-tb5ns7hc5i]

Loved your comment about the satisfying solid click of the 3.5” floppy insertion. I can still remember it’s feel and sound today at the mere mention. Best media ever.

[@magnum333]

You do a wonderful job with these videos of yours. They are really interesting and fun to watch. Thanks.

[@Yuushiboy]

Awesome video once again! It makes me happy when I hear that someone kept their old computers since child hood, I still have my Commodore 64 since I was a kid, the old brown bread bin and it still works as a charm. I also had an Atari but I had the 1040 STE version. Actually got it mostly cause I like to make music.

[@Heathcliff_hensel]

If it wasn't for the Atari ST , we wouldn't have Cubase and Logic Pro.

[@farseerflore9512]

If it wasn't for ears, we wouldn't be able to hear music, which would also mean no Cubase or Logic Pro.

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

If it wasn't for the Amiga, we wouldn't have thousands of software synths like the VST synths & iOS synths that are popular in the music community today. The Amiga was equally suited, if not a better choice, to work as a MIDI tape recorder (sequencer). The Amiga provided all of that, and the ability to replace synthesizers that cost thousands of dollars, back in 1985 at a time when synthesizers were very expensive.

[@zetmoon]

But the ST had midi-ports as standard, that's why it became the standard for music production using Cubase and Logic. It was eventually superseded by Apple Macs.

[@humansrants1694]

And PC I didn't know the Amiga had a midi upgrade.

[@billant2]

Sure the Amiga (and PC) had a number of external MIDI box add-ons, but the Atari has it built in from the get-go which seemed to have played in its favor for a while.

[@RighteousBruce]

Watching this after a good lunch and 2litres of beer in a pub. Good times indeed. Love your vids sir.

[@oldsynth]

Just started using my 1040 in the studio again after 6 years away from it. Its superb for midi with Gajits Sequencer one. Always loved the ST.

[@jamief1263]

Nice touch adding in the lotus turbo challenge 2 theme tune. Oddly one of the most memorable soundtracks on a game in my opinion.

[@Joeyboots80]

Great presentation, well researched. As an ST fan this is much appreciated. Keep up the great work!

[@JohnGodwin]

Every single video this guy makes is amazing. This was my era, but all I cared about was actually using/playing them. To come back so many years later and learn the provenance of the machines and their history is pure pleasure.

[@mazthespaz1]

flew to Atari a few months before the ST release to meet the Tramiels. The Atari offices were very depressing. I did see the room where they were studying the Lisa to see what they could learn. A couple months later I was developing on one of the first 520sts. lots of hand-wiring on motherboard and no rf shielding. I did finally sell off that system last year probably way cheaper than I should have. I really enjoyed working on the machine. things got a lot better once they had hard drives

[@armandoanderson3536]

The text speech synthesizer! Forgot about that thing! Hilarious. Loved my 1040ST. Still tucked away in the closet. Have no clue if it still works.

[@punisherxs6654]

loving all the tech Nostalgia videos on your channel.

[@th45h1zn1t]

Great video! hadn't realised how many models Atari released. I had an Amiga 500 and my friend had the 520STFM. We (for some reason) got it into our heads that the Atari ST could make perfect copies of Amiga original disks using x-copy or similar ;) it never really worked but it was fun trying....I will never forget seeing an Atari ST for the first time running International Karate in Fidget computers in High Wycombe. The graphics blew me away.

[@dlfrsilver]

That's the opposite Darren, you can copy the st disks with an amiga, but not the other way around :)

[@daveharris501]

Jeff Minter......top guy !! Still got a signed copy of Trip-a-Tron ! ☺

[@JohnnyOrgan]

Fantastic video. Deserves a lot of respect. Well put together etc. Really enjoyed this. Subscribed.

[@PurpleKnightmare]

I got an Amiga 500 in 90 and I had Gauntlet too! I still have mine, and it still works.

[@geekdesprairies]

Absolutely loved this video and both parts of the Amiga documentary. Great job, thanks for bringing up the happy memories of this era!

[@Ish0tJR]

As a die hard Amiga owner who always felt sorry for my neighbour who had an ST, I really enjoyed this vid. Subscribed ;-).

[@AfterDarknessiFeel]

Amiga rules !!!!!

[@allanm6246]

The ST had the Amiga beat with most 3D games at least.

[@williamtell1477]

Piracy was alive and well on the Amiga platform ;)

[@wisteela]

It's fantastic that you still have what was your mate's ST. That speech synth was used for the rave track 'Das Boot'.

[@J-D-P]

Fantastic video mate. I remember when my Dad came home with a 1040 and a copy of Karate Kid int he 80s I literally had my mind blown. He would wake me up every morning smoking and playing Defender of the Crown (as the computer was in my bedroom! :P ) Ahhh, I'll never forget that smoke choking my lungs as a wee lad. What a lovely way to wake up, wouldn't change it for the world :D!!!!

[@farseerflore9512]

As soon as I heard Peter Molyneux's(spelling, I know) name mentioned, I half expected a quip from GuruLarry berating him. Great vid, so many memories!

[@snowyweather1]

Absolutely fascinating. You captured the excitement and intrigue from the era, which let's us all feel it again!

[@marsu37de]

Thanks for the great vid. The Atari 1040 STF was my first home computer after having started studying computer science back in 1985. I bought it from my own money I had bravely saved from my monthly federal scholarship support in the summer of 1986, cost me about 3000 Deutsche Mark and consisted of the main unit with built-in floppy drive and power supply, and the famous monochrome monitor. I remember that the main unit had been promised to have the TOS and GEM built-in on ROMs, but the manufacturers had not made it on time, so we had to live with the TOS boot floppy for a while. When the ROMs were finally delivered, for me as an absolute beginner in electronics it was a real challenge to unscrew the case, insert the ROM modules in the right sockets and in the proper sequence, and without tilting or bending those tiny legs... I will never forget the moment I switched on my Atari again, waiting for a big bang or whatever. Instead, there was that friendly starting screen of the operating system appearing on the screen and I knew I had done everything right... :)

[@_____7704]

Literally just got my 520STFM back from my mate who fixed the power supply, after I bought it off Gumtree. Great video!

[@crunchychips8123]

One of my greatest regrets in life was chucking my ST in the bin when the floppy drive stopped working in the late-90's. Knowing what I know now, I probably could have repaired it or got an external floppy drive on ebay.

[@BoomBox02]

2 of my regrets are, 1 Selling both my Mega ST's, and 2. Throwing out my Commodore 128 back in the mid 90's as i thought the machine was toast, only to realize later that it was a dodgy power supply.

[@Adrian-yp7nb]

Oh man, gutted.

[@1960ARC]

Crunchy Chips That's sad! I kept my 800, 800XL, 128 XE and 1040 STE, even though I did sell my 520 stfm.

[@ExplosiveAction]

Great video. I didn't think STs launched until 1985. I got my 1040STFM in 1989 when my parents decided - quite rightly - that computers were the future. They were told by the local computer store that ST's were about to be installed in all the schools. Turns out that didn't happen - Macs did instead. I loved my ST and used it constantly until 1993. I still have it, and it still works, but the disk drive is pretty sad and won't read much. Considering replacing it with one of the SD card drives.

[@MultiMidden]

The college I went to in the early 90's bought a load of 1040STFs in around 86/87 instead of BBC Masters, they were still being used when I left.

[@locklear74]

Another great video. I always enjoy your story videos about the different computer companies. You and Kim Justice always knock these kind of videos out the box. I like learning more about computers that were more dominate in European market. Ever did one on Sam Coupe or maybe a big video on Dragon. I would definitely like see one on those. I am big Tandy Color Computer fan. Keep up the good work!!!

[@rodoherty1]

+1 for the Dragon!

[@Nostalgianerd]

The Dragon video should be landing this week!

[@mickronson8039]

Llamatron is a must

[@duncanrathband5492]

Ah the speech simulator at the end! Great times putting rude words into that with my mates as a kid :-)

[@billant2]

Like "fock you"! ha-ha

[@ojkolsrud1]

I used the Say application on my Amiga 500 for this. Man, that was so funny to mess with! It wasn't perfect, so often I had to re-write words to make them sound better.

[@madness8556]

I bought my next door neighbour's Atari 1040STE in 1995 and shortly after, a run out copy of C Lab Notator SL and barely looked at the hardware sequencers in my Korg T3EX and Trinity Plus after that! The fact that the Atari had built in MIDI ports was huge for electronic musicians and composers at the time! I sold my 1040STE and got a cheap fully expended Mega 4 that I used for a number of years before going to Logic on a PC and later Mac.

[@VisitorOf22]

I absolutely worshiped my 1040STe with 4mb RAM and a Megafile30 HD :D

[@viktorhugo8252]

Great work for history of Atari machines

[@CHABBO]

The ST is still the tightest for MIDI IN/OUT. Works fantastic alongside Akai samplers.

[@2flyabove]

Excellent documentary on Atari. I loved my Atari 520ST. Bought it 1986. Superb design for its time.

[@jnicoulakos]

You did a great job! I recall most of this when I had my Mega 2 ST. No one at Atari would tell us the users what they will bring out next. We all know what won in the end! lol

[@artfulstationer]

I still have a 520ST in my basement, in the original packaging...and it still works! Amazing piece of equipment for that time and I can credit my love of computers today to this machine. It was the first real home computer I ever owned. Even though I bought it mostly for gaming, I did use it for word processing and learned some programming in basic. I remember writing a resume for my first design position on this machine. Thanks for putting this video together, it was indeed nostalgic!

[@michaelsstuff4402]

Fantastic! I'll keep looking for an Amiga 600 to sit beside my Atari 1040STFM!

[@Nostalgianerd]

Exactly the combination I have. It's a winner.

[@sonic2000gr]

The 1040 STE was my last pre-PC machine. I'll always have fond memories of it!

[@highjim7778]

I was on the Amiga side and hated the ST back in the day. I wish I had one now though, is a part of decent computer history.

[@captainblood9616]

The ST was the kinda cute girl next door...the Amiga was her devastatingly sexy friend!

[@robvegas9354]

Such a fun time to grow up with all of the different systems, i had friends at school who had amiga, amstrads, speccies, apple 2s, the lot... we had a Atari 2600 then C64 and later an ST. always a lot of fun chatting about new games at school. Great video!!

[@jandoorthumpinbrushwheel2206]

Good video, but a small correction - the C64 had higher resolution than the ZX Spectrum, just most programmers used the half resolution multicolour mode in preference to it.

[@MAXLAWLESSIBIZA]

How many hours I spent writing tunes on Steinberg Pro 24! :D

[@mickronson8039]

like mine you mean?? kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYrIlK2QnLeJqck

[@GeekTherapyRadio]

"Your Woman" was also recorded and mixed on the Tascam 688. The 688 could be controlled over MIDI and record 8 separate audio tracks onto a standard cassette tape. Cassette multitrack recorders typically recorded only 4 tracks of audio, but for the 688 (and 488) Tascam developed tape heads that jammed 8 tracks onto the same cassette. I have one. It sounds wonderful in it's analog way. Needless to say, the tape runs VERY fast to compensate for the narrower audio tracks. I love my 688. One of the only possessions I'd save in a house fire.

[@jodybillings3841]

My first home computer was the 65XE. I went to a 520ST and on to a 1040 soon after. Loved these computers they were so much better then the IBM pc's at school. I spend a lot of time on the early BBS systems on all three of these machines. Today I do a lot more on my phone but at the time it was ahead of it's time.

[@Trusteft]

That's like my first ST. Fat external floppy disk drive SF314 (which was double sided), joystick and mouse port on the right, wonderful grills, awesome function keys and a lovely sm124 mono monitor. Also two huge power supply units. Those were big. The drive was very loud and eventually in 1988-1989 I bought a new, a very thin and quiet model, don't remember model number. I had a MEGA STE later but that's another story. Great video, thank you for sharing.

[@SwainyAtRetroAsylum]

I've just recently bought a 520STFM, looking forward to playing some games on it.

[@pman1902]

play speedball 2, one of the best and ranarama

[@MHMajid-yi8iu]

Oh I still remember those day, although if not mistaken Atari ST come out first at our local computer shop but I still not convinced to adopted her until I can compare both the Atari ST and Amiga 500 side by side. And at last I chose the Amiga 500 just because its graphics and sounds.And never regret my decision until now. Occasionally I kicked UAE to have that nostalgic taste when needed.

[@oldskoolpaul77]

This is a great video! I love the ST, had one back in the day and still have it. A very underestimated system these days.

[@bencheyne1333]

Excellent video, used an Amiga in the 90's but now have an STE permanently set up with cubase, games etc.

[@willynebula6193]

mate I love your work thank you for making these videos Keep em coming

[@lucodeath]

Could emulate apple faster than an apple machine, apple still use slow computers.

[@thealaskan1635]

Faster than Wintel

[@daishi5571]

@@thealaskan1635 Tell that to every game that has faster, higher quality visuals than the Mac.

[@thealaskan1635]

@@daishi5571 alot of games were never even made for the Mac thanks to Steve Jobs.I can look back when he did a demonstration of how aG4 Mac kicked a supposedly faster Wintel piece of crap PC in computation speed you DUMBASS

[@numbers9to0]

As a kid I saved my money to buy an Atari 1040 ST. When I finally had the money, I bought an Amiga 1000. ;P

[@20windfisch11]

The 260ST does indeed exist. I have one. But it has 512K and ROM TOS too, don't know if it was upgraded since I once read that the 260ST had TOS on disk.

[@a1rh3add]

Amazing video. I didn't expect it to be so informative and entertaining.

[@theeggman4806]

another awesome video. ..love your channel. .

[@flain283]

Back in the late 80s i grew up in a poorer household. My school friends had systems like NES/master system/c64/amiga etc. I spent most my time at other friends houses waiting for my turn to play, if they let me.. My step dad scored an Atari 520ST from cash converters (aussie pawn shop) for $80 and it was given to me as my birthday present (i wanted an amiga but at $1000+...) . It was life changing and i not only played the crap out of it i also learnt assembly programming which has proven to be incredibly useful in my career.

[@Zaky-Tocapelotas]

Great vid ! took me back watching that. I still have my ST in the lift. Thanks for posting. Only thing i will say is, i thought the background music was a little too loud for me.

[@nicolabelle1415]

As a European kid in the end 80’s I get an Atari 520st with my bro, it was such a revolution by the times, I discovered later it’s capability in music production with midi, such a nice tool, still use even today by some irréductible makers, nostalgy maybe of this sound grain FM typical… the legend lives on !

[@swampnutz]

Excellent video. The NTSC versions of the 520stfm and Amiga 500 are my computer collection holy grails. Love any opportunity to learn about either, and this was great.

[@Trusteft]

Eh, I don't remember about the A500, but the ST didn't have a NTSC version, they were like modern PCs in that regard. Though I admit I don't remember what the situation was with the power supplies, I don't remember if they were universal or not, but still, no problem with NTSC. The ST could work at 50 or 60 hz just fine. At least from what I remember.

[@SeverityOne]

John Michael Jar? Somebody was thinking of his Spectrum during French class.

[@SeKlasaChapo]

I got one of these as a kid in the late 90's. A real thing of beauty. Great vid, subbed.

[@sixdegreesofcrispybacon]

"Staaaaar Glider." I remember genuinely thinking I was being punked when Dad made the computer do that for the first time (and we'd already had a Speccy with voicebox prior!) Great inclusion in the video. ❤️

[@Eon119]

Loved both machines. Got access to a friends ST about 2 years before purchasing my Amiga. Spent many good times gaming on both machines regardless of their technical differences.

[@gregman77]

Another great episode. Well documented and well written. Thank you!!!

[@awesomeamericanpanda]

Excellent video, a great perspective in addition to the others see on KZbin. Keep up the good work!

[@andrealuvshouse]

What a great memory! My first computer was a TI99/4A and by the time I got all the peripherals, it occupied 1/4 of my mom’s basement. That Texas Instruments machine is why I found it so easy to learn the Basic Programming language. Then I got a an IBM PCjr, and then a used Apple Macintosh II. I wish I’d gotten an Atari ST as I guarantee I’d STILL HAVE IT TODAY. I write and record music. I am a Mac girl but I’ll tell you if I ever bought an Atari ST I’d still have it for music production.

[@Roadstar1602]

I remember when my neighbor got a 1040ST. I'd never heard the sound of a 3 1/2" floppy before. It made a magical sound that I still love to this day. I remember playing Joust on it, and it was exactly like the arcade game. I was so jealous.

[@Gameboy-Unboxings]

Question. As a retro gamer who really wants to get into retrocomputing, would this computer be a good introduction for me?

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Go with an Amiga, same games, just far better sound and graphics. The ST does 3D slightly faster, but it's minimal

[@vesavius]

Honestly, why do all the best nerd gaming historians and, even, critics, seem to to be British? Great vid.

[@Trusteft]

Perhaps because outside of Europe the then gamers were into their Nintendo more than computers.

[@billant2]

Computers such as the Atari and Amiga were more popular in Europe, I remember most software came from there back in the BBS days.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

Because Germans have funny accents.

[@sketchesofpayne]

Honestly before KZbin I had never heard of any of these microcomputers or oddball game consoles. Since I was born in 1984 the NES and IBM compatibles had always been around. When I was four we had a Tandy 2000.

[@werpu12]

Homecomputers were mostly in the 16 bit era a european thing, while the consoles took over the US. Funny thing that the computer industry and computer games industry thrived in the US while it mostly went under in Europe after the 16 bit era.

[@ParadiseDecay]

And to think we had the Atari / Amiga wars. Just like the kids today have their Xbox / Sony wars.....

[@Trusteft]

I remember watching people FIGHT over the two systems. No kidding. Punches and all.

[@mat5267]

It’s not really a war anymore, Xbox and ps4 practically use the same hardware.

[@Astlaus]

Great job, this is a full fledged documentary. I always wanted Amiga, because it was, arguably, better platform. But parents bought me a 520 STFM with the SM124 monochrome monitor in 1989, so that's where I went. And it was one hell of a ride. I eventually upgraded it to 1 MB RAM, then to 2,5 MB. Later I even got Atari TT030 with 4 MB RAM. I learned to program in MC68000 assembler (with the amazing GenST assembler), but also used Turbo C from Borland. I also ran a FidoNet node on both machines and a BBS on the TT.

[@Si1983h]

My first computer was a 1040 STE which later had a 4MB ram upgrade, loved it and wish I still had it!

[@RobertLock1978]

Who's the hand-hiding Turd in the old photo at 7:07 ?

[@hangonsnoop]

Many musicians used Atari ST systems due to the built-in MIDI interface.

[@kyroha]

My dad bought us one of these when they were pretty new. We had to have the ROM chip out in later. I used a lot of home computers when I was a kid at friends houses, plus Macs at school. I'm convinced that this was the best on the market for at least a couple of years.

[@robbiereisman8954]

Thank you for this. The ST is my favorite gaming platform of all time, mostly for sentimental reasons, but also for the huge game library.

[@darioperezdario2638]

Excellent video. Here in Argentina, I remember that the Commodore Amiga computers and the Atari ST series were unknown in the 90s. Only a friend from high school, who had a Commodore 64 C, always talked about the Commodore Amiga. And if you bought a Spanish video game magazine, game reviews would appear for them. Great machines especially the ST that I hope to buy one day by E-Bay.

[@randywatson8347]

The ST was seen in Miami Vice around 1985 and used to lookup criminal records from a national database :-).

[@NameCallingIsWeak]

"ST was seen in Miami Vice around 1985 and used to lookup criminal records" Perhaps as a dial-up ... :)

[@kierancoffey9826]

Brilliant vid I loved my brothers ST who originally was getting the power pack but unfortunately ended up getting the discovery pack. Even though now I have an Amiga 600 I still have plenty of time and respect for this awesome machine

[@DJRonnieG]

I think it's so cool that TOS and GEM were available to run in ROM on some models. Heck, I wish other timelines existed just so that we could see Gary and DRI thriving.

[@trachu3185]

Thanx for the review however some of the information is missed but are essential to understand the position of this machine.1. Atari ST was designed as dual monitor machine, where each of those monitors have different graphics modes impossible to display on the other. Monochrome display intrudced highres stable 640x480 resolution ideal for some professional work, but you were almost unable to run any games on such monitor. On other side if you had colour monitor you could not run professional software.Such configuration seems expensive but it was the only way to provide stable high resolution in those Times. Monochrome display used 30kHz video frequency while colour operated on standard 15kHz.If you remember similar situation was on IBM PC when you need to run EGA emulator to play games on Hercules graphics adapter.2. Amiga 1000 was able to display 640x512 resolution (not 640x200) thanx to hardware assisted interlace mode. However this mode flickered like hell because it used standard 15kHz signal. It was good mode for some pictures but you would bleed your eyes out if you would run on it Calamus for example. In other ways Amiga was build up as a game console while atari st has dual nature with some professional appeal.3. Amiga can do everything ST can do (because they have the same CPU), while ST can not do some things amiga can(because does not have amiga coprocessors), however original Atari st and amiga price difference is so huge i would buy atari st at that time because the difference is smaller than the price suggest. It is also worth notice that Atari st has so brillant programmers they will find this or other way to prove you ST is better than Amiga and honestly speaking ST is alive while Amiga 500 is almost dead, so ST is benefitting from new programming algorythms while a500 is in the dust. For example there is workable Wolfenstein clone which works in plain ST, while there are only some demos which prooves standard A500 can do it also.4. STE provided bigger palette, however you can still display only 16 colours at once on it, compared to amiga 32/64. I mean normal hardware generated modes and I know both can do more, however software assisted modes are good only for static pictures, because there is almost impossible to manipulate colours in normal game environemnt where each object has different positions. Stardust was released on STE, however if you look closelly you would see it uses much less colours than amiga 500 version.5. STE provided 2 AD sample converter, but this is all what they can do. In order to hear some music CPU must prepare all the data and put it to them. Amiga Paula is much more sophisticated chip and can do almost everything in hardware what on STE CPU must do (remixing, resampling, arpeggio etc.). In reality to play typical protracker module STE must use 30% raster time, while Amiga only 1%, however the quality of analog output is much higher on STE. This means if you play protracker module on both machines (just for playing without caring for cpu power) STE can actually sound better!!!6. Atari STE blitter can access colour register directly which makes him very similar to Amiga Copper functionality if programmed correctly. I know Atari st folks are trying to downgrade STE by hiding this small letter, but this version is much better than original hardware and most impressive demoscene demos are not working on plain ST.7. I heard that in Europe many Times it turns out Amiga 500 costed the same like Atari st, so it all depended on time and place.8. From testimonies seen on web, when Tramiel bought Atari he fired all old stuff and bring his old Commodore Crew instead. On the other hand the very people who designed ATARI XL, designed also Amiga 1000. That is why many people sees Atari ST as a continuation of C64, while Amiga as 3rd generation of ATARI VCS :)That would be all.

[@TristanBailey]

I had one of the ST as an upgrade from my Amstrad 6128. I was amazed at how much better it was when visited a girl I liked at school, house and we played some racing games. My friend had an Amiga so much friendly rivalry

[@christianlohmann8577]

Oh man, holy time travel. The ST was my first computer my first company was using professionally. We developed some network components for TokenRing networks back in time and used it for controlling some machinery and in-circuit testing. Loved the 68k CPU family. Later with the MegaST the network and other components went into that box. Oh, and the excitement when we could insert the Blitter chip. Also had MINIX running on it back in days; but only for learning.

[@emgee44]

Great piece there, I still have my Atari 520STFM with it's upgraded memory (first time I started tinkering with PC's) and numerous games and joysticks plus Sound Master, a midi input module and software for sampling sounds. Ah, the good old day! Thanks for posting.