Atari 16-bit Computers
Unreleased Prototypes and Vaporware

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You know, I have never figured out why Atari had so many unreleased products.  It boggles the mind to think about all of the great ideas that never made it out the door.  Some say that Atari was ahead of it's time with some of these devices.  Many people feel that management was incompetent.   Whatever the reason, many products never made it off the drawing board.  Here are a few.......

Atari 130ST - Originally, Atari had plans for a 130ST, which would have been one of two "entry-level" systems in the ST series.   It would have been the same as a 520ST, except it would only have 128k of RAM.   The system were scrapped, as it was determined that it did not have enough memory to function adaquately.

Atari 260STd - Atari had plans for a 260STd, which would have been mass-marketed in stores such as "Toys R Us" or K-Mart."  This would have been an "entry-level" system for the home, or small business.   It featured an RF modulator, 256k of RAM, and a built-in 360k single sided 3 1/2 inch floppy drive.  Price was estimated to be around $499.00 without a monitor.   The system were scrapped, as it was determined that it did not have enough memory to function adaquately.

Notice anything odd about the picture?  It was taken at the 1985 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.  On all Atari 520ST and 1040ST computers that feature a built-in floppy, the drive is on the right hand side of the unit.  The 260STd had the floppy drive on the left side.

Also, in this photo is the STC504 thermal printer, which also was never released.  (See STC504 section below.)

Image courtesy of the Atari Historical Society

Atari EST System - Curt Vendel from the Atari Historical Society was kind enough to contact me, and provide me some limited specs on this system.  It was to be called the Atari EST, or Enhanced ST.  It is believed that this was a system under development that would be based around a Motorola 68020 CPU, and a Morotola 68881 or 68882 FPU.  A Shifter II chip, and a Blitter II chip were on the drawing board, along with 4 other custom chips.

The operating system would have been a new version of TOS, or Unix.

I did some research on my own, and found this system referenced in an old article from A.N.A.L.O.G. Magazine.  The issue is #49, dated Dec. 1986, Page 45ST.  A.N.A.L.O.G. reported the EST would use the same monitor as the then unreleased TT.  Atari expected the EST to "....support a new high-resolution monitor."  The planned high resolution mode for this system would have been 1024x1024 (that sounds like an odd size to me) in color.  A.N.A.L.O.G. also reported that "....the color palette will be expanded, perhaps exponentially....." over the existing ST systems.

This device was never released.

Atari ST Pad - This item would have been a big breakthrough.  The Atari ST Pad was a portable Atari computer which combined the Atari TOS operating system with features to allow a user to interact with the tablet using an electronic pen instead of a mouse.  The LCD is not backlit, and uses the same Epson Custom Module (ECM) as the Atari STBook laptop.

The unit was based around a 8Mhz 68000 CPU system with 1MB of memory.   No hard drive was planned for this system.   Instead, high density RAM cards, similar to the cards used in the Atari Portfolio palmtop, would be used for storage.  Two custom card slots are located on the unit as well as a flip-up storage area for the electronic pen. 

Ports include external keyboard via RJ-11, serial, parallel and an external bus connector.

This was one of the last items shown by Atari before dropping support of the ST systems.

This device was never released.

Image courtesy of the Atari Historical Society

Atari MicroFalcon040 - By the time that this system was on the drawing board, Atari was trying to move back to it's roots:  Video Games.   The ST/TT/Falcon sales were non-extisent in the US, although they were still selling fairly well in Europe.  Atari was planning on making another push with the Lynx, and had started work on the Jaguar.

The MicroFalcon040 system would have been the next step for the Falcon computers.  It featured a very stylish new case, with a detached keyboard.  The system would support 3 expansion slots, IDE hard drives, and standard SIMM's for memory upgrades.  The system, unlike the Falcon030, would feature a full 32-bit bus.  The Falcon030 had a 16-bit bus.

This device was never released, although it was reportedly close to completion.

Atari Tape Drive Prototype - This drive would have provided a backup device for ST systems via tape.  The drive itself was housed inside a modified version of the case used for Atari external floppy drives.  The tape drive mechanism was from InterDyne.  The mechanism itself used the older single spool tapes.  If you look at the left side of the photo above, you can see the spindle (attached to the door) where the tapes are mounted.

It is not known if this devive operated as an ASCI device on the DMA port, or if it plugged into the floppy drive chain.

This device was never released.

 
Image courtesy of the Atari Historical Society

Atari STC504 Thermal Printer - The Atari STC504 was a color 80 column thermal wax-transfer printer for the Atari ST line of computer systems.

This device was never released.

Atari 1040STe Plus - This system could have given the ST line a feature that other 3rd party companies had been exploting for a while:  IBM software compatibility.  Along with an internal 2 1/2 inch hard disk, this system featured software compatibility with the IBM AT systems via an on-board Intel 80286 processor.  The 1040STe Plus was identical in appearance as the 1040STe systems.

This device was never released.

Atari FX-1 Prototype - Early versions of the Atari Falcon030 computer went by the name FX-1.  This was the name Atari used in promotional materials as well.  I remember hearing about the FX-1 on old Antic & ANALOG magazines.

Notice that the prototype above has the standard white keyboard used by the rest of the ST line.  The Falcon used a dark colored keyboard.

You can even buy replacement cases for your Falcon that have the name FX-1 on them.  Best Electronics has them.

Photo Not Available

Atari TT/X - The Atari TT/X was to be an Atari TT in a mini-tower configuration.  It is not known how far the development process had progressed.  No known photos of this device exist.  

This device was never released.

Photo Not Available

Atari "Big Blue Box" or "3B" - Multiple Atari magazines from 1986 report that Atari was developing a hardware based IBM compatibility expansion device for the ST line.  This device would have been based around the Intel 8086.  It was expected to hit the market in early 1987.

This device was never released.