Zogging Hell!!!

Now what the hell do I do with it? Probably the first question a novice utters when confronted with the high point of late 80's computerdom. What you should be looking at is grey coloured, large box with a built in keyboard. Emblazoned with a label on the front should be the legend 'Atari', '520 or 1040', 'ST' and then usually FM or E (or maybe in some cases this won't be present). Anything different and you should look at the section entitled 'But this is nothing like my machine'. The label is important as it can be a good guide to the type of machine you're running. The most common types are the 520/1040 STFM and STe. If you have one of these machines then you can just follow the guide below without any problems... If you have a machine that doesn't conform to the section below check the section 'But this is nothing like my machine'. First off though you'll probably want to fire the machine up.

Setting up your ST

Setting up an Atari ST at its most basic level is easy (it gets a lot more tricky later on). You need a standard kettle power lead, which plugs in at the back, and a RF lead, which plugs into the hole at the back of the computer with a small picture of a telly above it (it should be the only hole it'll fit snuggly in). Hopefully these will have come with the ST, if not they're easily available from most electrical stores. You'll also need a mouse, which hopefully should have come with it (if not then get on E-bay and find an Atari ST or Amiga mouse, it'll make things much easier). To plug the mouse turn the computer so it's keyboard is facing you. Lift the front of the computer and look underneath to the right of the computer to see two plug sockets. The mouse should plug into the left of these, be careful not to use excessive force in this part. This port can hold a joystick, as can the one on the right, however the mouse can only go in the left most port/socket. Before you moan about the positioning of the ports, yes they are in possibly the stupidest place ever, it's just one of the ST's little 'features' (not to mention a right pain in the butt!).
Right you almost ready to switch the machine on. Plug the RF lead into the aerial socket of your TV and the kettle cord plug into the mains. Now turn on the ST using the switch at the back. If all's well a green light should come on at the bottom left of the keyboard and a yellow/orange light should flicker at the top right of the keyboard. Select a channel on the television and tune it in until you see a green screen with some pictures and words on it (if you do this very quickly the screen will be still white, just wait about 30 seconds for it to turn green). If the lights do not come on then check the kettle lead to make sure it's inserted properly, the powers on etc. Should you still get no lights it's quite possible you're ST is dead (though hopefully this is not the case). If you get no picture check the RF lead is inserted correctly. Hopefully you all have arrived now at the green screen with three small pictures and some words at the top of the screen. This is the GEM desktop and for the next few parts of the ST Guide, it is what you will be using to interface with your machine. This will be covered in part 2, Beginners guide to the GEM desktop. What has just happened is that your ST has just 'booted'. This basically means that the ST has loaded up the interface (or operating system)) for you to interact with it. Unlike the PC (which stores its operating system on the hard drive) the ST keeps its interface in memory on special ROM (read only memory) chips. This means that it is impossible to damage the core operating system/ user interface and you will always be able to boot up in some form (unless you throw your ST from a 6th floor window that is!!).

The image you should see after switching on your ST

O.K. I've done that now what are the rest of the ports and sockets for?

The first and most important is the floppy disk drive. This is located on the right hand side of the computer. This is used by the machine to store and load in data, if you're familiar with PC computers you'll probably expect the machine to have a hard drive. Most ST's do not have a hard drive as standard and use the floppy drive for most purposes. This is usually a double sided double density disk drive' or 'DSDD', which is a reference to the type of disks the computer can run. ST's don't usually use the normal PC disks, which are known as 'double sided high density' or 'DSHD'. Disks are inserted into the drive in the normal fashion with the metal circle at the bottom.
The other important button that is essential for ST use is the reset button. This located at the far left of the back of the machine and is used to 'reset' the computer without it being turned off. This saves a load of hassle later on; as we shall learn... The rest of the ports, which are labelled on the back of your computer are as follows (from left to right). Modem (serial) port, Printer (parallel) port, external hard disk (asci) port, external floppy disk port, TV (modulator) and monitor. Additionally the STe has two phono sockets to connect to a hi-fi or audio system. With the keyboard facing you, on the left hand side of the computer, are the midi ports (which you can use to connect to a keyboard of the musical variety) and the cartridge port. Additionally if you have an STe rather than an STFM you will notice two extra ports here, these are Atari's enhanced joystick ports. We will be discussing the ST's ports in a later session.

But this is nothing like machine...

If your ST is not a STFM or STE then there are a number of options. If you have a machine with an external disk drive and no internal disk drive then you have yourself a relic and a rariety. This is the original Atari ST or the slightly later STM. The original ST comes with no TV modulator so you need to get yourself an Atari monitor: See Adding a Monitor for help. The STM comes with a modulator so you can easily connect it to a television (see above). Both these machines need an external power supply (it looks like a black brick). These machines are slightly smaller than the STFM and STE as a result of them lacking the built in power supply, modulator and disk drive. Setting these up is simply a case of plugging the power supply in at the back and then plugging in the disk drive to the disk drive port (note: the back of the ST and STM are not quite the same layout as the STFM/STE). The floppy drive will require a further power socket for its power supply. For further information on floppy drives and plugging them in, go to Adding an external floppy disk.
If your machine has an internal floppy but no TV modulator connection then you have an STF. You'll need to get a monitor to use this machine, but otherwise its very similar to the STFM and STE.
If you machine has a seperate keyboard and a front mounted floppy drive then your the lucky owner of a Mega ST or Mega STe. Both these machines plug into a monitor but the ports should in general be virtually the same as the STFM and operation should be similar. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the slightly different positioning of the ports.
Finally there are the Atari TT and Atari Falcon. The TT comes in a Mega STe styled case and needs a standard PC VGA monitor which connects at the back. The TT comes with a plethora of extra ports, but there is no need to worry about these at present as we shall be covering the TT in more detail in a later session. The Falcon is cased in a STFM/STE style casing and looks virtually identical, save for the label and a couple of different ports at the back. These are the DSP port, a smaller modem port and a couple of stereo jacks for headphones and microphones and a monitor port that at first doesn't seem to connect to anything. The Atari Falcon will be covered in a later section.
It is worth noting that there are a few others that you may like to distinguish between. Atari produced two ST compatible laptop computers, the STACEY and the ST Book. Both are extremely rare, with the chances of you finding an ST Book verging on non existant. Atari also produced a palm top computer called the Atari Portfolio (this is DOS based and isn't covered in this section). Then there is the Atari PC compatible, again this is DOS based and not covered here. Finally if you have a computer called an Atari 800, Atari 400, Atari XL or XE then you have an 8bit and are in the wrong section!.

Congratualations you're ready for the next stage of the ST Guide
Go to 'The ST Guide Part Two: Beginners guide to the GEM Desktop