Atari XE...anyone?

[gadzooks]

The weird thing I find is that nobody really talks about the XE.

I have one myself all in working order and it had a few good games and I knew it was a flop. The thing is I thought these things might have been as scarse as hens teeth?

Please what is the status quo on the good ol' XE, is it respected, is it very rare, or it is just not worth mentioning about.

 

gadzooks

[Atari-Jess]

Yay, time to use my skills.

 

The Atari XE is the "extended line, extended"

being the XL Extended line, or XE.

 

The XE were brought to be about the time the Atari ST came out for sale. At that point Jack Tramiel came in to power of atari.

 

There are TONS of XE units, not too rare

but not as common as say XL units.

 

65XE with 64kb of RAM

130XE with 128kb of RAM and expansion port

800XE only in europe but basically a 130XE with 64kb of RAM, or a 65XE with an expansion port

 

XE Game system, atari's attempt to get video gamers into computers. 64kb of RAM, detachable keyboard

 

the Atari Computer database, my site has more info.

 

the link is in my sig. below.

[Atari-Jess]

but you might already know all that.

 

the XE is prolly not as respected as the XL as it was post warner Atari. I own a XEGS

and currently its my only atari8bit.

 

but since it was the last 8bits atari made

Im sure they have some respect. I mean hey

the 130XE was the only stock 8-bit with 128kb

of ram and it had the memory management FREDDIE chip in there!

[atari70s]

im a big 8 bit fan and a very big xegs fan

[AtariKen64]

i remember commercials for the xe comparing it to the nes saying things like,

 

nintendo has a stupid robot, but the xe has a mega jamming keyboard rock on dude!.

 

then theres me sitting there with my 7800 in hand going huh? but i thought... oh.

[Mindfield]

The 130 didn't have Freddy, or an MMU of any kind, for that matter. Those were to be used in the never-released 1400XL (along with the SC-10 audio processor with V: Voice handler, internal 300 baud modem, and a telecomm program in ROM) and 1450XLD (which had all the features of the 1400XL, plus a built-in 5.25" double-sided, double-density floppy drive, with the option to add a second one internally, hence the "D" designation. This was an enormous beast.) Freddy never made it into any 8-bit machines, and with the advent of the ST line and its flat memory model, there was no need of it. (Unless you wanted to go beyond the machine's 4mb limitation, then you'd need to hack an MMU in.)

 

Also seem to recall around the same time that there was to be a third and final machine in the XL line, the 1400XLS. I haven't been able to find any information about it, but if memory serves (and we're going back some 17 years or so here) it was to be the same as a 1400XL, but with the inclusion of a 3" LCD monitor or something like that, making it quasi-portable. I'm certain I remember reading or hearing something about that at the time, though thinking on it now, it doesn't seem to fit with the "S" designation, for which I've no explanation. (Unless "S" means "Screen")But I'm absolutely certain there was to be a 1400XLS, in whatever form it may have taken. (Or rather, would have taken, had it made it past the prototype stage)

 

I also seem to recall that this article (which spoke of these vaporware machines in the past tense, as it was an article on just that topic) mentioned that they never made it to the light of day due, among other things, to high production cost.

 

[ 04-06-2002: Message edited by: Mindfield ]

[Atari-Jess]

FROM THE ATARI 8-BIT FAQ:

 

"All XE computers also include the FREDDIE memory management chip."

[Atari-Jess]

which is silly for the XEGS and the 65XE as they dont even have the extra RAM to make much use of it... (being more than 64kb as thats all the 6502/6502c processor could normally address)

[capnarrr]

My XEGS and 800 are currently the only working atari systems I have access to. Loved those XE game renditions, (mario bros, crystal castles, desert falcon). I don't think they worked with the old 800 system (probably due to lack of memory).

 

I'm doubtful that the system itself is particularly rare.

 

Also been searching everywhere for the roms to some of these great XE titles, but no luck. Very hard to find.

[+rdemming]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Atari-Jess:

which is silly for the XEGS and the 65XE as they dont even have the extra RAM to make much use of it... (being more than 64kb as thats all the 6502/6502c processor could normally address)

---

 

When I bought an 800XE (64KB) cheap I thought I could easily upgrade it to 128 KB. Unfortunately, the 800XE was missing the Freddy chip needed for bankswitching. The motherboard had space for the chip but it only contains some jumpers instead. So at least not all XE models have a Freddy chip.

 

Robert

[Atari-Jess]

well, I know that if it didn't have the extra ram a certain chip that accessed the freddie wouldn't be there, but the freddie itself?? geez.

[Mindfield]

I didn't know the XEs had Freddy. I'd always thought it was pretty much the same as the XL line in terms of its expandability with regards to memory.

 

Was Freddy used transparently by Antic, or did developers have to access it themselves when they wanted to do bank switching functions? Did it also mean that an expanded 800XL couldn't run any application that required 128k and used Freddy for banks witching?

[+rdemming]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert:

When I bought an 800XE (64KB) cheap I thought I could easily upgrade it to 128 KB. Unfortunately, the 800XE was missing the Freddy chip needed for bankswitching. The motherboard had space for the chip but it only contains some jumpers instead. So at least not all XE models have a Freddy chip.

---

 

Oops, I checked the schematics. Not the Freddy was missing but a logic chip (CO25953 or PAL 16L8). From the schematics, I conclude that Freddy is only driving the memory chips but the CO25953 is making the correct bankselect signals (A14, A15, CASMAN, CASBANK). Thus Freddy is not doing the bankswitching by itself.

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mindfield:

Was Freddy used transparently by Antic, or did developers have to access it themselves when they wanted to do bank switching functions? Did it also mean that an expanded 800XL couldn't run any application that required 128k and used Freddy for banks witching?

---

 

To bankswitch, you need to set certain bits in address $D301 (See

Mapping the Atari)

A nifty thing is that the Antic could see a different bank than the CPU.

 

I've upgraded my 800XL to 256KB and its completely 130XE compatible (it also supports the bankswitching for Antic). It consists of the memory chips and a bunch of 74LSxxx chips for bankswitch logic. Thus all 130XE only programs, run on my expanded 800XL.

 

Robert

[Gunstar]

The XE was only a "flop" in the US, but that's basically because most atari users already had an 800 or XL and an extra 64k wasn't enough to upgrade since hardly any software took advantage of the memory and/or you could still run programs on the lesser memory systems but there was more disk accessing. World wide, especially in england and Europe the XE's were pretty successful. There are thousands upon thousands of games and programs for the "8-bit" computers so it's not a flop. Also, the reason that you don't here much about it is because you are hearing about it but don't know it; it is generally refered to as the atari 8-bit along with the 400/800/xl's. at their heart they are all basically the same except for memory differences and a couple of graphic modes not available on the earlier 800 models. everyone just gemerally refers to ALL Atari 8-bits as "8-bits." I've had my XE for 17 years and love it. i recently sold a C64 that I bought a couple years ago, because it was no better (IMHO) than the Atari 8-bit and 90% of the games are the same. so I kept what I grew up with and sold the "imitator." (Atari 8-bits were around long before the C64, so it is the imitator as far as I'm concerned) The 130Xe is overall, the most powerful 8-bit ever made...IMHO. Certainly not a flop.

[Atari-Jess]

{Not the Freddy was missing but a logic chip (CO25953 or PAL 16L8).}

 

which was what I was talking about

and yeah, everyone just considers it "another" 8bit, and they aren't wrong

in doing so.

 

*sleepy...*