Buying advice for 520 STE.....

[MarkC]

Hey, new member here....😀

I had a 520 STFM 25+ years ago, which regrettably I got rid of.

I still have all my games though, pretty much ALL Sierra games (SQ1-3, KQ1-3 etc).

 

I am looking at a 520 STE on eBay, but during my research (from the ATARI WiKi page), it mentions some early games released for STFM had issues crashing or not even loading on STE.

 

How true is this.....?

Don't want to buy it if it won't play the games.

 

Also does it matter which TOS version it has?

 

Thanks

 

Edited September 13, 2022 by MarkC

[TGB1718]

There are some games that will not run on the STE, but most of those have been "fixed"

I believe there are preferred versions of TOS to use, personally I use TOS 2.06 in my STE (recently burnt EPROMS and did the update myself).

 

And TOS 1.04 is preferred for non-STE machines.

 

Not sure what price to expect to pay for a working STE, but again I believe they command a healthy price tag.

 

One plus is they are easy to upgrade the memory.

[MarkC]

Thanks for the reply.

Is there not a list anywhere with 'compatible' games...?

Is there any way to check which games do/don't work.

 

The 'fixed' ones are presumably downloads.

I only want to use legit originals, which I own.

Edited September 13, 2022 by MarkC

[MrMaddog]

I had no problem running commercial games on my old STe except for the ones that require TOS 1.0 like Starglider.

 

It was mostly STOS based games, from public domain libraries, that had trouble running but they could be patched.

 

If you have concerns about a particular game, then you can check it on the Atarimania web site where it tells you which ST models it works on.

 

[zzip]

I used to have an STE with TOS 2.06 installed.

 

I don't recall a lot of compatibility issues.  Of the games in your image, I have played these on my STe:

 

Space Ace

Kings Quest II

The Kristal

Times Of Lore

 

[MarkC]

Thanks guys, I will check Atarimania for the list.

 

Most of them seem to say ST/STE.....👍

I assume this is for the disk version, not the download (which may be patched).

Edited September 13, 2022 by MarkC

[MarkC]

Ok seriously P.....d off, went to push the button for my ST from eBay.

It's gone.........☹️

 

Damn it and darn.

It was a really nice one, with no yellowing.

Edited September 14, 2022 by MarkC

[MarkC]

New question:

What's the best connection to a display....?

 

Can it be connected to a VGA monitor.

Another eBay listing was talking about the aerial cable using channel 36 or something on a TV....!

I do have Scart on my TV also.

Edited September 16, 2022 by MarkC
Updated

[+DarkLord]

You have a few options.

 

Using one of the various models of the "Ube Switch",

you can use a modern monitor, as discussed here:

 

 

You can find the Ube Switch at the following:

 

https://centuriontech.eu/product/st2vga-r4/

 

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/

 

(about 2/3's of the way down the page)

 

You can also install the RGB2HDMI kit, although that requires a fair amount of soldering.

 

HTH's.

 

 

[Chri O.]

RGB2HDMI kit, I don't think you can beat the quality of this pure digital HDMI but the 27" Dell SE2722H will do great. 😀

 

[MarkC]

The more I look into it, the more complicated it seems to get....🤪

I suddenly thought the other day, all modern displays are widescreen, does this mean the Atari screen will be stretched, if it's normally 4:3, and displays are usually min 1920x1080, does this make everything VERY pixelated in 320x200 resolution.

 

I noticed in the link above it shows the Atari desktop centred with black either side.

 

What is the easiest trouble free solution for displays.

I have HD TV with Scart and aerial connection, monitors with VGA, DP, DVI, HDMI.

Edited September 17, 2022 by MarkC

[MrMaddog]

The center screen is 320x200 or some multiple depending on the resokution, the rest is an overscan border.  On real CRT's, we had to play with the vertical & horizontal size to fit "most" of the screen but it's no longer the true ratio.

 

With a HDTV, you could try to Zoom (but not Stretch) the screen to remove the borders. 

 

Here's what the GEM desktop looks like with & w/o the borders, the screen should be the same ratio:

 

 

 

BUT...be careful with some European games & demos that draw on the top & bottom borders, they're the ones that actually need a true 4:3 ratio

 

Everything else is ok for widescreen though.

 

(And yes I was thinking about this issue for a while...)

 

[zzip]

On 9/17/2022 at 10:46 AM, MarkC said:

The more I look into it, the more complicated it seems to get....🤪

I suddenly thought the other day, all modern displays are widescreen, does this mean the Atari screen will be stretched, if it's normally 4:3, and displays are usually min 1920x1080, does this make everything VERY pixelated in 320x200 resolution.

 

I noticed in the link above it shows the Atari desktop centred with black either side.

 

What is the easiest trouble free solution for displays.

I have HD TV with Scart and aerial connection, monitors with VGA, DP, DVI, HDMI.

Most displays will let you fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 if needed.

 

In my experience,  putting a 320x200 display on a high-res screen looks more pixelated (or blurry depanding on the scaler) than it would on the native monitor.

 

ST has a proprietary display port,  there are methods to convert that to VGA and other output formats.    Also some ST models have RF and composite outputs.  That's another option if you don't have a cable to convert it yet.   The quality of RF/Composite is not as good as RGB though.

[MarkC]

Yes, looking at the STE, it has the monitor out and audio L & R.

So in theory could connect to a VGA monitor and have external speakers.

 

Can't remember, does the ST have a built-in speaker..?

[TGB1718]

16 minutes ago, MarkC said:

Can't remember, does the ST have a built-in speaker..?

No it doesn't.

 

17 minutes ago, MarkC said:

So in theory could connect to a VGA monitor and have external speakers.

A lot of VGA monitors will work with the ST/STE in high/rezz , but only a select few will work in colour without some sort of adaptor,

there's a thread covering a lot that will work, some modern ones.

 

[MarkC]

Thanks for the link.

Checked my Dell monitors, none are supported....🤨

 

I could connect it to my TV initially, with either Scart of rf.

Edited September 19, 2022 by MarkC

[+DarkLord]

Er, I thought I covered most of this a few posts up. 

 

The easiest, simplest answer is to acquire an SC1224. However, they can be a bit hard to find (especially

the best brand, the JVC model) and also can be expensive.

 

The next easiest thing to do is buy one of the Ube Switches and use it with the 27" Dell monitor I linked to.

 

Most of the Ube Switches have an audio out so you can put speakers for sound on that.

 

If you have an STe, then no worries - use the stereo RCA jacks to hook up to speakers for great sound.

 

The next (and probably hardest) thing to do is install the RGb2HDMI mod and use pretty much any LCD

monitor you want...

 

As far as SCART goes, there are several threads covering using SCART adapters to manage this. Just

search for them... Personally, I prefer any of the other options.

 

Hope this helps (again).  

 

[MarkC]

On 9/19/2022 at 6:20 PM, DarkLord said:

The easiest, simplest answer is to acquire an SC1224. However, they can be a bit hard to find (especially

the best brand, the JVC model) and also can be expensive.

I actually saw a monochrome Atari display on EBay today which seemed reasonable, £60 + £10 postage.

[TGB1718]

16 hours ago, MarkC said:

I actually saw a monochrome Atari display on EBay today which seemed reasonable, £60 + £10 postage.

I have a dead one  just stopped working, no bang/boom/smoke, I've run through the service manual and

from what I can see it's something in the "High Voltage" area that's at fault, when I have time going to

give it another go.