Atari 800 haul (I may be in love)
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- Опубліковано 8 кві 2023
- The original Atari 800 has been on my "want" list for a long, long time and after a lucky FB find - here we are.
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Just a quick note: the reason for the fairly random assortment of games shown, I had issues getting a lot to run. It would seem with its 48k of memory, the 800 needs the basic cartridge OUT of the machine for a lot to run. Learn something new everyday. So there will be some more well known titles shown in the next video.
You could do like the 800xl and hold down option when starting up (IIRC). BASIC needed to be disabled on the 800xl too in order for some games to run... most actually. It was a combo of the Disk tools in memory and all that. (Not that you were having that problem).. :)
@@MechaFenris tried that. I think that’s an XL only thing.
That's like pressing "option" on the 800XL.
There were upgraded memory modules back in day for the 800. Axlon 512k comes to mind. Nowadays the ultimate upgrade for an 800 is an incognito board that upgrades it to 1 megabyte with internal SD card slot that emulates a super high speed hard disk in addition to allowing the 800 to change personality to an XL so it can do anything an XL can do!
What a FANTASTC haul. Even a fully loaded and functional 800.
The origin of USB. Such a sleek system and the manuals, ads and documentation are so amazingly slick.
I'm 54 years old and owned one of these Atari 800s with the memory modules, Master Diskette II, 810 disk drive with the Tandon barn door mechanism. My Dad sold it all off while I was in the Navy. These days, I dream of finding one again.and getting it all back together. This haul may be the best one in the history of ever, and you're right - to find all this stuff, in this condition, in Canberra, is astonishing good luck. God bless the obsessive-compulsive who formerly owned it.
It turns out RAM expansion with plastic/ metal housing had thermal issues. I found a few threads on Atariage where removing the ram housing is the go to solution for modern users . So either they started shipping them without the housing or at some point users removed it to stop the machine from crashing.
4 Player Mule! One of the best reasons for having a straight 800 😀
I actually found a fully functional Atari 800 XL in the box (but without the foam) on the street for bulk garbage pickup day a few months back. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw the box. I was thinking there was no way the Atari was going to be in there, but it was along with some games.
Fantastic find! Congrats
My first computer was a late model Atari 800 that I got on closeout after they released the Atari ST.
My OS and RAM cards were bare, without the plastic coverings. The keyboard felt much nicer than I had seen on the earlier models.
The Commodore 1701 was the ideal monitor for the Atari 800.
The Atari cassette system was more reliable than those for other systems that directly coded digital data onto the audio cassette tapes. Atari included a modem in the circuitry to convert the digital data into audio tones more compatible with the audio tapes. I had that track pad, I got it the same time I got the track ball controller for the Atari.
That original joystick did seem primitive back in the day, but it was easy to program for. It seems to have gained status over the years and is absolutely standard across all Atari systems.
The showoff demo game for this machine was Star Raiders. I usually don't see in most collectors' videos.
Thank you so much!
About one year ago, I got myself an Atari haul also, there was an Atari 800, Atari touchpad, 410 recorder and an Atari XE130 - all worked fine except the Atari 800 which had also sustained much damage to the case in the mail - it was broken several places and although the computer did turn on, I never got a "Ready" prompt ;-( I actually ended up selling it again on eBay for a ridiculous low auction price. The thing is, although the 130XE worked great I had really fallen in love with that 800, I loved its typewriter look and its charm. Now - about 2 months ago, I suddenly saw another 800 at a good price and I clicked 'buy' immediately! - I asked the seller to take much care when he was going to ship the computer, I told him my little story about another 800 that didn't survive a trip in the mail and he took notice of that, so the computer arrived safely and it works beautifully so I can really relate to especially the last part of this video seeing you so happy about owning an Atari 800 - I know exactly how you feel :-))
I had an 800xl when I was a kid. Also had the Tablet with AtariArtist software. The following Christmas, Father Christmas brought us an atari dot matrix printer.
My dad managed to reverse engineer the format which AtariArtist saved the images in, and he wrote a routine to load those images, and dump them full screen to the printer. This was made much more complicated because unlike most other dot matrix printers, the atari one had only 7 pins in the print head, rather than the more usual 8 or 9.
Obviously he had to make a decision of how to render colour as black and white binary dots, but the end result was amazing to my young self.
It's a bit surprising that atari's own art package could not natively print to atari's own brand printer, but cock ups like that were exactly the sort of thing that Atari pulled back in the 80s, and no doubt part of why they went to the wall.
In any case, happy times.
Thanks for posting. Brought back some fun memories.
good ol Santa 👍🎅🏻
Thank you for sharing that.
Best 8 bit computer ever made.
OK now put up a warez board on it. A 0-2 day only warez board. LET'S ROCK.
Back in the '90s when I was a kid and these machines were considered obsolete and worthless, my dad's coworker gave me an 800 and a 1200XL, an 810 disk drive, and a bunch of software for them. I preferred the 1200XL because of its sleeker design and nicer keyboard (it truly is the best of all the Atari computers), and didn't run into any of the much-maligned compatibility problems it was accused of having. (Although to be fair, maybe the original owner simply avoided any programs that were known not to run on it.)
I stupidly gave away all of it before retro computing started becoming a thing, although now I have a 400, 800XL, XEGS, and a 520STFM.
I’m sure we all (of a certain age) have stories of stuff either we’ve or seen thrown away, especially during the 90s.
Yes. Silly to give away. But we all make mistakes. I sold a super rare computer and regretted it. Even rarer than your 1200xl. A Sam Coupe Sinclair compatible.
I love it when people take care of their stuff and keep all of the original boxes and packaging - greatly appreciate that. This is a beautiful find!!! I never get lucky around my area :/
Same, where I live there is literally one retro game store and every system is loose and most of the games are loose too.
I literally cheered when you used the TouchPad to scrawl out "FARTS". I do the EXACT SAME THING whenever I test out this stuff for myself
The OG Atari 800 is iconic. I was a Commodore kid, but my two best freinds were Atari 800 kids. The original 800 and 400 machines are still what I think of when I think about the Atari 8-bit line. One day I'll get an 800. THe 400 in my collection works great, but it's a very limited machine and doesn't get as much use as to 800 or others would. Great video! It's fun to see you get positively giddy about an old computer.
I begged my Dad to get an 800 in 1979 and I spent years playing and writing games for it. Dad did a lot of word processing on it and held a prominent position on the coffee table for at least half a decade. We were banned from playing Defender as the space bar was the smart bomb controller and was whacked under extreme duress one too many times and stopped working.
I still have the 800, disk drive, tape drive, all my programs, a pile of game cartridges, and a light pen controller that I built out of about ten bucks worth of parts from Radio Shack in my middle teens. You've inspired me to have a go at restoring it!
Great video! Cheers!
What a great haul of Atari 8-bit computer goodness!
It's OK being a child; when the BASIC prompt came up, I instantly thought "10 print FARTS ; 20 goto 10 run".
Speaking of being a child, this was the very machine I spent my childhood 8 bit years playing qix and choplifter on. It's easily my favorite of the 8 bit machines because of that. C64s took SO LONG to load, and there were no MSX machines in the states. And my grandpa's 8 bit Northstar machine with CP/M and no real graphics to speak of wasn't the sort of machine to capture a kid's interest. Apple II machines were in our classrooms, but they had nothing on the Atari 800.
From this to an Amiga. Only the best for me!
Atari 8-bit chipsets by Jay Miner of later Amiga fame.
The Atari 800 was not cheap because it was built like a tank; literally. I love many retro consoles and computers, but the original holds a very sweet place in my heart. There isva big upgrade path for the 800, which I have purchased, but jot added yet.
I can remember my Dad coming home with information on the Atari 400/800 computers in the early 80s, I wanted an Atari 800 so badly. In the end it was not to be, we went down the Commodore 64 path!
Bare "RAM carts" - sources say Atari got lots of complaints about overheating memory carts causing crashes and to fix this switched to bare board. Supposedly Atari switched to bare memory boards somewhere in mid-1982 so around 18 month after they started shipping (implying this is a fairly early example). So if you have crashing issues after running for a while you know the first thing to suspect...
I’ll be interested to see the date codes on the chips when I open it up
I had that tablet for my 600xl. Unfortunately, there was very little software written for it. It was super cool for the time. They also had a light pen if I recall correctly.
I made my own light pen back then. I think there was an article in a magazine on how to make one. I recently found a bunch of BASIC programs I had written for it that were on my old floppies.
The more I see of the Atari 8-bit range, the more impressed I am. I've never seen one in the flesh. My circle of friends either had Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC or C64. We all joked about unlucky kids who got an Atari for Christmas, if only we knew!
I was pretty impressed with games on the Amstrad when I visited my friend. But I was happy with our family Sinclair Spectrum.
@@blackterminal Yup same as. The Amstrad has some pretty lazy ports from the Spectrum, but when time was put into a title they could make some stunning games.
I had the tablet and AtariArtist back when it came out. I have one now NIB. It was the Wacom of the 80’s. You can use the pen instead of the for making selections…
When I had my Oric-1 and the Spectrum, the joystick plug was called "Atari standard" and the goto joystick was a quickshot..although the damn plungers never seemed to solidly connect to the desk :) Glory days!
The 800 is one of the best-looking computers of all time. The XLs and XEs just didn't quite do it, nor did the VIC-20 and the 64. To me, the C128 flat is #2 with the G3 Powerbooks coming in third. The 800 was my first computer ever back when I was a kid. I was born in '81 and I remember existing as far back as I can remember. No idea when my dad got it. He got a Turbo XT Clone and I got the Atari to play games when I was probably six or seven.
The 800 was THE machine to have, during its time, and for collectors. In many ways, it was ahead in many ways. I am totally jealous.
My first computer was an 800. It was glorious
I just got a pickup of Atari 800 stuff this last weekend. 4 floppy drives, A boxed 800 complete with polys, The Programmer boxed. Two additional 800s with dust covers as well. I have all of the cables but everything is untested. Also a whole box of boxed disk games, cartridges, and cassettes. Total cost was 50 USD. I didn't get a tablet though. And I don't know if any of it works yet. I have yet to have time to test everything. But it's awesome that you got this. The boxed 800 will look really nice with my boxed 130XE.
They just look much better than the 800xl. I have wanted one for years. Even harder to get here in NZ than north of the ditch!
I have a Atari 400 and 2 800’s plus a 800xl now. Am a commodore person but the Atari’s have a place in my heart, I sold them back in the 80’s in a computer store in Hull , UK, with other 8bits micros at the time, wished i had the money to buy them then but now have them in my collection with others.
I’ve always favored my OG 800, since 1983, when I got an XL but ended up putting it in the living room, where I didn’t have a monitor (or S-VHS, obvi... ) that could take advantage of the OG’s fifth monitor port pin... but the open cartridge slot and built-in BASIC made it nicer in there, anyway...
It’s so funny when people who dunno what they’re talking about boast so much to me about their C64s and dissed my 8-bit Atari computers, giving me crap. Yeah, the first commercial PC with (incredible) separate sound and graphics chips to take the load off the CPU. No big deal, there... not to mention that most folks have been talking up the C64-for which the same, exact engineers designed its S&G chips-bring up those commodore chips, calling them “the first.” Of course, I moved to an Amiga 500, in ninth grade, when real 16-bits (aka, not like my cousin’s TI-99/4a “16-bit”) came out, ‘cause Momma din’t raise no fool...
That pristine haul you got is unreal! Damn! Sickness! Now, you just need the 4-pen “color printer” that was really a weak attempt at a drafting printer that outputted receipt-like areas of paper from a roll. I was happy to get on for $50, back in the day - but after that, the joke was on me.
I always thought the entree were “the main course,” though... Anywho, great video, man! I’m the closest I get to being jealous!
First of all congrats on your haul. "Im not gonna say how much I paid for it, it was not cheap"!!! I love it!!! I feel your pain!!
Its so frustrating to see a youtuber do an unboxing of gear like this and say "it was a donation! I found it in the trash! It just showed up on my doorstep"!!!
Ive never been just given gear like this. Ive always had to dearly pay for it!
Even as a YT’er I can count the number of donations I’ve had on one hand. Almost everything you’ve seen on my channel has been self funded.
most of the the 8bit Atari range were absolutely gorgeous. I loved my C64 and regularly play C64 games on my Mist fpga but the C64 itself wasn't a looker in comparison
Oh wow, I had the exact same Quickshot as a kid. It came bundled with a hand-me-down 600xl from my uncle. Years later, in secondary school, I was given the tablet by a teacher. A cool looking bit of hardware. I have the Atari Artist cart but cannot find the tablet which really irks me. I still have the 600XL to this day. I upgraded the ram to 64k and installed a U1MB at the start of Covid. About a year ago I designed and installed a mechanical keyboard replacement for the failing mylar. Next job is a Sophia 2.
Congrats! I never had one back in the day but a mate did and I was always envious. It's a fantastic powerful looking machine, built like a tank, a lovely keyboard to type on, 4 joystick ports, 2 cartridge slots and so ahead of it's time. The memory slots having covers aren't recommended because of over-heating issues, so most remove them...Yes I eventially got hold of an Atari 800 and it's my favourite in my retro collection!
Hey that's a beautiful 800, Lurch!! Congratulations! It is indeed a wonderful machine. The box also looks fantastic. If it's stored in low humidity at reasonable temperatures it won't yellow much at all as this one shows! Moisture absorbers in storage can greatly reduce or stop yellowing.
I recommend you get an 810 disk drive or two! That would make the setup period-correct and it all looks fantastic together. Most 810's are revision C which is the most desirable. Check the Atari 8bit FAQ but revision C will show C on the internal RF shield of the 810. This is only for MPI mech 810's. All Tandon mech 810's are revision C however MPI's rev C's are a little more desirable, but a Tandon is fine. Tandon's have the narrow slit disk slot while MPI's have the garage door type front mechanism.
If the SNES power supply you are using is DC then don't use it. Must be A/C. You'll damage the machine.
You might want to look under a keycap to see what color you have. White square= most common and is okay but will show some cracking (from age) at the corners of each plunger. Tends to hold the keycap well enough for use. Yellow square=uncommon and worst variant and will not hold keycaps well and worst cracking of the plungers. Green square=rare but best of the square plunger-type and often has no age cracking. If the keycap has a white plus-shaped male plunger then it's a Mitsumi with a mylar (no PCB circuit traces) that will often need servicing but has the best typing experience like a 1200XL.
21:20 that's a very nice sunny art scene! Looks great.
Note: I just about had a heart attack when you were trying to remove the top cover. The 800's plastic is brittle and any strong handling will break the cart door off at the plastic hinges which is very difficult to repair. If the 800 has been stored well, the plastic can still be resilient. Know that the baking soda+super glue method does work to repair broken 800 plastics. The baking soda+SG works to add reinforcing strength around the crack, not inside the crack if that makes sense.
Yes you need to remove BASIC for almost all games and applications. BASIC however was perhaps the best application BITD in it's own right. Most of us spent many hours programming in it. Great fun.
I made an instructional tutorial on how to use these. One of my newest (2+ years old now) videos. You might learn a few things from it depending on how much you know about the platform??
Again congrats on your excellent 800 find. Cheers!!
The SNES PSU is AC, I definitely checked that. I’ll take a look at the key switches later. Cheers
That is a freaking amazing haul, Lurch! I love that we can hear the excitement in your voice as you're going through everything. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a boxed Atari joystick either, crazy
Some RAM expansions are 3rd party with no shell, but also, some people found the shell causes too much heat build-up and de-shelled the genuine Atari RAM expansions.
Also many early 800s got fitted with the OG RAM cards from the 400 when people took advantage of various 3rd party hardware modifications for the cheaper machine (which obviously had just 1 slot).
If you can find it, the holiest of holy peripherals for your Atari 800 that you might wish to get is the XEP80. There's not too much software support, but there is some, and the XEP80 drags þe olde Atari 8-bit computer-kicking and screaming-into the world of 80-column text - through the joystick port of all things. Yes, really.
You make me grin .. I've felt that sort of excitment. First SGI Indy I managed to get in the mid-late 90's .. I did the happy-dance. Just about wanted to take it to bed and couldn't bare to be away from it.
The newer stock of 800's came with 48k preinstalled and didn't have the ability to open it and get to the cards without a screwdriver (that's how you know you got an Atari 800 with the "full" complement of memory out of the box.) It was "pre-expanded" so to speak. (That's what mine was when I bought it at Sears back in the waning days of Atari 8-bit sales.) You could still "expand" it with aftermarket memory cards and such, though.
Bare PCB cards were 3rd party modules, but also later in production, Atari dropped the plastic cases to reduce the price.
Also many early A800s got fitted with the OG RAM cards from the 400 when people took advantage of various 3rd party hardware modifications for the cheaper machine (which obviously had just 1 slot).
From what I've heard, the later machines stopped having the plastic covers for the memory for both cost savings and heat issues.
Once the game stock with 48k and they never had a reason to open the case and so they the clips with screws and had no need to encase the boards
So the tablet is just a different variation of the paddles each paddle controller had two paddles with two buttons and so you had x for 1 and y for the other. So you could use that same software with paddles and it would work essentially like an etch a Sketch
Grats on the pickup. I've never seen an original 800 in person. Plenty of the XL models but what you have is a real rarity. Looking forward to seeing more of it as time goes on.
The Wico Command Control bat (or ball) handle joysticks were great.
It had the best keyboard, being bested only by the 1200xl keyboard. :)
I picked up an A800 here locally in the US a couple years ago with its original box (a bit worse for wear) from the original owner, a few games, a couple of drives and an Amber CRT.
There's been a lot of these lately. A complete set of some kind of retro computer, complete with several rare, hard-to-find accessories. Or someone's entire collection of many kinds of complete in-box retro computers. Lots of videos about this happening recently.
Lots of widows...
It's a 'liquidity crisis' due to the central banks tightening money supply. Many people are selling what they have.
You see collections of model trains come up too. Guys like to collect. It's in our DNA. @@oldguy9051
great machines, close to 8 bit arcade machines in many ways, which I guess is no surprise given the manufacturer !
I have an old Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai cassette for the Atari.
Dood I just learned someone is working on making a fully new working retro modern 800XL new replica computer.
Nice...
That's an earlyish 800.. I think I've read that very early machines came with 8k, but that many were delivered with 16k. They later started shipping them with the full 48k. So yours is one of the earlier ones that someone added the other two 16k carts.
I don't have an 800, but I do have a 400 and love it. (I did mod my 400 to have 48k.)
The 400/800 have that 70's feel that I just love...
I don't know about the SDrive, but I have a Fujinet and for that, I do have to power it externally, but not because it doesn't provide enough power. It's because the Atari boots too quickly and won't recognize the Fujinet unless it is powered on first. I can actually power it on with the Fujonet on external power, and then remove the power to the Fujinet and it still works... No reason to do that really, but just something I did to validate...
Also, you can increase the memory of your 800 with some 3rd party mods, but you lose joystick ports 3 and 4.
Wowser! What a haul!
SDrive loader is fixed at D0:, so it is enough to select it.
Luma-Chroma (YC) basically is the S-Video, so if it works, the S-Video also has to work (yet signal levels are slightly different, which manifests itself as a checkboard pattern).
I recently picked up my first ever Atari 800 and am loving it, it is a great (very heavy) computer. As for the RAM, I believe they stopped shipping them in the shells due to over heating problems.
That's the first generation because it has the plastic clips to open the case.
I have a pile of floppy drives but don't have one hooked up. I just use the micro sd in the fujinet network card. If I need blank floppyies I copy and past a atr virtural disk file a few times on the sd and format after booting from a dos atr.
Awesome haul 🎉
You lucky bastard. Very cool stuff.😁
I once had a joystick similar to that "quickshot" one but it had a proper trigger instead of the one on top. But anyway, you sure sound like a kid on Christmas morning with this haul! It's always nice to find just the thing you've been after for one's collection! :)
that would have been the Quick shot 2 I think.
I've never actually seen an Atari computer in person. Back in the 80s, I didn't know anyone who owned one. I didn't have a lot of friends and everyone I knew, either didn't have a computer at all, or they had a C64/C128, like me. I've only experienced the Atari 8-bit line through emulation.
One thing I've always found strange is that the Atari line had more colors than the C64, but Atari games usually seemed to have less colors on the screen.
Most games on the Ataris and C64 are actually running in text modes and the character sets were modified to whatever the designers wanted.
That is where the similarities mostly end, though, as they had to master the different custom chips if they wanted to get the most out of the machines.
One of the big advantages of the C64 is a separate RAM chip for storing "one of 16 foreground colors per character cell" (it actually has 64.5 KB RAM!).
Thanks to this it can display all 16 colors on one text line without any trickery.
On the other hand it is limited to 16 colors and you have to dither the colors to make it seem like there were more.
The Ataris were developed a couple of years earlier than the C64 -- by the same people that did the VCS 2600.
While the new custom chips were a big upgrade some aspects, like the many colors and using registers, were a kind of legacy of this old console that was built without(!) a RAM chip (it only has 128 bytes of RAM in the I/O chip).
RAM was still expensive when the Ataris were develoiped and the Atari 400 was to be more like a games console for kids (hence the membrane keyboard) with only 8 KB of RAM.
That is why the Ataris don't have this "color RAM" -- and in consequence they are limited by the number of their color palette registers and regular video memory.
In 160 pixels per line mode (40 characters with 4 wide pixels horizontally) you get a maximum of 5 colors per line (out of 128).
-> Four of those colors come from the two pixels that "make" the wide pixels in the character.
-> The fifth color comes from the position of the character in the character set (first half or second half).
If you reduce the resolution to 80 pixels per line you can get a maximum of 9 colors per line out of 128 (as there are only 9 color registers!) or 16 different shades (of 1 color).
Not many games use this lower resolution for understandable reasons: it just doesn't look too good for many things where you want to display details.
If you employ advanced programming techniques like "display list interrupts" you can change the color registers on the fly so that you get more colors vertically, but not horizontally.
An example would be the beautifuly horizon colors in some games or differently colored sprites or characters in different lines (Frogger for example).
If you are experienced, you can get 30 to 60 colors at the same time without a problem this way.
Getting more colors *horizontally*, however, involves even more trickery (and using more CPU cycles) or sacrificing the sprites for background graphics.
You can see this in some graphics demos or title screens of games, but usually not while in the game.
@@oldguy9051 Well said!! One exception is Master of the Lamps where all the multi-colored gongs and the multi-color player software sprite have more colors on a single line than should be possible. As you said, software trickery mid-line by changing color registers AFAIK.
@@oldguy9051 Thanks for the explanation. I'm familiar with how C64 graphics work, but I never knew anything about the Atari line. I've only played games on them via emulation, and never looked into programming them. I wasn't even all that great at programming the C64. I knew BASIC and could usually get it to do what I wanted, but probably not as efficiently as others. I "knew" ML in the sense that I knew what all the instructions did and could make simple routines (like copying a block of memory), but I could never write entire programs in it.
Any graphics my programs made were composed of the existing PETSCII symbols built into the machine.
Great machine and great haul!
It’s a lovely looking machine - maybe not ergonomic with the keyboard so high up, but what style and seems rather solid. Have never really seen or tinkered with an 8-but Atari - maybe I should try it on mister or take a trip up the road to one of RMC Neil's open days.
great haul, cool video,
oh and for an Atari brand joystick to work well gaming , you really need to pull off the rubber piece covering the stick. they control so much easier that way.
sure it kinda ruins the look of the stick, but trust me. once you pull that rubber tower off, you'll be amazed at how much better you do in games.
Its as if you free the joystick, and it can finally be itself.
16:08 plugging that in live caused butt clenching at my end. 😅
I don’t have a atari 800 BUT am waiting for my atari 400 to arrive any soon along with those nintendo,atari and sega games for it,can’t wait for it😁
This is a terrific video. I would love to collect a vintage Atari 800, if only for its wonderful case design and its four joystick ports--hello, MULE!
As for the 48k memory, we now have a 1MB board that can be used to upgrade the computer's memory, which allows you to play all the indie-homebrew games like Yoomp, Space Harrier (must be seen to be believed) and Atariblast.
As for joysticks, get yourself some Wico joysticks. Those are the gold standards and are the absolute best controllers for the Atari 8-bit computers. The sooner you can lose the Atari joysticks, the better (I wouldn't even touch that Quick Shot). Also, don't forget to get a trackball controller so that you can play Centipede, Millipede and Missile Command (be sure to download Missile Command Plus) the way they're meant to be played.
Nearly all of the games available for Atari 8-bit, including current indie-homebrew titles, can be found at AtariAge, Atarimania and Fandal.
Hope that helps.
The 400 mini has four ports and so does the altirra emulator with usb.
@@briandavis6898 Yes, this is very true, and I'm sorely tempted to get one. I told myself to buy a 400 Mini when it was released, in fact. But I was turned off by reports of a wonky joystick, a glitchy MULE, a lack of a power supply (meaning I'll have to buy one separately), and lack of instruction manual. Lack of analog controller support for Atari 5200 is also a letdown, although to be fair, that's something missing from other emulators, and 2/3 of the 5200's library use digital controls, anyway. So I'd be fine playing Pac-Man and Mario Bros.
I’m getting carpet this summer. I need that program off the cassette.
Nice haul. Still gonna suggest trying the 6809 mod on the XL...
Nice one, got one here and a 400. I'm sure I have a stash of BNIB tape players. I'll check if they need psus.
Great score! 🙂👍
The 800s with bare PCB expansion boards were factory upgraded, as the original 800s like yours were sold with 16KB. Later Atari sold the 800 with 48K maxed, so they cut costs but using bare PCBs. You are correct in worrying about the plastic being brittle. I got a 400 last year and the plastic is some of the brittlest I've seen.
The original idea was to sell these modules to people not familiar with electronics and make sure that they don't get damaged by static electricity or other mishandling.
Just like the cartridges.
As for "brittleness": My 400 got really sensitive with time (the hinge of the flap broke off) but I can assure you that it was very sturdy when I got it in 1983. ;-)
The bare PCB's was not a really cost cutting step, but it was for cooling and also since the factory was installing them they were taking anti-static measures. 800's that were left on for long periods had RAM overheating issues with the original casings as shown when he removes the top cover here.
@@oldguy9051 The 400 door hinges snapping off can be repaired by the superglue+baking soda method. Super glue alone won't work.
@@gamedoutgamer Thx - I suspected as much but that darn "little one" has been on the backburner for years...
@@oldguy9051 The baking soda+SG works to add reinforcing strength around the crack, not inside the crack if that makes sense. I did it behind the door so it was not visible when the door is closed. Used a healthy amount. =) Just superglue in the crack of course.
@@gamedoutgamer Thx - will keep that in mind when digging up that old treasure!
What a beautiful machine. I do have one, but no box :(. As for bare PCB inside, these are normally third party RAM upgrade boards, although ATARI started to use bare PCB at the end of the 800 run.
I was lucky to find a brand new unopened atari 800XL. It was my first computer back in 1984. I also found a brand new in box 17 inch computer monitor also. I'll see if my 1050 disk drive still works. I'm currently hoarding 8 bit games too. Great video.
Worth opening your disk drive clean the heads with Isop and grease the rails and any other contact points. I also had to clean the pulley for the belt as it had corrosion, probably just from the air. My drive was straining as the rails had dried up.
Also worth fitting a disk doubler chip if not already done.
@richy69ify My original 1050 croaked long ago. I bought a used 1050 with a speed chip installed. Thanks for the advice. Any cleaning videos, I'm wondering.
I modded a 400 so that the SDrive-Max works. Increased value of the 100nf capacitor at C189 to a 680nf. This increases the time the computer is held in reset at power on and pressing reset button from 47ms to 320ms. 47ms isnt enough for the SDrive-Max to boot before the 400 is at the memo pad screen. With 680nf its ok. 800 will work ok with this mod too, just need to find the reset cap. 5V from the SIO is fine for powering the SDrive-Max, its never been an issue for this 400.
XL doesnt have this issue due to the OS checking the option key at boot which takes more time, and the SDrive-Max is ready by the time the check is completed.
You should get hold of an Incognito and give that beast 1MB ram and much more.
800 was my first computer, wish I still had it, but then look at the desk space and decide my 600XL with U1MB is perfect.
Cheers for that info. And now that you mention it, yes - it’s a timing thing, not a power thing.
I’ll take a look at the schematics and find that cap as it’d be a great mod and keeping my SDrive a single device without yet another cable.
Such a beauty! I'd really like to get my hands on one of those! But I have to admit that I'm at least the proud owner of a maxed out 400. It's hard to find an 800 over here in Germany. Your 800 seems to come from Singapore? Is it a PAL machine or NTSC?
It’s definitely a PAL machine
If the chroma luma cable worked, then in theory svideo should work, so maybe worth revisiting if you need to at some point. I made a cable that was both svideo and composite which is handy as it can double as a backup c64 composite cable as well.
It works. I get s video. Looks way better than composite.
Interesting video from a Aussie. Hello from NZ.
I had a chance to get a atari 800 computer last year but i didnt have income and this year didnt end well lol
Very nice!
Encased ram cards. First Gen.
nice i pick an atari 800 as well , well done
Great find, I have an 800 too but use my 800XL most of the time. Remove that RF cable and toss it! I hate that cable.
Oh. That’s definitely happening.
Felicitaciones, siempre he soñado tener uno en mi colección, saludos desde Colombia. Congratulations, I have always dreamed of having one in my collection, greetings from Colombia.
I have the tablet to and coded to use it
Awesome haul! Definitely not something I've seen in Sydney. A 65GS with lightgun showed up at my local Vinnies a year ago but they certainly weren't charging charitable prices for it.
If it's a bargain for you it's less for the charity.
A valid point@@blackterminal
So can you pinpoint what makes Atari 8bit machines one of your favorite? It's a common statement made by most you tubers new to the platform. For me it's the autoboot feature across all 3 mediums(disk, cassette, cartridge, no need of cryptic loading commands), svideo ready port and of course, like most machines of the era, it's generally a really capable machine with a reasonably vibrant support community and constant releases of quality homebrew software.
Ummm…. It’s not a C64?
The 800XL is perhaps the best but many (not all!) 800XL's have the poor stackpole mylar keyboard (big font on keycaps) which isn't good but serviceable and sturdy. 600/800XL's have poor quality composite that needs improvement but otherwise great machines.
The 800's are great but the 48K limit and the brittle plastic case is prone to shattering in the mail if not padded very well. Some 800 keyboards have keycaps falling out extremely easily due to cracking (yellow variant) plungers.
An XE is quite nice but their keyboard is not very good but not terrible either (two variants that are similar). XE's are built the cheapest / flimsiest but often still work fine.
While the 400 is very cool and unique it's perhaps the worst just because of it's keyboard. But these days who type's very much on an 8bit? Most just load games with an SIO device and don't type much. A 400 is a fine 3rd or 4th machine. Some get 400's just for it's wonderful look and styling.
The 1200XL is in some ways the best but there are compatibility issues with it and they are rare. It's Mistumi keyboard mylar will need servicing or replacing. 8bitguy has an 800 with a mitsumi mylar video that is a must watch for restoring those.
All of these machines should have their capacitors replaced, especially the XL/XE's. The 400/800/1200 may have the best capacitors of the line but they are often too old for regular use. Check for any sort of residue around them but they can still leak underneath out of sight.
So many features way ahead of their time. Display lists, Player missile graphics, custom chips. The whole SIO concept was the forerunner to the USB we know today. The killer though was Star Raiders all that gameplay in one tiny cartridge 😎
@@MrLurchsThings lol, no it isn't a C64. The polyphony of machines is what makes that 8bit era so fascinating and interesting.
@@cannfoddr don't forget the first screen saver.....
Isn't Chroma/Luma the same thing as S-video? I had an 800 when I was a kid, but lost it throughout the years. A couple years ago I bought a XL off eBay, but I do miss my original.
In theory, yes. It’s odd that it works fine into the CRT, but nothing modern that has svideo
@@MrLurchsThings I bought a cable from 8 bit classics, for my 800, that had svideo. Works. Way better than composite.
So the 800 has chroma/luma out of the box whereas the 800XL needs and internal wiring mod? I wonder why Atari left it unwired on the 800XL.
Probably cost reduction. The 800 was built very well but the C64 was cheaper and starting to outsell it. C64 was built to *cough* different standards. The way the 800XL's video circuitry was designed showed a lack of basic understanding of NTSC video design. It worked but it was fuzzy... The original 800 team had mostly left by the time the XL was developed.
I know there's a modern 1 megabyte upgrade for the Atari 8-bit line. Not sure if it fits the original 800.
The 1MB Incognito upgrade for the 800 is *not recommended* because it requires hacking a lot of stuff in the machine, lowering it's value and ruining it's factory state. I find them offensive because these rare antiques are being treated as a modding platform by reckless users who often install them poorly.
Upgrade if you want to - yes the Incognito upgrade is a bit complicated but you are the custodian of your system- you get to choose. Folks like flashjazzcat can help
Old power supply is from the UK...
Did you just draw a windows background? 😂
I thought the original 400/800 weren't able to do S-video (missing either chroma or luma signal),
All 800's have factory chroma+luma. 400's only have RF output. Most 800XL's lack chroma from the factory but a simple single-wire solder will restore it. Late era 800XL's may have it and will have, I think, an XLF motherboard and possibly 128K of RAM.
Cool little machine, I like it. Those aftermarket joysticks from back then we're rubbish, way too stiff to the point you needed to bolt it down
They had suction cups at the bottom to keep it on the desk. i had one, and while it did suck, it was still better than the original Atari joysticks. 😃
@@brianv2871 those suction cups would always let go at the worst time. So frustrating
@@andrew1977au haha, yeah. i think we've all modded some slightly more modern (like Sega) controller since going back to joysticks (especially these kind) are pretty miserable.
21:18 I am reminded of disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris ;-)
No wobble board here mate 👍
Is there any way to upgrade the 800 to 64K (preferably in a period-correct fashion) or is 48K a hard limit?
Yes there were upgraded memory modules back in day for the 800. Axlon 512k comes to mind. Nowadays the ultimate upgrade for an 800 is an incognito board that upgrades it to 1 megabyte in addition to allowing the 800 to change personality to an XL!
The 1MB Incognito upgrade for the 800 is not recommended because it requires hacking a lot of stuff in the machine, lowering it's value and ruining it's factory state. I find them offensive because these rare antiques are being treated as a modding platform by reckless users who often install them poorly.
No. Not in the correct old fashion. The extended memory standards from the period are extended bank ram that will not register as 64k with a normal program. Your word processor might have support, you could use it if writing your own program, or you can have a ramdisk. On the otherhand there are modern upgrades that you can switch to a xl mode bios and run 64k... As a xl not atari 800. It's easy to switch back and forth but hard to install the upgrade the first time. I have a megabyte of ram in my 800 but 64k games won't run.
@@darthverminates9708 Thank you for that clear and detailed answer.
Mint.
16:11 Yeah. I was like: "No no no .., don't do this. Switch it off first!" :). I have killed 8 years ago one of my ATARIs the exact way.
ps. Nice video. I love 8bits ATARI line of computers.
Just a dumb mistake whilst trying to also make a video.