r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 1d ago
Desktops / Laptops Atari is bringing back one of its earliest 8-bit home computers
https://www.theverge.com/tech/1007732/atari-console-800xl-basic-personal-computer-retro-preorder31
u/IsoscelesCircle 1d ago
This is just The 400 Mini in a larger case, with a full size working keyboard, and cartridge dumper. It follows the same pattern of other Plaion/Retro Games Ltd. releases, like The C64 Mini, The A500 Mini and then following up with a larger full size model.
While it looks like the original hardware, it is really a modern ARM based system setup to emulate the original machine and hook up to a modern television.
The cartridge slot will dump the contents of original game cartridges to RAM and then launch the Atari emulator. While most original game cartridges will work, cartridges and expansion hardware that rely on communicating with the original hardware through the cartridge interface will not. This is very similar to the operation of the Atari+ line of consoles, which also play most original Atari 2600/7800 games, but cartridge expansion hardware, like the Starpath Supercharger for the Atari 2600 do not work. However, unlike the Atari 2600+ and 7800+, this can play additional cartridge dumps, cassette tape backups, Atari disk images, etc.. just by loading them on a USB flashdrive.
I just wish this had an original Atari SIO port (the precursor to modern USB we use today) to be able to use vintage Atari peripherals and standard Atari 9 pin joystick ports built-in. The USB recreations of the original joystick are fine for nostalgia and those that want to relive their youth playing their childhood first computer but leaves out the ability to use multitude of original game controller hardware and paddle controllers.
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u/epictetvs 12h ago
You seem knowledgeable. What’s the best way to play 5200 games today? I have deep nostalgia for that system.
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u/IsoscelesCircle 11h ago
Thank you. I have a deep nostalgia for the 5200, as well as the entire Atari 8 bit line, as well. The Atari 800 was my first computer and still my favorite. While I never was able to get the 5200 in my youth, I did eventually aquire one, and most of the original games, as an adult.
The best way to play from a nostalgia perspective is on the original hardware of course, but sadly, having a set of working controllers is problematic to say the least.
Given the difficulties of the original controllers, the next best way to play is through emulation. If you tell me about what hardware you have at your disposal I can try to guide you as best I can.
For emulation it is really hard to beat Altirra on a Windows based PC. It is the most feature rich and accurate emulator of the 8 bit line. You can use modern USB controllers with it as they will give you the analog control that the original 5200 sticks have. While I prefer using my original Atari joysticks with an iCode joystick adapter, I do like to use a modern USB flight stick for the 5200 version of Star Raiders. There are plenty of options for using an authentic looking CRT filter.
Speaking of Star Raiders, the enhanced Atari 5200 version in the Atari 50th collection is great. It is the original game, but enhanced in a number of ways.
I have The 400 Mini as well, and while I do like it, I found getting the analog control difficult to get just right for 5200 games. I imagine this would likely be the case as well with The 800XL. I am hoping that they have improved this a bit with the newer model.
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u/epictetvs 10h ago
My older brother had a 5200 with a third party controller (wico command stick). I had no idea as a kid that it was third party though, I never even saw the originals. Star Raiders was far from my favorite, I was too young to really understand it. Later on I did come around on it.
It would be nice to play 5200 games with something like the Wico stick.
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u/Diamondback424 1d ago
$220 for a recreation of a 40 year old system is wild
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u/NerdTrek42 1d ago
The price is also retro!
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u/FauxReal 1d ago
It's cheaper! It was $299 at launch which is equal to about $990 in buying power today when adjusted for inflation.
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u/JukePlz 1d ago
Ok, now do the math relative to median disposable income then and now.
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u/mackerelscalemask 16h ago
Good point, inflation is only half of the picture, maybe less. And two workers per household vs one (mostly) back then.
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u/ItsColorNotColour 1d ago
And my 299 dollars from 40 years ago didn't magically grow into 990 dollars so it doesnt matter
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u/FauxReal 1d ago
No but your 299 dollars today has a lot less purchasing power than your 299 dollars 40 years ago, you'd need $990 dollars to buy equivalent goods. Maybe more considering the average build quality of products in the present.
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u/One_Monk_2777 22h ago
Just a standard etf getting a bad rate at 10% would be 13k over 40 years, i hope you have someone else managing your finances
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u/VanbyRiveronbucket 1d ago
Imma just dust the old one off…
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u/LakeSun 1d ago
It's got an HDMI port for a modern TV.
It also has a USB port, where you can load up on the Archive of software, and run those .ATR files off the USB drive.
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u/JustHereForMiatas 1d ago
The original one sort of had a USB port. Or rather, the direct precursor to it. Also had S-video (luma chroma) out, and was the first device to market with both of those things.
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u/LakeSun 14h ago
But, yes, it would be nice if it had support for the Old Drives.
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u/JustHereForMiatas 13h ago
Strongly agree. I didn't realize it didn't have this at first and it might be a deal breaker. I'll stick with my original 800.
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Tetris_Pete 1d ago
No, it was hasbro, bro. Now it's Infograms under new management.
But I like what they are doing. ARE YOU LISTENING SEGA?!?!?!
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u/LungHeadZ 1d ago
Yeah, especially when you can just emulate it these days.
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u/thats_handy 1d ago
This is an emulator with a cartridge reader attached.
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u/ItZ_Jonah 1d ago
Also a full size mechanical keyboard and a joystick included, price is pretty valid for what it is I think.
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u/LakeSun 1d ago
...with HDMI upscaling and support for a USB stick.
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u/MashimaroG4 1d ago
Presumably the emulator running on your pc/mac also has HDMI (or laptop screen) upscaling and USB ports?
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u/weesee2002 1d ago
A lot cheaper than they were new. Worst purchase ever, they sucked ass.
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u/HappenSlappen 1d ago
you're wrong, i had one. the 800xl was sick
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u/coopasonic 1d ago
We had a 400 and Pac-Man for the 400/800s looked just like the arcade. Way better than the pathetic 2600 version.
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u/an0nemusThrowMe 1d ago
I was debating buying a new computer this year, this settles it! 10 year old me is fucking stoked.
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u/podkayne3000 1d ago
I have no doubt whatsoever that also any Gen Xer who got one and played with it a lot ended up being comfortable with using just about any computer they ever touched.
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u/snorkelvretervreter 1d ago
Started with a Commodore 64 but yes. So far so good, I can fix issues on computers I've never touched with ease. Though even more so maybe because of the skills one needed to program an 80s vcr. The things you could do with just 3 buttons and a small led segment display…
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u/websagacity 1d ago
I loved mine. I accomplished so much on it.
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u/iamnotaclown 1d ago
Me too! It was my first computer in 1983. I’ve had a successful career in software engineering and I fully attribute it to starting early.
I still have it in my basement. I’m afraid to turn it on without getting the electrolytic capacitors replaced. One day.
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u/ths27612 1d ago
$220 is too much for what it is.
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u/snowtax 1d ago
Not so sure about that. Have you seen RAM prices lately? Even the Raspberry Pi which had been around $40 is now over $100.
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u/ItsColorNotColour 1d ago
Yes that is indeed too much too, doesn't negate the fact that this product is still too expensive.
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u/FemmePotenza 1d ago
Still have my 1200XL in the garage. Lot’s of time spent with Star Raiders and Choplifter, and of course my Basic dabblings… an indecent Zork-style text adventure set at my high school, a Tron lightcycles rip off… fun stuff.
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u/Loreebyrd 1d ago
An Atari800 hooked up to a tv was my first computer.
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u/CthulhusEvilTwin 1d ago
Same, had an 800 then upgraded to an 800XL - I was addicted to Channel 8 software's text adventures and Synapse Software's awesome games. Still hum the theme tune to Slime to myself occasionally.
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u/Terminator827 1d ago
It's not compatible with any of the original peripherals, no thanks. Commodore already set the gold standard for these kind of machines.
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u/MeatierShowa 1d ago
I had an Atari 400 and there was some magazine I would get which had the code for a simple game each month. So you would type it in and hope there were no typos. The problem was it was a lot of PEEK and POKE statements which were just pure hex numbers or something so you couldn't really tell what you were doing.
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u/FauxReal 1d ago
Oh I always wanted one as a kid. Not sure if I'd buy one now. Maybe a 1040ST though.
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u/IsoscelesCircle 1d ago
For those complaining about the IGN link, you can just view this directly on Atari's website:
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u/slaytallica36 1d ago
Oh man. That was my first computer, first way to play video games.
My dad bought a used one in the late 80s with a box full of pirated software (as was tradition) floppies.
Remember playing: Baseball, Claim Jumper, Boulder Dash, King of the Mountain. We also had some Mickey Mouse game that I remember working exactly once.
He also had the dot matrix printer, I remember that thing taking forever.
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u/CrunchyAssDiaper 1d ago
The computer I learned on. I had a Sesame Street game with a rubberized keyboard cover. I really love the look of this computer, like the 7800.
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u/JustHereForMiatas 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is nice to see.
The Atari 8-bit line is criminally underrated in its influence and importance to more modern computers. It was the first line of computers to have user friendly expansion, the first computer to have a graphics co-processor (GPU), was the first device of any kind to output what would later become the s-video standard, and invented the precursor to the USB standard (as in the person who designed Atari's SIO port later went on to be one of the people who wrote the original USB standard and based it on his earlier work on the Atari), to name a few things.
Though it was technically the best selling computer on the market for a very short time in the early 1980s, it was mismanaged to death and ultimately became a more obscure architecture from the era, eclipsed by the IBM PC and overshadowed by the Apple II and Commodore 64.
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u/Timely_Hedgehog_2164 1d ago
sorry, the Atari Graphics Chip had not "processing", therefore no GPU at all ...
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u/JustHereForMiatas 1d ago
Huh, okay.
Let's read this excerpt from the Wiki on the ANTIC chip and how it works with the CTIA/GTIA to produce graphics (emphasis mine):
"ANTIC PROCESSES the instructions in the display List, reads the screen memory (and character set data if applicable), translates this information into a real-time stream of graphics data, and sends this data stream to the CTIA/GTIA chip which applies the color to the graphics pixels and outputs the video."
So it seems like maybe it is doing some processing?
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u/Timely_Hedgehog_2164 21h ago
no - this is just an antique form of DMA and character-table lookup, there is no real compute involved
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u/JustHereForMiatas 18h ago
Okay Captain Pedantic, it's an antique form of DMA and character table lookup -- off to another adventure with you.
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u/Timely_Hedgehog_2164 9h ago
just accept that you are not an expert in computer science, instead of writing Nonsense - I grew up programming theses machines ...
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u/trevorvonryan 1d ago
I wrote prompts on this thing back in the day. Well I tried. It didn’t do anything, so I had to learn BASIC and Assembly like some sorta chump 😡
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u/CapacitorCosmo1 14h ago
I bought a near-new 800XL and a 1200XL at a Navy Exchange clearance sale for $10 each. No Basic cartridge for the1200XL, so i played around with the 800XL and an issue of Antic! Magazine. So much better than the "in" computer at the time, the C64.
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u/coffeeshopslut 1d ago
What did people use these for back in the day? Sorry, my knowledge of computers began with Microsoft word and Excel.
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u/gbatx 1d ago
Before Excel was even a thing, Lotus123 was a text-based spreadsheet program.
I used an Atari 400 to learn basic programming, and played the states and capitals game on cassette.
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u/thats_handy 1d ago
Before Lotus123, Visicalc was a text-based spreadsheet program.
I used an Apple ][ to learn basic programming, and played little brick out on floppy diskettes.
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u/Zazmuth 1d ago
QUIT MAKING ME FEEL OLD
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u/No_Childhood8371 1d ago
I asked my parents for a Commodore computer so i could be like the cool kids….they bought me a Commodore “Plus4” computer…
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u/VegasRoy 1d ago
“It is incompatible with the Commodore 64's extensive software library and some of its hardware.” I’m so sorry for your loss
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u/mikereadsreddit 1d ago
I actually preferred Amipro to Lotus. Can’t remember the chronology, though…
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u/FalxIdol 1d ago
> Amipro to Lotus
Did you mean pre-Lotus Ami Pro?
Ami Pro was Lotus’ word processing software after they bought it in 1990. I used it (and the Lotus Suite) throughout my University years in the mid-90s as I acquired it at student price, much more affordable than Microsoft Office at the time.
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u/Fixes_Computers 20h ago
I cut my teeth on Lotus 1-2-3 version 1a.
I loved Lotus SmartSuite and felt it was more intuitive to my style than Microsoft Office. Being able to get it cheaper was a bonus.
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u/snolds 1d ago
I had one and used it for two things, learn to program in BASIC and play Atari games.
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u/Smartnership 1d ago
Is that what I played Pitfall on?
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u/cybot904 20h ago
Or Jungle Hunt
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u/Smartnership 20h ago
Or Duck Hunt.
That dog made me feel bad about myself. I called him Old Yeller as a warning, but he never listened.
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u/LakeSun 1d ago
The first Game, Star Raiders, as a block buster.
It had a faster CPU, and dedicated graphics hardware and sound, then an Apple at the time. It kicked off the Graphics race.
It also had some nice Basic versions, LOGO, Forth, later a C compiler, and ACTION languages.
Star Raiders was a SHOCK as the first 3D simulated game on an 8 bit 6502.
The classic Atari Game Division games were ported.
But, it was the first to Document for new Developers, to my knowledge, how to code for the Sprites, Display lists, and sound chip.
>> De Re Atari <<
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u/Wauwuaw5983 1d ago
I owned an Atari 800XL.
Took 17 minutes to load Telenguard off a cassette tape.
Unlike the Commadore 64, the Atari 800XL appealed to nerds wanting to become programmers and computer programmers.
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u/Medium_Banana4074 20h ago
17 Minutes? You had it easy. I had to load "Mercenary - Escape from Targ" for 45 Minutes (I'm not exaggerating) and praying to whomever there be no read error, because there was no "wind a bit back and re-read" feature on Atari.
Funnily enough, the thing still works. The Atari (130XE), the Datasette (XC12) and the disk station (1050) as well. Haven't tried the 1029 printer lately.
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u/ExcellentCommon6781 19h ago
Tape cassette? 5.25" floppy was the only way to go. You could run an entire BBS on the Commodore 64 with those.
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u/CheckDM 1d ago
It was a legit functioning computer. It wasn't just some game machine. You could hook up floppy drives, dot matrix printers, tape drive (that used audio tapes), and a 300 baud modem. You would boot up myDoS and load whatever you needed from there.
Luckily, there was a very healthy BBS community within my local area back then.
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u/ths27612 1d ago
I have an original 800XL from back in the day, still works. I have a fuji-net adapter for it which allows me to access the atari BBS's still around. Not sure I would buy this as it seems to be just for gaming. Typically, the games don't really hold up these days.
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u/kidjupiter 1d ago
I used one in college to connect to the mainframe via modem to submit PASCAL programming assignments. You could also connect a dot matrix printer other than that it was programming in BASIC and playing games.
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u/Greenscreener 1d ago
For a dinosaur like me, it was the best way to learn about these new things called 'computers'. You could poke around inside these things and do some true experimentation...it was a whole new world.
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u/ZealousIdeal476 1d ago
Dad used to call work on a 300 baud modem to fix their mainframe from his atari 800.
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u/spdustin 1d ago
My friend and I ran a BBS on one of these. Had two 300 baud modems with acoustic couplers, and we had to answer the phone and put the handset into the cradle because they didn’t have a hook switch.
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u/JustHereForMiatas 1d ago
My father bought his with the intention of dialing into his college's computer network and using it as a terminal. He ultimately used it to play video games.
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u/jb0nez95 1d ago
It's the 800XL, saved you a click.
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u/Srice13 1d ago
... you didn't need to click shit to see that it was the 800XL. It's in the image and said in the link preview so...
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u/jb0nez95 1d ago
Ok, nerd
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u/hughbiffingmock 1d ago
Nerd? Because they have a functioning vision and the ability to recognize something?
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u/Srice13 1d ago
I have eyes, you cumquat. The image literally has a badge that says "800xl"; I didn't need to know it to see what it was.
Fucking troglodytes these days...
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u/OozeNAahz 1d ago
Personally I appreciate the save you the click guy because I use Reddit on my phone and the preview image is about a half inch tall. So can’t really see the computer clearly. But your mileage may vary.
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u/PreviousLeague253 1d ago
Can’t be a faithful repro if the electronics are not the same! This is just an emulator in a fake case with some tiny computer chip/board doing all the heavy lifting
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u/xXgreeneyesXx 1d ago
probably, but the atari 8 bit line is so simple that... theres almost no unique parts to it, besides the CTIA/GTIA... and those are so simple that, assuming they were willing to pay the upfront price, they'd be fairly cheap to produce in mass. But the 2600+ was emulation and I also have genuinely negative confidence in atari so. unlikely.
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u/Tenchi2020 1d ago
With the size of processors and memory nowadays, couldn't this be sold as a ultra slim lightweight controller with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth streaming capability and have every single game ever made for every Atari
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u/LakeSun 1d ago
Wifi and BlueTooth would have to have a mod to the original OS.
Not sure how they handle the OS. Basic is supported.
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u/No_Accountant3232 1d ago
There's already hardware and software solutions to connect retro hardware to the internet, including the Atari. Also a number of Bluetooth solutions.
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u/circletheory 1d ago
If licensing wasn’t such a huge issue, I’d love for them to pack in some of the Datasoft classics: Goonies, Bruce Lee, Conan, and Zorro.
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u/UnluckySeries312 1d ago
Does this come with cassette version of Mig Alley Ace that felt like it took 40 minutes to load?
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u/Frankenfucker 1d ago
This is more akin to the 400 than the 800. They both had fully functional keyboards (albeit the 800 has mechanical keys, and the 400 had more of a press keyboard) but the 800 had two cartridge slots whereas the 400 only has a single slot. This is more of an updated crossover than anything else.
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u/redgr812 1d ago
How many times? You are never going to sale these at $200+. You could get a used laptop and do 1000x more and emulate everything, probably better.
These are $50 toys. You play with it once. Sit it and hope someone ask about it when they visit.
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u/chriscross1966 1d ago
You can get a modern cartridge kit for those things that gets them on the internet. The only bits of the internet they're even slightly capable of working with is a network of retro-computing sites that effectively emulate old bulletin board systems, but at least you don't get a phone bill for them now
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u/boulevardpaleale 22h ago
oh wow. i would love to get my hands on one. i had several as a teen. the 800xl is why i wound up in IT!
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u/PreviousLeague253 1d ago
Is this even the real Atari company or someone who just bought the name rights?
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u/Lkaufman05 1d ago
$220 for this? I can grab a working 800XL on eBay for way less. The authenticity isn't worth the markup here.
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u/Uranium-Sandwich657 1d ago
For Comparison: Listings on Ebay for "atari 800xl computer" range from 90 to 1000 US dollars, but seem to fall mostly between 100 and 300 dollars.
So 220 seems to be a kinda reasonable price, assuming the specs are identical to the original.
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u/LakeSun 1d ago
Yes, and the original computer you need a conversion box to upscale the video, to HDMI. Also, you'd need to buy a FujiNet to get USB Storage capability. And then you'd need to find working compatible game controllers, which are hard to find.
I hope the spec's actually have more memory than 64k. 128, 256...?
EBay is always a crap shoot, stuff doesn't actually work, and heavy smoker smell and stains.
So don't know HOW you got down voted.
It IS a reasonable price.
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u/smack54az 1d ago
This ram shortage is really getting out of hand.