ClassicGaming.com 8-bit Museum piece

[Shawn Jefferson]

I was surfing around and came across this site, and started reading this article about the history of the 8-bit line:

 

http://www.classicgaming.com/museum/atari8bit/

 

It seems to have a few technical errors (AFAIK.)

 

"However once it hit the market, it was soon found that much of the vast array of Atari software already out there would not run on the 1200XL."

 

I haven't had much difficulty running software on my 1200XL, with the exception of the titles that require the 400/800 OS. (This isn't really that many, hardly "much of the vast array" I'd say. ALL XL/XE computers have this problem.

 

"The 600XL was the replacement for it's venerable 400, but now included a regular keyboard and the ability to expand up to 48k. The 800XL replaced the original 800 model, coming with 64K and expandable to 128K."

 

The 600XL could be upgraded to 64k, AFAIK. The 800XL *could not* be upgraded to 128k without doing some hacking (soldering) and even so, I don't recall seeing 128k upgrades for it. 256k seemed to be the common third party upgrade. Atari didn't design the computer to be upgraded.

 

"Unfortunately, the only thing ever released for this new port was the ram expansion cartridge for the 600XL."

 

Not really incorrect, but rather it should be explicitly stated that Atari did not produce anything for the PBI. Other company's did.

 

"The lower end of the line, and considered more of a gaming computer (as all previous low end Atari models were), the 65XE came with 64K of memory and no expansion bus."

 

We now know that in some European countries the 65XE DID have the ECI.

 

"The 130XE came 130K of memory, some enhanced memory access circuitry (which was never really used), and the expansion interface used in the XL series (Parallel Bus Interface) was dropped."

 

128k of memory. The "enhanced memory access circuitry" was used to address the additional 64k by the CPU and ANTIC independently.