svenski

You have to understand that B&C, like Best, are sitting on stock that goes up in value year on year as numbers dwindle. B&C aren't cheap, neither is Best but they are providing a service. If you're looking for replacement psu's , even replacement computers then ebay, carboot/garage sales etc are ideal. If you're looking for new/as new/recon units then B&C and Best are cheap compared to some of the stupid prices stuff goes for on ebay. I've not used Best yet but have dealt with B&C several times and their support and service has been excellent.

Seven thousand is taking the p i double s. It wouldn't surprise me if someone did use BIN, such is ebay.

Have several hundred floppies, not one has failed yet. Not had a problem with tapes either so far.

The Atari 1010 is considered the most reliable of the Atari cassette units. A large amount of titles were released only on cassette and as oesii said, the 1010 is great for things like the Atari Conversational Language programs. These programs actually play sound whilst loading in the background so you can be listening to Spanish whilst the next lesson loads. Also, with the Atari tape units you can write a simple program that turns your Atari into a virtual disco, displaying different colors or graphics based on the sounds being inputted via the tape unit.

Worst condition stuff I've seen so far was 2 Atari 65XE's I bought as part of a bundle, cheap on ebay. The seller said, and I quote "a bit grubby but fully working". Luckily the bundle had some gems in it so I wasn't too bothered if one or 2 items were faulty. The first 65XE worked but had been the victim of passive chain-smoking or something, either that or it was radioactive. I swear it almost glowed when I turned off the lights. It had lots of dust and general muck on it but cleaned up ok apart from the yellowing. I call this 65 XE Marvin. The second was filthy. It was covered in bits of someone's dinner, muck, crayon, bogeys, dust etc. The keyboard looked like someone had sat on it. I call this 65 XE Frank. Frank fired up ok, the keyboard was a mess but at least he was worth cleaning up. Put it this way, there was that much crap all over the case (must have been there for years) that when it was cleaned it was like new, no sign of ageing or yellowing whatsoever. Inside, the shielding was covered in grease (don't ask me how it got in there) but that cleaned up ok. Because Frank now looked almost like new, he ended up with Marvin's keyboard.

Well done A2600, as it happens I got a Rana drive today as part of someones old atari collection. Now I've got to see if it works

Just answered my own post. Anyone got any experience of running a PAL-B 7800 on a UK tv?

I've tried both approaches - putting in my maximum bid right off the bat or waiting until the end and sniping. If you put in your maximum bid say a day into the auction, 9/10 times someone will bid, see that they're being automatically outbid and just keep upping until they beat you. So, 6 days left and your max bid was $40, now the item is $41. A lot of people have no clue what the value of an item should be. If they see a high bid right off the bat their eyes fill with dollar signs (because they think they're buying something rare/valuable etc) and they'll just outbid you.

I'm presuming (but I'm not sure) that Atari made different PAL versions of the 7800 for Europe, would be this correct? I know in Holland the sound is carried on a different frequency (or something) and in Germany they use PAL-M, then you have France with SECAM....etc. All the 7800's I've seen on offer all have the same boxes and instructions (all in English) . Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Kepone, Jetbook Jack is right, you can use the 800/810 etc PSU or the PSU that shipped with the XF-551 disk drive. Best Electronics are a good place to source from. Obviously, regardless of where you buy from, that PSU might be relatively pricey for shipping because of its weight. The 1200XL originally shipped with a cable to switch box, designed for old style TVs. Using a new RF lead will bypass that problem. You can set your 1200XL to output to tv channel 2 or 3, just make sure you remember which one you have it set to when tuning in. You should get a black screen with "ATARI" in multi colors when you power up your machine without a cartridge inserted.

I've got an NTSC Atari 1200XL , trying to hook it up to a PAL tv. Both the tv and my VCR will display NTSC no problem, the VCR will take any signal and display it as whatever - pal, secam, ntsc etc. I can't get a picture, but I'm not sure what to expect. The XL has a channel 2/3 selector for tv output. This relates only to NTSC tvs, so not sure if my tv or video would cover them. The switchbox tv connector is the reverse of what it should be for a UK tv, so I'm just using a straight computer to tv lead. Should I be getting a signal of some sort or would I have to try and source an atari to s-vhs lead or similar to get around the NTSC issue? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Is Contiki a web browser?, I've only heard it mentioned a couple of times. Do you have a link? Sounds fantastic, if it is indeed a browser client.

They've got the usual Atari monitor and RF tv outputs. I've got a psu somewhere that I'm hunting for now in lots of old boxes so I'll see what its like when I get it going. I'll also do some digging to see if there are some cables anywhere, there would have been some 8-bit to scart cables made at some point by someone.

jon-paul, Thanks for that. There are 2 Atari PSUs that would fit the bill. Thanks for clearing the clouds! On the NTSC issues, I'm sure I remember Atari nuts running NTSC stuff quite happily, the only issue being compatibility with some UK only software. However, having said that, I've got nagging doubts. I'm thinking black and white display, possibly no sound etc. Would this be right? I doubt personally I'd be able to rig up a cable so I'll do some looking and see if I can source one.

When you consider the 65/130/800 XE's had a production life of almost seven years compared to the 800XLs two, then you'd probably say one of the XE models had the 'most sold' issue in the bag. The 130XE never sold in huge numbers due to price. Also, the eastern european markets just didn't compare to western europe, the UK and north america when you consider market size. I would say the 800XL is overall, the biggest seller, followed by the 65 XE. The 800XE seemed to be an Eastern European version that made its way westward. They crop up in Germany and Holland.

Yeah, Atari announced it was discontinuing the 400 and 800 as they launched the 1200XL. Improvements in the OS, plus the new design, put a lot of people off and they rushed to snap up remaining stocks of 400s and 800s. The 1200XL was around for just a year before Atari scrapped it and launched the 600XL and the , sexy, 800XL.

This may sound like a really dumb question. I have an NTSC 1200XL without power supply. Can I use a UK power supply (for example a UK PSU that would ship with an 800XL) or would I need to get an American PSU and then use a step down converter? Failing that, does anyone know of an off the shelf power supply that would work? Thanks for your help.