From Atari 8-bit to Atari ST
(Updated: Dec 20, 2022)
When I started college as a Computer Science major in the late 80s, I was still using our Atari 800XL. I remember the first time I turned in a Pascal assignment using it and the professor wrote on the printout “what computer is this?” for an example that was supposed to show a division by 0 error, but in Kyan Pascal instead just showed 0.
As I was starting to learn, home computers like the Atari 800XL did not get any respect in college. They were not deemed serious or powerful enough to warrant any thought. In college, we primarily used Unix and MS-DOS.
Though the 800XL was a fine “first” computer (and remains fun and entertaining to this day), its limitations for my classes were becoming more apparent. Having only a 40 column screen was not great for writing or programming. Using a compiled programming language was slow. There was no GUI, which was becoming hot stuff. I think there was only one C compiler (LightSpeed C), but I didn’t own it. Not to mention that it was also the family computer and not mine, even if I used it the most.
So after this issue with the limited Pascal compiler on my Atari 800XL, I decided I needed a more modern computer. And the computer I wanted was the Atari ST. This was entirely because I had been reading Atari magazines for years at this point and they would often have information about the ST, so I knew quite a lot about it. Plus, relatively speaking, an Atari ST cost much less than other similar computers such as a Macintosh or Amiga.
As I didn’t have the $1,000 needed to purchase one, I worked out a deal with my parents. Since I was now 18, I made the case that it would be a good idea for me to get a loan for this (which my parents would co-sign) to help start to build up my credit. Surprisingly, they agreed.
So I got a $1,000 loan ($2470 in 2022) from the credit union and used it to purchase a 1040ST with SM124 monochrome monitor from J&R Computer World, a mail-order place in New York City for $769.90 plus $38.50 shipping for a total of $808.40. I know these exact prices because I still have the receipt!
While waiting for it to arrive I must have read and re-read that famous Byte issue (March 1986) with the 1040ST on the cover. I kept it on my desk as a placeholder while I waited for the computer and I actually still have that very issue here in my collection!
The 1040ST arrived in early January 1989, just before the Spring semester started. I remember the original delivery was during a snowstorm and I somehow didn’t hear the doorbell when the FedEx person showed up. Upon finding the “we missed you” note (a signature was required back then), I called the number and begged them to send the driver back with my precious delivery, but due to the weather they could not. I feel like I had to wait another couple days for it to arrive, perhaps due to the weekend, but I’m sure it felt even longer at the time.
I chose to purchase from J&R because the local Atari dealer priced their system closer to retail ($999) so by buying mail order I was able to save some money which I could spend on software. I did buy the software from the local dealer, at least! I remember I bought DeskCart (a cartridge with a real-time clock and several “desktop accessories”), Personal Pascal and Space Quest II because it was one of the few games that worked with a monochrome monitor.
I used Personal Pascal for many of my Pascal assignments in school and it worked great. The Atari 1040ST had a whopping 1MB of RAM so I was able to set up a RAM disk to load most of the Pascal system, which resulted in much faster compiling.
One of the first Pascal programs I made (they were called programs back then, not apps, even though the ST could use both the PRG and APP extensions for them) was something to keep track of my candlepin bowling scores.
I also remember eventually getting GFA BASIC, which was pretty advanced for BASIC, although I didn’t use it all that much. I did use it to start work on an “app launcher”, which I called ClamShell. But I quickly pivoted back to Personal Pascal and re-wrote it there, also renaming it as JumpSTart, which I wrote about in a previous post.
That 1040ST got a lot of use until 1992 when I replaced it with a Mega STe. I now have two 1040STs that I acquired last year, which are interesting stories themselves. Be sure to subscribe to the free email list get notified of new Atari stories as soon as they are published!
Other Atari ST posts you might find interesting:
Pretty much my path also! So fun to read this. I started with an 800 and moved to an ST about that same time. My crowning achievement on the old 800 was finally getting player-missile graphics to work for a very simple circle moving around the screen and trying to get my head around display-list interrupts. Man, and now I realize it was only 10 years later I was working on those early hardware-accelerated graphics cards coding up OpenGL viz scenes using Linux for my first job! What a ride those 90s were. I suppose there are books out there chronicling it, but wow.
I also went from 800XL to 520ST, I bought in Grade 10 from my high school computer teacher for $500.
Just learned, however, that the Amiga was actually the next generation to the Atari 800. The people who designed the 800 went on to design the Amiga, or at least that's what I've recently learned, and now I really want an Amiga, because I feel, in many ways, the 800 was superior to the ST.
These days, I have quite the collection, Atari 800XL, Atari 400, Atari 800, Atari XE, Commodore PET, Commodore 64, Tandy Model IIII, but sadly, still no Amiga )-: