I can vividly remember drooling over those lovely Discovery Pack adverts back when I was a kid, and it seems I'll stay at drooling, as this excellent Atari 520 ST Discovery Pack auction is a UK only thing. Oh, well. Guess Atari ST emulation will have to do for a bit more and them classic top 50 ST games will keep on teasing me. You islanders, on the other hand, better know you'll be getting a chance at an Atari 520 STe in its complete Discovery Pack box (including manuals, apps, games, leads etc), some demo/mag disks, a dust cover, a variety of other extras and a large selection of boxed games, among which you can find such gems as Kick Off 2, Speedball 2, Utopia, Xenon 2, Flood, Rick Dangerous and Sim City. Everything seems to be in top condition too.
:/ Is that Jean Claude Van-Damm on the box..?
ReplyDeleteHmm.. the similarity is uncanny, but, well, no. It wouldn't be creative enough I guess.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! It does look like JCVD! Though if I was Atari and I had paid JCVD's fee, I would have him kicking some fella's face off on the box. Not creative enough? What can be more creative than kicking a guys mush clean off.
ReplyDeleteo-[]:-D
Thanks for the link, Gnomey. You do get around, don't you? The Discovery Pack was great: a nice introduction to the ST's all rounder capabilities. Some top games and all you need to make some of your own? Yes please.
Me? Around? Never my friend! I'm a pillar of stability. A monolith of not going around. A mountain of immovability. And I do want a bloody Discovery Pack too!
ReplyDeletePS. JCVD... Got me confused there for a moment. Thought you were referring to some sort ST by JVC or something. Go figure...
Lol, I googled this guys face and I came here.
ReplyDeleteA cutomer just gave me a mint atari st boxed as new with the discovery pack above (same everything( and I thought it was JCVD too.
It does look like him and damme was pretty popular back then.
Can someone find out? Its really annoying cos he keeps staring at me.
I'm afraid I did try finding out more, but miserably failed oh dear Anonymous. Still, you can always enjoy your ST. Know you will actually.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I had this! I'd forgotten what the box looked like :)
ReplyDeleteQuite a beauty though, eh?
ReplyDeleteI think you (or the auction writer) is mistaken- I'm pretty sure that the original Discovery Pack was STFM-based. Mine certainly was.
ReplyDeleteThe STE was definitely in the later Discovery Xtra Pack released in mid-91.
Atari totally blew it with the STE. IIRC it originally launched at the end of the 80s and it initially appeared that it was going to replace the STFM at the same price point.
This would have made sense- it was around the time that the Amiga was starting to overtake the ST's early success, due no doubt to it becoming affordable to people who would previously have considered the ST.
But no, they decided to continue selling the STFM and charge a bit more for the STE. So those buying on price would have bought the cheaper STFM (like I did) and those with the extra hundred quid or so probably went for the Amiga.
Result; more Amiga sales, and a much smaller number of STEs in use, meaning most software didn't bother to support its "enhanced" features, making it in turn less attractive to buyers.
The STE *did* replace the STFM (at the same price) when the Discovery Xtra Pack came out in mid-91... but that was too late.
Why, thanks for the truly enlightening comment dear Anonymous. It's deeply appreciated and delves on a matter where I couldn't really add much.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I don't think I claimed this was the first Discovery pack ever, but I also can't remember the auction text.
Cheers!
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