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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5259
Author: ewgf3
Date: 10/12/2005
Subject: Re: Things.......If I had a quid for everytime I used that one
--- In manicminerandjetsetwilly@yahoogroups.com, jet_visy
>
I don't know the technical specifications of the memory, but it's on
> Hi ewgf3! Thanks for the lenghty post, I quite enjoyed that. I gotta
> try all those games, as I'm mostly familiar with Atari computers
> through emulators and such. I'm thinking of getting a memory upgrade,
> yea. What kind of memory does it use? (I read somewhere that old IBM
> clones have similar memory)
simple memory sticks, with no soldering required. When I sent away for
the memory, I'm sure I just had to specify the capacity I wanted (1MB,
2MB etc) and that it was for the Atari STe, so I don't think there were
different kinds depending on the STe (the STFM did require soldering,
though). After all of this time, I doubt you can still buy it new, but
there may be secondhand stocks, or people might sell you some from
machines they've cannibalised, you're best course of action is probably
to post on the ST forums, at:
http://www.atari-forum.com/
Just post about STe memory upgrades, asking what you need and where can
you get it from. You might be lucky, though, and find that your 520
already has 1MB or more of RAM! the 520 Ste came with 512K of RAM, the
1040 STe came with 1MB, the 2080 came with 2MB and the 4160 came with
4MB (the top limit of RAM for the STe), but the only difference between
520's, 4160's etc were the amount of RAM and the sticker on the front!
they were identical in all other respects (well, except maybe the
cardboard box they came in...). My own 520 Ste originally had 512K, but
I upgraded it to 1MB then 4MB when I had the cash, but it still said
520 STe on the casing, so maybe your 520 will have more than 512K
installed.
The strange thing about the ST range was that there was no easy way to
tell from the desktop what memory capacity or TOS the ST(e) had. There
are numerous small programs that when run tell you what is installed,
but I can't remember any of them, so again just post on the forums
asking for infromation. If you have more than 1MB of RAM, then a few
games won't run (Civilisation was one), but there was a program you
could run before hand, that made the ST think it only had 1MB RAM, so
it was no problem.
Regarding TOS (the unfortunately names ST Operating System, which stood
either for The Operating System, or Tramiel Operating System, after the
then boss of Atari), the earlier versions were bugged or slower, but on
an STe that's no problem, as by the time of the STe , most bugs had
been fixed. STes have either 1.6 or 1.62 TOS, the only difference I
know of being a minor bug in 1.6, but fixed in 1.62, that doesn't
correctly select medium resolution desktop mode when booting from a
floppy - again, if you need it, there is a program to fix it.
> What I'm mostly waiting for is to get to hook up my midi keyboard and
Yes, aparently the ST was *the* machine for midi usage.
> do some classy chiptunes on it... ;)
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