--- title: Atari MEGA ST categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1987' cpus: - Motorola MC 68000 params: name: MEGA ST image: /media/museum/photos/megast4.jpg company: /companies/atari company_name: Atari specs: - label: NAME value: MEGA ST - label: MANUFACTURER value: Atari - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1987' - label: CPU value: Motorola MC 68000 - label: SPEED value: 8 mHz - label: RAM value: 1 / 2 / 4 MB - label: ROM value: 192 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics) - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 - label: COLORS value: 16 (320 x 200), 4 (640 x 200), monochrome (640 x 400) among 512 - label: SOUND value: 3 channels, 8 octaves programmable sound generator - label: I/O PORTS value: Cardridge, Midi (in, out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy disk, RGB, Joystick, mouse - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: '3.5' - label: OS value: TOS + GEM tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: MEGA ST2 subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/atari_mega_st2.jpg - title: ST1 MAINBOARD subtitle: '' text: Notice the hand soldered 1 MB extension card. A risky job as all the data and address lines was directly soldered onto the RAM driver pins image: /media/museum/photos/atari_megast_ram%20expansion_1.jpg adverts: - title: GERMAN BROCHURE subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Volken** image: /media/museum/pubs/atari_megast_germandoc.jpg - title: 'GERMAN BROCHURE #2' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Volken** image: /media/museum/pubs/atari_megast_germandoc_s2.jpg - title: 'GERMAN BROCHURE #3' subtitle: '' text: Thanks to **Volken** image: /media/museum/pubs/atari_megast_germandoc_s3.jpg hardware: - title: SF-354 subtitle: Single density disk-drive text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_sf354-diskdrive_1.jpg - title: SF-314 subtitle: Disk-drive text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st-disk-drive_sf314.jpg - title: CUMANA DRIVE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_cumanadrive_1.jpg - title: SUPRADRIVE subtitle: 20 Mb hard-disk text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_supradrive_20mb.jpg - title: 170MB QUANTUM HARD-DRIVE subtitle: '' text: This unit has an ICD Host Adapter. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_quamtum_hd170.jpg - title: ATARI MEGAFILE 30 subtitle: '' text: This hard-drive has a 30Mb capacity. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_megafile30_1.jpg - title: INSIDE THE MEGAFILE 30 subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Seagate MFM 30 MB hard-disk Type ST-238\ **(2)** Power supply\ **(3)** Logical board\ **(4)** Power and disk access LED's image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_insidemegafile_1.jpg - title: ATARI UNIVERSAL MODEM subtitle: '' text: |- The SX212 modem was one of the rare Atari peripherals that could be used with all the Atari computers range, from the 400/800 series up to the Falcon. It had both the Atari I/O ports for the 8-bit systems and a standard RS-232 connector for ST's It was a 300/1200 baud modem compatible with the well-known Hayes 'AT' commands.\ Cable and software was sold separately, depending of the computer used. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_modemsx212_1.jpg - title: SML-804 subtitle: Laser printer text: |- The SLM-804 was actually a Kyocera F1000 printer but without neither on-board processor and memory nor buttons other than the on/off switch. It was first delivered with the Mega ST but could be connected on all of the ST series computers through a dedicated interface box.\ The printer used the processing power and the RAM memory of the ST computer for printing at 8 pages per minute and 300 DPI. The paper tray held 250 sheets. Thanks to **Francois Michaud** who donated us this printer. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slm804printer_s1.jpg - title: SMLC-804 subtitle: Laser printer interface text: This interface allowed the SML-804 printer to be connected to any Atari ST holding at least 1 MB RAM. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slmcinterface_s1.jpg emulators: - title: Pacifist ! url: http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/ platform: MS DOS text: Pretty good emulator - title: Gemulator url: http://www.emulators.com/gemul8r.htm platform: Windows text: '' - title: MagiCPC url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicpc/index.html platform: Windows text: '' - title: SainT url: http://saint.atari.org platform: Windows text: The best Atari ST Emulator ! - title: Steem url: http://steem.atari.st/ platform: Windows text: Excellent emulator for 1040/520 STE ! - title: Tos2Win url: http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/ platform: Windows text: A good Atari GEM Emulator ! - title: MagiCMac url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicmac/index.html platform: Apple text: '' - title: NoSTalgia & PowerST url: http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/ platform: Apple text: '' - title: STonX Homepage url: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html platform: Unix / Linux text: '' - title: Atari ST Emulator url: http://www.atari-st.lovely.net/ platform: Other platform text: Written in Java ! - title: ARAnyM url: HTTP://ARANYM.ATARI.ORG platform: Multiplatform text: Multiplatform project - title: Hatari url: http://hatari.sourceforge.net/ platform: Multiplatform text: Hatari is an Atari ST emulator for Linux, BSD, BeOS, Mac OS X and other systems that are supported by the SDL library. More precisely, Hatari is an adaption of the WinSTon source code to the SDL library. links: - title: Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum url: http://www.best.com/~hmk/ text: '' - title: Atari Music Network url: http://www.atarimusic.net/ text: Atari Music Network welcomes and celebrates all vintage digital musicians no matter what their computer - title: Atari ST Demo History url: http://wwwbrauer.in.tum.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html text: '' - title: Atari ST Download Area url: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/atari.shtml text: Atari 400/800/XL/XE & ST/TT/Falcon Software download page - title: ATARI.ORG url: http://www.atari.org/ text: Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! - title: Dead Hackers Society url: http://www.dhs.nu/ text: Atari demo scene - title: Little Green Desktop url: http://www.atari.st/ text: Largest Atari ST ressource! - title: Medusa computer url: http://www.kingx.com/kingx/medusa/thes.html text: You can still buy an Atari ST family clone computer - title: MiNTOS Distribution url: http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/mintos.html text: '' - title: Musique.Atari.Org url: HTTP://MUSIQUE.ATARI.ORG text: Web site dedicated to the ATARI and the Music... - title: PLOPBOX - Atari music archive and jukebox url: http://www.plopbox.net/ text: listen to atari tunes directly from your browser - title: Polish Atari Wikipedia url: http://atariki.krap.pl text: A lot of info about Atari (in polish) - title: ST Anwender Bern url: http://my.blackpoint.ch/stab/ text: Atari ST Usergroup Bern (Swiss) - title: The Atari Historical Society url: http://www.atarimuseum.com/ text: The complete history of Atari Arcade and Home games and computers. Complete site with pictures, commercials (streaming), and full text articles. Amazing site ! - title: The Atari ST Quick FAQ url: http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/ text: '' - title: The Atari WebRing Homepage url: http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=atari text: Useful ! - title: The Ultimate ATARI Resource url: http://www.atari.org text: '' - title: What is TOS url: http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm text: '' - title: Index of -~archive-atari- url: http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/ text: '' - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: French forum docs: - title: ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL url: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/atari_520st_user_doc.jpg text: |- [**ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL**](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm)written by Atari  compiled/archived by Daves Old Computers\  type of document : PDF\  size : 5 Mb\  source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** comments: - author: Kelly Roach (Rio Rancho, NM, United States) date: Wednesday 15th June 2011 text: |- So many terrific memories! I had a Mega 2 system while living in Fairbanks, Alaska, with a Spectre GCR. The unfortunate fact about a few of these machines (mine was one of ''em) is that they had a couple of TTL ICs on the motherboard which didn''t provide enough power for some of the memory chips with the Spectre attached. It crashed using the device quite often, but otherwise I have many fond memories from this particular model. My outfit had a 44 MB cartridge drive and the standard color monitor. I still miss my ST... related: - /museum/atari-130-st-260-st - /museum/atari-4160-ste - /museum/atari-520-1040-ste - /museum/atari-520-1040-stf-stfm - /museum/atari-520-st-st-stm - /museum/atari-falcon-030 - /museum/atari-falcon-030-microbox - /museum/atari-fx-1-sparrow - /museum/atari-mega-ste - /museum/atari-st-book - /museum/atari-stacy - /museum/atari-stylus-st-pad - /museum/atari-tt-030 oc_id: 165 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608161200/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=165 date: '2023-06-08' --- The Atari Mega ST was the "professionnal" version of the [Atari STf](/museum/atari-520-1040-stf-stfm/). Atari added the "Blitter", a custom chip designed to perform quick memory moves and increase display speed. The Mega ST had a small battery to hold time and date and a small fan (except for the Mega ST1). This computer was especially designed to be the cheapest publishing solution (and it was!). The photo shows the Mega ST 4 (4 MB) with a monochrome display (640 x 400), the publishing software "Publishing Partner", the Atari SH 205 hard disk (an old 20 MB 5.25" MFM hard disk) and the Atari SLM 804 laser printer. This printer was really cheap because it had no on-board memory and no page description language, the page was created in the Mega ST memory, then sent to the printer. The Mega ST had a pretty good success and was replaced by the [Mega STe](/museum/atari-mega-ste/) and by the [TT](/museum/atari-tt-030/).