+Larry Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 I had a 1040ST BITD and was later given a Mega, but never developed the attachment for them that I had for the 8-bit. So I've installed STeem on my PC, and am looking for something compelling do with it. (Had mouse trouble with Hatari, BTW.) If this pans out, I might get a MIST. So what do you do on your ST? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 I have 3 main ST's. I use my Mega ST4 to run "The DarkForce! BBS". I use my Mega STe for generally everything. Playing games, writing code/scripts for my BBS, playing music (MIDI is great), calling other Atari BBS's, playing "euro" style computer demo's (zen out!), etc,... I use my STacy for my Atari ST "fix" on the go. Before I retired, I took it to work on slow nights and played games. Good times! Love them all, use them all on a very regular basis. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyfromanotherplanet Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 (edited) Playing games and watching demos (goes without saying I suppose) Coding. C's my thing but I need to get better at assembler. I used to be a big GFA fan BITD. There are quite a few languages (STOS, Forth, Modula2) that I'd like to cross off my ST bucket list. I probably wouldn't be interested in them for 'modern' programming but they kind of make sense on the ST. Trying out software that I couldn't afford BITD (I'm a big MagiC OS fan now). I'm constantly surprised by how usable a lot of the applications software is and there's a lot of it. Chiptune - one day I'll get to grips with MaxYMiser. It's a great program. The problem's in front of the machine 🙂 Occasionally dialing in to DarkForce's BBS. Sorry DF - I should visit more often 🙂 Tbh, I'm never short of things to do on my ST EDIT. And I can literally waste hours listening to the SNDH archive Edited April 9 by theboyfromanotherplanet added link 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Retro gaming as I had one back in the day. Non extremely niche practical uses are a thing of the very distant past. Although I do have a Mega STe (and a Falcon for that matter) I've really come to like this little guy for that purpose, with it's HDMI out, RAM and accelerator expansions hidden in there. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted April 10 Author Share Posted April 10 @DarkLord I had forgotten how big the STacy was! But Atari eventually had a smaller one, didn't they? I suspect looking back through my ST-Log's and STart's will refresh my memory. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 1 hour ago, Larry said: @DarkLord I had forgotten how big the STacy was! But Atari eventually had a smaller one, didn't they? I suspect looking back through my ST-Log's and STart's will refresh my memory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST_Book 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) 9 hours ago, DarkLord said: I have 3 main ST's. I use my Mega ST4 to run "The DarkForce! BBS". I use my Mega STe for generally everything. Playing games, writing code/scripts for my BBS, playing music (MIDI is great), calling other Atari BBS's, playing "euro" style computer demo's (zen out!), etc,... I use my STacy for my Atari ST "fix" on the go. Before I retired, I took it to work on slow nights and played games. Good times! Love them all, use them all on a very regular basis. Pfft. Only three? I've lost almost that many "in the line of duty". May their sacrifice never be forgotten. Edited April 10 by Tillek 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) 10 hours ago, DarkLord said: I have 3 main ST's. I use my Mega ST4 to run "The DarkForce! BBS". I use my Mega STe for generally everything. Playing games, writing code/scripts for my BBS, playing music (MIDI is great), calling other Atari BBS's, playing "euro" style computer demo's (zen out!), etc,... I use my STacy for my Atari ST "fix" on the go. Before I retired, I took it to work on slow nights and played games. Good times! Love them all, use them all on a very regular basis. Kidding aside... I really do want to pick up one of those Roland's in the near future and start getting into MIDI... Especially with that MIDI DJ I picked up last year. I actually do keep my Falcon on my work desk and spend a lot of time in huge meetings that last hours only to participate when they specifically ask me a relevant question... but since I'm still employed I'll remain silent as to whether or not I switch one of my three monitors over during these meetings. Though it does especially come in handy on the monthly 4am deploy nights on the weekend during the (God willing) "Four Hours of Silence". 🤣 Edited April 10 by Tillek 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marakatti Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Besides usual activities like retrogaming and watching demos I also like to play around with various graphics utilities and fractal generators, writing Finnish Atari articles with my CosmosEx powered Mega STe using Papyrus Gold and running parts of Atarimania ST reasearch database with Twist 2. Also doing some lightweight DTP with PageStream. I worked using ST line along with Macs in the 90's so it's natural to continue using ST in modern times when possible. The SM124 from Oct 1988 still works great. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 15 hours ago, Larry said: @DarkLord I had forgotten how big the STacy was! But Atari eventually had a smaller one, didn't they? I suspect looking back through my ST-Log's and STart's will refresh my memory. Yep, what Tillek posted - the ST Book. Smaller, lighter, and...much, much more *fragile* from what I've gathered from users experiences. Aside from a collectors point of view, I much prefer the STacy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 14 hours ago, Tillek said: Pfft. Only three? I've lost almost that many "in the line of duty". May their sacrifice never be forgotten. I had -> 11 <- ST's at one time, but decided to clean them out. I'm pretty sure I've got enough STacy spare parts to build another 1 or 2. I know I've got something like 3 or 4 spare STacy motherboards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IGS GUY Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 I really just like writing Laser C code and GFA Basic utilities on my 1040STf, it's like doing a crossword puzzle to me. About 25 years ago I just lost interest in gaming, once I hit 40 years of age, about the year 2000, I just didn't have any enthusiasm about games, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't endeavor to write a simple game for the Atari ST or Falcon. Retro coding just like hiking or fishing good hobbies. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 So here is an oddball use... I use it to program in Alice Pascal, which was a Pascal Variant developed near where I grew up that we learned in high school on PC's. The ST is the only other system that got a port of it. Short Version: Nostalgic Programming. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 3 hours ago, IGS GUY said: I really just like writing Laser C code and GFA Basic utilities on my 1040STf, it's like doing a crossword puzzle to me. About 25 years ago I just lost interest in gaming, once I hit 40 years of age, about the year 2000, I just didn't have any enthusiasm about games, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't endeavor to write a simple game for the Atari ST or Falcon. Retro coding just like hiking or fishing good hobbies. I hear you... even back in the day as a youngin' I was more interested in writing games than playing them. Now it's all about BBSing when the job doesn't intrude (which is all the time lately). GFA All The Way...... (No, I don't write in GFA for the job, I don't like to mix "Church and State" as an old boss once said). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickster Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 1) Games 2) BBS'ing 3) programming (mostly with STOS). I do hope to do some c or assembly just for the fun of it. I was lucky enough to buy back most of my st stuff from the guy that I sold it to in the 90's. We were both in the same atari computer club. Not only do I have my original disks ( with my handwriting on the labels), I was also able to get my original computer desk back from my parents. I plan on having it setup (regardless of use) the rest of my life. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle_jedi Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 So here's a fun one... I recently acquired a Tandy 1000HX. The Tandy defaults to booting off DOS 2.1 in ROM if it does not find a bootable disk in the drive. To boot off the XT-IDE I added, it needs to update the EPROM to disable the ROM boot. The only way to update the EPROM is using a special program from Tandy. I downloaded the HX1000.EXE program to my laptop, but the only 3.5 inch disk on a PC I still have, is when I plug an SF314 into an Atari PC1. That would work, but to get the EXE program onto the Atari PC, I would have to either pull the XT-IDE CF card out - and that would require dismantling the whole PC, or I would have to use ZMODEM or something similar to transfer the program over a serial line. The simpler solution was to use the NetUSB to copy the file to an Atari 1040ST, and then write it to a MS-DOS formatted 720K floppy. Most of the time however I use the STs for games 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 On 4/9/2024 at 10:28 AM, DarkLord said: I use my STacy for my Atari ST "fix" on the go. Before I retired, I took it to work on slow nights and played games. Good times! So Jealous... I wish someone would make a proper portable FPGA set up in a laptop form factor... having an Amiga/ST laptop would rock. I wonder if we could convince Gunnar that should be their next project over for the Apollo Core team... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 On 4/13/2024 at 8:16 PM, leech said: So Jealous... I wish someone would make a proper portable FPGA set up in a laptop form factor... having an Amiga/ST laptop would rock. I wonder if we could convince Gunnar that should be their next project over for the Apollo Core team... Please...just don't call it a "mini". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 (edited) 20 hours ago, DarkLord said: Please...just don't call it a "mini". Ha, would that be a Mini STacy, or STacy Mini? I really would love a STacy or an ST Book (though I think only a very tiny amount of these were ever made). Edit: I was looking at the Wikipedia entry (after seeing a couple STacy's on ebay... I want one, but I don't 2,000 dollars, want one...) and it states it has the same external and internal ACSI like the Mega STe... I could be wrong... but I don't recall the Mega STe having an internal ACSI, unless that is what the SCSI controller plugs into? The Mega ST on the other hand, definitely has an internal ACSI port. Back on topic, I use my STs for... well, I'm working on doing a review of different Word Processors and Office Suites. Kind of stuck at the moment, since I'm trying to get some fonts to appease some example docs Edited April 15 by leech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 I use the STe to run MIDI translator software, a STacy4 to run Cubase but would eventually like to get Cubase Audio setup on the Falcon. Power on both the STe and STacy several times a week as I use them both quite often for all the MIDI stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 18 hours ago, leech said: Ha, would that be a Mini STacy, or STacy Mini? I really would love a STacy or an ST Book (though I think only a very tiny amount of these were ever made). Edit: I was looking at the Wikipedia entry (after seeing a couple STacy's on ebay... I want one, but I don't 2,000 dollars, want one...) and it states it has the same external and internal ACSI like the Mega STe... I could be wrong... but I don't recall the Mega STe having an internal ACSI, unless that is what the SCSI controller plugs into? The Mega ST on the other hand, definitely has an internal ACSI port. Back on topic, I use my STs for... well, I'm working on doing a review of different Word Processors and Office Suites. Kind of stuck at the moment, since I'm trying to get some fonts to appease some example docs The guy who put a Pak 68/3 accelerator board into a STacy for the very first time, dubbed it "Super STacy". I'm good with that. I'll just leave "mini STacy and "STacy mini" right where it's at. You're not wrong about pricing. Like so much retro stuff these days, the costs are amazing. I noticed at SouthernAmis that even in the 8bit world, the MIO's are going for $350-600.00 on Ebay. That's actually right - the internal ACSI port is the same on the Mega STe and STacy - they share the same controller board. Interestingly enough, some STacy's have a place on the motherboard, with an external cover, for the Mega ST port as well. My STacy has the external cover and the place on the MB for the connector but it's not actually there. It's mentioned briefly by John Jainschigg here: https://www.atarimania.com/documents/atari-stacy-Atari_Explorer_September_October_1989.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 9 hours ago, DarkLord said: The guy who put a Pak 68/3 accelerator board into a STacy for the very first time, dubbed it "Super STacy". I'm good with that. I'll just leave "mini STacy and "STacy mini" right where it's at. You're not wrong about pricing. Like so much retro stuff these days, the costs are amazing. I noticed at SouthernAmis that even in the 8bit world, the MIO's are going for $350-600.00 on Ebay. That's actually right - the internal ACSI port is the same on the Mega STe and STacy - they share the same controller board. Interestingly enough, some STacy's have a place on the motherboard, with an external cover, for the Mega ST port as well. My STacy has the external cover and the place on the MB for the connector but it's not actually there. It's mentioned briefly by John Jainschigg here: https://www.atarimania.com/documents/atari-stacy-Atari_Explorer_September_October_1989.pdf Huh, my Mega STe came with the SCSI 1 controller? The sad thing is, I had bought a 1.6gb drive off a friend to replace the 50mb one... never could get it to work. It was decades later that I found out it would .ax out at 1gb... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DarkLord Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 12 minutes ago, leech said: Huh, my Mega STe came with the SCSI 1 controller? The sad thing is, I had bought a 1.6gb drive off a friend to replace the 50mb one... never could get it to work. It was decades later that I found out it would .ax out at 1gb... Yep, the original was pretty limited. P.Pera at one time had a mod to the original controller board that allowed drives larger than 1 gig to be used. I've got Ultrasatan's in both my Mega STe and STacy. Both work fine with multi-gig SD-cards. I replaced the original controller with Alan H.'s card in the STacy and the one from Lotharek in my Mega STe. You can see the one from Lotharek here: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 4 minutes ago, DarkLord said: Yep, the original was pretty limited. P.Pera at one time had a mod to the original controller board that allowed drives larger than 1 gig to be used. I've got Ultrasatan's in both my Mega STe and STacy. Both work fine with multi-gig SD-cards. I replaced the original controller with Alan H.'s card in the STacy and the one from Lotharek in my Mega STe. You can see the one from Lotharek here: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49 Ha, I have one of the Lotharek ones sitting in a box for the day when I finally set up my Mega STe again... but lately I've been having fun with my 2nd Falcon. Though now that I might have a solution for putting the top back on my 1st Falcon, I'll get the SV and all that jazz set up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leech Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 23 hours ago, Clint Thompson said: I use the STe to run MIDI translator software, a STacy4 to run Cubase but would eventually like to get Cubase Audio setup on the Falcon. Power on both the STe and STacy several times a week as I use them both quite often for all the MIDI stuff. I've lately been wondering about attempting to compose something... but actually want to do it in an interesting step up. By this I mean start off with tunes from Music Construction Set on the Atari 8bit, then sample and mix it in with some MIDI from one of the STs, and kind of go up through the ages, so to speak... still working out the concept Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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