Atari ST / TT / Falcon

Welcome to Atarimania’s ST-section!

What you see here is the start of the biggest Atari ST / TT / Falcon030 software database in Atari history. So far we’ve been working hard on the games section, and work has already started on the utilities and the demos sections too. Browse the database and you will find information about the games and who made them, screenshots, reviews and much more, as well as original dumps. Because it’s our goal to make it as complete and accurate as possible, we urge you to do the following: if you own rare Atari ST games, please send us pictures and we will add the titles to our database. Also, if you own good quality scans of boxes, adverts or magazines, please let us know.

But first, a little bit of history:

The Atari ST was born in 1985 after Commodore’s Jack Tramiel left CBM and bought the Atari home computer division from Warner. He and the designer Shiraz Shivji had one goal in mind: To create an affordable and yet powerful computer for homes and small offices.

With an original price of 999 dollars including a high-resolution monitor it was half the price of its closest rival, the Macintosh Plus. The Letters “ST” refer to the machine’s internal architecture (Sixteen/Thirty-two bits) and its operating system TOS, which stands for The Operating System. The ST-line saw upgrades almost every year. From the world’s first 999 dollars per megabyte machine, the 1040ST (1986), to the true 32bit beast, the Atari TT (1990) and Atari’s last home computer Falcon030 (1992). The bestselling model was the 520STfm (1987) with it’s built-in double sided disk drive and tv-modulator.

However, the Atari ST-series was a lot more than just a great games machine. It was seen as a great alternative in business use to replace the Macintosh or IBM-compatible computers, especially in Germany. The ST’s strongest area in the business world was desktop publishing (DTP), thanks largely to Calamus and Atari’s own laser printer. But the major breakthrough was in the music industry. In the early 90’s, 1040s or Mega ST’s were the primary machines in music studios around the world thanks to their built-in MIDI ports, rock solid timing and professional software, like C-LAB’s Notator or Steinberg’s Cubase. Their most popular appearance, in front of 2.5 million people, was July 14th 1990, when Jean Michel Jarre used 11 Mega ST4’s on stage in Paris at la Defense -concert.

The easy to use GEM interface, affordable price and the idea of being a great all-around home computer were the major selling points for the first 16bit home computer that put the graphical user interface in homes to stay. Whether you wanted to play great games or start your own business, the ST-line offered something for every budget.

Truly “Power Without the Price”.

Enjoy your visit!

The Atarimania Team