Rare Atari 8-Bit XE Computers at Vintage Computer Festival VCF East
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- Bill Lange shows us his exhibit of Rare Atari 8-Bit XE Computers at Vintage Computer Festival East. Bill's collection includes an Arabic 65XE "Star", an 800XE from Eastern Europe, a Hebrew Atari 600XL, Atari XF351 3.5" floppy drive, a multi-joy 8 joystick controller, and an SDriveMAX Arduino floppy drive emulator. This is the first of 3 videos in our "Virtual VCF East" series. VCF East was scheduled for this weekend, but has been postponed until October 10-12, 2020 due to COVID-19. We hope these videos fill the VCF void and you don't mind the brief pause in Amiga videos.
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Music:
Homunculi by AceMan / Agenda ^ Dreamweb ^ HUGE LOAD ^ Resistance
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#atari #vintagecomputer #retrogamer - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
As a 10 year old I won an Atari XE in 1987 as part of a competition answering questions about the computer industry in New Computer Express, a UK weekly computer magazine.
Oh wow, that is awesome. Way to go
vijinho !
@@TheGuruMeditation It came with a light-gun and just two games on cartridge, Bug Hunt and Missile Command so I didn't get too much use out of it though. I had C64 and Acorn Electron at the time that I used more.
My first home computer was the Atari 65XE in the UK. We eventually swapped it out for the C64 but I do remember playing lots of games on it. I remember that tape loading on the 65XE (didn't have a disk drive) seem to take forever. I remember getting the game "kick off" on tape and there was so much tape on the spools that the 2 spools nearly touched in the middle. I think i only ever succesfully loaded that game once. I ended up playing games that were quicker to load, I remember playing a lot of Zybex (which i saw on the list in this video).
Ha! I know the feeling. Loading games from tape on my 800 was soooo painful. The Atari's were know to be really slow at loading from tape
I see a lot of comments that the A8 wasnt popular in Europe. Well it depends on country. Here in The Netherlands is was quite popular, in fact, around 1984,1985 the largest Atari user club in the world was the Dutch SAG. The A8 was only beaten by the C64, but the C64 was partly inspired by the A8 and was released 4 years AFTER the A8 platform.....and still the A8 was the better machine in very many ways.....
Very interesting. Thanks for this information Andre. Much appreciated!
I remember the SAG and the AGNON (Atari Gebruikersgroep Noord Oost Nederland, if my memory dissapoint me). The 600XL wasn't that expensive due a Dutch 'pricefighter' were selling them (Kwantum), so a lot of my friends were buying these (because they could afford them from their own pocketmoney) The fact that they were easily upgradable made the choice even easier (replace the 2 TMS 4116 by TMS4164 chips and a few minor changes. Since my dad was back in the day very handy with electronics, all my friends came by with their computers with the ram chips (by the way, those 4116 chips were re-used too, you could expand the videoram from the Sharp MZ800 to 32k). Later on I buyed an Atari 130XE myself, and I still have that machine (and a C64, ST and Amiga). I love them all :)
The Atari 800 (not XL) was my first computer. I was 13. I love it so much! I felt like I was a traitor when later I bought my Amiga 500, until years and years later I learned about Jay! I felt a lot better after that. Thank you for all of the videos that you make and share with us!
Awesome
emilygrae! The original Atari 800 was my first computer as well! I got it in 1980. I love that machine. I too had no idea about the legacy of Jay Miner and Joe Decuir when I got my A500 in 1987. I just knew a good thing when I saw it ;-) Thanks for the kind words and I am glad you are enjoying the videos!
I got an Atari 400 for Christmas 1982. I later had a Commodore 64, an Atari 800XL, an Atari ST, and a Commodore Amiga. I too preferred the Atari 8 bit over the C64: the colours were a lot cleaner/vibrant, and even though the Ataris' 4 channel sound had a smaller octave range than the Commodore 64's 3 channels, I think that it was only really in loading screens that this was really emphasized. One of the things I remember most about the Amiga is the 3 lights near to the disc drive and the noise that I always described as 'graunching' when the disc drive appeared to me to be 'angry' and lit the red light.
My first computer was an Atari 600XL with a tape drive. I then got piggyback expansion unit to give it 64K... eventually I got a 130XE. To this day I think it was one of the more attractive 8 bit computers ever. In time I got a "breadbin" C64 to compliment my Atari 130XE and I never liked the bulky shape of that. I spent sooo many happy hours on my Ataris Atari was my machine in the 16bit era too before moving onto a XT PC clone in around 1990.
Nice Heath! I love the Atari 8-bit line as well. I jumped from my 800 to Amiga, but I certainly understand why folks would stick to the brand. The ST was cool too
I always had a hot spot for the 800XL, after all they were made by the hand of our father.
I've lost a bargain auction but I finally got one.
After 20-30 mins of game the system went to complete freeze.
I bought another on completely dead to use it as a guide if I was lucky and some of the chips were good.
I managed to fix them both.
Nice work Vincent! I love the 800XL. Are you enjoying them?
@@TheGuruMeditation No, I'm exiled here with just two of my collection. Amiga and Amstrad.
Oh, man, the AtariAmiga rivalry was VERY strong with me back in the day! But now that I'm an adult I can appreciate them, especially with the knowledge that Jay Miner is the father of them AND the Amiga. (Secretly I was jealous of some of the graphic capabilities of my friend's Atari 8 bit, and he was jealous of my C64 when it came to sound reproduction...)
Ha ha truth JW3HH, The Atari 800 was my first computer. When I got my Amiga 500 I didn't realize it was designed by the likes of Jay Miner and Joe Decuir until a few years later. The 64 is legendary and SID rocks, but my heart is with Atari 8-bit and Amiga
@@TheGuruMeditation Back when the ST and Amiga first came out I tried to convince my Atari friends that the Amiga is really more of a descendant to their Atari 8 bits than the ST was, because of Jay and Joe (and others that had come from Atari). But nooooooo! I will give props to the ST designers for being able to throw that system together in record time with largely off the shelf parts and still making a compelling system, and actually beating the Amiga to market. I still made the right choice though :) The Amiga 1000 (unexpanded...) was the first ANYTHING that I ever took a loan out for (with my mom cosigning). Then that Christmas my mom surprised me with the $300 front RAM expander (256k!). Now I could actually play every game out there!
I had the same kind of “rivalry,” with my best friend, in middle school, through 9th grade...
The cool thing was that, because my folks had given me their 800 - with disk and tape drives - when they (for whatever reason 😁) got an Apple IIe, but “his” C64 was the family’s (his dad’s, really, who used it, to work, at home... but not on weekends, when I’d most often be there). So, when he would brag, I could always pull out *that* card... 😂😂😂
I’d also moved up, from a TI-99/4a, and my next computer - after a slight upgrade to a cheap 800XL - was an Amiga 500, before moving to a Mac Quadra 660 A/V, which was a sick computer, for 1994... It even had RCA composite inputs, although it couldn’t record, for sh$&. I could make a big window, on which to play my SNES, though, without the hassle of changing monitor inputs... 🍺😃👍
@@mechamania Cheers Carson, thanks for sharing your story! Wow I would really like to see that Mac Quadra. I am trying to remember which Mac we had in art school. They had a very early version of Premiere on them. This was mid-90's
@@mechamania Yep, I can relate. I will say this about the TI-99/4a: Its built in BASIC was MILES better than the C64's. Although, Texas Instruments kept the system closed for a long time to developers and didn't open it up until it was too late. Otherwise I think it would have had more market share than it did. It was a bit pricey, but maybe bigger sales would have dropped the price over time to remain competitive.
You guys always find great material to show off and present in a fun casual way. I'm digging the fancy new outro music as well.
Thanks for the kind words Andy! Really appreciate it
Back in the day, owners of the double sided XF551 drive were modifying them to use the 3.5" mechs, effectively making their own XF351. The electronics and support were always there. The disks were Double Density, but still.
Awesome expedition, keep it up guys - I loved the Atari 8 bit series - I have modified my old 600XL to have 64K back then and made me feel like a king, thanks guys.
Jay Miner's spirit is strong with these machines.
Thank you for this video.
It is! Cheers Alex glad you enjoyed. Please don't hate us for the next video, you will see, lol
@@TheGuruMeditation How can someone possibly hate you two?
No way! :)
I loved Atari 8bit computers. I owned a 600XL and a 130XE back in the day.
Cool! My first computer was an Atari 800 that I got in 1980. I love that machine
I had the 800 and still have the 130 XE. I used it for work but there were two games in particular that showed off its graphics ability that my kids and I loved playing: The 7th Guest and Airball!
Are you sure about The 7th Guest? That was one of the earliest CD-ROM games for the PC in the early 90's. Never heard of an Atari game with the same name.
It’s always special when Bill and Anthony can celebrate our beloved retro computers, thank you...
Aw, thanks Brad, you rock!
Those Atari computers were not common in Germany. Most people I knew had a C64 or Amiga and later 386, 486 and Pentium PCs. A quite common Atari system here was the Atari 2600 because it was the cheapest console you could buy when I was a kid. This "we turn a home computer into a game console" had been done by Commodore too with the C64 Game System, but nearly nobody wanted a "computer without a keyboard" and people bought a C64 instead. A place with some Atari stuff is the pinball and arcade museum where I am a member: we have some Atari arcade machines (Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Gauntlet, Hard Drivin', Klax, Marble Madness, Missile Command, Night Driver, Paperboy, Pong, Road Blasters, Steeplechase, Tank, Tetris, Video Pinball, Vidicators) and an Atari pinball (Middle Earth).
The one who gave a dislike may be an Atari hater - not me, even if I sometimes do some jokes about Atari...
Very interesting Daddler. The Atari 800 was my first computer. When I got my Amiga 7 years later, I didn't even know that Jay Miner and Joe Decuir had they designs in both of them. I don't think I ever saw the C64 console in the wild. I can't wait to come to Germany and hang out in your arcade museum. It will be a blast!
Atari computers weren't popular in england either, but the console were except the XEGS which I 1st saw (and now own) in the US.
The 8 bit Atari computers were covered in all German home computer magazines that didn't focus on a single hardware platform (e.g. "HC - Mein Himecomputer", "Happy-Computer", "Computer-Kontakt") and were popular enough to have the "ATARImagazin" cater to them monthly. They were not as successful as the C64 or Amstrad/Schneider CPC, but certainly were not a rare machine either.
Short and sweet. I spy another unicorn further down that row. That being the [external] 1090 XL Expansion Chassis. It's a shame that wasn't released since it had internal expansion slots for cards like an 80-Column Card, a CP/M Card, Parallel Disk Drive Controller Card, and a Networking Card. It was a casualty of Warner selling off Atari Consumer's assets in July 1984. Atari Museum has a good section on that unreleased product.
Thanks! I like videos that are under 10 minutes. We have another video with Curt Vendel from AtariMuseum you might want to check out. His exhibit was awesome too. th-cam.com/video/ZlqxDgnYHWU/w-d-xo.html
I picked up one of those S-Drive Max devices a few months back. They are really quite useful. I like how they can emulate multiple drives
It is an awesome device. I would like to have one for the Amiga even just for the touch screen capability
@@TheGuruMeditation I'm surprised no one has created a HDD-FDD device for the Amiga. Plug internal FDD cable into device and use modern card of choice, have it so it can select emulated FDD or switch to actual FDD with passthru.
@Daishi5571 There are indeed a few FDD emulators for the Amiga, made to replace the internal FDD and which take SD cards.
And for many years people have used CompactFlash cards instead of spinning harddrives.
@@FindecanorNotGmail the closet things are the GoTek drives, of course, but they are not always as easy to use. If you get one, buy one with an LED screen for sure.
@@FindecanorNotGmail I was short with my initial reply so it missed detail. I have a Gotek and I use SD, CF even a DOM so what I have is a Gotek replacing my real FDD (with no space for the real FDD) 1 4xEIDE'99 with 3 IDE cables with 1 SD adapter 1 CF adapter and the DOM rattling around (even without a real HDD in the case, it takes a lot of room). What I'm talking is a combined unit that has all this functionality in one. So basically It would be an Arduino/rPi memory manager with FDD, IDE and SD (maybe more than one) with an external display.
To add to what I have listed, I also have an Invision AGA, RapidRoad (USB) and an Apollo 1240. Despite the numerous parts I would like to tidy it up as much as I can.
My Atari 65XE still works!
Atari 800XE was sold in Germany and Poland.
Nice little collection there! That is the first time I've seen that 3.5" disk drive - fascinating.
Atari didn't do too well over here in Europe, which is a shame. Fine computers, I particularly like the looks of the XL range which are just beautiful.
That drive is cool! Reminds me of the 5.14" drive for the Amiga, but the opposite, lol. I am really glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks osgrov!
The Atari8's did do well in eastern Europe (Poland especially!) and Russia. The XF551 drive can be modded to 3.5" nowadays, however 3.5" disks didn't age as well as the 5.25", being more prone to data loss.
I'm intrigued by the Atari computers with different language keycaps. Did Commodore release C64s and other 8-bit systems with alternate keycaps for non-English speaking countries?
Great question Pierre, I am not sure about the C64 but the Amiga did have other keycaps. I don't know about Hebrew or Arabic though. I really love the Arabic writing on that computer. It is quite beautiful.
@@TheGuruMeditation In Sweden we had swedish keycaps for our specific letters Å, Ä, Ö for all Commodore computers from at least the VIC20 and onwards. I don't know about the Pet though.
@@teknohead500 yes, we had Swedish PETs, too. I have an 8032 with a Swedish keyboard. :)
Basically.... Atari deciding to not want to go the 16bit route, was the decision that led to what we now see as modern computers? Or is there something before that, wich can be directly linked to the modern computing landscape?
No. Jay wanted to go with a 16bit machine in about 1980. That was too early for the retail consumer. It wasn't until 1984 or 85 when 16bit technology was more affordable. Jay was brilliant but IMO he 'overproduced' and tended to release too expensive machines. So when the revised Amiga (500) was released it was finally affordable. Same with the revised 800 (800XL) where it was finally attainable for the masses but the 800XL was about a year too late to keep market share.
@@gamedoutgamer Yup. I know that he as an enginer, wanted to go that route. And that his vision was to be ahead of the curve and make stuff that pushed it all. However, I am talking about corporations. You know, big companies.
@@brostenen Well we can't know for certain what the executives at Atari were thinking. In 1980 it was too early and Atari was focusing on the eight bit machines and consoles for the masses and not super expensive sixteen bits. They were making a LOT of money on the 2600 at that time. There was no PC yet either. No one was planning 16bit machines. Miner was too early, in retrospect. Cheers!
@@gamedoutgamer By PC you mean the IBM Personal Computer and not just PC? All computers back then, were sold as Personal Computers.
Very cool! The XEP80 is cool. First time I've seen video of it in use. FYI there is now a conversion and upgrade to convert a 5.25" XF551 to a 3.5" drive. More info and full instructions about that on the AtariAge forums. Unfortunately the XF551 is hard to find and modding them is not recommended also because the PCB is easily damaged. One must ask, why mod a rare and expensive drive?! The 3.5" disks have proven themselves much more prone to data loss/corruption than the 5.25" disks!
why would that disk emulator thingy have a power adapter... it's on a sio port. a sio port that can well power an analog casette deck and it's motor in the xc12... as if it would have trouble powering an arduino and an lcd screen :P
What was the chipset Atari received for funding the Amiga?
I have an Atari 130xe but no hook ups 😕
I remember downloading 8-bit Boink and running it to impress my Commodore 64 enemies / I mean friends 😂
Very soon we all become mummies, it's just a matter of time. Very sorry, but it's all truth, accordingly of story. An emulator will not ressurect us.