The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

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exxos
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The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by exxos »

The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Upgrades, Repairs & Mods

Since 1994 I've been documenting every upgrade, repair, fix and modification I've thrown at the Atari ST family and Falcon 030. Three decades on it's become one of the largest free Atari ST hardware archives on the web: 55+ fully illustrated, step-by-step guides covering everything from a simple recap to adding accelerators and various mods and fixes.

Whether your Atari has no video, a dead power supply, leaking capacitors, a faulty floppy drive, or you just want more RAM and more speed, there's a guide here for you. Grab a coffee and dig in.

» CPU Boosters & 68030 Accelerators » Benchmarking
  • PART 10 – GemBench 6 – the GEMBench benchmark for measuring Atari ST/STE/Falcon CPU, RAM and video performance before and after upgrades
» RAM & TOS ROM Upgrades » Floppy Drives & Storage » Power Supplies (PSU) » Video & Display Fixes » Keyboard & Mouse » Repair, Diagnostics & Theory » Mods & Hardware Projects » Beyond the Atari » Handy Tools
Want the boards and kits? Many of these guides have matching products in the exxos webshop.

All content is free for personal, non-profit use. If a guide has saved your Atari (or your sanity), please consider a donation to keep it online and growing.

Full index: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/
Steve
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by Steve »

I remember when I was first 'getting back into Atari' the first place I landed was on 'The LaST Upgrade' page. I wouldn't have developed my skills in electronics if it wasn't for all your guides. Thanks for all your work over the years!
don_apple
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by don_apple »

Great list!

But shouldn't PART 46 – Falcon DFB1X be in the CPU Boosters & 68030 Accelerators section?

It is currently under Video & Display Fixes and labeled as "Atari Falcon 030 video framebuffer modification", but the DFB1X has nothing to do with the Falcon video framebuffer afaik.
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exxos
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by exxos »

Steve wrote: 22 Jun 2026 16:07 I remember when I was first 'getting back into Atari' the first place I landed was on 'The LaST Upgrade' page. I wouldn't have developed my skills in electronics if it wasn't for all your guides. Thanks for all your work over the years!
:thanksyellow: :2k2:
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exxos
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by exxos »

don_apple wrote: 22 Jun 2026 16:39 But shouldn't PART 46 – Falcon DFB1X be in the CPU Boosters & 68030 Accelerators section?
Yes you are correct, oops.
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by agranlund »

Steve wrote: 22 Jun 2026 16:07 I remember when I was first 'getting back into Atari' the first place I landed was on 'The LaST Upgrade' page. I wouldn't have developed my skills in electronics if it wasn't for all your guides. Thanks for all your work over the years!
Same!
I stumbled upon the rom upgrade page, did the modified-socket approach, and then was hooked :)
Thanks @exxos for all the work with these guides and of course the forum itself.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Well I joined the forum 9 years ago as a standard user and here I am an admin...

Amazing to think I arrived 23 years after you started 😁

I stumbled on the site by accident, I think maybe looking at 1.44mb FDD upgrades.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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HigashiJun
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by HigashiJun »

Thank you for your great involvement @exxos !

I'm really grateful.
jwd
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by jwd »

Steve wrote: 22 Jun 2026 16:07 I remember when I was first 'getting back into Atari' the first place I landed was on 'The LaST Upgrade' page. I wouldn't have developed my skills in electronics if it wasn't for all your guides. Thanks for all your work over the years!
I second that, saved numerous of my ST's with your guides and fixes plus ideas for tinkering :D

Also gave me the confidence to completely renovate my original Falcon which now is better (more stable) than when I bought it.

:thanksblue:
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Re: The LaST Upgrade — 30 Years of Atari ST Hardware Hacking

Post by Darklord »

Been a constant stop for me when I've had hardware issues with my Atari's.

All the hard work involved is most sincerely appreciated. :cheers:
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