Good books on technical birth and evolution of the Atari ST Line of computers.

[+dhe]

Can you folks make some recommendation on the history and technical evolution of the atari st line?

[+Stephen]

Sorry - I am immature and couldn't resist.

 

Atari = 2600, 8-bit, then - Oh what is this?

[+Stephen]

deleted

[oky2000]

There was a blog about it by someone going by the handle dadhacker, the blog pages are gone but you can read them using the way back machine site.

 

Only 2 entries I think but quite insightful as he was part of the development team, I remember because I was doing some research into a myth about the Atari ST prototype and the YM2151 sound chip (which I couldn't confirm was ever considered).

 

 

[MrMaddog]

17 hours ago, Stephen said:

Sorry - I am immature and couldn't resist.

 

Atari = 2600, 8-bit, then - Oh what is this?

 

 

Here is a more appropriate GIF...

 

 

"ATARI has never made any ST's, we had always made 2600s!"

 

 

[+dhe]

Thanks, I did find this:

That should get me started!

[bfollowell]

While not as heavy on the technical aspects, this is an excellent read on the history of the Atari ST in general.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Faster-Than-Light-16-Bit-Revolution/dp/1732355215/

 

Jamie also has similar titles related to the Atari 2600 and the Atari 8-bit line. All are excellent reads and can't be recommended highly enough.

 

[+DarkLord]

Thanks for that - hadn't even heard of it - ORDERED.  

 

[darwinmac]

1 hour ago, DarkLord said:

Thanks for that - hadn't even heard of it - ORDERED.  

 

@DarkLord - I ordered it when it came out. I think you'll enjoy it.

 

Bob C

[+DarkLord]

3 hours ago, darwinmac said:

@DarkLord - I ordered it when it came out. I think you'll enjoy it.

 

Bob C

 

Not sure how I missed it, but really looking forward to it.

 

Criticism's aside, I did enjoy "Business is Fun!" and hope

the next book in that series will eventually see the light of

day.

 

Not Atari related, but I bought and read "On The Edge" as

well - another good read but I wish it had more actually

devoted to the Amiga itself.

 

[+dhe]

9 hours ago, bfollowell said:

While not as heavy on the technical aspects, this is an excellent read on the history of the Atari ST in general.

Yea - Got that for the kindle, got halfway through and realized, I had to buy an Atari ST - so here I am. 😃

[stirrell]

13 hours ago, dhe said:

Yea - Got that for the kindle, got halfway through and realized, I had to buy an Atari ST - so here I am.

Curious - what machines do you have experience with and what made you want to read about the ST?

[+dhe]

Mainly for retro - TI-99/4a - it wasn't retro when I bought it in '81. I've been reading a bit on Amiga, which is of course very related to the Atari ST line.

For me, it's the missing link from how we (collectively) moved from 8-bit - with a monitor program, to computing as we think of it today - with a "real OS" - able to run multiple programs at the same time, GUI, mouse and of course mass storage.

 

Other retrokin I own - Model-102, Cambridge Z80, Atari 800 (original no XL), Coleco Adam and COCO III (first inexpensive multi-user system - via OS9) - o'yea and the Atari Video "computer" system - I think computer in the title is pretty ambitious! 😃

 

 

[+dhe]

Here are some of the other "interesting (to me)" books I've found online.

 

[TGB1718]

I use these 2, as you can tell by the old tape holding the book together, I used these a lot bitd

and still use them from time to time today.