Power Without The Price – The Atari ST & Early GUI Computing

In 1985, Atari Corporation released the Atari ST personal computer, the successor to the Atari 8-bit family, the new ST, which stood for Sixteen thirty-two, in reference to the Motorola 68000 CPU used in the machine, which has a 16-bit external data bus and 32-bit internals, the machine saw early release to press, developers and user groups in the Spring of 1985, before becoming commercially available to the public in the Summer of that year.

If we picture the computing landscape way back in 1985, then I think it would be fair to say, that in general, accepted personal computer user trends were very much still with command lines and 8-bit architectures, so when Jack Tramiel showcased the 520ST at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January 1985, with a fast Motorola 68000 based 16/32-bit architecture and it’s GEM (Graphic Environmental Manager) GUI (Graphical User Interface), then it was something new for consumers at the time, another notable fact about the Atari ST was that it could offer greater power than the Apple Mac of 1984 and at a much reduced cost, living up to the advertising slogan ‘power without the price’. You have to understand that when the Apple Mac first arrived with its GUI in 1984, it was a very new and very going forward thing for personal computing consumers, and only previously in 1983, something that had been implemented on the Apple Lisa, a machine aimed at individual business users, being the first personal computer to feature a graphical user interface, but the machine was considered a commercial failure with a price tag of US$9,995 (equivalent to over $27,000 in 2021), so as well as high price tag, which was out of reach for many, the machine also had issues such as unreliable hardware and lack of software support, however when the cheaper Mac arrived in 1984, then this GUI technology was available at a more affordable price to the everyday consumer, although you’d still have to be from a certain well heeled group of computer users with a price tag of US$2,495 (equivalent to over US$6,000 in 2021).

If we look at the previous decade, before we started to see GUIs available on mainstream personal computers, we can look at a machine called the Xerox Alto, which was a computer to feature a very early desktop computing concept with a GUI from a machine that was first launched in 1973. Although the Xerox Alto was produced in very low numbers, around 1000 in use at Xerox laboratories and another 500 machines in universities, with a total production of around 2000 systems and in 1979 and a price tag of US$32,000 (equivalent to over $120,000 in 2021), so extremely expensive hardware to produce at the time, containing a custom CPU built from multiple MSI and SSI integrated circuits. By 1979, the Alto was becoming well-known in Silicon Valley, due to its forward thinking GUI technology, although urban myths suggest that the inspiration for the Lisa and Mac stemmed solely from the Apple Computer personnel visit to Xerox Parc HQ in December 1979, however the concepts for the Lisa and Mac were already in development before the Xerox Park visit, although the Apple engineers did also take away some ideas from the Xerox Alto GUI system to include into the Mac and Lisa GUIs.

The Xerox Alto was launched in 1973 and was the first computer to feature a desktop computing concept with a graphical user interface

So then, back to the ST, which arrived in 1985, the year following the Apple Mac of 1984, which did offer a very crisp GUI monochrome resolution of 512×342, however the Atari ST offered a superior high res monochrome display, capable of 640×400 at 71Hz, which at the time, made it a serious alternative to the Mac, which was gaining good traction with DTP applications due to its GUI capabilities, which was setting a new blueprint for computer uses and offering new and intuitive ways of creative computing expression via a mouse and GUI, although as mentioned earlier, the Mac was still something that was still only attainable by a particular type of well heeled user, so by Atari offering the ST at a fraction of the cost, with greater power, then there is no denying that the machine was an attractive proposition, making this GUI technology affordable and accessible to a greater audience and giving more people the opportunity to get on board the GUI computing revolution, and rightfully so, that Jack Tramiels 16-bit machine earned the nickname ‘Jackintosh’. Like the Mac, the ST was also gaining traction in the DTP markets and was proving a favorite for CAD applications in the German markets. As well as the high res monochrome display that the ST offered, it was also capable of colour, from a palette of 512 colors, with a low (320×200) resolution, capable of displaying 16 colors on screen and medium (640×200) resolution, capable of displaying 4 colors on screen, making it the first personal computer to be available with a bit mapped colour GUI.

Calamus is an early Dekstop Publishing software package that was released for the Atari ST in 1987

In 1985, the Atari ST offered a high resolution option of 640×400 @ 71Hz, making it a serious contender for the Apple Mac of the era

The ST featured built in MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) IN and OUT ports, so at the time in the early days, when MIDI was standardized in 1983, so that electronic synthesizers and instruments could use a universal standard to communicate with each other, so at a time when the price of synthesizers were becoming more affordable to a wider audience, coupled with the fact that MIDI electronic music instruments started to become available on the market and the ST having built in MIDI ports, coming from the era of the first GUI 16-bit machines with a fast Motorola 68000 CPU, together with Ataris crisp 71Hz high res display made it the perfect choice for musicians and software companies to develop music sequencing and recording software for it, pioneering companies like Steinberg, whose company roots can be found in producing music software for the Atari ST. We just have to look at how many years Steinberg Cubase has evolved over, which was first released for the Atari ST in April 1989 and the latest version is available and used today by music industry professionals. It can also be noted that MIDI software was also available on 8-bit machines at a time before the ST had been released, machines like the Commodore 64 and BBC Micro for example, however it wasn’t until the ST arrived, with its affordable price, built in MIDI ports, fast 68000 CPU, floppy and hard disc loading and crisp 640×400 high res display, with an intuitive, mouse driven GUI did things start to look like a real attractive proposition, and with companies like the music industry pioneers Steinberg choosing the ST as it’s platform to produce its MIDI sequencing and recording software for, the ST became the electronic music work of choice and essentially democratized electronic music production.

The combination of a fast Motorola 68000 CPU, high res GUI and built in MIDI ports made the Atari ST an instant hit for electronic musicians of the 80s and 90s

If we take a look at the Atari STs sound hardware outside of MIDI, then it should be noted that the Yamaha YM2149 chip fitted, capable of producing a 3 channel square wave sound, was always seen as a compromise and the Atari engineers were never completely happy with this sound chip, reason being is that the original plan was to develop and fit a custom AMY PSG (programmable sound generator) chip, but due to time limitations, the AMY was dropped and the YM2149 sound chip was fitted instead, urban myths suggest that as a compromise to the AMY chip being dropped, MIDI ports were fitted as a means to enhance game music via an external MIDI device, yet MIDI was something that was built into the design from a very early stage of development of the ST. Another point to note about MIDI is that although Atari Corporation were aware of how the ST could be used as a music workhorse, then they did also expect more consumer adaptation with MIDI as part of the reason to include MIDI ports into the ST, was also the idea that it could offer a cheap, low cost, local networking solution, a choice of MIDI networking software was available, and this was quite an innovative low cost solution at the time, to be able to network Atari ST and TT computers together via a MIDI interface, but perhaps it didn’t gain the traction that Atari had hoped for in that respect.

So there we have it, how the Atari ST was released to the market in 1985 at a very innovative time of a GUI computing revolution, users discovering new and intuitive ways to work creatively with personal computers and how the ST was available as a genuine cost effective alternative to the Apple Mac. I myself first started with the Atari ST back in 1990 and since getting back into the ST scene from around 2016, I’ve been collecting, restoring and curating these machines, I feel it’s very important that we keep as many of these machines alive as possible as well as the history behind these machines. We should never forget how innovative those early GUI machines were and how they set a forward thinking blueprint for modern operating systems, which have evolved and developed into what we use today.

The above article was also published in issue 2 of Pixel Addict magazine, and went on sale at WH Smiths stores nationwide in the UK during April of 2022