I remember being so psyched to get this computer that I looked at it's brochure and the 9 screenshots it showed for hours at a time, before finally getting one at Christmas of that year. I wish things got me that excited in my adult life.
I had a 65XE. Poor man's computer. If you had money you bought a Commodore 64 or even a Spectrum. There was more choice of games for those machines than Atari back in the day here in the UK. I hated my 65XE. By that I don't mean the computer was crap just that there wasn't that many games ported to the platform.
@@daviniarobbins9298 Spectrum was the poor man's computer, that is why it was so popular in the UK at the time. Commodore 64 and Atari 65XE were proper computers,it's just that no one made any software for the 65XE.
Yep, I definately upgraded from my first (800XL) to a 130XE because of having so much RAM. Then bought a Sam's book and upgraded it with 256K more RAM than that... Later I got a secondhand 65XE and was surprised some of my cartridges don't run on it (needed at least 64K). By the time I got the XEGS for my collection I didn't even care that I have a hard time getting all the pins to work on the keyboard cable since my 130XE+ is better. Well now I have to watch for the new 130 E or 65 E on eBay I bet those will sell for a million.
@@daviniarobbins9298 Wow, you are not very informed. You clearly weren't looking in the right places for games as I had an Atari 8-bit computer since 1983 and there were no shortage of games. Calling it a poor man's computer speaks more to your perspective and why you didn't just buy a C64 instead is odd. The Atari 8-bit had almost double the clock speed of the competitors at the time and ran non game applications better than Commodore.
Scored my XEGS around 2000 in the ebay early days. Nice retro gaming piece. Big issue was XEGS was released too late. Home computing had moved on to 16 or 32 bit (Amiga/Atari ST/PC 286 or 386) by 87-88 in the US, though elsewhere 8 bit machines still sold well due to cost. Even elsewhere, buyers would rather opt for the "real deal" ie C64 or Atari 8 bit computer plusfloppy disk drive, which was the big cost at he time. A lot of overseas markets relied on the cassette through the 80s. If the XEGS had been released by Christmas 83 or 84, it would have been a bigger hit as a home computer/game combo. But even by late 83 and certainly 84, the C64 was price reduced and gobble dup by US consumers, and had outstanding video and sound capabilities (for the timeframe and price) with a large game library and home computing apps. The Atari 8 bit computers were price reduced to match by 84-85, so releasing the XEGS in 87 (!?) when the Atari ST was lowering its price every few months, plus the explosion of low cost IBM clones and parts with 12-16Mhz 8086/286 chips, plus lower cost EGA/VGA cards, pretty much made this relase a head scratcher even at the time. I worked at a mom & pop computer store that did good business selling Commodore & Atari 8 and 16 bit machines 1985-1990, while doing my undergrad at U of MIch Engineering school. So I lived it ;)
bought mine in 1996 when i was 11 years old, gave 50 NOK (like $5.5 US) for it from a friend with keyboard, zapper and 5 XEGS games and 4 more XE games since he had gotten an PlayStation for christmas. things was a bit cheaper back then
I had an Atari 600xl and later Atari 800xl and really enjoyed those systems for the time, from early to late 80s. The metal cartridges they used were super high quality compared to the plastic cartridges that the 2600 used. Games were as close to the arcade as possible for its time. Some great memories growing up and playing these games.
I never owned any Atari product. Except for Atari branded Playstation games. However I used a C64 and other Commodore machines through the entire 1980's. As far as I know, then looking at 8bit machines, then Atari have the best video signal and Commodore had the best sound. Sprites and so on is a totally different story, as all machines have strength's and disadvantages.
The look of the XEGS buttons were inspired by the very popular pastel colors of the 'Miami Vice' era. It matched the XE computer line up. I personally think that it would have been more successful looking the like 2600 Junior and 7800 game systems. The XE can be considered as a variant model to the 600xl/800xl/65xe, 130xe, 800xe and to a lesser extent the 1200xl which were based on the 400/800 computers. The XE cartridges that used 64k would not work on the 400/800 models, but some of them did.
Atari Corp's XE line cosmetically resembled the ST line even though they were part of the Atari 8-bit line. The only aesthetic differences were they had the labeling in "red" for the XE while the ST used "blue", much as Atari Inc had earlier done to distinguish the label coding for the 2600 and 5200. Tramiel's Atari Corp had abandoned the rather Bang & Olafsson (sic) design aesthetic of the Atari 600XL/800XL/1200XL/1400XL/1450XLD and the 2600jr/5200/7800 for their computer lines.
If Atari had released the XE game system instead of the 5200, they probably would have a big success. The games were all ready to go, and the ability to upgrade to a computer would have been a big selling point. However, they should have added a 2nd button to the joystick that would duplicate the space bar. Also, a pause button should have been added to the console to duplicate the P key.
When the 5200 came out, Atari was still owned by Warner Brothers. When the XE came out was right after the Atari ST came out, so the XE line was just a cosmetic change to the 8bit PCs, and Jack Trammel was already running the company.
The XEGS came out nearly 5 years after the 5200 and it was part of a major refresh of the 8 bit computer line. When the 5200 debuted, the 400 and 800 were the 8 bit computers and they'd remain so until the 1984 intro of the failed 1200XL.
@@RagShop1 1200XL came out in early 1983, and then that fall the 600XL and 800XL were released. However, they also intended to release the 1400XL (which would've been the 1200XL's successor), 800XLD and 1450XLD, with the 800XLD and 1450XLD having all of the respective specs of the 800XL and 1400XL along with a built-in disk drive. But the 1983 video game crash, together with Atari's own meager financial outlook caused by the failure of the 2600 E.T. game, caused the 1400XL, 800XLD and 1450XLD to all be scrapped from their release timetable.
As an avid Atari fan; the XEGS is the current crown jewel of my collection. I love the variety of games available, but also admire its versatility as a computer system (I can program BASIC still though, so your mileage may vary).
Damn you showing systems I used to own. My mother bought me the xe back in the late 1980s. I had no other use for it than the included flight simulator with its paper maps. I was forever in love with the genre. I don’t know what I did with the unit later on.
I remember seeing this machine at Lionel play world when I was a kid. It looked really neat. I asked the guy at the counter why it had no games (quick note: Lionel kept games behind a always staffed counter. Kind of like Toy's R us, but without the ticket system.) And he told me "because, nobody makes any".
A friend of mine had one of these when we were kids. I borrowed it from him and wrote code on it. But my friend didn't own a floppy drive. So I wasn't able to save anything. I had to write all my code down on paper! And of course, I had to leave the power on permanently because I didn't want to keep typing in my code every time I started it up. He eventually asked for it back and it was a sad day for me. It was the first computer I was able to code on at home before we got our first computer... a shiny PC-compatible 286 with 1 MB of RAM and 86 MB hard drive! A 1 MB stick of RAM cost $100 at the time. It wasn't cheap, but it was an impressive upgrade at the time.
@Karl Burnett Dude... You are talking trash. If it is a joke it is not even funny. There is no logic in what you say. So basically, you caught me on what?
The XE Game System was released in 1987. It was never meant to "beat Nintendo". It was meant to appeal to families who wanted a newer game system - replacing their "old" 2600, Intellivision, or Colecovision - that was also a computer since so many parents were convinced their kids needed a computer to become successful adults. It was the retailers who told Atari at the time that they didn't want to carry the 65XE - you totally failed to include the "X" in their names - computer but would carry a computer that was also a game system. Similarly, the Atari 8-bit computer line needed new users and 3rd Party software publishers were abandoning the platform over alleged "rampant piracy" amongst Atari 8-bit users [never mind that the Commodore 64's piracy rate amongst its user base dwarfed what was amongst the Atari 8-bit community] so with those two challenges nipping at them, Atari Corp brought out the XE Game System and shifted a lot of games over to the cartridge format which was slightly harder to pirate back then than disk-based games. You claim Atari didn't bring out a specific disk drive for the XE Game System yet the XF551 disk drive was meant for all Atari XE computers which included the XE Game System. You state the Atari ST needed to be a success before the XE computers could be released yet the 65XE and 130XE were released in 1985 first before the Atari 520ST made it to store shelves later that year. You mention the XE Game System was packed with "Bug Hunt", which it was, but it also had "Missile Command" built in. You claim the XE Game System was targeted at the NES when it wasn't; the 7800 was. You claim it was meant to break Nintendo's lock on the market when it wasn't and the 7800 was released in early 1986 which was before Nintendo had a de facto monopoly on the industry. What Nintendo had was 3rd Party Developers locked into exclusive agreements which kept their titles from appearing on the Atari 7800 and later the Sega Master System for 2 years after debuting on the NES and then Nintendo would still try to intimidate them by shorting their cartridge orders - since every licensed cartridge for the NES had to be manufactured at a profit by Nintendo right out the door - if their titles appeared elsewhere. The only way around that with the XE Game System was for those 3rd Party companies to release their titles on disk/cartridge/cassette for the "Atari 8-bit computers" with a wink if they were interested and were also willing to possibly provoke Nintendo while also releasing them for other computers like the IBM PC, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64/128, Apple Mac, and/or the Apple II. Those 3rd Party Developers couldn't do that with the 7800 since it was a game system and didn't have a computer platform to fall back upon. The 7800 was originally intended to be released for Christmas 1984 but was delayed by Warner's sale of Atari Consumer to Jack Tramiel while also getting into a massive dispute with its designer, GCC, over royalties and other matters which weren't settled until August 1985; it had nothing to do with Nintendo. You act like it was bewildering why Atari Corp would market the 2600, 7800, and XE Game System all at once when it was clear that the 2600 was for the low end for budget consumers, the 7800 for the advanced gamers, and the XE Game System again appealing to parents who wanted a computer and a game system for their kids. The joystick and keyboard ports on the XE Game System aren't weird or inconvenient; them being angular - similar to the design on the earlier 1200XL - is a better design than having them stick out straight from the sides of the case and then the cables bending for actual use. Sticking them on the front of the console would've interfered with the keyboard. And the CX40 joystick wasn't released with the 2600 VCS in 1977. They are cost reduced updates to the original CX10 joystick from 1977 which were the 2600's original pack-in joysticks. The CX40 was released in 1979. Also of note, Commodore basically had bankrupted MOS by refusing to pay them for the 6502s they had received in 1976 and then bought out the company to gain control of it and cancel Commodore's debt. MOS had approached Atari to save them from Commodore but Warner said "no" and Atari settled on ordering 50k 6507s from MOS in exchange for a perpetual license to the 6502 and the right to have it - and the supporting chipset - manufactured for them by other companies such as Synertek and Rockwell. Commodore took over MOS so Jack Tramiel could have a vertically integrated company so chip companies couldn't drive them into near bankruptcy like TI had nearly done to Commodore during the earlier pocket calculator war earlier in the 1970s that TI had won. The Commodore 64 price war in the early 1980s that drove TI and others out of the home computer industry was due to Jack Tramiel's goal of getting revenge on TI.
Great corrective commentary, spot on for those of us 80s tech geeks who lived through it. Yes, the XE 8 bits hit the streets before the ST. However, in the defense of the video host, Atari's marketing and business planning from 1985 onwards were highly troublesome. Too much overlap and redundancy among the XE computers, XEGS, 2600, 7800, whith just the same games across them all. While the 2600 Jr was an interesting low cost option for frugal buyers just wanting to play games, by the late 80's, most home buyers in the US wanted a computer of some type, especially something compatible with their "Computers at work", which were most likely IBM PC's or compatibles. Even if they couldn't afford an IBM or workable clone (Clones were notoriously incompatible or low quality through the 80s, taking off and achieving widespread compatibility in the 90s), the perception was that any computer would be better than none "for the kids" as you point out, and at minimum for word processing and basic data tasks, while playing games was a bonus on all computers. The initial plan for the ST was that it be the serious/business oriented computer, and through 1987 or so, Atari kept to this idea- the first consumer priced laser printer for the ST, emphasis on desktop publishing capabilities, the 1040ST with 1MB for under $1K, the MegaST, the MegaSTe, pro musicians and the ST for MIDI/music,etc. But by 1988 or so, STs were showing up at Toys R Us! This degraded their perception as "professional", though in hindsight it probably didn't make a big difference given the progress of Microsoft/DOS/Windows and the PC x86 world, plus the down marketing of the Amiga 500 through similar chains, etc. By 1991-92, considering anything other than an x86 (or maybe a Mac) was the only wise choice. I was very anti x86 through the entire 80s, doing only the 68000 machines (Mac/ST/Amiga). But I finally relented and assembled my first 286 from parts purchased out of Computer Shopper by 1991 or so
@@geraldford6409 Valid points but the Atari 520ST, the SF354 disc drive, and the SC1224 color monitor were all sold at Toys R Us before Christmas in 1985. They were later pulled as Atari Corp expanded the ST dealer network after the 1040STf was released and garnered attention over its revolutionary price.
@@TheJeremyHolloway The ST may have come and gone and come back from the TRU/Children's Palace's of the 80's. I think Atari then decided to make the MEgaST/STe/TT the "Computer Store" pro versions, and the 520STfm the mass market TRU/Monkey Wards version. I recall seeing the Amiga's (500 maybe others) at Wards around 1990, but not sure about the ST elsewhere. The ST did well here in SE MIchigan at Mom & Pop Computer stores (some had more than one location, ie a local chain), where they could upsell customers with printer bundles & software, swap out aftermarket monitors or joysticks, and provide a little training and after sell follow-up, often resulting in repeat and add on sales. SOme Mom & POps only did COmmodore, some only Atari, some both, and most moved on to PC Clones by 1990.
I had one growing up. Parent's got it one Christmas when I was like 4, only remember playing it a few times though. Kept it in a dresser drawer for over a decade before the family tossed it out when we moved. I had bug hunt, pac man, donkey kong, and there was another game too, a flight game I want to say.
We had a dedicated retail store just for this console/computer. I would always walk slower to the bus stop so we would miss the bus and I then could go into the store to look around. My mother never caught on.
So, I used to have one of those. It was actually difficult to find games for that, but the one I found was really good. I had great fun, but then I got a Sega master System
There’s nothing better when you find a channel out of the blue and you watch a video and you’re like damn that’s good and then you end up binge watching the whole freaking channel
@@waltberger7885 yeah Atari split in 84, computer/home (2600/5200/7800), Trammell got that, arcade stayed with Warner. Trammell was head of commodore 8bit computers, similar to what was to become the XE. Atari kept their focus on the computer world because post video game crash, the mkt looked to be low priced computers. Atari spent nothing on development of another home game system till early 90s that lead to them missing the 16 bit world of the early 90s, they had a hand-held (lynx) that they didn't develope just distributed. By the time they jumped back into home mkt, with Jaguar, they truely had no idea how to get it in homes, distribution was to low, for their 94 launch, they never had enough to get to Europe (a country where their name wasn't mud), then they took 2 years to get more than 8 games out, they didn't understand how important video game magazines were, and they had no clue the price of mkt had sky rocketed, along with the need for triple AAA titles that had to be available day 1. Sony figured all this out and stopped Atari out of existence destroyed 3d0, cdi, neo geo, then killed Sega by the time ps2 had arrived.
I had this system when I was younger. I remember playing bug hunt and the flight simulator. Games were already hard to find and using it as a computer when ten years old was impossible. I believe it had basic, or some derivation. There were no manuals or easy to follow directions on how to program.
I got one of these in 88 or 89... absolutely loved it. Only problem was that all the games advertised on the rear of the box were never available were I lived in the uk. Had to buy a second hand cassette player and loads of game cassettes.
I am 50 and the Atari was one of my families intro to games( Telstar the first game console and the TRS-80 computer) and I never heard of this version ever.. wow.. I love the design of it, but the button colors have an issue with me..
I liked my Atari XE as a child, it had Missile Command built onto the motherboard. I just had to hold the power button down while powering up to launch that ROM.
LOL, "Take the 65E computer and put it into a new ....aaaaaaaa.... Let's say ........ INTERESTING CASE" Love the pastel buttons. there was just something about the '80s and pastels. Really miss that. Also liked the DO IT! DO IT! at the end.
Duuuuu-UUUUUde! You nailed it. I couldn't quite place the connection its appearance made in my brain with something else, but THAT'S totally it. Well done!
Back when it was on shelves @ hills stores, I didn’t dig the pastel color buttons. I already had an 800xl so was just something I took a brief look at when it was selling. No one I know bought one.
My dad gave me this years ago when everyone had a NES. I was excited because it also was a computer and had very nice looking games. I spent a whole afternoon typing a long program that said "pink monster moves across the screen". After hours of typing and fixing typos, I was ready to run it... and it was underwhelming. That was the last time I tried any program on it.
I heard a slightly different motivation for Atari to make the XEGS. They had a warehouse full of components, already paid for, to build 65XE computers. Also, a large stock of games. Problem was, the sales of the 65XE and 130XE were in rapid decline. The XEGS was more about clearing their warehouses and saving them from another massive burial of unsold stock than it was thinking this archaic computer could catch the NES. But with all things Atari, it's hard to tell fact from fiction.
@@brostenen Here, as opposed to above, where you deny the hilarity of your exchange with another user, I completely agree with you. However, you still must admit to the fact that without Mr. Jobs, many things we now enjoy wouldn't have been possible. He served an important purpose, but was not the technological whiz he seemed to occasionally suggest in lectures.
@@TimePilot2084 Yes. He served a job at making other people do what he wanted. The point I wanted to make, is that jobs did not invent the actual stuff. He sure did take credit for it. The heroes of the computer revolution, are all the engineers. That is the point I want to make. Very few people that were not engineers, are heroes as well. That includes Tramiel, as he did the right thing of selling to the masses and not the classes.
Aside from the insane idea of selling essentially a 1979 computer in a new box to compete with what was your NES competitor at the time in the 7800- It only highlighted the flaws in both systems. The graphics on the 7800 were somewhat improved, but the XE sound was superior due to the baffling decision to include only the 2600 sound chip on board of the 7800. It’s hard to argue “invest in our next gen systems” when they’re both so ultimately half assed
It is insane but, it sold up alot of old stock they had laying around, they were somehow masters of catalog sales, as it costed them little, and catalog customers are not as savvy customers. Atari was able to somehow make huge profits, basically riding on the coattails of nes, being very popular, since they didn't have to advertise, they just went with we are cheaper to buy games...
As far as sales numbers for the XE, I had two of them. So.. at least two. I wanted an ST, but this was better than nothing. I wrote soooooooo many BASIC programs. PS: Ballblazer is best game.
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I had this baby. When my father bought it, the shopper told him this was better than Nintendo and it would make me learn programming in Basic. Even so, while I was disapointed for not having a NES, I loved this console. Now, I am a Computer Engineer LOL
The XE sold 25000 units, every single unit produced. I had one in 87. The thing I did most was either Wing Commander I think it was called, and running programs. It served to inspire me to go on to become a programmer and web builder.
Looking back, I really wish I (or my parents, since I was still a kid) would have gotten a computer in the early/mid 80s. I probably would have gotten into programming and become quite the tech-nerd. In reality, I didn't get a computer until the late 90s, and no longer being a kid, didn't really have the time to spend learning programming. Not claiming my parents ruined my life by not getting me a computer when I was young, but since I did go into a technical field, my lack of computer know-how has been somewhat of an issue. I often get comments from my younger coworkers, "You could fix that by just writing some code... Oh yeah, sorry."
@@ressljs yeah man. I remember my first REAL PC. A Packard Bell 386sx. Had a 16mghz processor with a 4mghz "turbo" button lol. 100 MB HDD. and I think 8 MB of RAM. a 5.25 floppy and a 3.5 floppy. I was the first geek on my street with a new fangle little floppy drive. They weren't even floppy lol. I ran my WWIV bulletin board service, called The tea room of despair. It was run off of my 1200 baud rate modem. Only at night, so my parents wouldn't bitch about not being able to use the phone or ever getting phone calls during the day lmao
@@ressljs but the XE was what started it all. It was really a great system. I had flight simulator on that thing. Granite had the graphics prowess of a Texas instruments TI-84 lol but you could get the chest and it was still fun.
Bought one on eBay 20+ years ago Nice retro gaming and retro computing collectible. Atari was all over the map post 1985, with too many redundant products in the 8 bit space. One could argue the ho.e computer arena was moving to 16 bit post 1985, but the reality is for most people in north America 85-92, 8 bit computers and pcs were fine, whether 8086 or 6502. While I went all in on the Atari ST fall 85 through 1990, transitioning to 286+ post 1990, the Atari 8 bit xl/xe line and c64/128 plus 8086 clones and Apple II and clones are where most homes went in that period. Once 386sx/486 were cost reduced circa 94-95, it was over for anything other than x86 in north America. But for that 85-92 period, Atari should have omitted the 7800 and concentrated on the Xe computers and xegs, all on the low end, with the st line for the high end. Instead, consumers who bought into the 5200 felt abandoned, then ripped off as Atari double, triple, quad dipped with the functionally identical xegs, xe computer line and 7800. Yes, the 7800 had some interesting new graphics tech over the 5200/8bit xe, but actually worse sound, with basically the same tired late 70s, early 80s arcade ports Then Atari milked the 2600 into the 90s with the 2600jr instead of innovating faster on the ST, TT, Jaguar, etc.
Atari under Tramiel had so much leftover 2600, 7800, and XEGS game inventory left from Warner days. That is why it was trying push all of them. Nothing for them to lose. They got free profit by selling this inventory.
I still have my Atari 400 and my Atari 800XL which I actually use both to this very day. I had considered getting the Atari XE Game System but I couldn't find it in any of my local hometown electronics stores. I did get myself a Nintendo NES so that I could play light gun game like Duck Hunt, but if my Atari 800XL could play light gun games using the XEGS light gun than I would get its light gun at least.
5:03 Say what you will about the console design itself (and I share your confusion), but that is easily one of the coolest light guns ever released. Looks straight out of Buck Rogers or some 80s anime. That said, I disagree about the controller/keyboard ports. That's very clever design, given that they couldn't have the ports in front because then it couldn't dock with the keyboard. The angle means the cords stay underneath the upper rim, and are partially hidden, as well as ensuring that the wires weren't compressed if the console was up against a wall or beside another device. Aside from the practical concerns, this would have given it a sleeker look in operation, compared to most other consoles or TV-based computers of the time.
It's funny how the simple things used to amuse us more. I had a bunch of different consoles growing up, but I always wanted an XE simply because of the slanted cartridge slot.
Technically, the XE was ahead of it's time. I am sure software, OS's, disk drives, RAM upgrades, etc., would have come a little later in it's lifespan if it was allowed to mature. Towards the end of it's useful life as a game console, it could have been a great 8-bit general-purpose computer.
Jay Miner was basically the father of the Atari 8-bit computer chipset which was used in the 400/800/XL/XE computers, the XE Game System, and the 5200. Before that, he was responsible for the TIA graphics and sound chip in the 2600. He left Atari Inc in 1979 because he wanted to immediately build a 68000 based computer right after Motorola released that CPU but Atari's management said "no" because the 400 and 800 had just been released and they needed to make them a success first. His ideas for the Amiga were drafted back then right before he left Atari Inc. Years later, when his Amiga Corp hit financial problems finishing up the Amiga Lorraine chipset, they went to Atari Inc for funding. Atari wanted the chipset for future game systems and computers, or at least the option to use them. The contract stated Atari could release it as a console system first and one year later, release a keyboard for it as well as stand-alone computers. But if Amiga couldn't pay back the $500k loan, then Atari would own the tech and the company too. Amiga was prohibited from selling themselves to Apple, Coleco, Commodore, IBM, and TI, yet Amiga sold themselves to Commodore, Commodore provided them the funding to pay back Atari the $500k, and then their CEO went over to Atari Inc, falsely claimed the chipset didn't work, and tried to return the $500k via check which Atari Inc never cashed. That was all before Jack Tramiel's TTL company bought the assets of Atari Inc's Consumer Division - from Warner Communications, later Time Warner and currently AT&T's subsidiary renamed WarnerMedia - and renamed themselves Atari Corp. Commodore was already suing TTL for alleged IP since so many Commodore employees quit and went to work with Tramiel's TTL/Atari Corp after he quit Commodore. When his son Leonard Tramiel discovered the Amiga contract and the check, they asked Warner to pass along all rights and legalities to them so then Atari Corp counter-sued Commodore over the Amiga debacle. The lawsuit delayed the release of both the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga since the courts ordered each company to halt work on their systems at different times. The ST was released first. Before TTL bought "Atari", they toured Amiga Corp's HQ and were shown the Amiga Lorraine but Amiga decided not to sell themselves to Jack after he supposedly said he'd buy their company but had no need for the employees. But again, Amiga defrauded the original Atari Inc before the Tramiels became involved with it. So...
Anyway I heard Amiga needed money to finish off the computer, Atari loaned them $1 million and 30 days to pay back, if they couldn't then they would buy Amiga on the cheap.
I find it funny that the commercials called the NES a toy, yet the pastel buttons made the XEGS look like even more of a toy than both the "toaster" and top-loader NES models ever did. Still, the XEGS is probably what the 5200 should have been (classic Atari controller instead of a "trying-too-hard-to-be-like-Intellivision" controller that barely workerd, and compact size rather than ginormous VCR size)
I remember when these where in the Sears Christmas Wishbooks & Sears Catalogs. I think Atari's Downfall at the time they wasn't in Wal-Mart or Kmart Stores. You had to go to Kaybee Toys, Circus World Toys, Toys R Us, or Sears to find Atari stuff in the late 80's. Wal-Mart & Kmart in the late 80's making to much off of Sega & NES to market Atari Stuff.
I saw one of these Atari GS in a thrift store going for 10 bucks not long ago. I declined to buy it as it was fairly yellowed and some keys were missing from the keyboard, but otherwise functioned. I have my 130XE and it suffices for my 8 bit needs. Now I kind of regret not picking it up. I hope however got it does it justice and fully restores it.
I had the XE with the gun and flight simulator!…I loved that thing although it would get kinda boring really quick!…but it was a beautiful design tho!…I’d love to add one to my console collection
"65e" you say? "130e"? Where do you get this stuff? Same place as 6502 being compatible with the 6800 as stated in the 2600 video? Did you not look at the picture of the XE computer that you showed at 3:52? As for the "Board Meeting" where Jack Tramiel quit, look at the video "Bil Herd and Leonard Tramiel at CommVEx v11 2015". I think this story has been retold elsewhere in another interview, but Leonard tells us that Jack quit at CES. Could he be telling lies? I choose to believe him and the argument over the use of the corporate jet. Probably never going to get everyone to agree on what happened, but what it really comes down to is who is the best and most reliable source(s)? Do the people in the board room even know what transpired between Jack and Irving previously?
I noticed the 65 "E" and 130 'E" mistake as well. Not to mention, that they MAY have INTENDED to sell the XEGS without the keyboard as a 'core' video game system, but that never happened. Every XEGS came with a keyboard.
It's not a failure because it's just another member of the quite succesful Atari 8 bit computer family. It's only a flop as a game console, because it was too late to the market, and again, it's more a home computer, in the same way that the Famicom was a huge success as a console, and a flop as a home computer.
I didnt realise it came after the ST. I guess the ST was still expensive at that point. I do remember seeing the 2600 for sale well after it should have been and wondering why and i was a kid back then.
They had a good ad campaign I remember being pretty blown away by it, Though I remember my dad said it was a piece of crap. He was bent out of shape because I was not into the IBM PC he spent so much money on. At that time IBM PC's were boring as hell for most kids.
It's an oddity for sure, games on ebay go from cheap to expensive Most games are slightly better than NES games so if your looking for a system that can deliver 80s arcade games and early NES games, also old computer games, then yes.
I bought one around 2010, I like the convenience of composite out. Used my XEGS to test an Atari 8bit computer line homebrew game, Adventure II XE, which was finally published around 2020. I made the game's title screen joystick-driven, and the game's controls to only use the function buttons, to accommodate XEGS players who didn't have the keyboard attachment. :) Thanks for the show!
I bought the white atari xe system and i really can’t wait to get it,because it’s an AWESOME timeless looking machine, it makes me actually wonder, WHY didn’t atari developed and released the atari xe in 1982 instead??? Because i guess it would,ve sold much better at the time while maintaining compatibility with atari 800 games, the only reason i think why atari came up with the 5200 instead was because maybe their were afraid to be otherwise getting sewed by other companies for cheating for turning a computer into a game console, what do you think?
I got one off eBay about 15 years ago when I still had a crt tv set. I could never get the light gun to work when playing Bughunt. Sometimes it would work other times not. I would be firing the gun at the tv being pretty sure I was aiming it right and nothing happened. I even had the gun touching the screen virtually and nothing. Pretty sure the gun was not faulty. I gave up on it. When you add in budget cassette games there are probably thousands to choose from if you don't mind waiting 30 minutes to play them and don't mind the odd loading error. Mastertronic £1.99 and £2.99 games were fun.
Speaking of the light gun why bother with R&D and then only release a couple of games for it? Seems like a waste of time and money. Was Atari trying to keep up with the Jones'?
Oh, that CX-40 joystick wasn't the 1977 launch edition (heavy sixer) joystick. That would be the CX-10. Wasn't that mentioned in the 2600 video you did?
The technology goes back to 1978/1979 as it is almost a clone of the original atari 8-bit computers, 800/400 without keyboard. By the time it was released it was (1987) not (1984) it was really outdated as the tech was 8-9 years old.
Yep, if Atari had launched this when 'then' competitor Coleco launched the Adam (even though that eventually flopped hard) it would have been a different story. The 5200 could have been this, the 5200 was an 800 under the skin.
@@lazarushernandez5827 The purchase of Atari by Tramiel destroyed a lot of what if's as Atari had many exciting and innovative machines ready to be released. Tramiel cancelled all of them.
@@mikewest6569 Tramiel had gambled when he purchased Atari Inc's Consumer Division's assets and had to take on most of its debt in the process. He had to release what would be profitable. If you want to blame anyone, blame Warner's managers at Atari Inc who ruined the company. Let's have a run down. In 1978 and 79, they wouldn't listen to Nolan Bushnell who wanted to discontinue the VCS/2600 in favor of its successor which was the Atari 8-bit's chipset. He wanted the more powerful chips in a replacement console on the market asap so Atari would pre-emptively beat their competitors. Warner said "no". Warner's pick to run Atari [while sidelining Nolan] was Ray Kassar and he wanted that chipset used in a computer line so that they could earn a profit margin like Apple was doing with the Apple II. After Kassar and Warner's Manny Gerald made the 2600 a success by cost-reducing it and licensing Space Invaders, their folks in marketing kept resisting replacing the 2600. Flash forward to Tod Frye coding Pac-Man for the 2600. He wanted 8K for the ROM but management only would allow 4K. Warner's management bloated Atari with middle managers who proceeded to waste money on coke and expensive office furniture. Warner's managers refused to listen to Atari's engineers on the 5200 who wanted it backwards compatible with the 2600 and advocated for not releasing the console until the analog joysticks self-centered. Warner didn't listen and released the console anyway. When it wasn't the success they demanded, they blamed Atari's engineers for it and only listened to input from the GCC company who conspired to kill off the 5200 in favor of what became the 7800 which they hoped to massively profit from through royalties. Warner's CEO Steve Ross was hellbent on luring Steven Spielberg away from MCA Universal over to Warner Bros Pictures so he decided to force Atari to pay him $25 million for the exclusive video game rights to E.T. and then it was up to Howard Scott Warshaw to somehow create and finish that game before Christmas - and only with 4K - on the 2600. And we know how that ended up. Warner never could get their own WEA division to handle Atari's distribution - WEA refused for years - so Atari was beholden to shady independent distributors who didn't have accurate sales numbers and then Warner/Atari had the brilliant idea to have all of the distributors and chains order everything months in advance for Christmas 1982 which ended up with the market glut which contributed to the industry crash. When Warner licensed arcade titles on behalf of Atari from other companies, they failed to secure the source code so Atari's console and computer programmers had to use the arcade cabinets - which sometimes they had to buy because Warner would often fail to have the companies provide them with arcade cabinets to borrow - and become familiar enough with the game that they could recreate their elements. Warner failed to open up their planned $500 million Atari campus - in 1981 dollars - that would've consolidated all of Atari's operations and instead the company was spread out all over the Bay Area in 85 different buildings so groups would unknowingly compete with each other for resources and assignments. And that's not even addressing all of the stupid decisions Warner plagued the computer division with like refusing to authorize them to compete in professional/business markets with the likes of the unreleased Atari GAZA workstation which had dual 68000s and a GUI running atop BSD - eat your heart out, NeXTStep/Mac OS X - way back in 1983. Mind you, Atari accounted for 90% of Warner's profits then just as Sony's Playstation division has done for Sony for decades except Sony corporate saved the Playstation division with the success of the PS4 - thanks in part to their lead engineer Mark Cerney who is ex-Atari - after they nearly killed the division with the PS3 due to using it as the anchor to cement Blu-ray into a success. But yeah, let's blame the Tramiels for keeping the lights on at their version of Atari for another 12 years beyond when Warner threw in the towel after they themselves killed the golden goose.
@@TheJeremyHolloway Who said I was blaming the tramiels? Certainly not me... However, when they did take over Atari they were cheap, they didn't advertise, they undercut the dealer network, they released a 16 bit machine in 154 different incarnations all of them basically the same with no expand ability, they wasted years without coming out with the falcon which had a shot of being profitable. They didn't honor warranty work, they bought federated which drained them of cash, they released some amazing products like portfolio and lynx and let them die. At the end they cashed out with a fake deal to a fake hard drive maker. Oh, and Jaguar was not 64 bit and the games were a horror show along with the controller.
I heard Jack walked out after disagreeing on the misuse of company corp jet with Irving who used it for personal reasons and told him it's my way or the highway.
I didn’t even know it existed until i rekindled my love for Atari …. i had a 2600 as a kid and now own a 7800 and a 2600+…… does it take 2600 carts…. or do they have to be xe carts?
You know...I wish someone would talk about those big buttons. You can't really see them because of the glare. What do they do...other than power and reset?
The 4 buttons are Reset, Option, Select, and Start. The same 4 buttons are found on all of Atari's offerings from those days, including the 400/800/600xl/800/xl and the various XEs. Reset and Start are obvious, Option and Select depended on what the game used them for.
@@BurnLikeAFlame Oh man, thank you! I have watched so many videos on this machine hoping for an answer to my question. I have asked for their functions on countless forums, TH-cam videos, and Your Let's Play Livestreams to no avail. I even did a bunch of research on it but I never found the answer. You my friend, have made my weekend.
What atari should,ve done was 1, sell 1 set as a game console by including a light gun and a controller with it and sell it as a game console,and 2, they should,ve include a keyboard,mouse and (thirtparty) diskdrive with it to be able to also sell it as a pc, while on the backside of the pakage they could,ve say in small letters that it is a hybrid system in order to keep people curious and interested with it, Because why did they otherwise included a keyboard and controller with it and sell it as a pc? Also why did they give up so fast on their atari 7800,while still selling the atari 2600 alongside with it?, also i wonder if coleco did sew atari for bringing donkeykong on their atari xe since atari had only the rights to make a pc version of it and not game console versions of it,and selling the atari xe also as a game console would mean that atari did break the rules by using this trick.
About the multiple consoles on the market at the same time, it was the first time encountering this situation for them. The 2600 outlasted several of its main competitors. The 5200 was meant as Intellivision/Colecovision competition but none of those 3 lasted much longer than 1983-84 on the market. They had not encountered the need to cycle down products and cycle up their replacements. Heck the XEGS was basically the same inside as the Atari 800 they launched in 1979, ie they never cycled that product down, just gave it new cases with minor upgrades every now and then. When the 7800 came along the US game market had crashed and the company was going through financial problems. I think by the time of the XEGS, Coleco was out of the gaming market, and it is entirely possibly that Nintendo reclaimed the console rights (as Nintendo did release Donkey Kong and Mario Bros on the NES themselves) Atari, selling the XEGS as console/computer (and it being demonstrably identical to the 65XE internally) likely got around any publishing issues. Plus Nintendo was probably still making a profit from any Donkey Kong and Mario Bros sales on the Ataris.
You are not giving the system's look enough credit. This is a VERY 80s themed look. Compare it to old school Trapper Keepers and Lisa Frank folders, the aesthetic is very similar. Atari did its homework when trying to figure out what would appeal to 80s kids.
I'm surprised, I thought every single comment would mention that mistake. I thought my speakers just happened to cut out the very moment he said the X, but then he kept doing it and it drives me completely bonkers being a die-hard fan of all the XE series.
Nice video! 👍 Good info (hell, I’d watch a video on the infamous Commodore meeting alone - a tidbit you threw in that peaked my interest). Subscribe? …uhh…yes!
Why do you keep saying "E" when referring to the 130 XE and the 65 XE but you say XEGS properly? It's always been produced "X.E." not "EE" or "Zee." Also there's the XEGS package that isn't weird at all, since detachable keyboards were common with PC/XT clones of the time. The XEGS isn't the same 8-bit PC from 1979. It does have more integrated chips in it (i.e. FREDDY) that the XL line didn't have. The old 800 and 400 had many more parts (Glue Logic) that were consolidated into chips to reduce costs for the XL and XE line, and the 800/400 had more joystick ports. So the tech is based on a PC from 1979 that was way ahead of it's time compared to the C64, but it was modernized for more RAM.
A very useful parts system... or at least they were. I bet they are getting really rare these days. FWLWI: I guess the XE was in the same mould as that godawful C=64 derived console thing... but rather better done. Still far too late. I suppose the timely Atari 8 bit-based console was the 5200 - that should have been an easy win but of course Atari utterly stuffed it up.* *Rather than just jamming a somewhat cut down XL motherboard in a console case and calling it good they had to spend a whole load of unnecessary R&D on the darn thing to make it incompatible with the 8 bit machines, worse, too expensive, and with those infamous joysticks. An XE-alike system instead of the 5200 would have been a step in the right direction - hell, at the time they wouldn't have had to bundle a keyboard. That could have been an outrageously expensive 'extra' - "Turn your '5200' in to a full computer for nearly the price of a full computer."
I had a XE which had the same power than the older 800XL.... Atari never get better with the years and they never couldn't compite with the much superior Nintendo
I remember being so psyched to get this computer that I looked at it's brochure and the 9 screenshots it showed for hours at a time, before finally getting one at Christmas of that year. I wish things got me that excited in my adult life.
Same here, U.S. tho, Christmas '88
I just got a 65 XE console, not the XEGS but it played all of the same game cartridges.
I remember doing that with the Sears catalog lol
I got an XEGS for Christmas 2024, and it DID get me that excited as an adult! :D Especially with a Fujinet!!
I believe Tramiel's 8 bit Atari computers were called the 65XE and the 130XE, not the 65e and 130e
I had a 65XE. Poor man's computer. If you had money you bought a Commodore 64 or even a Spectrum. There was more choice of games for those machines than Atari back in the day here in the UK. I hated my 65XE. By that I don't mean the computer was crap just that there wasn't that many games ported to the platform.
@@daviniarobbins9298 Spectrum was the poor man's computer, that is why it was so popular in the UK at the time. Commodore 64 and Atari 65XE were proper computers,it's just that no one made any software for the 65XE.
Yep, I definately upgraded from my first (800XL) to a 130XE because of having so much RAM. Then bought a Sam's book and upgraded it with 256K more RAM than that...
Later I got a secondhand 65XE and was surprised some of my cartridges don't run on it (needed at least 64K).
By the time I got the XEGS for my collection I didn't even care that I have a hard time getting all the pins to work on the keyboard cable since my 130XE+ is better.
Well now I have to watch for the new 130 E or 65 E on eBay I bet those will sell for a million.
@@daviniarobbins9298 Wow, you are not very informed. You clearly weren't looking in the right places for games as I had an Atari 8-bit computer since 1983 and there were no shortage of games. Calling it a poor man's computer speaks more to your perspective and why you didn't just buy a C64 instead is odd. The Atari 8-bit had almost double the clock speed of the competitors at the time and ran non game applications better than Commodore.
For comparison, I purchased my XEGS with a light gun and keyboard with 12 games for $67 US... back in 2009 off of eBay.
Scored my XEGS around 2000 in the ebay early days.
Nice retro gaming piece.
Big issue was XEGS was released too late. Home computing had moved on to 16 or 32 bit (Amiga/Atari ST/PC 286 or 386) by 87-88 in the US, though elsewhere 8 bit machines still sold well due to cost. Even elsewhere, buyers would rather opt for the "real deal" ie C64 or Atari 8 bit computer plusfloppy disk drive, which was the big cost at he time. A lot of overseas markets relied on the cassette through the 80s.
If the XEGS had been released by Christmas 83 or 84, it would have been a bigger hit as a home computer/game combo.
But even by late 83 and certainly 84, the C64 was price reduced and gobble dup by US consumers, and had outstanding video and sound capabilities (for the timeframe and price) with a large game library and home computing apps. The Atari 8 bit computers were price reduced to match by 84-85, so releasing the XEGS in 87 (!?) when the Atari ST was lowering its price every few months, plus the explosion of low cost IBM clones and parts with 12-16Mhz 8086/286 chips, plus lower cost EGA/VGA cards, pretty much made this relase a head scratcher even at the time. I worked at a mom & pop computer store that did good business selling Commodore & Atari 8 and 16 bit machines 1985-1990, while doing my undergrad at U of MIch Engineering school. So I lived it ;)
bought mine in 1996 when i was 11 years old, gave 50 NOK (like $5.5 US) for it from a friend with keyboard, zapper and 5 XEGS games and 4 more XE games since he had gotten an PlayStation for christmas.
things was a bit cheaper back then
I had an Atari 600xl and later Atari 800xl and really enjoyed those systems for the time, from early to late 80s. The metal cartridges they used were super high quality compared to the plastic cartridges that the 2600 used. Games were as close to the arcade as possible for its time. Some great memories growing up and playing these games.
I never owned any Atari product. Except for Atari branded Playstation games. However I used a C64 and other Commodore machines through the entire 1980's. As far as I know, then looking at 8bit machines, then Atari have the best video signal and Commodore had the best sound. Sprites and so on is a totally different story, as all machines have strength's and disadvantages.
The look of the XEGS buttons were inspired by the very popular pastel colors of the 'Miami Vice' era. It matched the XE computer line up. I personally think that it would have been more successful looking the like 2600 Junior and 7800 game systems. The XE can be considered as a variant model to the 600xl/800xl/65xe, 130xe, 800xe and to a lesser extent the 1200xl which were based on the 400/800 computers. The XE cartridges that used 64k would not work on the 400/800 models, but some of them did.
Atari Corp's XE line cosmetically resembled the ST line even though they were part of the Atari 8-bit line. The only aesthetic differences were they had the labeling in "red" for the XE while the ST used "blue", much as Atari Inc had earlier done to distinguish the label coding for the 2600 and 5200. Tramiel's Atari Corp had abandoned the rather Bang & Olafsson (sic) design aesthetic of the Atari 600XL/800XL/1200XL/1400XL/1450XLD and the 2600jr/5200/7800 for their computer lines.
If Atari had released the XE game system instead of the 5200, they probably would have a big success. The games were all ready to go, and the ability to upgrade to a computer would have been a big selling point. However, they should have added a 2nd button to the joystick that would duplicate the space bar. Also, a pause button should have been added to the console to duplicate the P key.
When the 5200 came out, Atari was still owned by Warner Brothers. When the XE came out was right after the Atari ST came out, so the XE line was just a cosmetic change to the 8bit PCs, and Jack Trammel was already running the company.
I came here to say the same thing - this should have just been the 5200.
The XEGS came out nearly 5 years after the 5200 and it was part of a major refresh of the 8 bit computer line. When the 5200 debuted, the 400 and 800 were the 8 bit computers and they'd remain so until the 1984 intro of the failed 1200XL.
@@RagShop1 1200XL came out in early 1983, and then that fall the 600XL and 800XL were released. However, they also intended to release the 1400XL (which would've been the 1200XL's successor), 800XLD and 1450XLD, with the 800XLD and 1450XLD having all of the respective specs of the 800XL and 1400XL along with a built-in disk drive. But the 1983 video game crash, together with Atari's own meager financial outlook caused by the failure of the 2600 E.T. game, caused the 1400XL, 800XLD and 1450XLD to all be scrapped from their release timetable.
@@ClassicTVMan1981X Thanks for the correction on the 1200XL.
As an avid Atari fan; the XEGS is the current crown jewel of my collection. I love the variety of games available, but also admire its versatility as a computer system (I can program BASIC still though, so your mileage may vary).
Great video...please don't stop...do the turbografx...thanks
Damn you showing systems I used to own. My mother bought me the xe back in the late 1980s. I had no other use for it than the included flight simulator with its paper maps. I was forever in love with the genre. I don’t know what I did with the unit later on.
Same exact story here. Flight simulator lol
An awesome little system. I used to hate the way it looks, but love it now.
I remember seeing this machine at Lionel play world when I was a kid. It looked really neat. I asked the guy at the counter why it had no games (quick note: Lionel kept games behind a always staffed counter. Kind of like Toy's R us, but without the ticket system.) And he told me "because, nobody makes any".
A friend of mine had one of these when we were kids. I borrowed it from him and wrote code on it. But my friend didn't own a floppy drive. So I wasn't able to save anything. I had to write all my code down on paper! And of course, I had to leave the power on permanently because I didn't want to keep typing in my code every time I started it up. He eventually asked for it back and it was a sad day for me. It was the first computer I was able to code on at home before we got our first computer... a shiny PC-compatible 286 with 1 MB of RAM and 86 MB hard drive! A 1 MB stick of RAM cost $100 at the time. It wasn't cheap, but it was an impressive upgrade at the time.
Did you not have a cassette recorder? XC12 I think it was called. I know it didn't come as standard with the XE.
@@daviniarobbins9298 No... it wasn't mine and he only had it for games.
Dude, I love that story.
@@TimePilot2084 Thanks! Glad it brought you some joy. :-)
These where cheap as chips a few years ago, and now they are highly sought after collectibles. :P
More like 10 years ago. That is 1/8'th of a human life, generally speaking. But then again, fair enough if that is a few years.
@Karl Burnett Why do you ask if I am a robot? I seem to not make any connection to anything, that would give me an answer, to why you ask that!
@Karl Burnett I do not like green bannanas. They taste of nothing.
I had one when I was a youngins,,it stayed brand-new because I never knew how to use the thing, it was boring...
@Karl Burnett Dude... You are talking trash. If it is a joke it is not even funny. There is no logic in what you say. So basically, you caught me on what?
I had one many years ago. I regret sellling it. It was very nice. I had a lot of great games !!!!
They are not that expensive. Time to go get one and a muticart.
The XE Game System was released in 1987. It was never meant to "beat Nintendo". It was meant to appeal to families who wanted a newer game system - replacing their "old" 2600, Intellivision, or Colecovision - that was also a computer since so many parents were convinced their kids needed a computer to become successful adults. It was the retailers who told Atari at the time that they didn't want to carry the 65XE - you totally failed to include the "X" in their names - computer but would carry a computer that was also a game system. Similarly, the Atari 8-bit computer line needed new users and 3rd Party software publishers were abandoning the platform over alleged "rampant piracy" amongst Atari 8-bit users [never mind that the Commodore 64's piracy rate amongst its user base dwarfed what was amongst the Atari 8-bit community] so with those two challenges nipping at them, Atari Corp brought out the XE Game System and shifted a lot of games over to the cartridge format which was slightly harder to pirate back then than disk-based games. You claim Atari didn't bring out a specific disk drive for the XE Game System yet the XF551 disk drive was meant for all Atari XE computers which included the XE Game System. You state the Atari ST needed to be a success before the XE computers could be released yet the 65XE and 130XE were released in 1985 first before the Atari 520ST made it to store shelves later that year. You mention the XE Game System was packed with "Bug Hunt", which it was, but it also had "Missile Command" built in. You claim the XE Game System was targeted at the NES when it wasn't; the 7800 was. You claim it was meant to break Nintendo's lock on the market when it wasn't and the 7800 was released in early 1986 which was before Nintendo had a de facto monopoly on the industry. What Nintendo had was 3rd Party Developers locked into exclusive agreements which kept their titles from appearing on the Atari 7800 and later the Sega Master System for 2 years after debuting on the NES and then Nintendo would still try to intimidate them by shorting their cartridge orders - since every licensed cartridge for the NES had to be manufactured at a profit by Nintendo right out the door - if their titles appeared elsewhere. The only way around that with the XE Game System was for those 3rd Party companies to release their titles on disk/cartridge/cassette for the "Atari 8-bit computers" with a wink if they were interested and were also willing to possibly provoke Nintendo while also releasing them for other computers like the IBM PC, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64/128, Apple Mac, and/or the Apple II. Those 3rd Party Developers couldn't do that with the 7800 since it was a game system and didn't have a computer platform to fall back upon. The 7800 was originally intended to be released for Christmas 1984 but was delayed by Warner's sale of Atari Consumer to Jack Tramiel while also getting into a massive dispute with its designer, GCC, over royalties and other matters which weren't settled until August 1985; it had nothing to do with Nintendo. You act like it was bewildering why Atari Corp would market the 2600, 7800, and XE Game System all at once when it was clear that the 2600 was for the low end for budget consumers, the 7800 for the advanced gamers, and the XE Game System again appealing to parents who wanted a computer and a game system for their kids. The joystick and keyboard ports on the XE Game System aren't weird or inconvenient; them being angular - similar to the design on the earlier 1200XL - is a better design than having them stick out straight from the sides of the case and then the cables bending for actual use. Sticking them on the front of the console would've interfered with the keyboard. And the CX40 joystick wasn't released with the 2600 VCS in 1977. They are cost reduced updates to the original CX10 joystick from 1977 which were the 2600's original pack-in joysticks. The CX40 was released in 1979. Also of note, Commodore basically had bankrupted MOS by refusing to pay them for the 6502s they had received in 1976 and then bought out the company to gain control of it and cancel Commodore's debt. MOS had approached Atari to save them from Commodore but Warner said "no" and Atari settled on ordering 50k 6507s from MOS in exchange for a perpetual license to the 6502 and the right to have it - and the supporting chipset - manufactured for them by other companies such as Synertek and Rockwell. Commodore took over MOS so Jack Tramiel could have a vertically integrated company so chip companies couldn't drive them into near bankruptcy like TI had nearly done to Commodore during the earlier pocket calculator war earlier in the 1970s that TI had won. The Commodore 64 price war in the early 1980s that drove TI and others out of the home computer industry was due to Jack Tramiel's goal of getting revenge on TI.
Great corrective commentary, spot on for those of us 80s tech geeks who lived through it. Yes, the XE 8 bits hit the streets before the ST.
However, in the defense of the video host, Atari's marketing and business planning from 1985 onwards were highly troublesome.
Too much overlap and redundancy among the XE computers, XEGS, 2600, 7800, whith just the same games across them all. While the 2600 Jr was an interesting low cost option for frugal buyers just wanting to play games, by the late 80's, most home buyers in the US wanted a computer of some type, especially something compatible with their "Computers at work", which were most likely IBM PC's or compatibles.
Even if they couldn't afford an IBM or workable clone (Clones were notoriously incompatible or low quality through the 80s, taking off and achieving widespread compatibility in the 90s), the perception was that any computer would be better than none "for the kids" as you point out, and at minimum for word processing and basic data tasks, while playing games was a bonus on all computers.
The initial plan for the ST was that it be the serious/business oriented computer, and through 1987 or so, Atari kept to this idea- the first consumer priced laser printer for the ST, emphasis on desktop publishing capabilities, the 1040ST with 1MB for under $1K, the MegaST, the MegaSTe, pro musicians and the ST for MIDI/music,etc.
But by 1988 or so, STs were showing up at Toys R Us! This degraded their perception as "professional", though in hindsight it probably didn't make a big difference given the progress of Microsoft/DOS/Windows and the PC x86 world, plus the down marketing of the Amiga 500 through similar chains, etc. By 1991-92, considering anything other than an x86 (or maybe a Mac) was the only wise choice. I was very anti x86 through the entire 80s, doing only the 68000 machines (Mac/ST/Amiga). But I finally relented and assembled my first 286 from parts purchased out of Computer Shopper by 1991 or so
@@geraldford6409 Valid points but the Atari 520ST, the SF354 disc drive, and the SC1224 color monitor were all sold at Toys R Us before Christmas in 1985. They were later pulled as Atari Corp expanded the ST dealer network after the 1040STf was released and garnered attention over its revolutionary price.
@@TheJeremyHolloway The ST may have come and gone and come back from the TRU/Children's Palace's of the 80's. I think Atari then decided to make the MEgaST/STe/TT the "Computer Store" pro versions, and the 520STfm the mass market TRU/Monkey Wards version. I recall seeing the Amiga's (500 maybe others) at Wards around 1990, but not sure about the ST elsewhere. The ST did well here in SE MIchigan at Mom & Pop Computer stores (some had more than one location, ie a local chain), where they could upsell customers with printer bundles & software, swap out aftermarket monitors or joysticks, and provide a little training and after sell follow-up, often resulting in repeat and add on sales. SOme Mom & POps only did COmmodore, some only Atari, some both, and most moved on to PC Clones by 1990.
I had one growing up. Parent's got it one Christmas when I was like 4, only remember playing it a few times though. Kept it in a dresser drawer for over a decade before the family tossed it out when we moved. I had bug hunt, pac man, donkey kong, and there was another game too, a flight game I want to say.
According to the advertisement, the XE came with Flight Simulator 2, so that's probably what you're thinking of.
XEGS is beautiful. Bright pastel colors just screams 90's
70s tech repackaged
It’s ok, but I still love the black and silver phase of the XL and 5200.
We had a dedicated retail store just for this console/computer. I would always walk slower to the bus stop so we would miss the bus and I then could go into the store to look around. My mother never caught on.
So, I used to have one of those. It was actually difficult to find games for that, but the one I found was really good. I had great fun, but then I got a Sega master System
I remember my mom got me this back in the day, my first computer.
There’s nothing better when you find a channel out of the blue and you watch a video and you’re like damn that’s good and then you end up binge watching the whole freaking channel
Great review. I’m in my 40’s and never even heard of this Atari system.
Same here. I remember they went into computers instead of gaming systems... until the Jaguar ?
@@waltberger7885 yeah Atari split in 84, computer/home (2600/5200/7800), Trammell got that, arcade stayed with Warner.
Trammell was head of commodore 8bit computers, similar to what was to become the XE.
Atari kept their focus on the computer world because post video game crash, the mkt looked to be low priced computers.
Atari spent nothing on development of another home game system till early 90s that lead to them missing the 16 bit world of the early 90s, they had a hand-held (lynx) that they didn't develope just distributed.
By the time they jumped back into home mkt, with Jaguar, they truely had no idea how to get it in homes, distribution was to low, for their 94 launch, they never had enough to get to Europe (a country where their name wasn't mud), then they took 2 years to get more than 8 games out, they didn't understand how important video game magazines were, and they had no clue the price of mkt had sky rocketed, along with the need for triple AAA titles that had to be available day 1.
Sony figured all this out and stopped Atari out of existence destroyed 3d0, cdi, neo geo, then killed Sega by the time ps2 had arrived.
I had this system when I was younger. I remember playing bug hunt and the flight simulator. Games were already hard to find and using it as a computer when ten years old was impossible. I believe it had basic, or some derivation. There were no manuals or easy to follow directions on how to program.
I never heard of this and I owned all Atari consoles up to Jaguar.
I had (not all at once) an Atari 400, 800, 600XL, 130XE, 520ST and Mega 2 ST. My favorite game was Star Raiders.
It's kind of funny that the ad had an Atari XE with the case looking yellow. It was already aged by then.
I got one of these in 88 or 89... absolutely loved it. Only problem was that all the games advertised on the rear of the box were never available were I lived in the uk. Had to buy a second hand cassette player and loads of game cassettes.
By 1988 we had switched for 2 years to 16bit , i had amiga 500 and Atari st then , my 8 bit stuf left untouched ,that was yesterdays tech in 1988
Bought an XEGS about 5yrs ago. Really cool Computer/Console hybrid.
I think it looks awesome! The buttons remind me of Easter though. Butt that's not a bad thing.
I am 50 and the Atari was one of my families intro to games( Telstar the first game console and the TRS-80 computer) and I never heard of this version ever.. wow.. I love the design of it, but the button colors have an issue with me..
See? The damnable button colors ruin an otherwise kind-of pleasing design.
Okay, the gray joystick sold me.
I liked my Atari XE as a child, it had Missile Command built onto the motherboard. I just had to hold the power button down while powering up to launch that ROM.
LOL, "Take the 65E computer and put it into a new ....aaaaaaaa.... Let's say ........ INTERESTING CASE" Love the pastel buttons. there was just something about the '80s and pastels. Really miss that. Also liked the DO IT! DO IT! at the end.
it looks like a make up vanity mirror with buttons that control the brightness settings my mom had in the 80's anyone else see those things?
Duuuuu-UUUUUde! You nailed it. I couldn't quite place the connection its appearance made in my brain with something else, but THAT'S totally it. Well done!
Back when it was on shelves @ hills stores, I didn’t dig the pastel color buttons. I already had an 800xl so was just something I took a brief look at when it was selling. No one I know bought one.
My dad gave me this years ago when everyone had a NES. I was excited because it also was a computer and had very nice looking games. I spent a whole afternoon typing a long program that said "pink monster moves across the screen". After hours of typing and fixing typos, I was ready to run it... and it was underwhelming. That was the last time I tried any program on it.
The word you're searching for is "striking." Its looks are striking.
the ST was typically sold in smaller computer stores and the XE's and old game systems could be found at big stores like Sears
I heard a slightly different motivation for Atari to make the XEGS. They had a warehouse full of components, already paid for, to build 65XE computers. Also, a large stock of games. Problem was, the sales of the 65XE and 130XE were in rapid decline. The XEGS was more about clearing their warehouses and saving them from another massive burial of unsold stock than it was thinking this archaic computer could catch the NES. But with all things Atari, it's hard to tell fact from fiction.
When looking at computer history. Jack have done more than Jobs would ever do. Jack is like 10 times bigger than Jobs.
Not really but sorta kinda except for idk the last 3/4 of Jobs career, id compare Jack more to like Clive Sinclair or lol Alan Sugar
@@sunnohh You forget the fact, that all Jobs was able to do in life, was to think visions and sell. Jobs did not invent or create anything.
@@brostenen Here, as opposed to above, where you deny the hilarity of your exchange with another user, I completely agree with you. However, you still must admit to the fact that without Mr. Jobs, many things we now enjoy wouldn't have been possible. He served an important purpose, but was not the technological whiz he seemed to occasionally suggest in lectures.
@@TimePilot2084 Yes. He served a job at making other people do what he wanted. The point I wanted to make, is that jobs did not invent the actual stuff. He sure did take credit for it. The heroes of the computer revolution, are all the engineers. That is the point I want to make. Very few people that were not engineers, are heroes as well. That includes Tramiel, as he did the right thing of selling to the masses and not the classes.
Aside from the insane idea of selling essentially a 1979 computer in a new box to compete with what was your NES competitor at the time in the 7800- It only highlighted the flaws in both systems.
The graphics on the 7800 were somewhat improved, but the XE sound was superior due to the baffling decision to include only the 2600 sound chip on board of the 7800.
It’s hard to argue “invest in our next gen systems” when they’re both so ultimately half assed
It is insane but, it sold up alot of old stock they had laying around, they were somehow masters of catalog sales, as it costed them little, and catalog customers are not as savvy customers.
Atari was able to somehow make huge profits, basically riding on the coattails of nes, being very popular, since they didn't have to advertise, they just went with we are cheaper to buy games...
Nothing looks aesthetically like the XE-GS as much as they first season of Star Trek the Next Generation
As far as sales numbers for the XE, I had two of them. So.. at least two.
I wanted an ST, but this was better than nothing. I wrote soooooooo many BASIC programs.
PS: Ballblazer is best game.
I had this baby. When my father bought it, the shopper told him this was better than Nintendo and it would make me learn programming in Basic. Even so, while I was disapointed for not having a NES, I loved this console. Now, I am a Computer Engineer LOL
My first computer was an Atari 65XE and loved it. I sitll have my Star Raiders game and Pac-Man game too.
I actually think it looks way better than the Nintendo entertainment system, which was a pretty ugly machine
They made the nes look like they on purpose but japans version looks much better
The XE sold 25000 units, every single unit produced. I had one in 87. The thing I did most was either Wing Commander I think it was called, and running programs. It served to inspire me to go on to become a programmer and web builder.
Looking back, I really wish I (or my parents, since I was still a kid) would have gotten a computer in the early/mid 80s. I probably would have gotten into programming and become quite the tech-nerd. In reality, I didn't get a computer until the late 90s, and no longer being a kid, didn't really have the time to spend learning programming. Not claiming my parents ruined my life by not getting me a computer when I was young, but since I did go into a technical field, my lack of computer know-how has been somewhat of an issue. I often get comments from my younger coworkers, "You could fix that by just writing some code... Oh yeah, sorry."
@@ressljs yeah man. I remember my first REAL PC. A Packard Bell 386sx. Had a 16mghz processor with a 4mghz "turbo" button lol. 100 MB HDD. and I think 8 MB of RAM. a 5.25 floppy and a 3.5 floppy. I was the first geek on my street with a new fangle little floppy drive. They weren't even floppy lol. I ran my WWIV bulletin board service, called The tea room of despair. It was run off of my 1200 baud rate modem. Only at night, so my parents wouldn't bitch about not being able to use the phone or ever getting phone calls during the day lmao
@@ressljs but the XE was what started it all. It was really a great system. I had flight simulator on that thing. Granite had the graphics prowess of a Texas instruments TI-84 lol but you could get the chest and it was still fun.
@@ressljs on a side note, that computer cost me $600. And the salesman promised us it was the last PC we would ever need period lmmfao
Bought one on eBay 20+ years ago
Nice retro gaming and retro computing collectible.
Atari was all over the map post 1985, with too many redundant products in the 8 bit space.
One could argue the ho.e computer arena was moving to 16 bit post 1985, but the reality is for most people in north America 85-92, 8 bit computers and pcs were fine, whether 8086 or 6502.
While I went all in on the Atari ST fall 85 through 1990, transitioning to 286+ post 1990, the Atari 8 bit xl/xe line and c64/128 plus 8086 clones and Apple II and clones are where most homes went in that period.
Once 386sx/486 were cost reduced circa 94-95, it was over for anything other than x86 in north America.
But for that 85-92 period, Atari should have omitted the 7800 and concentrated on the Xe computers and xegs, all on the low end, with the st line for the high end.
Instead, consumers who bought into the 5200 felt abandoned, then ripped off as Atari double, triple, quad dipped with the functionally identical xegs, xe computer line and 7800. Yes, the 7800 had some interesting new graphics tech over the 5200/8bit xe, but actually worse sound, with basically the same tired late 70s, early 80s arcade ports
Then Atari milked the 2600 into the 90s with the 2600jr instead of innovating faster on the ST, TT, Jaguar, etc.
Atari under Tramiel had so much leftover 2600, 7800, and XEGS game inventory left from Warner days. That is why it was trying push all of them. Nothing for them to lose. They got free profit by selling this inventory.
I still have my Atari 400 and my Atari 800XL which I actually use both to this very day. I had considered getting the Atari XE Game System but I couldn't find it in any of my local hometown electronics stores. I did get myself a Nintendo NES so that I could play light gun game like Duck Hunt, but if my Atari 800XL could play light gun games using the XEGS light gun than I would get its light gun at least.
5:03 Say what you will about the console design itself (and I share your confusion), but that is easily one of the coolest light guns ever released. Looks straight out of Buck Rogers or some 80s anime.
That said, I disagree about the controller/keyboard ports. That's very clever design, given that they couldn't have the ports in front because then it couldn't dock with the keyboard. The angle means the cords stay underneath the upper rim, and are partially hidden, as well as ensuring that the wires weren't compressed if the console was up against a wall or beside another device. Aside from the practical concerns, this would have given it a sleeker look in operation, compared to most other consoles or TV-based computers of the time.
It's funny how the simple things used to amuse us more. I had a bunch of different consoles growing up, but I always wanted an XE simply because of the slanted cartridge slot.
Technically, the XE was ahead of it's time. I am sure software, OS's, disk drives, RAM upgrades, etc., would have come a little later in it's lifespan if it was allowed to mature. Towards the end of it's useful life as a game console, it could have been a great 8-bit general-purpose computer.
These are cool with their detached keyboard. Its like a hybrid of many devices and its cool for that.
If only Jay Miner (who also had a history with both Atari and Commodore) had went with Jack and took his Amiga to Atari also
Jay Miner was basically the father of the Atari 8-bit computer chipset which was used in the 400/800/XL/XE computers, the XE Game System, and the 5200. Before that, he was responsible for the TIA graphics and sound chip in the 2600. He left Atari Inc in 1979 because he wanted to immediately build a 68000 based computer right after Motorola released that CPU but Atari's management said "no" because the 400 and 800 had just been released and they needed to make them a success first. His ideas for the Amiga were drafted back then right before he left Atari Inc. Years later, when his Amiga Corp hit financial problems finishing up the Amiga Lorraine chipset, they went to Atari Inc for funding. Atari wanted the chipset for future game systems and computers, or at least the option to use them. The contract stated Atari could release it as a console system first and one year later, release a keyboard for it as well as stand-alone computers. But if Amiga couldn't pay back the $500k loan, then Atari would own the tech and the company too. Amiga was prohibited from selling themselves to Apple, Coleco, Commodore, IBM, and TI, yet Amiga sold themselves to Commodore, Commodore provided them the funding to pay back Atari the $500k, and then their CEO went over to Atari Inc, falsely claimed the chipset didn't work, and tried to return the $500k via check which Atari Inc never cashed. That was all before Jack Tramiel's TTL company bought the assets of Atari Inc's Consumer Division - from Warner Communications, later Time Warner and currently AT&T's subsidiary renamed WarnerMedia - and renamed themselves Atari Corp. Commodore was already suing TTL for alleged IP since so many Commodore employees quit and went to work with Tramiel's TTL/Atari Corp after he quit Commodore. When his son Leonard Tramiel discovered the Amiga contract and the check, they asked Warner to pass along all rights and legalities to them so then Atari Corp counter-sued Commodore over the Amiga debacle. The lawsuit delayed the release of both the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga since the courts ordered each company to halt work on their systems at different times. The ST was released first. Before TTL bought "Atari", they toured Amiga Corp's HQ and were shown the Amiga Lorraine but Amiga decided not to sell themselves to Jack after he supposedly said he'd buy their company but had no need for the employees. But again, Amiga defrauded the original Atari Inc before the Tramiels became involved with it. So...
@@TheJeremyHolloway TheGrimReaper is that you? LoL
;)
Shame Jay Miners name has been kept quiet all these years... his vision was excellent.
Imagine that the new Atari Amiga 1, excellent sound and graphics. With multitasking
Anyway I heard Amiga needed money to finish off the computer, Atari loaned them $1 million and 30 days to pay back, if they couldn't then they would buy Amiga on the cheap.
Those colorful buttons always reminded me of candy.
This guy is pretty cool. Great video.
I find it funny that the commercials called the NES a toy, yet the pastel buttons made the XEGS look like even more of a toy than both the "toaster" and top-loader NES models ever did.
Still, the XEGS is probably what the 5200 should have been (classic Atari controller instead of a "trying-too-hard-to-be-like-Intellivision" controller that barely workerd, and compact size rather than ginormous VCR size)
Greatest intro ever
I remember when these where in the Sears Christmas Wishbooks & Sears Catalogs. I think Atari's Downfall at the time they wasn't in Wal-Mart or Kmart Stores. You had to go to Kaybee Toys, Circus World Toys, Toys R Us, or Sears to find Atari stuff in the late 80's. Wal-Mart & Kmart in the late 80's making to much off of Sega & NES to market Atari Stuff.
I saw one of these Atari GS in a thrift store going for 10 bucks not long ago. I declined to buy it as it was fairly yellowed and some keys were missing from the keyboard, but otherwise functioned. I have my 130XE and it suffices for my 8 bit needs. Now I kind of regret not picking it up. I hope however got it does it justice and fully restores it.
Its so very 80s. Look at the pastel buttons.
I had the XE with the gun and flight simulator!…I loved that thing although it would get kinda boring really quick!…but it was a beautiful design tho!…I’d love to add one to my console collection
You got a great deal on that xegs
It looks so Far Ahead of it’s Time in the 80s I love it
"65e" you say? "130e"? Where do you get this stuff? Same place as 6502 being compatible with the 6800 as stated in the 2600 video? Did you not look at the picture of the XE computer that you showed at 3:52?
As for the "Board Meeting" where Jack Tramiel quit, look at the video "Bil Herd and Leonard Tramiel at CommVEx v11 2015". I think this story has been retold elsewhere in another interview, but Leonard tells us that Jack quit at CES. Could he be telling lies? I choose to believe him and the argument over the use of the corporate jet. Probably never going to get everyone to agree on what happened, but what it really comes down to is who is the best and most reliable source(s)? Do the people in the board room even know what transpired between Jack and Irving previously?
I noticed the 65 "E" and 130 'E" mistake as well. Not to mention, that they MAY have INTENDED to sell the XEGS without the keyboard as a 'core' video game system, but that never happened. Every XEGS came with a keyboard.
I had one of these as a kid, it died when I accidentally left flight sim running over night.
It's not a failure because it's just another member of the quite succesful Atari 8 bit computer family. It's only a flop as a game console, because it was too late to the market, and again, it's more a home computer, in the same way that the Famicom was a huge success as a console, and a flop as a home computer.
I didnt realise it came after the ST. I guess the ST was still expensive at that point. I do remember seeing the 2600 for sale well after it should have been and wondering why and i was a kid back then.
“But this time, it’s gray.” Ooooowweeeeeee. 😂
My buddy had one. I love playing flight simulator on it.
They had a good ad campaign I remember being pretty blown away by it, Though I remember my dad said it was a piece of crap. He was bent out of shape because I was not into the IBM PC he spent so much money on. At that time IBM PC's were boring as hell for most kids.
The XEGS has a distinctly late 80s pastel look.
I still have one. Still works
Have you ever used an Atari XEGS? Do you think it's a system worth adding to your collection?
very poorly made it broke within a week.
Still use mine. My daughter and I love playing Frogger on it.
It's an oddity for sure, games on ebay go from cheap to expensive
Most games are slightly better than NES games so if your looking for a system that can deliver 80s arcade games and early NES games, also old computer games, then yes.
I bought one around 2010, I like the convenience of composite out. Used my XEGS to test an Atari 8bit computer line homebrew game, Adventure II XE, which was finally published around 2020. I made the game's title screen joystick-driven, and the game's controls to only use the function buttons, to accommodate XEGS players who didn't have the keyboard attachment. :) Thanks for the show!
I bought the white atari xe system and i really can’t wait to get it,because it’s an AWESOME timeless looking machine, it makes me actually wonder, WHY didn’t atari developed and released the atari xe in 1982 instead??? Because i guess it would,ve sold much better at the time while maintaining compatibility with atari 800 games, the only reason i think why atari came up with the 5200 instead was because maybe their were afraid to be otherwise getting sewed by other companies for cheating for turning a computer into a game console, what do you think?
I got one off eBay about 15 years ago when I still had a crt tv set. I could never get the light gun to work when playing Bughunt. Sometimes it would work other times not. I would be firing the gun at the tv being pretty sure I was aiming it right and nothing happened. I even had the gun touching the screen virtually and nothing. Pretty sure the gun was not faulty. I gave up on it.
When you add in budget cassette games there are probably thousands to choose from if you don't mind waiting 30 minutes to play them and don't mind the odd loading error. Mastertronic £1.99 and £2.99 games were fun.
Speaking of the light gun why bother with R&D and then only release a couple of games for it? Seems like a waste of time and money. Was Atari trying to keep up with the Jones'?
Oh, that CX-40 joystick wasn't the 1977 launch edition (heavy sixer) joystick. That would be the CX-10. Wasn't that mentioned in the 2600 video you did?
The technology goes back to 1978/1979 as it is almost a clone of the original atari 8-bit computers, 800/400 without keyboard. By the time it was released it was (1987) not (1984) it was really outdated as the tech was 8-9 years old.
Yep, if Atari had launched this when 'then' competitor Coleco launched the Adam (even though that eventually flopped hard) it would have been a different story. The 5200 could have been this, the 5200 was an 800 under the skin.
@@lazarushernandez5827 The purchase of Atari by Tramiel destroyed a lot of what if's as Atari had many exciting and innovative machines ready to be released. Tramiel cancelled all of them.
@@mikewest6569 Tramiel had gambled when he purchased Atari Inc's Consumer Division's assets and had to take on most of its debt in the process. He had to release what would be profitable. If you want to blame anyone, blame Warner's managers at Atari Inc who ruined the company. Let's have a run down. In 1978 and 79, they wouldn't listen to Nolan Bushnell who wanted to discontinue the VCS/2600 in favor of its successor which was the Atari 8-bit's chipset. He wanted the more powerful chips in a replacement console on the market asap so Atari would pre-emptively beat their competitors. Warner said "no". Warner's pick to run Atari [while sidelining Nolan] was Ray Kassar and he wanted that chipset used in a computer line so that they could earn a profit margin like Apple was doing with the Apple II. After Kassar and Warner's Manny Gerald made the 2600 a success by cost-reducing it and licensing Space Invaders, their folks in marketing kept resisting replacing the 2600. Flash forward to Tod Frye coding Pac-Man for the 2600. He wanted 8K for the ROM but management only would allow 4K. Warner's management bloated Atari with middle managers who proceeded to waste money on coke and expensive office furniture. Warner's managers refused to listen to Atari's engineers on the 5200 who wanted it backwards compatible with the 2600 and advocated for not releasing the console until the analog joysticks self-centered. Warner didn't listen and released the console anyway. When it wasn't the success they demanded, they blamed Atari's engineers for it and only listened to input from the GCC company who conspired to kill off the 5200 in favor of what became the 7800 which they hoped to massively profit from through royalties. Warner's CEO Steve Ross was hellbent on luring Steven Spielberg away from MCA Universal over to Warner Bros Pictures so he decided to force Atari to pay him $25 million for the exclusive video game rights to E.T. and then it was up to Howard Scott Warshaw to somehow create and finish that game before Christmas - and only with 4K - on the 2600. And we know how that ended up. Warner never could get their own WEA division to handle Atari's distribution - WEA refused for years - so Atari was beholden to shady independent distributors who didn't have accurate sales numbers and then Warner/Atari had the brilliant idea to have all of the distributors and chains order everything months in advance for Christmas 1982 which ended up with the market glut which contributed to the industry crash. When Warner licensed arcade titles on behalf of Atari from other companies, they failed to secure the source code so Atari's console and computer programmers had to use the arcade cabinets - which sometimes they had to buy because Warner would often fail to have the companies provide them with arcade cabinets to borrow - and become familiar enough with the game that they could recreate their elements. Warner failed to open up their planned $500 million Atari campus - in 1981 dollars - that would've consolidated all of Atari's operations and instead the company was spread out all over the Bay Area in 85 different buildings so groups would unknowingly compete with each other for resources and assignments. And that's not even addressing all of the stupid decisions Warner plagued the computer division with like refusing to authorize them to compete in professional/business markets with the likes of the unreleased Atari GAZA workstation which had dual 68000s and a GUI running atop BSD - eat your heart out, NeXTStep/Mac OS X - way back in 1983. Mind you, Atari accounted for 90% of Warner's profits then just as Sony's Playstation division has done for Sony for decades except Sony corporate saved the Playstation division with the success of the PS4 - thanks in part to their lead engineer Mark Cerney who is ex-Atari - after they nearly killed the division with the PS3 due to using it as the anchor to cement Blu-ray into a success. But yeah, let's blame the Tramiels for keeping the lights on at their version of Atari for another 12 years beyond when Warner threw in the towel after they themselves killed the golden goose.
@@TheJeremyHolloway Who said I was blaming the tramiels? Certainly not me... However, when they did take over Atari they were cheap, they didn't advertise, they undercut the dealer network, they released a 16 bit machine in 154 different incarnations all of them basically the same with no expand ability, they wasted years without coming out with the falcon which had a shot of being profitable. They didn't honor warranty work, they bought federated which drained them of cash, they released some amazing products like portfolio and lynx and let them die. At the end they cashed out with a fake deal to a fake hard drive maker. Oh, and Jaguar was not 64 bit and the games were a horror show along with the controller.
I heard Jack walked out after disagreeing on the misuse of company corp jet with Irving who used it for personal reasons and told him it's my way or the highway.
I thank it looks cool as a gaming system for it's time.
It's haunting how the VCS is similiar to this. It's like it's grandfather lol
They would have sold more consoles if it wasn't for those pastel buttons.
I didn’t even know it existed until i rekindled my love for Atari …. i had a 2600 as a kid and now own a 7800 and a 2600+…… does it take 2600 carts…. or do they have to be xe carts?
Aesthetics: 5/5 ...it's adorable.
You know...I wish someone would talk about those big buttons. You can't really see them because of the glare. What do they do...other than power and reset?
The 4 buttons are Reset, Option, Select, and Start. The same 4 buttons are found on all of Atari's offerings from those days, including the 400/800/600xl/800/xl and the various XEs. Reset and Start are obvious, Option and Select depended on what the game used them for.
@@BurnLikeAFlame
Oh man, thank you! I have watched so many videos on this machine hoping for an answer to my question. I have asked for their functions on countless forums, TH-cam videos, and Your Let's Play Livestreams to no avail. I even did a bunch of research on it but I never found the answer. You my friend, have made my weekend.
What atari should,ve done was 1, sell 1 set as a game console by including a light gun and a controller with it and sell it as a game console,and 2, they should,ve include a keyboard,mouse and (thirtparty) diskdrive with it to be able to also sell it as a pc, while on the backside of the pakage they could,ve say in small letters that it is a hybrid system in order to keep people curious and interested with it,
Because why did they otherwise included a keyboard and controller with it and sell it as a pc?
Also why did they give up so fast on their atari 7800,while still selling the atari 2600 alongside with it?, also i wonder if coleco did sew atari for bringing donkeykong on their atari xe since atari had only the rights to make a pc version of it and not game console versions of it,and selling the atari xe also as a game console would mean that atari did break the rules by using this trick.
About the multiple consoles on the market at the same time, it was the first time encountering this situation for them. The 2600 outlasted several of its main competitors. The 5200 was meant as Intellivision/Colecovision competition but none of those 3 lasted much longer than 1983-84 on the market.
They had not encountered the need to cycle down products and cycle up their replacements. Heck the XEGS was basically the same inside as the Atari 800 they launched in 1979, ie they never cycled that product down, just gave it new cases with minor upgrades every now and then. When the 7800 came along the US game market had crashed and the company was going through financial problems.
I think by the time of the XEGS, Coleco was out of the gaming market, and it is entirely possibly that Nintendo reclaimed the console rights (as Nintendo did release Donkey Kong and Mario Bros on the NES themselves) Atari, selling the XEGS as console/computer (and it being demonstrably identical to the 65XE internally) likely got around any publishing issues. Plus Nintendo was probably still making a profit from any Donkey Kong and Mario Bros sales on the Ataris.
I remember choosing this over an NES.
I love the Easter egg buttons!
You are not giving the system's look enough credit. This is a VERY 80s themed look. Compare it to old school Trapper Keepers and Lisa Frank folders, the aesthetic is very similar. Atari did its homework when trying to figure out what would appeal to 80s kids.
Is he saying 130E? 65E? Am i hearing that right?
I'm surprised, I thought every single comment would mention that mistake. I thought my speakers just happened to cut out the very moment he said the X, but then he kept doing it and it drives me completely bonkers being a die-hard fan of all the XE series.
Nice video! 👍 Good info (hell, I’d watch a video on the infamous Commodore meeting alone - a tidbit you threw in that peaked my interest).
Subscribe? …uhh…yes!
Would've been nice if you could play 2600 7800 games on it too
Downvoted at the fourth "or is it".
Dude, I was like, "WTF" I hit the scan to move up angrily.
Why do you keep saying "E" when referring to the 130 XE and the 65 XE but you say XEGS properly? It's always been produced "X.E." not "EE" or "Zee." Also there's the XEGS package that isn't weird at all, since detachable keyboards were common with PC/XT clones of the time.
The XEGS isn't the same 8-bit PC from 1979. It does have more integrated chips in it (i.e. FREDDY) that the XL line didn't have. The old 800 and 400 had many more parts (Glue Logic) that were consolidated into chips to reduce costs for the XL and XE line, and the 800/400 had more joystick ports. So the tech is based on a PC from 1979 that was way ahead of it's time compared to the C64, but it was modernized for more RAM.
A very useful parts system... or at least they were. I bet they are getting really rare these days.
FWLWI: I guess the XE was in the same mould as that godawful C=64 derived console thing... but rather better done. Still far too late. I suppose the timely Atari 8 bit-based console was the 5200 - that should have been an easy win but of course Atari utterly stuffed it up.*
*Rather than just jamming a somewhat cut down XL motherboard in a console case and calling it good they had to spend a whole load of unnecessary R&D on the darn thing to make it incompatible with the 8 bit machines, worse, too expensive, and with those infamous joysticks. An XE-alike system instead of the 5200 would have been a step in the right direction - hell, at the time they wouldn't have had to bundle a keyboard. That could have been an outrageously expensive 'extra' - "Turn your '5200' in to a full computer for nearly the price of a full computer."
Best looking games console EVER.
I had a XE which had the same power than the older 800XL.... Atari never get better with the years and they never couldn't compite with the much superior Nintendo
The top button on your shirt is cutting off your oxygen.
A very interesting technical oddity, with its pastel color buttons on top of flat gray! Not necessarily very ugly but not very beautiful either. 🙄
what dose the big ass help button do ?
other than some thing extra to push down
it was a typo hiccup
Dose??? Bug ass? Are you high?