Mod a STacy, for gaming sake? Ethics of modding beautiful old hardware :)

[skeezix]

For some reason, I nolonger have an STFM around (I know I know, inexcusable!) .. and they're proving costly and hard to find these days (Canada); theres a fellow with a pretty good price on a STE nearby, but I just can't quite convince myself to spend that much $ on a machine that isn't ideal for ST gaming. (an STE is a very fine machine, but a little less compatible than a plain jane ST ... for gaming. For non-gaming, I've got the bases totally covered.)

 

I do have quite a variety of ST-line though..

 

ST Book - super rare, but essentially a non-useful curiosity :/ (maybe should mod a backlight into it, then it'd be usable...)

STacy 4 - great shape, but the hdd just up and died. Still, its basicly a 1040ST in a laptop heavy as hell casing with mono display. Fine for gaming, since it has a colour monitor out. They should've sold them with a back brace

TT030 - another great rare-ish machine, and with VGA out! Not great compatibility with games at all mind you, though a few crack groups have updated games to work (from hdd no less.) Course, my TT030 hdd just up and died...

 

I do have an unused HXC floppy emu and an unused UltraSatan, just begging for use. (Lets not get into FireBee and MiST) Aiming for real honest to goodness Atari hardware here.

 

Scratch the TT030 and ST Book and that leaves me the STacy. With no working hdd (fine), and ST games are annoying as heck to write out on modern Linux or Windows PCs.. so, the HxC would do just fine. (Well, I could just use the TT030 .. I bet VGA would look pretty good on a TV, or use the GBS 8820 whatever upscaler, would be easy to hook up and cheap.) So TT030 shouldn't be outright skipped for gaming.. (anyone tried it for gaming? hows it work out? Suppose it depends on the game..)

 

.... I doubt theres any room in the STacy for the HxC. I _really hate_ modding original hardware. (I'm an arcade machine collector as well.. you can mod a generic cabinet, but may Crom have mercy on your soul if you mod an original Centipede, say

 

The temptation is there though .. remove the floppy drive maybe, and just dangle a long ribbon out the bay to a external HxC? or mod it, but a little slice in there somewhere, so a ribbo could hang out without removing anything? I forget offhand where the hdd bay is on that guy, .. put an ultrasatan or hxc in there?

 

But the conflict is ... should you 'mod' somethig like a STacy _at all_, when it is rare and glorious?

 

Mind is in pristine working condition (sans hdd); if it was broken, I'd have no problem modding it. But a working nearly mint condition machine?

 

I'm thinking, maybe I should leave the poor thing alone, and just sit and try to track down a 1040STF or STFM, and call it a day...

 

But space for all my toys is bad enough, and am already poor

 

Decisions decisions...

 

Raise a dremel to retro hardware? I can't!

 

What would you do?

 

jeff

[ParanoidLittleMan]

You have UltraSatan and HxC - so, just get that STE and forget ST(FM) . You will be able to run STE only titles, STE enhanced ones and some nice demos. It is not true that STE is not ideal for gaming. There is no game what can not be fixed for STE.

And I already fixed a lot. Example: http://atari.8bitchip.info/ASTGA/G/grandms.php On same site is lot of stuff to fill your SD card .

 

That will solve your Stacy mod dilemma too

[galax]

If you need a machine for low res gaming there are ST[F|M|E etc.] machines around, or emulators. I have cute little STM with 1MB, TOS 1.4 and UltraSatan that runs many HD adapted games perfectly. I wouldn't do anything to the Stacy that can't be reversed- you'd regret it. External HxC and Ultrasatan should be able to plug into the back of the STacy (disconnect or mod of course if you want the HxC to be drive A). It should also be possible to fit an Ultrasatan (and?) or HxC? into the HD bay, underneath the floppy: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/158443-internal-ultrasatan-cable-for-mega-stestacy/?p=2353904- don't dremel the HD bay cover though, 3D print one at the library

 

I just moved to Toronto, with my TT, Falcon, a few STs, and (currently) broken Stacy. Let me know if you are ever tired of either the Stacy or ST Book!

[+DarkLord]

Jeff, I would agree with other posts that if you're hesitant at all about touching your STacy, then an STe

would be a great way to go (aside from the initial cost of acquiring it).

 

However, you can do a lot with a STacy, if you're a little bit daring and willing to experiment. I've done an

awful lot to my STacy and it still *looks* and acts like a STacy.

 

 

 

Here you can see the 1.44 meg floppy drive upgrade and the Ultrasatan (which takes the place of the original HDD):

 

In point of fact, I dropped the Pico PS and went back to the original STacy internal P/S board:

 

As you can see, anyone would recognize this machine as a STacy. If it looks like a duck...

 

So I guess my own advice and experience would be that it's okay to modify and enhance these

lovely machines, just do it with respect!

 

HTHs some.

 

PS Just for the record, to be fair and honest, I've taken some "flack" in the past for modifying

machines, in particular my Atari Falcon 060, which I recased. Some people have argued that

it's no longer a Falcon since I made those changes. <shrugs>

Edited August 30, 2015 by DarkLord

[skeezix]

gakax - sorry, never! I actually located and picked up two ST Books over the years (there can't be more than 100 of those in the world?!), so they're around if you look hard and long .. but I let the one ST Book go to a very good home, and I'm never letting the STacy or ST Book go

 

I don't think I have the time to do justice to the STacy modding like Darklord has (my god man .. but its pretty tempting; if could be non-destructively modded, that could be pretty swank; dropping in the HxC is probably the main mod, as I don't intend on using it for day to day stuff (its too heavy, and the screen isn't really any good); but as a luggable (to the other room..) machine to fire up games on a TV, could be pretty awesome. (Just got the gbs-8220, and will make myself a cable adapter for it..); so maybe opening it up to put in the HxC would be the way to go, and 3d print a cover to make it not atrocious (I currently only have bright red and bright blue filament though .. eep .... or maybe even just the uultrasatan, since ppera (and Paraoid up there etc did port so many games to run on hdd easily.

DL - is there space in there for both HxC and UltraSatan? My STacy is currently in storage, going to bust it out soon and get a good look at it.

 

I've not opened up the STacy (is that a right pain?) .. I did do quite a bit of repair to my first ST Book, so opening that is second nature (I've put up some tutorial on the A-F wiki).

 

Let me ping this local guy with the STE .. I don't have the $, but maybe I can talk him down a bit more...

 

Want the kids to see the real machine, not just the emu

 

jeff

Edited August 31, 2015 by skeezix

[skeezix]

Which jacks are on the STE output anyway? (North American)

 

I assume it had the usual ST monitor output; did it also have the TV out RCA jack like ST_M had?

 

I just acquired some 13pin connectors, so going to solder up some adapters from ST to component, for feeding into GBS-8220 I think ..

 

jeff

[+DarkLord]

Keep in mind (and if you really want to be bothered with browsing the super, uber long, rambling message thread on Atari Forum),

it took me close to 2 years to get my STacy where it is today. I'm still not completely happy with it. I'm hoping KJmann's new video

adapter will work and if it does, I'm shooting for a color screen in my STacy. Also, I've got a new in the box CosmosEX that I am

considering putting in my STacy, replacing the Ultrasatan. Haven't had time yet to do that though.

 

Anyway, yes, the STacy is a complete pain in the you know what to take apart. It's not impossible, but it is fairly difficult and

annoying. There are a couple of sites online that go over it: For example:

 

http://atari.st-katharina-apotheke.de/home.php?lang=en&headline=SuperStacy&texte=S_STacy

 

The HxC fits into a standard Atari ST floppy drive bay, right? If so, then I think you could (barely) fit both in there because

the US fits into the old hard drive bay. Keep in mind, things in there are really, really tight.

 

I dont' have an STe currently, but IIRC, there is the standard Atari monitor port, as well as TV out and also 2 RCA jacks for

external audio (and you'll want to hook up some good speakers to them).

 

HTHs.

[skeezix]

As odd turns of events go .. a very fie chap living up the road from me dug out a spare 520ST and gave it over, donated to the cause of mad science! So hard choices can be dodged, and new ones come up ... how to make a power supply for this guy to find out if it works

 

The 520ST is in great looking shape; popped it open and looks like it has no obvious mods applied, so a straight up 41256*16 set of RAM in there (and some curious bodges around the board, but I think done at Atari factory, not mods.)

 

The male socket is hard to grab from the outside, and the inside surface doesn't leave much room to grab those poits; 5V, +12, -12V and a whack of grounds.. thats enough leads (and 2A draw?) to grab that I don't want one to slip and short the whole board out, so best not to do somethig impulsive. Theres probabyl some safe points I could solder header pins onto or grab, but will have to pour over a schematic to see... but time to hit a few local electronics junk shops to see if I can find a DIN7 female connector somewhere, so I can build a cable. (Got a spare arcade PSU, and an ATX power supply, etc, so no problem.) Bu tI just want to grab those leads and dial up the bench power supply and see if it comes alive

 

Will have to start another thread for modding fun

 

jeff

 

Thanks Ian for the machine! *whew*

[+DarkLord]

Congrats on a new machine. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it. Keep us posted on how things go!

[skeezix]

Just posted a question to A-F, and posting here in this thread as well .. need an answer ASAP; got everything in parts around the desk right now, and want to put things back together ASAP

 

Hey there guys,

I just got handed an original 520ST with no accessories (ie: power supply, notably); I've got spares of most things (floppy drives etc), but am actually going to mod this puppy up if it looks to be working okay - as a game machine, to hook up to a modenr LCD TV. Its not going to do 'real work' (coding or the like). Mods to do .. find some 41256 RAMs and piggyback them on there, add an ultrasatan and HxC, GBS upscaler to VGA etc.

First priority.. find out if it works, and it seems to! Bench power supply (I'm an electronics enthusiast, but don't actually know anything), dial up 5V, run it into the male power pins on the 520ST pcb, and poof, the machine comes alive on an ST monitor. (I located some 7pin female DIN connectors actually, so thats how I'm doing it, since not much to grab onto there.)

Color me surprised .. given I did not hook up +12V or -12V on the power lines.. just +5V.

So, does the original 520ST _only need 5V to operate_?

Or are the +12V and -12V lines used for anything? (floppy? hard drive? audio? mouse? midi? serial reference? cart port?) -- I didn't hook up _anything_ on here (well, I did hook up the keyboard so I could see the power LED light up , so no clue if I'm missing some feature. But the green desktop came up, so I'm shocked

Maybe +12V and -12V are only used for things I don't care about in a gaming machine (this is just a toy ST, not for serious stuff; other machines are for that.)

I may hook up an ATX power supply, but I'm trying to find the female molex parts (what you'd find on a motherboard normally) so I can make an ATX->ST adapter cable, but if its purely 5V needed I could just use a teeny little switching power supply .. I've got a few little wall wort and brick adapters that can supply a few amp's of 5V pretty easily.

 

edit: I wonder if floppy uses it..hooked up a real ancient FDD, and it made a horrible noise; is that because it works or doesn't, or because no 12V I wonder.. but if I use an HxC which only needs 5V, I wonder if I can get by without the 12V again

 

edit 2, who needs sleep: Ran a 12V line into the ST, and floppy still makes a horrible noise; I think my project for tomorrow night (only get to hack at night is to bust open the FDD, and see if the belt has gone all to dust. Maybe testing with an old FDD is a red herring and I should go right to HxC or something.. hmm.

 

jeff

Edited September 5, 2015 by skeezix

[skeezix]

FWIW, the A-F forum post is here:

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=28472&p=279624

 

I've added an update, but the essence is.. it seems like, for just gaming, an original 520ST will rn okay on a wall wort adapter, supplying just 5V and a few amps .. no need for the big ATX to supply -12V and +12V and all that...

 

jeff

[Xebec]

Thanks for testing this out!

 

FWIW, the A-F forum post is here:

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=28472&p=279624

 

I've added an update, but the essence is.. it seems like, for just gaming, an original 520ST will rn okay on a wall wort adapter, supplying just 5V and a few amps .. no need for the big ATX to supply -12V and +12V and all that...

 

jeff