130ST 260STD ?? & others

[KLund1]

I was browsing though an old stack of ANALOG magazines and came across some Atari machines that I have not heard of before. These were, as I recall, in issues 10 thru 20 somewhere.
There was an article about CES, I think, that had a picture of a 130ST. Another issue had a picture of a working 260STD (though I think that the name had to have been changed later. An STD is not a good thing to be associated with!!! something in a serial port perhaps.....)
In another issue they talked about an 65XEM (M for music), and a 65XEP (portable). Another listed a 1450XL (not XLD) along with the 1400XL.
Still another issue spoke about a re-release of an upgraded 7200 with slightly upgraded graphics capabilities.
I know the ST's existed, because there were pictures, but the others I'm not quite so sure.
Anyone got some input.

[wongck]

On the AF Wiki page of Atari machines, there a mention of ST 130 but not the STD.
Further clicking on the link review no further information on the ST130.
So it seems that someone knows because it is in the wiki.

May be it be good to to put that pictures & text into the wiki.

[KLund1]

Thanks,
I'll look back closer at those issues. I can scan the relevant part of the articles and post. But have know idea how to add to the wiki. I looked there and did not easily find anything that I could use to add to the wiki.

Anyone else know about these machines?

[1st1]

About 130ST I can tell something. This was targeted as the low cost entry version of the ST series, having only 128 kB of memory. It was planned to use the 520ST chassis but I assume the PCB was different as smaller memory chips would have been used. This should have been an answer to those who liked to buy a Commodore 128, and ATARI had no Idea what Commodore would do based on the Amiga hardware, so, they liked to be prepared with models at different memory sizes. You can easly imagine that such a machine would not have been very useful as so less memory is almost useless on a 16/32 bit system. (Sinclair QL users can tell you something about making software on a 68008 system with just 128 kB...). And it came harder, ATARI was not able to fix final bugs of TOS until the production of the ST was planned to start. You might remember those early 260/520ST with bootrom and TOS boot disk. Boot-TOS itself already required 192 kB of memory, impossible with only 130 kB available. And even with 256 kB a boot-tos would have made the ST just unuseable, booting one ACC made it full. So no 130ST production and 260ST got upgrade to 512MB, but to really be able to use the ST, the 520ST+ with 1024 MB of memory was just right. Don't forget, at these times mid 1980's memory was one of the most expensive components in a computer, so offer a system with half memory could cut the system price very effectliveley to beat the competition. But Atari could not preview a significat price reduction on memory just at the time the ST started to sell, so with the 520ST+ they had a quick answer to this developement.

[Dark Willow]

I was browsing though an old stack of ANALOG magazines and came across some Atari machines that I have not heard of before. These were, as I recall, in issues 10 thru 20 somewhere.
There was an article about CES, I think, that had a picture of a 130ST. Another issue had a picture of a working 260STD (though I think that the name had to have been changed later. An STD is not a good thing to be associated with!!! something in a serial port perhaps.....)
In another issue they talked about an 65XEM (M for music), and a 65XEP (portable). Another listed a 1450XL (not XLD) along with the 1400XL.
Still another issue spoke about a re-release of an upgraded 7200 with slightly upgraded graphics capabilities.
I know the ST's existed, because there were pictures, but the others I'm not quite so sure.
Anyone got some input.

130ST - As 1st1 says, I believe this was simply a 128k version that never made it out due to falling RAM prices and issues with getting TOS into ROM. I don't think it ever made it even into low volume production (unlike the 260ST which had a brief production life)

260STD - Can't confirm this, but I would imagine this was simply an early name for the STf (floppy drive, no RF out) with the "D" for "disk", before someone pointed out the obvious problem.

65XEM - Production-ready prototype with a small batch produced. It featured the AMY sound chip, an oscillator based synth, which allowed for high quality sound with very low bandwidth (according to wikipedia, telephone quality sound was possible with a bandwidth of 2.4Kbit/sec.) Wiki. Atari had worked on it heavily udring the Warner years. Tramiel intended it to go into the ST, but there appear to have been some issues (I imagine the timescale was too tight to work it into the ST design in time for launch) and instead they sold it. I imagine the XEM might was a "proof of concept" for integrating the chip into a working system, or possibly investigating the possibility of an upgraded XE/XL based game system. The XEGS was (IIRC) orginally intended to have some improved hardware.

65XEP - picture here. A luggable 8-bit. Never made it beyond prototyping stage, unsurprisingly. I really don't see what Tramiel was thinking with this one. Portables were professional-only machines at the time, and the 8-bit was both end of life, and had 40 column text. It was also (apparently) monochrome, killing off the main advantage of the XL/XE's over their rivals - the GTIA graphical loveliness.

7800 - I have heard of but never seen a picture of the enhanced graphics 7800. I imagine it died before much development in favour of the XEGS. Odd choice for upgrade too, as I think the 7800 suffered from crappy sound far more than graphics. It would have been a good candidate for AMY...

[wongck]

260STD - Can't confirm this, but I would imagine this was simply an early name for the STf (floppy drive, no RF out) with the "D" for "disk", before someone pointed out the obvious problem.

[tjlazer]

Interesting. I never heard of the 260STD. I heard of the 260ST that simply had 512K and loaded TOS from disk so it only gave about a 256K machine (hence the name) but never a 1040ST style machine!!

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16bits/260st.html

and this:
http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/ ... th_emp.php

Whatever the reason, Atari did show up at CES, though its exhibit was a mere shadow of its former self. Instead of a huge display area with row after row of 2600 game machines, each showing a different new video game, the new Atari was stuck in a 20 by 20 meeting room, containing one 2600 machine, one 5200, a couple of 130XEs, a 520ST, and a 260STD. A 260STD? Of course! What would a CES be without another Atari mutant to show off? The 260 was said to be the prototype of the mass market version of the ST line. Those of you following Atari's marketing plans will remember that the 520St is to be sold by computer specialty retailers only, in a bundled system including monitor and disk drive, for $800.

But while specialty stores can offer service and support, they can't order 50,000 pieces at a time as K-Mart can. The 260ST was created to pique the interest of the mass merchants, who so far have been less than eager to get involved with the ST line. The model shown, the 260STD, has 256K RAM, the GEM operating system in ROM, and a built-in 3.5" disk drive, and fits in a keyboard unit small enough to stock dealers shelves. The projected price of this unit is $500 ($400 without the disk drive).

[Mal7921]

The STD was the prototype for what eventually became the (better named) STf, however the STD was a curiosity as the floppy disk was on the left and not as we are accustomed to, on the right. I've only ever seen one picture of this machine, and to our eyes now, it looks familiar, but odd...

The 130ST only ever existed as show mockups, but the 260ST did exist, some very early ones in Europe had 256KB, but we're soon upgraded to 512KB along with later machines in the retail channel. My 260ST has 512KB and TOS in ROM, though as the serial number is quite high I suspect it may well have shipped like that.

Something to note with the 260ST packaging though, every other ST box shows the mouse while the 260ST box does not. Also mine arrived without a mouse, though the 520ST+ I bought at the same time from the same seller does.

Looking at the ST naming conventions, the STe should have become the STfme, but I guess the similarity to STuffme may have put them off

[tjlazer]

Looking at the ST naming conventions, the STe should have become the STfme, but I guess the similarity to STuffme may have put them off

Well at some point you have to change it up and keep it simple. STE does just that.

Atari 1040STfme is not feasible. You can't keep adding letters forever.

Atari messed up with the modulator anyway. Should of been included from day one on the 1040STf. They also messed up with the SF354, should of never been. Should of been the SF314. That way for the life of the ST, most released disk games would of not been SSDD. :ugh:

[Dark Willow]

Looking at the ST naming conventions, the STe should have become the STfme, but I guess the similarity to STuffme may have put them off

Well at some point you have to change it up and keep it simple. STE does just that.

Atari 1040STfme is not feasible. You can't keep adding letters forever.

Atari messed up with the modulator anyway. Should of been included from day one on the 1040STf. They also messed up with the SF354, should of never been. Should of been the SF314. That way for the life of the ST, most released disk games would of not been SSDD. :ugh:

Agree. I don't see why the modulator was left off - it would have been an obvious inclusion on a low-end, instead of having to bundle with a monitor. At the other extreme, they included a RF modulator in the Falcon, at a time when home-users in Europe were finally moving toward monitors as standard kit, and bundled an RF cable, but no composite cable, with the Jaguar. No wonder people panned the graphics...

[Cyprian]

Hi All,
below you can find prototype of short STE (should fit in 260ST case). Its really pity that it wasn't finally produced: