Atari Advert - May 1986

By the middle of 1986, the IBM PC was well-established as the "standard" computer architecture, but there was a handful of alternatives, including Commodore's Amiga, Apple's Macintosh and Atari's popular ST.

Nick Walker of Personal Computer World wrote about the state of the market in a review of this advert's machine - the 1040STF, or "Sixteen/Thirtytwo Floppy" - when he wrote:

"It's not the outdated PC architecture of even the ancient, unfriendly MS-DOS operating system, but the sheer volume of practically identical [IBM clone] machines that bores me. Consequently, any machine which breaks the mould of IBM compatibility, regardless of its merit, tends to generate mroe than its fair share of interest".

The 1040STF was an improvement over the original 520ST not just because it had an extra 512K of RAM on board, but also because the new machine contained what was the bulky external power supply of the original model inside the case, along with an integrated 720Kb floppy disk drive.

As a result, the case was deeper and taller, but it still managed to occupy roughly the same desk footprint.

When the original 520ST had been launched, the early versions required that the operating system was loaded from disk after start up, a process which used up a large amount of memory. The 1040 on the other hand shipped with both the TOS operating system - plus the GEM desktop environment - in ROM, leaving all the 1Mb of memory free for progam use.

Atari however was now denying that TOS stood for Tramiel Operating System - a name which Jack Tramiel, former Commodore founder and now owner of Atari, had himself claimed back in January 1985 - and instead was trying to suggest that it simply stood for The Operating System^[1]. Personal Computer World's Nick Walker said:

"Personally, I couldn't give a TOS as long as it works".

Walker however liked the 1040, concluding in his Benchtest review that:

"When Atari launched the 520ST there was nothing to compete with it, and there still isn't. Now, with the 1040ST and the power it offers, there is an even wider gap between an ST and the competition. Amstrad may be cleaning up in the cheap-and-reliable market with the P‌CW8256 and the CPC6128, but for those of us who are still enthusiastic about the latest technology, the 1040ST represents a new entry point in home computing. I'm impressed".

The original 520ST launched in 1985 at a price of £652 plus VAT (about £2,900 in 2025) which at the time was said to have made the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh appear "grossly overpriced".

The monochrome 1040ST was was now £799 plus VAT (about £3,350 now) whilst the colour model retailed for £999. As the advert claims, the monochrome version was still some £1,600 cheaper than its nearest competition.