The Spirit of Atari Lives on in This Custom-Built 68k Retro Computer

Have you played Atari today? The early personal computers made by Atari in the ‘80s and ‘90s are harder to come by with each passing year, so those who missed out back then may have never had the chance to experience them firsthand. But thanks to Anders Granlund, you can now — sort of. He has designed and built a custom computer called Raven that is similar to an Atari ST, although it is not an exact clone. It will, however, run GEM/TOS natively so you can scratch your retro itch.

The homemade machine is powered by a Motorola 68060 processor and was created primarily as a learning project and a playground for low-level experimentation. Granlund focused on recreating the spirit of classic Atari systems while adding enough flexibility to make the platform useful for developers, hardware hackers, and retro computing enthusiasts.

Raven runs GEM/TOS natively, while also aiming for compatibility with older Atari ST games through software emulation. It currently runs EmuTOS and FreeMiNT, giving users access to a very capable retro operating environment.

Raven supports up to 48MB of RAM and 16MB of ROM, along with PS/2 peripherals, optional USB keyboard and mouse support, MIDI input and output, real-time clock functionality, and legacy Atari joystick, serial, and parallel ports. There is also a 44-pin IDE interface for CompactFlash storage adapters, plus four 16-bit ISA expansion slots that allow the system to use vintage graphics cards.

A Yamaha YM2149 sound chip provides classic Atari-style audio, while configurable TRS audio ports can switch between MIDI and stereo YM audio output through motherboard jumpers. The board also includes fan control circuitry, I2C expansion capabilities, and a built-in debug monitor accessible through a dedicated non-maskable interrupt button.

The computer’s memory and interrupt architecture is designed to mimic Atari hardware while taking advantage of the Motorola 68060’s capabilities. Granlund uses CPLDs and custom BIOS logic to emulate legacy behaviors that older software expects, including interrupt vector tricks that help maintain compatibility with classic Atari applications.

Raven is not the easiest route into retro computing, but for enthusiasts who miss the era when personal computers expected users to tinker, modify, and debug, Raven may be one of the best Atari-inspired projects yet.