Atari Means Business with the Mega ST

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Hardware design, variants, and “missed” opportunities

  • Several comments imagine a modern “ST in a keyboard” with HDMI, USB‑C, emulated VME graphics, and Unix support.
  • Retrospective wishlist for the original ST: better joystick port placement, built‑in double‑sided drives, stereo sound, AMY/DMA audio, unified clocks for genlock/scrolling, blitter socket from day one, and a more capable expansion bus than the 128 KB cartridge port.
  • Debate over cost vs features: some argue these changes would have raised BOM and delayed launch, undermining the ST’s core “rock‑bottom price / beat Amiga to market” strategy.
  • The Mega ST is praised as the best‑built ST (Cherry mechanical keyboard, easy expansion), while Mega STe/TT gain VMEbus but lose keyboard quality and use more brittle plastics.

MIDI, music production, and timing

  • Built‑in MIDI ports, low noise, and stability made STs studio staples into the 1990s; many still use them as master clocks with Cubase.
  • Some claim ST MIDI timing and jitter remain “unbeaten,” attributing it to very direct hardware paths (CIA → 68k, minimal buffering).
  • Others counter that modern dedicated clocks, good USB interfaces, and microcontrollers can achieve sub‑millisecond jitter; problems are blamed on OS stacks and USB, not raw CPU.
  • There’s a long sub‑thread on latency vs jitter, how small timing errors musicians can perceive, and workarounds (audio‑based sync boxes, external clocks, multi‑port MIDI, MTC).

Atari vs Amiga vs PC: capabilities and nostalgia

  • Strong sentiment that mid‑80s PCs (XT/286, CGA/EGA, DOS) were technically and UX‑wise far behind ST/Amiga (graphics, sound, ROM‑boot GUIs, multitasking).
  • Counter‑arguments emphasize:
    • PC strengths in business software and expansion,
    • rapid hardware improvements (386, VGA, sound cards from ~1987–90),
    • and sheer market share overwhelming technically nicer but niche platforms.
  • Debate over when PCs “overtook” 16‑bit micros: some say by ’87–88 with high‑end VGA/3D sims; others place it in the early‑90s ray‑casting FPS era.
  • Several note how personal geography (e.g., East vs West Europe) and local markets heavily shaped perceptions.

User experience, keyboards, and displays

  • ST keyboards draw mixed reviews: some call most STs “trampoline mush,” others praise the Mega ST’s Cherry switches as comparable to modern mechanical boards.
  • Structural flaws (non‑standard keycap size causing jams, very brittle Mega keycaps, hidden joystick/mouse ports that broke cables) are widely criticized.
  • ST’s 640×400 mono monitor is lauded for productivity and music work; on both ST/Amiga, many users still chose cheaper 640×200 color, limiting real‑world benefit of higher‑res modes.

Development ecosystem and usage

  • Commenters list an unexpectedly large number of C toolchains (Megamax/Laser, Lattice, Mark Williams, Alcyon, Pure C, later GCC), suggesting a lively dev tools market.
  • ST is remembered as a formative platform for learning C, writing games, and doing DTP; GEM in ROM is praised as far ahead of early Windows on similar‑era PCs.
  • Some argue there was no distinct “developer market” separate from end‑users then: devs bought machines mainly to target that specific platform.

Retro culture, preservation, and modern parallels

  • Many share memories of studios using STs because PCs were loud, unstable, and ugly; quiet 16‑bit machines felt “right” for creative work.
  • Others celebrate contemporary all‑digital workflows, arguing today’s in‑the‑box tools massively outclass 80s hardware despite nostalgia.
  • There’s concern that modern, DRM‑laden and online‑dependent games may be poorly preserved, in contrast to the heavily archived 80s/90s home‑computer era.