Atari 1450XLD Brochure - Lost To Dreamworld- Video

[AtariSociety]

Do Unicorns Exist?

Probably Not but ONE CAN DREAM!

Atari was dreaming back in 1983 and was pimping that Atari Unicorn, the Atari 1450XLD.

Please don't pinch me so I wake up!  

Well at least for another few minutes!

 

 

[Thelen]

At least we have the brochure ?

[Mclaneinc]

 

That's like wanting the Xmas present but only having the wrapping paper

[+Allan]

Back in the mid-Eighties, Electronic Fun magazine sponsored an electronics/computer event in New York City. It's mentioned in one of the issues. Many of the big video game companies were there including Coleco and Atari. Atari, as well as Coleco and many other companies, were giving out many brochures. I grabbed a ton of them including the one @AtariSociety is showing in the video. I must have took twenty of that one alone.  Atari also had individual folded flyers of the 600XL, 800XL, 1400XL and 1450XLD. You can find scans of those at places like Atarimania.com. They had stacks and stacks of them. Coleco had stacks of folders with single sheets of not only every game they had out but also many that were in the planning stages. Some of them never came out. I wish I still had the Coleco stuff.

 

I remember playing Colecovision Rocky months before it was released. My biggest regret was not taking any pictures.

[bfollowell]

I grew up in central Kentucky, and there weren't any Atari dealers close to the little town that I grew up in. I did receive quite a bit of free literature from Atari back in the day just by calling their toll-free number and requesting them. I'm 99% certain that I had that exact same brochure as well as all the individual ones they came out with for each computer. I'm going to start going through stuff in the attic in the spring, but I'm also 99% certain that I foolishly got rid of all that stuff over thirty years ago, but I'll keep my fingers crossed until I've checked through every last container.

 

Like many on here, I spent a lot of my teenage years looking through and drooling over those brochures. I always loved my Atari porn.

 

Thanks for the memories!

 

[Kyle22]

I wanted one of those SO BAD BITD. I was lucky enough to put my hands on one in Bob Woolley's Attic.

 

3D Printing will get good enough soon... It will never be original, but it will look great on the desk.

Sooner or later. I am optimistic.

 

[+DrVenkman]

I've had this catalog since sometime around late 1983 or early 1984. Ah, what could have been ...

 

 

[+mytek]

I remember having the same brochure as the OP and drooling over it, while waiting for what never came to be.

 

However the one thing that simply didn't make sense at the time, was to have a built-in modem with only 300 baud capability. In the time period we are talking about, I'm pretty sure 1200 baud was already in use. And since this technology was ever changing, a more modular approach would have been better in this regard. Think small opening in back where a modem module with phone jack and edge card connector could have been plugged in. In fact just like the 2nd floppy drive was to be optional, the modem should have been as well.

 

To dream the impossible dream

 

[bfollowell]

As much as we all obviously dreamed of and drooled over the thoughts of the 1400XL & the 1450XLD back then, just imagine what we would've done if we could've even imagined the 1088XELs, 1088XLDs & 576NUC+s  that we have today and their capabilities, all thanks to @mytek and his wonderful imagination!

 

[oracle_jedi]

13 hours ago, mytek said:

However the one thing that simply didn't make sense at the time, was to have a built-in modem with only 300 baud capability. In the time period we are talking about, I'm pretty sure 1200 baud was already in use. And since this technology was ever changing, a more modular approach would have been better in this regard. Think small opening in back where a modem module with phone jack and edge card connector could have been plugged in. In fact just like the 2nd floppy drive was to be optional, the modem should have been as well.

 

Exactly.

 

A modem that would have been obsolete before it was even brought to market, a third official disk format to confuse the existing split between 810 SS/SD and the 1050 SS/whatever-density.  Oh and a speech synthesizer.

 

Yeah I too drooled over the idea of a 1450XLD BITD.   But Tramiel was right to kill it.  It was a solution in search of a problem.  A huge desk-filling 64K, 40-column home computer with weird disk drives, a lousy modem and a speech unit that was considered cool in 1979, but by 1983 was passe.   

[_The Doctor__]

It would have been fine if they just left a modem slot and we could populate it ourselves. The drives would have been fine if they inverted the data or made the mode switchable... it really was just that simple to make it a releasable and useable item... it's not like such modification couldn't have been done before taking it to full production / market.... any number or alterations could have brought it up to date including a peripheral slot or 80 columns etc.

[stepho]

To my mind, it was the 40 column limit that would be the killer.
40 columns is fine if you're just playing games and dabbling in code.
But you really need 80 columns to supply the business market.

Apple had the right idea. The Apple II had 40 columns but the Apple IIe had 80 columns (although requiring an optional RAM card).
And the 8-bit machines were much cheaper than any of the 16-bit machines in the early/mid 1980s.
The Apple II line was Apple's cash cow even when the Lisa and Mac came out.

 

Even the (deservedly) unloved PC Jr did something like this by booting in colour 40 column mode so that budget users could use cheap TV based monitors.
It could later be changed to 80 column mode if you had a better quality monitor.
 

Atari could have done the same thing by upgrading the GTIA and ANTIC chips with relatively simple mods to add 80 column modes while still supporting the old modes (ie, not requiring separate monitors for graphics vs 80 column text).
 

As for the modem, I had some related experience with this in the 1990's.
I was programming ETPOS credit card terminals in Hong Kong.
Our standard model had a 1200 V.22 baud modem.
Every (and I mean every) bank asked if we could use a 9600 V.32 modem.
To which I replied "yes, it will save about 2 seconds during a 1 minute transaction (mostly waiting for the merchant to type in the amount and for the customer to swipe the card and type in their PIN) and will cost an extra $xxx".
Luckily, the code upgrade to drive the new modem in 9600 QAM mode wasn't too hard, the new chip supported all old modes and the new chip was pin compatible with the old chip.
I can't remember the actual price of the chip upgrade but it was substantial.
Every (and I mean every) bank withdrew their 9600 request.

I'm guessing that circa 1983 the price of a 1200 baud modem was still a bit pricey for the budget conscious home market.
I do remember gulping a little at the price when I bought my first 1200 V.22 baud modem circa 1985.
But I do agree that they would have been better off future proofing it by putting the modem on a replaceable card.

[Mclaneinc]

It looks a little like the point of sale we were sent over from Atari' but I don't think it's the exact same one. The one I saw was a much more front on picture, and I think (pretty sure) it had 2 drives in the bays. As soon as I saw it, I paced an order with our company, so I'd get one of the first in the company.

 

The rest is history... An unkind history.

 

Shame, would have look amazing on my desk BITD, but as I lost all my gear back then I guess it would have gone as well.

[+kheller2]

Atari’s cash cow was the 2600 and low and behold do nothing to change that or replace it.  The mindset for computers was simplification (chip count reduction and compaction) and ease of use: no card slots, let’s add a help key!  Do no harm to our existing user base ( SIO expansion box ).  There were a lot of chips being designed to combine Antic/GTIA what have you … even Porkey (fat Pokey with keyboard encoders onboard).  There were some new designs for graphic chips being worked on but it doesn’t seem like management wanted to do anything.   
 

Modems and floppy tech were very expensive.  1200 baud in 1983 was hundreds of dollars (600?) In 1984 the price cut in half almost, but they were still hundreds.  The 14xx line was designed with early 1983 tech.  
 

As much as I didn’t like Atari Corp., I think Atari Inc would have panicked and died in 1984. ( oh right, it did just that! ). Atari management Instead of embracing change they went on lockdown and restrictions and whatever else marketing dreamed would succeed.  
 

That’s just my point of view, however.  It wasn’t like a lot of companies back then functioned much differently. 

[+Allan]

2 hours ago, kheller2 said:

Atari’s cash cow was the 2600 and low and behold do nothing to change that or replace it.  The mindset for computers was simplification (chip count reduction and compaction) and ease of use: no card slots, let’s add a help key!  Do no harm to our existing user base ( SIO expansion box ).  There were a lot of chips being designed to combine Antic/GTIA what have you … even Porkey (fat Pokey with keyboard encoders onboard).  There were some new designs for graphic chips being worked on but it doesn’t seem like management wanted to do anything.   
 

Modems and floppy tech were very expensive.  1200 baud in 1983 was hundreds of dollars (600?) In 1984 the price cut in half almost, but they were still hundreds.  The 14xx line was designed with early 1983 tech.  
 

As much as I didn’t like Atari Corp., I think Atari Inc would have panicked and died in 1984. ( oh right, it did just that! ). Atari management Instead of embracing change they went on lockdown and restrictions and whatever else marketing dreamed would succeed.  
 

That’s just my point of view, however.  It wasn’t like a lot of companies back then functioned much differently. 

I agree except with one thing. I think it was Warner who panicked. Maybe Atari would have themselves if they were not owned by Warner, but that is just speculation. 

[+Allan]

I would love to have a 1450XLD case today. Not an original complete 1450XLD, just the case and metal frame to hold the drives, etc. Then we could put two 1050 drives in it for legacy software and all the modern upgrades we have today like Fujinet, Ultimate1m, etc.

[+MrFish]

9 minutes ago, Allan said:

I would love to have a 1450XLD case today. Not an original complete 1450XLD, just the case and metal frame to hold the drives, etc. Then we could put two 1050 drives in it for legacy software and all the modern upgrades we have today like Fujinet, Ultimate1m, etc.

You'd need more than just a case: you need a board that mates with the connector points at the back of the case. Otherwise, you'd need to design some new custom board to work with it.

 

[+kheller2]

22 minutes ago, Allan said:

I agree except with one thing. I think it was Warner who panicked. Maybe Atari would have themselves if they were not owned by Warner, but that is just speculation. 

I agree with your agreement.  However, who at Atari could have led by that point?  Atari seemed to be hiding some financial issues by then to Warner and Warner was bringing in anyone to fix issues since Atari was no longer their cash cow.  

[+mytek]

52 minutes ago, MrFish said:

You'd need more than just a case: you need a board that mates with the connector points at the back of the case. Otherwise, you'd need to design some new custom board to work with it.

 

Did someone say custom board? No problem

 

[+Allan]

17 minutes ago, mytek said:

Did someone say custom board? No problem

 

Exactly. But new 1450XLD cases? Problem. Hopefully not to long though.

[+Allan]

1 hour ago, kheller2 said:

I agree with your agreement.  However, who at Atari could have led by that point?  Atari seemed to be hiding some financial issues by then to Warner and Warner was bringing in anyone to fix issues since Atari was no longer their cash cow.  

Agree.

[+mytek]

3 minutes ago, Allan said:

Exactly. But new 1450XLD cases?

Yep that is still the obstacle... creating a new case. Something the size of the SDrive-Max or the 576NUC+ lends itself to DIY 3D printing very well, especially if lighter shades of filament are utilized. But apply this same technique to creating a case the size of the 1450XLD, and it  would look like totally crap in my mind.

 

[+MrFish]

17 minutes ago, mytek said:

Did someone say custom board? No problem

Yeah, you're probably looking for a new project by now. The only case-builder is @Beetle at this point, with exactly one under his belt.

 

[Bee]

Sheet Metal & CNC come to mind.  Shades of my IMASI 8080. But you can add 3D printed bezels. 

 

 

[oracle_jedi]

11 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

It would have been fine if they just left a modem slot and we could populate it ourselves. The drives would have been fine if they inverted the data or made the mode switchable... it really was just that simple to make it a releasable and useable item... it's not like such modification couldn't have been done before taking it to full production / market.... any number or alterations could have brought it up to date including a peripheral slot or 80 columns etc.

 

A slot!   Yes!   A slot for the modem.   And a slot for the TONG disk controller.   Slots are good.   Slots make sense....

 

But wait!   Atari already thought of that.   The 1090 expansion box!

 

I recall reading (on Curt's site I think) - that the reason the bus connector on the 1090 was on the front was to keep the ribbon connector to the PCI bus as short as possible for stability. 

 

That's fine for a 600XL or an 800XL.   But can you image a 1090 behind a 1450XLD?  You'd have a computer system about 14 inches wide and about 3 and half feet deep.

 

I'm with @stepho on this.  Apple had already shown the way.  A 1400XL with 128K of RAM and vendor supported 80-column mode, a deluxe Mitsumi keyboard.   An extra POKEY for Stereo would have been a cool feature too.  But a fat 800XL with an obsolete modem, a voice synthesizer gimmick and one weird-format disk drive.   The entire world wide market for that would have been.... probably the 20 or so guys on this thread.