Header text
Established 1997
Opinion
The MegaSte is my opinion, is the best of the Atari ST
range. Here’s why.
1.
It has full compatibility with ST games.
2.
Inside there is an integrated internal SCSI HDD
3.
It sports a pretty good external keyboard
4.
Mouse and keyboard connector are easily
accessible. Making it somewhat unique for a device
carrying the ‘ST’ label,
5.
The CPU is switchable, via the OS, between 8Mhz
and 16Mhz, giving some games enough of
performance boost to make them playable.
Noticeably games like Frontier, but also Beyond the
Killing Cloud and many more.
6.
They work with legacy ST(e) peripherals, including
Atari’s somewhat proprietary Hard Disk interface,
ACSI.
The downside is, of course, they pretty rare. You’re
more likely to see an Atari Falcon up for grabs than
one of these, although when they do appear they are
roughly only about two-thirds of the price of an
Atari Falcon.
Before
After
As can be seen from the above pictures, we’ve done some restoration work on the Mega STe itself and
this classic Megafile 44 ACSI drive immediately above. The MegaSTe unit has had a SDCard-to-SCSI
card fitted, replacing the somewhat noisy and increasingly difficult to get hold of SCSI hard-drive. The
HDD cover has been replaced and painted with to match the main unit. The other difference is the the
Floppy Drive, which has been replaced with a HxC floppy disk drive emulator by Lotherek. On another
MegaSTe we also replaced the PSU with a PICO PSU, since again replacement parts for these machines
is getting scarce.
The easiest way to transfer files onto any ST or Falcon computer is
via NetUSBee. Essentially, an Ethernet adapter that connects to the
ST’s cartridge port. All that’s needed then is a small ST utility and an
Ethernet cable, and you can upload and download files directly to
the ST’s hard drive via any modern web browser.
Feel like restoring a piece of ST hardware yourself?
Rustoleum’s Painter’s Touch, Stone Grey Satin Finish
is a perfect match
The ‘E’ stands for Enhanced.
Destruction Imminent
Dread
Wolfenstein 3D
Resolution 101
First Person Shooters
on the Atari ST?
And to be fair they aren’t bad. You’ve got the obligatory port of Wolfenstein 3D,
Dread is an extremely good Doom clone, with Destruction Imminent and
Special shout out to Resolution 101.
This is an extremely fast paced,
instantly good fun, first person
shooter, dating back to 1990.
The ST received a pretty good version of R-Type
and R-Type II
Gods was stand out moment in 16Bit gaming, for
some reason, I always associate it with the ST,
I always thought the the Robocop Arcade machines
was special. I have no idea why. The ST version is
pretty good too.
That time the ST version was better than the
Amiga version. Turbo GT. Look it up, if you don’t
believe me.
I only have nostalgia for Rick Dangerous. The
game? The game is irritating.
If you only ever experienced the Speccy version of
Outrun and possibly the PC version briefly,
Outrun on the ST seemed amazing.
My Personal favourites
from my time back in the early ‘90s as an STe owner…
PlayStation did not
invent the 3Dee’s
Star Glider
Elite
Epic
No Second Prize
Killing Cloud
Star Wars
Lotus Turbo
Challenge
Your eyes do not deceive you, yes it’s Metal Slug
running on an Atari STe.
Outrun
Pole Position Arcade
Some wonderful people
have been re-writing
and enhancing classic
games, take advantage
for the Atari STe’s
improved colour palette
and Blitter chip, putting
some games on par with
their Amiga rivals.