oky2000 Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 I did actually have a page scan of that advert I got via google searching half a decade ago but that laptop drive is long dead now sadly. Tried to find it again but I can't find any Mega STE adverts. The reason I am interested in this is simply because I was doing some research in what families could purchase as a PC option in the High Street electronics/computer store and the sort of thing on sale that families could buy in such places was 800 bucks for a branded 286 16mhz Adlib sound original VGA (386,000 palette not 16 million) and a 40mb hard drive and 1mb RAM and some crappy dime store speakers and the usual 14" monitor to play PC games on in summer 1992. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Did you try: www.archive.org ? You will find lot of magazines and then you can search inside magazines for Mega STe ads. e.g. https://archive.org/details/ST_Format_Issue_039_1992-10_Future_Publishing_GB/page/n1/mode/2up?q=Mega+ste On page 2 you have ads for Mega STe. (Note that you can search inside every magazine!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Undo Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 I’ve found also this ad from “ST APPLICATIONS” #17 - May ‘92 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Undo Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 More MEGA STE offers from Gasteiner technologies adds in “ST APPLICATIONS” magazines. For example here: http://www.atarimania.com/mags/pdf/1992-08-ST-Applications-020.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 What I find quite odd is price difference of: Mega STe 1 and Mega STe 2 it is 250£ !! (Difference is only 1MB more RAM, right?) Then in same ad you see that 4MB RAM for STe cost as low as 139£?!?!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarkdluG Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 1 hour ago, calimero said: What I find quite odd is price difference of: Mega STe 1 and Mega STe 2 it is 250£ !! (Difference is only 1MB more RAM, right?) Then in same ad you see that 4MB RAM for STe cost as low as 139£?!?!! Bigger difference between 2 and 4 Mb Mega STe. Could have bought a Mega STe 1 and then bought 4Mb ram for a STe and pop in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 Thanks for all the replies Was kinda holding off trawling PDFs online etc. My internet is flaky these days (lockdowns!!) and PDFs when loaded finally in browser still need to be downloaded if need be and then the pages extracted to PNG for my video editor. I had to do this in order to get some stuff for the 1992 High Street DOS/Windows rivals at the time which was the Amstrad PC 2286 (286-16mhz, 1mb RAM, 40mb HDD, 1.44mb 3.5" FDD, VGA, Adlib sound, monitor and speakers for 799inc VAT or less off the shelf in person). Fancied trying my hand at a video to see what were the five options but needed some benchmark prices. I seem to remember a 4mb Mega STE for £599inc VAT in Silica Shop? Silica Shop had branches in the high end London "West End" and central city areas near megastores and Harrods etc. I did actually visit one of their shops I think. Bit hazy now on memories. I used to live about 2-3 miles from Gasteiner....I do believe I got a SCART RGB cable from them and looked at their branded external hard disk drives in the shop window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Undo Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 (edited) On 3/4/2021 at 1:20 AM, oky2000 said: Thanks for all the replies Was kinda holding off trawling PDFs online etc. My internet is flaky these days (lockdowns!!) and PDFs when loaded finally in browser still need to be downloaded if need be and then the pages extracted to PNG for my video editor. I had to do this in order to get some stuff for the 1992 High Street DOS/Windows rivals at the time which was the Amstrad PC 2286 (286-16mhz, 1mb RAM, 40mb HDD, 1.44mb 3.5" FDD, VGA, Adlib sound, monitor and speakers for 799inc VAT or less off the shelf in person). Fancied trying my hand at a video to see what were the five options but needed some benchmark prices. I seem to remember a 4mb Mega STE for £599inc VAT in Silica Shop? Silica Shop had branches in the high end London "West End" and central city areas near megastores and Harrods etc. I did actually visit one of their shops I think. Bit hazy now on memories. I used to live about 2-3 miles from Gasteiner....I do believe I got a SCART RGB cable from them and looked at their branded external hard disk drives in the shop window. Here you have a couple more adds (two sizes) from Gasteiner in case you still have problems with internet: ST APPLICATIONS / August '92 ST APPLICATIONS / December '92 I haven't found any Silica Shop add offering the MEGA STE but take a look at this article: https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/mirror/myatari/issues/sep2002/megaste.htm Quote Considering a 520STE Discovery Xtra pack could be had for Ł199, I was already pushing it with the Mega but in the end coughed up the necessary Ł550, never to regret going for 4 MB in the years to follow. He said that MEGA STE was purchased at Silica Edited March 5, 2021 by Mr. Undo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 Pretty silly price differences between 1-2, and especially between 2-4 MB versions. I bought RAM for much less in 1990. But this is how sales go in some cases. Here, currently CPU prices gone extremely high, with explanation that all this vaccine shipments causing troubles for manufacturing and shipping for CPU manufacturers. They are even lazy to thinker some believable explanation - how's that that TV prices did not go up, and TV is good example here - approx same prices as PC CPUs, while their size and weight is about 100x bigger. It seems that in this country computer wholesale trade is now in hands of few people/company, and they can do whatever want. But people is not that stupid, and lot if it was/will be bought abroad, ordered from ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari74user Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) Here we go, one from Silica here. I very much remember these ads, Gasteiner I bought a few things from way back when, always wanted to visit. I purchased a lot from System Solutions, they were pretty big along with Gasteiner in the UK, not forgetting Compo and the HiSoft peeps. I remember buying some 8-bit stuff from Silica, so always scrutinised their glossy ads. Anyway, memory lane aside, Mega STE at £449 which I vaguely recall, with 2mb. I did a quick search circa 1992/93 in ST Format. Edited March 9, 2021 by Atari74user Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatter Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 On 3/1/2021 at 7:42 PM, snarkdluG said: Bigger difference between 2 and 4 Mb Mega STe. Could have bought a Mega STe 1 and then bought 4Mb ram for a STe and pop in. Much more important difference - the 1MB model didn't include an internal hard drive nor the adaptor to even plug in a SCSI (or IDE ?) drive into. So you could plug an external ASCI drive enclosure (a scsi drive in a box with an ASCI-SCSI adaptor. Or you then had to buy your own internal adaptor and drive later - the internal physical mounting hardware was still included withe the MSTE. I did the latter (still have that massive 1GB micropolis drive I used with mine, can't remember the 3rd party manufacturer whose board I used) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calimero Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 On 3/5/2021 at 2:18 PM, ParanoidLittleMan said: Here, currently CPU prices gone extremely high, with explanation that all this vaccine shipments causing troubles for manufacturing and shipping for CPU manufacturers. Next problem would be "neon gas" from Russia/Ukraine... or: lack of it. At the end, they will really manage to bring civilisation to "food stamp" level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 On 3/9/2021 at 10:15 AM, Atari74user said: Here we go, one from Silica here. I very much remember these ads, Gasteiner I bought a few things from way back when, always wanted to visit. I purchased a lot from System Solutions, they were pretty big along with Gasteiner in the UK, not forgetting Compo and the HiSoft peeps. I remember buying some 8-bit stuff from Silica, so always scrutinised their glossy ads. Anyway, memory lane aside, Mega STE at £449 which I vaguely recall, with 2mb. I did a quick search circa 1992/93 in ST Format. If Im reading this right a 2MB STE was only 50 pounds cheaper than a 2MB Falcon? Who wouldnt get the Falcon at that time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle_jedi Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 5 hours ago, Goochman said: If Im reading this right a 2MB STE was only 50 pounds cheaper than a 2MB Falcon? Who wouldnt get the Falcon at that time? I was thinking the same thing, but then started to imagine living with a single-floppy/no HD Falcon. Not sure there was a market for that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oky2000 Posted April 16, 2022 Author Share Posted April 16, 2022 That's an interesting point, for some reason I don't remember the 2mb Falcon being just 100 quid more than A1200 or same price as 1mb Archimedes A3010 (ARM 2.5 CPU version). I don't think you can do much non gaming stuff long term without a hard drive, probably not beyond casual pixel art dabbling/rubbish STOS game coding on any of those 3 systems I just mention. Even using a an Amiga 1000/520ST without a hard drive is a completely different experience and for a gamers only type option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.