When the Atari ST was first introduced in 1985, it was pretty groundbreaking. It was the first computer with a color graphical user interface, it had a lot of memory for the time (512K) and was speedy, running at 8Mhz.

Eventually the 1040ST model appeared which upped the RAM to a full 1MB. Because of the speed and RAM, people soon realized it was possible to use it to run PC DOS.

pc-ditto

The first product to appear for the ST that ran DOS was pc-ditto, which arrived in 1987 I believe. Since I had just started college when I got my first ST (a 1040ST), I bought pc-ditto so I could run some of the DOS-related software we used at times.

Technically, the Amiga was probably the first to have that idea as they were demoing a product called Transformer that was a way to run DOS in software when the Amiga was introduced in 1985.

To use pc-ditto, you run the software, insert a DOS disk and then it boots from it. After that the ST is essentially a (very slow) DOS computer. Best case is that an 8Mgz ST ran at about 50% the speed of a 4.77Mhz original IBM PC.

Reviews of pc-ditto where quite positive, with Jerry Pournelle of Byte Magazine recommending it.

I even found a YouTube video of someone running Windows with it!

pc-ditto II

The makers of pc-ditto (Avant Garde) eventually announced a hardware version called pc-ditto II. I first heard of this in a 1989 issue of START magazine. Originally this was going to be a cartridge that you could plug into the side of the ST, but when it finally shipped, over a year later in summer 1990, it was an internal board. In fact it was completely different than what was described in a START interview with its creator in May 1989.

I actually ordered pc-ditto II because Avant Garde offered a $150 coupon off its $300 price and getting full-speed PC capabilities for $150 was a great deal at the time.

Since it was now a board intead of a cartridge, that meant I needed to get it installed by someone. Although it was technically not supposed to require soldering, it really wasn’t something I wanted to attempt. I found a local shop that was willing to do it and dropped my ST off with them. I remember it took longer than expected to get it installed and when I did get my computer back it had a slight bulge in the center. The board was just too darn big to really fit well inside the svelte 1040ST case.

Even though there was a bulge, the board itself did work. I remember using it quite often to run Turbo Pascal and Microsoft Assembler (MASM) for class assignments. Because it used an actual PC-compatible CPU (an NEC V30, equivalent to an 8086), everything was as fast as on a standard PC.

My computer was never quite the same after having it installed, though. It would crash randomly, but infrequently and the bulge always bothered me.

Reviews of pc-ditto II at the time were all over the place. STart gave it a decent review, but Current Notes could not give it a real review since the author could only get it to work by installing it outside the case!

These next items I never personally used.

SuperCharger

Also arriving in 1990, the Talon SuperCharger was a hardware PC emulator that was somewhat unique because it came in an external case and connected to the ST using the hard drive DMA port. It used an NEC V30 CPU, same as pc-ditto II and was able to run things at full speed.

Because this was external, there was nothing need to install. Just plug it in and run the software. I remember this being well regarded at the time, although it was somewhat expensive at $450. One nice feature is that it had its own RAM (1MB), so it could keep a PC program running while you switched back to the ST. I believe this RAM could also be used as an ST ramdisk when not using it in PC mode.

PC Speed

Also in 1990, PC Speed arrived from MichTron. This was an import of a European product. This actually arrived before pc-ditto II, although it cost more at $400. It was an internal board, requiring ST disassembly.

Since I never used this, I only remember reviews that spoke fondly of it and basically considered it a better pc-ditto II.

AT Speed

AT Speed was an even more advanced PC emulator that appeared in 1991. From what I can tell it used a faster CPU to more closely match the speed of an 80286 IBM PC AT, which ran somewhere between 6 and 8Mhz and also was an internal board.

According to at least one review, apparently this could even run Windows in some form!

Today

In the retro world today there is not much reason to try to get an ST running DOS, but it can be done. Certainly it will be next to impossible to find any of the above hardware products now, but software lives on.

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