1040 STE Revival! (with added joysticks)

There's no doubt about it, reviving my Mega ST has revived my Atari obsession too. I'm now up until the wee small hours every night browsing the Atari Forum and researching obscure bits of hardware and software!

The next step was, as I mentioned last time out, to rescue my 'original' STE - the one I grew up with - from storage.

STE Cleaning and RAM upgrade

First things first - it was *filthy* ! At least fifteen years of sitting near a window (before being stored away) also means that it's now very sunburned. Next to my Mega ST, which has obviously been kept away from sunlight in a studio for its whole life, the STE looks really yellowed.

Opening up the case, revealed decades worth of dust and dirt, so the first task was to give the upper part of the case a good wash and clean:

I'm not sure I'll go the whole hog and try to remove the yellowing, with hydrogen peroxide or 'Retr0Brite'. Although I've seen some positive reports, part of me quite likes the sunburned look, an indicator of a life well lived :)

A can of compressed air helped clean out the keyboard and the dust that had gotten past all the internal shielding to the motherboard. Much, much better!

Next, I decided to take advantage of the fact that the STE has easily removable RAM on SIMMs, unlike some other models which had the memory soldered directly to the motherboard. Replacement RAM is very cheaply available on eBay and elsewhere, so I decided to order the 4Mb upgrade. Now the STE will be able to handle some of the hard drive enabled games, networking tools and other software that requires 2Mb+  - ready for anything, in fact!

Post-RAM-upgrade STE sysinfo

Essential software

NVDI

One of the best pieces of software I've come across, for both the STE and the Mega, is also one that benefits from having more than a Megabyte of RAM. It's NVDI, a great graphics accelerator. Quite simply, it makes the whole system zip along like never before. Opening files and folders on the desktop really is noticeably faster, making it a real joy to use.

The latest version is 6, I think, but the v.5 download can be found on a number of websites and on the Atari Forum. It can be a little tricky to install from hard drive (it originally came on 3 floppy disks) and it does require a hard drive with a few megabytes of free space, but for GEM applications it's well worth it.

Super Boot III

https://sites.google.com/site/stessential/boot-managers/super-boot

Super Boot is an excellent boot manager for the ST. I found that I needed different boot configurations for different scenarios. Sometimes I would need NVDI, for example, but sometimes it took up too much memory. Sometimes I need the STinG networking stack and sometimes not. With Super Boot it's easy to pick and choose which components to load from the hard drive at boot time.

It's tricky to set up and get the hang of - there are lots of options, not all of which are clear. But there's a comprehensive readme file with the installer, which explains everything and tells you what files to put where.

I wouldn't be without it now and highly recommend it for hard drive owners.

Floppy imaging

With both STs set up and ready to go, my next task was to begin archiving the 250-odd floppy disks I had from back in the 90s. The aim was to preserve the data and to make it available for use in emulators. This is still very much an ongoing project, but I thought I'd mention a couple of tools which have proved essential:

JayMSA

http://phoenix.inf.upol.cz/~opichals/jay/

JayMSA on my Mega

JayMSA works really well for converting standard ST disks with no errors to .ST and .MSA image formats. It's quick and easy to use - especially when used on a system with NVDI. (For some reason, without the graphics accelerator some of the fonts can be partially obscured.)

It tends to baulk at disks with non-standard geometry (extra tracks and/or sectors, usually), copy protected games and disks with sector errors. But for the most part, it's coped really well with most of the disks I've thrown at it.

I can usually image around 25 floppies before my data partition is full. That's when I hook up my PARCP-USB adapter and transfer them over to my Mac, and to Dropbox.

Pasti

http://pasti.fxatari.com/


The Pasti format (.STX) contains more metadata about the disk's geometry and layout. Unfortunately it's closed source and the imaging tool doesn't appear to be maintained any more, so it's not ideal. But it is pretty much the only solution for imaging the slightly 'odd' disks, copy protected games and disks with errors. So far it's only baulked at one of my disks - not too bad.

Joystick repairs

Another work in progress - something to keep me busy while the ST is chuntering away imaging disks.

I've dug out three old joysticks, only one of which was still working (strangely, the one with my sister's name on the box - yes, I was a notorious joystick-wrecker back in the day!)

They all needed a thoroughly good clean!

Opening up one of the non-working ones, I was able to clean the contacts on the internal micro switches and bring it back to life, relatively simply.

Sunday morning spent cleaning and repairing this venerable old geezer #zipstik #atarist

A photo posted by @alectronic on Mar 13, 2016 at 6:28am PDT

This YouTube video was a great help, as was this wiki page, but luckily I didn't need to replace any micro switches (although a couple of the fire buttons are perhaps a bit worn, so could probably benefit from a new set). So, I now have two working Zip Stiks - anyone for a quick blast of Sensible Soccer?!

Sadly the third, a QuickJoy Turbo needs a bit of soldering doing, so that will have to wait.

It's great to get these cleaned and working again - especially given the eye-watering prices these are advertised for on eBay at the moment! (Ahm no' selling!)


Next up... I have some new gadgets...

Mega ST : Revival pt.3

Getting my Mega ST up and running and onto my home network was an achievement in itself, but since then I've found a few interesting tools to use on the network

UIPTool

I've been really enjoying using my PARCP-USB adapter for transferring files to and from the ST. It's quick, easy and reliable. But I came across a tool which could be really useful in situations where connecting up to another computer with the USB cable isn't ideal.

It's called UIPTool, and it's an open source project, available from https://bitbucket.org/sqward/uip-tools

One of the great things about it is that it doesn't require the STinG networking stack (in my previous post I documented the tricky process of setting this up) You just run the program and it automatically detects the network card and requests DHCP from the router. Very easy!

Once up and running, you can access the ST via a web browser from any computer on the same LAN. Directories can be browsed and files can be copied to and from the ST with ease.




James Mackenzie has put together an excellent YouTube video which shows the whole process. He has a fancy wee NetUSBee adapter, but it's exactly the same process with my hulking great EtherNEC box :-)



The UPTool author appears to be continuing to add features such as a built in FTP server and static IP support. There's certainly lots of potential for this, so one to keep an eye on.

TelStar

Telstar is a Telnet client for the ST. It's available (TELSTAR.LZH) from a number of FTP sites, including this one: http://storage.atari-source.org/atari/mirrors/kurobox.serveftp.net/internet/

Using this, I was able to access the excellent Atari-hosted DarkForce Bulletin Board System (BBS) and relive lots of 90s memories!

Telnetting in to the Darkforce BBS from my Atari ST #atarist #bbs #atari #90sthrills

A photo posted by @alectronic on Feb 14, 2016 at 9:10am PST

Next up

Getting the Mega ST up and running and interacting with other machines on my home network and out on the internet has inspired me to dig out my original, much loved 1040 STE from my Mum's house, as well as the hundreds of floppy discs stored away for safe-keeping, and rediscover some of the software and games from my youth.

I've also managed to get myself a CosmosEx, during one of the (very short) windows of opportunity. Once it arrives it should be a lot of fun...

Mega ST : Revival pt.2

With a pristine, formatted 50Mb hard drive (see previous post), my first inclination was to fill it with games from the vast quantity that have been adapted to run from hard drives (and newer gadgets such as the UltraSatan or CosmoEx, neither of which I can quite afford at the moment, sadly)

But this urge had to be resisted (for now!)

Networking my Mega ST

First priority was to get my EtherNEC box working. The EtherNEC has been somewhat surpassed now by the NetUSBee, a neat little device that as well as an ethernet network connection gives a USB port so you can plug in a USB mouse. But, you can only work with what you have :) It seems the NetUSBee networking part uses the same drivers as EtherNEC, so it'll be the same process to set up if you have one of the newer devices.

The EtherNEC is a big black box containing an old ISA RTL8019AS ethernet card. It has a standard ethernet port on one end, and a ribbon cable extending from the side. On the end of this is an adapter that plugs into the Atari cartridge port. Thankfully it's clearly labelled so that you know which way round to plug it in.

EtherNEC - photo from http://www.atarikit.co.uk/ethernec/ethernec.html

As I was using the PARCP-USB adapter, my strategy was to download all the files necessary, get them unzipped and into the right places and edit the required config files on my Mac, before transfer to the ST.

I should probably also mention that my Mega has 4Mb of RAM - if you have less you may struggle, unfortunately.

STinG

First of all, I grabbed sfl.zip from Step Two here:
http://hardware.atari.org/sfl/
This is STinG, the ST networking stack. It's also available from the ST Essentials site, but the zip file above gave me just the files I needed (the full STinG package contains lots of other files which are unnecessary in this situation)

I extracted the following:

/XCONTROL.ACC
/CONTROL.INF

/AUTO/STING.PRG
/AUTO/STING.INF

/CPX/SERIAL.CPZ
/CPX/SERIAL.TXT
/CPX/STING.CPX
/CPX/STNGPORT.CPX
/CPX/STNGPROT.CPZ

/STING/CEN_PLEP.STY
/STING/CEN_PLIP.STY
/STING/DEFAULT.CFG
/STING/DIAL.INF
/STING/DIAL.RSC
/STING/DIAL.SCR
/STING/DIALER.APP
/STING/ICON.RSC
/STING/LCLTLK.STY
/STING/LOCAL.FEE
/STING/LOGIN.BAT
/STING/MASQUE.STY
/STING/MIDI.STY
/STING/RESOLVE.STX
/STING/ROUTE.TAB
/STING/SERIAL.STX
/STING/TCP.STX
/STING/UDP.STX

/STING/TOOLS/MASQLOOK.APP
/STING/TOOLS/M_MASTER.APP
/STING/TOOLS/PING.PRG
/STING/TOOLS/PING.RSC
/STING/TOOLS/SAVE_IP.GTP
/STING/TOOLS/SHUTDOWN.PRG
/STING/TOOLS/SYSINFO.TTP
/STING/TOOLS/TOOLS.TXT
/STING/TOOLS/TRACROUT.PRG
/STING/TOOLS/TRACROUT.RSC

/STING/DOCS/DIALER.TXT

/STING/DOCS/FEE.DOC

/STING/DOCS/KERN_UPD.TXT

/STING/DOCS/REM_CTRL.TXT

/STING/DOCS/RESOLVE.TXT

/STING/DOCS/SER_STX.TXT

/STING/DOCS/STING.HYP

/STING/DOCS/STING.REF

/STING/DOCS/TCP_STX.TXT

/STING/DOCS/UDP_STX.TXT

/STING/DOCS/UPDATE.TXT

EtherNEC driver

The next step was to grab the EtherNEC drivers (etherne.zip) from here:
http://home.arcor.de/thomas.redelberger/prj/atari/etherne/index.htm

There are a few files here and you need to pick the right one, depending on the processor and OS used.

My system is a stock 68000 processor with TOS 1.04, so the file I needed was enec.stx and this went into the STING folder.

Configuration files

There are a couple of configuration files to edit. I could have used Edith or similar on the ST itself, but for quickness I used my favourite text editor, Smultron (the free, open source version) on my Mac, before transfer.


First up is /STING/DEFAULT.CFG

Under NAMESERVER, I changed the line to point to the IP address of my router, so:

NAMESERVER  = 192.168.1.1

Everything else can stay as it is.


Next, it's /STING/ROUTE.TAB

This was the trickiest to get right. The lines to be changed are right at the bottom - all the rest is just comments.

The spaces between the IP addresses need to be tabs (only one and definitely a tab, not a space!)

I read some different opinions on what was required - some places specified two lines, but my configuration worked with only one (everything else should be commented out):


0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 EtherNet 192.168.1.1

The last number there is, again, the IP address of my router.

Strangely, the comments in the file say that the second set of numbers should be the netmask (in my case 255.255.255.0 but this didn't work - 0.0.0.0 did)

XControl configuration

Once those files were all copied over, I rebooted into TOS and opened up the 'Control Panel' desk accessory from the Desk menu.

Here there are two new options - 'STinG Internals' and 'STinG Port Setup'. I didn't touch STinG Internals.

'STinG Port Setup' is where the EtherNEC card is selected and the IP address of the ST set.

There are two dropdown menus at the top. The lower one should always be set to 'EtherNet'. The top one toggles between 'General' and 'Addressing'.

Under 'General' I was able to select the NE2000 hardware (the network card inside EtherNEC), and the MAC address was automatically detected and displayed.

Under addressing, I entered a static IP address and the subnet mask 255.255.255.0  The default MTU figure of 1500 worked fine for me.

Router configuration

Because of my setup I had to add the MAC address and IP address to my router's list of static IP addresses. Your Mileage May Vary :)

Pinging!

A quick reboot and I was able to run PING.PRG from within the STING/TOOLS folder.

It only accepts numeric IP addresses, so I tested it with 8.8.4.4, which is Google's public DNS server (and easily memorable)

It worked!

After quite a bit of fiddling, this is my venerable Atari Mega ST pinging the internet like it's the 21st century or something #atarist #atari #ping

A photo posted by @alectronic on Feb 9, 2016 at 9:01am PST

( If only it had been this quick - it took many reboots and much editing of the config files before I got to this point - you have this handy guide, so your pain will be saved :)   )

Apps

This post is long enough already, so next time I'll describe a couple of the apps I've been using, now my Atari Mega is successfully connected up to the net.

Let me know if you've found this useful, or if you have any tips for networking on the ST :)

Mega ST : Revival pt.1

This blog tends to randomly wake up and set off on new tangents, and here comes another one....

A few years ago I heroically saved an Atari Mega ST 4 from almost certain doom, as it was about to be disposed of from a huge uncaring bureaucratic institution where I happened to work. Getting it up and running and exploring what it's capable of in the 21st Century has been an interesting process, so the next few posts will describe what I've been up to, just in case it might be interesting and/or useful.

Growing up I cut my teeth (not literally, ouch) on an Atari STe, so I have a real fondness for the Atari platform. Letting the Mega go to waste would have been a crime! Plus, this machine came with a 50Mb Protar hard drive, which was the stuff of dreams back in the day.

Bringing it back to life was always going to be easier said than done. In the first rush of enthusiasm I cleaned it up, inside and out and it all appeared to be working fine. I bought an RGB to SCART adapter so I could hook it up to a modern(ish) TV, and invested in an EtherNEC box, which at that time appeared to offer the best hope for being able to easily transfer files to and from modern machines. However, this really required a hard drive - and my inherited hard drive had all of its partitions password protected and any people who might have originally known them were all long gone (not dead, just... not around any more)

So, my first attempts faltered. I had no way of accessing the hard drive and no drivers or tools to wipe it and start again. I found a few tools online that might have helped, but transferring them onto floppies was a painstaking process and when they didn't work my enthusiasm slowly ebbed away.

Fast forward to late 2015 and I decided it was about time to dig it out again and make a serious attempt at getting it all up and running.

Key to this process was my discovery, via AtariCrypt and the wonderful Atari-Forum, of Petr Stehlik's PARCP-USB device, which allows an ST to connect to a PC, Mac or Linux machine via USB and quickly transfer files back and forth.

After a long search this thread gave me the Protar drivers I needed for the ProGate 50DC. Using the PARCP-USB adapter I was able to transfer the utilities, update the driver and then format and re-partition the hard drive. I now had 50 whole megabytes of storage to play with! Unimaginable :-)

With that accomplished I had a few goals in mind. The first was to get the EtherNEC box working and find out whether a 30-year old Atari ST could connect to the internet successfully and do anything useful or interesting.

I also had a project in mind to back up a lot of old floppy disks that had been stored away since my STe days, before they succumb to bit-rot and the other perils of ageing magnetic media.

Plus, I also wanted to investigate a strange and intriguing expansion card that I found inside when I first opened up the Mega...

Over the next couple of posts I'll detail some of my experiences setting up the machine, getting it connected to the Internet, and beyond!