New Atari 1600xl prototype pics on Twitter!

[+davidcalgary29]

But Atari couldn't attract a lot of third-party developers to its newer consoles (Jaguar aside), so they ended up coding most of the releases themselves. And since they didn't have an Asian development team, I do believe that most product did come from North America, with a few titles developed in Europe. Without access to Japan, Atari couldn't even produce popular playalikes for its consoles, and the generally litigous nature of the Atari/Nintendo/Sega rivalry gave Atari short-term cash, but probably prevented them from acquiring lucrative offshore titles. Atari and Sega really should have teamed up to go after Nintendo (and Atari REALLY should have agreed to distribute the Genesis) instead of suing each other, but that's hindsight for you.

 

Aside from the unreleased Jinks and Tower Toppler(?), XEGS software came from the Lombard division (or were repackaged, earlier titles from third parties); Plutos and Sirius may have been coded for the 7800 in the UK, but Atari didn't release them, either. And Epyx was an American company, so the Lynx started out with this commercial handicap as well. The inability to tap into modern gaming trends was probably a major factor in the failure of all of Atari's post-2600 consoles.

[doctor_x]

11 hours ago, leech said:

A lot (and I mean a LOT) of stuff was just Japan making games and then Atari slapping their logo on it for distribution.  Like Pac-Man being Puck-Man.  Cover up a bit of the lettering.. and you see why we got Pac-Man instead.

Could be an interesting article to really list out the origin of some of the most famous games. 

I guess my initial thought was even kind of dumb.. not like Atari was an “american” company anyway really.. But you are definitely right - it would be neat to see what the location of the early popular games was.. 

[leech]

1 hour ago, doctor_x said:

I guess my initial thought was even kind of dumb.. not like Atari was an “american” company anyway really.. But you are definitely right - it would be neat to see what the location of the early popular games was.. 

Well Atari was originally American for sure.  Commodore too.  Just that Commodore should have been given to the UK, and now Atari is French ha.

[jimt]

One other old photo.  (These are Polaroids, so haven't aged terribly well.)

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

13 hours ago, jimt said:

One other old photo.  (These are Polaroids, so haven't aged terribly well.)

 

 

Awesome pic.  Makes one think about what could have been.

[leech]

4 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Awesome pic.  Makes one think about what could have been.

Well now someone needs to make an ATX form factor 130xe motherboard?  Though it is actually hard to find ATX desktop cases these days

[abbotkinneydude]

8 hours ago, leech said:

Well now someone needs to make an ATX form factor 130xe motherboard?  Though it is actually hard to find ATX desktop cases these days

 

Without ignoring the overall thread which is about the 1600XL...

 

As a long time 8-bit user, I'd go for the 128Ko 800XL prototype motherboard featured in the Best Electronics catalog (later reconfigured into the 130XE) and alter it to include at least Stereo Pokey.

 

Before he passed away, in March of this year, Curt posted an amazing PDF detailing the various cost reduced systems that were supposed to be released after the Secam Rose 800XLF (released in France with FREDDIE).

 

The PDF was redacted in September 1984, two months after the sale of the consumer division to Tramel Technologies, Ltd.

 

While it does not mention the 800XLCR (the XLCR was originally detailed in September 1983 and included the CGIA IC - a GTIA / ANTIC combo), it does mention the 900XLKF which included KERI (Combined ANTIC + GTIA + POKEY).

 

A day one purchase for me would be a motherboard respecting the 800XL form factor but with the extra memory, extra pokey slot OR, if that ever becomes a possibility, a FPGA rendition of the KERI chip; not unsimilar to the Pokey Max from Retronics which can combine Pokey, SID and Covox in its current incarnation.

 

Regan Cheng's XL form factor is truly special in my eyes and very superior to the über cheap XE design.

 

Links:

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/800xl/800XLK/index.html

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8bits/xl/800xl/800xlcr.html

 

PDF is attached.

XLPRODS_Sept-09-1984.pdf

[leech]

31 minutes ago, abbotkinneydude said:

 

Without ignoring the overall thread which is about the 1600XL...

 

As a long time 8-bit user, I'd go for the 128Ko 800XL prototype motherboard featured in the Best Electronics catalog (later reconfigured into the 130XE) and alter it to include at least Stereo Pokey.

 

Before he passed away, in March of this year, Curt posted an amazing PDF detailing the various cost reduced systems that were supposed to be released after the Secam Rose 800XLF (released in France with FREDDIE).

 

The PDF was redacted in September 1984, two months after the sale of the consumer division to Tramel Technologies, Ltd.

 

While it does not mention the 800XLCR (the XLCR was originally detailed in September 1983 and included the CGIA IC - a GTIA / ANTIC combo), it does mention the 900XLKF which included KERI (Combined ANTIC + GTIA + POKEY).

 

A day one purchase for me would be a motherboard respecting the 800XL form factor but with the extra memory, extra pokey slot OR, if that ever becomes a possibility, a FPGA rendition of the KERI chip; not unsimilar to the Pokey Max from Retronics which can combine Pokey, SID and Covox in its current incarnation.

 

Regan Cheng's XL form factor is truly special in my eyes and very superior to the über cheap XE design.

 

Links:

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/800xl/800XLK/index.html

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8bits/xl/800xl/800xlcr.html

 

PDF is attached.

XLPRODS_Sept-09-1984.pdf 79.15 kB · 3 downloads

Huh, well yeah I mean if we could get some new chips, throw in the intended 1090XL built into an XT style case?  I would have been all over that!

Edit:  Which model number was the infamous Amiga supposed to be destined for?  When Atari was split/sold, they sure did have a lot of cool projects get canned

Edited September 10, 2020 by leech

[tschak909]

On 9/8/2020 at 8:08 PM, jimt said:

One other old photo.  (These are Polaroids, so haven't aged terribly well.)

 

 

@jimt which Toshiba machine was that keyboard pulled from?

-Thom

[+kheller2]

On 9/10/2020 at 1:25 AM, abbotkinneydude said:

 

 

 

As a long time 8-bit user, I'd go for the 128Ko 800XL prototype motherboard featured in the Best Electronics catalog (later reconfigured into the 130XE) and alter it to include at least Stereo Pokey.

 

Before he passed away, in March of this year, Curt posted an amazing PDF detailing the various cost reduced systems that were supposed to be released after the Secam Rose 800XLF (released in France with FREDDIE).

 

 

The 128K 800XLF board -- I have one (it is discussed here on AA in another thread) and is marked 130XE on the PBI.  I was a working with Curt on that a few years ago.    The history of the PAL/NTSC 800XLF (not ROSE) was the last thing he and I were discussing which led to posting of those PDFs, there was more information he was going to dig up for me, but alas... 

[jimt]

9 hours ago, tschak909 said:

@jimt which Toshiba machine was that keyboard pulled from?

T300, I think.

[tschak909]

18 hours ago, jimt said:

T300, I think.

Okay yup, I've looked up and cross referenced that, and that does seem to be the case.

 

So this  guy literally seems to be (from all the documentation gathered) the rather interesting marriage of an Atari XL and a Toshiba Pasopia 16 (aka T300, aka Papillon). I would have bought this.

 

-Thom

[jimt]

6 hours ago, tschak909 said:

So this  guy literally seems to be (from all the documentation gathered) the rather interesting marriage of an Atari XL and a Toshiba Pasopia 16 (aka T300, aka Papillon). I would have bought this.

This was purely a development prototype.  The final machine would have been different.

[+MrFish]

On 9/12/2020 at 10:02 PM, jimt said:

This was purely a development prototype.  The final machine would have been different.

 

Welcome on Jim.

 

In what ways would the final machine have been different?

 

[zzip]

16 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

Welcome on Jim.

 

In what ways would the final machine have been different?

 

It doesn't resemble Atari styling in any way.   It would have certainly had a different case and keyboard for a start. 

[Gunstar]

There has been a pretty even amount of arcade games made in Japan and the U.S. since the beginning, including Brands like Taito, Nintendo, Sega, Bally, Midway, Atari, Williams, etc., etc. that I can remember off the top of my head. Atari released both their own and arcade software licensed from Nintendo and others on their systems before the crash. Sega published their own games for Atari's and others. Space Invaders (IIRC licensed from Taito?) was the first commercially licensed game from the arcade that Atari released on the VCS besides their own, and maybe even before their own arcade games?

Edited September 15, 2020 by Gunstar