New to Atari, New to the Forum

[VMSZealot]

I'm (fairly) new to Atari, and I'm new to this forum, but I'm not new to the retro-computing scene. I'm (mostly) a Mac user. Why… Well that's a (short story).

I started (serious) computing using a Newbrain running CP/M, which I used to write essays at school. And if that doesn't date me, nothing will. I progressed to an Amstrad PC1512, an Opus PC V 386DX20 before landing on some Dell 486DX2 nonsense that quickly popped its onboard IDE controller, and had to have it hard disk forevermore connected through an ISA port… which was fast (not).

At Uni, in order to learn 68k assembly language I had a choice. I could use a 68008 development board (yuck - and surprisingly expensive), or drop a few hundred quid on an Amiga, an ST or a second hand Mac. I chose the Mac because it had a built in hard drive - and I was so happy with my decision that I rapidly dropped the PC altogether, at least for anything other than a toy to muck around on. It was the first in a succession that leads up to my current M1 Mac mini, M2 MacBook Air and M3 iPad. Currently, the collection looks like this…

Mac SE (my first Mac), still working, still wonderful.
Mac LCIII (my second Mac), still working, still wonderful.
Mac IIci (bought while I worked at an Apple dealer, a bit flaky on the old video - no idea why, it has been recapped)
Mac LC475 (the first Mac I bought purely to play games on, overclocked to 40Mhz and with a full '040 processor)
Mac PowerBook 100 (working, and a recent acquisition, has network connection through wifi, which feels like magic given its age)
Mac Quadra 650 (I've had it for about 20 years, and I bought it to play with A/UX. Mostly used to play Pro Pinball!)
Mac Blue and White G3 with G4 upgrade (bought whilst I worked at the Apple dealer, with a fat discount. Used as my main Mac for years, and years and years)
Mac G5 dual processor (thought it had died recently - it's fine, but the graphics card is toast!)
Mac Pro dual 3.6 GHz Hexacore with 128Gb RAM (a monster - bought when my wife told me I was earning the money with my business so I could spend what I liked on a computer. So I tested the theory. Do I need that much power? No. Should it consume as much electricity as it does? Probably not, but it makes my office nice and warm on a cold winter day)
Intel MacBook Air x 2, one with a broken screen because I lent to someone who was a bit of a muppet.
Intel iMac
Intel MacMini x 3
M1 Mac mini
M1 MacBook Air
M2 MacBook Air
M3 iPad

Wow. It's embarrassing writing all that. I might have a problem. I have a bunch of other iPads as well! And five PCs. Three running Linux, 1 running Windows 10 (although it's seldom used) and 1 running Windows 11 (almost never used), two ThinkPads (no idea what's on them at the moment), a tonne of Raspberry Pis, a C64, a Speccy (actually a Harlequin 128, but you wouldn't know to look at it other than that it looks suspiciously new), a Beeb and…

an Atari 4160 STE. What!? Why?

Well, ever since I didn't buy an Amiga or an Atari I've been interested in them. And leaving considerations of the OS aside, I prefer the Atari's industrial design. It's a good looking machine. And, from what I understand, the STE is an A500 beater when everything is taken into account - and particularly when you consider all the work that has been put into updating software to take advantage of it's capabilities. So when one came up at the right price, who was I to say 'No'?

But I am an Atari Noob. So, first question, what upgrades do you consider essential (both hardware and software)? Second question, what hard drive solution should I get for it - thinking in particular of ease of set up (and hopefully driverlessness and bootability) for someone who's only prior experience of the ST was an 520STFM that he owned (very briefly) and then sold because he didn't like it - hey - it was a long time ago, and the retro scene wasn't as developed then.

[stephen_usher]

:welcomewave:

For my Comp Sci MSc I used my 68008 based development board (Sinclair QL) for a lot of my m68k assembler development. ;-)

[rubber_jonnie]

:welcomewave:

[JezC]

Welcome to the forum!

Would love to own a Mac for the music s/w if nothing else (I have C-Lab and emagic s/w on the Ataris, then on PC but couldn't afford a Mac as well...)

What upgrades probably depends on what you really want to do with it. If games and/or demos is the main thing then I'm not sure but for heavier lifting you might think about a booster and optionally more RAM and some also include mass storage support as a sweetener.

Or, buy a cheap and widely used SD card solution while you work out what you really want ;)

[viking272]

Welcome! I think you're in the right place, we all have problems of a similar sort :)

Having a hard disk is important, as you can quickly setup environments and test software. As JezC said, it does depend on your needs, as to what you should go for.

[VMSZealot]

Yes, I was looking at all the upgrades available and considering something of the sort. I think though that the "essential" upgrades are…

* A working mouse
* A Gotek
* A SCART cable

Next tier up upgrades…

* A hard disk solution
* FastTOS 2.x

And finally…

* A CPU accelerator.

Since I can't really justify any of this, I think I'd probably better sell some of my old tech…

Anyone want to do swapsies? I have Mac Minis and Think Pads that I can got rid of without too much thought, I have a CM124 which is working fine which I'd get rid of (but I wouldn't mind playing with it first once the ST is fully up and running, just to see what it's like!), and a very complete and upgraded BBC B set up, with manuals, software, joysticks, mouse, SD Drive, RAM upgrades, lots of ROMs which will be more of a wrench to say goodbye to!

[rubber_jonnie]

Yes, I was looking at all the upgrades available and considering something of the sort. I think though that the "essential" upgrades are…

* A working mouse
* A Gotek
* A SCART cable

Will definitely help, bear in mind that HiRes is unlikely to work over SCART, but it will work on most VGA displays using one of these: VGA Switcher

Next tier up upgrades…

* A hard disk solution
* FastTOS 2.x

And finally…

* A CPU accelerator.

Personally I haven't found I've used my CPU accelerators as much as I thought I would, though my main ST is a MegaSTE which already runs at 16Mhz, so that may be why as it's permanently set up. Hard disks, as per my other post.

Since I can't really justify any of this, I think I'd probably better sell some of my old tech…

Anyone want to do swapsies? I have Mac Minis and Think Pads that I can got rid of without too much thought, I have a CM124 which is working fine which I'd get rid of (but I wouldn't mind playing with it first once the ST is fully up and running, just to see what it's like!), and a very complete and upgraded BBC B set up, with manuals, software, joysticks, mouse, SD Drive, RAM upgrades, lots of ROMs which will be more of a wrench to say goodbye to!

Good luck, you may find somebody who can help with this :)

BTW I have removed you from 'newly registered' so you can post without waiting for admin approval now.

[VMSZealot]

I really should be working. But instead I used MagicMac on my LCIII to convert a load of software to real floppy discs - and then I found myself in a Tenebrae 2 shaped time hole on the STE. Yes, it's safe to say that the STE works for me in a way that the STFM never did (although I suspect that's as much to do with the time of my life and the state of the internet as much as anything else). Top computing entertainment!

Although I'm wondering if the mouse is as broken as all that - because the joystick also doesn't work properly unless the cable has been wiggled to a particular angle. Theories? Bit of IPA to fix perhaps? Just dodgy connectors?

And, when I ran Sys Info on it, it's only showing 2048K of the fitted 4096.Bank 1 shows 0K (and I checked, it does have 1M SIMMs in all banks - although it could be dodgy RAM I suppose - although it does seem very stable.)

[DoG]

Although I'm wondering if the mouse is as broken as all that - because the joystick also doesn't work properly unless the cable has been wiggled to a particular angle. Theories? Bit of IPA to fix perhaps? Just dodgy connectors?

Most often it's the connector on the keybord that has cracked solder joint after years of plug and unplug the DE9. It need to be reflow. Not that hard but very tedious since it's like 20-25 small screws to take it apart. But could also be wires that is broken since people jerk the cable instead of the connector when unplugging mouse/joystick.

[VMSZealot]

Seems I need to pull it apart to check the RAM anyway. I'll give it a go. On a different note, is there a way of replacing the RAM without dismantling the entire case? I'm not sure that my sausage fingers are going to be able to prod the SIMM release clips with the shield in the way. Anyone have any tips?