Intro post... and so it begins...

The idea of creating a blog dedicated to the dear old ST has been on my mind for a long time now, and eventually I decided to turn it into reality. I have no particular plan or structure in mind for the blog as a whole, just that I'll reminisce about games, demos, software, memories and whatever else I feel like talking about at the time.

So for the first post, I thought I'd talk about how I actually came to own an Atari ST in the first place. What I don't really remember is whether I'd decided it was absolutely an ST that I wanted before we got one - knowing me, it's highly probable that I'd pored over computer magazines (at that time ACE - "Advanced Computer Entertainment" - was the one I think had captured my attention). I remember they had a two-page spread in which the various machines of the time were compared - Acorn Archimedes, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and IBM PC - at least, I think that's what they featured. Bizzarely the only thing I really remember is the statement about the Amiga disk drive along the lines of "it's often noisy and always slow, but it does pack 880K on a double-sided 3.5 inch floppy disk".

Um... anyway, I'd probably nagged my dad about getting a new computer, being at the age where you nag for stuff and have no real concept of how much things cost, but I wasn't a horrible child (mostly) - when we went to a computer show in 1988, me as a pre-teen had absolutely no idea that we would come back with a computer. Somehow, my dad managed to keep it hidden from me right up until we got on the tube back home (at least, that's how I remember it.) My face must have been a real sight when I saw it...

Having done a little research, I'm pretty sure it was the Personal Computer World Show in Earl's Court on 17th September 1988, although there's an outside chance it was actually the Atari User Show at Alexandra Palace on 23rd April 1988 (although both shows ran multiple days, I'm convinced it was a Saturday).

Er... anyway, definitely 1988, so a horrible (in terms of being reminded of how old I am) 38 years ago. Wow. But those memories are still with me, and I'll bore you with them if you bother to read this blog.

My first ST (520STFM - standing for the incredibly catchy "Sixteen Thirty Two Frequency Modulated") with it's 512Kb (or 1/2 Mb, but that doesn't sound as good) RAM, 16 on-screen colours (without clever coding to break the limits),  Yamaha sound chip that was suspiciously similar-sounding to my previous computer (Spectrum +2), DISK DRIVE! (no more waiting 5 full minutes for a game to load - YAY!), preposterously awkward mouse and joystick posts, etc... coming from the Speccy, it was pretty mind-blowing. Well apart from the sound, but later the joy of tracker music hit me...

Er, anyway, yes. It was the Summer Pack, which had a whopping 22 games included:

• 
  3D Galax
  
• Arkanoid
• Chopper X
• Defender of the Crown
• Enduro Racer
• International Karate
• Into the Eagle’s Nest
• Leviathan
  
• Marble Madness
• Mouse Trap
• Plutos
• Q-Ball
• Rampage
  
• Rana Rama
• Road Wars
• Slap Fight
• Strike Force Harrier
• Super Sprint
• Tetris
• Trailblazer
• Warlock
• Winter Olympiad ’88

For my next trick, once I get into the flow of blogging again (it's been a while since I seriously blogged), I think I'll go through my memories of each of these games in order, just because it means my next 22 posts require no planning now, I'll just go through this list. There are definitely some games I have stronger (and fonder!) memories of than others.

Good times ahead, fellow Atarians! I hope this blog turns into something that brings back to mind the good times, and of course the schoolyard arguments with Amiga-owning friends.😁