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How cool is this thing? Atari PC3


82-T/A

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Gotta say though... like the styling, but is ruined by the beige overlap in front. Know exactly *why* they did that, but still. Looks uglier than need be. Dressing down an ST to look more PC. :rolling:

 

Didn't realize they had so many different PC models! PC1-PC5 at least. PC1 looked like a MegaST and had a 5-1/4" drive. Other models as well.

 

 

post-13896-0-73839300-1452089990.jpg post-13896-0-75786100-1452089991_thumb.jpg

 

post-13896-0-22973000-1452089993_thumb.jpg post-13896-0-86885000-1452089994_thumb.jpg

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Yeah, a friend of mine has both an Atari PC-1 and a PC-3. Both computers have 5.25" drives, so either 3.5" was a factory option or an aftermarket modification on the one on eBay?

 

I would wager it was a factory option using the same mechanisms as the Atari ST drives. 720k is not an easy mechanism to turn up.

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Really cool, but not $910 cool, or even $700 cool. :)

 

 

Agreed, otherwise I would have bought it.

 

If it was $100 bucks, maybe even $150... I would be drinking heavily to convince myself to buy it, only to have bought it later that night having convinced myself through inebriation that the price was TOTALLY acceptable.

 

I just spent $500 bucks on a BRAND NEW KayPro 8088 PC-10 which is the EXACT SAME MODEL as the original that I have (that suffered battery acid damage). I don't know what came over me... but an intense desire to recapture my childhood... being so close, yet so far... drove me to buy it. But now I'm stuck because it was a brand new machine that was purchased by the US Government, and stored in a warehouse along with some other crap, and never used. It's untouched... it turned on, and it's loaded with all of the factory Kay Pro software. It's so nice, that I can't bring myself to even modify the autoexec bat to fix the prompt=$p$g so I get a normal DOS prompt.

 

 

... 3rd world problems, sigh.

 

 

Yeah, a friend of mine has both an Atari PC-1 and a PC-3. Both computers have 5.25" drives, so either 3.5" was a factory option or an aftermarket modification on the one on eBay?

 

This is definitely a factory optioned PC-3. That 3.5" floppy design was ONLY something that you saw from Atari. It was the same design as the drive I had on my Atari MEGA-4 and 1040 ST back in the day:

 

 

img_0776.jpg

Edited by 82-T/A
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Love those machines. I recently bought a commodore pc-1, the atari pc1 compatitor. Don't know if the atari pc1 was compatible with atari st pheriperals, could be since a atari st floppy drive isn't that much different from a pc drive.

The commodore pc-1 could use amiga pheriperals. I used a amiga cd1411 diskdrive on my pc-1 so i could use 3.5" dd disk with the system. You can also connect a amiga mouse to the pc-1.

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Here is a German article on both the commodore pc-1 and atari pc1

http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/gal-cbm_pc1-images-gal-tests-data_welt-pc1_vs_pc1-01.jpg.html

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Love those machines. I recently bought a commodore pc-1, the atari pc1 compatitor. Don't know if the atari pc1 was compatible with atari st pheriperals, could be since a atari st floppy drive isn't that much different from a pc drive.

The commodore pc-1 could use amiga pheriperals. I used a amiga cd1411 diskdrive on my pc-1 so i could use 3.5" dd disk with the system. You can also connect a amiga mouse to the pc-1.

attachicon.gifimage.jpg

Here is a German article on both the commodore pc-1 and atari pc1

http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/gal-cbm_pc1-images-gal-tests-data_welt-pc1_vs_pc1-01.jpg.html

 

 

That's pretty cool! I've seen those on eBay too. It was all during a time when Commodore and Atari saw sales going towards the PC market, and they wanted to be part of it.

 

I could never quite understand why the PC Market was so popular, while the Atari and Commodore disappeared. I wonder if it's because people thought at the time that the PC seemed more professional while the Atari / Commodore seemed more like a game / for play?

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Love those machines. I recently bought a commodore pc-1, the atari pc1 compatitor. Don't know if the atari pc1 was compatible with atari st pheriperals, could be since a atari st floppy drive isn't that much different from a pc drive.

 

 

The Atari PC's can use ST floppy drives & mice, heck they even came with GEM... :)

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n1/AtarisNewComputers.html

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The Atari PC's can use ST floppy drives & mice, heck they even came with GEM... :)

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n1/AtarisNewComputers.html

Must say Atari had the edge with the pc1 over the commodore pc-1.

the graphics card was better. Ega over cga.

Built in scsi. And an mouse driven gui within the package.

Looks like i need to add a atari pc1 to my collection.

These are such nice machines.

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If some one is intrested in a pc3 found one for 25 euro. No keyboard or display, just the system. Isn't looking bad. Buyer lives in Belgium. http://www.marktplaats.nl/a/computers-en-software/desktop-pc-s/m1011516846-vintage-atari-pc3-computer.html?c=efb2ef4dc323389c4f92ed10afa33e3a&previousPage=lr

 

 

That's a pretty good deal!

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  • 4 weeks later...

 

This is definitely a factory optioned PC-3. That 3.5" floppy design was ONLY something that you saw from Atari. It was the same design as the drive I had on my Atari MEGA-4 and 1040 ST back in the day:

 

 

You are correct. The later revision "light grey trim" Atari PC's produced in 1989 had either a 5.25" or a 3.5" as the floppy drive. FYI the earlier "dark grey" revision produced in 1988 (as seen in the other listing) only had a 5.25" as the floppy drive.

 

I should mention, how nice of that guy to rip the specs right off my website but fail to realise the keyboard he has included is NOT the original Atari XT Keyboard. :) The original keyboard is Atari branded and has the F1-F12 keys on the left hand side just like the original IBM XT Keyboard.

 

 

That guy is a dead set idiot (sorry no nice way to put it). I'm not joking, he's been listing that exact same complete Atari PC3 for YEARS but doesn't get the hint that the price he has listed is way too much in fact it was higher! I tried to reason with him a few years back when I was first looking but despite showing him listings where others had sold for less than 100 euro's (box only I might add but to give him an idea of price) he wouldn't budge. A couple of months later I picked up a complete system almost identical to his (it was a German version not Italian like his) and I think it cost me about 500 all up including shipping from Germany to Australia which in itself wasn't cheap.

 

 

The Atari PC's can use ST floppy drives & mice, heck they even came with GEM... :)

 

http://www.atarimagazines.com/v6n1/AtarisNewComputers.html

 

Correct, they basically just rebadged the Atari ST peripherals for the PC line. The STM1 Mouse became the PCM1, the SF314 External Floppy became the PCF314 etc.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 1 year later...

I had an Atari PC3. Came with twin 5 1/4's, swapped one out for a DD 3.5". Also added a 40Mb hard card (split into 2 partitions, because DOS 3.2 could only use 32Mb max) Possibly the most pimped-out XT ever ;-)

There were dip switches on the back where you could select which graphics it had on bootup (MDA/Hercules/CGA/EGA) , there was also a tool to let you choose which one you wanted at any time.

 

The notable part was not the ST mouse, nor the fact there was a socket for ST drives, but mine really did come with an AT layout keyboard, one of very few (possibly only) XT-class machines to do so.

 

Cheers,

Raki.

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

I just bought this supercool PC3. I had one back in the day, was my first IBM compatible pc. Mine did not have the 3.5" vertical drive, just the one 5.25" floppy with the internal 30MB harddisk.

I actually never saw these machines with a vertical 3.5" drive installed, i assumed it was aftermarket, or done by the previous owner, but... the seal on the case is actually still intact, so it was never opened, and the cut in the front for the drive is perfect, not done afterwards, so i assume this was a factory option... btw showed this thing on the facebook page as well.

 

Later on i found these pictures on ataripc.net showing another machine with vertical 3.5" drive: http://www.ataripc.net/pc4-286/atari-pc4-photo-gallery/

 

I will clean it up and possibly whiten it, in time i would like to add a bootable ISA SD card or something. Will look into that.

Came with a PCM124 moitor and Atari keyboard (ZXCV keys are not working, have to check it), mouse is missing. Was not eaten by the cats. Checked it.

 

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Edited by jowi
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