Released by Atari Corporation in 1985, the Atari ST was one of the main 16-bit home computers of the second half of the 1980s. It arrived before the Amiga 500 and stood out for its aggressive price, GEM graphical interface, bundled mouse and position between home computer, creative tool and lower-cost Macintosh alternative. It found a solid audience in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, while remaining more niche in North America.

Its architecture was based on a Motorola 68000 running at 8 MHz, with 512 KB or 1 MB of RAM in the most common models. The main medium was the 3.5-inch floppy disk, alongside cartridges and external hard disks. Graphics used a 512-color palette, with 16 colors in low resolution, 4 colors in medium resolution and a sharp 640×400 monochrome mode widely used for productivity. The Yamaha YM2149 audio chip was simpler than the Amiga’s Paula, but the built-in MIDI ports made the ST especially popular with musicians and home studios.

Sales of the ST family are generally estimated at several million units. As a direct rival to the Amiga, and partly to PC compatibles and Macintosh, the Atari ST remains linked to games such as Dungeon Master, Sundog, Starglider, Carrier Command, Another World, Populous, Lemmings and Rick Dangerous.