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1200XL Owners Club (serial tracker)


kheller2

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I've bid on quite a few 1200XLs in the past year, but as soon as I see Ebay ID t***h bidding, I usually just step back and watch the show. :) Seriously, if I had the funds and storage space for fifty 1200XLs then I would be buying them up also! It is a beautiful machine. I only have one working at the moment, and two that need some TLC, so one or two more is all I need. Three days ago one sold for $89.99 with free shipping with a Buy it Now. You have to be quick on those...

 

What's remarkable is that there are so many still "out in the wild." They're still showing up, even now. So, on the plus side, this little step of mine into madness may have helped bubble other 1200XLs that might never have seen the light of day again.

 

I'd asked the seller of this recent adoption whether they were their own collection, or just something they'd picked up along the way. They responded that they had purchased these particular 1200XLs at a sale being held at "a Montosseri High School here in St Louis that had been closed up since the late 1980 s , it was a real time capsule. The building was heated/ac for all that time!"

 

I've enjoyed hearing the backstories of some of the Atari hardware that I've adopted over the past year, when there's history to come with it. Great stuff!

 

But to see, even after I've adopted nearly 50 of them, so many 1200XLs as have popped up since January... that's great!

 

It'll be nice to watch the auctions from the sidelines again; but if I see a deal, I won't hesitate (and I only ever buy-it-now on condition that I can pay for it immediately, period) to pick it up. Same with auctions I win: I pay immediately. That principle's been important to me throughout the process of adopting this Atari collection by lots and pieces over this past year.

 

For those of you in the market, make sure to also visit the Goodwill online bidding site, because I picked up 2 or 3 1200XLs from there over the course of the year.

 

--Tim

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Updated. Man, I need to find 3 more to put me in the top 3. And half the ones I have aren't even complete anymore (one went through a fire, another was hacked to death). Tim, they may be popping up like wild flowers where you are, but around the Eastern US area (PA, NJ, DE, NY, etc.) I haven't seen one for sale in years. The closest I found was a thrift store in southern VA that wouldn't even answer my calls to buy it!

 

PS.. I just realized that having this type of "registry" might be looked upon as personally invasive. (You know who you are eBay seller, and you could also track who Tim has gotten a few from.)

 

However... it is such a small crowd of folks who own these units.

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Updated. Man, I need to find 3 more to put me in the top 3. And half the ones I have aren't even complete anymore (one went through a fire, another was hacked to death). Tim, they may be popping up like wild flowers where you are, but around the Eastern US area (PA, NJ, DE, NY, etc.) I haven't seen one for sale in years. The closest I found was a thrift store in southern VA that wouldn't even answer my calls to buy it!

 

PS.. I just realized that having this type of "registry" might be looked upon as personally invasive. (You know who you are eBay seller, and you could also track who Tim has gotten a few from.)

 

However... it is such a small crowd of folks who own these units.

 

Actually, the vast majority of mine came from eBay, and I've never seen one near me (for example, Craigslist)-- although I think a couple of the 1200XLs came from here in Michigan, north of where I live; however, they were purchased through eBay.

 

The Goodwill online store that I mentioned previously is actually ShopGoodwill.com for those who may not be aware of this resource for Atari hardware. They currently have an XEGS system up for auction, in fact. I can't remember if it ends this evening or Friday evening, though. And they always have 2600/5200/7800 items, which probably get snatched up for resale on eBay with intent to profit.

 

They also have a Commodore 1702 monitor up for auction.

 

As for the invasive nature of a registry such as this, I'd wondered about that. But given that there are a limited number of 1200XLs remaining, it's still nice to know that many of them are in the hands of people who will take care of them, rather than out in the wild collecting dust. In my case, I use my real name here, so any hopes of maintaining anonymity has pretty much gone out the door. :-o

 

Besides, privacy has been on the wane for some time. Those that want to find out what-not about people already have the ability to do so anyhow.

 

And who knows... maybe someone had a 1200XL at one point (in the case of this thread), and wondered what ever happened to it when they sold it off years ago. Better to know that someone here at AA has it now, than to wonder if it's dead and buried in some landfill. ^_^

 

--Tim

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Alright, I've eye-balled and touched each one to make sure, along with verified the serial.

It's nice to see this spread of serial numbers in a collection, because you find some of the units were built within 100 of each other. In one case, one was made 40 units behind their sibling. That, to me, is pretty cool. :!:

Moving onnnnnn, since you aren't reading this for all that... Down to business.

NOTE: In the table below, there is one 1200XL which has no indication of a third and final number (production-related): 83s DA 015265
ALSO: One of the 1200XLs arrived with a scrubbed off, yellowing label and nothing visible by way of a serial number. The mainboard was no help in identifying this particular 1200XL, so I refer to this one as Lil Orphan Atari.
LASTLY: If there is a listing that has two sets of 3-digit production numbers, this is because the label isn't clear enough to say with certainty. It looks like it could go either way with those specific 1200XLs.

Final tally for me is below.

Have a great weekend, everyone!
--Tim

_________________________________________________________

 

72R DA 04104 173
72R DA 04798 173
72R DA 05870 173
72R DA 06306 173
72R DA 08679 193
72R DA 08693 193
72R DA 08774 193
72R DA 10475 203
72R DA 17954 223
72R DA 18278 223
72R DA 20079 233
72R DA 20861 233
72R DA 21038 233
72R DA 21198 233
72R DA 22745 233
72R DA 24629 253
72R DA 25098 253
72R DA 25274 253
72R DA 26256 263
72R DA 26532 263
72R DA 26627 263
72R DA 27415 273
72R DA 28232 283
72R DA 28651 293
72R DA 28758 293
72R DA 28798 293

83S DA 003851 083?
83S DA 009504 103
83S DA 012254 093
83s DA 013590 133
83S DA 013812 133
83S DA 014785 113
83s DA 014844 113
83s DA 015265
83S DA 020560 073
83S DA 021385 153
83s DA 022701 183
83s DA 022716 183
83s DA 022798 183
83s DA 024555 213
83S DA 025008 153/8
83S DA 025105 153
83S DA 029619 213
83S DA 49762 173
83s DA 51297 123?
83S DA 52877 163
83S DA 53483 163
83S DA 74543 208
83s DA 75689 193
83S DA 77933 203

Li'l Orphan Atari

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Alright, I've eye-balled and touched each one to make sure, along with verified the serial.

 

It's nice to see this spread of serial numbers in a collection, because you find some of the units were built within 100 of each other. In one case, one was made 40 units behind their sibling. That, to me, is pretty cool. :!:

 

Moving onnnnnn, since you aren't reading this for all that... Down to business.

 

NOTE: In the table below, there is one 1200XL which has no indication of a third and final number (production-related): 83s DA 015265

ALSO: One of the 1200XLs arrived with a scrubbed off, yellowing label and nothing visible by way of a serial number. The mainboard was no help in identifying this particular 1200XL, so I refer to this one as Lil Orphan Atari.

LASTLY: If there is a listing that has two sets of 3-digit production numbers, this is because the label isn't clear enough to say with certainty. It looks like it could go either way with those specific 1200XLs.

 

Final tally for me is below.

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

--Tim

_________________________________________________________

 

72R DA 04104 173

72R DA 04798 173

72R DA 05870 173

72R DA 06306 173

72R DA 08679 193

72R DA 08693 193

72R DA 08774 193

72R DA 10475 203

72R DA 17954 223

72R DA 18278 223

72R DA 20079 233

72R DA 20861 233

72R DA 21038 233

72R DA 21198 233

72R DA 22745 233

72R DA 24629 253

72R DA 25098 253

72R DA 25274 253

72R DA 26256 263

72R DA 26532 263

72R DA 26627 263

72R DA 27415 273

72R DA 28232 283

72R DA 28651 293

72R DA 28758 293

72R DA 28798 293

 

83S DA 003851 083?

83S DA 009504 103

83S DA 012254 093

83s DA 013590 133

83S DA 013812 133

83S DA 014785 113

83s DA 014844 113

83s DA 015265

83S DA 020560 073

83S DA 021385 153

83s DA 022701 183

83s DA 022716 183

83s DA 022798 183

83s DA 024555 213

83S DA 025008 153/8

83S DA 025105 153

83S DA 029619 213

83S DA 49762 173

83s DA 51297 123?

83S DA 52877 163

83S DA 53483 163

83S DA 74543 208

83s DA 75689 193

83S DA 77933 203

 

Li'l Orphan Atari

 

 

You're planning a complete takeover or you plan to construct a small dwelling out of them? :D

Edited by MrFish
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  • 1 month later...

2 x 1200XLs for me

 

72R DA 16354 213 (SIO port not working, keyboard mylar fail)

82S DA 49537 173 (New mylar, works perfectly)

 

EDIT : I see some discussion on 'where are people getting 1200XLs'. I bought these back in 2014 and haven't gotten to them until now :). 1 from VCF East computer show, and 1 from Craigslist out in Phoenix, AZ.. (thanks to a friend of mine for picking it up!).

 

I'm debating whether to troubleshoot the 'non working' 1200XL or not.. P.S. Best Electronics keyboard mylar is awesome!

Edited by Xebec
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I'm debating whether to troubleshoot the 'non working' 1200XL or not.. P.S. Best Electronics keyboard mylar is awesome!

 

Do it! It's fun! :D

 

post-30400-0-07493200-1500754160_thumb.jpg

 

post-30400-0-35244600-1500754177_thumb.jpg

 

post-30400-0-88794300-1500754203_thumb.jpg

 

 

P.S. No SIO sounds like an issue with POKEY to me; been there, done that. And yes, sound and keyboard can still work fine even when the serial I/O parts of the chip are malfunctioning.

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Do it! It's fun! :D

 

 

P.S. No SIO sounds like an issue with POKEY to me; been there, done that. And yes, sound and keyboard can still work fine even when the serial I/O parts of the chip are malfunctioning.

 

LOL.. I was just watching your 1200XL video for fun -- I see you went through quite the ringer for that :). Yeah my guess was POKEY or the pokey connection.. I've repaired 2 x 800XLs lately.. 1 of these 1200XLs.. and next project is a 130XE which has bad XRAM.. and of course while pulling the chips out after desoldering, I cut a couple of traces so .. wiring time :).

 

The bad 1200XL will go into storage for now.. Just like I have a bad 65XE that's there for parts for the 130XE when that's fixed :)

 

After the 130XE.. then I have 3 x 800s that don't work.. that should be it though :)

 

P.S. Really nice job on getting that 1200XL to work btw!

Edited by Xebec
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got a "working" 1200XL off eBay where none of the keys actually work. Ordered a Mylar!

 

Here is my SN and label. I did not know they made 1200's in Hong Kong. I assume they are of inferior build quality? (Is that a true assumption?)

 

72R DA 24821 253

 

post-50483-0-25056000-1502579981.jpg

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Here is my SN and label. I did not know they made 1200's in Hong Kong. I assume they are of inferior build quality? (Is that a true assumption?)

 

 

Not at all. Both mine were made in Hong Kong, as were one of my 400's and one of my 800XL's. In fact, the 800XL is WAY better-made than the later Taiwan-made 800XL's I have.

 

EDITED: Oops. My 1200XL's are Taiwan-made, as are most of my 2600's and two of my 800XL's. One of those 800XL's is pretty well-made, the other, eh ... not so much. :)

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Also, the first post in this thread says it hasn't been updated since 2009. Is that true? If so, I was thining of creating a Google Docs spreadsheet to catalog everything from that first thread and then everything since 2009, but didn't want to do that if someone else has already done so.

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Sorry, I mistyped. My 1200XL was made in Taiwan. For some reason, I thought everything before the 800XL was made in Cupertino. Cleary that is incorrect.

 

Thank you.

 

Actually, come to think of it, I gotta go look at my 1200XL labels. I may be mis-remembering. But at any rate, the general consensus is earlier stuff is better-built, regardless of country. As production continued, and as Atari's fortunes waned through 1983 and into 1984, there was continuing pressure to cut costs, simplify, speed up production, etc. Few chips were socketed and more were soldered, assembly was sloppier than would have been tolerated in earlier years, etc.

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Also, the first post in this thread says it hasn't been updated since 2009. Is that true? If so, I was thining of creating a Google Docs spreadsheet to catalog everything from that first thread and then everything since 2009, but didn't want to do that if someone else has already done so.

 

Post #350 has as of that date the latest update.

Edited by rdea6
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Um the fist post was updated in June. The one stats section hasn't changed positions since 09 and post 411 says when it was last updated as well.

 

My bad. Sorry. I misread the chart at the top showing wihen the last time a newer or older machine had been found to mean the last time the whole list was updated. I did not notice the edit tag at the bottom.

 

Than you for keeping this list, it is fascinating information!

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