Atari XEGS: Console or Computer?

[BydoEmpire]

Can someone remind me what the "G" and "S" in XEGS stands for? Oh yeah...

 

The slanted cartridge slot doesn't bother me at all. It's not like it makes it any harder to put in a cart than one that's parallel with case. The pastel buttons, yeah, that's a weird aesthetic. Overall, though I think the XEGS is a pretty cool-looking console.

[desiv]

Can someone remind me what the "G" and "S" in XEGS stands for

Well, it stands for neither Console nor Computer, so I'm not sure how that helps..

Unless you're saying a computer can't be a Game System as well.

 

desiv

Edited May 15, 2013 by desiv

[BydoEmpire]

Well, it stands for neither Console nor Computer, so I'm not sure how that helps..

Unless you're saying a computer can't be a Game System as well.

 

desiv

"Game System" means "console," to me, and to every maker of consoles and computers ever who all tried to distance their products from the other side. Trying to keep the thread light-hearted...

[atarian1]

I can't explain the buttons, but Atari Corp.'s art/design philosophy with the XE and ST platforms seemed to be revolve around lots of 45-degree lines. You even see this on the 7800 joypad controller. On the XEGS, since even the controller ports were angled, it must have made sense that the cartridge interface be worked into the diagonal "grille" on the face of the console.

 

Just a theory. I really have no idea. A horizontally oriented cartridge interface would have been nice, but the XEGS stands out a little bit more with the diagonal one, doesn't it?

 

I loved the 45 degree lines in the XE/ST machines. It really sets it apart from the same old rectangle boring beige box that dominated the computer landscape back then.

 

Same with the pastel buttons. This sounds like a typical post from someone who did not live or was too young to remember the late 80s. I feel safe to assume Scotterpop and BassGuitari are in this age category. Anyway children, time to gather around for a "When I was your age..." lesson .....Back then, pastel colors were everywhere. Fashion, architecture, television, etc. So why not on a consumer electronic device like a console/computer? A very bold fashion step in my opinion from the boring beige or black plastic designs of that era. It may not have saved Atari, but it sure had a unique place in video game/computer history in my books.

[mimo]

 

Atari XEGS: Console or Computer?

yes it is

Edited May 16, 2013 by mimo

[BassGuitari]

This sounds like a typical post from someone who did not live or was too young to remember the late 80s. I feel safe to assume Scotterpop and BassGuitari are in this age category.

 

As it happens, I am in this age category. I've made no secret of it in the 10 years I've been on AtariAge.

 

Unintentional slights to my credibility aside, I'm aware of the '80s pastel fad. I wasn't even questioning Atari Corp.'s use of pastel colors on the buttons or remarking on how they appear to modern aesthetic sensibilities. All I meant, regarding the buttons, was that I won't speak for whomever made the design choice or why they made it, because I don't know. And I don't mean that in a "it's so ugly, why would they do that LOLZ FAIL" kind of way. Pastel colors were fashionable, sure, but it wasn't really a style usually associated with game consoles or computers; they could have gone with plain gray buttons to match the case and it would have looked at least as good. I think it's just as well they went with pastels, though. They give the XEGS a distinct personality.

 

Considering the console's preoccupation with 45-degree lines, I'm surprised they didn't use the rhomboidal ST/XE F-key shape.

[toptenmaterial]

History makes it's own revisions, no matter how the system was originally marketed. Look to our AtariAge forums list for guidence. We have the consoles presented in this order: 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar, also dedicated systems. Both Pong and Flashback fall into the latter. Then computers: 8bit, 16bit.

 

Now, the Flashback 2 could be considered a console when modded to accept carts. But mainly it's known as a plug-and-play device, like Pong. The 5200 is identical internally to the 8-bit line, but was intended soley as a console. And the XEGS? Well, most of us play it for games. But that is what most of us use the entire 8-bit line for; XEGS is not exception.

 

My verdict is that XEGS is an Atari 8-bit, which, like other A8s, is used mostly for gaming.

 

The 5200 is a bonafide console because that is our general perception of it.

 

The ST line is a computer brand, used much more dynamically than the 8-bit line (by most people, technical folks will squeeze a lot from the A8).

[Atariboy]

I was just a young kid then but I don't remember Easter colors being everywhere. The only time I saw colors like that seemed to be around Easter or when eating something like Smarties.

[xDragonWarrior]

They marketed it as a console so it is a console,case closed(IMO)

[Rex Dart]

It's a console, the same as the Xbox, PS2, or PS3 running linux was.