
Connecting the Atari ST to the Internet with an ESP8266 (2017) - nynyny7
https://www.chzsoft.de/site/hardware/connecting-the-atari-st-to-the-internet/
======
DominoTree
It's not pretty or nearly as useful, but towards the "end" of its life, the ST
had native Ethernet and TCP/IP

Here's a picture of a native session running (on sdf.org)

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG0_h-
eU0AEFy_7?format=jpg&name=...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG0_h-
eU0AEFy_7?format=jpg&name=large)

~~~
rasz
You can also connect proper NE2000 compatible Realtek 8019 ISA network card to
Atari ST cartridge port using nothing more than a single 74LS245 chip (1).
Especially impressive once you investigate cartridge port and learn its READ
only :-), no write strobe available. The hack involves treating one of two Rom
Chip Select signals as free Address Decoder and actual Address Bus as data
bus. (2) There are two Rom Chip Select signals responsible for 0xFA0000 and
0xFB0000 addresses. In order to wrangle a WRITE out of read only port we
translate it into reading from 0xFAxxxx where xxxx is our output value. This
is also how a Covox like 12bit sound cartridge bundled with a game B.A.T.
worked (game used it for digital audio and copy protection).

1/ [https://sites.google.com/site/probehouse/networking-the-
atar...](https://sites.google.com/site/probehouse/networking-the-
atari/ethernet-setup-with-ethernec)

2/
[https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv1n3/CartridgeSlot.html](https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv1n3/CartridgeSlot.html)

3/ [https://www.atari-
forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30389&start=...](https://www.atari-
forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30389&start=50)

~~~
DominoTree
Clever "abuse" of signal lines!

------
peter_d_sherman
>"In the following tutorial, I’ll describe how I connected my Atari ST to the
Internet via using a cheap ESP8266 microcontroller as a WiFi-to-serial router
– running at 19.2 kbit/s."

This is a great idea!

I don't own an Atari ST, but in theory this should work for any computer with
an RS-232 interface, of course, non Atari ST computers would need their own
SLIP-compatible software stack on the software side, but this article covers
all that's needed on the hardware side for any computer with an RS-232
interface...

Anyway, brilliant and tremendously useful idea!

------
j45
The 1040ST was truly one of the more flexible and malleable computers in it's
day.

Connectivity between computers using MIDI Cables, for example was a regular
way to play networked games.

I feel extremely lucky to be exposed to an entire lab of them in Canada and it
did the right thing at the time - feed the imagination in ways 5-10 years
ahead of it's time in North America that other machines couldn't quite do it.

If these kinds of machines had caught on in North America like they had in
Europe maybe the world would look different.

~~~
rasz
Cheap. Atari ST line was the cheapest 32bit computer and also cheapest per
megabyte computer on the market for a couple of years (4? maybe longer). It
certainly wasnt great on its own, almost everything was a compromise, omission
or a design defect ;) Electrically its a miracle they worked at all, try
probing CPU bus sometime :o. "Bad DMA" chip recall (would erase your hard
drive on first access) was actually caused by using too fast DMA chip picking
too much interference for the overloaded bus. Lacked smooth horizontal
scrolling because someone didnt think to wire one register inside Shifter chip
making it terrible for games. Digital Audio added in STE line was also barely
~20 additional logic elements. Those free to implement scrolling and sound
oversights in initial model sealed the fate of all games targeting lowest
common denominator compatibility, which meant they sucked compared to Amiga.

On the other end of the spectrum advanced components at rock bottom dollar
made it good business proposition, cheapest Macintosh replacement by a wide
margin. Computer + razor sharp 640x480 70Hz monitor + Atari laser printer (no
smarts inside! mechanics driven directly by the computer) + Calamus DTP
package cost less than just HP/Apple laser printer alone, and managed to print
faster too. Too bad US market was obsessed with status of brands and relegated
Atari (and Amiga for that matter) to the toy section.

~~~
cmrdporcupine
It really was a great machine for the price, and despite all the defects you
mention above was really a very productive machine. The mistake people in the
industry/press made was judging it against the Amiga as a games or graphics
machine; it really was more of a productivity machine that could also play
games pretty okay. It slotted between a PC and a Mac in terms of style and
architecture; Mac-like GUI but MS-DOS or CP/M style OS.

It's not a surprise all the hardware corner cutting and oversights and
omissions (no blitter until it was too too late ...) because the modus
operandi was Rock Bottom Price and they were racing against the clock to get
it out before Commodore could launch the Amiga.

But I feel it really fell over because of the Tramiel's odd cutthroat business
style. They screwed their retailers, and they did a terrible job on software
development. Hardly anything was done on the OS after the initial rather
brilliant release. They just didn't invest in it until they did a big burst of
quality work on it when they hired Eric Smith and brought MiNT in house etc.
around the turn of the decade and the release of the Falcon and the TT030. But
by then... too late.

~~~
rasz
Racing release dates to the point of introducing unfinished gear was plain
stupid and seem to have never worked for Atari. Besides Amiga 1000 was a flop,
official Germany (best Amiga market) numbers put it at ~1% of total sales (27K
units), extrapolating over all worldwide Amiga sales ever gives us ~100K A1000
units in 8 years. Amiga only started gaining momentum after 1987 A500/2000
release. Atari did exact same thing with Jaguar, released broken early silicon
(afair second spin, first one that actually booted, but no working cache etc)
with broken (compiler bugs, crashing code) and expensive devkit ($30K? Falcon
based box). For comparison later Playstation devkit was half that, and in form
of standard PC ISA cards.

