Atari STE

> Resources

□ Online Shops

□ Useful Links

□ Keyboard Shortcuts

Control + Alt + Delete → Warm reset
Control + Alt + Delete + Shift → Full reset
Alt + Arrow Key → Moving the mouse pointer

□ System Manuals

Service Manuals

□ Atari Monitors

SM124/125: 12-inch Monochrome, 640×400px, speaker
SC1224: 12-inch Color, 640×200px, speaker
SM147: 14-inch Monochrome, 640×400px, no speaker
SC1425: 14-inch Color monitor, speaker, and a headphones jack
SC1435: 14-inch Color monitor, 2 stereo speakers (rebadged Magnavox)
SM195: 19-inch Monochrome, 70 Hz refresh, 1280×960px for TT030

□ Emulators

Spectre GCR -Emulating the Macintosh
PC-Ditto -MS-DOS emulator
PC-Speed (NEC V30)
AT-Speed (Intel 80286)
ATonce-386SX (Intel 80386SX)

□ Famous ST Musicians

The built-in MIDI ports and low-latency response times made Atari ST very popular among musicians. These are some of those:

Jean Michel Jarre (in 90's concerts)
David Arnold (in his first films, including "Stargate", "Independence Day", and "Tomorrow Never Dies")
The Fatboy Slim
Depeche Mode ("Songs of Faith and Devotion")
Pet Shop Boys (Atari ST, programmer Pete Gleadall)
Atari Teenage Riot
Tangerine Dream (during the late 1980s and 1990s)
Darude (Composed "Sandstorm" on a 1040ST)
Future Sound of London
Aleksandr Zatsepin
Mad Vision/Def KLF
Richard H. Kirk (1040ST)
Camouflage (German band)

"The Artistic Alter Ego of the Atari ST"

Released in late 1989, Atari STE is a multimedia-enhanced ST. The 68000 CPU remains the same, however, the STE features several improvements such as a new operating system, hardware graphics, 4,096 colors, and significantly better stereo sound.

The STE was released for $499 ($1,170 in today's money)
It is estimated that around 1 million STE units were sold

STE AT A GLANCE

Compatible with older ST models
68000 CPU
0.5/1 MB of RAM, easily upgradable to 4 MB via 4 SIMMs
1.6 TOS Operating System (GUI) -Later, 1.62 TOS
4,096 color palette
Blitter chip (graphics co-processor) and hardware scrolling
2 PCM channels of stereo sound
Two extra joystick ports (compatible with Atari Jaguar and Falcon 030)
Genlock support
3.5" double-sided floppy drive

Colors & Graphic Modes

Boxed 520 STE from my collaction... The STE can display 16 colors on screen from a 4096-color palette (instead of the STs' 512-color palette). Using tricks, STE can display much more colors on the screen.

Display modes: 320x200, 640x200, 640x400 with up to 16 colors on screen (without tricks)
4,096 color-palette
Blitter chip, moving large blocks of data at a rate of 4 Mbytes/s
The STE can scroll the screen in all directions (horizontal and vertical hardware scrolling)
Genlock support

Sound Capabilities

The STE sounds significantly better than any older ST model. It was the first Atari computer to offer PCM audio.

2-channels of PCM (Pulse Coded Modulation) stereo sound
8-bit stereo samples
Can replay stereo sound even at 50 kHz
Can be mixed with the 3 FM channels of previous ST models (hardware-supported)

I/O Ports

Underneath the case

2 x 9-pin mouse/joystick ports

On the back of the case

DB25 RS-232c serial port
DB25 Centronics printer port
ACSI (similar to SCSI) DMA port (19-pin D-sub)
External Floppy Drive Port (14-pin DIN)
Monitor port (13-pin DIN)
RCA stereo audio-out jacks

On the left of the case

2 x enhanced joystick ports (same as Atari Jaguar and Falcon 030)
2 MIDI ports (5-pin DIN)
ROM-Cartridge port

Expansions & Upgrades

The very nice ACSI2STM external SD-based Hard Disk There is a good variety of STE upgrades, including CPU, memory, and storage upgrades. External hard disks based on SD cards (ACSI2STM, UltraSatan, and ACSI2STM) are very popular among STE users.

4 MB of RAM, easy upgrade by placing 4 SIMMs X 1 MB
Gotek drive (internal/exetrnal)
External hard disk based on SD cards (ACSI2STM, UltraSatan)
STE Dual-TOS 1.62/2.06 PCB
16/33 MHz BOOSTER (based on 68000)
1.44 MB Floppy Disk (requires board)

Related STE Models

These are two more STE models (never sold).

The 4160STE

The 4160 STE is a 520STE with 4 MB of RAM, that was never officially sold. The model was produced in small quantities and distributed to some key programmers and dealers.

The STE+

It seems that Atari planned to release an STE+ model with a completely new CPU and a built-in IDE hard drive. Probably, the STE+ was replaced by the Sparrow (later became Falcon 030). Nevertheless, there are still some working prototypes of that abandoned STE+ project.

Monitors

The Atari STE can be connected to TVs, RGB monitors, 15-kHz VGA monitors, or even modern HDMI monitors with the right video upscaling hardware.

Atari monitors (mono and color monitors)
TVs via SCART cable (RGB to SCART)
15 kHz VGA monitors with an adapter (monitors such as BenQ)
Modern VGA/HDMI monitors via video upscaling hardware

STE Gaming Titles

STE and the fantastic Atari SC-1224 monitor from my collection... The STE was not supported enough back in the day. Even when the 520STE started to sell well in Europe, software houses preferred to create common titles for ST/STE, without taking advantage of the STE’s advanced chipset. However, later, several unofficial versions took advantage of STE’s chipset. These are some of these titles.