Is it worth getting an atari 400 If I already have a 2600?

[Tickled_Pink]

The 400 is a machine I've never owned. So you're already a step ahead of me.

 

The only thing you need to be aware of is that a lot of the later games (1984/85 onwards?) won't run on it. When Atari revamped the platform with the XL range, they messed around with the OS a bit and gave those machines more memory. Still, for earlier cartridges and games it's gonna be great.

 

$40 sounds a fair price. Over here in the UK, anything Atari is overpriced on fleabay.

[accousticguitar]

The Ultimate Cart is a good way to go. It's a little expensive, but you will not likely need to spend any more money on game carts after the purchase and will have literally thousands of games you can play on it.

[Matt_40]

The tape drives were a pain and will need to have the rubber belts replaced if you want to use them. With the base 16k RAM you'll be able to play most of the cart based games. You can also pickup one of the SD or flash based multi-carts which will open up a large library of games for you to check out. If you upgrade your RAM then you'll be able to play many of the file based games which can be loaded off the same multi-carts or using SIO devices which are designed for loading files directly from a PC or from SD cards.

Yeah, I got the thing, it works fine. It didn't come with a tape drive, the main draw to this was I own some of the cassette software and kind of want to play some of these oddball games, I'm looking into ways to copy the tapes or re-download the information, but im not too skilled on the subject

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Edited February 22, 2017 by Matt_40

[InfoMan]

Most things available on cassette you should be able to find as disk files that you can use with an SIO2SD (which I highly recommend). The only exceptions are some cassettes that had audio that went along with them. I remember sitting there for what seemed like forever waiting for Lemonade Stand to load. That's not a memory I'd like to relive.

[Andromeda Stardust]

So many computer models. I would go with whatever has the greatest compatibility. The XEGS with external keyboard might be the way to go if you don't want to fool with floppy and tape drives. Magnetic media seems to have aged poorly IMO.

[Matt_40]

I forgot to say that you should stick a BASIC cart in the machine and check the amount of free memory. I bought a 400 off ebay that was supposed to be 16k but it had a 48k upgrade in it.

 

It came with a basic cartridge, no memory upgrades . Fun to play with the games I got though.

 

Tape drives suck, but I can find the belts and that's normally the problem with any tape playing device. If I can get the audio files of games onto tapes it should work, gotta do a little experimenting.

[InfoMan]

So many computer models. I would go with whatever has the greatest compatibility. The XEGS with external keyboard might be the way to go if you don't want to fool with floppy and tape drives. Magnetic media seems to have aged poorly IMO.

 

I've actually found that my 30+ year old floppies work better than my 20 year old CDRs.

[simbalion]

Good move! I think you will find the 400 to be a neat little computer. It certainly has a look no other computer has. I was at a shop last week that had a nice 400 with all its books, two controllers, and 9 games for $100. Was a bit tempted, even though I have a working one already (no books though). I need to get mine back out.