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[+HammR25]

What is this

 

[Albert]

It's an Atari 830 300 baud Accoustic Coupler modem. It's what some of us used to get online in the early days of electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), way before the internet was what it is today.

 

..Al

[+HammR25]

ahhh, now I see. I couldn't figure out what the "cups" were. It looked like some sort of Atari gadget. It's been bugging me for works but didn't want to do a forum post just to find out. Finally curiosity got the best of me.

[Atarifever]

ahhh, now  I see. I couldn't figure out what the "cups" were.  It looked like some sort of Atari gadget.  It's been bugging me for works but didn't want to do a forum post just to find out.  Finally curiosity got the best of me.

1016563[/snapback]

I've been wondering that for ages.

[Albert]

ahhh, now  I see. I couldn't figure out what the "cups" were.  It looked like some sort of Atari gadget.  It's been bugging me for works but didn't want to do a forum post just to find out.  Finally curiosity got the best of me.

1016563[/snapback]

I've been wondering that for ages.

1016565[/snapback]

I should make one of these threads a sticky so people who are curious will stumble upon the answer a bit more easily.

 

..Al

[Cheese007]

i was wondering what that thing was

where could i get one and how much would it cost?

[deathtrappomegranate]

where could i get one and how much would it cost?

 

1. ebay

2. Not very much, if you get one as part of an 8-bit computer lot

 

I also started off with computing on a 300/110 baud "acoustic data coupler" as they were known. The Atari 830 was seen as a cool hi-tech device, because many modems of the day were housed in wooden boxes.

[JB]

We used to have a similar coupler for my 4a. Never used it.

[+HammR25]

I should make one of these threads a sticky so people who are curious will stumble upon the answer a bit more easily. 

 

..Al

1016567[/snapback]

I tried to find a sticky or FAQ but gave up.

[SteveW]

We used to have a similar coupler for my 4a. Never used it.

1016622[/snapback]

 

I've got a TI phone coupler modem too. And a 300 baud standalone unit. Never used them. Of course, I got them well after TI compatible online companies had faded away. I always wanted to use The Source, because if you had the speech synthesizer, it would read your e-mail to you.

 

I'm pretty sure I have an Atari modem, in a storage box somewhere. Again, never used it.

[Albert]

I must admit that my first modem was an Atari 1030 "Direct Connect" model, purchased at Toys 'R' Us for about $80. So I kind of missed out on the glory days of dialing a number with your phone and then plugging the handset into the modem. But I did run several BBSs over many years, so perhaps that makes up for it a bit.

 

As time goes on, fewer and fewer people will know what the hell that graphic is in the upper right corner of the page. I wonder what percentage of visitors today know what it is. The store icon is a paper shopping bag--that too is going to be obsolete soon enough!

 

..Al

[JimmydelaKopin]

Yeah, back in the old days you couldn't dial the phone with your computer. You had to dial it yourself--and back then phones did have dials on them still, they weren't all touch-tone--and, once you get make the connection, you set the handset onto the modem. The 'cups' are where the earpiece and mouthpiece for a standard phone rest--back in the day before those wall phones.

Those big blocky phones you find in a school's office, the kind used to call your parents when you've been bad? Yeah, that's the kind of phone the old-style modem is designed to use.

 

Just a fossil here to help...damn it, I'm only 34! Stop making me feel old!

[Albert]

Yeah, back in the old days you couldn't dial the phone with your computer. You had to dial it yourself--and back then phones did have dials on them still, they weren't all touch-tone--and, once you get make the connection, you set the handset onto the modem. The 'cups' are where the earpiece and mouthpiece for a standard phone rest--back in the day before those wall phones.

Those big blocky phones you find in a school's office, the kind used to call your parents when you've been bad? Yeah, that's the kind of phone the old-style modem is designed to use.

 

Just a fossil here to help...damn it, I'm only 34! Stop making me feel old!

1016683[/snapback]

You're younger than me, so stop making me feel even older!

 

..Al

[A.J. Franzman]

ahhh, now  I see. I couldn't figure out what the "cups" were.  It looked like some sort of Atari gadget.  It's been bugging me for works but didn't want to do a forum post just to find out.  Finally curiosity got the best of me.

1016563[/snapback]

Here's something else that may interest you:

Back then there were almost no telephones that you couldn't use with it. Unless you had an antique "candlestick", or a wall phone with only the earpiece on a cord, or one of those fancy baroque-styled phones, most other phones in use had nearly identically-shaped handsets.

Edited February 11, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[Artlover]

I knew what it was. The wonderful world of accoustic modems. It's amazing those things worked as good as they did.

 

35 here, feeling older. Talking about feeling old. I realized this moring laser discs are going on 28 years old.

Edited February 11, 2006 by Artlover

[Famicoman]

We have had this thread before...

[SteveW]

We have had this thread before...

1016864[/snapback]

 

We've had this thread several times before, as I recall. Although I might not be remembering it right in my old age.

[NintendoDieScreaming]

I was always wondering what that was as well.

[Rockin' Kat]

I bet this question would come up at least a little bit less often if that image actually showed a phone receiver sitting on it.....or if everyone on the forums watched the movie Weird Science, which is the main reason I know what it does(or at least maybe....they also might start wearing bras on their heads.)

Edited February 13, 2006 by SuperPsycho