ataridave Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 And, are there any tape games that wouldn't work with the 800XL? 4jay's sells both the model 410, and the model 1010, but I have no idea what the difference between the two are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 (edited) And, are there any tape games that wouldn't work with the 800XL? 4jay's sells both the model 410, and the model 1010, but I have no idea what the difference between the two are. Well if you actually want to use the tape deck the XC12s seem to keep going long after everything else in my experience. I don't like them to be honest but if you want to load tapes ... I prefer the 1010s but then I'm an XL addict so I just like the styling. They do have an issue with broken buttons eventually though. Mind you given the light use they probably get now that might not be an issue anymore. Bottom line is whatever you go for be prepared to change the belts as many will need them replacing. Edited April 30, 2011 by spookt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphasys Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 (edited) I too like the 1010 for its styling with the XL series computers. But also experienced the broken buttons. Had to fix them with wooden inserts and bent nails, but that worked reliably. Edited April 30, 2011 by Alphasys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I'd go with the 1010 - matches the XL and always found them to be very reliable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Here's another vote for the 1010, orange label! Those are the ones made in Japan. It took me buying THREE different 410s before I could get one to work, recently, I got a silver label 1010 and it wasn't as good. The orange 1010 I've had since the 80s and it's not given me ANY trouble. You can find XC12s in great shape, but I don't like the lack of power adapter, and having to have them at the end of the SIO chain. I have also tried a GE DataRecorder, and found out something interesting - it doesn't play back voices on tapes that support it! So any of the educational tapes that exist for the Atari are unusable on the GE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
20ohm20 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Both of my 410's (purchased within the last two years) needed their belts changed and nothing else, besides a good cleaning, before they started working again. It's not a difficult process to change the belts and they're readily available from Best, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmmhooper Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Both of my 410's (purchased within the last two years) needed their belts changed and nothing else, besides a good cleaning, before they started working again. It's not a difficult process to change the belts and they're readily available from Best, etc. I have two 410's I want to get working again, one has the belts off. Do you know where any info is on how they go back on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Here's another vote for the 1010, orange label! Those are the ones made in Japan. It took me buying THREE different 410s before I could get one to work, recently, I got a silver label 1010 and it wasn't as good. The orange 1010 I've had since the 80s and it's not given me ANY trouble. You can find XC12s in great shape, but I don't like the lack of power adapter, and having to have them at the end of the SIO chain. I have also tried a GE DataRecorder, and found out something interesting - it doesn't play back voices on tapes that support it! So any of the educational tapes that exist for the Atari are unusable on the GE. The GE is Mono, which is why you don't get the audio tracks... And out of all my tape decks the 1010's all still work for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Here's another vote for the 1010, orange label! Those are the ones made in Japan. It took me buying THREE different 410s before I could get one to work, recently, I got a silver label 1010 and it wasn't as good. The orange 1010 I've had since the 80s and it's not given me ANY trouble. You can find XC12s in great shape, but I don't like the lack of power adapter, and having to have them at the end of the SIO chain. I have also tried a GE DataRecorder, and found out something interesting - it doesn't play back voices on tapes that support it! So any of the educational tapes that exist for the Atari are unusable on the GE. The GE is Mono, which is why you don't get the audio tracks... And out of all my tape decks the 1010's all still work for me Well I figured that, I was just surprised it didn't SAY that anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ataridave Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 OK, so what kind of cable would I need to get the 1010 hooked up to my 800XL-some kind of SIO cable?? I don't suppose that tape cassette games (or any other Atari 8bit games) are region-free?? (IMO, region-locking was, and remains, the WORST thing to happen to gaming.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fibrewire Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 You can get SIO cables from best-electronics-ca.com, from ebay, or by asking on here Region locking came about with the advent of optical discs for video, namely DVD. Atari closed its doors after a successful 15 year run before region locking ever made it into the public. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 There is no region locking on the A8. Well at least not intentionally. A few things don't like NTSC, mainly stuff that originated in Europe. You'll need a standard SIO cable for the 1010. 410's and XC12's have built in cables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 I like the look of my 1010s , but if I want to load a tape game I always reach for an xc12, they seem pretty bullet proof compared with the others Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 I like the look of my 1010s , but if I want to load a tape game I always reach for an xc12, they seem pretty bullet proof compared with the others Yep. Shame cause I really don't like XC12s they just feel cheap. XC11s are nicer but a lot less common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ataridave Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 There is no region locking on the A8. Well at least not intentionally. A few things don't like NTSC, mainly stuff that originated in Europe. You'll need a standard SIO cable for the 1010. 410's and XC12's have built in cables. OK, but what about the other way around-I live in the USA, and there are some PAL territory games that I'd love to play, but I have an NTSC 800XL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphasys Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 There is no region locking on the A8. Well at least not intentionally. A few things don't like NTSC, mainly stuff that originated in Europe. You'll need a standard SIO cable for the 1010. 410's and XC12's have built in cables. OK, but what about the other way around-I live in the USA, and there are some PAL territory games that I'd love to play, but I have an NTSC 800XL. As said by spookt: NTSC computers will have problems with PAL software, made by the European users. The other way around is seldomly a problem but the NTSC software will run slower on a PAL computer, if it uses jiffy-timing. PAL software is a problem on NTSC because: the screen is slightly larger on PAL (312 lines instead of 262) and when this is used, causes problems. The PAL computers have more clock cycles available per VBlank Interrupt, and that "advantage" is used a lot. It causes interrupt overruns on NTSC computers, basicly freezing them. If you want to use PAL software, get a PAL computer (and capable monitor), or use an emulator. Nothing to do about it on real hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ataridave Posted May 1, 2011 Author Share Posted May 1, 2011 There is no region locking on the A8. Well at least not intentionally. A few things don't like NTSC, mainly stuff that originated in Europe. You'll need a standard SIO cable for the 1010. 410's and XC12's have built in cables. OK, but what about the other way around-I live in the USA, and there are some PAL territory games that I'd love to play, but I have an NTSC 800XL. As said by spookt: NTSC computers will have problems with PAL software, made by the European users. The other way around is seldomly a problem but the NTSC software will run slower on a PAL computer, if it uses jiffy-timing. PAL software is a problem on NTSC because: the screen is slightly larger on PAL (312 lines instead of 262) and when this is used, causes problems. The PAL computers have more clock cycles available per VBlank Interrupt, and that "advantage" is used a lot. It causes interrupt overruns on NTSC computers, basicly freezing them. If you want to use PAL software, get a PAL computer (and capable monitor), or use an emulator. Nothing to do about it on real hardware. Bummer. Why can't you use any regular old tape recorder with the Atari 800XL? Because, AFIK, you can with some old computers. I think I've seen it done with the ZX Spectrum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoundGammon Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Wasn't there an article in one of the Antic magazine to make the 410 more reliable? A couple of resistor changes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 Bummer. Why can't you use any regular old tape recorder with the Atari 800XL? Because, AFIK, you can with some old computers. I think I've seen it done with the ZX Spectrum The FSK decoder is inside the Atari tape drives, not done in software (or with additional hardware inside the host computer) like in some other computers of the time. That's also why the Atari tape drives never saw the insanely fast turbo loaders of other machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Almost Rice Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 I recommend the Taihaho cassette player. It worked for me all those years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.