Atari 260ST Story: TOS Floppy Boot Process, And How Much RAM?
620The Atari 260ST. There's a lot of misinformation circulating about this model on the internet, including the "fact" that it was only released with 256K of RAM. But what's the real story behind this machine? Did it ever have 256? Did Atari even plan to release a machine with that little RAM? And what's that floppy-based TOS boot process all about anyway?
Join me as I find out!
Big thanks to Dan (AKA DJ Slope) from Slope's Game Room for helping out with this one: https://www.youtube.com/user/djslopesroom
Support the channel!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ctrlaltrees
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/ctrlaltrees
VIP Superfans:
Arthur Ludwiczak
BitterBlitter
D. 'Xalior' Rimron-Soutter: https://www.youtube.com/user/Xalior
Kevin Leah
Mr Lurch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMQ28v823w6p1ZnyiZDVwUg
Retr0rewind: https://www.youtube.com/user/Retr0Rewind
Relevant Links:
My 260ST pickup video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4z7061OWJM
Atari Museum 260ST page: http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16bits/atari260st.html
Atari ST Winter CES 1985 Announcement: https://youtu.be/ZcK4kCuYthA
First Atari ST Book: http://www.atarimania.com/documents/FirstAtariStBook.pdf
GEMDOS Reference Manual: https://archive.org/details/Atari_GEMDOS_Reference_Manual_Apr_4_1986/page/n1/mode/2up
Socials:
RMC Discord ctrl-alt-rees Room: https://discord.com/channels/431348664489738251/735847458000863252
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctrl_alt_rees
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctrl.alt.rees
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:15 Previously...
00:59 Atari 260ST Rumours & Misinformation
03:08 Cleaning My 260ST
04:35 Removing The 512K RAM Expansion
06:59 TOS Version 1.0 (DE) Boot & Floppy Drive Tests
09:53 Downgrading From TOS To Floppy Boot ROMs
10:37 Floppy TOS Boot Demo & Tests
12:17 Xenon 2 Test With Floppy Boot ROMs
12:47 Was There Ever An ST With 256K Of RAM?
15:29 Why Was The Lower Specced ST Dropped?
16:27 Conclusions & Outro
Music Credit:
Royalty-Free Music From Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com
#atarist #retrocomputing #retrogaming