Atari ST

When Jack Tramiel left Commodore and took over Atari, he set out to beat his former company to the 16-bit future. The Atari ST, launched in 1985, was engineered for speed of development and low cost, reaching the market ahead of the Commodore Amiga. Its ST nickname was often glossed as Sixteen/Thirty-two, a nod to the Motorola 68000 processor at its heart, the same chip that powered its Amiga rival and the Macintosh.

Philosophically the ST was the Amiga's opposite. Where the Amiga leaned on expensive custom coprocessors, the ST was comparatively straightforward and affordable, trading some graphical and audio sophistication for a lower price and a quick time to market. It offered crisp high-resolution modes, a friendly graphical interface, and enough power to run serious software, and it undercut the Amiga on cost throughout its life.

In gaming the two machines were fierce rivals that shared most of their libraries, with heated arguments in the schoolyard and the press over which version of a given game looked and sounded better. The ST hosted the Bitmap Brothers' stylish action games, the sprawling Dungeon Master, which practically invented the real-time first-person dungeon crawler, and countless arcade conversions and role-playing epics. It was especially strong in Europe.

The ST's single most distinctive feature was its built-in MIDI ports, standard on every unit. That turned it into the affordable computer of choice for professional and bedroom musicians alike, and for years it was a fixture in recording studios, a role that outlasted its gaming relevance.

Commercially the ST sold in the low millions, a respectable showing that nonetheless trailed the Amiga in most gaming markets. As the PC and consoles surged, Atari's fortunes faded, and the line was discontinued around 1993 as the company pivoted, unsuccessfully, to the Jaguar console.

The Atari ST is remembered as the pragmatic 16-bit machine, less flashy than the Amiga but beloved by those who valued its speed and its unexpected second career as a cornerstone of electronic music.