burnthesehills

If anyone is interested in arranging a trade for this system (or interested in buying it), shoot me a PM. For trades, I collect console gaming systems and games (pre PS1) and arcade and/or emulation stuff.

I spoke with my his daughter about this today. She said that, at the time, he was the only East Coast Atari employee. He worked out of his home and had white van with ATARI graphics on it. Once a month, he had to fly to CA for meetings. He always complained because he was old school and would show up in a full suit and tie and everyone there would be wearing polos and t-shirts. She said they had a massive fax machine in their home that was as big as a filing cabinet and he had a work room with a large drafting table.

Here is the original owner’s business card.

It is very possible. I forget his exact position at Atari, but he was there for many years in the 70’s and 80’s and involved with testing prototypes and such. She is still looking through his boxes in storage but says there may be some prototype games in there as well which I am excited to see. In the interim I will keep it safe and not open it or power it up. Again I would be more than happy to ship it to someone who knows what they are doing.

First of all, it looks like I came to the right place! Based on what she told me, I have to assume this was some type of test or pre-production unit. Apparently he was heavily involved with this for Atari. I used to have his old Atari business card, but misplaced it over the years. It does have smooth keys that are not textured. For the record, I am more of a console collector and not incredibly good with electronics or computers. I would really have no ability to dump BASIC ROM and the OS and would be concerned even opening the unit in case of accidental damage. If there is a reputable forum member here, I would be willing to ship to them if they wanted to do this as long as they promise to send it back. Preferably someone in the US. I am located in Massachusetts. I am all for preservation of classic gaming / computing and more than happy to help.

I was hoping to get any information on this system. My coworker’s father used to work at Atari in the 70’s and 80’s. She told me he used to being home games and systems for her to “test” when she was a child and she always promised me that she would search through his storage and give me some items. He passed away a few years ago and she is now going through his storage items. She brought me in this system yesterday. It is an ATARI 800XL. However as you can see in the pics, on the back sticker it says WORKING SAMPLE FOR ATARI 800XL COMPUTER. And also CHELCO GROUP OF COMPANIES. Versus the typical sticker on the back with the serial number and stock legal verbiage. There are also 3 circular stickers on the top of the unit that state, 48, Passed, and Passed Pre. All hand written. I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet, but it looks like it is in mint condition. Any thoughts or information would be greatly appreciated!