Exploring the Atari 8bit micros, and this 800XL in particular has been really enjoyable for me. I didn't know ANYONE who owned one here in the UK, and I rarely saw software for them...and do you know what, if I was given this instead of my Amstrad CPC464 I would have been very happy with it. Perhaps if the 400/800 were a bit more affordable in the early years they would have gained some more traction in the UK, it's hard to say really. Thank you as always for watching and if you enjoy what I do then head over to patreon.com/retromancave and become an Official Cave Dweller! Neil - RMC
Got mine Xmas 1985 (my second machine after the Speccy) - complete with 1050 disk drive from Dixons. Finding games on disk was tough - had to beg my parents to take me to the Atari Centre in Birmingham! Otherwise I would have been stuck with a couple of text adventures and a graphics program that were bundled free! Cassette recorder came for my next birthday so I finally had access to pockey-money affordable Mastertronic and Firebird games!
I had one of these. I think I have some cassette games and a cartridge of star raiders still. If they turn up I’ll message you somehow and maybe you have some use of them. The 65xe was exactly the same machine. My girlfriend gf at the time (1990ish) had one and we used to run my games on it.
Me personally, I'd like to see a full restoration. I think any machine like this that's in full working order deserves to be brought back to its former glory and enjoyed as such. I get the value of a museum piece but with the fantastic work you put into restorations, I think this deserves it too.
"It's former glory" you say, but this ignores the fact that it's past was not so glorious since it lost a key and may have been used thusly for a long time. What is wrong with acknowledging that the machine and a rough past but survived nevertheless? I would not only go for a 3D printed key but I would moreover make it very obvious that it is not an original (because it will never be one).
I would always want to return it to as new condition, so that it looks representative of what the original designers and manufacturers intended. I think leaving things damaged and worn doesn't give the machine the respect it deserves. If it was your own machine and only you were going to use it and the scars had special memories to you personally then great keep it as is. But if it;s on public display as an example of the genre then it should look its Sunday best!
I'm glad more people are awakening to qualities of the Atari 8-bit computers designed by the late, great Jay Miner. I bought a 400 well before the C64 came along which copied the custom chip concept, modified it to expand memory, added a mechanical keyboard, and attached a thermal paper printer via the game ports. I designed a circuit I piggybacked onto a hacked, junked game cart and wrote an assembly language program which allowed me to dump cartridges to tape preceded on that tape by a loader routine. I never used it for piracy, I made it just to do it. Yes, seriously. This was made possible by EXCELLENT technical manuals sold at the time by Atari. I later bought an 800XL, did a bunch of mods to it and later moved on to a 1040ST. I wanted an Amiga, but the 1040ST system was cheaper than the 1000 and I'm frugal.
@Winston Smith There's 2 books published in the 80s called "de re atari" & "mapping the atari" which talk a lot about the inner workings of the atari 8bit computers in detail & I think contain so information that was published in earlier computer magazines or programmers documentation. I plan to read 📚 😌 those 2 books at some stage.
I agree with most of the comments on here it should be a full restoration of the machine, return it to its former glory of when it was first purchased. Thanks for all your trash to treasure videos, i love watching things being restored.
The finest 8-bit pre-built micro series. Also this was the model I had, the best 8-bit machine I ever owned (ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, Oric Atmos, Atari 800XL). In so many ways the ST was a step back but eventually I got my favourite ever pre-build - Atari TT030, the best computer Atari ever made.
A step back indeed. I had an 800XL and so I was buying all the Atari magazines which started doing technical features on the new ST. When I got to thinking about a 16 bit upgrade, the ST just didn't excite me, going from custom chips to off the shelf parts, no sprites, no display list, seriously?! I don't think it takes a genius to work out what system I ended up buying! Never the less, you ultimately scored a TT, very nice!
@referral madness I followed the custom chips, and so unknowingly at the time, I was following their designer, Jay Miner, to buying an Amiga 500. When I'd saved up enough money, I added a GVP SCSI HDD/ RAM upgrade that went on the side, then later still, got an A4000/30. I learned 'C' programming with the excellent free DICE compiler and IDE. I released a small utility to an Amiga Format cover disk which I've still got. I'm back programming 6502 on the 800XL now though!
@referral madness You might even find that a good understanding of 6502 helps you move forward with the higher level languages, especially things like pointers in C! 😊
+1 for full restoration!! The History of the device is what makes it special, all the love and devotion previous owners showed it... and the frustration from playing Atari games...
Quick fact correction about CTIA/GTIA - CTIA was only fitted to the first 100,000 US-market 400/800 machines. It was never fitted to any PAL-market Atari 400/800s, which were all GTIA from the start. Even in the USA, 400/800s that still have a CTIA are rare. Once GTIA became available, Atari offered free upgrades for machines that were still under warranty, and out-of-warranty upgrades were less than $70. Since programmers started writing software that required GTIA, owners had a very definite incentive to upgrade.
This was my first computer ever. I played games, and one day my dad asked if I was using it for programming, and my love for coding began with Atari BASIC. Still coding to this day! Unfortunately, my dad threw away my Atari, carts, cassettes, when we moved back to Canada from the Middle East.
Looking like new for sure. The cream and brown colour scheme tell us all about the era of this machine! :-) Great to see this getting some love - I had an 800XL, 1050 Disk Drive, 1010 Cassette and 1020 printer plotter - used to load a game from cassette during the 1hr lunchtime from school (I lived literally across the road!) and ate lunch while it loaded - if I was lucky, and it successfully loaded, then got about 10 minutes of game time before heading back to school!
Neil, great to see you got my old 800XL running again, that diagnostic screen was a real step back in time for me! I personally would go for option 2, clean it up but not try and make it box fresh, as I spent many many hours using it and battle scars are great! Thank you!
Man I love theses Trash to Treasure episodes its been a pure joy since your first one. Would love to see a full restore but I think The 3d printed route and showing the so called scars sounds better.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I'd like to see it become a museum piece that shows its history with patina and battle scars. This would include the machine itself, the letter, all peripherals, software etc., each of which tells a part of the story of the original owner and their exemplary first steps into the dawn of the digital age. This may be my nostalgia speaking, as the 800XL was also my first computer, and I even had the same grey XE tape drive with it. I still love the design and think it's one of the most beautiful machines ever created, both inside and out. I think this particular one is in good shape overall, just as it is.
Goodness me, that half an hour just flew by! Thank you very much Neil. I’m very impressed at your natural ability to simply to talk to the camera, at length, and seemingly without a script. You’re becoming an excellent presenter. As for your question at the end, I could appreciate both directions, however this is a “Trash to Treasure” series, so I would say restore the micro to its former glory, complete with replacement key and full case retrobrite!
My brother have one of those! Didn't knew about the diagnostic test! Looking forward for this series. Greetings from Brazil! Btw, 24:18 - Promenade by Mussorgsky.
That sound test just needs a few more bars played and then in 4 part harmony.
4 года назад+6
I'd love to see the "museum piece" setup. Recently I managed to get back my own Amiga 500 I used in the early 90's and I decided to keep it untouched, to preserve all the traces of its history.
I've done the same with my A1200 :D The case is yellowing, the keys are a slightly cream shade of white, but it is mine and it shows it has had a life :D
There was something wonderfully different about this video. It was a little more interactive maybe? A little less scripted? That you mentioned "I haven't tried this yet", etc.. I felt like I was there with you at the work bench troubleshooting. It was fantastic my favorite yet. I'm no director but whatever lightning in a bottle you caught on this episode I would love to feel more of. Thanks for that!
Thanks Will, I am trying to incorporate more of this kind of thing into the videos after similar comments when I did it before. Glad to hear you liked it, expect more of me scratching my head and looking confused in future.
Niel, congratulations on your receiving an A8! They are awesome machines. Those retail tapes are beautiful and those are museum pieces, but please restore the computer. Light brighting in sunlight is more reliable and safer than peroxide (risky!). Watching the grimy and dusty motherboard get a good IPA brush cleaning to shine is cathartic so please let us enjoy that step. Again those tapes are beautiful and from what I've seen on ebay over the past few years, a more rare find. The 800XL is the best starter machine since it's the most common A8. The PAL 600XL's are great too since they have full video output, unlike NTSC 600XL's. Even though your power supply works, I do not recommend using it! Get a modern power supply for it please. That PSU will probably fail and damage the computer. Leaving it plugged in over the weekend was risky. To be honest I'm not sure how the UK 'ingot' PSU fairs as far as destroying machines. The US one does exactly that. There are about five keyboard variants for the 800XL's. Very sorry to be the bringer of bad news as yours is the worst of the bunch, the Mitsumi, with the very square keycaps and brown pcb. But it works so that's a win! See here atariage.com/forums/topic/105170-600800xl-keyboard-variants/ If you aren't planning on typing an entire book on it, you'll be fine. Please don't judge all 800XL's based on that very uncommon keyboard variant. The types 1 and 2 are the best. Type 4 'stackpole' keyboard is most common which I don't prefer. Also as was previously suggested, you can make or buy an SIO2PC-USB adapter and that will be far, far better than loading from tape. An AVG Cart is practically a must buy as it can emulate all carts and do much more. The SIDE3 cart is due soon and it might be even better still. You might also consider running a single wire to restore chroma to the video output. The 800XL's have arguably the worst (soft/blurry) composite video output of the entire line, but it varies from machine to machine. There is the 'super video 2.1' upgrade that mostly fixes the soft composite output, or you can get the modern UAV-D video upgrade that completely replaces the video circuitry and looks amazing. Even better is the sophia video upgrade that outputs DVI video! An upcoming Sophia release promises even more. You made one minor error in the video. The original 800 has proper chroma+luma (s-video) and composite. Also the CTIA is rare. Most Atari 400/800's also have the GTIA, which was planned from day 1 but wasn't quite ready for the initial release. GTIA shipped on all Atari 8bits from November 1981 and afterwards. You'd be selling yourself short if you didn't try at least thirty or forty of the top games for the platform. Miner2049 is a classic and loved by many but it's not a graphics and sound pusher. I have a spare type 4 SCCO Stackpole keyboard on a non-functioning 600XL I can send you. Still need to test the keyboard on a separate machine but it should work.
Right to my nostalgia. The 800XL was my first "computer". Days of writing some code and playing games on my black and white TV. Now I own one, with a cartridge with around 30 games and a joystick.
I'd love it as a hybrid of museum piece and fully restored. Clean it up and future proof it, but no retro bright, and a functional, but obvious replacement break key. Nothing make me feel better than seeing these old machines being allowed to do the job they were intended to do. These machines were the seeds of our current technology age and should not only be remembers, but also used.
I'm with you on this one since it has a history and a story behind it that is proven by the attached letter. I'd clean it very gently too just to leave scuffs and all plenty visible and frame that letter. There are enough other machines out there that can be fully restored and while those machines will look great they won't be as interesting. We have to not only preserve the machines but the history behind them or else the future will be just a bunch of pretty restorations of nostalgic but obsolete machines... and there's just so much more to it that this machine and letter serves as proof of!
Great! I'm a huge fan of the Atari 8 bit line of computers. Currently I have an Atari 600XL PAL (expanded to 64k RAM) and an Atari XEGS! They have an awesome library of games, and a huge homebrew scene, specially from Poland developers. I'd like a full restoration, but beware of the brown keys, Jan Beta had retrobrighted them and regretted the results!
The Atari 800XL was the first computer I owned as a kid (got it at 9) and I still have it and use it from time to time. It deserves a full restoration.
I feel like there would be a strong element of wabi-sabi were it to be cleaned up and shown warts an' all. There's a certain beauty to the "scars" as it were. I'd like to see that. Filling in the cracks with gold and keeping it as a reminder of it's own story would be brilliant I think.
I had one of these amazing machines back in the 80's it was so ahead of its time with its custom chips. 2 years ago i bought one off ebay and was even lucky to get a couple of 1050 disk drives. A really awesome machine
Thanks Neil, this is a real trip down memory lane for me. I had an Atari 400, then an 800XL and later a 520ST in the 80's with Miner 2049er and Chuckie Egg my favourite games. It wasn't until the early 90's that the PC lured me away from the Atari family :-) Personally I like to see old computer's battle scars, so I would suggest a cleaning and then display it as an 80's survivor (a bit like me).
It'd be a lot of fun too see what you can come up with for a 3D printed key! Be aware that in your last shot, the Ender 3 Pro has the filament spool mounted the opposite way. You always want the filament to be feeding left off the top of the printer, giving the filament a gentle curve going into the extruder, which will prevent snags and keep the filament path consistent. I've been upgrading my Ender 3 Pro (which I bought shortly after your video) and I'd be more than happy to show you what has been useful to me!
The game you must play on an Atari 8-bit is Star Raiders. My other favorites included M.U.L.E. and Ultima IV, but those were of course available on other platforms..
Brings back memories... Had one of these circa 1985, complete with the 1050XL disk drive. It was a huge step up from a ZX81 and a TI99/4A both of which we'd only had cassette storage for.
We had two of these in UK - a 600xl and then an 800xl that my dad bought at a radio rally in the 80's for £10, dad even made an eprom copier so that he could copy from the floppy to eproms that then went in a board that we plugged into the cartidge slot (Just like the modern day sd solutions) I now have bought an 800xl and relive those great River Raid times
Just came across your channel. I had the one of these as a kid. My Dad bought one including the tape deck and later the disk drive. Many hours sat typing in code to get the free games in PC magazines.
Take a look at the Atari 8-bit version of Space Harrier that was made in recent years. These machines are incredibly capable for being late 70's technology.
It really says something that despite being designed in 1977-78, they were still powerful machines compared to almost all other 8-bit micros when the 16-bit era began in the mid-80s.
@@SlavomirG Now THAT depends on what you valued most. If you liked ADSR-based wavetable audio, sprites and a fixed 16 colors, than the c64 was for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed color indirection (with 256 colors), a faster CPU, a floppy drive that was faster loading than a cassette, true bit-mapped screens of varying resolutions and the ability to mix those resolutions vertically, than the Atari made the grade. Comparisons of games can be difficult, as the effort in creating those games varies. For instance, I never saw Star Raiders on a c64, but they had Elite! The Lucasfilm games, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis Rift are simply superior on the Atari. Partially because of the greater efficiency and color capability of the graphics on the Atari, but also because both games were doing 3D calculations, calculations that were almost 80% faster on the Atari. I always thought that the c64 was a better machine for 'shooty' games like Paralax or Zybex. Also, games that relied heavily on sprites like Impossible Mission or International Karate were a better match on the c64. THAT SAID, one of the reasons the c64 got some great traction early on (besides the incredible price!), was because Commodore shared the entire memory map with every sale of their machine. Initially, Atari stupidly did their best to hide the internals of the machine without an understanding of how important 3rd party software was. This kind of thing outright killed the T.I. 99/4a, by the way. It wasn't until De Re Atari came out in 1982 that the complex internals of the Atari computers were finally exposed... And then the XL series of computers rendered a large number of games useless, as memory maps changed. Atari tried to blame independent programmers for not 'following the rules', but it was their lack of informing them what the 'rules' were in the first place. Again, Atari wasn't well with 3rd party software development, at least early on. For a lot of game companies, that was the last straw. In comparison, the c64 seemed more welcoming and easier to develop for with a common memory standard (all machines, from the 64 to the 128 had at least 64K) and a memory map clearly laid out for everyone to see. Meanwhile, the Atari's secrets slowly made the rounds. As on the c64, it was discovered that with a bit of trickery, you could display more than the standard palette of colors, emulate more voices of sound than the standard 4, and modify sprites on the fly to produce more of them. The true capabilities of the Atari are STILL a moving target. Look at Space Harrier, Hot and Cold Adventure, and Time Pilot as excellent amazing examples of what is possible. I should also mention that the development on Jay Miner's previous machine (the 2600), are also still nothing short of amazing. Check out the very recent Atari 2600 conversions of Donkey Kong, Star Castle, or Bosconian - simply brilliant!
As someone who owned a 65XE back in the day, I could hear the audio in my head the minute you popped up the self test menu. My personal preference would be toward full restoration and matched key.
I vote for a full restoration with new break key. Very happy to see this. I had (and still own) a very early 600xl which was a great games machine. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
I am old enough to have seen those commercials when they aired. I like the idea of keeping it battle scares. It's should be known that we actually used these computers. Not "this is what they looked like when they came off the line. Well, that's my vote.
This was my second computer after the ZX1000 and i loved it. I could play all my old VCS 2600 games on it... 1983 was a great year... ( edit: those where not games from the VCS 2600 but game catridges for the XL and XE...)
zero0ryn , sorry, your’e right, those where game cartridges special made for the XL and XE computers. still have those cartridges... I mistakenly mixed it up with the 2600 games...
Make it a memory/museum item. All home micros have a history, and there should be some that retain the scars of their existence. The previous owner obviously enjoyed the machine - keep the memory alive.
Other channels I watch try and make old hardware look like new but I'd prefer to see this made functional without the full facelift. I like old machines simply because they're old.
This was our first family computer, we had tapes at first then Dad brought home a 1050 disk drive with more pirate games than we could ever need! It was rare in the UK but software was pretty easy to get, it was well supported for a while with £1.99 tapes from Mastertronic etc and we went to lots of 8-bit computer fares in aircraft hangers and country show grounds after the official Atari fair at Crystal Palace stopped. The cartridges were great, it has a fantastic version of Donkey Kong and Miner 2049 as show in the vid was great too. If you can get Star Raiders that is an absolute classic and Rescue on Fractulus and Ball-Blazer from Lucas Arts really showed off what it could do. Man, even that self test audio test sends shivers of nostalgia down my spine!
I tend to be more of the "leave the patina" type, though I have been known to do some heavy-handed replacements (like the keycaps on my PS/2's keyboard).
I own this same micro, but had to swap the power supply for a homemade one that does the job, and a DIY cable. But it's such a blast to tinker with, and the built in self-check is DEFINITELY a dream! I am in the camp of leaving it as is, get it looking nice and with a 3D printed key, but don't hide the fact that this was a used and *loved* machine. Any old 800XL can be restored to like-new, but no other ones will tell the same exact story as this one does.
Loved my XL (and 1050 disk drive), and worked on a couple of A8 titles back in the dim and distant...would be great to see this machine all sparkly and new again, and absolutely, frame the letter along with it! :)
Decades ago, I picked up a few of these Atari 8-bit computers for dirt cheap as a package deal at a local store that mostly dealt with used video games. Two of them were 800XLs, though only one had all its keys intact. I don’t have a ton of software for it, but of what I do have, the games mostly remind me of their Atari 5200 counterparts. Thankfully I have several 3rd party Atari 2600 controllers, all compatible with 800XL for hours of fun times. Apart from the Commodore 64 and Apple ][e, the Atari 800XL is one of my favorite 8-bit computers overall.
this is amazing!!!! I SO loved my 800XL. Pulled out my Topps Baseball Cards and used them to make a randomized trivia program...one of my coolest memories. I also remember having some sort of medieval town simulation that I LOVED! But it was on tape, so the drill was to start loading it, then go outside and play for awhile, come in to see if it loaded ( which Id say 3 out of 4 times it didnt ) so rinse and repeat.
The second game sausage (not words I expected to use today), brought back fond childhood memories. I had a similar stack of games and was playing Hover Bover just recently (albeit now on an emulator, and not on my 800XL). I like the idea of framing the letter, 3D printing the break-key, and proudly presenting the scars. If it's to be played, then a restore may be better.
Neil - keep as-is! I love character on things. It shows it’s had a life, it’s lived, been used, but is still solid and useful. I’ll keep it clean but in this case I think it would be better to allow it to keep it’s war wounds as signs of a life long lived.
I like to reccomend buying a Sys Check II from tfhh aka Jürgen van Radecke. This not only gives very good hardware check options, but it also comes with 512 KB memory expansion and simply plugs into the PBI port at the back of the system. Easiest option to get enough memory to play the great homebrew BOSCONIAN, for example. Also it is easy to build a SIO2USB cable and use your PC as a disk drive. No more waiting for cassette loading. And try out the great homebrew YOOMP! Or build a S-Drive Max with an Arduino.
I love the Atari 800XL for much more than 30 years now, and all the time I use one. I own one since 1991. And I am using it day by day ... well year, sometimes I use emulators only, but I always have set up a real one somewhere in my home.
This was my first computer as a kid. I had dual aftermarket 5 1/4" floppy drives for mine, which at the time, made it feel like I was living in the future. Sadly, my parents moved out of my childhood home about 10 years ago, and I was not cognizant enough to realize I wanted my retro-computer collection. All the feels.
I used to have the Atari 130XE once (which is basically an 800XL in an Atari ST-like case but with more memory and slight upgrades), but we eventually got rid of it when I was a teenager and less appreciative of it. I hope I can have one again one day (along with a C64, a 286, etc.).
I used to have one. spent hours with the book learning how to type out simple games and then record them onto to tape to play later. "lone Raider" was probably the one I played most.
Great stuff Neil, our first computer was an 800XL including a number of those games you have including Goonies, brings back a lot of good memories. We ended up giving the whole system to my cousins once we'd upgraded to a Sega Master System. We had many enjoyable hours playing the likes of Thrust, Action Biker, BMX Simulator and Kik Start, shame we don't have it anymore.
Thats weird, I just searched 800xl on youtube and you have just started to fix one, I had a 5.5 happy drive back in the day with loads of copied games from some pirate firm over in Birmingham. I sold it for money than I bought it for and upgraded to an ST which I wish I still had but with modern emulators why bother. I have bought myself a 2600 though, along with a CRT TV as the modern TV's cant tune to the frequency right due to it being automatic. I also have an XBOX, playstation 2, nintendo wii and 2 PC's. I started out as a computer programmer and although I did not want to use computers fro a living, I have fixed people's computer equipment all my life in one way or another. 3d print a break key, letting it show its age is the best in my opinion. Well done for showing people how to open equipment as more damage is done by people opening the item trying to fix it than the reason it did not work in the first place.
Great video! Seeing it come to life brought back so many memories - the first computer in our house was a 130XE (Which i still have in a box in the garage), the styling of the XE range was completely different to the XL and they looked like baby 520ST's. The 'farting' noise before the blue screen displays "Ready", the diagnostics, all the same on the XE. Unfortunately the only two games i ever had for it were K-Razy Antics and Boulders & Bombs both on ROM cartridge which I played to death. My parents never splashed out on a tape player for it and so i feel i missed out massively on some potentially amazing games on this system. I made up for this though with hours of punching code into basic from the manual and the inevitable groan when your typed RUN and got an error message because you'd used a full stop somewhere instead of a comma, etc! I found this recently, someone has created a pretty impressive version of Space Harrier on 130XE. Looks and sound wise it beats probably any of the 8-bit ports I've seen, talk about pushing the limits of a system! ruclips.net/video/tmEFFp0lLzo/видео.html For the restoration, personally I like the idea of it retaining it's battle scars. Let it tell it's own story.
Well, you were lucky with that Atari, my 130XL had the same symptoms (black screen) that turned out to be bad ram chip that had killed the Freddie memory controller chip. After many months waiting for this chip to be available on ebay I saved the 130XL from the dead.
The Atari 8-bits were easily the most sophisticated computers of the 8-bit era. Everything about them was incredibly well-designed and forward looking. Atari started work on them in '78 and released them in limited quantities in '79. The 800 in particular was built like a brick sh*thouse and had the best keyboard and best display of any 8-bit machines at the time of its release, including separate luma and chroma output years before things like S-VHS rolled along. With their built in display controller, 4-channel sound, game ports and sophisticated smart peripheral interface - sort of a proto-USB - they were literally about a decade ahead of the competition when they made their debut. Probably their only major drawback relative to their peers was their sluggish cassette interface, although they did have the unique ability to pass sound thru from the cassette to the TV or monitor's speaker, allowing them to run things like interactive language tutors off cassette. Unfortunately Warner Communications owned Atari by that point and had no idea what to do with the computers or how to best market them. Even though they demolished the Apple // series, sporting vastly superior graphics and sound and a faster-clocked 6502 CPU, they weren't able to displace their rivals over in Cupertino and eventually got sucked into the price war Commodore touched off first with their Vic (sort of a cut-down Atari 800) and later the Commodore 64, a decidedly less cut-down Atari 800 which sported many of the same features - player missile graphics (or sprites as Commodore called them), arguably superior sound, a faster tape drive (although a ludicrously sluggish disk drive), and more RAM standard. Unfortunately, Warner's Atari had done next to nothing to upgrade their 8-bit line until the 1200XL rolled out in December of '82, three years after the 800 had become widely available. While the 1200XL looked fantastic and sported the best keyboard any 8-bit computer ever shipped with bar none, it sported no really useful new features and actually omitted some functionality its predecessor the 800 possessed, like the separate chroma line in the video output. While its single board design was obviously much cheaper to produce than the 800's multi-board design, it shipped at a ridiculous $900 and immediately tanked in the marketplace. It simply couldn't compete with the Commodore 64, which had bowed at $600 in August of that year and began to rapidly plummet in price, dropping to $300 in 1983. The resulting price war forced Texas Instruments out of the market entirely by October of 1983 and left Atari hemorrhaging cash, in conjunction with the videogame crash. The 64-like 800XL was a decent cut-price design and had Atari been able to manufacture enough of them for the Christmas '83 shopping season they might have been able to stage a real comeback, but their switch to Taiwan from the US was plagued with issues and their market share collapsed even in the US as Commodore simply overwhelmed them. They never really recovered. Ironically, it didn't have to be this way. Had Warner's management not been incompetent, Atari would have already had a successor to the 400 and 800 on the market by '81, keeping them well-positioned against both Apple at the high end as well as cut rate challengers like Commodore. Believe it or not it's been said that IBM had also considered - circa 1979 - basing their own PC on the Atari 8-bits and actually met with Atari to discuss the possibility. History would have looked very different if the Atari 800 had become the basis for the IBM PC... retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/7135/the-almost-was-atari-ibm-pc
Neil, another excellent production that I enjoyed watching. A great nostalgia trip for me as this was my first micro too. I'm torn between you restoring it to "mint condition" or leaving it with all battle scars intact as I can see the benefits of both routes. Now waiting for part 2 to see what becomes of this important bit of computing history 👍
I love these Trash To Treasures! I vote for a full restoration. Luckily my one didn't need anything doing to it at all when I bought it on eBay a while ago, it looks absolutely mint. The same can't be said of my Atari 400 when I received it though - the case had broken into multiple pieces during shipping. Amazingly though, it still worked! So I carefully glued everything back together, sprayed it the correct colour, and even added a brand new original keyboard to it. It was a lot of work but worth it in the end. Sorry, I rambled on a bit off topic there...
Exploring the Atari 8bit micros, and this 800XL in particular has been really enjoyable for me. I didn't know ANYONE who owned one here in the UK, and I rarely saw software for them...and do you know what, if I was given this instead of my Amstrad CPC464 I would have been very happy with it. Perhaps if the 400/800 were a bit more affordable in the early years they would have gained some more traction in the UK, it's hard to say really. Thank you as always for watching and if you enjoy what I do then head over to patreon.com/retromancave and become an Official Cave Dweller!
Neil - RMC
Got mine Xmas 1985 (my second machine after the Speccy) - complete with 1050 disk drive from Dixons. Finding games on disk was tough - had to beg my parents to take me to the Atari Centre in Birmingham! Otherwise I would have been stuck with a couple of text adventures and a graphics program that were bundled free! Cassette recorder came for my next birthday so I finally had access to pockey-money affordable Mastertronic and Firebird games!
You should talk to German and Polish software writers where Atari products have been and continue to be rather popular.
Let me know if you want that break key, I have a non working (left in a wet garage) 800XL that you are welcome to for a few spare parts.
I vote for full restoration.
I had one of these. I think I have some cassette games and a cartridge of star raiders still. If they turn up I’ll message you somehow and maybe you have some use of them.
The 65xe was exactly the same machine. My girlfriend gf at the time (1990ish) had one and we used to run my games on it.
Me personally, I'd like to see a full restoration. I think any machine like this that's in full working order deserves to be brought back to its former glory and enjoyed as such. I get the value of a museum piece but with the fantastic work you put into restorations, I think this deserves it too.
"It's former glory" you say, but this ignores the fact that it's past was not so glorious since it lost a key and may have been used thusly for a long time.
What is wrong with acknowledging that the machine and a rough past but survived nevertheless?
I would not only go for a 3D printed key but I would moreover make it very obvious that it is not an original (because it will never be one).
I'd definitely prefer a full restoration.
I'd love to see this machine restored to it's former glory with a matched key if possible.
Agreed. Former glory ftw.
same here
Former glory for sure
Mmm, the tastiest of sausages.
Oh man I can actually audialise LGR saying that...with or without the Duke's overtones.
www.petersenshunting.com/editorial/the-lost-art-of-wild-game-sausage/272409 It’s a lost art, apparently.
Never seen an actual real LGR comment on RUclips before. 😳 This is BIG! 🤗😊
@@bsvenss2 he's one of us haha, I've seen him on 8bit guy's channel a bunch, sometimes other random channels
John Stroud I know. 🤗 I’ve followed his channel for years, but it is the first time I’ve seen a LGR comment on another channel. 😊
I would always want to return it to as new condition, so that it looks representative of what the original designers and manufacturers intended. I think leaving things damaged and worn doesn't give the machine the respect it deserves. If it was your own machine and only you were going to use it and the scars had special memories to you personally then great keep it as is. But if it;s on public display as an example of the genre then it should look its Sunday best!
The only patina i wouldn't change in my commodore, is the matt finish changed to shiny one under my wrists and fingers over the years.
I'm glad more people are awakening to qualities of the Atari 8-bit computers designed by the late, great Jay Miner. I bought a 400 well before the C64 came along which copied the custom chip concept, modified it to expand memory, added a mechanical keyboard, and attached a thermal paper printer via the game ports. I designed a circuit I piggybacked onto a hacked, junked game cart and wrote an assembly language program which allowed me to dump cartridges to tape preceded on that tape by a loader routine. I never used it for piracy, I made it just to do it. Yes, seriously. This was made possible by EXCELLENT technical manuals sold at the time by Atari. I later bought an 800XL, did a bunch of mods to it and later moved on to a 1040ST. I wanted an Amiga, but the 1040ST system was cheaper than the 1000 and I'm frugal.
@Winston Smith There's 2 books published in the 80s called "de re atari" & "mapping the atari" which talk a lot about the inner workings of the atari 8bit computers in detail & I think contain so information that was published in earlier computer magazines or programmers documentation. I plan to read 📚 😌 those 2 books at some stage.
Give it the works, make it look like new. Reminds me of my 800XL when I just got it. These were awesome little machines.
I agree with most of the comments on here it should be a full restoration of the machine, return it to its former glory of when it was first purchased. Thanks for all your trash to treasure videos, i love watching things being restored.
personally I think just cleaning it and repairing whatever prevents it from working normally is the way to go, it doesn't look to be in bad shape.
“We have a letter that tells us what he’s got up to with this computer”... “the story of this computer is filth”
That is what 15 years + in a loft in a old cardboard box does for you - filth! You should have seen it before I sent it to Niel, that was utter filth!
@@markwalsham7115 Only 15 years for a machine that old would show at least some love for it. If only we all had room for our nostalgia pieces...
I'd love to see a full restoration. If I still had my grandfather's TRS-80 Model 1, that's what I would want to do to it.
The finest 8-bit pre-built micro series. Also this was the model I had, the best 8-bit machine I ever owned (ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, Oric Atmos, Atari 800XL). In so many ways the ST was a step back but eventually I got my favourite ever pre-build - Atari TT030, the best computer Atari ever made.
Regarding Miner 2049er and Manic Miner - Matthew Smith himself has admitted that the former was a huge "inspiration" for the latter.
A step back indeed. I had an 800XL and so I was buying all the Atari magazines which started doing technical features on the new ST. When I got to thinking about a 16 bit upgrade, the ST just didn't excite me, going from custom chips to off the shelf parts, no sprites, no display list, seriously?! I don't think it takes a genius to work out what system I ended up buying! Never the less, you ultimately scored a TT, very nice!
@referral madness I followed the custom chips, and so unknowingly at the time, I was following their designer, Jay Miner, to buying an Amiga 500. When I'd saved up enough money, I added a GVP SCSI HDD/ RAM upgrade that went on the side, then later still, got an A4000/30. I learned 'C' programming with the excellent free DICE compiler and IDE. I released a small utility to an Amiga Format cover disk which I've still got. I'm back programming 6502 on the 800XL now though!
@referral madness You might even find that a good understanding of 6502 helps you move forward with the higher level languages, especially things like pointers in C! 😊
+1 for full restoration!!
The History of the device is what makes it special, all the love and devotion previous owners showed it... and the frustration from playing Atari games...
I loved my 800XL so much. It also looked so much better than the other computers of that time in my opinion.
I really love the look of the 800XL. Very high end.
Quick fact correction about CTIA/GTIA - CTIA was only fitted to the first 100,000 US-market 400/800 machines. It was never fitted to any PAL-market Atari 400/800s, which were all GTIA from the start.
Even in the USA, 400/800s that still have a CTIA are rare. Once GTIA became available, Atari offered free upgrades for machines that were still under warranty, and out-of-warranty upgrades were less than $70.
Since programmers started writing software that required GTIA, owners had a very definite incentive to upgrade.
+1 for restoration
This vid is like a RMC greatest hits. Acrylic power supplies, crusty pins, Jay Miner, the whole shebang!
This was my first computer ever. I played games, and one day my dad asked if I was using it for programming, and my love for coding began with Atari BASIC. Still coding to this day! Unfortunately, my dad threw away my Atari, carts, cassettes, when we moved back to Canada from the Middle East.
Looking like new for sure. The cream and brown colour scheme tell us all about the era of this machine! :-) Great to see this getting some love - I had an 800XL, 1050 Disk Drive, 1010 Cassette and 1020 printer plotter - used to load a game from cassette during the 1hr lunchtime from school (I lived literally across the road!) and ate lunch while it loaded - if I was lucky, and it successfully loaded, then got about 10 minutes of game time before heading back to school!
Neil, great to see you got my old 800XL running again, that diagnostic screen was a real step back in time for me! I personally would go for option 2, clean it up but not try and make it box fresh, as I spent many many hours using it and battle scars are great! Thank you!
Agreed. Mark should have the final word on this question! 😉
I kinda like the idea of making it something of a "museum piece", as you put it. There's too many full restorations out there, in my opinion.
Looks like the majority want it looking like new. Judging by previous trash to treasure episodes, Neil is more than capable of this. No pressure mate
It's certainly looking that way. Time to break out the murder gloves
Man I love theses Trash to Treasure episodes its been a pure joy since your first one. Would love to see a full restore but I think The 3d printed route and showing the so called scars sounds better.
Thanks for another great trip down memory lane, nostalgia at its finest.
For me that machine deserves to be returned to its former glory.
I'm probably in the minority here, but I'd like to see it become a museum piece that shows its history with patina and battle scars. This would include the machine itself, the letter, all peripherals, software etc., each of which tells a part of the story of the original owner and their exemplary first steps into the dawn of the digital age.
This may be my nostalgia speaking, as the 800XL was also my first computer, and I even had the same grey XE tape drive with it. I still love the design and think it's one of the most beautiful machines ever created, both inside and out. I think this particular one is in good shape overall, just as it is.
Goodness me, that half an hour just flew by! Thank you very much Neil. I’m very impressed at your natural ability to simply to talk to the camera, at length, and seemingly without a script. You’re becoming an excellent presenter. As for your question at the end, I could appreciate both directions, however this is a “Trash to Treasure” series, so I would say restore the micro to its former glory, complete with replacement key and full case retrobrite!
My brother have one of those! Didn't knew about the diagnostic test!
Looking forward for this series. Greetings from Brazil!
Btw, 24:18 - Promenade by Mussorgsky.
That sound test just needs a few more bars played and then in 4 part harmony.
I'd love to see the "museum piece" setup. Recently I managed to get back my own Amiga 500 I used in the early 90's and I decided to keep it untouched, to preserve all the traces of its history.
I've done the same with my A1200 :D The case is yellowing, the keys are a slightly cream shade of white, but it is mine and it shows it has had a life :D
There was something wonderfully different about this video. It was a little more interactive maybe? A little less scripted? That you mentioned "I haven't tried this yet", etc.. I felt like I was there with you at the work bench troubleshooting. It was fantastic my favorite yet. I'm no director but whatever lightning in a bottle you caught on this episode I would love to feel more of. Thanks for that!
Thanks Will, I am trying to incorporate more of this kind of thing into the videos after similar comments when I did it before. Glad to hear you liked it, expect more of me scratching my head and looking confused in future.
Niel, congratulations on your receiving an A8! They are awesome machines. Those retail tapes are beautiful and those are museum pieces, but please restore the computer. Light brighting in sunlight is more reliable and safer than peroxide (risky!). Watching the grimy and dusty motherboard get a good IPA brush cleaning to shine is cathartic so please let us enjoy that step. Again those tapes are beautiful and from what I've seen on ebay over the past few years, a more rare find. The 800XL is the best starter machine since it's the most common A8. The PAL 600XL's are great too since they have full video output, unlike NTSC 600XL's.
Even though your power supply works, I do not recommend using it! Get a modern power supply for it please. That PSU will probably fail and damage the computer. Leaving it plugged in over the weekend was risky. To be honest I'm not sure how the UK 'ingot' PSU fairs as far as destroying machines. The US one does exactly that.
There are about five keyboard variants for the 800XL's. Very sorry to be the bringer of bad news as yours is the worst of the bunch, the Mitsumi, with the very square keycaps and brown pcb. But it works so that's a win! See here atariage.com/forums/topic/105170-600800xl-keyboard-variants/ If you aren't planning on typing an entire book on it, you'll be fine. Please don't judge all 800XL's based on that very uncommon keyboard variant. The types 1 and 2 are the best. Type 4 'stackpole' keyboard is most common which I don't prefer.
Also as was previously suggested, you can make or buy an SIO2PC-USB adapter and that will be far, far better than loading from tape. An AVG Cart is practically a must buy as it can emulate all carts and do much more. The SIDE3 cart is due soon and it might be even better still. You might also consider running a single wire to restore chroma to the video output. The 800XL's have arguably the worst (soft/blurry) composite video output of the entire line, but it varies from machine to machine. There is the 'super video 2.1' upgrade that mostly fixes the soft composite output, or you can get the modern UAV-D video upgrade that completely replaces the video circuitry and looks amazing. Even better is the sophia video upgrade that outputs DVI video! An upcoming Sophia release promises even more.
You made one minor error in the video. The original 800 has proper chroma+luma (s-video) and composite. Also the CTIA is rare. Most Atari 400/800's also have the GTIA, which was planned from day 1 but wasn't quite ready for the initial release. GTIA shipped on all Atari 8bits from November 1981 and afterwards.
You'd be selling yourself short if you didn't try at least thirty or forty of the top games for the platform. Miner2049 is a classic and loved by many but it's not a graphics and sound pusher.
I have a spare type 4 SCCO Stackpole keyboard on a non-functioning 600XL I can send you. Still need to test the keyboard on a separate machine but it should work.
Right to my nostalgia. The 800XL was my first "computer". Days of writing some code and playing games on my black and white TV. Now I own one, with a cartridge with around 30 games and a joystick.
The 800XL and VIC-20 were my fave 8-Bit Computers. I loved Kennedy Approach on the 800XL
I actually own both. Bought the VIC-20 at a HAMfest for $10 and included Omega Race.
No question about it! This beauty deserves nothing less than a full restoration!🕹 Great video!
I had an 800XL with a pair of 5 1/4 drives back in the day. Was a fantastic little machine.
25:55 *retro-computer restoration expert blows into cartridge and it works perfectly*
Skills!
I'd love it as a hybrid of museum piece and fully restored. Clean it up and future proof it, but no retro bright, and a functional, but obvious replacement break key.
Nothing make me feel better than seeing these old machines being allowed to do the job they were intended to do. These machines were the seeds of our current technology age and should not only be remembers, but also used.
I think I'm in the minority here, but I'd like to see a museum restoration.
Yes, that was my initial thought. It has history, and we don't want to just erase that history.
Me too. We may be a minority, but we exist. I personally think making it look like how it would have looked when new makes it less unique.
why not go half and half, 3d print a key but then give that key the works, sand it smooth, buffer it until it shines and paint/gloss it a close match
I'm with you on this one since it has a history and a story behind it that is proven by the attached letter. I'd clean it very gently too just to leave scuffs and all plenty visible and frame that letter. There are enough other machines out there that can be fully restored and while those machines will look great they won't be as interesting. We have to not only preserve the machines but the history behind them or else the future will be just a bunch of pretty restorations of nostalgic but obsolete machines... and there's just so much more to it that this machine and letter serves as proof of!
I agree. A museum restoration to full working order with normal patina!
Great! I'm a huge fan of the Atari 8 bit line of computers. Currently I have an Atari 600XL PAL (expanded to 64k RAM) and an Atari XEGS! They have an awesome library of games, and a huge homebrew scene, specially from Poland developers. I'd like a full restoration, but beware of the brown keys, Jan Beta had retrobrighted them and regretted the results!
The Atari 800XL was the first computer I owned as a kid (got it at 9) and I still have it and use it from time to time. It deserves a full restoration.
I feel like there would be a strong element of wabi-sabi were it to be cleaned up and shown warts an' all. There's a certain beauty to the "scars" as it were. I'd like to see that. Filling in the cracks with gold and keeping it as a reminder of it's own story would be brilliant I think.
I had one of these amazing machines back in the 80's it was so ahead of its time with its custom chips. 2 years ago i bought one off ebay and was even lucky to get a couple of 1050 disk drives. A really awesome machine
Thanks Neil, this is a real trip down memory lane for me. I had an Atari 400, then an 800XL and later a 520ST in the 80's with Miner 2049er and Chuckie Egg my favourite games. It wasn't until the early 90's that the PC lured me away from the Atari family :-)
Personally I like to see old computer's battle scars, so I would suggest a cleaning and then display it as an 80's survivor (a bit like me).
It'd be a lot of fun too see what you can come up with for a 3D printed key! Be aware that in your last shot, the Ender 3 Pro has the filament spool mounted the opposite way. You always want the filament to be feeding left off the top of the printer, giving the filament a gentle curve going into the extruder, which will prevent snags and keep the filament path consistent. I've been upgrading my Ender 3 Pro (which I bought shortly after your video) and I'd be more than happy to show you what has been useful to me!
I am also am interested in something like this.
The game you must play on an Atari 8-bit is Star Raiders. My other favorites included M.U.L.E. and Ultima IV, but those were of course available on other platforms..
Ballblazer
Brings back memories... Had one of these circa 1985, complete with the 1050XL disk drive. It was a huge step up from a ZX81 and a TI99/4A both of which we'd only had cassette storage for.
We had two of these in UK - a 600xl and then an 800xl that my dad bought at a radio rally in the 80's for £10, dad even made an eprom copier so that he could copy from the floppy to eproms that then went in a board that we plugged into the cartidge slot (Just like the modern day sd solutions) I now have bought an 800xl and relive those great River Raid times
Just came across your channel. I had the one of these as a kid. My Dad bought one including the tape deck and later the disk drive. Many hours sat typing in code to get the free games in PC magazines.
Take a look at the Atari 8-bit version of Space Harrier that was made in recent years. These machines are incredibly capable for being late 70's technology.
It really says something that despite being designed in 1977-78, they were still powerful machines compared to almost all other 8-bit micros when the 16-bit era began in the mid-80s.
@@dunebasher1971 not really. The direct competitor C64 was superior both in graphics and audio department
@@SlavomirG The 800's CPU was almost 80% faster! though.
@@SlavomirG Now THAT depends on what you valued most. If you liked ADSR-based wavetable audio, sprites and a fixed 16 colors, than the c64 was for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed color indirection (with 256 colors), a faster CPU, a floppy drive that was faster loading than a cassette, true bit-mapped screens of varying resolutions and the ability to mix those resolutions vertically, than the Atari made the grade.
Comparisons of games can be difficult, as the effort in creating those games varies. For instance, I never saw Star Raiders on a c64, but they had Elite! The Lucasfilm games, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis Rift are simply superior on the Atari. Partially because of the greater efficiency and color capability of the graphics on the Atari, but also because both games were doing 3D calculations, calculations that were almost 80% faster on the Atari.
I always thought that the c64 was a better machine for 'shooty' games like Paralax or Zybex. Also, games that relied heavily on sprites like Impossible Mission or International Karate were a better match on the c64.
THAT SAID, one of the reasons the c64 got some great traction early on (besides the incredible price!), was because Commodore shared the entire memory map with every sale of their machine. Initially, Atari stupidly did their best to hide the internals of the machine without an understanding of how important 3rd party software was. This kind of thing outright killed the T.I. 99/4a, by the way. It wasn't until De Re Atari came out in 1982 that the complex internals of the Atari computers were finally exposed...
And then the XL series of computers rendered a large number of games useless, as memory maps changed. Atari tried to blame independent programmers for not 'following the rules', but it was their lack of informing them what the 'rules' were in the first place. Again, Atari wasn't well with 3rd party software development, at least early on. For a lot of game companies, that was the last straw. In comparison, the c64 seemed more welcoming and easier to develop for with a common memory standard (all machines, from the 64 to the 128 had at least 64K) and a memory map clearly laid out for everyone to see.
Meanwhile, the Atari's secrets slowly made the rounds. As on the c64, it was discovered that with a bit of trickery, you could display more than the standard palette of colors, emulate more voices of sound than the standard 4, and modify sprites on the fly to produce more of them.
The true capabilities of the Atari are STILL a moving target. Look at Space Harrier, Hot and Cold Adventure, and Time Pilot as excellent amazing examples of what is possible.
I should also mention that the development on Jay Miner's previous machine (the 2600), are also still nothing short of amazing. Check out the very recent Atari 2600 conversions of Donkey Kong, Star Castle, or Bosconian - simply brilliant!
I still have the 600XL, the 800XL, the touch tablet, and the plotter. That last device was super fun to program. Facinating technology.
We had an Atari 800xl when growing up. Miner 2049er was of our favourite games along with Monzumas Revenge, Bruce Lee & Mr Robot.
Hi Neil, I think that this machine deserves a full restoration bringing it back to its as new start in life.
Love the trinitron
As someone who owned a 65XE back in the day, I could hear the audio in my head the minute you popped up the self test menu. My personal preference would be toward full restoration and matched key.
Doo doo doo dah de doo!
Nice that they used a bit of "Pictures at an Exhibition" for the sound test.
I vote for a full restoration with new break key. Very happy to see this. I had (and still own) a very early 600xl which was a great games machine. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Nice video. For those who do not know, the best game for the track ball is not missile command, but summer games :-)
I am old enough to have seen those commercials when they aired. I like the idea of keeping it battle scares. It's should be known that we actually used these computers. Not "this is what they looked like when they came off the line.
Well, that's my vote.
This was my second computer after the ZX1000 and i loved it.
I could play all my old VCS 2600 games on it...
1983 was a great year...
( edit: those where not games from the VCS 2600 but game catridges for the XL and XE...)
I also had a Timex Sinclair 1000 before getting my Atari 800XL. And an Atari 2600!
I had An Atari 800xl it wasn't compatible with 2600 games.
zero0ryn , sorry, your’e right, those where game cartridges special made for the XL and XE computers.
still have those cartridges...
I mistakenly mixed it up with the 2600 games...
I love watching Neil diving into a box
Behave you
Yes...naughty
He did gently separate those flaps, to be fair
@@davidlewis1787 LOL :-D
Make it a memory/museum item.
All home micros have a history, and there should be some that retain the scars of their existence.
The previous owner obviously enjoyed the machine - keep the memory alive.
Finally! One of these was my computer for years. It too often gets overlooked in favour of the c64. About time it got some love :)
Other channels I watch try and make old hardware look like new but I'd prefer to see this made functional without the full facelift.
I like old machines simply because they're old.
This was our first family computer, we had tapes at first then Dad brought home a 1050 disk drive with more pirate games than we could ever need! It was rare in the UK but software was pretty easy to get, it was well supported for a while with £1.99 tapes from Mastertronic etc and we went to lots of 8-bit computer fares in aircraft hangers and country show grounds after the official Atari fair at Crystal Palace stopped. The cartridges were great, it has a fantastic version of Donkey Kong and Miner 2049 as show in the vid was great too. If you can get Star Raiders that is an absolute classic and Rescue on Fractulus and Ball-Blazer from Lucas Arts really showed off what it could do. Man, even that self test audio test sends shivers of nostalgia down my spine!
I tend to be more of the "leave the patina" type, though I have been known to do some heavy-handed replacements (like the keycaps on my PS/2's keyboard).
Full resto for me. Plenty of old computers out there wearing their scars, nothing like seeing old 8-bit machines being restored to their former glory.
I own this same micro, but had to swap the power supply for a homemade one that does the job, and a DIY cable. But it's such a blast to tinker with, and the built in self-check is DEFINITELY a dream!
I am in the camp of leaving it as is, get it looking nice and with a 3D printed key, but don't hide the fact that this was a used and *loved* machine. Any old 800XL can be restored to like-new, but no other ones will tell the same exact story as this one does.
Loved my XL (and 1050 disk drive), and worked on a couple of A8 titles back in the dim and distant...would be great to see this machine all sparkly and new again, and absolutely, frame the letter along with it! :)
I loved my 800XL so this really made me nostalgic. Subbed.
Decades ago, I picked up a few of these Atari 8-bit computers for dirt cheap as a package deal at a local store that mostly dealt with used video games. Two of them were 800XLs, though only one had all its keys intact. I don’t have a ton of software for it, but of what I do have, the games mostly remind me of their Atari 5200 counterparts. Thankfully I have several 3rd party Atari 2600 controllers, all compatible with 800XL for hours of fun times.
Apart from the Commodore 64 and Apple ][e, the Atari 800XL is one of my favorite 8-bit computers overall.
I am all for keeping it "as is" with a good cleaning and a replacement break key.
First computer I ever owned. My late father fetched it home from work in a box with a job lot of games. It was pure heaven.
this is amazing!!!! I SO loved my 800XL. Pulled out my Topps Baseball Cards and used them to make a randomized trivia program...one of my coolest memories. I also remember having some sort of medieval town simulation that I LOVED! But it was on tape, so the drill was to start loading it, then go outside and play for awhile, come in to see if it loaded ( which Id say 3 out of 4 times it didnt ) so rinse and repeat.
I love the idea of the museum piece! Its sentimental, novel, and wholesome :)
Can’t thank you enough for this video, so many happy memories playing on the 800xl with my brother 👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻
The first computer I successfully revived!!! Was a bad RAM chip - It still works to this day :)
The second game sausage (not words I expected to use today), brought back fond childhood memories. I had a similar stack of games and was playing Hover Bover just recently (albeit now on an emulator, and not on my 800XL). I like the idea of framing the letter, 3D printing the break-key, and proudly presenting the scars. If it's to be played, then a restore may be better.
I remember getting this for Christmas present from my parents in the early 80s. Now I feel old.
I got Goonies for xmas one year. I'd never seen the film, so that was fun. If I had I might have understood it more.
Full Restoration back to.its formal glory with all its parts intact would be my vote, ready to fight another day :)
Neil - keep as-is! I love character on things. It shows it’s had a life, it’s lived, been used, but is still solid and useful. I’ll keep it clean but in this case I think it would be better to allow it to keep it’s war wounds as signs of a life long lived.
I like to reccomend buying a Sys Check II from tfhh aka Jürgen van Radecke. This not only gives very good hardware check options, but it also comes with 512 KB memory expansion and simply plugs into the PBI port at the back of the system. Easiest option to get enough memory to play the great homebrew BOSCONIAN, for example. Also it is easy to build a SIO2USB cable and use your PC as a disk drive. No more waiting for cassette loading. And try out the great homebrew YOOMP! Or build a S-Drive Max with an Arduino.
I wasn't aware of its memory expansion capability, getting my order in quick before the rush! Thank you so much!
Keep the patina for sure. It shows that it was well-loved and well-used.
I love the Atari 800XL for much more than 30 years now, and all the time I use one. I own one since 1991. And I am using it day by day ... well year, sometimes I use emulators only, but I always have set up a real one somewhere in my home.
This was my first computer as a kid. I had dual aftermarket 5 1/4" floppy drives for mine, which at the time, made it feel like I was living in the future. Sadly, my parents moved out of my childhood home about 10 years ago, and I was not cognizant enough to realize I wanted my retro-computer collection. All the feels.
I used to have the Atari 130XE once (which is basically an 800XL in an Atari ST-like case but with more memory and slight upgrades), but we eventually got rid of it when I was a teenager and less appreciative of it. I hope I can have one again one day (along with a C64, a 286, etc.).
the Amiga's forerunners were the Atari 8 bit line, whereas the forerunners of the ST were the 8 bit Commodore machines.
I used to have one. spent hours with the book learning how to type out simple games and then record them onto to tape to play later. "lone Raider" was probably the one I played most.
Great stuff Neil, our first computer was an 800XL including a number of those games you have including Goonies, brings back a lot of good memories. We ended up giving the whole system to my cousins once we'd upgraded to a Sega Master System. We had many enjoyable hours playing the likes of Thrust, Action Biker, BMX Simulator and Kik Start, shame we don't have it anymore.
Thats weird, I just searched 800xl on youtube and you have just started to fix one, I had a 5.5 happy drive back in the day with loads of copied games from some pirate firm over in Birmingham. I sold it for money than I bought it for and upgraded to an ST which I wish I still had but with modern emulators why bother. I have bought myself a 2600 though, along with a CRT TV as the modern TV's cant tune to the frequency right due to it being automatic. I also have an XBOX, playstation 2, nintendo wii and 2 PC's. I started out as a computer programmer and although I did not want to use computers fro a living, I have fixed people's computer equipment all my life in one way or another. 3d print a break key, letting it show its age is the best in my opinion. Well done for showing people how to open equipment as more damage is done by people opening the item trying to fix it than the reason it did not work in the first place.
Great video! Seeing it come to life brought back so many memories - the first computer in our house was a 130XE (Which i still have in a box in the garage), the styling of the XE range was completely different to the XL and they looked like baby 520ST's. The 'farting' noise before the blue screen displays "Ready", the diagnostics, all the same on the XE. Unfortunately the only two games i ever had for it were K-Razy Antics and Boulders & Bombs both on ROM cartridge which I played to death. My parents never splashed out on a tape player for it and so i feel i missed out massively on some potentially amazing games on this system. I made up for this though with hours of punching code into basic from the manual and the inevitable groan when your typed RUN and got an error message because you'd used a full stop somewhere instead of a comma, etc! I found this recently, someone has created a pretty impressive version of Space Harrier on 130XE. Looks and sound wise it beats probably any of the 8-bit ports I've seen, talk about pushing the limits of a system! ruclips.net/video/tmEFFp0lLzo/видео.html For the restoration, personally I like the idea of it retaining it's battle scars. Let it tell it's own story.
Always a pleasure to watch and learn from you guys!
Thanks Arthur
Yay, my favorite 8bit computer line! Finally :D
Well, you were lucky with that Atari, my 130XL had the same symptoms (black screen) that turned out to be bad ram chip that had killed the Freddie memory controller chip. After many months waiting for this chip to be available on ebay I saved the 130XL from the dead.
Great video! My first computer was a 65XE so I'll always have a soft spot for the old Atari 8-bits
The Atari 8-bits were easily the most sophisticated computers of the 8-bit era. Everything about them was incredibly well-designed and forward looking. Atari started work on them in '78 and released them in limited quantities in '79. The 800 in particular was built like a brick sh*thouse and had the best keyboard and best display of any 8-bit machines at the time of its release, including separate luma and chroma output years before things like S-VHS rolled along.
With their built in display controller, 4-channel sound, game ports and sophisticated smart peripheral interface - sort of a proto-USB - they were literally about a decade ahead of the competition when they made their debut. Probably their only major drawback relative to their peers was their sluggish cassette interface, although they did have the unique ability to pass sound thru from the cassette to the TV or monitor's speaker, allowing them to run things like interactive language tutors off cassette.
Unfortunately Warner Communications owned Atari by that point and had no idea what to do with the computers or how to best market them. Even though they demolished the Apple // series, sporting vastly superior graphics and sound and a faster-clocked 6502 CPU, they weren't able to displace their rivals over in Cupertino and eventually got sucked into the price war Commodore touched off first with their Vic (sort of a cut-down Atari 800) and later the Commodore 64, a decidedly less cut-down Atari 800 which sported many of the same features - player missile graphics (or sprites as Commodore called them), arguably superior sound, a faster tape drive (although a ludicrously sluggish disk drive), and more RAM standard.
Unfortunately, Warner's Atari had done next to nothing to upgrade their 8-bit line until the 1200XL rolled out in December of '82, three years after the 800 had become widely available. While the 1200XL looked fantastic and sported the best keyboard any 8-bit computer ever shipped with bar none, it sported no really useful new features and actually omitted some functionality its predecessor the 800 possessed, like the separate chroma line in the video output. While its single board design was obviously much cheaper to produce than the 800's multi-board design, it shipped at a ridiculous $900 and immediately tanked in the marketplace. It simply couldn't compete with the Commodore 64, which had bowed at $600 in August of that year and began to rapidly plummet in price, dropping to $300 in 1983. The resulting price war forced Texas Instruments out of the market entirely by October of 1983 and left Atari hemorrhaging cash, in conjunction with the videogame crash.
The 64-like 800XL was a decent cut-price design and had Atari been able to manufacture enough of them for the Christmas '83 shopping season they might have been able to stage a real comeback, but their switch to Taiwan from the US was plagued with issues and their market share collapsed even in the US as Commodore simply overwhelmed them. They never really recovered.
Ironically, it didn't have to be this way. Had Warner's management not been incompetent, Atari would have already had a successor to the 400 and 800 on the market by '81, keeping them well-positioned against both Apple at the high end as well as cut rate challengers like Commodore. Believe it or not it's been said that IBM had also considered - circa 1979 - basing their own PC on the Atari 8-bits and actually met with Atari to discuss the possibility. History would have looked very different if the Atari 800 had become the basis for the IBM PC...
retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/7135/the-almost-was-atari-ibm-pc
I played Rescue on Fractalus and Mercenary on my cousin's one of these - Bounty Bob Strikes Back was ace too
Neil, another excellent production that I enjoyed watching.
A great nostalgia trip for me as this was my first micro too.
I'm torn between you restoring it to "mint condition" or leaving it with all battle scars
intact as I can see the benefits of both routes.
Now waiting for part 2 to see what becomes of this important bit of computing history 👍
yes definitely a full restoration, please
I love these Trash To Treasures! I vote for a full restoration. Luckily my one didn't need anything doing to it at all when I bought it on eBay a while ago, it looks absolutely mint. The same can't be said of my Atari 400 when I received it though - the case had broken into multiple pieces during shipping. Amazingly though, it still worked! So I carefully glued everything back together, sprayed it the correct colour, and even added a brand new original keyboard to it. It was a lot of work but worth it in the end. Sorry, I rambled on a bit off topic there...
I had one of these and loved playing miner 2049'er. Looking like new.