By 1987, the Atari home computer systems already had a well established name in the computing industry. Atari decided that it was time to release a new home computer. This home computer had to be an all-in-one design. So what Atari did, was they took their ST model, and through the use of cosmetic changes. They created the Mega ST.
It was on November 10th of 1986, that Atari would introduce the world to their new Mega ST model at the Comdex show. During this first demonstration, the feedback on the new model was amazing; Atari was planning on releasing this new computer with a laser printer. This was to be, cost effective wise, the most popular computer for businesses in 1987.
This new Mega ST came with either 2 MB or 3 MB of RAM, and was considered to be more powerful than their previous ST line. This computer received a new casing as almost perfectly square in every direction. It was this case, which was nicknamed, by some fans of the Atari lines, the slab. The whole system featured a detachable keyboard, and onboard clock, as well as an optional Floating Point Coprocessor.
Atari also introduced the new mega ST model, their brand-new Desk Top Publishing package. When you couple all of this together, the DTP, the laser printer, along with the new Atari Mega ST, you got a fantastic "Desk Set" business computer. Not only was this system designed to compete against the various Apple systems, but the new Atari Mega ST was also a lot cheaper than anything that Apple could offer.
With the release of the new Atari Mega ST, the Atari Corp. also introduced their brand-new Megafile hard drive. This hard drive was set up to sit neatly underneath the motherboard's main processor unit and came in a 20, 30 or a 16 MB capability. Although there were three different size hard drives available, the initial Atari Mega ST only came with a 20 MB hard drive.
Original Authors: Gobel Team (Nick)
Edit Update Authors: None
Updated On: 11/08/2007
