AT-AT's were well built
The Atari 800XL was the successor to the Atari 600XL. It was practically the same machine except it now had composite video capability and more RAM in the shape of 64KB - much more like it eh?
We must take a moment to mention the build quality of these Atari machines: They were very robust (almost nearing the indestructable levels of the BBC micro) and solid. They could take a lot of punishment and they would keep on grinnin'. Heck they were even impervious to kryptonite.
They had a responsive keyboard which would give you a nice 'clackity clack' sound as you hammered away at your latest BASIC program, and of course the function keys down the right hand side were solid enough.
The 800XL went on to become a popular choice for the classic games player, and over time an extensive library of games was released for it. It had the graphics and sound capabilites, and it almost reached the level of the legendary ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in the games playing stakes. Many games were now being released on multi-format, so you would have versions of a game for the Commodore, Sinclair, Amstrad and Atari machines.
One aspect of the XL range made them stand out from the 8-bit crowd of the mid-eighties. This was the cartridge slot - giving you another means of storing and loading those all important games. No waiting around for blocks of data to be loaded in from your trusty tape player and messing around with volume and tone controls. In some ways Atari were ahead of the pack with their technology.
The 800XL was a fine machine, and is worth it's place in the 8-bit hall of fame.
Ok readers, give this machine a hearty handshake. A fine Retro computer.
We recommend trying to pick up one of these machines.
Look at computers for sale online or even locally.
If you don't want to get hold of the real hardware then try and download an emulator and download those classic games. Alternatively you could try and play them online.
MACHINE NAME: Atari 800 XL
MANUFACTURER: Atari
MACHINE TYPE: Home 8-Bit micro (classic games machine)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
RELEASE YEAR: 1982
END OF PRODUCTION: January 85
BUILT IN LANGUAGE(S): Atari Basic
KEYBOARD: Mechanical keyboard
CPU: MOS 6502C
SPEED: 1.79 (NTSC) / 1.77 (PAL) MHz
CO-PROCESSOR: GTIA (video), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video)
RAM: 16 KB (600 XL up to 64 KB) / 64 KB (800 XL, expandable to 128 KB)
ROM: 24 KB
TEXT MODES: five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12
GRAPHIC MODES: 16 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192
COLORS: 256 (16 colors with 16 intensities)
SOUND: 4 voices over 3.5 octaves
I/O PORTS: Composite video output, cartridge slot, peripheral port (SIO), parallel bus, 2 joystick ports
POWER SUPPLY: External power supply unit
PRICE: ?
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