Anyone have any info about the Atart ST computers??

[stargate]

I have Gauntlet for the C64. On the back of the game it has screenshots for the C64 and Atari ST. The shots for the Atari ST look awesome (the shots for the C64 look like poo).

Are there different versions of the Atari ST? Are there many good games for it? Basically, is it worth picking up?

Thanks!!

[tom]

The Atari ST is an excellent machine, still used today with artists all over the world. Eg Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, and numerous other musicians still use the ST for the excellent MIDI facilities. Look in any music studio, you will find an ST somewhere in the corner.
The 1040 STe or MegaST are good buys, or a TT. Make sure you get a machine with the most memory, maybe a HDD and a second FDD. The Falcon is very nice too, but even on Ebay, it usually goes for lots of $s.

Recently I fired up my MegaST/ 40MB HDD with my 804 Laser printer, and it worked a treat, with the Atari Hi-Res monitor giving a crystal clear character set. Atari was gonna go the DTP way, rivaling the Mac, but alas, this never happened.

As for game play, I cannot comment, as in the Amiga/Atari ST days, I was an Amiga user, because it was the best 16bit gaming computer in the UK.

[Ed Oscuro]

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=20 is a good starting page for looking at Atari ST stuff, but there were different revisions made...some STs might be more capable than others. I think they're all backward compatible, though. The original ST, according to that page, was released in '85, same year as the Commodore Amiga ("successor" to the C64).

Besides that, it seems there's a good deal of stuff for the ST available on eBay right now; I see King's Quest 1-3. It looks like you should do a general search, though; 80+ items are listed in Video Games but some are listed in Computers (par for the course with old computers).

I don't see any working STs on eBay right now besides this one (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2784742509&category=4193), though...so you gotta wait if you want a presentable one, looks like. There's a B&W monitor up, too...

[Cantaloup]

There were several models of ST's over the years. Check out this thread for a discussion of which one makes the best "game machine":

http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39899

There were a number of excellent games released for this system, many of which were also available on the Amiga and PC. You will find games by companies such as Cinemaware (Defender of the Crown), Sierra (Space Quest, King's Quest, etc.), Microprose (Gunship, Civilization), Electronic Arts (Populous, Bard's Tale, Arctic Fox), and more.