Zogging Hell!!!

Note: This monitor page is written from a British perspective and some of the solutions listed below may not be appropriate for those of you with non pal systems. If anyone wants to help add some info for Zogging Hell readers who have a different TV/ monitor system please get in touch.

So you've got your ST then and mastered the delights of the GEM desktop and know all there is to know about disk drives (well the end user stuff anyway). Now, unless you were lucky enough to get a monitor with your ST and you're using the RF output at the back to connect to a TV, you'll undoubtedly have noticed that the picture is a bit fuzzy. Colours spill over into one another and you can't get at that lovely crisp high resolution. Fortunately there are a number of solutions, though which one you go for depends entirely on what you want to do with your ST and which ST you've got.

The ST is a bit of a strange fish in that it has three screen modes, only two of which are visible on a colour monitor or TV - Low and Medium resolution. Low resolution consists of a resolution of 320 x 200 pixels in 16 colours from a pallette of 512 on a STFM or 16 colours from a pallette of 4096 on the STe. Medium resolution increases the horizontal width to 640 pixels but the pay off is a reduction in the on-screen colours available to 4 on both the STFM and STE. The third resolution requires a special mono monitor or a VGA monitor with a suitable adaptor. This increases the resolution again this time to a grand 640 x 400 pixels. The pay off comes again with a reduction in colour. This time the screen is in black and white and the pallette is reduced to two colours... black and white.

If you mainly see yourself playing games, or writing them perhaps, and only occasionally might load up a serious program, then your best bet is the colour solution (see below). Alternatively if you want to use your ST for serious software, like MIDI or DTP, then you may be better off going down the high resolution solution (see below again!).

First off however, we need to discuss the different types of ST models and how these effect your choice of monitor.

Back in the murky dawn of the ST there were three models produced before the arrival of the most popular ST model, the STFM. These were:
The original ST, missing a built in power supply and with no TV modulator.
The STm, the same as the above but with a modulator.
The STF, an all in one solution identical in appearance to the STFM but lacking the modulator again.
Now if you've got an STm your fine and you can read through the guide as if you have a normal STFM. Unfortunately if you have an original ST or an STF, neither of which contain modulators, then as far as we know here your going to have a bit of trouble hooking it up to a TV as these machines don't generate the necessary signal (although we could stand to be corrected on this). You can however use all the monitor solutions, so all is not lost.

Now on the other hand you may have a TT or Falcon. The TT has a standard VGA port so you can simply plug in a normal run of the mill PC monitor. However to get the TT High resolution mode you need a special ECL monitor that are like gold dust. The TT cannot use Atari colour or mono monitors as far as I'm aware. For more information you probably want to check Zogging Hell's TT page.
The Falcon is an entirely different bag of french fries. The monitor port on the back fits absolutely nothing directly, and although yes you can connect it to the TV using the RF port, to connect it to a monitor you will need an adaptor. These come in several varieties. The most common is one which adapts the port to a standard VGA one, though there are adaptors to convert the Falcon to use Atari ST specific monitors and presumably you can also adapt the port to hook up to a scart socket, though I've not encountered these. So yes annoyingly the Falcon port is a jack of all trades, and unfortunately completely useless without an adaptor.

The Colour Solution For Atari STs

Ok you like your Cannon Fodder, and love getting lost in Dungeon Master or roaring round the track in Supercars. Now a TV with an RF input might be adequate for a casual blast, but it really doesn't show your ST in it's best colours (literally). There are a number of solutions, which we list here (in a rough order of expense).

The ST monitor to RGB scart cable

By far the cheapest solution is to purchase a cable that converts the signal coming out of the ST's monitor port so it can simply plug into any TV with scart input. Any TV (including LCD or plasma TVs) that has been made in the last ten years or so in the UK will have at least one scart socket, possibly even two or three. The output image from the ST when connected is vastly improved and you can finally see a lot of games as their makers intended them to look (although in some cases you can actually see where the developers wrote the game using an RF cable, the output of which has a habit of blending the colours, and some games look terrible when this 'blending' effect is not present). So it's a lot better then, but not anywhere near as good as...

A ST Low Resolution Monitor

The real deal this. A crisp beautiful image and usually the ability to re-size the screen (i.e. loose those ugly black borders the ST sticks on the screen). The monitor will plug straight into the monitor port of your ST and there is no loss of picture quality. There were quite a number of colour monitors made for the ST, including some greyscale monitors. The ones your most likely to encounter however are..

The Atari SC1224

The Atari SC1435 - The replacement for the above, with a bigger screen and stereo speakers.

The Phillips CM8833-II - This one was commonly used by both ST and Commodore Amiga users

The Phillips CM8833 - While not designed with the ST in mind, this monitor can be adapted to be used with the ST.

Several Amiga monitors were also compatible with the right adaptor including the 1080.

Or A Multi Sync Monitor

The problem with using a normal VGA monitor on the ST is that only ST High generates the correct signal to be able to Sync with the monitor. While this great for mono (see below) if you want colour your out of luck. Now there are/were a few PC monitors that could sync low enough to 'see' the ST's low and medium resolution output. For a list of these monitors and an adaptor to run them you could do worse than check out Best Electronics site here.

The Mono Solution For Atari STs

Now for the more serious ST user... If you want to use your ST for MIDI, DTP, word processing or most of the other serious productivity type activities that your ST can do, then you'll want to use ST High resolution.

The ST to VGA cable

These are available from a number of sources and are basically a cable which converts the output from the ST's monitor port to a standard VGA signal. With this you can use a standard VGA monitor on your ST, which has several advantages over a standard Atari offering, which include a potentially bigger screen and the fact you can still buy them new.

An Atari Mono Monitor

Atari mono monitors are fairly plentiful and you should be able to pick them up second hand for a fairly reasonable price still. There are three main mono monitors from Atari, though some third party monitors were made as well. The monitors plug straight into the monitor plug on your ST.

The SM124 - The original Atari monitor. Care needs to be taken when picking these. The original factory settings leave the monitor with large borders, which some enterprising users adjusted within the monitor to give themselves a larger screen. While this is generally welcome it unfortunately also has a bit of a side effect. The monitor was not designed to have the screen this large and therefore , given time, one of the components in the monitor has a habit of burning out. While a fix is available, so it's not fatal, it's worth bearing in mind and your much better off getting one of the other two monitors.

The SM125 - Similar to the above but with addition of a monitor swivel stand and the ability to adjust the size of the screen (at least in the horizontal aspect).

The SM144 - Probably the best of the Atari monitors, solving all of the problems of the above.

* - Pictures to follow