Harman Patil (Editor)

Atari STacy

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Manufacturer
  
Atari

Units shipped
  
estimated 35,000+

Discontinued
  
1991

Operating system
  
Atari TOS 1.04

Atari STacy

Release date
  
September 1989; 27 years ago (1989-09)

Introductory price
  
US$2,299 (equivalent to $4,442 in 2016)

The STacy was a portable version of the Atari ST.

Contents

Originally designed to operate on 12 standard C cell flashlight batteries for portability, when Atari finally realized how quickly the machine would use up a set of batteries (especially when rechargeable batteries of the time supplied insufficient power compared to the intended alkalines), they simply glued the lid of the battery compartment shut.

The STacy has features similar to the Macintosh Portable, a version of their Macintosh computer which contained a built in keyboard and monitor.

Thanks to its built-in MIDI, the STacy enjoyed success for running music-sequencer software and as a controller of musical instruments among both amateurs and well-known musicians.

History

The Stacy was a global project, design work was carried out in the Sunnyvale HQ, Cambridge UK, final PCB board layouts where produced by Atari in Japan, which is where the first units were manufactured, with final manufacturing occurring in Taiwan

The distinctive sculptured charcoal-gray case was designed by Ira Velinsky — Atari's chief Industrial Designer.

Models

There are 4 STacy Models

  • Stacy : 1 MB Ram, 3.5" internal Floppy (Model code: LST-1141)
  • Stacy 2 : 2 MB Ram, 3.5" internal Floppy, 20 MB HD (Model code: LST-2144)
  • Stacy 2 : 2 MB Ram, 2 * 3.5" internal Floppy (Model code: LST-2124)
  • Stacy 4 : 4 MB Ram, 3.5" internal Floppy, 40 MB HD (Model code: LST-4144)

    • OS

    While the STacy shipped with Atari TOS 1.04 operating system, it was capable of unofficially supporting TOS 2.06, MiNT and MagiC.

    Specifications

  • Blitter
  • Character set: Atari ST character set (based on codepage 437)
  • Real-time clock lithium battery
  • Hard disk: ACSI-SCSI 20-40 MB
  • Floppy disk
  • Systems supported: Atari TOS 1.04
  • Parallel: 1 port
  • Serial: 1 port
  • ACSI, ACSI internal (same as in Mega STE)
  • FDD: 1 port
  • Midi: 2 ports
  • Modem: optional (used for this model's expansion port)
  • Trackball

    • Atari STacy in pop culture

    The STacy appears in the following films:

  • Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)
  • Delusion (1991 film)

    • References

    Atari STacy Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA