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73 Comments
- adamc7, on 11/05/2009, -0/+20I miss you Atari. T_T
- LBUCHA, on 11/05/2009, -0/+19I still have my Atari :)
- bcassner, on 11/06/2009, -0/+15I grew up with a TI99/4a, but I am actively looking for a Atari 400/800 on eBay, would prefer an XL though. This might be considered an obsolete system, but it has some of the best games especially text adventures. Long live Atari!
- puzzud, on 11/05/2009, -0/+15I am a Commodore 64 guy, but sometimes I wish I had an Atari 800.
- NeddieSeagoon, on 11/06/2009, -0/+12What's the deal with hiding half the text for no particular reason? Did someone think only one click per slideshow frame wasn't irritating enough?
- one1plus1one, on 11/06/2009, -0/+11Man... I remember as a kid dying to have an Atari-800.
I begged my parents but they were going through a tough financial time.
But I remember McDonald's had a contest at the time in which you could win an Atari-400 or 800.
So that was my backup plan and I began pleading with them to take me to McDonald's so I could try my luck with those game cards. I was sure I would win... but never did.
To this day I have never laid hands on a real and actual Atari-800... thinking of ordering one on Ebay! - mshensley, on 11/06/2009, -0/+10Star Raiders FTW!
- zodieman, on 11/06/2009, -0/+910 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!!"
20 GOTO 10 - lordmike, on 11/06/2009, -0/+9The Atari 800 was one sweet machine for its day. Until the commodore 64 came out, it was the undisputed leader in multimedia/game technology and Star Raiders was a game that just blew people away! It was a very robust system with a slow, but very powerful BASIC interpreter... The SIO ports on the unit were a precursor to USB.... certainly ahead of its time... It was also the first computer to have dedicated graphics and sound processing chips to relieve the relatively slow CPU... like a modern day 3-D graphics card, only back then, they could only support 2d sprites.
- ogletree, on 11/06/2009, -0/+8I used to have one of those. I have no idea why I never took it apart. I took everything apart. I had no idea the back came off and it had RAM cartridges. I wish I had kept that.
- acknotSW, on 11/06/2009, -0/+8I loved my 800XL, I had so many great games that for machine. There just never seemed to be enough time in the day for all the gaming I wanted to get done when I was a kid. Now, of course, it's so much worse :).
- Atario, on 11/06/2009, -0/+8Ahh, memories. I miss onboard keyclick sounds.
And I/O sounds in the TV speaker. You could tell the instant something was going wrong just by listening to that. Bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-bee-dee-(grr)-bee-dee-bee-dee... - kitkat102, on 11/06/2009, -0/+7My first computer was a 400. Loved that thing. Nice big chunky keys, not like the delicate pidding little things you get these days. Changed it for an 800XL for some reason, can't emember why - it was so long ago. Spent hours writing BASIC programs on that and had a brief foray into Aseembler as well. Those were the days.
- EvilNecro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6Fantastic machine (I still have mine from 1979), not so good of an article... littered with inaccuracies, and what's with the clicking to see all the caption test? Sheesh.
- darkfish, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6Many memorable hours were spent playing Wizard of Wor, Defender, Star Raiders, Miner 2049er and many more. I had an Apple II Plus which was cool for its day, an I liked writing some programs on it, but I always loved games on the 800 more.
- kpmc, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6I lost most of the late '70s to Star Raiders. I think?
Remember De-Re Atari and display list interupts - Ah, the joys of 6502 assembler. - jbmcb, on 11/06/2009, -0/+6> But I remember McDonald's had a contest at the time in which you could win an Atari-400 or 800.
Holy crap, that's the same contest that got me into computers. About 83-84, right?
I remember watching Wargames and thinking how awesome having a computer at home would be. Seeing the big in-store posters for the Ataris was the first time I realized I could actually get a machine in my home.
Alas, my first computer ended being a Timex Sinclair 1000. At least it had the 16k expansion pack(!)
I made up for it, though. I found out the huge Salvation Army distribution center/store downtown had a big "computer" section a few years ago. It was packed with old 8-bit machines and crappy PCs. It all went on sale - half off. I scored multiple Commodore 64's, a 128, Atari 800s, a Mattel Aquarius, a 2600, a couple of TI-99s with a PEX, an Adam, an Amiga 500, a 520ST, an Apple IIc+, and a huge wad of cables and peripherals. I'm still going through it all. - 1nhuman, on 11/06/2009, -0/+5Man, time flies. I remember wanting this machine bad. It was in display in the shopping mall next to my school. Every freaking lunch break I would drool over it. I never owned it, we did get a ZX Spectrum and later Commodore 64's.
- graemee, on 11/06/2009, -0/+5I wanted an 800 too, got a C64 and then was glad for it. the C64 was better supported in my area than the Atari. I still would like to find an 800. All I ever picked up was a 600XL and an 800XL.
- freezejeans, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Oh man...Star Raiders. Such an awesome game for the time. Once I learned what addresses to POKE and PEEK, life was never the same :D
- digginamish, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Ah, those were the days. Did you have the cassette drive that was the size of a bus too?
- lordmike, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Me too... :-)
- arnijr, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4I remember that machine, great game machine. My friend had a 400, with the awful flat keyboard that he later upgraded to a real keyboard.
At that time I had a BBC Micro model B. We Beeb users used to tease the Atari users that all their programming was a series of peek and poke, the Beeb had defined system calls and no need to peek and poke. You could include assembly if you really wanted to do something like that, but mostly we limited that to loader routines to move games in memory so they overwrote the floppy driver after loading. The memory was so limited that when you added a floppy drive and moved tape based games to floppy, the floppy controller took up space needed for the game. The solution was to load the game, it would then go up into video memory and then you had a really small assembly routine that moved it down before running it. The good old days :) - wbowen05, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4My mom gave it away when I was 10, because we just got a new IBM PS/1, plus I had 2/3 of the games on my NES. It still made me a sad panda :(
- raydeen, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4I had the 400 and the 410 tape drive (which only worked on days that didn't end iin 'y'). Star Raiders, PacMan, Miner 2049er, Wizard of Wor...oh good times. And learning how to code efficiently in only 13K or RAM (16K total, but BASIC and the OS would eat 3K and then any redefined character sets would eat some more...)
- mshensley, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Yeah, that was irritating and unnecessary.
- chaos7, on 11/06/2009, -1/+5i'd rather see inside an atari 2600
- Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4I wish we still have RAM cartridges/modules instead of bare DIMM chips and those stupid DIMM slots.
Come to think of it, I also miss slot loading CPUs like the PIII and the original Athlon series.
Vive le cartridge! - CaffieneMan, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Yeah Atari 800!!!!! my first computer!
- bemenaker, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4It helped if you drilled a hole in the tape drive so you could get to the speed adjustment screw then you could tune the type by ear for better loading stability.
- merlinklein, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4And they Published the Complete Source Code to the Operating System Too (8K of 6502 Assembly)
Remember the Atari Technical System Notes. - spoulson, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Agreed. According to Ars Technica's tribute to Amiga, they revealed the designers built upon some of the advanced features found in the Atari's graphics processors.
It's a shame the C64 blew it out of the market, because the Atari hardware was better on graphics, sound and CPU power.
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2007/07/a-his ... - planetidiot, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4To think we had to wait for the N64 for 4 joystick ports. That was my favorite feature of the Atari 800, for the few games that used it.
- merlinklein, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4It was brillant!
A high Beep for a disk read,
A dull Thud for a disk write. - swizzcheez, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4That was a very good design. I never had one -- was a Commodore freak growing up but I think that was a very solid design they had there. Thanks for posting that!
- scanman20, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3I miss my Atari 400 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum ... with its flat, plastic membrane keyboard and cassette tape drive. Ah the good ol days.
- jbmcb, on 11/06/2009, -1/+4The TI99/4A was a 16-bit machine, interloper.
- planetidiot, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3yes an all counts, but since they were ill-supported end-of-console-life peripherals they didn't really count :)
I'll say the N64 made much better use of the 4 ports. I can only think of 2 Atari 800 games off the top of my head that used them: M.U.L.E. and some other one with these teleporting wizards that i cannot remember the name of for the life of me.
But we played enough M.U.L.E. to make up for it! - Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3The BASIC interpreter was "slow" because of an error. If I recall, it was a hardware error. When it was fixed, Atari BASIC was a whole lot faster and arguably more powerful than the Microsoft BASIC of the time.
- bemenaker, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3First computer was the Atari 400, then a used 800, then a C64, and finally an Atari 800XL. I loved those machines.
- antdude, on 11/07/2009, -0/+3TI99/4a rocked. Munchman, Alphine, The Attack, Amazing Game, Car Wars (hard game), TI Invaders, etc. I think I need to pull up MESS and play some games. ;)
- Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3I think the contest was in 1982. One day I was fondly remembering how many Chicken McNuggets meals the family bought trying to win Atari prizes and I thought I'd search the net to see if anyone still had any of the scratchers in virgin form. And sure enough, the Atari Museum has some:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/ahs_archives/archives/m ... - Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3And the creator of Star Raiders went on to work on the Atari ST and now apparently works for the evil Microsoft.
- Elranzer, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3HELLO WORLD!!
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HELLO WORLD!! - etx313, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3I still have my Atari 800XL with a floppy disk drive and cassette drive! It was my first computer box.
- Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3I am ashamed now to admit that I didn't ever have an Atari 8-bit computer. I had grown up with the 2600 but when it came time for the family to get a computer, Atari hit the skids in 1984. I was an Atari fan so I didn't want a Commodore 64 - like my other friends who pirated just about every game they had - and then we heard that Atari was back and preparing new 16-bit computers and we ultimately picked up the 1040ST(f) in 1986 [and the Falcon in 1992, or was it 1991?].
I also had the 7800, the Lynx I & II, and the Jaguar. Since then, I've picked up a 5200 [which was an object of lust in 1982 when I was 8] and I do intend to acquire an 800, an 800XL, and if I'm lucky, a collector 1400XL.
The industry could use a resurgent Atari [and/or Amiga] back kicking ass. It really sucks that Apple is the only other company challenging the status quo and I say that as I type this on my MacBook. - LBUCHA, on 11/06/2009, -0/+3favorite game??? pit fall? spider fighter?
- paker, on 11/07/2009, -0/+3A 128k RAM card cost almost $800 when I bought mine.
- Remingtonh, on 11/15/2009, -0/+2^B
- Lynxpro, on 11/06/2009, -0/+2The paddles on the 2600 allowed for 4 players.
Didn't the Genesis have 4 player adapters? I know there was one for the Atari ST but few games supported it [I don't even think Gauntlet 2 supported it either]. And there also was one for the Jaguar... -
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