What Was Your First Atari 8-Bit Computer?

[Pakrat]

An 800. Mowed 10 lawns for a couple years, was going to get a 400, but when I had the money for it, I decided to keep going for the 800. Bought the floor model at a local electronics store in mid 1982 because I couldn't wait until Monday (bought it on Saturday), with The Programmer Basic package. Got a 410 Program Recorder a month later, and I could finally save things. Got a 1050 floppy drive that Christmas, went for half on it with the Parents. In 1986, bought a 130XE which I have and use to this day, upgraded with the CSS+ stuff, and with a Black Box, 360M SCSI Maxstor hard drive, 3.5" CSS upgraded XF551, normal 5.25" XF551, Citizen 24 pin HS dot matrix printer, XEP-80 to its own AMDEK TTL monitor, and a Magnavox 13" color monitor for the main display, outputting in s-video... no artifacting. ^^

[Joey Z]

I bought a 400 on ebay several years back for about $50 I think. Completely stock with 16K, came with 11 cartridges and two gemstik joysticks. I bought a BASIC cart for it, and a 410 later to try to save things to it but the belts had stretched and it didn't work at all. My dad was able to get a MAX233 from work and we built an RS232 SIO2PC. Now that my games library had expanded, I decided to pick up a 48K upgrade which I bought from sloopy. I installed it and enjoyed all the new things I could do with 48K. Sometime in there, I bought an 850 and was using flickerterm to log onto my linux PC. Sometime after that, I was made aware that the 48K upgrade actually had 64K of RAM on it. I ended up designing a small 2 chip circuit to give my 400 partial XL compatibility with 64K of RAM and the 1200XL OS (because of the lack of self test I couldn't use the normal XL OS) and a switch to go back to 400 mode of course.

Next, I managed to convince sloopy to give my a 64K 600XL and a VBXE for a little bit of work I did for him. I ended up getting a stereo POKEY out of that deal too, which I still haven't used. I also got an 800XL and a 65XE both for the price to ship them I think. I've also repaired someone's 800XL for them, and I'm in the process of repairing a 130XE for another.

[gozar]

Mine was an 800XL for Christmas of 1984 with the 1050 disk drive (and DOS 3). Upgraded both later to a 256K Rambo for the 800XL and the US Doubler for the 1050 and bought a 1025 printer at some point.

 

Today it houses the AtariMax 32-in-1 OS, some sort of video mod I did (which among other things added Chroma, the machine looks amazing on my 1702), an IDE+ with 2GB CF, and ILS KRH so I can use an IBM Model M keyboard.

[Muzz73]

I picked up a used 1200XL at a thrift store for $25. I ended up switching to an 800XL and donating the 1200XL to a friend's collection.

[SHiNjide]

My first Atari Computer was a 65XE. Bought about one week ago. Back in the days I was a commodore kid.

[gamer-stu]

800 XL with a 1010. After enduring the 1010 load speeds for a year, finding the 1050 under the tree made '85 the best Christmas ever!

[ryanmercer]

Atari 800xl, August 2014.

 

 

I fully blame Halt and Catch Fire for getting me nostalgic again and wanting something pre my windows 3.11 machine. Atari 8-bit appeared to be the most in use currently and had the most options for new hardware (as well as the easiest to find/most affordable original harwdare). I now have 3 - 800xl's, 1 - 1200xl along with 3 - commodore 1704's and a sony pvm for them, various sio2pc devices, jumped hardcore into 2600 stuff too. Also have various Commodore computers (although no sofwtare for any of them) now too.

 

I bet I've spent 4k$ or so since August.

[Stefan Both]

I was a "commodore-only-guy" for decades.

In 2007/2008, I was the chairman of our association "classic-computing.de

As the head, you get dozens of mails every day. One was from a widow of a

computer collector...

I brought about 50 systems to our next event, where we made an auction

for our members.

Since that day, I own a 800Xl and a CPC 6128.

 

Flashjazzcat and Sijmen could give a song about it < - - - -

In 2013 and '14 I didn't touched the C64 - not even once, while I |

upgraded my XL with a Ultimate, MyIDE2, Sio2SD, S-Video fix..... |

|

Guess, who helped me ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |

 

Stefan

Edited January 13, 2015 by Stefan Both

[firestorm]

Atari 800XL with Atari XC12 in Communist Poland of 1986...

[Drummerboy]

My first Atari Computer was a Atari 600XL.

 

Years Later a Atari 65XE.

 

Now i have a Atari 600XL and two Atari 800XL.

 

But, I admit I'm always was more Commodore and Amiga (the real Atari 8Bit Sucesor! ) user.

[Caterpiggle]

My very first 8 bit computer was Atari 800XL PAL. My parent brought at Singapore when I was 11 years old. I wish I would remember what is the name of that "Officially" Atari store at Singapore when we were there. I still have that originally 800XL PAL and it still works great without any problems ! Yes , it hooking up to PAL Sony PVM Monitor. I am no longer have the original PAL Monitor when I was kid. Sony PVM was the recently like last 2 or 3 years now.

 

Right now, I do have SIO2SD and "The!Cart" Cartridge. Both are cool device and it is like a little brother computers that attachment to main computer !

[dpse]

The atari computer i had was the 800xl my folks bought me for xmas one year in the early 80's.

Loved the games i got with it such as Eastern front, European Countries and Capitals, and spent hours playing Zorro and L.A Swat.

Im just soory i didnt keep it when i was younger and will have to find me one again.

[ryanmercer]

 

Im just soory i didnt keep it when i was younger and will have to find me one again.

 

 

Get a reconditioned 800xl from Brad http://www.best-electronics-ca.com.(I have one of his reconditioned 800xl's and 2600's, although I use a different 800xl most of the time).

 

Tip: You have to email or call him to order, do NOT call or email unless you are serious. Keep your email brief. If you see what you want email him "I want a reconditioned atari 800xl, I also want this and this and this, my name and address is yadda yadda yadda, may I please get a quote and payment instructios". He's a great guy but he doesn't like his time being wasted by curious types as he spends a few hours a day just replying to emails and returning calls.

 

Tip 2: then get yourself an SIO2USB or similar device for loading software.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

When I was 14 years old, i swapped my Tandy MC-10 for an Atari 600XL with the Star Raiders cartridge and 1 joystick. (no tapedeck, no diskdrive, nothing much at all).

 

I was very impressed by the 3D graphics of Star Raiders.

[+MrFish]

Interesting to see how many 400's were first machines. I wouldn't have guessed them to come out as the second mot popular in this category. It makes sense though, as I'm sure the lower cost compared to the 800's helped in making the decision, especially if they were being purchased for younger children.

[Muzz73]

I had some friends who got an Atari 400 when they were discontinued by Atari. Their dad brought it home from the electronics counter at Long's Drugs circa 1983. I believe that, after closeout price and a mail-in rebate from Atari, they said it came out to like $79 or $99 (something like that). I was in awe.

[SIO2]

My first Atari Computer was a 65XE. Bought about one week ago. Back in the days I was a commodore kid.

Welcome to the world of Atari. Back in the day, I had some serious arguments with people who owned Commodores. Over time, I came to appreciate the Commodore 64 also.

 

I bought my first Atari when I was 11 years old. Price was a big concern so, the choice for me was between VIC-20 and the 16K Atari 400. VIC had a real keyboard but Atari had more RAM. It was an agonizing decision. I looked over the catalogs until the pictures were soiled with the oil from my fingers and the pages actually fell out. Finally, I ordered the Atari. It took two weeks to arrive. When it did arrive it was defective and wouldn't turn on. So, I had to choose all over again to either get another Atari or exchange it for a VIC-20. I chose Atari again and after another couple weeks I got a working unit. I had no idea that three eleven year old lifetimes later it would still be working or that I would care but I do.

[miker]

I got XEGS (full package) in April 1989 together with XC12. The comp worked fine until function keys start to stuck (epecially Option). Then moved into 65XE.

 

Currently don't even have my first and second machine (only Bug Hunt cartridge and LightGun remained).

 

Now I have one 65XE (unmodified), two 800 XEs (one with VBXE v.1, one with 320k of RAM, 4 OSes and stereo POKEY), two 800 XLs (one unmodified, one with 256k of RAM, TOMS OS and Turbo 2001 [instead of Self Test]), two 130XEs (one unmodified, one with 1MB of RAM, 4 OSes, stereo POKEY and Covox), two XEGS's (one unmodified and without keyboard, one with "only" 1MB of RAM), one 800 and one 1200XL (both NTSC, and unmodified). Moreover I have IDEplus board, two SIO2IDE 4.4 boards (one not installed) and some old sampler cartridge. Two disk drives as well CA2001 and 1050 (both with TOMS Multi Dirve). Oh... and a borrowed TOMS 720 drive. Two SIOPC cables. Not counting hundreds of diskettes and (really a few) game cartridges.

Edited January 18, 2015 by miker

[dpse]

 

 

Get a reconditioned 800xl from Brad http://www.best-electronics-ca.com.(I have one of his reconditioned 800xl's and 2600's, although I use a different 800xl most of the time).

 

Tip: You have to email or call him to order, do NOT call or email unless you are serious. Keep your email brief. If you see what you want email him "I want a reconditioned atari 800xl, I also want this and this and this, my name and address is yadda yadda yadda, may I please get a quote and payment instructios". He's a great guy but he doesn't like his time being wasted by curious types as he spends a few hours a day just replying to emails and returning calls.

 

Tip 2: then get yourself an SIO2USB or similar device for loading software.

Thanks for the info Ryan, i may look into that.

[Joey Z]

Thanks for the info Ryan, i may look into that.

I would recomend an SIO2PC-USB, which is the most capable device. Only problem is it requires a computer to work. otherwise there are SDrive and SIO2SD which are standalone devices.

[kiwilove]

It is nice to know of those who did start off with an Atari 400 16k computer.

I guess I am in need of one - as I am taking great pains to work on the graphics for AtariBLAST! but I don't really want to pay for one... ... ... I'm el cheapo these days... but even if I could get hold a very cheap NTSC one - I then have the problem of needing the right power supply - and probably in need of 240 to 110 volt converter - and the lack of a NTSC TV - and so I'm probably better off at square one - using Altirra, and viewing the occasional reference video recorded on DVD for me...

 

And I do think it was a very wise choice in which it can run on an unmodified Atari 16k computer - as this was the computer that Andrew Bradfield started off with - who I worked with on, with Laser Hawk and Hawkquest. For me the AtariBLAST! project has been returning full circle in different ways - to acknowledge the games that I stood in awe of (well, some of them anyway...) and to mess around with their graphics. And being able to reuse and update the Hawkquest graphics has been a bonus too..

Hopefully I'm underlining the point that - it's good to update the graphics - when you are able to - and to tweak them too - differently. Because to merely copy exactly a coin-op - or a port-over conversion - isn't satisfying enough for me. And I hope those who end up viewing the end result - can see the point being made - and appreciate it as well... This won't make much sense, until probably later this year, or early next year?

 

Harvey

[boygio]

800 XL, my first home computer!

[tep392]

Interesting to see how many 400's were first machines. I wouldn't have guessed them to come out as the second mot popular in this category. It makes sense though, as I'm sure the lower cost compared to the 800's helped in making the decision, especially if they were being purchased for younger children.

I would never have convinced my parents to get the 800. I don't remember what the 400 cost when they bought it for me, but it was still pretty expensive. It was a tough sell because they didn't see a practical use for home computers yet and the Atari name gave them the impression it was just a game machine. Turns out that is what I primarily used it for, but I also learned to program on it in BASIC and Assembly, plus I learned a lot about how computers worked. That experience helped me quite a bit when I went to college to study engineering. Looking back on it, it was well the money.

[feather]

800XL with tape recorder 1010.

[+MrFish]

I would never have convinced my parents to get the 800. I don't remember what the 400 cost when they bought it for me, but it was still pretty expensive. It was a tough sell because they didn't see a practical use for home computers yet and the Atari name gave them the impression it was just a game machine. Turns out that is what I primarily used it for, but I also learned to program on it in BASIC and Assembly, plus I learned a lot about how computers worked. That experience helped me quite a bit when I went to college to study engineering. Looking back on it, it was well the money.

 

It is a great game machine. I think your experience is probably true for a lot of people here. With some persistence the mysteries of what's happening inside the machine can be unlocked. Once that happens, you have a perspective that few people starting out on modern computers will ever have.

Edited January 20, 2015 by MrFish