Atari Means Business with the Mega ST

Announced at CES in January 1987, the Mega ST was Atari’s first attempt at creating full-fledged workstation for professional users. There is some conflict as to whether these are called Mega STs or just Megas. I’ve seen both names used and even have seen labels with both names. I tend to use Mega ST as it is much clearer and sounds less like “Amiga”. By this point, the timeline for the ST was: 1985: Original 520ST 1986: 1040ST with 1MB of RAM 1987: Mega ST It makes some sense that Atari would want to take the ST upmarket. Both the 520ST and 1040ST were largely mass-market product and sold with a thin profit margin. In order to continue to grow as a company, a product with a bigger profit margin was definitely needed. Unfortunately the Mega ST had some issues with both its design and its market timing that hurt its chances. Let’s look at the design first. Design The Mega ST takes the standard ST and puts it into a low-profile “pizza-box” case with an internal double-sided (720 ... Read full article.