In 1991, I had that Mega ST with a Hi Res Monochrome monitor and harddrive but had a hellava nightmare when a friend sent me his vie 'Parcel Force' delivery service in the UK, it took 6 weeks to arrive and when it did, the main case was cracked, and the PCB of the keyboard damaged on the left side leaving some keys non functional. My friend made a claim for damages and failed delivery..then a few weeks later two guys came round in black suits (looking like the guys from the Men In Black films) to my house to have a look. They tried to claim the sender didn't pack it properly (which was bollocks ) .... A year later, I blew it up when I tried connect a CRT TV to it... I wasn't too bothered as I was really wanting an Amiga 500, which I got a few months later, and a year after that I got an Amiga 1200 which I still have today. It's setup in front of me, next to my I7 920 desktop system and laptop.
Great video Jan, not an ST girl but it's so valuable to keep these older machines running and preserved, it's so important and I'm sure many who were ST fans will be heartened to see this and have lots of memories coming back too :)
About the scrolling. Horizontal scrolling is really really REALLY hard without the Blitter-Chip on the ST (STE has an updated Shifter/MMU that can do that). The Processor has to copy all the bytes two at the time (12 cyles per 2 bytes). You can buy some time with double buffering, drawing one frame while showing the other. But doing so in a game is absolutely impossible. There is simply not enough time. I wrote some scrolling demo that used four frames at strategical points in the memory and drawing in them simultaneously to allow a semi smooth scrolling. But it took up all the CPU-Time. Vertical scrolling on the other hand is really easy. All you have to do is moving the start point of the graphic memory by the amount of byes that makes up one line on the monitor. here it helps that the system memory and graphic memory are the same. How often i wished i could switch The Horizontal Sync and Vertical Sync on my Monitor so that the image is drawn from left to right not from top to bottom. Would have bin so much easier to make nice games. :-) What the Blitter chip does is copying (and transforming if you want) one (or two) memory region(s) into an other. To do that the processor gives up the system bus for a few cycles. The processor can do his own thing in that time with the internal stored data and command. The Bitter is nearly 10 times faster that the CPU in copying the data. By the way four devices get a share of the system bus. The CPU, the Shifter/MMU (graphic processor and memory controller), the DMA controller (Floppy/ACSI) and the Blitter.
Hi, I used to repair all of the Atari ST range of computers back in the day in the UK and what i can recommend replacing are the square 68pin sockets for gold plated sockets they are far superior and once you do this you will not have any contact issue's with the Glue, MMU or Blitter chips. I also used to replace all of the socketed chips with ZIF sockets especially for the yamaha sound chip which also acts as a side select and drive select for the FDD access. You can also upgrade the 1770 disc controller for a 1772. My brain is a little rusty but i would also suggest socketing the 1650 chips because they have a tendency to fail.I cant think of anything else at the moment but if i do I will let you know.
Thanks, it's just a combination of things I saw and read elsewhere. Still experimenting and figuring out what methods work best. More retrobrighting to come in the future. :)
We have used regular water and sunlight to 'retrobright' old lego - wintertime here and about a week spent on the sunny side of the house on a windowsill yields quite a bit of improvement too.. Retrobrighting is a chore for spring and summertime though for sure ^^
Congrats... you got the best of the MST1 mainboards: the one with eight 514256 DRAMs in SOJ. You can just replace them with 4MBit from a standard 4MB PS/2 SIMM. Connect A9 via a 33R with MAD9 of the MMU et voila: 4MB RAM.
Don't forget about Ghost Busters on the Atari XL/XE. Which reminds me, I should check to see if anyone has "transported" it over into a ROM for the 5200. The version of the game on the 2600 was also great, well. That game might be one of the rare cases where all versions of it were great. If I'm not mistaken, the releases of it for the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive are in high demand and fetch high prices at retro gaming stores...
I just restored a Atari XEGS which had severely yellowed keyboard keys it was a pain I had them out in the sun all day yesterday in a sealed bag with a ton of Salon Cream 40 and I forgot the darn #7 key on my workbench LOL so now I am going into a couple of days of clouds they all came out some a few different shades of each other, not sure its worth going them again as they are all beige now.
I think the 1 Mbyte Mega ST was a later one. The first ones have had 2 Mbyte and 4 Mbyte. I also think all Mega ST had the Blitter chip. The Mega ST series normally was fitted with TOS 1.2 (later renamed to 1.02). This one has the so called "Rainbow Tos" which was originally made for the 1040 ST instead. It was probably added manually later.
Yes, you are right. I think the 2 and 4 MB versions came first. I read that the later revisions of the Mega 1 came with Rainbow TOS from factory (at least the German ones). This one was sealed, so it must be true. ;)
Maybe I should try to restore my Mega-ST2 (extended to 4 M) and Megafile 60, and in the process reinstall the PC-Speed emlulator (that was removed when extending the memory). The PC emulation inside the Atari ST was a real kicker at that time. It was so much superior to a real PC-XT of that era. It could handle up to 736 KiB DOS memory and had high res Olivetti graphics 640x400 BW and the 8MHz NEC V30 cpu. The Atari memory could be used as EMS memory and/or ram-disk. The fun part was that the V30 was faster than the 68000 when the access was within a segment (3 cycles instead of 4) so there was a VDI version using the V30 to accelerate subtantially the graphics of the Atari when running under TOS. There rarely was such a symbiotic hardware than that.
Check out the Atari ST Forum over at AtariAge. I believe there's instructions on how to install a 2nd Drive into the MegaFile case. Of course, it appears that a lot of people are taking those SCSI-to-SD adapters and installing them in a lot of the external Atari ST drives and enclosures. I saw one done to an external Supra hard drive that was the equivalent to the Atari SH204 back-in-the-day. Personally, I think that would be cooler than using an UltraSatan device. More work though, obviously.
Great video! I see the keycaps being persistently difficult. I have found that leaving the keycaps on the frame (after removing all electronic parts) and treating the entire unit as a single entity really helps. Just cover the entire thing in peroxide, and you can be sure at least that the keys are all facing the light source. Whatever results you end up with will at least be uniform.
I acquired two mega 1's, both had the original "magic" batteries still in there. One did not leak, the other has corrosion on one of the contacts. I guess these batteries lasted quite a few years, and when the mega's went into storage the batteries were hidden well enough to be forgotten by the original owners.
The little board on top the cpu is a "blitter patch" and the rainbow fuji on the about window means it's tos 1.04 (only tos 1.04 for the stf and the mega st and tos 1.6/1.62 for the ste had the rainbow fuji).
Great vid Jan. I don't wanna be a net nanny, but please take care when working on the machine when powered on, especially if you have the antistatic strap on your left hand and probing around with your right hand, the PSU heatsinks are live at mains voltage! (there should have been a sticker wrapped around a couple of them warning you). To get to TOS quicker make a couple of "boot disks", one for low and one for medium resolution with some .ACC files in the root directory and maybe an Auto folder to contain .PRG's you want to run at boot. You can also just put a formatted disk in. TOS checks the drive for boot sectors for days if no disk is inserted. I'd also see if you can find a copy of "Your second manual to the Atari ST" If you are totally non familiar with the ST / Mega range. The first revision is decent, I have a hard copy. The second revision comes with floppies and more pages, probably related to the software it comes with.
Yep, wearing wrist wrap or being grounded any other way while poking around mains voltage is a bad idea, especially with two hands which would result in current going from one arm *through the heart* to the other arm.
Exactly. I can tell you from experience that these particular PSU's bite hard. I caught my little finger on the one inside my STE when I was a kid, while messing around with the SIMMs, I got fed up of switching off and on to get it to boot so left it on and used the reset switch. Turns out, that was a bad idea.
@@Neffers_UK I released over 100 songs in public domain. At my music artist channel. TH-cam for Ginger Kitty Project, my artist channel is Gary Kildall.
The Atari ST boots it' OS from ROM which takes a only a second or two, however, if you cold boot with no disk in the drive it will appear to take much longer, this is because the OS is trying to read a disk and looking for any auto excec files that may or may not exist.
Retrobriting using the "oven technique" worked quite well for my Super Nintendos. I used 10% hydrogen peroxide mixed with water (effectively giving 3% h2o2) and put them in the oven using a roaster @ 50°C for about 24 hours, sometimes even 36 hours. Time and patience are the key ingrediences here: Higher temperatures make it go faster but are dangerous to the plastics. The advantage is homogenous briting and no streaks. But it takes way more time ... in your oven.
Nice! I've got one too. It lives for many years on top of my bedroom closet. I've got an b/w Atari monitor and a bunch of discs with several games and software too. I think I should try to test that stuff it it's still working. I wonder if there is a possibility to use my modern computer monitor with the Atari. The monochrome mode uses a unusual screen frequency, 71 Hz I think, which was a problem back in the days, but today all monitors should synchronize on that frequency.
Nice! I bet it still works fine if it was stored well. If I remember correctly, there are adapters for connecting standard VGA for the hi res modes but I'm not sure about the frequency.
The problem is these old computers like the ST and Amiga used a very low (by today's standards) 15kHz sync frequency. So although modern monitors can handle the ST's then-exotic 70Hz refresh rate in mono, they probably won't be able to lock on to a 15kHz sync. I think people make converters though that would allow the ST to be used with a VGA monitor, maybe even with HDMI.
I always love restoration videos and this one was especially satisfying to watch! That poor case was in such bad condition, and you really did a great job in making it look (nearly) new again! Weird about that chemical spill though, I wonder what that was?
A quick and easy test to see if keys are ABS or PBT is to scrape off some plastic from an inconspicuous area and add some acetone to it. If the plastic softens or dissolves after a few minutes, it's ABS. If nothing happens, it is PBT.
The MegaST computers are my personal favorite. I have multiple of them. Best for tinkering with ST hardware. Space in the case for expansions and hacks, good layout of the board, best keyboard of all STs and stackable.
I remember playing with an Atari 520ST way back when.... (I still wanted an Amiga) but I really liked the form factor, because it was modeled after my 65XE. :) Those were the days... when computers were cool. :) Excellent video as always...
It looks for a disk on power up. If there isn't one it boots to TOS as you saw. The disk can have desk accessories and other programs which will load. But not needed like on the Amiga.
Yes, figured that out. I was a bit surprised about how long it looks for a disk before it starts the system from ROM. It makes sense because usually you would insert a disk at some point anyway.
I like your temperature "gun" you used with your kitchen oven. You could use that to detect temperature fluctuations in your home - especially "cold spots" - if you suspect it's haunted. Be sure to play the audio from the Ghost Busters game again if you end up doing that! :)
Isn't it strange that the amiga 1000 started in the mega ST form factor and moved to the ST-like form factor, while the exact opposite happened here with the ST?
I think the Mega 1s were a later addition. I'm sure when they first came out they were only in Mega 2 and Mega 4 versions. I was lucky enough to own a Mega 4 and Atari Laser for about six months before I sold them on and went into PCs. Would love to have one again, but just for the sake of it, can't think of what I'd actually use it for. I did once write a game that got nearly commercially released but the company went bust, so I sold it instead to STart an American ST mag.
Oh, it was nothing special. Just a puzzle board game I called 'STumblin Blocks' based on Pentominoe pieces (also used by Tetris). I got the idea from an Arthur C. Clarke book, 'Imperial Earth'.
And yet the Mega ST 1 was part of the originally announced models. The European market got it first because they were released right around the time the Reagan Administration slapped the Japanese DRAM manufacturers with high tariffs for having "dumped" their chips in the US in order to drive the American semiconductor companies out of the DRAM business. That, combined with all of the issues Atari Corp ran into in getting companies like GE and others to manufacture the Blitter for them led them to ship the majority of the STs to Europe. That happened all throughout 1987 and parts of 88 and that's when Commodore was able to take the sales lead here in the States; well, that and the release of the Amiga 500. And also Atari Corp dragging their feet in releasing the STe - in 1989! - when their loose lips had been talking to the press about the "EST" since early 1987.
Ha, yes, watched his videos. But I don't think he was the first person to use this technique. It's pretty standard for indoors retrobrighting, I think.
If you ever wanna go round the HDD route with vintage hardware - I.E. the Atari Megafile (lovely bit of kit to match the Mega series) or other 3rd party stuff from Gasteiner etc. Or decide to use a modern equivalent, please consider a bit of software called Superboot, it's a powerful boot manager that allows you to specify custom environments when using a hard drive. It's a great bit of software.
I'm looking into using a SATAn drive or something. The Megafile drives are a bit too clunky and take up too much space in the lab I think. I'll look for the Superboot software. Thanks for the tip!
@@JanBeta Jan, you could stack your Mega ST on top of a MegaFile drive case; they have the same footprint. Atari Mega ST folks were doing that ages before the Apple Mac Mini crowd adopted it and claimed it as their own. :)
Jan, the seal-breaker ;). Seems to be a very good sign for the systems sanity, for nobody messed up with the technology in the meantime,and as it shows, everything works fine. Well, Atari Machines are unknown territory to me as well, but definitely, they had very good systems out there by the time. Just a pity that everything is dominated by MS-DOS PCs nowadays.
I wouldn't always trust the "seal" to be a sign the machine hasn't been opened before. Authorized Atari Dealers could just apply another seal after completing any upgrades or warranty work.
Wow, I didn't know the ST version of Giana Sister was flip screen instead of scrolling! That's almost unbelievable. Makes me wonder if that's the way to get a half-way decent Super Mario Bros. type game running on the Commodore PET.
I only heard that it was a bad conversion somewhere so I had to try it. There's actually an updated version that makes use of the blitter and has smooth scrolling. I think I'm going to try that in the next video. :)
MEGA 1 is somehow underestimated model from the ST family. You've got a late unit with a factory installed Blitter (the PCB on the CPU is there for that reason) and a Rainbow TOS (1.04). Not all MEGAs had a Blitter (so you're lucky), and older units had TOS in 6 256kbit Mask-ROMs (you have 2x 1024 kbit). If you want it to boot faster, just insert an empty DD floppy in the disk drive. I'd leave the motherboard as is, as I have never seen a bad capacitor in the ST. Board is clean and works ok, so it is not worth to ruin that ;)
Great job! I love seeing Atari ST restorations, especially since Amiga stuff is way more common. The Megas were the first STs to include a blitter chip, Later STe models also had them. The TOS was also called Rainbow TOS because of the rainbow logo on the About dialog. Amigas were definitely better for gaming, but I used my ST for programming and apps and I think the ST was better at that. That's probably why Amiga is more common in videos -- old games are way more interesting than old apps and programming tools.
Absolutely. I sold my Amiga 500 for a Mega-ST2+Megafile 30+SM124 when I was studying informatics. Gaming on Amiga was of course much better, but programming and word processing was not even close. You needed so much extensions on the Amiga (at least a second floppy but better a hard-disk a shitload of RAM chip & cpu RAM) it was ridiculous on a 500. With my brothers 1040STFM I could do my programming assignements of University with 1 floppy and that was it.
Rainbow TOS was 1.04. Most Mega ST models shipped with 1.02 which added support for the Blitter and the Real Time Clock while attempting to fix some of the earlier TOS bugs.
My Mega ST2 had TOS 1.02 but now it has TOS 2.06 and 4 MiB of RAM. When I bought the TT, I gave the Mega ST2 to my brother who used it exclusively for text processing (Tempus Word). For that reason I upgraded the computer. It required the installation of a separate board soldered on the CPU which forced me to remove the PC-Speed emulator that was there before. I think I should try to put the PC-Speed back in the Atari.
@@galier2 The cheaper Amiga models 500, 600 and 1200 were not suited for real extensions. The 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 and 4000 were far better for such purposes. My pimped Amiga 2000 is very beefy with two 40 Gb SCSI Solid state HD, 8 Mb ram extension to the max 9 Mb on the board itself (1 Mb installed from factory) plus an extra 256 Mb fast ram on the co-processor 68328 (DragonBall) system-board designed and build by myself replacing the bought factory made 68030 accelerator with 32 Mb of fast ram. I salvaged the MC from an old Garmin device. My Amiga has a Bridgeboard for 486 XT hardware emulation and an A-max II for Macintosh hardware emulation. It also has a CD/DVD-player/recorder, 100 Zip-drive and the original FD DD it came with for media input. To complete the build it has 2xUSB and HDMI extensions on the system-board outside the SCSI and IDE through Zorro II. One of my SCSI HD is coupled directly to the Bridgeboard its SCSI, the other to the Zorro II expansion and as thus I have a dedicated HD for my shitload of MS-DOS games and applications. My pimped Amiga can run any Atari ST in software emulation (Medusa) and outperform the original Atari ST hardware. It can run Window$ up to 2000 NT and MacOS up to 9.3.1 native through hardware emulation. XP and up while installing correct result in a blue screen of death upon first boot without the disk most probably due to ram shortage, the OSX installer boots but does not install anything at all no matter how hard I try. XP should however be able to run on a 256 Mb 486 XT 133 Mhz computer but it just does not for some strange yet unknown reason on the Bridgeboard. Working on it because I really want to see that one happening. The speed of the accelerated system is around 233 Mhz effective in the benchmark with 250 Mhz at its top and some dips to 220 Mhz. Quite the headache to get the 68328 to work with the Amiga as co-processor as it is a all-in-one but the end result is great because it made it possible to add the extra 256 Mb of fast ram with a possibility to add another 256 Mb of fast ram (out of money right now, coming soon to try to get XP or Vista to work on my Amiga), the HDMI and USB. I made it so that I have buttons on the left side of the case to turn the 68328 acceleration, Bridgeboard or A-max II on or off so I can run in any mode easily. My favorite to run outside AmigaOS 3.9 is OS/2 and it really does a great job at that with the Bridgeboard. Accelerated Amiga + Bridgeboard + OS/2 + Warp = a match made in heaven to run MS-DOS games and applications. Amiga rules!
Nice video Jan. Im really curious about the hardware part. A nice machine that had not much luck and use in Italy. I have never seen a Mega machine around. Atari Falcon was not imported, just like Acorn Archimedes.
Yeah, I guess they were pretty rare in Germany, too. Most people I know with Ataris had 1040 or 520 STs. Vast majority was on Commodore machines though.
Most people I kew who were seriously into ST had Mega ST's. The Mega ST's had four things the other ST lacked: more memory, a keyboard that had a better feel, a real time clock (that's the reason for the batteries) and integrated power and floppy (ok the the 1040STFM/STE had that too).
@@galier2 The Mega ST's external keyboard was fantastic. You had to install spring mods into a normal ST keyboard to match the responsiveness of the Mega keyboard. That's another reason why they command such high prices on ePay.
During restoring my Atari XEGS I attempted to retr0bright the plug-in keyboard. I found out to my horror though that despite taking extreme care in proper prep etc, the plastic brightened unevenly. It was all patchy in a kind of camo pattern. Anyway, long story short - there’s something about the plastic Atari used in that period to be careful of.
I feel like you should be more careful to make sure that all the keys are facing the UV light source to ensure even results. I'm pretty sure that the reason some keys came out great while others stayed yellow was that many were update down in the bowl. I think you did too many keys at once too.
Yes, that might be the reason. I stirred the keys every now and then but they would still not be exposed to light evenly of course. I think I was a bit influenced by the 8-bit guy's recent videos where he uses only heat and peroxide to whiten keys on his stove.
The four pink craters look like a small plastic animal that was super glued to it. My sister always glued little plastic animals to her keyboard and it always left marks like that.
You need to install an adequate chip to use HD floppy. It will probably need some cooling too. I used it on my Atari ST+. I could format HD floppy to 1.60 MB and I used a small fan on top to cool this "roach". And yes, I was using NEC drive.
Great video! There's a Blitter enabled version of Giana Sisters from PP (with smooth scrolling). Not sure if the mega has a Blitter as default. If not, you might be able to fit one.
Yes, definitely going to check that one out. Somebody just commented that all the "Mega" models had a blitter installed from the start. I don't know but it would make sense.
@Brad Viviviyal there was a rumo(u)r back-in-the-day that not all Mega (ST) 1 models had the Blitter standard. But I agree, all Megas *should* have Blitters standard.
Hi Jan, (or anybody else ;) ) would you be so kind and tell me how did you remove mainboard from case? In your video you did cut the scene and i cant figure out :) Thank you in advance.
Does that particular Atari model take the Mac compatibility card? It would be cool to see that tested out. You can see and hear a bit about it on the Computer Chronicles, but of course it's not featured for too long and doesn't get to do a lot. I think the guy ran HyperCard on it a bit and that was it.
Yes, those "cards" were built in the ST cartridge format. The Magic Sac and the later Spectre models from David Small. Apple tried to prohibit their Mac dealers from selling Mac ROM chips because of those products.
I think they were brighter from the start so it looks better. The case looks almost like new I think. It's always a bit difficult to film the little color nuances but in reality, you can still see little yellow gradients on the keys unfortunately.
@@JanBeta Yeah. At least it is much, much, much better now. I think it would be a shame, if old machines are brought back to 100 percent factory new state. If they look like pee, they look disgusting, yet there are no need to remove all battle scars. After all. They were build to be used and not to rott away in a museum. Gutes arbeit Jan. Wirklich gutes arbeit.
Nice video. I love the external design of the Mega ST especially with Atari monitor, but I hate the internal design. The Mega ST would have been a game changer if only Atari had included two modular bays for twin floppy or floppy and HDD. Adding simplified internals with 2 or more low profile vertical expansion slots with outputs to the rear (personally I would have put everything on replaceable expansion slots, from CPU, Video and Sound.), and maybe a more professional keyboard over the ST one in a new case.
Yes, the Mega ST could definitely have been more than it was. I was pretty surprised it only had one proprietary internal expansion bus. A bit of a waste.
Who had an Atari 130XE ?! I used to be the only one in my friend circle... Atari forever I remember the ST was mostly used in music, using the midi-standard... never used it myself
Wie der Zufall so will, bin ich letzte Woche an einen ganz ähnlichen Mega 1 gekommen. Meiner hat allerdings das ältere TOS 1.02 und er ist nicht vergilbt. Ich hab jetzt nicht überprüft, ob es die selbe Platinenrevision ist, sieht aber ganz danach aus. Zumindest ist die Speicherkonfiguration genau so wie bei Dir. Mein Hardware-Experte des Vertrauens sagt, man kann die 8 RAM-Chips (256 kBit x 4 Bit) durch 1Mx4 ersetzen und die fehlende Adressleitung von Hand ergänzen, um auf 4 MB zu kommen. Allerdings ist der freie Pin der Adressleitung zumindest bei meinem Exemplar auf Masse, man muss also wohl den jeweiligen Pin hochbiegen. Den alten Speicher hat mein Kumpel bereits runtergelötet. Allerdings finde ich im Moment keine 1Mx4 RAMs im DIL-Gehäuse. Scheint nicht so ganz einfach zu sein...
Großartig! Sagte ich, dass ich ein Atari-Fanboy bin? :-) Ein paar Anmerkungen: Das Atari-Logo in Regenbogen-Farben beim Menüeintrag "Desktop-Info" gibt bereits den Hinweis, dass es sich um TOS 1.04 ("Rainbow-TOS") handelt. Das ist eine sehr gute Version, die Du getrost behalten kannst. Das TOS gibt es in 6 oder 2 ROMs. Du hast die Version mit 2 Chips, daher sind die übrigens Sockel nicht bestückt. Der "Mega 1" ist keine frühe Version, sondern eine späte. Die ersten hießen noch "Mega ST" und hatten TOS 1.02 ("Blitter-TOS"). Dass er 1 MB RAM hat, sieht man an der 1 in der Typenbezeichnung. Es gab noch Varianten mit 2 und mit 4 MB. Der Mega hat im Gegensatz zu den STs im Tastaturgehäuse einen Blitter und eine Echtzeituhr, daher die Batterien. Das Booten ohne Diskette dauert ewig, mit einer (Leer-)Diskette im Laufwerk geht es viel schneller. Was wirklich nützlich wäre, wäre eine Erweiterung auf 4 MB. Leider beim Mega 1 nicht so einfach wie beim Mega 2, aber es gibt tolle RAM-Erweiterungen z.B. von Exxos aus UK (einfach mal "Exxos Atari" googeln). Auch nützlich wäre ein Gotek mit HxC oder FlashFloppy Firmware und/oder ein Harddisk-Ersatz (günstigste ist wohl Satandisk V4 von Edu Arana). Bei weiteren Fragen kannst Du mich gern kontaktieren. Ich wohne nur 30 km entfernt. :-)
I don't speak German, but hello fellow Atari fanboy :) Yes, there are 2 and 6 chip versions of the TOS rom. There should be several solder pads to solder / desolder to indicate the size of the ROMs you have installed, though this is now moot as later ROMs are in sets of two. A TOS switcher with TOS 2.06 could be fun to play with. Exxos forum is great. He has a great web store also, but does not accept pay pal, he's had issues with them before.
Yes, I used baking soda before. Usually for some more stubborn stains because it acts as an abrasive and actually scrubs away a bit of the plastic. Soap and a brush most of the times does the trick for me.
Oh, I think it turned out pretty nicely in the end. I think I would have considered painting it if the stains would have persisted but I'm quite satisfied with the results as they are.
The place for the fan at the back is used in the megafile harddisks. They used the exact same case so that one would stack the Mega ST on top of a Megafile 30 or 60. In the megafile they put a fan and it most certainly was the loudest, crappiest fan I've ever seen. So be happy that they didn"t put one of those in the central unit. The megafiles harddisk featured a standard RLL harddisk which was connected to a board doing the translation of the ACSI bus (the Atari bastardized SCSI) to the RLL controller logic. So if you get a megafile sometime, you will know that it contains really really exotic and obsolete hardware. I still have my megafile 60 but it's very unlikely that I ever get it back running. Last time II checked (so 7 or 8 years ago) it already had stuck heads on the platters. Even the mallet treatment will probably not be enough to unstick them.
I think my Mega 2 ST had a fan to keep all of the memory cool - it was fairly quiet, though. A Mega 1 probably didn't have enough RAM to make cooling necessary - the 1040ST didn't need a cooling fan and it had a smaller, more cramped case with a keyboard somewhat blocking airflow over much of the motherboard. On the Megas air was free to rise and vent over the entire surface.
Let's not call ASCI "the Atari bastardized SCSI". It was released before SCSI and based upon the features and specs of SCSI before it was standardized.
Don't you have to have the keys facing up towards the UV light? Not sure how retro-bright is supposed to work if the bottoms of some of the keys are facing up.
I stirred them every half an hour or so, so every key got some light. It seems like you get the same results by just heating the keys up in peroxide (cf the 8-bit guy video I linked in) without any light. I'll have to experiment with that further.
Eventually using HD disks in DD drives will result in data loss. The material is different. Etc etc. You can Google it. But they will work for a while. Fine for moving files, installs, etc.
I read somewhere that many floppy manufacturers used the same materials for DD and HD disks which would make sense from a production point of view. No idea if that is true though. I've had good results with using good brand HD disks for years now.
@@JanBeta See: retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html for some good info. You may be write (ha) but I think it's hit or miss. All floppies suck long term but then again: th-cam.com/video/hIkxUtsraZk/w-d-xo.html But that's a professionally manufactured disk on presumably high quality media.
I brought an ST off my mate in the early 90's it used to short out and turn off... So I brought an STE.. much better. Best game I played was called Hunter, which gave me a love of open world games to this day.
Nice video. Now you have entered the world of the Jackintosh. Back in the day I only knew one person who had an ST. I thought it was nice but at the time my interests were with the C128 and Amiga's. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Mega 1 and over time when you get to play with it what your opinion of it will be.
Thanks Stephen, it's a new world to me. I tinkered a bit with STs while working as an audio guy but never owned one. One of my school friends' family had one and I remember playing Super Sprint and the first Indiana Jones adventure on it with him. I had a C64 at the time so it was pretty impressive. I really look forward to exploring the machine. :)
Somebody else commented it was probably a little plastic animal superglued to the case which seems to match perfectly. Would never have thought of it but it makes sense.
Hey klasse Video ,..Ich find gut wie du die probleme und dazu auch die Problemlösung dokumentiert hast ..In der Ganzen Art wie das Video gemacht wurde hab ich mir es gerne angesehen . Das English ist für einen Deutschen gut erträglich ..es gibt andere Honks in videos die das nicht so gut können !!...Weiter so !!.. Im grunde taugt der Atari St und erst recht der Mega St mit original festplatte mehr zum herumexperimentieren mit eigenem Programieren.. Zocken kann man auch auf nem PC ...ABer schon geil wie du aus der vergiobten Kiste so nen shönen Mega St herausgeholt hast und erst recht die Dokumentation sagt ...Das ist nicht alles so PÜroblemlos ,wie das ebentuell in andren Videos aussieht.
Vielen Dank! Ich versuche tatsächlich immer auch die Fehler und mein Versagen zu dokumentieren. Es nervt mich nämlich selbst ziemlich, dass andere die schwierigen Stellen auslassen, wenn sie da Fehler machen und man die dann selbst ausprobieren muss. ;)
Hello, I have a request for the following: I was removing the graphics card from the VME ATARI-TT slot. The ATARI TOS-system was turned off, but I didn't notice that the computer was still connected to 230 V / 50 Hz power. When I took out this card unevenly, I suddenly felt the smell of a bubble somewhere on the board because the whole thing is in the tower housing. After turning on the computer, the screen is dark, the power supply works, the LEDs - power, fan, HD disk and floppy disk LEDs - work. Somewhere after two minutes the MC-68 .. processor is clearly warm, I only checked this 2MB ST memory board (underneath the board is also the factory 2MB) the chip and cold bones. The whole side of integrated circuits from the cold ST-memory side I still have the TT-Fast Ram GX-B-V0, 4MB slots. Can I ask you for help, service diagnosis? Best Regards ... ATARI FAN ( ATARI JAGUAR, STE, TT, FALCON030 )
In 1991, I had that Mega ST with a Hi Res Monochrome monitor and harddrive but had a hellava nightmare when a friend sent me his vie 'Parcel Force' delivery service in the UK, it took 6 weeks to arrive and when it did, the main case was cracked, and the PCB of the keyboard damaged on the left side leaving some keys non functional. My friend made a claim for damages and failed delivery..then a few weeks later two guys came round in black suits (looking like the guys from the Men In Black films) to my house to have a look. They tried to claim the sender didn't pack it properly (which was bollocks ) .... A year later, I blew it up when I tried connect a CRT TV to it... I wasn't too bothered as I was really wanting an Amiga 500, which I got a few months later, and a year after that I got an Amiga 1200 which I still have today. It's setup in front of me, next to my I7 920 desktop system and laptop.
Great video Jan, not an ST girl but it's so valuable to keep these older machines running and preserved, it's so important and I'm sure many who were ST fans will be heartened to see this and have lots of memories coming back too :)
Love the video these are computers i always wanted as a Kid i am 45 so i remember when i asked for one we could not afford one
About the scrolling. Horizontal scrolling is really really REALLY hard without the Blitter-Chip on the ST (STE has an updated Shifter/MMU that can do that). The Processor has to copy all the bytes two at the time (12 cyles per 2 bytes). You can buy some time with double buffering, drawing one frame while showing the other. But doing so in a game is absolutely impossible. There is simply not enough time. I wrote some scrolling demo that used four frames at strategical points in the memory and drawing in them simultaneously to allow a semi smooth scrolling. But it took up all the CPU-Time.
Vertical scrolling on the other hand is really easy. All you have to do is moving the start point of the graphic memory by the amount of byes that makes up one line on the monitor. here it helps that the system memory and graphic memory are the same. How often i wished i could switch The Horizontal Sync and Vertical Sync on my Monitor so that the image is drawn from left to right not from top to bottom. Would have bin so much easier to make nice games. :-)
What the Blitter chip does is copying (and transforming if you want) one (or two) memory region(s) into an other. To do that the processor gives up the system bus for a few cycles. The processor can do his own thing in that time with the internal stored data and command. The Bitter is nearly 10 times faster that the CPU in copying the data.
By the way four devices get a share of the system bus. The CPU, the Shifter/MMU (graphic processor and memory controller), the DMA controller (Floppy/ACSI) and the Blitter.
Hi, I used to repair all of the Atari ST range of computers back in the day in the UK and what i can recommend replacing are the square 68pin sockets for gold plated sockets they are far superior and once you do this you will not have any contact issue's with the Glue, MMU or Blitter chips. I also used to replace all of the socketed chips with ZIF sockets especially for the yamaha sound chip which also acts as a side select and drive select for the FDD access. You can also upgrade the 1770 disc controller for a 1772. My brain is a little rusty but i would also suggest socketing the 1650 chips because they have a tendency to fail.I cant think of anything else at the moment but if i do I will let you know.
Wouldn't the WDC disc controller upgrade require also upgrading to a later version of TOS? Like 1.06?
Really enjoyed watching your restoration, I am an Atari fan, was great to see such a well preserved motherboard inside.
So regretting selling my Atari MEGA STE, damn the case still looks cool today! :)
Different case, poser. The Mega STE used the same case as the TT.
My childhood computer!!! So beautiful pizza box form factor and so much poweeeer! Only opened once when I was like 8, amazed for life!
Amazingly clean on the inside.
It's the first time I'm seeing the Vanish and reflective bubblewrap method, I think that was pretty genius. Great video.
Thanks, it's just a combination of things I saw and read elsewhere. Still experimenting and figuring out what methods work best. More retrobrighting to come in the future. :)
Looks splendid! Excellent restoration of the Mega ST!
We have used regular water and sunlight to 'retrobright' old lego - wintertime here and about a week spent on the sunny side of the house on a windowsill yields quite a bit of improvement too..
Retrobrighting is a chore for spring and summertime though for sure ^^
Congrats... you got the best of the MST1 mainboards: the one with eight 514256 DRAMs in SOJ. You can just replace them with 4MBit from a standard 4MB PS/2 SIMM. Connect A9 via a 33R with MAD9 of the MMU et voila: 4MB RAM.
I can't help grooving along to C64 Ghostbusters, gets me every time! :)
I remember first hearing the intro to the Apple ][ version and being MINDBLOWN.
Don't forget about Ghost Busters on the Atari XL/XE. Which reminds me, I should check to see if anyone has "transported" it over into a ROM for the 5200. The version of the game on the 2600 was also great, well. That game might be one of the rare cases where all versions of it were great. If I'm not mistaken, the releases of it for the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive are in high demand and fetch high prices at retro gaming stores...
I just restored a Atari XEGS which had severely yellowed keyboard keys it was a pain I had them out in the sun all day yesterday in a sealed bag with a ton of Salon Cream 40 and I forgot the darn #7 key on my workbench LOL so now I am going into a couple of days of clouds they all came out some a few different shades of each other, not sure its worth going them again as they are all beige now.
I think the 1 Mbyte Mega ST was a later one. The first ones have had 2 Mbyte and 4 Mbyte. I also think all Mega ST had the Blitter chip. The Mega ST series normally was fitted with TOS 1.2 (later renamed to 1.02). This one has the so called "Rainbow Tos" which was originally made for the 1040 ST instead. It was probably added manually later.
Yes, you are right. I think the 2 and 4 MB versions came first. I read that the later revisions of the Mega 1 came with Rainbow TOS from factory (at least the German ones). This one was sealed, so it must be true. ;)
Oh nice. The rainbow TOS, named after the colored Atari sign in the TOS info panel, was a big improvement over the TOS 1.2. :-)
While I am more a fan of the Amiga, I do have a good bit of respect for the Atari ST. Good work!
Thanks! I am more of an Amiga fan, too, but I love how the Ataris are designed. Looking forward to finding out more about the machine. :)
Atari + Cubase = Fish and Chips!
Jan Beta has gone to the dark side!!!
I suspected this would happen when I watched Atari 800XL video. :)
It is not the Dark Side; it is the West Side.
Maybe I should try to restore my Mega-ST2 (extended to 4 M) and Megafile 60, and in the process reinstall the PC-Speed emlulator (that was removed when extending the memory).
The PC emulation inside the Atari ST was a real kicker at that time. It was so much superior to a real PC-XT of that era. It could handle up to 736 KiB DOS memory and had high res Olivetti graphics 640x400 BW and the 8MHz NEC V30 cpu. The Atari memory could be used as EMS memory and/or ram-disk.
The fun part was that the V30 was faster than the 68000 when the access was within a segment (3 cycles instead of 4) so there was a VDI version using the V30 to accelerate subtantially the graphics of the Atari when running under TOS. There rarely was such a symbiotic hardware than that.
Those Megafile hard disks are extremly loud and slow. Forget about it and get a modern, SD card based replacement.
Check out the Atari ST Forum over at AtariAge. I believe there's instructions on how to install a 2nd Drive into the MegaFile case. Of course, it appears that a lot of people are taking those SCSI-to-SD adapters and installing them in a lot of the external Atari ST drives and enclosures. I saw one done to an external Supra hard drive that was the equivalent to the Atari SH204 back-in-the-day. Personally, I think that would be cooler than using an UltraSatan device. More work though, obviously.
Great video Jan. Thankx for sharing with us. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands
I have mega ST 4 and 30 mega hard drive...nice computer in that time. Calamus program. I mist that:)
Atari and Amiga, the best retro computers there is :)
A nice, relaxing and informative video. Thank you!
Glad you liked it. :)
Jan, 25 years ago - "I'll never need that ST switch on my mouse" ...
Heh. This is why we /keep/ our old hardware instead of purging it all like I did 20 years ago.
KICK Self, dammit!
As it is for mine (I have the same mouse) which I never needed for Amiga.
Haha, definitely didn't think I'd ever need it back then. ;)
Great video! I see the keycaps being persistently difficult. I have found that leaving the keycaps on the frame (after removing all electronic parts) and treating the entire unit as a single entity really helps. Just cover the entire thing in peroxide, and you can be sure at least that the keys are all facing the light source. Whatever results you end up with will at least be uniform.
I acquired two mega 1's, both had the original "magic" batteries still in there. One did not leak, the other has corrosion on one of the contacts. I guess these batteries lasted quite a few years, and when the mega's went into storage the batteries were hidden well enough to be forgotten by the original owners.
The little board on top the cpu is a "blitter patch" and the rainbow fuji on the about window means it's tos 1.04 (only tos 1.04 for the stf and the mega st and tos 1.6/1.62 for the ste had the rainbow fuji).
Great vid Jan. I don't wanna be a net nanny, but please take care when working on the machine when powered on, especially if you have the antistatic strap on your left hand and probing around with your right hand, the PSU heatsinks are live at mains voltage! (there should have been a sticker wrapped around a couple of them warning you).
To get to TOS quicker make a couple of "boot disks", one for low and one for medium resolution with some .ACC files in the root directory and maybe an Auto folder to contain .PRG's you want to run at boot. You can also just put a formatted disk in. TOS checks the drive for boot sectors for days if no disk is inserted.
I'd also see if you can find a copy of "Your second manual to the Atari ST" If you are totally non familiar with the ST / Mega range. The first revision is decent, I have a hard copy. The second revision comes with floppies and more pages, probably related to the software it comes with.
Yep, wearing wrist wrap or being grounded any other way while poking around mains voltage is a bad idea, especially with two hands which would result in current going from one arm *through the heart* to the other arm.
Exactly. I can tell you from experience that these particular PSU's bite hard. I caught my little finger on the one inside my STE when I was a kid, while messing around with the SIMMs, I got fed up of switching off and on to get it to boot so left it on and used the reset switch. Turns out, that was a bad idea.
🤔
Ginger Kitty Project has just gained a new sub. Not used Reason for years.
@@Neffers_UK I released over 100 songs in public domain. At my music artist channel. TH-cam for Ginger Kitty Project, my artist channel is Gary Kildall.
The Atari ST boots it' OS from ROM which takes a only a second or two, however, if you cold boot with no disk in the drive it will appear to take much longer, this is because the OS is trying to read a disk and looking for any auto excec files that may or may not exist.
Retrobriting using the "oven technique" worked quite well for my Super Nintendos. I used 10% hydrogen peroxide mixed with water (effectively giving 3% h2o2) and put them in the oven using a roaster @ 50°C for about 24 hours, sometimes even 36 hours. Time and patience are the key ingrediences here: Higher temperatures make it go faster but are dangerous to the plastics. The advantage is homogenous briting and no streaks. But it takes way more time ... in your oven.
Great video Jan! Just to echo Gadget, give the modified version of Giana Sisters for Blitter enabled machines a go :)
Thanks. I will!
Nice! I've got one too. It lives for many years on top of my bedroom closet. I've got an b/w Atari monitor and a bunch of discs with several games and software too. I think I should try to test that stuff it it's still working.
I wonder if there is a possibility to use my modern computer monitor with the Atari. The monochrome mode uses a unusual screen frequency, 71 Hz I think, which was a problem back in the days, but today all monitors should synchronize on that frequency.
Nice! I bet it still works fine if it was stored well. If I remember correctly, there are adapters for connecting standard VGA for the hi res modes but I'm not sure about the frequency.
The problem is these old computers like the ST and Amiga used a very low (by today's standards) 15kHz sync frequency. So although modern monitors can handle the ST's then-exotic 70Hz refresh rate in mono, they probably won't be able to lock on to a 15kHz sync. I think people make converters though that would allow the ST to be used with a VGA monitor, maybe even with HDMI.
Wow, it looks decent inside; very sweet.
I always love restoration videos and this one was especially satisfying to watch! That poor case was in such bad condition, and you really did a great job in making it look (nearly) new again! Weird about that chemical spill though, I wonder what that was?
Really nice condition find, no rust on the screws or the steel or anything.
Yeah, I was amazed how good the condition of the innards are compared to the outside.
A quick and easy test to see if keys are ABS or PBT is to scrape off some plastic from an inconspicuous area and add some acetone to it. If the plastic softens or dissolves after a few minutes, it's ABS. If nothing happens, it is PBT.
This is the first time I've ever heard of and seen this model of the Atari ST
Yeah, it was new to me, too. They are definitely a lot rarer than the 520s and 1040s.
The MegaST computers are my personal favorite. I have multiple of them. Best for tinkering with ST hardware. Space in the case for expansions and hacks, good layout of the board, best keyboard of all STs and stackable.
I remember playing with an Atari 520ST way back when.... (I still wanted an Amiga) but I really liked the form factor, because it was modeled after my 65XE. :)
Those were the days... when computers were cool. :) Excellent video as always...
It definitely is a beautifully designed machine. :)
Uiuiuiu da haste aber Mega Glück gehabt mit denn Batterien Jan! Da hab ich schon ganz anderen Sachen gesehen! Tolles Video!
Nice video Jan!!!..nice touch the Ghostbusters theme
It looks for a disk on power up. If there isn't one it boots to TOS as you saw. The disk can have desk accessories and other programs which will load. But not needed like on the Amiga.
Yes, figured that out. I was a bit surprised about how long it looks for a disk before it starts the system from ROM. It makes sense because usually you would insert a disk at some point anyway.
I like your temperature "gun" you used with your kitchen oven. You could use that to detect temperature fluctuations in your home - especially "cold spots" - if you suspect it's haunted. Be sure to play the audio from the Ghost Busters game again if you end up doing that! :)
Good idea! Should have used that for Halloween, really! :D
Isn't it strange that the amiga 1000 started in the mega ST form factor and moved to the ST-like form factor, while the exact opposite happened here with the ST?
I think the Mega 1s were a later addition. I'm sure when they first came out they were only in Mega 2 and Mega 4 versions. I was lucky enough to own a Mega 4 and Atari Laser for about six months before I sold them on and went into PCs. Would love to have one again, but just for the sake of it, can't think of what I'd actually use it for. I did once write a game that got nearly commercially released but the company went bust, so I sold it instead to STart an American ST mag.
Your assumption is correct. The Mega ST 2 and Mega ST 4 were the first Megas.
Which game?
Oh, it was nothing special. Just a puzzle board game I called 'STumblin Blocks' based on Pentominoe pieces (also used by Tetris). I got the idea from an Arthur C. Clarke book, 'Imperial Earth'.
And yet the Mega ST 1 was part of the originally announced models. The European market got it first because they were released right around the time the Reagan Administration slapped the Japanese DRAM manufacturers with high tariffs for having "dumped" their chips in the US in order to drive the American semiconductor companies out of the DRAM business. That, combined with all of the issues Atari Corp ran into in getting companies like GE and others to manufacture the Blitter for them led them to ship the majority of the STs to Europe. That happened all throughout 1987 and parts of 88 and that's when Commodore was able to take the sales lead here in the States; well, that and the release of the Amiga 500. And also Atari Corp dragging their feet in releasing the STe - in 1989! - when their loose lips had been talking to the press about the "EST" since early 1987.
ah, finally, someone attempting a pseudo-Adrian Black esque retr0bright method with the shiny box.
Ha, yes, watched his videos. But I don't think he was the first person to use this technique. It's pretty standard for indoors retrobrighting, I think.
Very nice video, this gave me a lot of information before I start working on my 520ST.
By the way the musics in the video were awesome ;-)
If you ever wanna go round the HDD route with vintage hardware - I.E. the Atari Megafile (lovely bit of kit to match the Mega series) or other 3rd party stuff from Gasteiner etc. Or decide to use a modern equivalent, please consider a bit of software called Superboot, it's a powerful boot manager that allows you to specify custom environments when using a hard drive. It's a great bit of software.
I'm looking into using a SATAn drive or something. The Megafile drives are a bit too clunky and take up too much space in the lab I think. I'll look for the Superboot software. Thanks for the tip!
@@JanBeta Jan, you could stack your Mega ST on top of a MegaFile drive case; they have the same footprint. Atari Mega ST folks were doing that ages before the Apple Mac Mini crowd adopted it and claimed it as their own. :)
Bonus points for the C64 Ghostbusters theme song despite this being an Atari video. :)
I HAD to sneak a bit of Commodore in, obviously! ;)
Jan, the seal-breaker ;). Seems to be a very good sign for the systems sanity, for nobody messed up with the technology in the meantime,and as it shows, everything works fine. Well, Atari Machines are unknown territory to me as well, but definitely, they had very good systems out there by the time. Just a pity that everything is dominated by MS-DOS PCs nowadays.
I wouldn't always trust the "seal" to be a sign the machine hasn't been opened before. Authorized Atari Dealers could just apply another seal after completing any upgrades or warranty work.
Wow, I didn't know the ST version of Giana Sister was flip screen instead of scrolling! That's almost unbelievable. Makes me wonder if that's the way to get a half-way decent Super Mario Bros. type game running on the Commodore PET.
I would say that, with a unmodifyable font, no graphics mode and no sprites, the situation is quite hopeless for the PET.
I only heard that it was a bad conversion somewhere so I had to try it. There's actually an updated version that makes use of the blitter and has smooth scrolling. I think I'm going to try that in the next video. :)
Looking great! awesome work Jan
Thank you Edu! It's a beautiful machine. :)
Hi Jan, you have to spread the keys all facing up, with some space , and use the creme, and use wrap and UV, use at pice of carboard,
Well done! Love your dedication!
MEGA 1 is somehow underestimated model from the ST family. You've got a late unit with a factory installed Blitter (the PCB on the CPU is there for that reason) and a Rainbow TOS (1.04). Not all MEGAs had a Blitter (so you're lucky), and older units had TOS in 6 256kbit Mask-ROMs (you have 2x 1024 kbit). If you want it to boot faster, just insert an empty DD floppy in the disk drive.
I'd leave the motherboard as is, as I have never seen a bad capacitor in the ST. Board is clean and works ok, so it is not worth to ruin that ;)
Great job! I love seeing Atari ST restorations, especially since Amiga stuff is way more common. The Megas were the first STs to include a blitter chip, Later STe models also had them. The TOS was also called Rainbow TOS because of the rainbow logo on the About dialog. Amigas were definitely better for gaming, but I used my ST for programming and apps and I think the ST was better at that. That's probably why Amiga is more common in videos -- old games are way more interesting than old apps and programming tools.
Absolutely. I sold my Amiga 500 for a Mega-ST2+Megafile 30+SM124 when I was studying informatics. Gaming on Amiga was of course much better, but programming and word processing was not even close. You needed so much extensions on the Amiga (at least a second floppy but better a hard-disk a shitload of RAM chip & cpu RAM) it was ridiculous on a 500. With my brothers 1040STFM I could do my programming assignements of University with 1 floppy and that was it.
Rainbow TOS was 1.04. Most Mega ST models shipped with 1.02 which added support for the Blitter and the Real Time Clock while attempting to fix some of the earlier TOS bugs.
My Mega ST2 had TOS 1.02 but now it has TOS 2.06 and 4 MiB of RAM. When I bought the TT, I gave the Mega ST2 to my brother who used it exclusively for text processing (Tempus Word). For that reason I upgraded the computer. It required the installation of a separate board soldered on the CPU which forced me to remove the PC-Speed emulator that was there before. I think I should try to put the PC-Speed back in the Atari.
@@galier2
The cheaper Amiga models 500, 600 and 1200 were not suited for real extensions. The 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 3000 and 4000 were far better for such purposes.
My pimped Amiga 2000 is very beefy with two 40 Gb SCSI Solid state HD, 8 Mb ram extension to the max 9 Mb on the board itself (1 Mb installed from factory) plus an extra 256 Mb fast ram on the co-processor 68328 (DragonBall) system-board designed and build by myself replacing the bought factory made 68030 accelerator with 32 Mb of fast ram. I salvaged the MC from an old Garmin device. My Amiga has a Bridgeboard for 486 XT hardware emulation and an A-max II for Macintosh hardware emulation. It also has a CD/DVD-player/recorder, 100 Zip-drive and the original FD DD it came with for media input. To complete the build it has 2xUSB and HDMI extensions on the system-board outside the SCSI and IDE through Zorro II. One of my SCSI HD is coupled directly to the Bridgeboard its SCSI, the other to the Zorro II expansion and as thus I have a dedicated HD for my shitload of MS-DOS games and applications.
My pimped Amiga can run any Atari ST in software emulation (Medusa) and outperform the original Atari ST hardware. It can run Window$ up to 2000 NT and MacOS up to 9.3.1 native through hardware emulation. XP and up while installing correct result in a blue screen of death upon first boot without the disk most probably due to ram shortage, the OSX installer boots but does not install anything at all no matter how hard I try. XP should however be able to run on a 256 Mb 486 XT 133 Mhz computer but it just does not for some strange yet unknown reason on the Bridgeboard. Working on it because I really want to see that one happening.
The speed of the accelerated system is around 233 Mhz effective in the benchmark with 250 Mhz at its top and some dips to 220 Mhz. Quite the headache to get the 68328 to work with the Amiga as co-processor as it is a all-in-one but the end result is great because it made it possible to add the extra 256 Mb of fast ram with a possibility to add another 256 Mb of fast ram (out of money right now, coming soon to try to get XP or Vista to work on my Amiga), the HDMI and USB. I made it so that I have buttons on the left side of the case to turn the 68328 acceleration, Bridgeboard or A-max II on or off so I can run in any mode easily.
My favorite to run outside AmigaOS 3.9 is OS/2 and it really does a great job at that with the Bridgeboard. Accelerated Amiga + Bridgeboard + OS/2 + Warp = a match made in heaven to run MS-DOS games and applications.
Amiga rules!
Nice video Jan.
Im really curious about the hardware part.
A nice machine that had not much luck and use in Italy. I have never seen a Mega machine around. Atari Falcon was not imported, just like Acorn Archimedes.
Yeah, I guess they were pretty rare in Germany, too. Most people I know with Ataris had 1040 or 520 STs. Vast majority was on Commodore machines though.
@@JanBeta The "Ghostbuster" soundtrack for the retrobrighting in the bathroom was really funny :-)
What do you use to make it at home?
Most people I kew who were seriously into ST had Mega ST's. The Mega ST's had four things the other ST lacked: more memory, a keyboard that had a better feel, a real time clock (that's the reason for the batteries) and integrated power and floppy (ok the the 1040STFM/STE had that too).
@@galier2 The Mega ST's external keyboard was fantastic. You had to install spring mods into a normal ST keyboard to match the responsiveness of the Mega keyboard. That's another reason why they command such high prices on ePay.
During restoring my Atari XEGS I attempted to retr0bright the plug-in keyboard. I found out to my horror though that despite taking extreme care in proper prep etc, the plastic brightened unevenly. It was all patchy in a kind of camo pattern.
Anyway, long story short - there’s something about the plastic Atari used in that period to be careful of.
I feel like you should be more careful to make sure that all the keys are facing the UV light source to ensure even results. I'm pretty sure that the reason some keys came out great while others stayed yellow was that many were update down in the bowl. I think you did too many keys at once too.
Yes, that might be the reason. I stirred the keys every now and then but they would still not be exposed to light evenly of course. I think I was a bit influenced by the 8-bit guy's recent videos where he uses only heat and peroxide to whiten keys on his stove.
The four pink craters look like a small plastic animal that was super glued to it. My sister always glued little plastic animals to her keyboard and it always left marks like that.
That must be it! Never thought of that but it seems to be a good explanation. Thank you! :)
the time to boot is normal, it boot quicker if there is a formatted floppy in the drive
You need to install an adequate chip to use HD floppy. It will probably need some cooling too. I used it on my Atari ST+. I could format HD floppy to 1.60 MB and I used a small fan on top to cool this "roach". And yes, I was using NEC drive.
Great video! There's a Blitter enabled version of Giana Sisters from PP (with smooth scrolling). Not sure if the mega has a Blitter as default. If not, you might be able to fit one.
It was enabled on his desktop mate ;)
+EvilFranky Ah, I didn't see that on my phone! So he just needs the PP version for smooth scrolling =D
Absolutely!
Yes, definitely going to check that one out. Somebody just commented that all the "Mega" models had a blitter installed from the start. I don't know but it would make sense.
@Brad Viviviyal there was a rumo(u)r back-in-the-day that not all Mega (ST) 1 models had the Blitter standard. But I agree, all Megas *should* have Blitters standard.
Glass in windows block most of UV light. You must put parts for brightening outdoors, in direct sunlight.
Hi Jan, (or anybody else ;) ) would you be so kind and tell me how did you remove mainboard from case? In your video you did cut the scene and i cant figure out :) Thank you in advance.
Does that particular Atari model take the Mac compatibility card? It would be cool to see that tested out. You can see and hear a bit about it on the Computer Chronicles, but of course it's not featured for too long and doesn't get to do a lot. I think the guy ran HyperCard on it a bit and that was it.
Yes, those "cards" were built in the ST cartridge format. The Magic Sac and the later Spectre models from David Small. Apple tried to prohibit their Mac dealers from selling Mac ROM chips because of those products.
Love your videos.
Awesome video as always
Looks good. The keycap's came out way better than the case, for some reason.
I think they were brighter from the start so it looks better. The case looks almost like new I think. It's always a bit difficult to film the little color nuances but in reality, you can still see little yellow gradients on the keys unfortunately.
@@JanBeta Yeah. At least it is much, much, much better now. I think it would be a shame, if old machines are brought back to 100 percent factory new state. If they look like pee, they look disgusting, yet there are no need to remove all battle scars. After all. They were build to be used and not to rott away in a museum. Gutes arbeit Jan. Wirklich gutes arbeit.
I want me a *LIPS* monitor.
Ha! Maybe I should start my own monitor company sometime. ;)
Baking your keys? What is this, Perifractic's Retro Recipes?
YES, I even thought so! :-)
Nice video. I love the external design of the Mega ST especially with Atari monitor, but I hate the internal design. The Mega ST would have been a game changer if only Atari had included two modular bays for twin floppy or floppy and HDD. Adding simplified internals with 2 or more low profile vertical expansion slots with outputs to the rear (personally I would have put everything on replaceable expansion slots, from CPU, Video and Sound.), and maybe a more professional keyboard over the ST one in a new case.
Yes, the Mega ST could definitely have been more than it was. I was pretty surprised it only had one proprietary internal expansion bus. A bit of a waste.
@@JanBeta That bus could take the Moniterm Viking display card and turn into a full blown Mac killing DTP Kaiju.
Who had an Atari 130XE ?! I used to be the only one in my friend circle... Atari forever
I remember the ST was mostly used in music, using the midi-standard... never used it myself
On the ST if you don't want to wait during boot, just insert a floppy disk in the drive. The delay is caused by the atari looking for one.
Wie der Zufall so will, bin ich letzte Woche an einen ganz ähnlichen Mega 1 gekommen. Meiner hat allerdings das ältere TOS 1.02 und er ist nicht vergilbt. Ich hab jetzt nicht überprüft, ob es die selbe Platinenrevision ist, sieht aber ganz danach aus. Zumindest ist die Speicherkonfiguration genau so wie bei Dir. Mein Hardware-Experte des Vertrauens sagt, man kann die 8 RAM-Chips (256 kBit x 4 Bit) durch 1Mx4 ersetzen und die fehlende Adressleitung von Hand ergänzen, um auf 4 MB zu kommen. Allerdings ist der freie Pin der Adressleitung zumindest bei meinem Exemplar auf Masse, man muss also wohl den jeweiligen Pin hochbiegen. Den alten Speicher hat mein Kumpel bereits runtergelötet. Allerdings finde ich im Moment keine 1Mx4 RAMs im DIL-Gehäuse. Scheint nicht so ganz einfach zu sein...
Großartig! Sagte ich, dass ich ein Atari-Fanboy bin? :-) Ein paar Anmerkungen: Das Atari-Logo in Regenbogen-Farben beim Menüeintrag "Desktop-Info" gibt bereits den Hinweis, dass es sich um TOS 1.04 ("Rainbow-TOS") handelt. Das ist eine sehr gute Version, die Du getrost behalten kannst. Das TOS gibt es in 6 oder 2 ROMs. Du hast die Version mit 2 Chips, daher sind die übrigens Sockel nicht bestückt. Der "Mega 1" ist keine frühe Version, sondern eine späte. Die ersten hießen noch "Mega ST" und hatten TOS 1.02 ("Blitter-TOS"). Dass er 1 MB RAM hat, sieht man an der 1 in der Typenbezeichnung. Es gab noch Varianten mit 2 und mit 4 MB. Der Mega hat im Gegensatz zu den STs im Tastaturgehäuse einen Blitter und eine Echtzeituhr, daher die Batterien. Das Booten ohne Diskette dauert ewig, mit einer (Leer-)Diskette im Laufwerk geht es viel schneller. Was wirklich nützlich wäre, wäre eine Erweiterung auf 4 MB. Leider beim Mega 1 nicht so einfach wie beim Mega 2, aber es gibt tolle RAM-Erweiterungen z.B. von Exxos aus UK (einfach mal "Exxos Atari" googeln). Auch nützlich wäre ein Gotek mit HxC oder FlashFloppy Firmware und/oder ein Harddisk-Ersatz (günstigste ist wohl Satandisk V4 von Edu Arana). Bei weiteren Fragen kannst Du mich gern kontaktieren. Ich wohne nur 30 km entfernt. :-)
I don't speak German, but hello fellow Atari fanboy :) Yes, there are 2 and 6 chip versions of the TOS rom. There should be several solder pads to solder / desolder to indicate the size of the ROMs you have installed, though this is now moot as later ROMs are in sets of two. A TOS switcher with TOS 2.06 could be fun to play with.
Exxos forum is great. He has a great web store also, but does not accept pay pal, he's had issues with them before.
Nice video.
I like using baking soda to clean the cases. For me works better than soap.
Yes, I used baking soda before. Usually for some more stubborn stains because it acts as an abrasive and actually scrubs away a bit of the plastic. Soap and a brush most of the times does the trick for me.
Excellent video as always! Thanks for sharing :-)
Thanks! :)
You can use a usb floppy drive. Just use dd to write the image file. Also works with usb floppy drives just fine.
I always wanted a ST. but I need the same luck as you, finding one like this, like from a garage's store.
also, Fluttershy is always watching...
I know you generally disapprove, but this might be a good candidate for a radical paint job!
Oh, I think it turned out pretty nicely in the end. I think I would have considered painting it if the stains would have persisted but I'm quite satisfied with the results as they are.
The place for the fan at the back is used in the megafile harddisks. They used the exact same case so that one would stack the Mega ST on top of a Megafile 30 or 60. In the megafile they put a fan and it most certainly was the loudest, crappiest fan I've ever seen. So be happy that they didn"t put one of those in the central unit.
The megafiles harddisk featured a standard RLL harddisk which was connected to a board doing the translation of the ACSI bus (the Atari bastardized SCSI) to the RLL controller logic. So if you get a megafile sometime, you will know that it contains really really exotic and obsolete hardware.
I still have my megafile 60 but it's very unlikely that I ever get it back running. Last time II checked (so 7 or 8 years ago) it already had stuck heads on the platters. Even the mallet treatment will probably not be enough to unstick them.
I think my Mega 2 ST had a fan to keep all of the memory cool - it was fairly quiet, though. A Mega 1 probably didn't have enough RAM to make cooling necessary - the 1040ST didn't need a cooling fan and it had a smaller, more cramped case with a keyboard somewhat blocking airflow over much of the motherboard. On the Megas air was free to rise and vent over the entire surface.
Let's not call ASCI "the Atari bastardized SCSI". It was released before SCSI and based upon the features and specs of SCSI before it was standardized.
Thanks for the video Jan! :)
Thanks for the comment. ;) Glad you liked the video.
Don't you have to have the keys facing up towards the UV light? Not sure how retro-bright is supposed to work if the bottoms of some of the keys are facing up.
I stirred them every half an hour or so, so every key got some light. It seems like you get the same results by just heating the keys up in peroxide (cf the 8-bit guy video I linked in) without any light. I'll have to experiment with that further.
A great episode Jan thoroughly enjoyed it mate😁😁😁kim 😁😁😁
Thanks Kim! :)
Eventually using HD disks in DD drives will result in data loss. The material is different. Etc etc. You can Google it. But they will work for a while. Fine for moving files, installs, etc.
I read somewhere that many floppy manufacturers used the same materials for DD and HD disks which would make sense from a production point of view. No idea if that is true though. I've had good results with using good brand HD disks for years now.
@@JanBeta See: retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/guzis.html for some good info. You may be write (ha) but I think it's hit or miss. All floppies suck long term but then again: th-cam.com/video/hIkxUtsraZk/w-d-xo.html But that's a professionally manufactured disk on presumably high quality media.
I brought an ST off my mate in the early 90's it used to short out and turn off... So I brought an STE.. much better. Best game I played was called Hunter, which gave me a love of open world games to this day.
Hi Jan, I love the ST and forgot about the internal extension option port.
I have yet to find out what expansions can be used with it. An interesting option for sure! :)
My fav brand. Now restoring my 29 year old 520STFM. Waiting for parts from AliExpress.
I hope they are not capacitors...
Pentti Kantanen No. Just the 13 pin DIN plug and some chip sockets.
My favourite machines too, I've recently got a STfm with a PC Emulator and a 1MB upgrade installed but it does nothing at all.
@@acbc2k 13 pin DIN is a standard connector for car CD-changers, easily available and inexpensive... when you know where to look for.
Okurka Not really. I'm only getting basic parts. The rest all DIY.
Who you gonna call? Jan Beta!
Nice video. Now you have entered the world of the Jackintosh. Back in the day I only knew one person who had an ST. I thought it was nice but at the time my interests were with the C128 and Amiga's. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the Mega 1 and over time when you get to play with it what your opinion of it will be.
Thanks Stephen, it's a new world to me. I tinkered a bit with STs while working as an audio guy but never owned one. One of my school friends' family had one and I remember playing Super Sprint and the first Indiana Jones adventure on it with him. I had a C64 at the time so it was pretty impressive. I really look forward to exploring the machine. :)
The Pink thing sticking on the case might have been a rubber band that disintegrated over time - some of those get really sticky
Somebody else commented it was probably a little plastic animal superglued to the case which seems to match perfectly. Would never have thought of it but it makes sense.
Hey klasse Video ,..Ich find gut wie du die probleme und dazu auch die Problemlösung dokumentiert hast ..In der Ganzen Art wie das Video gemacht wurde hab ich mir es gerne angesehen . Das English ist für einen Deutschen gut erträglich ..es gibt andere Honks in videos die das nicht so gut können !!...Weiter so !!.. Im grunde taugt der Atari St und erst recht der Mega St mit original festplatte mehr zum herumexperimentieren mit eigenem Programieren.. Zocken kann man auch auf nem PC ...ABer schon geil wie du aus der vergiobten Kiste so nen shönen Mega St herausgeholt hast und erst recht die Dokumentation sagt ...Das ist nicht alles so PÜroblemlos ,wie das ebentuell in andren Videos aussieht.
Vielen Dank! Ich versuche tatsächlich immer auch die Fehler und mein Versagen zu dokumentieren. Es nervt mich nämlich selbst ziemlich, dass andere die schwierigen Stellen auslassen, wenn sie da Fehler machen und man die dann selbst ausprobieren muss. ;)
Bonus points for the MLP stuff around your workspace!
My kid's a big fan. And so am I, I guess. ;)
Hello, I have a request for the following:
I was removing the graphics card from the VME ATARI-TT slot.
The ATARI TOS-system was turned off, but I didn't notice that the computer was still connected to 230 V / 50 Hz power.
When I took out this card unevenly, I suddenly felt the smell of a bubble somewhere on the board because the whole thing is in the tower housing.
After turning on the computer, the screen is dark, the power supply works, the LEDs - power, fan, HD disk and floppy disk LEDs - work.
Somewhere after two minutes the MC-68 .. processor is clearly warm, I only checked this 2MB ST memory board (underneath the board is also the factory 2MB) the chip and cold bones. The whole side of integrated circuits from the cold ST-memory side
I still have the TT-Fast Ram GX-B-V0, 4MB slots.
Can I ask you for help, service diagnosis? Best Regards ... ATARI FAN ( ATARI JAGUAR, STE, TT, FALCON030 )
Your Videos are Great!! Which UV Light do you use?
Thanks! It's a Toplanet 300W grow light I got from Amazon (don't have a link unfortunately, but you should be able to find it there).
@@JanBeta Thanks a lot!! I need it for my yellow Amiga 500 👍
Have you made any videos about that Solartron DMM in the background?
No, not yet. It gets way too little use anyway. Thanks for reminding me it is there anyway. Pretty decent and versatile bit of gear. :)
Great video! Have you tried Strider? It was ported from the ST to Amiga.
Awesome video! Sofort subscribed :)
Thanks! Welcome aboard. :)
Dankeschön! Glad to be aboard :D
could you please do a typing test on that keyboard? although i'm an alps fan, those vintage cherry mx blacks should be nice..
It indeed feels really smooth. I actually prefer it to the standard Amiga keyboards. :)