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---
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/).