Hardest to find Atari 8-bit

[Trooper]

I was just curious as to which of the 8-bit's is harder to find/more expensive and thought this would be the perfect place to ask I'm asking about released machines, not protos.

 

/T

[walter_J64bit]

I would think the 65XE would be one I've only seen one.

[Tempest]

Probably the 800XE. It was only released in Europe. It was basically a 65XE, but with the expansion port.

 

Tempest

[Rybags]

1400XL and 1450XLD. 65XEM.

 

Although the 65XEM only made it to proto/demonstation phase and the 1400s supposedly had a handful produced.

 

As for production machines, I guess it would be a tossup between the 1200XL and "800XE".

[tjlazer]

1400XL and 1450XLD. 65XEM.

 

Those are protos. I could not walk into a store in 1984-85 and buy one.

 

I would say the 65XE for USA and 800XE for Europe. 1200XL is also rare, especially in europe, the same way a 800XE is rare as hens teeth in the USA. Reason why I say 65XE over 1200 is because I find a lot more 1200XL's on ebay than 65XE's!

Edited September 4, 2007 by tjlazer

[+Philsan]

The Arabic 65XE?

It seems not to be a proto.

[carmel_andrews]

If memory recalls, the 800xe was designed for eastern european markets only (i.e poland, east germany, czech rep. etc etc) though some did trickle into the EU (not UK though)

 

You missed a couple out

 

800xl-f...an xl w/freddie (i guess that this m/c eventuually turned into the xe series)

800 w/collete mobo (collete was an all in one mobo containing the separate boards for antic, pokey, c/gtia and 6502)

 

I did hear rumours that Atari were looking at making the original xe series 7800 compatible by sticking in a 'maria' chip...i wonder if proto's exist of this m/c

 

Apparently the 1064 pbi upgrades were uncommon (got shot of mine)

 

I'd like to get my hands on an A8 version of the original external ST floppy drive (or was that what eventually became the xf551) and also the 3.5' version of the atari 1050 (called, apparently the 1055)

Edited September 4, 2007 by carmel_andrews

[nathanallan]

I just saw a 1200XL on eBay for BIN $99.00 out of Canada.

 

But ANY Atari is rare in El Paso

 

Nathan

[yorgle]

I just picked up a 1200xl off ebay for $51.00- no power supply or anything, just the computer. (Not sure why I bought it, though. Just looked cool, I guess.)

 

What about the 64K version of the 600xl? That must be quite rare.

[mimo]

I can't get hold of a PAL 600 anywhere, not saying they are the rarest, but I have only seen 2 on evilbay UK in the last year (and I missed them)

[Trooper]

Reason I'm asking is that I recently had the choice of getting either a 1200XL or a 400 and opted for the 1200XL. This seems to be the right way to go as it seems to be harder to get a boxed 1200 than a boxed 400.

 

/T

[Ross PK]

I'm sure it is.

[drac030]

I did hear rumours that Atari were looking at making the original xe series 7800 compatible by sticking in a 'maria' chip...i wonder if proto's exist of this m/c

 

I doubt. I've got an impression, that fitting MARIA into XL/XE is rather hard, because the chip keeps its registers on the zero page, conflicting with the CIO, and also on the 6502 stack area limiting its size.

[Heaven/TQA]

800 "the tank" PAL...

[peteym5]

I did hear rumours that Atari were looking at making the original xe series 7800 compatible by sticking in a 'maria' chip...i wonder if proto's exist of this m/c

 

I doubt. I've got an impression, that fitting MARIA into XL/XE is rather hard, because the chip keeps its registers on the zero page, conflicting with the CIO, and also on the 6502 stack area limiting its size.

 

I wonder if the Maria registers could be moved in the case it was going to used in a computer, just like the GTIA was moved from $C000 in the 5200 or $D000 on the rest of the 8-bit line. Also the Ataris' operating system probably would have to be adapted to drive the Maria chip anyway and the CIO and other zero page stuff could have been relocated outside the Maria area. Another possibility is switch between Maria and the Antic/GTIA chipset with setting a control bit somewhere. One of those things that Atari probably consider, but our friend Jack Tremial was notorious for making things cheap and giving such projects the axe.

[drac030]

I wonder if the Maria registers could be moved in the case it was going to used in a computer, just like the GTIA was moved from $C000 in the 5200 or $D000 on the rest of the 8-bit line.

 

GTIA is quite different, it has the ChipSelect line which (as I understand it) makes it possible to decode the chip's hardware registers anywhere you want. But not all chips behave like this: ANTIC, for example, decodes itself on its own, simply listening to the addresses appearing on the address bus, so you cannot relocate it from $D4xx without redesigning its (ANTIC's) internals. AFAIK, MARIA has exactly the same issue, it decodes itself on its own, and does not have the CS line.

 

Also the Ataris' operating system probably would have to be adapted to drive the Maria chip anyway and the CIO and other zero page stuff could have been relocated outside the Maria area.

 

Not possible. The conflicting area is ZIOCB, which meant, that, for starters, you'd need to rewrite just about all of the CIO device drivers - which mainly means just about every existing DOS.

 

Even if you do that (which is quite unrealistic), the second problem is that there is really no place to relocate the ZIOCB to.

[Tickled_Pink]

Pretty much any A8 that isn't an 800XL, 130XE or 65XE seems to be difficult to get hold of in the UK. The 800 appears fairly regularly on evilbay but I can't remember the last time I saw a 400 anywhere - actually, I think it must have been about 10 years ago in a car boot sale. Didn't pick it up at the time as it was in a right messed up state. The 65XE appears to be more common over here than the 65XEGS ... think I've only ever seen one XEGS in the wild but had a few 65XEs.

 

And if you're talking about other hardware ... the holy grail of mass produced gear seems to be the XF551. I think the last time I saw one was around 1994/95 at the AMS show.

[Trooper]

800 "the tank" PAL...

 

I already have two of them, unboxed but still

 

/T

[Heaven/TQA]

"you take my life but i take yours, too..." i am still desparate for an 800... the 800 is so sweet and sexy... and nowadays so modern with his 4 joystick ports... and then connect 1050 to it and mule.... aaaah...

[Shawn Jefferson]

1400XL and 1450XLD. 65XEM.

 

Those are protos. I could not walk into a store in 1984-85 and buy one.

 

I seem to recall that the 1400XL was released, at least for a short time. Customers were returning them (for some reason) and the stores (or Atari) were pulling the 1400XL silver strip off and putting them in the dumpster?

[Crimefighter]

I didn't think the 1200XL was rare, I bought mine about the time where stores were unloading Atari stuff in 84-85.

[+Guitarman]

I didn't think the 1200XL was rare, I bought mine about the time where stores were unloading Atari stuff in 84-85.

 

 

Not as rare as the 1400-1450XL but more rare than the rest. The 1200XL had a short production life because of issues with OS compatibility so there are a lot fewer out there.

[brooklynatari]

The Arabic 65XE?

It seems not to be a proto.

 

i have one

glad to see someone mentioned it

[tjlazer]

1400XL and 1450XLD. 65XEM.

 

Those are protos. I could not walk into a store in 1984-85 and buy one.

 

I seem to recall that the 1400XL was released, at least for a short time. Customers were returning them (for some reason) and the stores (or Atari) were pulling the 1400XL silver strip off and putting them in the dumpster?

 

No I *think* it was the other way around. The 1400XL was NOT released, but dealers and internal emplyees were selling them on the open market. So Atari removed the labels so they could not sell them as complete systems. Anyone care to chime in?

[+Guitarman]

1400XL and 1450XLD. 65XEM.

 

Those are protos. I could not walk into a store in 1984-85 and buy one.

 

I seem to recall that the 1400XL was released, at least for a short time. Customers were returning them (for some reason) and the stores (or Atari) were pulling the 1400XL silver strip off and putting them in the dumpster?

 

No I *think* it was the other way around. The 1400XL was NOT released, but dealers and internal emplyees were selling them on the open market. So Atari removed the labels so they could not sell them as complete systems. Anyone care to chime in?

 

The story was that when Atari dropped the line, they were dumpstering the remaining stock and people were pulling them from the dumpster and trying to get refunds for them, so Atari started pulling off the name strips to distinguish them as trash. Here is an excerpt from Curt's AHM:

 

Note: For those collectors who have been able to obtain a 1400XL or 1450XLD computer and have wondered why their system is missing the labels on them, the reason for this according to a source at the old Atari Store stated: People were pulling systems out of the garbage from Atari, bringing them back to the store and requesting refunds, Atari got wind of this and decided to have the labels removed on all "XL" merchandise, not just the 1400's and 1450's that was to be thrown out or sold so that it could not be brought back for refunds.