When you're talking on a demoparty to people that left the scene for some time and they ask you with their big, sad, brown eyes "If I'd be about to restart development, what's new on the ST regarding hardware and tools and what of those things is available and supported?" you nowadays have to take a deep breath and start talking for hours. Apparently it's a really good time to restart ST scening* now, because we have quite a boatload of supported projects that help developing... things for our beloved machine.
To make those future endeavors easier, I replied to the aforementioned question and the aforementioned people (let's call them "the other Avenas" for now, and, as we all know, you can't say "no" to those Avena eyes) - "Okay, I'll make a list, but you have to bare with being the opener of an atariscne.org article". They incautiously agreed, and now we got a list. And this sad excuse of an intro.
But wait, some strings are attached:
- this only mentions projects that I, the author, have personal (and good) experience with or have heard enough from several different credible sources
- I only mention newer developments, esp. in the HW category. Literally everybody knows/has an Ultrasatan, so this list only includes (cheaper) alternatives for example. NetUSBee is an exception, since its availabe and there are no cheaper alternatives AFAIK
- no speeders or IDE+Fastram etc. boards here, because real demo coders use stock machines (*cough*)
- shops are listed purely by chance, there are a lot more for sure
- this is not exhaustive, just a starter
- might get updated, might be not
- and, as always, ymmv
Enough ass-covering for now, on to the list:
| Category | Name | Info | Shop/Download |
| Mass Storage | ACSI2STM | Driverless device with three SD card slots that supports PC-formatted SD cards w/o driver/partition fiddling plus it even supports "Bad" DMAs. Normal ACSI HD mode is supported, too. | |
| ST variants | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... https://www.16-32bit.eu/... https://cbmretro.fi/... |
||
| Mega STE variant | https://www.16-32bit.eu/... | ||
| Nano variant | https://www.16-32bit.eu/... | ||
| Another small variant | https://centuriontech.eu/... | ||
| Sidecartridge | ROM port device that also can act as a mass storage solution (PC-formatted SD cards w/o driver/partition fiddling), ROM emulator and then some. No ACSI HD mode, tho. | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... | |
| Kit version of the above, additional components required | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... | ||
| USBee*** | USB ports for your Atari ST/e/TT/Falcon. Like the NetUSB, sans the Net part (see below). It's a lot more than just USB storage (think connecting mouse, printer, drawing tablet) but it had to be categorized somewhere. Needs driver fiddling. | https://centuriontech.eu/... | |
| NetUSBee*** | USB ports and a network port. Needs driver fiddling. | https://lotharek.pl/... | |
| BlueSCSI**** | Very stable SCSI solution for e.g. TT / Falcon. Runs that rock solid in my TT, that I totally forgot about it. The cable from 50pin flat cable to the HD50pin as to be sourced elsewhere, tho |
https://shop.onegeekarmy.eu/...
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| Floppy | Gotek | Floppy replacement that emulates floppies from USB sticks | https://www.gotek-retro.eu/... |
| GOEX | Floppy replacement that emulates floppies from SD cards - backorder only | https://centuriontech.eu/... | |
| Greaseweazle | USB to real floppy (has to be provided by yourself) adapter to e.g. convert real disks into images or write them back. Handles copy protections particularly well. Limited direct emulator support like e.g. WinUAE | https://github.com/... | |
| Repair | Diagnostic Cartridge | ROM port device that helps diagnosing hardware problems on ST / STE / MegaSTE / TT / Falcon030 | https://www.gotek-retro.eu/... |
| ROM port device that helps diagnosing hardware problems on ST / STE / MegaSTE / TT / Falcon030 | https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/... | ||
| ROM port device that helps diagnosing hardware problems on ST / STE / MegaSTE / TT / Falcon030 | |||
| ROM port device that helps diagnosing hardware problems on ST / STE / MegaSTE / TT / Falcon030, specifically patched for TT | |||
| PSU | Don't trust your original PSU or did it go poof already? Here's help | ||
| ST PSU | Solderless 1040STf PSU from sidecart. Needs a donor PSU tho | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... | |
| ST520PSU | 260/520 ST (short ST w/o floppy) external PSU | https://centuriontech.eu/product/st520psu/ | |
| ST PSU | 1040STf PSU replacement, needs soldering | https://www.16-32bit.eu/... | |
| MSTE/TT PSU | Mega STE or TT PSU replacement, needs soldering | https://www.16-32bit.eu/... | |
| Video | No CRT or SCART cable at hand anymore? Try these | ||
| VgaST | To connect a 15kHz capable VGA monitor to your ST | https://www.gotek-retro.eu/... | |
| ST2VGA | To connect a 15kHz capable VGA monitor to your ST | https://centuriontech.eu/... | |
| Dell SE2722H | A fairly recent 15kHz capable monitor, good picture quality, supports 4:3 fairly good | https://www.dell.com/... | |
| RGBtoHDMI | This version is for the 1040 STf only. Connects between shifter and motherboard and converts the digital RGB values the shifter generates into crisp HDMI. Fully compatible with (almost all) sync tricks, the ones it can't handle most monitors probably won't either. Soldering required | https://cbmretro.fi/... | |
| F030VGA | Lost your VGA dongle? There, it never happened. | ||
| Development (cross) | Tools for Cross-Development, as in: develop and compile on a modern machine for your ST target | ||
| UltraDev | ROM port device for very fast iteration cycles on real HW - upload+start your binary directly from your PC to your ST and even reset your ST remotely plus dedicated debug VGA output screen.Supports Linux / MacOS / Windows / RPi | https://www.ultradevtools.de/... | |
| PARCP USB*** | Very handy parallel port to USB adapter that allows you to send files from your PC to your ST plus a lot more. Very good and cheap entry into the "do not start your binary by using the desktop every time you change something" world of ST-developing. | https://joy.sophics.cz/... | |
| rmac | Ataris original assembler brought back to life, now supports 68k+Jag DSP/GPU and many more | https://rmac.is-slick.com/... | |
| vasm | 68k assembler+linker (but works also linkerless, which is a plus in my book) | http://phoenix.owl.de/... | |
| Docker Toolchain | vasm/m68k-atari-mint-gcc/AGT and more in one single handy docker image | ||
| GCC 4.6.4 | Older GCC toolchain | http://vincent.riviere.free.fr/... | |
| GCC 13.4 | Newer GCC toolchain | https://github.com/... | |
| GCC 15.1 | Cutting edge GCC toolchain | https://github.com/... | |
| Aseprite | Good Win/Mac/Linux paint program that is easily extensible via LUA scripting | https://www.aseprite.org | |
| Jacknife | A Total Commander/Double Commander et al plugin (plus standalone CLI tool) for opening and manipulation of disk images/harddisk images (.ST, .MSA, .DIM etc) | https://github.com/... | |
| PARRUN | PARCP-USB Tool: "PARRUN allows you to transfer an Atari TOS executable into the Memory of your ATARI and directly execute it from there without needing any RAM-DISK or Disk Access". Needs PARCP-USB, see above | https://insane.tscc.de/... | |
| dsptools | The original Atari dsptools, ported to Linux/WSL. This is the only tool in this list that does not provide binaries, but it's worth the hassle of compiling it yourself | https://github.com/... | |
| libcmini | small footprint C standard library for Atari ST and m68k-atari-mint cross compiler toolchain | https://github.com/freemint/libcmini | |
| Development (native) | Tools for native development, as in: develop and compile on your ST target | ||
| Bugaboo F0.012 | Latest Bugaboo with some (old) Falcon fixes and (new) UltraDev support like e.g. UltraDevs second screen | https://github.com/... | |
| RAM | Falcon 14MB | Replace your old 4MB RAM card | https://centuriontech.eu/... |
| Falcon 14MB | Replace your old 4MB RAM card | ||
| 4MB RAM STE | Plug and play 4MB RAM for STe | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... | |
| ROM | ROM Emulator | Replaces your STs ROM chips and emulates several TOSes | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... |
| Replaces your STEs ROM chips and emulates several TOSes | https://store.sidecartridge.com/... | ||
| MISC | Falcon NVRAM Chip** | Replace your dead NVRAM chip. Soldering required. | |
| NVRAM/RTC replacement module for Falcon030 | Replace your dead NVRAM chip. Soldering required. | ||
| ZeST | The only (almost completely) scene-driven FPGA reimplementation of the ATARI ST to date. Works pretty great - no wonder it's demo-tested all the time |
https://zest.sector1.fr/about/ |
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| Atari ST source code repository | THE go to repository to find ATARI ST/TT/F030 sources. If it's sources got released, it's probably in here | ||
| HDDRIVER | An ACSI hard disk driver that's supported for ages now. Stable as a rock and supports almost all Atari platforms under the sun. Not really needed by more modern mass storage solutions, but if ACSI compatibility is wanted/needed, this is the driver to get | ||
| Mouse/Keyboard | USB Mouse adapter** | Very low-cost version of an USB to DB9 mouse adapter. Might not be compatible with some mouses, but works good if paired with a compatible mouse. | |
| microTom v4 | Another mouse adapter. One that's well enough supported to get to a 4th revision even. | ||
| mouSTer | "Mid-End" version of an USB to DB9 mouse adapter. Pretty compatible with almost everything you can throw at it. | ||
| impoSTer | The Rolls Royce of the mouse/keyboard converters. Does not emulate the IKBD 100% like another (not readily available) project does, but is pretty good for day to day use and even allows you to use you Mega ST keyboard on any PC (as in: converts it to an USB device). Pricey, but so worth it! | ||
| Laserboard v2 | Why use rubber balls if you can go LASER! This is the "high quality and actually works great" board that started it all for the Atari ST (unlike other similar boards with severe problems). Open your original mouse, replace the innards, done. | ||
| HamSTer | Wireless ST mouse with 3D printed case. Works well. |
rejoin list v1
And again: sorry for everything I omitted, but those are either not readily available and/or I'm just ignorant. This is just meant to be a quick launch pad after all. Either way, we trust Avena to find them on eBay/Github et al by themselves if they need to, right?
Right?
*(it's not a word, look it up!)
**(thanks to ggn for reminding me of two embarassing omissions)
***(thanks to 505 for a) reminding me of my trusty PARCP-USB companion and b) convince me to include the *USBees)
****(thanks to Evil for reminding me of my BlueSCSI which in turn reminded me of my RaSCSI/PiiSCSI. How could I forget about you guys?)
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