Atari 800 ... 25th Anniversary?

[doctorclu]

The Atari 800... my personal favorite, was first introduced in 1979 I believe right. When would the official "25th birthday" to the Atari 800 have been?

 

(My favorite computer is only seven years younger than me!)

 

Doctor Clu

[Cybernoid]

I would have to say sometime in November:

 

From the c.s.a.8 faq:

 

Jerry Jessop writes:

"The first official small shipment of the 400/800 was on August 29th 1979.

These were hand built pilot run units to Sears that needed to be in stock by

Sept. 1 so they could be placed in the big fall catalog. The units were

placed in the Sears warehouse and then immediatly returned to Atari after

the "in stock" requirment had been meet.

 

The first "real" consumer units were shipped in Nov. of 79 and were 400's to

Sears followed very shortly by 800's."

[Tezz]

cybernoid The first official small shipment of the 400/800 was on August 29th 1979

Cool I share the same birthday as the Atari 800 !! although I'll be 31 on the 29th August !! 29th August is also Judgement day

[Xot]

cybernoid The first official small shipment of the 400/800 was on August 29th 1979

Cool I share the same birthday as the Atari 800 !! although I'll be 31 on the 29th August !! 29th August is also Judgement day

 

Yeah, but that was six years ago.

[doctorclu]

I have been reading through old issues of kilobaud computing, Microcomputing, and so forth, and what has always been interesting to me is that is how the computing world at the time wondered if the Atari 800 was a true computer, and then was blown away when they realized what the computer could do. It was a bit pricey compared to some home kits, many bought the 400 (I know I did...) to come close, and then upgraded the 400's to be more 800 like.

 

But yeh, there was a lot of scoffing in the magazines about the Atari computer being a "game machine", but it soon became the icon of personal computers replacing other popular machines at the time. (like the Commodore Pet, the Sol Terminal, Heath Kits etc etc...) It is almost surreal to see the 800 with all it could do dropped into a scene that was mainly terminals and text displays. But there it is. Like it was dropped from the future or something.

 

Made quite a stir back then.

 

I'll try to share an article here, a supposed "review" of the Atari computer when I find it again.

[AtariDude]

The Atari 800 was a great machine and built to last. I just wish that I could have had one during the day but at the time they were out of my price range. I would eventually get my first computer that was the Atari 800XL but it would have been nice to have had an 800 as well.

 

Anyone know how long Sears sold the 800 for and what was the price range?