1986 Atari 520ST+ "The Jackintosh"

When Jack Tramiel, former head of Commodore, bought out Atari in 1984, he set out to build the "Jackintosh": a powerful Macintosh competitor with color graphics and many advanced features for its time, at less than half the cost. The Atari ST series, released in 1985, was the result. It never sold well in the USA, but was quite popular in Europe, holding its own against the similarly equipped Amiga series from Commodore. The ST was the world's first home computer to come with a color GUI (Graphical User Interface) and also the first with built-in MIDI input and output.

Here I demonstrate my Atari 520ST+ (the "+" indicating that it actually has 1 MB RAM installed, making it equivalent to a 1040ST) and some of the software I have for it, with varying degrees of success due to a glitchy video capture card (NOT the Atari's fault!) and some floppy disks that have become flakey over the years. Stay tuned for some neat music near the end!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 1985
• 1986
• atari
• 520st
• 520st+
• plus
• 1040st
• st
• ste
• tt
• falcon030
• falcon
• motorola
• 68000
• amiga
• mac
• macintosh
• tos
• os
• gem
• gui
• midi
• mod
• music
• graphics
• vintage
• classic
• jack
• tramiel
• 16-bit
• 32-bit

[f0ofyBunny]

OK... I've been comparing apples to oranges. The point I wanted to make, poorly, was that the Falcon was Atari's answer to what the Amiga 500 already was. They added custom chips, 32 bit capability, etc... but by that time the Amiga 1200 was out and better. Am I wrong?

[vwestlife]

@f0ofyBunny Actually, it was the opposite: the Amiga 500 was Commodore's answer to the Atari 520ST, a cheaper, more compact machine for the home market.

[f0ofyBunny]

But... dontcha still wish you had an Amiga? C'mon... you know you do. The Falcon was equal to the Amiga 500. The ST was just... never... good.

[vwestlife]

@f0ofyBunny I do have an Amiga 500, but I prefer the ST series because it can directly read and write PC formatted disks. The Atari Falcon030 was superior to any Amiga in the compact all-in-keyboard layout; it had a 68030 processor, while the Amiga 1200 was only a 68020.

[KartSeven1]

@vwestlife How do I turn off the key click sound?

[vwestlife]

@KartSeven1 I believe that's in the control panel desk accessory (CONTROL.ACC). If you don't have that file, or want something better, you can download an improved one called XCONTROL. Google "Atari ST essential software".

[1thetweekmaster]

that voice is weird...

[007ghg7]

wow it sounds better than MS sam

[AmstradExin]

@f0ofyBunny C-Lab (Audio-Software and Hardware maker) bought the rights and plans to continue making the falcon in 1995. I even saw one of those. But neither Atari nor C-Lab ever released any sales figures, so it's alot of speculation. Also, i'm from germany, where Atari seemed to have made a better advertising (Instead of just let it compete against a Mac.). So i may have a biased opinion since appearantly most Atari ST machines and onwards have been sold in Germany, UK and France.

[AmstradExin]

@f0ofyBunny That is not quite sure. Since it's a specialized computer for the semi-proffessional market, it was quite expensive. (More than twice the price)

I've heard, the falcon was difficult to be made and only around 14.000-25.000 units have been made in it's 1.5 year lifespan under atari. About half of them have been sold in Germany where some advertising was being made. Unless you're from either there or the UK, there is only little chance you see one.

[f0ofyBunny]

@AmstradExin Sure... the A1200 was a failure. Unless you are counting sales figures. How many Falcons were sold? Or made?

[AmstradExin]

@f0ofyBunny Yeah, but you were not comparing the ST with a A500.

[AmstradExin]

@f0ofyBunny Actually yes. The CT63 is a much faster 060 accellerator than any 060 for the amiga due the SDRAM. You can overclock a 060 to 100Mhz and more if you are lucky. With no waitstates. The A1200 is nowhere near the Falcon. The DSP is clocked at 32Mhz in a stock falcon. That DSP has the power of a fast '040 CPU despite its 16 Mips. While the A1200 cannot even accept a normal 1.44 floppy drive. The A1200 Fas a big failure for commodore while the Falcon was produced after Atari went down.

[f0ofyBunny]

@AmstradExin and.. wait for it... the stock ST couldn't do any of those things, save for read and write PC disks.

[f0ofyBunny]

@AmstradExin A stock Amiga 1200 beats the Falcon hands down. Or, have you found an 060 accelerator for the falcon that you do not own?

[AmstradExin]

@f0ofyBunny Can your STOCK Amiga 500 play MP3's? Display 65536 colors at once? 256 colors in real 640x480 VGA? Does it have a built-in IDE Harddrive? Does it have SCSI ON BOARD? Even use a 1.44MB Floppy disk? I don't think so.