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This is my father's original Mega ST 4, deliberately kept in its historical, unmodified condition. It's the one machine in the fleet that stays true to how it left the factory.
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Current State
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+- Original TOS 1.04 reinstalled (onboard ROM, no external TOS switcher).
+- No modern expansions active, no MonSTerBoard, no Cloudy/Storm.
+- A classic floppy drive instead of a Gotek or emulator.
+- Its own original Atari keyboard and mouse.
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Role in the Fleet
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This machine serves as a nostalgia and comparison reference. When problems occur on one of the modified Megas, I can test against this unchanged original state to distinguish bus, flash, or configuration errors from genuine hardware faults. It can also be used as a test platform for uncritical experiments, but stays as close to original as possible for nostalgic reasons.
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History
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The machine spent many years at my parents' house and was fully rebuilt and brought back into operation by me after I got seriously back into retro computing in 2020.
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Received for free in 2026, this Mega ST 4 was fully rebuilt and is today my primary workstation. It's the most capable machine in the fleet, running Geneva as a real multitasking environment.
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Work Performed
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+- Blitter patch, removed an existing patch and carefully bridged the severed trace with wire, verifying it with a continuity test. The installed blitter (marked S9012 / MM9092V, a National variant from week 12/1990) belongs to an unproblematic batch where the classic Mega ST blitter patch is generally no longer needed.
+- CPU socket, soldered in a 68000 socket and checked all connections to the board with a multimeter.
+- TOS, removed the onboard TOS from its sockets to avoid conflicts with the external flash TOS on the MonSTerBoard.
+- Power supply, replaced with a modern STPSU for clean, stable power, which matters especially for the ET4000.
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MonSTerBoard
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The MonSTerBoard is plugged onto the 68000 socket, with jumpers set so TOS 2.06 is used from its flash. It provides up to 8 MB of AltRAM (TT-compatible range, activated via m_altram.prg), an IDE interface for CF/IDE storage, and a flash ROM holding multiple TOS images. I boot from a 1 GB CompactFlash card over IDE, which is noticeably faster than an ACSI drive.
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Peripherals in Use
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+- ET4000 graphics card in the MegaBus, providing higher resolutions and better display quality with Geneva/NVDI, driving a dedicated monitor.
+- NetUSBee on the ROM port, giving real internet via STinG and a USB port for FAT16 data exchange with Windows.
+- Eiffel interface for a PS/2 keyboard and mouse, a much better typing feel than the original hardware.
+- Self-built VGA adapter, a short cable to a small box with the VGA connector and mono/color switch, since a standard adapter would block the ET4000's VGA output.
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Role
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Workstation machine with multitasking (Geneva), AltRAM, IDE/CF boot, USB and network connectivity, and high-resolution display. My primary system for programming and productive work.
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Gallery
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The Mega ST 4 "High" workstation.
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Inside the "High" machine.
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A detail of the "High" setup.
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Expansion boards in the "High" machine.
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Close-up of the "High" machine.
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The "High" machine in operation.
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The "High" workstation setup.
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Board detail of the "High" machine.
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The finished "High" machine.
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Bought via eBay as a bargain, this Mega ST 4 is today my LowRes demo and gaming machine. It's the most heavily expanded of the fleet, but tuned for fast disk-image swapping rather than productivity.
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History and Repair
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I had originally cut out the TOS ROMs to experiment with external solutions, and afterwards it was unclear whether the board had been damaged in the process. Moving the Cloudy/Storm ST combo to this machine via the MegaBus connector brought it back to stable operation. The actual problem turned out to be a poorly and incompletely soldered CPU socket.
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Hardware Configuration
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+- CPU, 68000 with socket, plus the Cloudy/Storm ST combo via the MegaBus adapter.
+- TOS/Flash, Cloudy as the TOS switcher/flash solution with EmuTOS and PP's improved iTOS 1.04.
+- RAM, 4 MB onboard ST-RAM plus 8 MB AltRAM via the Storm ST.
+- Mass storage, a Gotek floppy emulator in a 3D-printed case and an UltraSatan ACSI-SD emulator.
+- Peripherals, a SidecarTridge Multi-device on the ROM port, a Wi-Fi modem for dialing into BBSs, an original Atari keyboard with a mouSTer and USB mouse, and an MCSWITCH adapter for VGA output.
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Role
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Focused on LowRes demos and games, with convenient image handling via the Gotek and SidecarTridge. No need for complex productivity software or precise keyboard layouts here.
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The Mega ST 2 was given to me a while ago and today serves as a spare and test machine for the rest of the fleet.
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Current State
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It runs on original TOS with the internal RAM configuration, without the separate 4 MB expansion, which was removed for testing purposes and now sits set aside.
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Role as Parts Donor
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The original power supply was moved to the Mega ST 4 "High" during its rebuild, and the Mega ST 2 now runs with the network hardware that used to be in the "High" machine. It serves as a safe platform to test upgrades and expansions before they're installed in the production machines, such as reinstalling the 4 MB expansion, trying other bus cards, or testing ROMs.
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Wi-Fi Experiment
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A side project involved connecting to the internet via a serial Wi-Fi adapter running czietz's firmware, communicating through Connect95. A self-built Linux proxy (WebOne) was meant to enable Telnet and HTTP access via the Cab browser. The Wi-Fi connection proved not to be consistently stable, and switching to Hatari on a Raspberry Pi 400 in VDI mode with a more stable network connection is recommended as an alternative.
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