Some people have asked if this works in the hires mono mode. Yes it does! If there is no monochrome monitor connected, you will need to short pin 4 (mono detect) to pin 13 (GND) on the monitor port in order to get it to work. There is a separate profile on the RGBtoHDMI for mono mode.
That's what I wanted to hear 👍- and preferably see. Too many retrocomputing fans, especially American users, ignore the ST's hires mode entirely, as if colour were always better (it's not). There's a lot of great "Jackintosh" software for the ST that really shines on the mono monitor. Glad to hear the RGBtoHDMI supports that.
This is a C070523 STF motherboard - aka "Silly Style". I've got the same one. RGBTOHDMI arrives monday or tuesday, should be a nice mod to get installed!
Atari systems don't get enough love. They are capable of a wide range of tasks, and come equipped with a very powerful dialect of BASIC. Please, sir, may I have another? I love how you show all the ins and outs/ups and downs, of a build. Well done!
There are severam excellent Basic's for the ST. The original ST-basic that was delivered with it in the beginning is not one of them, that was a real stinker. The good ones were GFA-Basic, Omikron-Basic that was delivered with the machine later on and for those who love game programming, there was STOS-Basic, which was the program that became AMOS on the Amiga.
@galier2 Huh, the only thing I recall that came with the Mega STe was the language disk in the USA. Which basically just had Xcontrol and ahdi? I would have to look again. Pretty sure it didn't come with BASIC though. Granted it was probably way more machine than we needed at the time, but I think that is wherre I really became less interested in video games and more interested in how to play with the computer itself. Like getting GEM desktop replacements and trying to get X11 working, etc. Early versions of MiNT before Atari made it official, and all that...
The picture quality of this solution is awesome, no doubt! BUT, geometry (or size to be more specific) on your monitor is not correct. The GEM desktop does have much bigger white borders on all sides! There are many demos on the ST which uses overscan on two or even all four borders. A few (not many though) games use overscan too, mostly the lower border. E.g. you won't be able to see the energy bar in "Chambers of Shaolin" from Thalion on your system! For audio output it would have been easier to build an adapter from 13-pin monitor connector (easy to find even today, at least here in germany, for just over one Euro) to RCA. 😉
I could have done an adapter on the monitor port, but I want the option of using the CRT monitor at the same time as capturing output. Personal preference I guess.
@@RetroHackShack Ah, ok, a permanent audio output, no matter which monitor is connected. Actually I did a Stereo output (two RCA, just like STE or Amiga) on my 520STM back then. When capturing from this ST, I always use this output for audio. 😉
You've got to turn the autofocus off. No one cares if your moving hand stays in focus and it is your moving hand that is causing autofocus to go out of focus.
I just got my hands on a fully functioning Atari 1040STF with megafile and the original monochrome screen this week. I've been crawling around the forums and various videos to see how to get it to work in color with modern displays. This is a great find, and I even have a pi 3 lying around.
Great video! The St is a fine machine, regardless of how it fares against the Amiga. The Hdmi picture is wonderful, just like an emulator! It's a pity that the RGBtoHDMI still lacks proper support for the older Atari 8 bit line, though!
Dude! I always appreciate your content. I have one question though. How in the world do you regulate the noise and temp in your garage! My museum / computer repair / maker space is my garage and I can’t figure it out. Thanks!
Thanks! It is a challenge for sure. The garage is not insulated and even in California it gets quite cold in the winter months. I just got a propane forced air heater that takes the chill off but is quite loud.
I'd start by insulating the garage, It probably wouldn't take much (maybe r-12 insulation) to make a difference, but the better the rating, the better temperature control you will achieve. The other part of the equation is the HVAC setup. Look at some of the really nice mini-split units that are available. They typically come in two major sections, one of which mounts in the ceiling, and the other (heat exchanger) which sets on a good footing outside. These units typically come with a remote that allows setting things like temperature and humidity without getting on a ladder. A lot is going to depend on the construction of your garage: does it have a ceiling, or are the rafters open? (A ceiling of some kind would be better.) How tight is the fit of the garage door (that door is one huge pneumonia hole, and will leak enough to really mess up any efforts at control if it's fit is not tight). If you have a side (personnel-sized) door, use it whenever possible, and keep that garage door shut unless actually in use.
10:13 Not only mains connections. I was a Commodore/Atari repair tech in the late 80s and those big L shaped heat sinks on ST power supplies are *not* at ground and will shock the hell out of you. Ask me how i know.
I have to get this set-up, thanks for putting the video together. The ST originally came with a dual extension cable for the joystick and mouse. You can buy these cheap on ebay, ones for the Megadrive and Genesis should work too. How did you restore the colour of the case? Retrobrite? Is the plastic starting to go brittle? I'm reluctant to do it to my STs.
You can get the shield out by removing the separate shield over the power supply and then removing the power supply. That allows the main shielding to be removed.
Very interesting. Two questions for you: - Is there a way to get the high resolution 640x400 mode to work as well? - Is there a way to switch between the super crisp output (nice for productivity software) and a "CRT emulation" mode (nicer for games, demos, graphical stuf, etc...)?
Nice video I recently added a Scart lead to my Atari STE and have connected the monitor socket of the Atari to a Scart/VGA TV/monitor, the results are amazing compared to CRT. I notice I can get a Scart to HDMI connector should I ever want to. Although it was set up I hadn't used my Atari STE for many years, the floppy drive and nearly all the floppy disks work, but the hard drive won't won't book up and bleeps once on start up, I got it 2nd hand 20+ years ago and it never worked quite right. I got a SD4ST+ Mini hard drive and it works fine. I also got a Gotek and a Atari ST External Floppy Drive Adapter. There's not enough space to plug them in together at the back of the machine. Can I connect the old hard drive to the computer and the SD4ST+ Mini hard drive to the out port of the old hard drive, there seems nothing wrong with the old hard drive case. Where could I get a female/female DB19 connector to go on the end of the old hard drive cable, or a male/female DB19 cable to replace it?
This is very cool! Do you think it would be possible to do something similar to an Atari 2600? I know there's an RGB mod for it and would love to be able to go directly from my 2600 to my TV via HDMI.
I don't see any reason why you couldn't add an audio input to the Raspberry Pi (either with a USB audio device or an I2S ADC) and pipe the audio stream to the HDMI port. Just requires a bit of hacking.
The difficulty comes from the fact that the RGBtoHDMI software for the Pi is running on bare metal, not on Linux. It is open source, so modification is possible, but it would be a non-trivial task to add the required support.
Another interesting mod. Shame I only have an STE, though. Apart from not having to connect power to the Pi separately, is there any other benefit to doing it this way over just connecting to the analog RGB out of the ST? Or am I mistaken that such a connection is an option for the RGB2HDMI?
'Excellent' is a descriptive word I have never before heard applied to Atari ST music. I always wish that they had put in the POKEY chip. I don't know how 'The Duel' had such good quality music, though.
The ST *can* do sample-based tracker audio (which sounds great!), but it taxes the CPU. Notice in “The Duel” that you only get the nice audio during the menu screen, not during gameplay 😎
The ST had some good music, it is just one of those things where you need a good composer to utilize it. I really miss the days when coders could actually wow you by their skills because the hardware had limitations. These days, you almost just can feel there was no talent when the games are not photorealistic... some games on the ST do crazy stuff and show more than 16 colors, and run far better than they rightfully should. Especially considering the stock ST that did not have a blitter.
