Atari 800, 800XL what is the difference?

[kulaspg]

I have an Atari 800 and 800XL for sale on ebay. Auction number 3057970880 and was wondering what is the difference between the 2 units.

[Bryan]

800 - Came with 8K-48K (expandable)

800XL - Came with 64K

 

800 - BASIC on Cartridge

800XL - BASIC is built-in

 

800 - Two cartridge slots

800XL - Second cartridge slot was dropped, and the Parallel Bus was added

 

800 - 4 Joystick ports

800XL - 2 Joystick ports

 

There are a few other differences. The XL has a newer OS with a built-in Self-Test mode and a HELP key was added to the keyboard. They are both compatible with the same software (with a few exceptions).

 

-Bry

[Mindfield]

A few other important or esoteric differences.

 

800: CTIA ANTIC chip (graphic modes 0 through 11, 128 colour pallette)

800XL: GTIA ANTIC chip (addition of graphic modes 12 through 15 ("GTIA modes"), 256 colour pallette)

 

800: "Memo Pad" comes up when booted without BASIC cartridge.

800XL: BASIC is built in, thus no memo pad.

 

800: Early models had a removable top cover to reveal 4 expansion slots (slot 1 reserved for OS, 2-4 were designed for other expansion, such as RAM/RAMdisks, modems and 80 column cards) Later models had no expansion.

800XL: The only expansion was through the rear PBI (Paralell Bus Interface)

[Nukey Shay]

Only early models of the 800 used CTIA...this was later changed (and existing 800 owners could have their computer modded).

[Joe Stella]

800: Early models had a removable top cover to reveal 4 expansion slots (slot 1 reserved for OS, 2-4 were designed for other expansion, such as RAM/RAMdisks, modems and 80 column cards) Later models had no expansion.

 

are you sure? i have an 82/83 800 with expansion slot. difference being, the later model had a screw on expansion slot, and the 16k memory modules (in mine) are not individually shielded.

[Bryan]

Nukey and Joe are right.

 

800: CTIA ANTIC chip (graphic modes 0 through 11, 128 colour pallette)

800XL: GTIA ANTIC chip (addition of graphic modes 12 through 15 ("GTIA modes"), 256 colour pallette)

 

Most 800's shipped with GTIA too. There were not a lot of CTIA machines made.

Apparently the story is that CTIA's are actually GTIA's with the extra modes disabled because they were having problems and needed to ship the first run of machines. Later, the problem was fixed and true GTIA's went into production.

 

800: Early models had a removable top cover to reveal 4 expansion slots (slot 1 reserved for OS, 2-4 were designed for other expansion, such as RAM/RAMdisks, modems and 80 column cards)  Later models had no expansion.

 

They all had the expansion slots. Atari just screwed the top closed (no flip tabs) after they had been shipping only 48K units for a while (they also stopped putting the RAM cartridges in cases and put just the PCB's in the slots).

 

-Bry

[+boxpressed]

Thought I'd resurrect an old thread. I want to get an 8-bit and have narrowed down the choices to the original 800, 800XL, and 130XE.

 

I'll use the computer to play games almost exclusively (no programming), and right now I'm expecting to play cartridge games. I'll probably want a multicart at some point. I like the original 800 for the retro look, but will I be able to play any cartridge game on the original 800? And do games look better on the 800XL because of the GTIA chip? Thanks in advance!

[littleman jack]

Thought I'd resurrect an old thread. I want to get an 8-bit and have narrowed down the choices to the original 800, 800XL, and 130XE.

 

I'll use the computer to play games almost exclusively (no programming), and right now I'm expecting to play cartridge games. I'll probably want a multicart at some point. I like the original 800 for the retro look, but will I be able to play any cartridge game on the original 800? And do games look better on the 800XL because of the GTIA chip? Thanks in advance!

Some early games do not work on the xl or xe. And many later games won't work unless you have 64k or more ram, which means you need an xl or xe. It depends on which games you want more.

[+Philsan]

Some early games do not work on the xl or xe. And many later games won't work unless you have 64k or more ram, which means you need an xl or xe. It depends on which games you want more.

If I am not wrong, earlier 800 games have been patched to run on XL and XE (but you cannot play 4 player games), but many newer games don't work on 800.

[Bryan]

Yeah, the XL/XE is the way to go. All the stuff (of value) that had problems on the XL has been patched. The 800 can't run anything that requires 64K.

[+orpheuswaking]

Get both

 

 

[mimo]

One is big and beige, the other isn't

[Bryan]

One is big and beige, the other isn't

And one fits bigger people.