Atari ST in daily use since 1985 [video]

I had the exact same use case for my parents&#x27; camp site in France. In 1997, I had programmed a camp site management software for the Atari 1040 ST in GFA Basic. It was used for booking reservations, registering new guests, and printing invoices.<p>At the time, this solution (both the computer and the programming language) were already outdated by at least 5 years. But it was the cheapest solution for my parents, since they couldn&#x27;t afford a new computer (having just started the camp site).<p>Of course, it took me hundreds of hours to complete the software but I didn&#x27;t mind since the project allowed me to sharpen my programming chops at a pretty basic level. For instance, I had to implement my own scrolling routine (there were no text areas in GFA Basic).<p>Theoretically it should have been possible to make system calls to GEM routines (the UI library in ROM) in GFA Basic, but I never got it to work.<p>The computer was used until 2005 or so, when the disk drive gave out.<p>[edit: grammar]

Reminds me of that Commodore 64 still in use in Poland at a car repair shop (at least, it was in use as of 2016) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dqA8YBwwCl0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dqA8YBwwCl0</a><p>Edit: the YT video cites this as the source (in Polish): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.trojmiasto.pl&#x2F;wiadomosci&#x2F;Warszatat-samochodowy-zaslynal-dzieki-26-letniemu-komputerowi-Commodore-n106004.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.trojmiasto.pl&#x2F;wiadomosci&#x2F;Warszatat-samochodowy-z...</a><p>A source in English <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kotaku.com.au&#x2F;2016&#x2F;09&#x2F;polish-auto-shop-still-runs-off-a-commodore-64&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kotaku.com.au&#x2F;2016&#x2F;09&#x2F;polish-auto-shop-still-run...</a>

How can he write software without JavaScript and pulling 1500 arbitrary packages from npm? Is this even real?

The ST was a wonderfully practical computer. Nobody could beat the price&#x2F;performance and price&#x2F;memory for it at the time. An ST with a monochrome monitor was a beautiful Mac-like word processing or DTP or MIDI sequencer system with an excellent (for the time) high resolution paper-like display, GUI. For 1&#x2F;3rd the price of a PC&#x2F;Mac.<p>The ST is often compared to the Amiga, but I don&#x27;t feel like this is the right comparison point. It should be compared to the Mac and PC as productivity machines.<p>Yes, the ST could play games and do colour multimedia stuff, but it did not do it as well as the Amiga. But the Amiga shipped with an interlaced monitor, had longer boot times, cost more, shipped with less memory, and its software market focus was not so much on productivity.<p>I learned a lot on my ST. By the time I replaced it with a 486 I was running a UUCP node and a Unix-like shell and OS extension on it (MiNT) and learning the basics of Unix.

I love the part where he compares it to the PC and says he can finish his task on the Atari in the time it takes the PC to boot up. Similarly on uptime, he just turns it on at the start of the season, leaves it running 24&#x2F;7 and powers down months later. Beautiful.

The DIY is strong also in the website for the camping!<p>So much love.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bohmerwald.nl&#x2F;index2019.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bohmerwald.nl&#x2F;index2019.htm</a>

And in fact, if it wasn&#x27;t for modern Web pages, ray tracing like graphics or modern network protocols, most of the Amiga and Atari generation computers could be easily used for most of the school and office work going on in 2021.

Honestly, we&#x27;ve gone backwards in a lot of ways.<p>I remember, in the mid-90s, looking up stuff at a library on a VT100-ish terminal connected via some sort of serial arrangement to a larger computer.<p>Function keys were clearly labeled, searching was fast and worked well.<p>None of the heavier replacement machines ever felt as snappy or as useful.

Ha, lucky break. I had to decommission mine after 10 years of use because the carbon layer on the keyboard wore off and some keys didn&#x27;t make contact any more. I still remember the heartbreak.<p>That machine was immensely hackable. You could just malloc(), write 68k instructions into it and execute that stuff. I built my first JIT compiler on the ST. That word didn&#x27;t even exist back then.

That was my first real computer as a kid, where I learned basic programming (GFA BASIC!), played my first games. It was such a great machine.<p>I also love his self-made program with a little map of the camping grounds. Such attention to little details. No wonder he didn&#x27;t want to give that system up for a newer computer: what for?

I had the Atari 800 XL and then the Atari STE... both were good, the real the thing that seemed to keep the STs around for a long time after that generation had given way to PCs was the MIDI port and the music software.... I saw them years and years afterwards for that purpose.

This musician still uses a 1040 STE for making his music [1]. In the video (in Polish, unfortunately) he describes his setup: extended RAM, SD card reader, etc.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;mlR08iVHiFY?t=68" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;mlR08iVHiFY?t=68</a>

From my memory, I&#x27;m most impressed that the mouse has survived all this time.

We used them in the first generation of Style&#x27;s lathe and mill CNC controller and some of those are also still in use in the most foul industrial environments. I know this because every now and then a monitor burns out and then questions will pop up on how to source a replacement. Those are 1040STs, sometimes with piggybacked extra memory to give them 2M, it&#x27;s funny how the build quality of those machines was so bad that it wasn&#x27;t rare to have one DOA from new, but once past the 90 days they pretty much last forever.

I found some IBM computers running with green phosphor screens doing some database for inventory management at an auto parts store in Costa Rica one time. I need to go back and get a video of that, it was ultra impressive, but it&#x27;s basically in the sketchiest part of town -- I&#x27;m not there at the moment but maybe any locals could collaborate, es por la parada de buses x leon 13 al centro chepe JAJA

My first computer was an Atari 65XE, the smaller 8-bit sibling of the ST series. Almost everything that was produced back then was well build and still runs today (even my 65XE). Atari means “about to win” and the history of the company is very interesting [0].<p>In the &quot;old&quot; days there was great competition in Europe between Atari, Amstrad, Sinclair, Commodore and later on Amiga. You can see a very nice timeline of home&#x2F;personal computers in [1] and [2].<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Atari" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Atari</a> [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tiki-toki.com&#x2F;timeline&#x2F;&#x2F;entry&#x2F;501712&#x2F;Personal-Computers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tiki-toki.com&#x2F;timeline&#x2F;&#x2F;entry&#x2F;501712&#x2F;Personal-Co...</a> [2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerhistory.org&#x2F;timeline&#x2F;computers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.computerhistory.org&#x2F;timeline&#x2F;computers&#x2F;</a>

I really miss the ST&#x27;s mono monitor, was a pleasure to use it, esp for CAD and DTP.

What a mean moustache Mr.Bos cultivated!<p>Ah, those where the days my friend. The days of manly man and physical manuals. Or the other way &#x27;round.<p>Have to have a visit, when I&#x27;m nearby.<p>I send&#x27;em a mail with a link to this thread.

As i am also one of the weird guys using (or better now: has been using) totally outdated tech for daily work for years now (especially an 520 ST), i cannot recommend one modern operating system more then Haiku.<p>Haiku has everything i loved (and still love!) about the 16 Bit machines of the 80s &#x2F; 90s (simple, snappy gui, incredible fast boot time etc.). I imagine if Atari or Amiga had survived the 90s, their OSes would look and feel like that.

I was watching a YouTube video a while ago about some 80s industrial band touring in the late 2010s. I forget which. In order to play all the synth tracks live they had to dig out an Atari ST and load up the sequencer software on it with floppies containing midi tracks and samples. It&#x27;s hard to believe the floppies didn&#x27;t die after all those years.

Like the 800&#x2F;400 before it, and the Amiga, this generation of computers had such great tech hidden under such layers of junk. Hidden gems all over the place in these systems. Well worth some effort to learn how they delivered such power at a time when mainstream PCs were struggling with CGA graphics.

Makes me really anxious with regards to backups. I really hope he has that covered. Both with regards to data and a system to run the software on.<p>But I think he mentioned being able to run it in an emulator on the PC so it&#x27;s probably fine as long as he actually has the data backed up.

This brings me back. My first computer as a kid was an Atari ST.<p>Near the end he stumbles through words trying to explain that he replaced the floppy disk drive. It sounds like he replaced it with USB? I wonder how that worked.

They also have a web site and it&#x27;s exactly what you&#x27;d hope for <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bohmerwald.nl" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bohmerwald.nl</a><p>(the HTML must be from a 1990s version of Word!)

I bought my 1040st, and a dot matrix printer, with most of my first year&#x27;s student loan. (Almost all of it.)<p>I was so embarrassed I told no one, even my girlfriend at first. It was a big expensive secret. My car was a Chevette, with a bad tranny. Anyone in their right mind would have bought a better car.<p>Not one teacher could differentiate type written papers, from dot matrix. Besides the fear of public speaking, I always worried a teacher would find out I didn&#x27;t write my paper on a twpewritter.<p>I tried to get my girlfriend to like it, but it was a big No. I remember drawing, in Paint, a penis. I even got it to vibrate. (It was not easy back then.)<p>She thought it was cute, and we had sexy time, but she didn&#x27;t like the machine. I could just tell she didn&#x27;t like my computer.<p>In retrospect--maybe she thought I should spend that kind of money on her?. I remember thinking, I&#x27;m a glad about equal rights. After all she was from a wealthy family, and I was poor. (sorry about reminiscing.)<p>Now most of you think it was my dick pic, but it wasen&#x27;t. I think she thought the computer was nerdy?<p>She wasn&#x27;t happy with my Bullmastiff either, but I loved my dog. She didn&#x27;t like it when my dog had her period. She once said to me, &quot;It&#x27;s the dog, or me?&quot;. I didn&#x27;t say anything, but my Elsa was my family. It was no decision to be made. I would have died for that dog.<p>I don&#x27;t think we ever liked each other, but boy was she attractive.<p>She&#x27;s now some big wig at a computer company, and consultes on computing.<p>I only bought it for word processing.<p>I wasen&#x27;t a computer guy. I just knew at the time college was a joke, and if I was going to write all those useless papers; I wasen&#x27;t going to do it on a IBM, with Whitout.<p>I felt like I was cheating.<p>Got my degrees. Had a nervous breakdown. The world seemed grey, and depressing.<p>I got tired of looking at that horrid beige idle computer on my desk one day, and tossed it all. (I&#x27;m color blind, but thought that beige was horrid.)<p>I wish I kept it now though.<p>(I miss my dog, and computer. My girlfriend not so much, but she was stunning. Way out of my league.)