Hi,

This might prove interesting to anybody with old computer equipment. At noon the doorbell rang. I opened it to find one of my neighbours on the door with a carrier bag. He apologised for disturbing me but explained that he and his wife are moving to Jersey; anyway, in going through their loft / attic had found an amount of equipment left by their late son. Seeing that one piece was a computer, thought of us and bought it round. He didn't want any money for it (thanks, as we're close to the tax year end) but thought it would be of interest.

The item in question is an Atari 520STm with a manufacture date of 3/6/89, according to it's base label. I accepted it immediately based on a vague memory of this being one of the first home computers with direct MIDI connections. At a cost of nil it was quite a bargain.

However, now to the problem; all we've got is the computer. If anyone knows where to source the following parts from please get in touch with Michie or myself.

1 - Mains Lead (UK) 240V
2 - Compatible Mouse
3 - Monitor (Mono / Colour) With Lead
4 - External Floppy Disk Or Hard Drive With Leads etc.
5 - Any Reference / Instruction Manuals
6 - Basic TOS Software Disk(c)s

As some of you already know we deal, on a business basis with PCs and MACs, so this is not quite our patch(!); however if you can help, we'd be very grateful. Our idea would be, eventually, to disconnect the KN6K from the home PC and allow the Atari full integration with the 'monster'.

Hope to hear from you,

Mark
Mmsgosling@aol.com

Hi Mark and Michelle,

Ebay UK have some stuff ....


A MOUSE

A MONITOR

I think that an ordinary electric kettle lead is all that is required for the power cable. (put a 3amp fuse in the plug though)

My step brother used to be Atari crazy and he is not one for chucking things out. Next time I see him I will see if he has anything you might find useful.

Best to you
Tony

I think the monitor is a standard RGB monitor. I still have one that works with the early Commodores.
I learned at a college flea market a couple of years ago some interesting info. I noted that several people wanted to buy the early commodore and atari computers. I found out they were using them for Ham radio answering machines, sorta like we have for our phones. I am not sure how it works but there are some here that can explain it. They are still in demand and at a good price too.
Bebop

ataris usually had an rf output which could be input to any vhf input tv or a din connector with composite video. Some series had split composite or luminance/chrominance output. These worked with early Commodore monitors but have nothing whatever to with RGB monitors for which you would have to spend money on extra electronics. Get a cable and use a tv.

Hi,

I'm pleased to say that following assistance from our local Technics (not for much longer) dealer, we've located a local supplier of Atari computers, hardware & software. I've left the details at the bottom of this reply if anyone needs them.

Many thanks to all of you who replied with assistance & ideas. We're both very grateful.

Michie

The supplier:
Ananlogic Computers (UK) Ltd
Unit 8
Ashway Centre
Elm Crescent
Kingston Upon Thames
Surrey
KT2 6HH
United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0) 20 8546 9575
Fax +44 (0) 20 8541 4671
email sales@analogic.co.uk http://www.analogic.co.uk/en-gb

Hi Mark,
I used to run Notatar ( sequencing)software on my Atari, and a friend of mine use to run cubase.

Notator used to work perfectly with my kn2,3,5 whereas Cubase used to have a few hassles , program changes etc

best wishes
Rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mark And Michelle:
[B]Hi,

Atari 1040 was my first intro into Midi. It was a great computer. You do need the Atari Black & White monitor for clear definition of music. Forget connecting to the TV because definition is a poor substitute. You require 2 mb of memory if you are to run the early version of Cubase program.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 01-24-2004).]

agreed the tv definition is too poor for music, but since the atari was free my point was to find out if it is all in working order first before spending money on a monitor or programs to run. Personally I wouldn't spend any money for the results today, an interesting experiment in nostalgia, but apart from the outstandingly solid timing performance very limited in today's terms.

For Atari ST MIDI software check http://tamw.atari-users.net/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atari-midi-archives/