In a world dominated by the latest technology, there’s something uniquely captivating about the machines of the past, especially for those who see them not as relics, but as valuable tools for creativity and nostalgia.
For 19-year-old musician and vintage computing enthusiast James Norris, the Atari ST represents more than just a vintage gaming system; it’s a bridge to a world of music production, gaming history, and personal discovery.
I first met James a few months ago when he reached out to ask about getting some Atari STs repaired.
What began as an interest in retro gaming, with fond memories of titles like King’s Quest and Doom, evolved into a deeper connection with the Atari ST platform, known for its powerful MIDI capabilities and legendary library of arcade classics. From the unique challenge of finding vintage hardware to the thrill of exploring its creative potential, James shares their journey into the world of retro computing, the beloved Atari ST, and how this retro powerhouse continues to shape their music production and gaming experience today.
Join us as we delve into James's story, their setup, the challenges of working with vintage tech, and the creative projects that keep the Atari ST a beloved part of their daily life.
You're 19 years old, yet you've embraced a machine that's older than you. How did your interest in the Atari ST begin?
I had a long love for vintage computing and retro gaming. At the same time I am a musician and I go to University for music production. I first found out about the Atari ST a few years back when I wanted an Amstrad as they had a ton of old 2600 games and me and my brother had played titles from it, such as King's Quest. I ended up wanting to buy an Atari last year as I happened to need it for some of my old synthesisers. This is because I needed old MIDI software for 80s digital synths and the Atari ST had the MIDI ports and software for them. As I didn’t have the Atari ST at the time I decided to run an Atari ST emulator on my computer.
This worked in the meantime, but I was saving up for an Atari ST as emulators are slow and clunky and annoying to work with compared to actual computers.
Was there a particular moment or influence that sparked your curiosity about retro computing, especially the Atari ST?
For retro gaming as kids me and my brother grew up on the Wii and Xbox 360. These both had a wide variety of old games, such as Doom, which my brother has always played religiously, and we loved the old NES and Midway arcade games. As I got older, I started playing a lot of Quake and around the same time I got into retro computers quite heavily. I had a big Amstrad loving phase in high school but was aware of the C64 and Atari ST Computers since my love for old computers began, I really got further into the history and games of these old machines. After the Xbox 360 and The wii me and my brothers next consoles were the Xbox, PS1, and PS2 which also allowed us to play a lot of fun and old vintage and retro games.
The Atari ST ended up speaking to me the most gaming wise as it had a ton of midway games and other arcade titles published, with my most played disk being an arcade collection of four games:
These four games are really popular and prolific Atari 2600 games and being able to play Atari 2600 games on a CRT monitor was a big part of why I liked this computer. It has a ton of unique titles for it, such as Kings Quest, Another World, Flight Sim 2 and Civilization, but I really enjoyed the simplicity of playing classic arcade titles from the Atari 2600 which is arguably one of the best consoles of all time.
Why the Atari ST specifically, and not another retro platform like the Amiga or Commodore 64?
The Atari ST was just a really interesting computer for me. It has all the arcade classics and a great set of its own era of games, but as a musician, this computer was important to me as it had the first ever DAW Cubase and then logic followed after and Steinberg who had made Cubase had also made the some of the synth MIDI editors I wanted. This blend of Atari 2600 games, old titles I knew and loved, and midi capabilities meant it was an extremely powerful Atari 2600 emulator and MIDI controller, along with its zero latency MIDI clock due to its being built into the motherboard.
Equipment and Set-Up
Tell us about your current Atari ST set-up. What model do you use, and have you made any hardware modifications or additions?
I currently use an Atari 520 STE and Atari 520 STFM. I have swapped the drives from 2 of them to get them working and have put better keyboards in them, but outside of that, I am mostly keeping them stock. The Atari STE will be upgraded to 4mb of RAM so I can use it as a MIDI workstation and depending on the motherboard board I might upgrade my 520 STFM RAM as well. I do have a 1040 STFM but its MMU or RAM is failing.
Do you use any modern peripherals or upgrades, like flash storage, HDMI converters, or MIDI devices?
I use all the old peripherals. For my workstation, I use the Atari SM124 Monochrome hi res as it looks nice and is the best monitor for working in hi res, as its one of the only monitors that correctly displays it. It’s also an old and interesting piece of hardware that goes with the computer. My colour monitor is an Amstrad CM14 made for later Amstrad CPC computers and the GX4000 games console. It has great colour, and I prefer CRT to modern screens as the old games aren’t supposed to look pixelated, as CRT screens will blend them
Outside of screens, I use the original computer mice, an external Atari SF354 single-sided floppy drive and some old Quickshot joysticks.
All my MIDI is the old 5 pin systems built into synthesisers even my new synthesisers that have USB still support 5 pin so all my synthesisers, whether new, old, analogue or digital all support midi sequencing or controllers.
How easy (or difficult) was it to source your Atari ST and any additional kit? Any interesting stories there?
I got lucky and received 4 Atari ST models for free, obtaining an STE and 3 STFM models, below is my current set up:
I’m close friends with the person who gave them to me, and they were originally the grandparents; one had been sitting in the hall for some years and was originally thought to be a Commodore until the house was cleared and they found it again. The grandparents also had another three in the attic that were sitting up there. They didn’t want any money as they were originally going to be put in the dump, which would have been devastating for me to hear. So just as I was about to spend around £200 for just one ST, I managed to get four for free.
I ended up buying all my monitors, mice and external floppy drive through eBay after scouring the web for listings and bids. The joysticks came with the box in the attic, though, so I was lucky there too.
Daily Use and Interests
What do you actually do with your Atari ST? are you into gaming, programming, music, or something else entirely?
As of right now, there mostly being used for games, as I love old games and CRT gaming, so most of my experience with the Atari ST has been playing games as it’s just a blast and its always interesting to compare new and old games but to also see what makes an old game good or bad. When I have my RAM upgraded, I will be doing a lot more MIDI sequencing of synthesisers but I have done some MIDI work with them already as pictured above on my Atari monitor. I’ve used Music Mouse where dragging your mouse forms chords on any synth or external MIDI unit plugged in and you can change the modes and key making interesting sounds and music with it. I think Music Mouse is extremely fun, and I have never really seen MIDI apps that match old computer creativity.
Are there any standout games, demos, or software titles that have really grabbed your attention?
I would love to try all of the Steinberg software as they all have fun uses with synthesisers and MIDI programming and are in general just really good for making electronic music.
Games-wise the biggest ones that stood out to me when I was a kid was Kings Quest, Another World and secret of Monkey island my brother would play them on Steam and Xbox 360 and they were my first experience with games specifically made for the Atari ST after getting a real Atari ST I got games such as Robocop and Warhammer Space Crusade as I am big fans of those series they were games I had to get. In future, I would like to get a copy of Flight Sim 2, Civilisation, Dungeon Master and Double Dragon as they are all interesting games that shaped and paved a big way into modern gaming.
Do you use the Atari ST in a more practical way, such as for word processing, music production (e.g. via Cubase), or as part of a creative project?
My main practical use of the Atari’s is music production, having the ability to sequence a ton of synths at once or use software like Music Mouse to control them can be really useful and there are quite a few people like me using them for the same reason nowadays.
I do use them across multiple music projects and I use the Atari STE in my home studio.
Have you heard about the Atari ST demo scene? Does this interest you?
I haven’t heard about it but it sounds interesting and I would love for there to be a way for me to find more people to talk to about my interests in vintage computing as a whole.
Learning Curve and Community
What was the learning experience like for you? Did you find it challenging to get to grips with an older system?
For me personally I found the Atari ST system to be easy to work with. I think the use of GEM as a GUI really helped smooth out the operation of it as I have always found code/text based systems such as the old BBC and Acord computers to be harder to work with due to some needing specific system based command lines meaning you have to learn specific sets of lines for specific computers whereas GEM lays it all out in front of you nice and neatly.
Have you connected with the Atari ST community, either online or in person? Any favourite forums, groups, or events?
I am in a couple different Facebook and Reddit groups but so far, I have only posted enquiries related to technical data and RAM errors on my other two Atari computers. I would like to post my games and setups more once there serviced and I have a wider library of games to play. I would love to attend some retro gaming events but sadly a lot of the ones near me are more about selling merchandise than discussing or displaying old computers and games.
Do your friends or peers understand your interest in such a vintage platform, or do they think it’s a bit mad?
I have one mate who finds them quite interesting, and he is my music studio workmate, so he likes all the old tech as he loves his reel-to-reel tape mastering and analogue preamps. I think he’s spent more time using reel to reel for mastering than your average 70s production engineer. My Brother and my close friend think there interesting and cool and have played some arcade games with me before such as joust. The rest of my mates don’t really take any interest or don’t really care about them too much which is partly why I want to join more groups for vintage gaming and Atari gaming as I will have people, I can talk to them about who will understand me and take interest in them.
Looking Forward
Are you working on any projects or experiments with the Atari ST that we should keep an eye on?
For music production, I am using it for three separate projects I have Solaris Visions which I’m making a mix of electronic music styles with. The Electric State Protocol which is an electronic duo I have which makes retro spacey synth music and Bi-Nueral which is the same members as Electric State Protocol but instead we do a Prog-metal with multiple influences band that has played live a couple times, and we just won a round of our local music competition with.
🔗https://www.instagram.com/bi_neural_band/
🔗https://www.instagram.com/solarisvisions_sound/
🔗https://www.instagram.com/electric_saturn_protocol/
Studio wise the Atari STE will be used for me and my mates Production and Recording Duo A.M.R
🔗https://www.instagram.com/a.m.r_audio_productions/
Do you see the Atari ST as a long-term hobby, or just a phase in your retro journey?
The Atari ST will be a long-term hobby as I would like to have a large games and applications library. I will absolutely look into getting more vintage computers in future though with my next target being an Amstrad PPC 640 laptop. The Atari ST will always have a use for MIDI and music so even if I’m not playing games I still rely on them for MIDI usage.
I hope to learn how to work and repair these units in future as well as one day all the older guys who are around now wont be able to do it anymore and I think more young people should be interested in preserving these old unique machines.
If you could change or improve one thing about the Atari ST? Hardware or software? What would it be?
If I was looking back in time I would have wished the Atari STFM was released first rather than the Atari ST and I think it would have done better with the Atari STE being first due to the blitter the extra colours, and the second FM synthesiser chip. The Atari STE is such a drastic leap in power from the Atari STFM and Atari ST and the Amiga plus the Macintosh would have been less dominant if the Atari STE had been released first.
Outside of the Atari STE, Mega STE and Falcon 30 fix all the problems with the original units as they offer the best double sided drives better colours better synthesis and better speed.
Software wise I wish there was software back then like VST synths that let you use its sound chips as a functional FM synthesiser. There is MINIMOO which is a Moog based vst but it’s a modern product meaning you have to source your own copies to put on a blank disk. One of my favourite synths in my studio is the 1987 Yamaha TX81Z and I find the cold harsh nature of Digital FM synths to be really fun and interesting along with the nicer piano, string and brass sounds that made its predecessor the DX7 famous for.
A big thanks to James for taking the time to chat with us. Be sure to check out the links above to explore more of his music and creative projects.
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