Atari MegaSTE
The Atari MegaSTE is a semi- professional version of the Atari 1040 STE and was introduced in 1991 to replace the out-dated MegaST and to offer a compromise between the favorable 1040 STE and the expensive high -end model TT. Compared with the 1040 STE MegaSTE was further developed in the following technical characteristics:
Rather idiosyncratic - - Housing taken by the TT, all ST computer colored like mousy During the MegaSTE technically based on the 1040 STE, which was. On the one hand MegaSTE thus had an excellent remote keyboard, space for internal expansions and could be easily placed under the monitor, on the other hand lacked the MegaSTE by the extended joystick ports on the 1040 STE. For this, he decreed, in contrast to TT, via an RF modulator to connect to a TV.
The early models were shipped with a DD floppy drive and TOS 2.05 which offered a revised desktop, keyboard shortcuts, icons rechargeable and free floating or links. In addition, the modular disk control panel " XControl " was included.
Later models contained TOS 2:06 and were usually fitted by the dealer with a HD floppy drive. An internal DIP switch bank allowed to configure the computer so that the operating system "Format Disk" dialog then the " High storage density " offering.
The Atari 's own host adapter for operating an internal hard drive was primarily intended for the 48 -MB and 80 - MB drives offered by Atari and was not suitable for the connection of external hard drives, so that some traders quite early own SCSI adapter offered.
Because of its relatively modest performance - especially compared to the early 90s emerging 80386 - and 80486 -based PCs - dropped the price of the Atari MegaSTE shortly after its introduction. Short term it seemed to establish itself as a favorable working device, such as word processing, DTP and, thanks to the integrated MIDI Interfaces, music production in the semi-professional and private environment. However, with the establishment of Microsoft Windows as the de facto standard for computer disappeared from the MegaSTE market.
Vortex offered an adapter card on a 386SX was soldered with local memory and has been put into the processor socket of the STE. The 68000 of the STE was turn on the adapter card space. DOS and Windows This made it possible to operate natively with access to the hard disk of the STE (up to 16 MiB partition size. )
With the help of emulators such as STEEM engine or Hatari, a large part of the software that was developed for the MegaSTE to be used on today's computers.