My First Atari ST

When I started college as a computer science major in the late 80s, I was still using our Atari 800XL for homework, writing and programming assignments. Although this worked well enough in High School, it was less than ideal for college.

For starters, the 800XL was the family computer and in a central room. Although I certainly used it the most, I did not have 100% access to it. Since I still lived at home (I was commuting at the time), this also meant I didn’t have a private place to work.

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 with some Macs for writing papers.

I remember the first time I turned in a Pascal assignment that I did using Kyan Pascal that was supposed to demonstrate a division by 0 error. Instead of an error, Kyan Pascal would just output 0 in that situation, a clearly incorrect answer. The professor wrote on the graded printout “what computer is this?” and I then knew I needed to either update my computer or stick to the Unix computer labs.

But even before that, I was itching for something better. Those Unix computers could compile small Pascal programs almost instantly, whereas my 800XL would take minutes. I also was going to be using C pretty soon and the one C compiler for the 800XL (LightSpeed C) would not have been good enough.

Though the 800XL was a fine “first” computer (and remains fun and entertaining to this day), its limitations for my classes and assignments were becoming more apparent. Having only a 40 column screen was not great for writing or programming and there was no GUI, which was becoming hot stuff.

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 comparable 16-bit computers such as a Macintosh¹ or Amiga.

As I didn’t have the $1,000 needed to purchase an ST, 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!

Ordered on December 30, 1988

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 started². 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), 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 wonderfully. 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 fast 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 another post.

I really liked the 1040ST’s one-piece design with the built-in disk drive. This made it easy to transport, especially when I did end up staying in a dorm on campus. Unfortunately, its keyboard was not great. I liked that it had everything in the standard positions, unlike the 800XL, but the keys were large and mushy. Even though I type pretty fast, I found it hard to type well on it³. At some point I did get some sort of springs that could be installed under the keys to help reduce the mushiness (Regent Megatouch Springs).

As I recall at some point in 1991 I got an external hard drive (105MB!) and that made the ST even more useful.

Since I only had a monochrome monitor, I didn’t use my ST for many games. However, I had the 1040STFM, the one with the RF modulator, so I could hook it up to a TV to play some games in fuzzy low resolution from time to time.

That 1040ST got a lot of use⁴ and in 1992 I replaced it with a Mega STe. Today I have both a 1040ST and a Mega STE.

Dungeon Master, the best ST game!

1. Thinking back, student discounts on Macs might have gotten the price closer than it might have seemed.

2. There was no fast shipping back then. I think it took about two weeks for it to arrive!

3. These days I rock a Mistel Barocco split mechanical keyboard (MD770).

4. I am one of the few people that had pc-ditto II installed and working in my 1040ST. I primarily used it to run MS-DOS software for school.