Printers Used With Your Atari 8-bit: Then & Now

[TheNameOfTheGame]

 

I get it on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

Bookmarked that! Thanks!

[fujidude]

Also: there weren't any (consumer) inkjet and laser printers around in the early 80's right ?

 

Everyone is a consumer, and most everyone is a producer too. Anyway, I think there were in the early 80s. I know by 1985 or so you could get yourself a mono laser printer for around $6,000 something. Admittedly, the means of the person you would think of as the typical consumer would not allow such a luxury. Many new cars cost less than that at the time.

[+MrFish]

bump...

[k-Pack]

First printer was a Smith Carona or something like that. I still have a couple of memos that look so much better then inkjet. It was loud an could shake the house when the wheel was spinning.

[+wood_jl]

I used Atari 822 as my first printer. Although it was only 40-column and required thermal paper, it was much quieter, faster, and compact than the Atari 820. It offered bi-directional printing, unlike the 820. Although, I still like and would like to have an 820 (and another 822).

 

No matter what the Atari-branded printer, an Epson FX-80 (or RX-80, or later MX-80 with graphics capibility) was the finest printer to hang off the side of your Atari. Speed, cheap ribbon, universal software compatibility, and legandary reliability made the Epson the one to have. Downside? Expensive.

[Bowman1]

The only printer I ever hooked up to my Ataris (800 XL and 130 XE) was an Atari 1025. My God, how I learned to hate that thing! It was slow (the print head could only print from left to right, and it took forever for it to bake it back to the start of the next line), LOUD, and always seemed to jam up at the worst time, like right before class when the paper was due. I always swore I was going to take that thing out and shoot it after graduation. Fortunately that moment never presented itself, and I still have it over in storage. 

[TGB1718]

I used Epsom FX80 and LX80, also borrowed from work a Mannesman Tally (can't remember the model) but is was a Line Printer (printed a full line in one go)

it made a lot of noise :).

 

On my 800 I used a Parallel to Centronics interface I designed and built that use Joystick Ports 3 and 4.

On my 130XE same interface but wrote the software for Joystick ports 1 and 2.

Later on I designed and built a Serial/Parallel interface that pluged into the expansion ports on the back of the 130XE.

[toddtmw]

Panasonic KX-P1091 and Okimate 10.

Both great printers.

[ACML]

My first printer was a Mannesman Tally Spirit 80 using an Atari 850 then MIO.  Now use Star NX-1000 and Epson LX-500 with a P: R: Connection. 

[Fred_M]

Back in the day I used the General Electric TXP 8100 (also known as TXP 1000). It included a General Electric printerinterface that can be used for the Atari 8-bit computers and the Commodore 64.

 

 

[+davidcalgary29]

Where is Seikosha on the list? My first printer was an awful tank that lacked lower-case descenders. I used it for years.

 

I’ve always been sorry that I got rid of my “Star” NX-1001. It was a lovely printer.

 

BTW, Canadians looking for tractor-feed paper can get it online from Staples. Expensive at 50 bucks a box, but I’m a five hour drive from a city and would spend a mint on gas to get to a store.

[Kyle22]

I used to have a very strange printer. I don't remember it's name now. It had a rotating cylindrical 'star' wheel behind the paper and a single flat hammer through a ribbon on the front side of the paper.

 

IIRC, The print was a little sloppy, but readable. It was very noisy.

 

Anyone know what this thing is?

 

It almost worked like the 1027. The 1027 has the hammer on the back side of the paper.

This one was dot matrix instead of fixed type, and with the hammer on the front of the paper.

.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by Kyle22
Clarity

[Almerian]

6 hours ago, Kyle22 said:

I used to have a very strange printer. I don't remember it's name now. It had a rotating cylindrical 'star' wheel behind the paper and a single flat hammer through a ribbon on the front side of the paper.

 

IIRC, The print was a little sloppy, but readable. It was very noisy.

 

Anyone know what this thing is?

 

Sounds like the Seikosha Unihammer system, as in the 1029.

[Brentarian]

BITD:

1027, Citizen MSP-10, Panasonic KXP-1124, and a Kyocera laser printer (if 1993 is considered BITD).  The Kyocera had Epson compatibility.  P:R: was the interface I used (except for the 1027 of course).

 

Modern Day:

1025- not hooked up at the moment, but it does work.

Brother inkjet, HP laser through Ape, but once I get a Retro Printer interface I'll be printing through that with the P:R:C (with Epson conversion).

[erichenneke]

On 2/8/2015 at 9:34 AM, ACML said:

My first printer was a Mannesmann Tally Spirit 80. It was a dot matrix printer that was one of the first to have square pins. It made the text look a little sharper. Tractor fed, fan fold. I want to say I paid about $350 for it back in 1982.

Exact same printer I had.  It was great,  like a tank.  Looked good sitting next to my 800, another tank! 

[+DrVenkman]

BITD I first had an Atari 1027 (I used "other" in my vote for that, as it wasn't what we really think of as a "daisywheel"), and then later added a Star SG-10. I had some kind of SIO/parallel interface at the time but I'll be damned if I can remember what brand it was.  

 

Today, although I have both an 820 and a 1025, neither of them appears to work correctly. The 820 mechanism seems to be frozen - it will sort of move if I help it along, but it's pretty grungy. Maybe someday if I have a few days off work with nothing else to do, I'll try to disassemble it all, clean and lube the mech and see if it will work. The 1025 hums when you plug it in even with the power toggle set to "OFF" which seems a little weird. ? But that's the only thing it does - it doesn't respond to print commands or anything else. 

 

Someday I'd still like to pick up a working dot matrix similar to what I used back then - tractor feed, capable of pin-addressing graphics for use with The Print Shop, etc. But they weigh so damn much I'd hate to think how much it would cost to buy unless I found it locally. This time around I do have an ICD P:R:Connection that I use for my Lantronix network connection over serial - the parallel interface is wide open for a printer when I find one. 

[wildstar87]

 

My first printer, had an NLQ mode.  After I sold my 8-bit stuff (which I dearly regret now), it stuck around on my PC stuff for quite awhile.

[Stormtrooper of Death]

Fred_M, i also used the General Electric TXP 8100. Did you know that the TXP 8100 could print with ink, but could also use thermal paper ? The paper rolls for the Philips Videowriter were the same for the TXP 8100.

 

I bought a 2nd hand TXP 8100 from the Dutch Marktplaats (together with a bulk of Atari 8bit hardware), but sadly my new (old) TXP 8100 doesnt work at all.

[zzip]

I had an Okimate 10...    ugh

 

Slow, didn't realize what "thermal transfer" meant when I bought it.   But it basically means the ink is wax, the ribbon can only be used once and it only prints nicely on high-quality paper

 

On the plus side, it was compact and had color, which was a rare feature in printers at the time. 

 

After that I got a Star NX-1000 which served me well for years, and I still have it (but don't use it)

[Fred_M]

2 hours ago, Stormtrooper of Death said:

Fred_M, i also used the General Electric TXP 8100. Did you know that the TXP 8100 could print with ink, but could also use thermal paper ? The paper rolls for the Philips Videowriter were the same for the TXP 8100.

 

 

Yes, I know that. I used both back in the day ? 

[BillC]

On 8/20/2019 at 11:52 AM, TGB1718 said:

I used Epsom FX80 and LX80, also borrowed from work a Mannesman Tally (can't remember the model)

My first printer was a Mannesman Tally Spirit 80, it used a multi-strike ribbon that looked similar to carbon paper.

[reifsnyderb]

I used an Atari 1025 printer and, later, a Star NP-10.  The Atari 1025 was slow but reliable.  Later on, my dad bought the Star NP-10.  That printer was a huge upgrade as it had extended characters, printed much faster, and in both directions.  The Star NP-10 required a Graphix-AT Atari SIO to 36 pin conversion cable.  I still have them both.  Tonight, I got the Atari 1025 out of storage and started to clean it up.  I wouldn't mind seeing it run again.  I'll probably bring the Star NP-10 back online, too. 

 

In many respects, the Star NP-10 had some serious advantages to modern printers.  They were built more ruggedly, did not have an expensive proprietary print cartridge, and had a real instruction manual.  Has anyone seen the instruction "manual" for modern printers?  lol  The picture page they provide with modern printers makes you want to reach for a box of crayons.  The Star NP-10 manual, on the other hand, was around 3/4" thick and had all sorts of information on how to send special codes to the printer to do a lot of different and useful things.

 

 

[Stefan Both]

Back then, none. Had no Atari back in the days.

Now: 1027, 1029 and Fujinet. 

 

Stefan 

[+x=usr(1536)]

Epson FX-80, 1020, and 1029 at various times.  Wish I knew where the 1029 had ended up.

[+bob1200xl]

1025 - early 80s

 

HP DJ500 with an Epson FX cartridge  - mid-80s

 

HP LJ4 - early 90s

 

HP LJ4050 - 2000 - present

 

Bob