toddtmw

I posted this in another thread about trying to figure out when I got my first 800: Okay. So, I started looking at ads in Magazine scans. January 1983 Compute! magazine had the Atari 800 with 48K of RAM for $499 - $659 January 1982 Compute! magazine had the Atari 800 with 16k for around $750. (One ad claimed the list price was $1,080.) So, yeah, I'm thinking i got my computer in January of 1983, not January of 1980. But the weird thing is, the RAM and ROM modules were cased. I would have thought that by then, (Given it was almost the end of the 800's life) Atari would have been shipping them with bare boards. Just for fun, I went back to the beginning of Compute! magazine to look for the first listing of an Atari 800 with a price. It was Issue 4 (May/June 1980) and it was $875.

I KNOW!! How come I never find cool stuff at garage sales???

Okay cool. Thanks. Do you know what all gets tested during the powerup test? Thank you.

The drive light comes on, but the disk light doesn't come on.

Okay. So if that is the cause of that, what is the cause of the bottom light turns on. It the drive doesn't spin at all (and the drive light doesn't come on) I have 4 total bad drives. Two exhibit the first problem, two the second. I was hoping I could get at least two good ones from the four bad drives.

I have 2 1050 disk drives that power up and spin the disk, but when I put a disk in them, they spin up for a couple of seconds, then spin down and then repeat. They do not react at all when I turn on a computer. (They just keep spinning up and down.) Anyone have any ideas on cause? Thank you.

From the best web site: When Best received the 3rd version prototype physical samples to run functional tests on, it was found that none of the 3rd version prototype 1200XL Mylars did not function at all. Even though our Keyboard manufacture used current 2016 state of the Keyboard mylar Technology to produce 3rd version 1200XL Keyboard mylar, it did not work in the 25+ year older technology Atari 1200XL Keyboard design. After studying this non functioning 3rd Prototype samples for a week or more, Best came to the conclusion the problem was with the 9 interface silver fingers on the new 1200XL Keyboard flexible Mylar was not making proper contact with the 1200XL Keyboard Hard PCB mating 9 interface fingers. To fix this Mylar Interface problem Best came up two cures. We designed (of course a brand new tooling cost to the project) a very very small wafer thin interface PCB board (two different version prototype samples made) with 9 Gold plated fingers top and bottom side of the wafer thin PCB. The top and bottom Gold plated fingers on this very small interface PCB board are electronically connected together thru two plated thru holes per finger. So this small ultra thin sandwich Interface card is designed to sit between the new 1200XL Keyboard mylar 9 interface silver fingers and the larger 1200XL PCB backing board with it 9 interface fingers. As extra redundant Insurance, Best had our Keyboard manufacture triple screen 9 silver interface on the 1200XL Keyboard mylar in a effort to add extra thickness on the interface fingers on the 1200XL keyboard mylar.

I compared the read and write sections of the code. They appear identical to me, I do not see anything wrong with the code.

I didn't wipe the traces on the board and I used the little add-in baord and did not have any issues. Is it possible, you have another issue with the keyboard? Don't suppose you have another 1200 laying around?

Can you still buy incognito boards?

I mean, I've heard of cutting corners, but Tramiel cut complete neighborhoods...

Okay, I've always known the 130XE's were cheap. I hear all the things people say about them, but I just opened one up for the first time, and ... wow. The case and keyboard are held together by 4 screws. The bottom RF shield doesn't have the little thin piece of cardboard to keep the pins from shorting to the shield. The board just feels flimsier, I was shocked they wasted 8 screws holding the board in. It's a wonder any of these even work anymore. Was the Commodore 64 constructed so cheaply? I mean, I get the impression the reason they went so cheap was to compete with Commodore. How did Commodore undercut Atari so much if they did not use similar cheap construction? -Todd

Shamus! I spent a LOT of time on that back when I had more free time than I do today. That game was AWESOME! I know it's not a game, but did other platforms have Happy Copy? Without that, I would have had far fewer games and apps than I did. (I'd like to apologize to all the hard-working developers of the early 80's, but my paper route could only fund so much.) I DID do a research paper in high school about computer piracy. (Something I knew a little bit about ...) 😎

I have an orange cart. Is the black cart any different? If the black and orange are the same, then I agree with CC, sell them as three sets.

Weird. What is the point of have sequential serial numbers if they don't do them by date? Do the ones that don't pass QC sit in a queue to be fixed and then get the date stamp when they are repaired? (But if that was the case, the date stamp would be even later...) I cannot come up with a reason why the serial numbers would be out of synch the way this one appears to be. Anyone?

Okay. So, I started looking at ads in Magazine scans. January 1983 Compute! magazine had the Atari 800 with 48K of RAM for $499 - $659 January 1982 Compute! magazine had the Atari 800 with 16k for around $750. (One ad claimed the list price was $1,080.) So, yeah, I'm thinking i got my computer in January of 1983, not January of 1980. But the weird thing is, the RAM and ROM modules were cased. I would have thought that by then, (Given it was almost the end of the 800's life) Atari would have been shipping them with bare boards. Just for fun, I went back to the beginning of Compute! magazine to look for the first listing of an Atari 800 with a price. It was Issue 4 (May/June 1980) and it was $875. Todd

Hi all. I'm trying to nail down when I got my first Atari computer. It was an original Atari 800. My parents bought it for me for my birthday. They cannot remember when. They think it was when I turned 13, which would have been January 1980. I have some clues that I think can help narrow it down. Clues: It had 48K of RAM pre-populated, but the RAM and ROM chips were all cased and it had the thumb levers so I could open that compartment. (It was not screwed closed) There was a sticker on the box that touted the fact that it came with 48K of RAM now. The salesperson told my parents that when Atari bumped them to 48K of RAM, they stopped including BASIC, but because this computer was produced right when that started, it still had BASIC included. (Assuming the salesperson was telling my parents the truth.) So, is January of 1980 a reasonable timeframe for a computer of this configuration to be on sale? Thanks to anyone for any information they can share. Todd

Yeah, now that I know I can press reset to get it to go, I'll probably leave it until it really breaks, and then trouble-shoot it. Thanks everyone, especially DrV.

Yes, I used the hair stuff from Sally's. but it was the empty case and I washed it and let it set for three days before putting it back together.

So, that was an interesting test. Pressing reset on the green or black screen causes it to boot just fine. Not sure what that means...

It's funny because the one video explains why Atari Box will fail and the other one is a video of the top six x-rated video games for the 2600.

I agree, the one on the right looks like more what I remember the Atari 800's looking like. A friend ad the 400 and It seemed to me like the colors between the 400 and 800 were slightly differnt, though. Does anyone else feel that way?

Hi. I just acquired a 1200XL. I added a Best replacement Mylar (Awesome!!!) to get the keyboard working. I also gave it the salon treatment with a couple of hours in the sun to get the unsightly yellowing out of the case. When I first got it, it would only try to "go" about half the time. (getting to the Atari Logo or booting DOS or booting the cartridge depending on the circumstance) The keyboard didn't work, so I couldn't really do much else with it. Once I got the keyboard working, I connected the keyboard to the bare board and played around with it a little. I booted 4 or 5 times and it booted fine each time. Then, I put it all back together and now about half the time, it doesn't boot. Most of the times when it doesn't boot, the screen is green. (Sometimes it is just black, this seems to be more often when there is a cartridge in.) I can tell when it is "going" to boot because it makes the tick sounds Atari's make when they first turn on. (not the drumroll, just the two taps like what you listen for on an 800XL to know that you can let go of the option key) Once it boots, it seems to work well. I left it runninng all tests on the self test for about a half hour with no issues. Has anyone seen a computer that only fails to boot sometimes? Thoughts on what could be causing the green screen? Any other advice? Thanks!

The first (non-prototype) item on this list seems out of place given the serial number. 83S DA 019879 033 Larry USA 019879 1983 03 17-Jan-83 23-Jan-83 83S DA 010409 063 Guitarman USA 010409 1983 06 07-Feb-83 13-Feb-83 That 019879 looks like it would fit better in week 7.

Never mind. It appears I was misinformed. According to the Respeqt documentation, Atarimax USB devices are not supported because they use proprietary USB device drivers. Thanks.