A few questions about the 800-series

[liquidcross]

Hey guys. I'm a newbie as far as Atari computers go, but the 8-bit computers just seem to have captured my interest; that, and an ST isn't going to happen right now. I just don't have the room, or the cash.

 

Anyways, I had some basic questions about the 800-series; please forgive my stupidity.

 

1.) What upgrade options are there (i.e., memory, peripherals, etc.)?

 

2.) What else can you use an 800 for, besides gaming? Any recommended programs? I know there's some DOS-type stuff...

 

3.) I've mainly got my eyes on the 800XL, but would the XE be a horrible purchase? I know the keyboard's "mushy," but can it still do all the computer stuff that the 800s could, or is it strictly for games?

 

Thanks in advance!

[oesii]

Here's the 8bit faq:

 

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/faq/

 

There's also a good newsgroup which posts when the faq is updated and is a good place for more info:

 

Atari 8bit

 

Either the 800xl or the 130xe would be great purchases and I don't think you'll regret either one of them. When you do pick up one of these it would be very wise to budget another $30 or so to pickup a sio2pc cable that will let you use your PC's hard drive as an Atari floppy and hard drive. That way you can have every game ever posted on the net at your disposal. Two good places to get it:

 

http://www.atariage.com/store/product_info...products_id=107

 

http://www.atarimax.com

 

 

Just do it!

[liquidcross]

Thanks for the links! Checking them out now...

When you do pick up one of these it would be very wise to budget another $30 or so to pickup a sio2pc cable that will let you use your PC's hard drive as an Atari floppy and hard drive.  

I use a Mac, not a PC. So I dunno if that cable will work properly through a serial-to-USB adapter.

[andy_bernstein]

In this case, you'll need to use Virtual PC on your Macintosh with a USB to Serial adapter + the necessary (emulated) PC software.

 

I remember reading on the forum recently that a PC user was able to sync an ATARI and a PC through a USB to Serial Adapter (+ the SIO2PC cable) so it seems to work. Also, I'd believe that Virtual PC (version 7 after all) does a good job at emulating the serial port.

 

Anyway, welcome Mac user !

 

AB (Atari 8-bit + Macintosh Addict).

[doncleth]

Yes, the USB-to-Serial adaptor will work with APE. However note that APE can only use COM1-COM4. I was just lucky that my laptop PC had COM3 available.