With those words, then Atari president Jack Tramiel launched the ST series and a new beginning
for Atari...
The ST was first announced at the January 1985 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, and became
widely available in the fall of 1985. The first model was the 520 ST (pictured).
It utilized the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, which is a 16/32 bit chip (32-bit internal bus
communication, 16-bit external communication) running at 8MHz. Incidentally, the ST
supposedly got it's name from this chip architecture: Sixteen-Thirty two.
Still others say the name came from Jack Tramiel's son (and future Atari president)
Sam Tramiel.
The 520 ST had 512k of RAM, and included an external single-sided, single-density 3 1/2"
floppy drive. The 520 ST featured a number of ports on the back, including standard
parallel and serial ports, a monitor port that accepted either Atari's monochrome or RGB color monitor,
joystick, hard drive and mouse ports, a cartridge port, and two MIDI ports - something which
would later prove to be a very smart decision on the part of the ST's designers.
The ST operated in three distinct resolutions, depending in part on which monitor was
connected to it. With the SC1224 RGB color monitor, ST LOW (pictured) and
ST MEDIUM resolutions offered 320x200x16 and 640x200x4 respectively (with a palette of 512
possible colors).
With the SM124 monochrome monitor connected, ST HIGH offered
600x400x2, and was extremely easy on the eyes due to the SM124's 70 hertz refresh rate and
paper white display.
The 520 ST used a disk based operating system called TOS (which stood
for either "The Operating System" or "Tramiel
Operating System" - depending on who you asked). It combined Digital Research's
CP/M-68K (Control Program / Microcomputers: 68000 version) and GEM (Graphics Enviornment Manager).
This combination offered a mouse-controlled, graphical user interface, with files and programs
manipulated on a virtual desktop - much like the Apple Machintosh of the day. In fact, the
ST was dubbed the "Jackintosh" by the press due to it's similarity to the Mac OS at
that time.
The 520 ST was a hit, competing successfully with a new generation of powerful
16-bit computers like the Amiga and Machintosh. And this was long before Windows
was even a glint in Bill Gate's eye!
With the success of the 520 ST Atari released the 1040 ST in various guises.
The 1040 ST offered everything the 520 ST had, plus 1 megabyte (1024k) of RAM. It
was quite unprecedented in those days to offer that much RAM at a below $1000 price, but Atari
managed to do it. One of their ad slogans in those days was "Power Without The Price".
The various versions of the 1040 ST, which included the 1040STf, the
1040STm, and the 1040STfm (pictured), were in a new case that incorporated a built
in floppy drive (hence the "f" in STf and STfm), TOS in ROM, as opposed
to the earlier disk based version, and the RF modulator (the "m" in STm and
STfm) which allowed connection to a standard television.
As the 1040 ST became more established, it began to shine more brightly in particular
areas, especially the MIDI and music market - due in no small part to the ST's built in MIDI
ports. In fact, many of today's well known MIDI software companies like Steinberg and Emagic got
where they are today because they started out programming for the ST.
And many "big name" recording artists like Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, and Janet Jackson all used the
ST for their music. The Atari ST became almost synonymous with MIDI and could
be found in many major recording studios and on stages around the world.
Around this time, Atari also released the Mega ST (pictured) in 2 and 4 megabyte
configurations (the Mega 2 and Mega 4 respectively).
The Mega ST offered a separate keyboard, Blitter chip, and made expansion easier due to
the added space inside. The Mega STs were a huge hit, both with musicians, as well as
with desktop publishers - another area in which the ST excelled.
Coupling a Mega ST with a monochrome monitor, an Atari laser printer and desktop
publishing software enabled the creation and printing of complex documents. High quality desktop
publishing was now not only easy, but more affordable than ever.
As an example, at that time Atari ran a television commercial showing that a complete desktop
publishing system - which included a Mega ST, Atari laser printer, hard drive, monochrome
monitor and software - could be had for $1,000 less than their competitor's printer ALONE!
* Download an .AVI movie of the commercial now!
Following the Mega ST, Atari also released it's first "portable" ST model,
the STacy (pictured).
The STacy was quite successful, although there were some early battery life problems. It was
essentially a 2 megabyte ST computer with a built in monochrome "flat-panel Supertwist LCD"
display (with a second RGB port to connect an Atari color monitor if needed). It featured full-travel keys
and a two button trak-ball instead of a mouse. A built in hard drive and floppy drive came standard, as
did all the normal ST ports.
Despite it's rather hefty 12 pound weight, the STacy was a big hit with MIDI musicians,
enabling them to use the same familiar Atari system on the road as they did in the studio.
And one of it's most famous "roles" was probably appearing center stage with the house band
of the Arsenio Hall Show (a late night talk show in the USA), where it triggered the
drum track and samples of the show's opening theme song.