The Atari 1020 was a four-color computer plotter sold by
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
for the
Atari 8-bit home computers.
The 1020 was based on a plotter mechanism manufactured by ALPS. The same mechanism formed the basis of several other low-cost plotters produced around the same time, including the
Commodore 1520, the
Oric
Oric was the name used by UK-based Tangerine Computer Systems for a series of 6502-based home computers sold in the 1980s, primarily in Europe.
With the success of the ZX Spectrum from Sinclair Research, Tangerine's backers suggested a ho ...
MCP40, the
Tandy/Radio Shack CGP-115,
the Texas Instruments HX-1000 and the Mattel Aquarius 4615.
However, the 1020 connected via the Atari 8-bit's proprietary SIO interface,
[ANTIC VOL. 4, NO. 5 / SEPTEMBER 1985 / PAGE 42]
, "the 1020 daisy chains right into one of your disk drive ports" eliminating the need for an
Atari 850, 850 serial/parallel interface module, but limiting its use to Atari 8-bit computers.
The 1020 was capable of 20-, 40- and 80-column text
and graphics using a friction-fed roll of paper approximately 11.5 cm (4.5 inches) in width. Graphics were generated using one of four coloured pens
[The Atari 1020 Color Printer Owners' Guide]
/ref> to draw lines, using a combination of the horizontally moving pen barrel and the vertically scrolling paper to create diagonal lines.
Control of the plotter was possible from Atari BASIC
Atari BASIC is an interpreter for the BASIC programming language that shipped with the Atari 8-bit family of 6502-based home computers. Unlike most American BASICs of the home computer era, Atari BASIC is not a derivative of Microsoft BASIC a ...
.[ANTIC VOL. 4, NO. 10 / FEBRUARY 1986 / PAGE 29]
References
{{reflist
External links
COMPUTE! ISSUE 36 / MAY 1983 / PAGE 20 - "The New Low-Cost Printer/Plotters"
Atari 8-bit family, 1020
Computer printers