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What's wrong with the 600 XL?


Atarifever

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On all the online stores that I look at to try to price an Atari 8-bit the 600 XL is way cheaper than the 800 and somewhat cheaper than the 400. I have no idea what those numbers refer to, but is the 600 incompatible with a lot of software or something? Prone to breakage?

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On all the online stores that I look at to try to price an Atari 8-bit the 600 XL is way cheaper than the 800 and somewhat cheaper than the 400. I have no idea what those numbers refer to, but is the 600 incompatible with a lot of software or something? Prone to breakage?

 

Its just that it only has 16k.

 

If you can find a cheap memory upgrade before you buy 600xls, then no problem.

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On all the online stores that I look at to try to price an Atari 8-bit the 600 XL is way cheaper than the 800 and somewhat cheaper than the 400. I have no idea what those numbers refer to, but is the 600 incompatible with a lot of software or something? Prone to breakage?

 

Nope, but the NTSC version doesn't have a monitor jack (RF only), plus it's only got 16 KB of RAM, so you need to upgrade it.

 

The advantage is that most 600XLs came with relatively early XL keyboards (as they were discontinued early) while on the 800XL the keyboards got cheaper and worse with every generation. Beetle identified 5 keyboard types for the 800XL so far here, and of those currently in my possession, 3 of them have the type 4 keyboard and only onre has the type 1 (by ALPS). The first one I bought back in the 80s had either a type 2 or type 3 (both by AWC).

 

 

Thorsten

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Lots of Cart and Cassette games run with a stock 600XL.

Only most disk based stuff won't work.

 

I like mine. Its small, its tiny, it has Monitor jack (i live in PAL Land),

it has the good ALPS keyboard and it has 64k.

Its really that simple to upgrade, 2 Chips and 3 wires.

 

My first 600XL got reborn as my 1500XL Laptop.

 

 

So to say, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the 600XL.

 

Greets,

Beetle

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I love my 600xl, but like beetle I am in PAL land, so we get the monitor jack.

I have done the 64k internal RAM upgrade, 2 chips (I thing all the 600XLs were socketed so that was easy, and 3 wires)

Next up is a s-video upgrade, but to be honest it is better than the 800xl in standard form even with rf.

Small footprint so does not take up much room on the desk top.

 

 

Get one :D

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The 600XL also has power on the PBI, so you can use a PBI device without needing extra power cords dangling around. The 600XL is unique in this respect. The only device that uses this feature, however, is the Atari 1064 memory upgrade. (a 64K upgrade that just plugs into the PBI port)

 

Adding a monitor jack gives you a very nice, compact computer.

 

Bob

 

 

 

On all the online stores that I look at to try to price an Atari 8-bit the 600 XL is way cheaper than the 800 and somewhat cheaper than the 400. I have no idea what those numbers refer to, but is the 600 incompatible with a lot of software or something? Prone to breakage?
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So if I dive in here and order a 600XL because I want to play 8-bit games on carts and would like to do some BASIC programming (and maybe some word processing just for fun) the 600 would be up to it without upgrades?

Edited by Atarifever
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Not if you intend to use a disk drive or even load disks thru APE. You need more memory.

 

I assume you want to save your basic programs and not retype them in every time you boot up the computer.

Edited by bf2k+
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Not if you intend to use a disk drive or even load disks thru APE. You need more memory.

 

I assume you want to save your basic programs and not retype them in every time you boot up the computer.

Sorry to bring this back up, but I';m still just a little unclear. So, can a casette drive be hooked to a stock 600XL? That's how I used to save programs on my friend's Vic-20.

 

Embarrassingly enough, the idea of retyping programs everytime I turn a computer on isn't that foreign. I got a CoCo 3 given to me when I was a kid, and it didn't have any storage equipment at all. I spent hours and hours some days typing stuff in there, just to turn it off at night and erase everything. I didn't mind. I was more interested in trying new stuff everyday than in making big long programs.

I also didn't really read the manual, but instead used the programs in there, and in books at school, and figured out what was going on on my own. It was fun, but I missed one important note that way. For weeks after I first got it if I made a mistake I would turn it off and start over, as i thought once I entered something wrong, it was broken beyond repair. One day in frustration I retyped the line I'd gotten wrong muttering "man, I can't believe I could have just typed this and had the program right." I pressed enter and was amazed when I go the "OK" from the computer. I was very happy, until I realized how much time that meant I had wasted.

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Not if you intend to use a disk drive or even load disks thru APE. You need more memory.

 

I assume you want to save your basic programs and not retype them in every time you boot up the computer.

Sorry to bring this back up, but I';m still just a little unclear. So, can a casette drive be hooked to a stock 600XL? That's how I used to save programs on my friend's Vic-20.

 

Embarrassingly enough, the idea of retyping programs everytime I turn a computer on isn't that foreign. I got a CoCo 3 given to me when I was a kid, and it didn't have any storage equipment at all. I spent hours and hours some days typing stuff in there, just to turn it off at night and erase everything. I didn't mind. I was more interested in trying new stuff everyday than in making big long programs.

I also didn't really read the manual, but instead used the programs in there, and in books at school, and figured out what was going on on my own. It was fun, but I missed one important note that way. For weeks after I first got it if I made a mistake I would turn it off and start over, as i thought once I entered something wrong, it was broken beyond repair. One day in frustration I retyped the line I'd gotten wrong muttering "man, I can't believe I could have just typed this and had the program right." I pressed enter and was amazed when I go the "OK" from the computer. I was very happy, until I realized how much time that meant I had wasted.

 

Yes you can use a 410,1010 or XC-12 cassette with a standard 600XL, and most cart games too (just like the 400)

If you want to expand it to use Disc drives or the new bread of SIO2XX then you need 64k.

You can buy a 1064 RAM expansion module that plugs in to the back of the 600, but that makes it's footprint larger than an 800XL.

For a few$ and half an hour of your time you can easily do an internal 64K upgrade.

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400's are worth more as collectibles. If I remember right, the 600XL has less protection circuitry on the joystick ports so it might be a little easier to fry a PIA in a 600XL.

 

The 400s odd keyboard can be an advantage in a few places. Parties... small children... et cetera. Fun as a game system / easy to clean.

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