This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Atari  520 ST / ST+ / STM computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

i played first my 520 st later 520ste and then my 1040 which im sure had more ram. i played for hours and hours and hours i used to play Overdrive, and lots arcade games. i love the football player manager and kick off. later i got a pc and it was rubish compared to the atari, atari had major competition with amiga. me and my friends used to compare our atari v amiga and argue for hours on whose was best.

I read Enrique''s comment about an ST outrunning a PC in number crunching apps.

It reminded me of a time around 1991 when I had a graphic resembling an early screensaver running on an ST. A friend came over and seemed amazed at the speed of the travelling multi-coloured trailing lines moving around the screen. He said something to the effect that his PC couldn''t do that.

What amused me was the fact that the program had been written in Basic, a relatively slow running language.

Army privates could buy them out of the PX for $721.00
There was a lot of great games that could be played on this machine, one that comes with most computers today is the standard chess master called chessmaster 2000 back then.

I have fond memories of this machine. It was fast, simple, elegant and incredibly powerful (I could outrun a far costlier pc in number-crushing apps). All atari computers had great graphics (the best for their times). I once compared the same games (like some ot the ULTIMA series) on PC, MAC and others, and the winner was the ST hands down. I frequently use an emulator to use my old software, and I still have my old ST, still in working condition, with a 20 MB external hard disk.

Never owned one of these, but thought they were the business back in the day. I had an Atari 800 and looked upon the ST with envy. Just look at those 45 degree function keys, mirroring the vents and badge. That was some industrial design ahead of its time

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/st520.pdf

The manual for the Atari 520ST

Bill(USA/Phila.Pa) Have a 520ST in original boxes and all manuals etc. If you come get it, its yours. Don''t want to throw it in dumpster.

For budding musicians, it was kinda like the holy grail of computers since it was the first to have a MIDI port. It was big deal back then.

I woulod like to buy a working 520 or 1040 st. Contact me with price and condition.

I have a complete Atari in the box taking up space in my garage. Any market for them?

Great machine, and my first music sequencer. There is nothing like dividing ticks in Dr. T''s music sequencing software. :-) Dungeon Master, and Sun Dog are still two of the greatest games I''ve ever played. I never did get that Macintosh Emulator, though.

I have a couple of these machines and run R/c Aerochopper-brilliant! For its time, it provides great entertainment, $ requires considerable concentration,especially hitting the target-any idea as to the Value of these machines-I have original manual $ packing box ?

This was my first computer !
best atari ever . =D

I remember heaps of these coming in for repair because they kept crashing or simply died. The vast majority of the crashes were caused by the ill-fitting tin-plate shielding that covered both side of the board. The pressed tin would distort and catch tracks on the PCB and cause the machine to crash. The cure was to put masking or insulation tape between the edges of the shielding and the PCB, but this wasn't entirely successful, and discarding the shielding had little adverse effect. Other crash causes were poor connections on the cpu IC. Removing it and cleaning the tarnished pins usually sorted things out, unless you didn't use the proper IC extraction tool, in which case the socket cracked and caused even more grief.
The dead machines were usually failures of the switched-mode PSU, which was generally very difficult to repair. Failing to replace rectifiers with exactly the correct type would result in most of the electrolytics exploding. One of the Atari distributors in the UK used to offered a PSU exchange programme - send a faulty one in and get a repaired one back.

Had one of these machines years ago.
In the UK they were always seen as the poor mans Amiga. What stands out in my memory was the fantastic graphic and sounds demos you could get on public domain for it.The 16bit 'wars' which surounded both this machine and the Amiga were something else! We all aspired to a 32bit Archimides though.

This machine really set a new standard in the music recording arena as it was the only computer equipped with midi in/out ports. I bought on in '86 and also bought the seperate DD for it (740K 31/4" floppies single sided) Used it mainly with a music sequencing package by Steinberg called Pro 24. At first I couldn't get used to the GUI, as all I had used previously was computers such as the ZX81 & Spectrum. A great machine!!

I loved this computer...except for when I was playing a game and that line of bombs came up. :( I wonder what happened to it...