Part of the next generation of home computers, the ST battled against the [[Amiga]] for supremacy only for both to lose out to the PC. Never a direct rival with the [[CPC]], the ST was seen as more of the next logical step to take in your home computing habit and no doubt many former CPC users made the jump to Atari's machine.
For its time, it was an interesting 68000-based computer. It was cheaper More affordable than the Amiga and there were no color MacintoshesMacintosh. 2.1 million units sold (USA only?) according to wikipedia, other sources claim up to 6 8 million units sold worldwide [https://atari-owner.com8bitchip.info/club/articles/atari-8-bit-units-soldabmyap.23/ html Source].
== Atari ST ==
The [[Atari ST]] was released in 1985. Atari had intended to release the 130ST with 128KB of RAM and the 260ST with 256KB. However, the ST initially shipped without TOS in ROM and required booting TOS from floppy, taking 206KB RAM away from applications. The 130ST was never released and the 260ST was actually shipped with 512KB of RAM. The case looks a lot like the 8bit Atari XE. It originally had an external PSU and an external single-sided (360KB) 3.5inch floppy drive. That resulted in games using single-sided 3.5inch floppies for a long time, even supplying two 360KB floppies instead of a single double-sided one. Also, the TOS had to be booted up from floppy disk.
In 1986, the Atari STF put the TOS in ROM and integrated the PSU and a double-sided floppy drive inside the machine itself. It was sold in 512KB and 1024KB RAM configurations.
A version intended for business users was also created in 1987 and named the Mega ST. It featured more RAM, a real time clock, a blitter chip for faster rendering and a detached keyboard.
These machines were The Atari ST is famous for being:
*The first affordable modern computer: 16-bit CPU, linear memory, GUI, mouse, high resolution 640x400, 3.5inch floppies, hard drive connector. At much lower price than the Amiga 1000 or the Apple Macintosh.*A 16/32bit machine with an awful 8-bit sound chip. The Atari ST's YM sound chip is even worse than the Atari 8-bit's POKEY sound chip: [https://youtu.be/pEUEfoEyCrI POKEY music 8-bit Atari]*A hardware [[MIDI|Midi Port]]: this spawned a generation of Musician Geeks. And some Atari ST games did use Midi sound as an option. [https://forums.atariage.com/topic/301647-midi-games/ Source]
*Inferior to the [[Amiga]] yet still better (the war still rages on nowadays). It In fact, Atari was easier to do work on Ataricertainly thinking, while on Amiga a guru meditation (machine crash) was never far away. Also you get the TOS was in ROM which means it could be used immediately and it didn't consume valuable RAM. And as the OS was immutableYM chip to make some noise, less time was spent customizing it, freeing up more time to do productive work. The hardware was also simpler to develop for compared to the baroque Amiga architectureyou want better you get MIDI gear.
*A hardware [[Trouble is YM is bottom of the barrel 'freebie' in the case and because MIDI|Midi Port]] : this spawned a generation is for professionals you are talking more than the cost of Musician Geeks. And some an Atari ST games did use Midi for a decent MIDI sound as an optionmodule so you are kind of stuck. [https://forums.atariage.com/topic/301647The introductory price of the Roland MT-midi-games/ Source]32 in 1987 was US$695 (equivalent to $1,920 in 2024).
The Atari ST is a paradox as it is inferior to the [[Amiga]] yet still considered better by many (the war still rages on nowadays):*used widely in Amstrad CPC software developments It was easier to do work on Atari, while on Amiga a guru meditation (mostly games ?machine crash)was never far away.*Also the TOS was in ROM which means it could be used immediately on boot. And it didn't consume valuable RAM nor monopolize the floppy drive nor require an hard drive. And as the OS was immutable, less time was spent customizing it, freeing up more time to do productive work. *The hardware was also simpler to develop for compared to the baroque Amiga architecture.
Its use The Atari ST was used widely in CPC software development (Cross Development) as it had many advantages :
*Quite similar Video Resolutions : 320x200x16.
*[https://youtu.be/jyBLZmZhXRY Atari ST Commercials]
*[https://youtu.be/A2pX6bU7-pU The Atari ST Story] by [[Nostalgia Nerd]]
*[https://youtu.be/aUHtpNFZV38 All Atari ST games] [https://youtu.be/yK7p2FkyLd8 Over 100 Atari ST games in under 1 hour] [https://youtu.be/aUHtpNFZV38 All SjLFCgO9axE 35 monochrome games for the Atari ST games]
*[https://www.atarilegend.com Atari Legend] Games database
*[https://democyclopedia.wordpress.com/ Democyclopedia] The encyclopedia of Atari ST demos
*[https://www.dhs.nu/ Dead Hackers Society] Atari demoscene
*[https://www.atari-wiki.com Atari ST Wiki]
*[https://www.synacktiv.com/ressources/Atari-ST-Internals.pdf Atari ST Internals]
*[https://www.atarimuseum.de/archiv/tech/sm_ste.pdf Atari STE Service Manual]
*[https://bus-error.nokturnal.pl/atari_compendium/html/toc.htm The Atari Compendium]
*[https://docs.dev-docs.org/ Atari Documentation Archive]
*[https://info-coach.fr/atari/documents/myDocindex.php DrCoolZic Atari image file formats documentedST Site]
*[[Media:WD1772-JLG.pdf|Western Digital WD1772 FDC datasheet]]
*[[Media:MK68901 MFP datasheet.pdf|Motorola MK68901 MFP datasheet]]
===32-bit===
*[https://youtu.be/3sBYBMnZfyI 10 Amazing WySH4mAG_AQ 25 Atari Falcon Exclusives] by [[The Laird's Lair]games]in under 30 minutes
*[https://youtu.be/cBTXGgb__y4 Atari Falcon 030] by [[Nostalgia Nerd]]
*[[Media:Motorola DSP56001 datasheet.PDF|Motorola DSP56001 datasheet]]
*[http://www.bitsavers.org/components/motorola/56000/56000/1990_DSP56000_DSP56001_Users_Manual.pdf Motorola DSP56001 Digital Signal Processor - User's Manual]