[comp.sys.atari.st] The mythical Mega lives...

FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET (01/15/88)

From decvax!virgin!zinn!mem@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Mark E. Mallett):
>In article <920@atari.UUCP>, neil@atari.UUCP (Neil Harris) writes:
>> What good does it do to start rumors like this?
>> Most ridiculous rumors of 1987 awards:
>Here are some more:
>3. .. something called a MEGA 2 and a MEGA 4.

A person here bought a Mega 4 and I got a brief look at it, so it appears that
one does indeed exist.  The story of what he went through to get it was truly
incredible...seems it is easier to find the Holy Grail or Noah's Ark than to
buy a Mega 4.  Maybe Atari is trying the Rolls-Royce marketing strategy: make
a few of them, and let everyone fight over them and pay high prices for the
privilege of owning a limited edition.

One interesting point...he said he found a lot of places that wanted to sell
him a Mega 2.  Has anybody figured out how to upgrade a Mega 2 to a Mega 4?
For what the guy here payed for the Mega 4 (all things considered) it would
have been cheaper to get a Mega 2 and upgrade it.  [In fact it would be
MUCH cheaper to get a 520 and upgrade it to 4 megs...but that wouldn't be
quite the same thing...]

What's it take to upgrade a Mega 2?

Don Rice
FXDDR@ALASKA.bitnet

dragon@olivej.olivetti.com (Give me a quarter or I'll touch you) (01/16/88)

in article <8801151736.AA20235@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET says:
> 
> One interesting point...he said he found a lot of places that wanted to sell
> him a Mega 2.  Has anybody figured out how to upgrade a Mega 2 to a Mega 4?
> For what the guy here payed for the Mega 4 (all things considered) it would
> have been cheaper to get a Mega 2 and upgrade it.  [In fact it would be
> MUCH cheaper to get a 520 and upgrade it to 4 megs...but that wouldn't be
> quite the same thing...]
> 
> What's it take to upgrade a Mega 2?
> 
> Don Rice
> FXDDR@ALASKA.bitnet

Around here, it's pretty easy to find a Mega at a dealer.  They seem to be
prety abundant.  I have a few friends that have both varieties.  One store
I know stopped carrying the Mega line because the store wasn't selling any
of them.

From what I've seen, it's not too tough to upgrade a Mega 2 to four megs of
RAM.  You'll need 16 1 mbit DRAMs, 16 capacitors, and quite a bit of
whatever you use to desolder things.  After removing the solder from the
holes where the chips should go, all one does is stick the chips in and add
the capacitors, solder it all up and  off you go.

The price difference (that I've seen) seems to make buying a Mega 4 about
$200 cheaper than buying a Mega 2 and upgrading it.

Oh well.

--Dean


----
Dean Brunette               {ucbvax,etc.}!hplabs!oliveb!olivej!dragon
               {ucbvax,etc.}!oliveb!olivej!{dragon-oatc,lobster}!dean

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atoenne@laura.UUCP (Andreas Toenne) (01/18/88)

In article <8801151736.AA20235@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET writes:
>A person here bought a Mega 4 and I got a brief look at it, so it appears that
>one does indeed exist.  The story of what he went through to get it was truly
>incredible...seems it is easier to find the Holy Grail or Noah's Ark than to
>buy a Mega 4.  Maybe Atari is trying the Rolls-Royce marketing strategy: make
>a few of them, and let everyone fight over them and pay high prices for the
>privilege of owning a limited edition.
Ha !
I'm pleased to hear that we germans aren't behind all the time :-)
I got my Mega4 without problems 3 months ago.
Currently I'm running a full implementation of Smalltalk80 on it.
(without blitter support sigh :-( )
>
>What's it take to upgrade a Mega 2?
Luck.
As my dealer told me, the Mega 2 has slow ram chips inside.
If you want to upgrade the Mega2 you have to replace these chips by faster
ones. Otherwise ram refresh might not work.


	Andreas Toenne

D

lharris@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Leonard Harris) (01/23/88)

The mythical atari PC also lives and is being sold by a few stores
in Toronto... Looks like a mega.
/leonard

joe@lakesys.UUCP (Joe Pantuso) (01/25/88)

In article <1988Jan23.125108.16246@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> lharris@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Leonard Harris) writes:
>The mythical atari PC also lives and is being sold by a few stores
>in Toronto... Looks like a mega.
>/leonard

Ah, Great!  Tell me, are they selling the one that is supposed to have EGA
capability built in?  And what is overall configuration, what is teh price??

I've recently seen the Atari Laser printer here, guess that's not big news
though.

Joe at  {ihnp4,uwvax}!uwmcsd1!lakesys!joe

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