Trying to get an old Atari 520ST to work! :D

[Delta517]

So I went up to the attic today, and guess what I found? To old Atari 520ST which used to belong to my parents!

One of them had a built in floppy drive, so I took that one with me.

The problem is that I didn't find any cables, controllers or anything.

Thats why I hoped you guys could help me find out which cables I need?

I found a wikipedia page on the machine which I think could be helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST#STF_and_STFM_models

Please help me and get this machine going! I know it might not work, but it will be fun trying to!

Pictures of the ports: Forget this picture! I thought the only difference between the 520ST and the 520STE was the floppy drive, but I found out that the 520STE have some different ports and stuff!!

EDIT: I found out that the machine is actually a Atari 520STe! It has some other ports than the one above, so I'll see if I can find another pic.

EDIT2: So I found a couple of pictures which looks like the one I have: http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosau...;get-photo-roto

 

[alex_0706]

please make some pictures from the inputs and put those online (easyer to say what you need)

 

[indask8]

EDIT: wrong topic forget what I said about the q-tip...-_-

For the video cable the Atari 7800 video cable is compatible with the Atari ST, but I don't know for the Ste.

 

[raulpica]

An Atari ST? Get out of here, I'm an Amiga rabid fanboy, and we HATE STs!

Just kidding, I love both machines as they remind me of my childhood.
If this was an Amiga it'd have been waaaaaay easier, but oh well, I'll try.

Do you have the PSU?

As for video, you could just use a composite cable to hook it to your TV and see if it works.

 

[indask8]

The "television" plug looks to be an RF plug, you'll need the proper cable and an old TV with an analogic tuner to be able to use it, worst picture quality, but at least the cable seem to be easy to find on the internet and cheap..

 

[Delta517]

An Atari ST? Get out of here, I'm an Amiga rabid fanboy, and we HATE STs!

Just kidding, I love both machines as they remind me of my childhood.
If this was an Amiga it'd have been waaaaaay easier, but oh well, I'll try.

Do you have the PSU?

As for video, you could just use a composite cable to hook it to your TV and see if it works.

PSU? On the one I have, there is a power cord thing (Not sure what they are called

) like they use in computers today. I found a spare cable that fits in there, but can I use that?

Here's a picture of it:

 

[MSaki]

An Atari ST? Get out of here, I'm an Amiga rabid fanboy, and we HATE STs!

Just kidding, I love both machines as they remind me of my childhood.
If this was an Amiga it'd have been waaaaaay easier, but oh well, I'll try.

Do you have the PSU?

As for video, you could just use a composite cable to hook it to your TV and see if it works.

PSU? On the one I have, there is a power cord thing (Not sure what they are called

) like they use in computers today. I found a spare cable that fits in there, but can I use that?

Here's a picture of it:

thats is power there is esy ways to make your own wires for is thats what i did with my ATARI 7800.


atari is by far most simpilest system built i have ever seen.

power cable from pc will work as reg. is built in.

 

[raulpica]

Funny, I looked over the 520ST, but it seemed to use a proprietary plug.

The "television" plug looks to be an RF plug, you'll need the proper cable and an old TV with an analogic tuner to be able to use it, worst picture quality, but at least the cable seem to be easy to find on the internet and cheap..

Are you sure that it's an RF regulator? This guy simply plugs composite in it:

EDIT: Just noticed the (?) mark. Oh well, that sucks. Seems like you'll have to build your own cables!

 

[Jamstruth]

PSU? On the one I have, there is a power cord thing (Not sure what they are called

) like they use in computers today. I found a spare cable that fits in there, but can I use that?

Here's a picture of it:

Looks like a standard kettle plug. Check that the thing doesn't use an external PSU first though. Unlikely but I don't have much experience with 80s PCs (though I want a Spectrum)

Edit: Almost definitely takes straight from mains (assuming you have the right region for your power). Its got the AC symbol under the power input. No external PSU would just change voltage alone and all PCs require DC.

As for the video cables. If you've got a composite cable lying around its worth a try wiring it up that way. I don't think it will work but its not going to hurt anything.

 

[Psyfira]

EDIT2: So I found a couple of pictures which looks like the one I have: http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/dinosau...;get-photo-roto

Squeak! This thing was my childhood console, well technically it was my Dad's but he let us play on it. Unfortunately I was kinda too young to remember much about the technical side of it. I know it plugged straight into the TV somehow, and while I don't remember anything about the connectors the Googleatron says a normal PC kettle cable will do the power job just fine.

About controllers; Picture 32 is where the mouse and joysticks connect to. Mouse connects to port A but you can replace it with a joystick for 2 player stuff. Don't bother looking for a gamepad; they didn't exist back then

You can probably get them on eBay, but I'd check the thing powers on first before you pick those up.

If it's working you should be able to turn the unit on and get to the desktop without any discs (and possibly without the mouse as well?).
Whether you can do anything after that depends on whether you can find some floppies in the loft with it

Edit: I think you could move the mouse cursor with the keyboard by holding down alt and using the arrow keys, so that'd be worth a go if it does turn on

 

[Delta517]

I tried powering it up, and the thing actually still works!

I also found the video cable that I need and my LCD-TV actually has a RF(?) port, but I have to do some tinkering(?) on the cable since both of the TV and the 520STE require a She-end.

Thanks for the replies guys! You have really helped me!

I'll post a update later on how it goes!

 

[Delta517]

So I'm done making the video cable, however I don't know what channel to use on the TV. :S I have a Toshiba Regza and I tried searching through some channels called S** and C** (*=numbers), but couldn't find anything. Ideas?

 

[thaddius]

I thought most RF switches worked on channel 3 or 4 (usually have a switch that lets you choose it). Not too familiar with PAL sets though.

 

[Delta517]

Oh yeah!

I got a bunch of good news!

I went to the attic again and I found some games, a language floppy disc, the mouse for the machine. I also found a video cable that fit right into the Atari, and I had no problem finding the channel. The video cable was actually made by Nintendo!

So now I have it on, but...what now? How do I put in games and cool stuff like that?

Thanks for the help btw! I don't think I would have got it up and running so fast, hadn't it been for the awesome GBAtemp community!

 

[raulpica]

So now I have it on, but...what now? How do I put in games and cool stuff like that?

IIRC STs can read PC formatted floppies (720k only?), so you could try transferring some software on that.

There should exist a software somewhere that lets you "burn" the game images you can find around back to floppies.

Sorry that I'm so generic, but I still don't have an ST

 

[Delta517]

I have a couple of games for it, but when I try to open either Diskett A: or Diskett B: on the machine, I just get a message saying the the Floppy drive doesnt respond and that I have to put in a floppy disc or check the hardware

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but unless those floppies where stored very carefully they probably went bad.

Magnetic storage is finicky about temperature fluctuations and the media also does not like moisture at all.

And even if it was stored properly they are still very old and most likely would not work these days.

Then the drives them selves

They sucked back then, optical media is a pain the butt these days but its light years better then the old floppy drives.

You might look around online, I know for the Comodore 64 they make an external "drive" thats essentially an SD card adapter so you can just store like 2GB's of floppies on one drive and never worry about it again.

Good news, they do make something like what I was talking about.

http://afs.atari.org/satandisk.htm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6dBTyfPrkg[/youtube]

Something like this looks even cooler and the load time looked sweet.

 

[Delta517]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but unless those floppies where stored very carefully they probably went bad.

Magnetic storage is finicky about temperature fluctuations and the media also does not like moisture at all.

And even if it was stored properly they are still very old and most likely would not work these days.

Then the drives them selves

They sucked back then, optical media is a pain the butt these days but its light years better then the old floppy drives.

You might look around online, I know for the Comodore 64 they make an external "drive" thats essentially an SD card adapter so you can just store like 2GB's of floppies on one drive and never worry about it again.

Good news, they do make something like what I was talking about.

http://afs.atari.org/satandisk.htm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6dBTyfPrkg[/youtube]

Something like this looks even cooler and the load time looked sweet.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the games are bad now after have been laying in the attic for years, where there are no isolation or anything

Anyways, I found a old computer with a Floppy Drive (mine doesn't have one

) and I'll connect it soon to see if the floppy discs work on that one.

Do you also think that it might be the drive on the Atari itself?

I don't hope so.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Anyways, I found a old computer with a Floppy Drive (mine doesn't have one

) and I'll connect it soon to see if the floppy discs work on that one.

Do you also think that it might be the drive on the Atari itself?

I don't hope so.

The drive might still work, I give it a 50/50 shot at best though.

Between alignment issues and magnetic retention (or what ever its called when the head gets magnetized and essentially acts like a disk eraser...) they just where problematic.

I was so happy when everything went to CD's and now DVD"s or BluRay if your a PS3 user.

I hear that as long as they are stored properly a good CD can last like 20 years or something, I might get a chance to test out that theory.

The great news though is that if you do get one of those devices that replace the drive, you can download every ST game ever made in a big pack, look for something called TOSEC I think *Runs to Google*

Yeah its called TOSEC and the entire set for the Atari ST is close to 14GB's, but don't freak out half or more of that is probably copies or different languages of the same game. So there would be a lot less then it looks like, and a lot of work sorting them all out

Of course 80 pounds is a lot of money for that thing.... then the shipping and the SD card. The only thing that would make it worth it is getting that TOSEC collection so you could play everything ever made for the ST, so in that respect its an awesome deal like pennies per game but the initial cost is kinda high.

 

[raulpica]

Anyways, I found a old computer with a Floppy Drive (mine doesn't have one

) and I'll connect it soon to see if the floppy discs work on that one.

Do you also think that it might be the drive on the Atari itself?

I don't hope so.

Your PC drive won't read the Atari ST disks, as they're using a different format

Yeah, it's probably the drive in Atari itself. Those things are a dust-magnet and the reading head is really sensitive.

I still have a bunch of floppies from an Amiga 500 (dating back to '90, probably) and they still work. If they haven't placed in an uber-humid place, or near a magnet, they should still work.

EDIT: Stop making me want to buy an Atari ST, OP