As an Amiga and CPC Owner / Regular User - Any reasons I should get an Atari ST?

[zhulien]

I am tempted, but i cannot yet convince myself... As an Amiga and CPC Owner / Regular User - Any reasons I should get an Atari ST?

[Gryzor]

Old machines are easy to decide upon: do you want one? Get one. Is it indifferent to you? Don't.

I was a ST user and fan but I liked the Amiga too so now I've got a couple of 500s, a 600 and a 1200, plus some hardware like a hard disk etc.

The ST had its own charm, and with a SD HDD it's a joy to use, but if you don't feel it then why be persuaded? 

[eto]

Imho what makes the ST interesting is its design philosophy - which it shares with the CPC: taking mostly cheap off the shelf chips and designing a computer around them, which is at least on par with the competition (the Amiga came out later) - but MUCH cheaper.

It's fascinating what could be done with it, especially when you look into professional usage like DTP or Midi. 

But if you look into it as a gaming machine, there's not much special about it. Almost no exclusives and especially productions after 1987 are usually much better on the Amiga. Also the community is much smaller.

After I sold my CPC in 89 I owned an STe (one of the first models that were shipped to Europe) and later even a Falcon. I preferred the STe over an Amiga 500 due to its professional apps like Calamus and the crisp black/white screen. But when it comes to retro computing, which in the end is often gaming, I don't see a good reason to choose the ST(e), if it's not for nostalgic reasons.  

[Gryzor]

Oooh you had a Falcon? Lucky man...

And yes the BW monitor was the bee's knees. 

[lmimmfn]

I personally have no nostalgia for the ST. I owned a CPC and then an Amiga(500 and 1200).

However while I had a CPC I'd still love to have a real C64 just because it's a very different 8 bit system( vs Spectrum or BBC) and some SID tunes are awesome.

For me I think the best route is to emulate/simulate these systems with a Mister(whenever available at a reasonable price and in stock).

I would love to own a Falcon though because spec wise when it was released I considered it better than the Amiga 1200, I was intrigued but it was simply too expensive. With todays Falcon prices I'll never own an original but I'm just missing out on a curiosity as it never had much of a software library.