KBRpilot

Thanks. It took me a long time to find a deal I was happy with on an 800xl myself. I have an 800 that I had gotten some years ago that was in horrible shape that I rebuilt, but this 800xl I only recently got and looks practically new. Unknown to myself at the time of purchase, it also has been upgraded with a Newell 256KXl memory module. This was a rather nice surprise as I can run enhanced 130XE software on it. Back in the 80's my older brother had gotten a 400 when I was 12, this is what made me want to get an Atari computer. It was my luck that they were on sale at the time I bought mine with birthday money, otherwise I probably would have gotten a 600xl.

I'm a bit late to the party, but really enjoyed looking at the nostalgic pictures. Thanks to everyone posting. Here's a picture I happen to have of me with my Atari 800XL in 1985. I was fourteen and spent the whole summer of that year working to buy the disk drive. This here is just after Christmas or on Christmas because I had received that aquarium as a gift as well as the Adventure Master text adventure making software in the picture. Though not the same one, here's my current 800xl in the setup in my workroom where I go these days to get my 8-bit computer fix. The Atari 800XL remains my most fondly remembered computer from the eighties.

Hello, I recently found a TI99/4A in a local thrift store and since I have been fascinated with the system and am a retro gamer, I decided to get it and start collecting for it. Though I had a TRS80 Model 1, an Atari 800XL and also a C64c in the 80's I never had this computer so I'm pretty new to it. Recently I got some games and have been enjoying playing with it (have a video of the unboxing the games on my Youtube channel) and an old Radio Shack CCR-81 recorder that I have works well with it. I would also like to be able to play disk games, but since this is a system I get out when I want to use it and put it away when not using it, the big 1/2 tower like case for the disk drive add-on is a bit inconvenient for me. Looking for alternatives, I learned about the NanoPEB. I use similar options for my Atari 800 and my C128. Does anyone know if it's still possible to buy a NanoPEB and if so, where? Thanks for any help.

Good luck, I don't think you'll be disappointed regardless of the model you choose as long as it has at least 48k, though 64k will get you a slightly bigger selection of software. I use an 800 myself and love it, though I would like to get a good working 800xl in my collection for nostalgic reasons as that is what I had in the 80's. Even though it doesn't match color-wise, I prefer and use a 1050 disk drive with my 800 as IMHO it is the best all around 5 1/4 drive that Atari put out. How ever I use my 800 purely for my enjoyment so matching peripherals isn't a big concern. I highly recommend checking out the SIO2PC adapters. I use one combined with a small netbook setting next to my 800. It opens a whole world of software that you otherwise would never be able to get ahold of today, not to mention being handy for backing up aging disks.

I'd like to give it a try. Nice idea. On my iPad at the moment so will have to wait until I'm at the PC to grab it. Jumpman is one of my all time favorite games and was one of the major factors in my decision to get a disk drive (along with Bruce Lee and the desire to play Infocom games) for my Atari 800xl in the early 80's. I also have never been able to complete the game, though I still play it often on my 800. I'll be looking forward to playing around with this, thanks.

Best Electronics has them, product ID is FC100013. They're fairly cheap but Best Electronics has a limit buy policy so you'll need to look around and grab some other Atari goodies to go along with the belt if you shop there. Personally I don't know if anywhere else that carries them. Speaking of the 410 cassette drives, I have two that I have been trying to get a working model out of. I have one working in every way now except that the loading always fails a little ways into the load. I've tried dozens of tapes, most of them commercial with no luck. Would love to get the darn thing working.

As others have said, it does seem to depend on the tv. Depends on the TV's up-scaling along with whether your tv has a full scan, over-scanned or under-scanned. Bad up-scaling can result in a crummy looking picture and is one of the main causes I think of retro machines looking bad on HDTVs. My 32" Sanyo that I use for all my retro gaming works well for me because it has decent up-scaling (though I've seen better) and seven different screen sizes moving from standard full screen to under-scanned to overs-scanned so I can always find a good fit for what ever I'm using at the time (My brother's Bravia has a lot less options making it less suitable for retro gaming without additional hardware) I'd recommend giving composite video a try before going with separate video (composite video cables are cheap and you can even make your own, though I like Best Electronics's shielded cables. Where 8-bit machines are concerned, the choice is purely a mater of taste. Though I have tried S-video, I personally find that I prefer composite video for both my Atari 800 and my Commodore 128, it just looks better to me when running games. I also prefer it for my Atari 2600, Colecovision, Intellivision, NES and SMS systems as well. I do use and prefer S-Video for all my 16-bit systems though. My recommendation is always, play around before shelling out for adapters. You might like what you see and if you don't, you can always get an adapter afterwards.

This is very interesting. I currently use a netbook with Windows 7 (to be honest, the netbook sat around collecting dust until I got a SIO2PC,) to run Aspeqt when I am using it with my Atari computer, but the convenience of using my phone would be really nice. Though my current one, a Samsung Galaxy S3 is probably too old to support this, I'll be keeping an eye on this for when I have a newer andriod device.

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a working ATR image of Morloc's Tower? The one on Atarimania seems to be faulty, it loads up nice enough but as soon as you try to leave the first room, more of the dungeon fails to load properly. Anywhere else I've looked just seems to be a copy of the corupt image on Atarimania. This copy neither seems to work in the emulator or my real Atari 800. I have been a big fan of Epyx (Automated Simulations) since I very first started using an Atari computer in the early 80's. Jumpan was one of the big motivations for me to work all summer one year as a teenager to get a disk drive. Temple of Apshai was the very first CRPG I ever played (original basic version.) Lately I have been revisiting the Dunjonquest series, but this one game has eluded me. I also have been trying to rebuild my collection of Epyx games from the '80s. Sadly the way many people are way over charging for these games (way outside my budget anyway,) has made my rebuilding of this collection a slow one. Recently I just purchased Crush, Crumble & Chomp! at a decent price but am still waiting it's arrivial. Here are some of the games that I have managed to get so far; CC&C will probably be my last purchase for a while due to the Christmas Holidays season coming up. The Jumpan box, even though it says C64 on it, I have disks of both it and the Atari version in there as well as loose Jumpan Jr. carts for both systems. Anyway if anyone can help me locate a working copy of Morloc's Tower (atr format as I use aspeqt which I don't think supports ATX,) I'd greatly appriciate it. Thanks.

Here's a shot of the label from my NTSC 800, I'm not quite sure how the date stamp is read but assume the 2 at the end means 1982. It is one of the models that you can remove the memory slots cover by moving two tabs and all the ram and the rom boards are fully encased. (It was ripped when I got it, though I think that's just the typical address and patent stuff that is missing.) Here are the numbers in case the photo is lost someday (I'm new to this forum and don't know how photos are attached directly yet so this is from my photo on photobucket;) GTAI Date Stamp: 382 No. 366633

Thanks for the suggestion. You guys are exactly right, it is a bypass for to off switch when the cartridge door is open. That will actually come in pretty handy because I'd like to play around some day with some of the newer flash memory cartridges. I had been wondering How I would do it since I didn't want to permanently hard wire it to think the door was always closed as I like using it as a hard reset when loading different disks (it's easier than reaching around to the power switch.) The switch is a nice way to have both. Back when I first tried the switch to see what it did, but hadn't thought of trying the door.

@ Dragonstomper, I have tried with Best, but didn't get a response, quite possible the photos got me caught in their anti spammer. @ Quadrunner, I'll give those suggestions a try. They're good ideas. Come to think of it, it is on the power board, directly in from where the AV port is. So your last suggestion might be right. I've been doing a lot of early CRPG gaming on it a lot late at night. When I set up tonight, I'll check that out.

My current Atari 8-bit computer of choice, an 800 that I rebuilt from rather poor condition to new like condition, thanks to being able to get parts from Best Electronics, has a little mystery, or at least what is a mystery to me. I currently haven't seen anything like this before. It is a little metal on and off switch, attached to the bottom of the machine and soldered into the main board. When I had this system apart, I could identify no sign of modding and to my knowledge, this computer sat in storage since the 80's until I acquired it, so most likely if this switch is not official added by Atari for some reason, then it most likely is a really well done mod job by someone in the eighties. Here's a shot of the computer when I acquired (taken by the seller,) it along with several games, a bunch of joysticks and a non-working 410 for around $30. The important parts, the insides were in beautiful shape, everything else was either repairable, washable or replaceable. So I think I got a pretty decent deal. Here is a picture I took of the computer running not long after I finished refurbishing it. On a side note, the game, Transylvania, is running off the official disk from my purchase of the game in 1985. Considering that I found this disk loose from years of storage, it's fascinating that it still works well. Even though I do have a usb SIO2PC module, I cannot see any real reason to back this up since it is already backed up on the internet. Here you can see the mystery switch on the bottom of the computer. I've tested it with my multimeter to make sure I knew which way was off and have left it there since I don't know what this switch does. Here is a picture of where the switch is attached to the bottom of the main PCB. I have looked at lots of picture of other 800s and can find no picture of anything like this. Also the memory boards in my computer are all untouched gold fingered 16k memory boards enclosed in the metal cases. If any internal boards where replaced with a third party board inside the machine, I am not familiar enough with it to recognize that it had been changed. I have speculated that maybe this was some kind of Mosaic mod or some other memory mod but can find nothing to confirm it. Anyone has any ideas what this switch does, I'd greatly appreciate the help. Thanks.