The Atari 8-bit family is a series of
8-bit home computers introduced 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 ...
in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, and
Atari XEGS
The Atari XE Video Game System (Atari XEGS) is an industrial redesign of the Atari 65XE home computer and the final model in the Atari 8-bit family. It was released by Atari Corporation in 1987 and marketed as a home video game console alongsid ...
, the last discontinued in 1992. They differ primarily in packaging, each based on the
MOS Technology 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...
CPU at and the same custom
coprocessor chips. As the first home computer architecture with coprocessors, it has graphics and sound more advanced than most contemporary machines. Video games were a major draw, and first-person space combat simulator ''
Star Raiders'' is considered the platform's
killer app
In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program or software that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a video game ...
. The plug-and-play
peripherals use the
Atari SIO
The Serial Input/Output system, universally known as SIO, was a proprietary peripheral bus and related software protocol stacks used on the Atari 8-bit family to provide most input/output duties for those computers. Unlike most I/O systems of the ...
serial bus
In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are ...
, with one developer eventually also co-patenting
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
.
[
While using the same internal technology, the Atari 800 was sold as a high-end model, while the 400 was more affordable. The 400 has a pressure-sensitive, spillproof ]membrane keyboard
A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface. Very little, ...
and initially shipped with 8 KB of RAM. The 800 has a conventional keyboard, a second (rarely used) cartridge slot, and hidden slots that allow easy RAM upgrades to 48K. Both models were replaced by the XL series in 1983. The company was sold and reestablished as Atari Corporation
Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of computers and video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than two months later when Warner Communica ...
, producing the XE series in 1985. The XL and XE are lighter in construction, have two joystick ports instead of four, and 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 ...
is built-in. The 130XE has 128 KB of bank-switched RAM.
The core architecture of the Atari 8-bit family was reused in the 1982 Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem or simply Atari 5200 is a home video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari, Inc. as a higher-end complement for the popular Atari Video Computer System. The VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 at the time of the 520 ...
game console, but games for the two systems are incompatible. In 1987, Atari Corporation repackaged the 65XE as a console, with an optional keyboard, as the Atari XEGS
The Atari XE Video Game System (Atari XEGS) is an industrial redesign of the Atari 65XE home computer and the final model in the Atari 8-bit family. It was released by Atari Corporation in 1987 and marketed as a home video game console alongsid ...
. It is backward compatible with computer software.
According to Jeremy Reimer, two million Atari 8-bit computers were sold during its major production run between late 1979 and mid-1985. In 1984, Atari reported 4 million owners of its computers and its 5200 game console combined. The 8-bit family was sold both in computer stores and department stores such as Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
using an in-store demo to attract customers. The primary global competition came when the similarly equipped Commodore 64 was introduced in 1982. In 1992, Atari Corporation officially dropped all remaining support for the 8-bit line.
The "Atari 8-bit family" label was not contemporaneous. Atari, Inc., used the term "Atari 800 r 400
R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irelan ...
home computer system", often combining the model names into "Atari 400/800" or "Atari home computers".
History
Design of the 8-bit series started at Atari as soon as the Atari Video Computer System
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...
was released in late 1977. While designing the VCS in 1976, the engineering team from Atari Grass Valley Research Center (originally Cyan Engineering Cyan Engineering was an American computer engineering company located in Grass Valley, California.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfFGrQLuY8s Atari's Cyan Engineering - Splendor in the Grass documentary It was founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons ...
) said the system would have a three-year lifespan before becoming obsolete. They started blue sky designs for a new console that would be ready to replace it around 1979.[
They developed essentially a greatly updated version of the VCS, fixing its major limitations but sharing a similar design philosophy.][Joe Decuir]
"3 Generations of Game Machine Architecture"
CGEXPO99 The newer design has better speed, graphics, and sound. Work on the chips for the new system continued throughout 1978 and focused on much-improved video coprocessor known as the CTIA (the VCS version was the TIA).
During the early development period, the home computer era began in earnest with the TRS-80
The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...
, Commodore PET
The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, ...
, and Apple II—what ''Byte'' magazine dubbed the "1977 Trinity". Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consu ...
sold Atari to Warner Communications
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
for in 1976 to fund the launch of the VCS. Warner had recently hired Ray Kassar
Raymond Edward Kassar (January 2, 1928 – December 10, 2017) was president, and later CEO, of Atari Inc. from 1978 to 1983. He had previously been executive vice-president of Burlington Industries, the world's largest textile company at the t ...
as the CEO of the company. Kassar said the chipset should be used in a home computer to challenge Apple. To adapt the machine to this role, it needed character graphics, some form of expansion for peripherals, and run the then-universal BASIC programming language.[
The VCS lacks ]bitmap graphics
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
and a character generator. All on-screen graphics are created using sprites and a simple background generated by data loaded by the CPU into single-scan-line video registers. Atari engineer Jay Miner
Jay Glenn Miner (May 31, 1932 – June 20, 1994) was an American integrated circuit designer, known primarily for developing graphics and audio chips for the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit family and as the "father of the Amiga".
Early life
Jay ...
architected the two video chips for the Atari 8-bit family. The CTIA chip includes sprites and background graphics, but to reduce load on the main CPU, loading video registers/buffers is delegated to a dedicated microprocessor: the Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller or ANTIC
Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...
. CTIA and ANTIC work together to produce a complete display, with ANTIC fetching scan line
A scan line (also scanline) is one line, or row, in a raster scanning pattern, such as a line of video on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display of a television set or computer monitor.
On CRT screens the horizontal scan lines are visually discernible ...
data from a framebuffer
A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Mode ...
and sprite memory in RAM, plus character set bitmaps for character modes, and feeding these to the CTIA. CTIA processes the sprite and playfield data in the light of its own color, sprite, and graphics registers to produce the final color video output.
The resulting system was far in advance of anything then available on the market. Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
was developing a video driver at the time, but Chuck Peddle
Charles Ingerham Peddle (November 25, 1937 – December 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer best known as the main designer of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the single-board computer, and its successor, the Commodore PET per ...
, lead designer of the MOS Technology 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...
CPU used in the VCS and the new machines, saw the Atari work during a visit to Grass Valley. He realized the Commodore design would not be competitive but he was under a strict non-disclosure agreement with Atari, and was unable to tell anyone at Commodore to give up on their own design. Peddle later commented that "the thing that Jay did, just kicked everybody's butt."
Development
Management identified two sweet spots for the new computers: a low-end version known internally as "Candy", and a higher-end machine known as "Colleen" (named after two Atari secretaries). Atari would market Colleen as a computer and Candy as a game machine or hybrid game console. Colleen includes user-accessible expansion slots for RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
and ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
, two 8 KB ROM cartridge slots, RF and monitor output (including two pins for separate luma and chroma suitable for superior S-Video
S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video ) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate chan ...
output) and a full keyboard. Candy was initially designed as a game console, lacking a keyboard and input/output ports, although an external keyboard was planned for joystick ports 3 and 4. At the time, plans called for both to have a separate audio port supporting cassette tapes as a storage medium.
A goal for the new systems was user-friendliness. One executive stated, "Does the end user care about the architecture of the machine? The answer is no. 'What will it do for me?' That's his major concern. ... why try to scare the consumer off by making it so he or she has to have a double E or be a computer programmer to utilize the full capabilities of a personal computer?" For example, cartridges were expected to make the computers easier to use. To minimize handling of bare circuit boards or chips, as is common with other systems of that period, the computers were designed with enclosed modules for memory, ROM cartridges, with keyed connectors to prevent them being plugged into the wrong slot. The operating system boots automatically, loading drivers from devices on the serial bus (SIO). The DOS system for managing floppy storage was menu-driven. When no software is loaded, rather than leaving the user at a blank screen or machine language monitor, the OS goes to the "Memo Pad" which is a built-in full-screen editor without file storage support.[
As the design process for the new machines continued, there were questions about what the Candy should be. There was a running argument about whether the keyboard would be external or built in. By the summer of 1978, education had become a focus for the new systems. While the Colleen design was largely complete by May 1978, it was not until early 1979 that the decision was made that Candy would also be a complete computer, but one intended for children. As such, it would feature a new keyboard designed to be resistant to liquid spills.
Atari intended to port ]Microsoft BASIC
Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first ...
to the machine as an 8 KB ROM cartridge. However, the existing 6502 version from Microsoft was around 7,900 bytes, leaving no room for extensions for graphics and sound. The company contracted with local consulting firm Shepardson Microsystems
Shepardson Microsystems, Inc. (SMI) was a small company producing operating systems and programming languages for CP/M, the Atari 8-bit family and Apple II computers. SMI is most noted for the original Apple II disk operating system, Atari BASI ...
to complete the port. They recommended writing a new version from scratch, resulting in 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 ...
.
FCC issues
Televisions of the time normally have only one signal input, which is the antenna connections on the back. For devices like a computer, the video is generated and then sent to an RF modulator
An RF modulator (or radio frequency modulator) is an electronic device whose input is a baseband signal which is used to modulate a radio frequency source.
RF modulators are used to convert signals from devices such as media players, VCRs a ...
to convert it to antenna-like output. The introduction of many game consoles during this era had led to situations where poorly designed modulators would generate so much signal as to cause interference with other nearby televisions, even in neighboring houses. In response to complaints, the Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) introduced new testing standards which are extremely exacting and difficult to meet.
Other manufacturers avoided the problem by using built-in composite monitors, such as the Commodore PET and TRS-80. The TRS-80 has a slightly modified black and white television as a monitor. It was notorious for causing interference, and production was canceled when the more stringent FCC requirements came into effect on January 1, 1981. Apple Computer famously left off the modulator and sold them under a third party company as the Sup'R'Mod so they did not have to be tested.
In a July 1977 visit with the engineering staff, a Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...
(TI) salesman presented a new possibility in the form of an inexpensive fiber-optic cable
A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...
with built-in transceiver
In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. Thes ...
s. During the meeting, Joe Decuir
Joseph C. Decuir is an American fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) who was nominated in 2015 for contributions to computer graphics and video games.
Early computer games
Decuir was nominated to Fellowship in th ...
proposed placing an RF modulator on one end, thereby completely isolating any electrical signals so that the computer would have no RF components. This would mean the computer would not have to meet the FCC requirements, yet users could still attach a television simply by plugging it in. His manager, Wade Tuma, later refused the idea saying "The FCC would never let us get away with that stunt." Unknown to Atari, TI used Decuir's idea. As Tuma had predicted, the FCC rejected the design, delaying that machine's release. TI ultimately shipped early machines with a custom television as the testing process dragged on.
To meet the off-the-shelf requirement while including internal TV circuitry, the new machines needed to be heavily shielded. Both were built around very strong cast aluminum shields forming a partial Faraday cage, with the various components screwed down onto this internal framework. This resulted in an extremely sturdy computer, at the disadvantage of added manufacturing expense and complexity.[
The FCC ruling also made it difficult to have any sizable holes in the case, which would allow RF leakage. This eliminated expansion slots or cards that communicated with the outside world via their own connectors. Instead, Atari designed the Serial Input/Output (SIO) computer bus, a system for daisy-chaining multiple, auto-configuring devices to the computer through a single shielded connector. The internal slots were reserved for ROM and RAM modules; they did not have the control lines necessary for a fully functional expansion card, nor room to route a cable outside the case to communicate with external devices.][
]
400/800 release
After Atari announced its intent to enter the home computer market in December 1978, the Atari 400 and Atari 800 were presented at the Winter CES in January 1979 and shipped in November 1979.
The names originally referred to the amount of memory: 4 KB RAM in the 400 and 8 KB in the 800. By the time they were released, RAM prices had started to fall, so the machines were both released with 8 KB, using 4kx1 DRAMs. The user-installable RAM modules in the 800 initially had plastic casings but this caused overheating issues, so the casings were removed. Later, the expansion cover was held down with screws instead of the easier-to-open plastic latches. The computers eventually shipped with maxed-out RAM: 16k and 48k, respectively, using 16kx1 DRAMs.
Both models have four joystick ports, permitting four simultaneous players, but only a few games (such as ''M.U.L.E.
''M.U.L.E.'' is a 1983 multiplayer video game written for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers by Ozark Softscape. Designer Danielle Bunten Berry (credited as Dan Bunten) took advantage of the four joystick ports of the Atari 400 and 800 to a ...
'') use them all. Paddle controllers are wired in pairs, and ''Super Breakout
''Super Breakout'' is a sequel to the 1976 video game '' Breakout'' released in arcades in September 1978 by Atari, Inc. It was written by Ed Rotberg. The game uses the same mechanics as ''Breakout'', but allows the selection of three distinct ...
'' supports eight players. The Atari 400, with a membrane keyboard
A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface. Very little, ...
and single internal ROM slot, outsold the Atari 800 by a 2-to-1 margin. Only one cartridge for the 800's right slot was produced by March 1983, and later machines in the family have only one slot.
Reception
'' Creative Computing'' mentioned the Atari machines in an April 1979 overview of the CES show. Calling Atari "the videogame people", it stated they came with "some fantastic educational, entertainment and home applications software". In an August 1979 interview Atari's Peter Rosenthal suggested that demand might be low until the 1980-81 time frame, when he predicted about one million home computers being sold. The April 1980 issue compared the machines with the Commodore PET
The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, ...
, focused mostly on the BASIC dialects.
Ted Nelson
Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of information technology, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''hypertext'' and '' hypermedia'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. Nelson coined the terms '' trans ...
reviewed the computer in the magazine in June 1980, calling it "an extraordinary graphics box". Describing his and a friend's "shouting and cheering and clapping" during a demo of '' Star Raiders'', Nelson wrote that he was so impressed that "I've been in computer graphics for twenty years, and I lay awake night after night trying to understand how the Atari machine did what it did". He described the machine as "something else" but criticized the company for a lack of developer documentation. He concluded by stating "The Atari is like the human body - a terrific machine, but (a) they won't give you access to the documentation, and (b) I'd sure like to meet the guy that designed it".
''Kilobaud Microcomputing
''Kilobaud Microcomputing'' was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from 1977 to 1983.
How ''kilobaud'' started
Wayne Green, the editor and publisher of ''kilobaud'', had been the publisher of ''BYTE'' magazine, (another i ...
'' wrote in September 1980 that the Atari 800 "looks deceptively like a video game machine, ut hadthe strongest and tightest chassis I have seen since Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Welch ( Tejada; September 5, 1940) is an American actress.
She first won attention for her role in '' Fantastic Voyage'' (1966), after which she won a contract with 20th Century Fox. They lent her contract to the British studio Hamm ...
. It weighs about ten pounds ... The large amount of engineering and design in the physical part of the system is evident". The reviewer praised the documentation as "show ngthe way manuals should be done", and the "excellent 'feel'" of the keyboard.
''InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
'' favorably reviewed the 800's performance, graphics, and ROM cartridges, but disliked the documentation and cautioned that the unusual right Shift key location might make the computer "unsuitable for serious word processing". Noting that the amount of software and hardware available for the computer "is no match for that of the Apple II or the TRS-80", the magazine concluded that the 800 "is an impressive machine that has not yet reached its full computing potential".
Follow-up systems
Liz project
Though planning an extensive advertising campaign for 1980, Atari found difficult microcomputer competition from market leaders Commodore, Apple, and Tandy. By mid-1981, it had reportedly lost $10 million on sales of $10–13 million from more than 50,000 computers.
In 1982, Atari started the Sweet 8 (or Liz NY) and Sweet 16 projects to create an upgraded set of machines that were easier to build and less costly to produce. Atari ordered a custom 6502, initially labelled 6502C, but eventually known as SALLY to differentiate it from a standard 6502C. SALLY was incorporated into late-production 400/800 machines, all XL/XE models, and the Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem or simply Atari 5200 is a home video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari, Inc. as a higher-end complement for the popular Atari Video Computer System. The VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 at the time of the 520 ...
and 7800 consoles. SALLY adds logic to disable the clock signal, called HALT
. ANTIC uses this to shut off the CPU to access the data/address bus.
Like the earlier machines, the Sweet 8/16 was intended to be released in two versions: the 1000 with 16 KB, and the 1000X with 64 KB. To support expansion, similar to the card slots used in the Apple II, the 1000 series also supports the Parallel Bus Interface
The Parallel Bus Interface, or PBI, is a 50-pin port found on some Atari 8-bit XL computers. It provides unbuffered, direct connection to the system bus lines (address, data, control), running at the same speed as the 6502 CPU. The 600XL and 800 ...
(PBI), a single expansion slot on the back of the machine. An external chassis can be plugged into the PBI, supporting card slots for further expansion.
1200XL
The original Liz plans were dropped and only one machine using the new design was released. Announced at a New York City press conference on December 13, 1982, the rechristened 1200XL was presented at the Winter CES on January 6–9, 1983. It shipped in March 1983 with 64 KB of RAM, built-in self test, a redesigned keyboard (with four function keys and a HELP key), and redesigned cable port layout. The number of joystick ports was reduced from 4 to 2. There is no PAL version of the 1200XL.
Announced at a retail price of $1000, the 1200XL was released at . This is $100 less than the announced price of the Atari 800 at its release in 1979,[ but by this time the 800 was priced much lower.
The PBI expansion connector from the original 1000X design was omitted, making the design rely entirely on the SIO port again. The +12V pin in the SIO port is not connected, which prevents a few devices from working. An improved video circuit provides more chroma for a more colorful image, but the chroma line is not connected to the monitor port, the only place that could make use of it. The operating system has compatibility problems with some older software.
The 1200XL was discontinued in June 1983.
]
Reception
The press warned that the 1200XL was too expensive. ''Compute!
''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET ...
'' stated in an early 1983 editorial:
John J. Anderson
John J. Anderson or J.J. Anderson (November 8, 1956 – October 17, 1989) was a writer and editor covering computers and technology. The New Jersey native was Executive Editor of '' Computer Shopper'' and ''Atari Explorer''. At the time of his ...
, writing in '' Creative Computing''s Outpost: Atari column, echoed these comments:
Bill Wilkinson, author of Atari BASIC, co-founder of Optimized Systems Software
Optimized Systems Software (OSS) was a company that produced disk operating systems, programming languages with integrated development environments, and applications primarily for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. OSS was best known f ...
, and columnist for ''Compute!'', in May 1983 criticized the computer's features and price:
600XL and 800XL
By this time, Atari was involved in what would soon develop into a full-blown price war
A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...
. Several years earlier, Commodore was a major calculator vendor, selling designs based on a Texas Instruments (TI) chipset. TI decided to enter the market themselves and suddenly raised the prices to other vendors, nearly putting Commodore out of business. When TI introduced the TI-99, Tramiel turned the tables on them by pricing his machines below theirs. A price war ensued, causing a dramatic decline in home computer prices, reducing them as much as eight times over a period of a few months.
In May 1981, the Atari 800's price was , but by mid-1983 it was and the 400 was under . Although Atari had never been a deliberate target of Tramiel's wrath, the Commodore/TI price war affected the entire market. The timing was particularly bad for Atari; the 1200XL was a flop, and the earlier machines were too expensive to produce to be able to compete at the rapidly falling price points.
A new lineup was announced at the 1983 Summer CES, closely following the original Liz/Sweet concepts. The 600XL is essentially the Liz NY model and the spiritual successor of the 400, and the 800XL would replace both the 800 and 1200XL. The machines look similar to the 1200XL, but are smaller back to front, the 600 being somewhat smaller as it lacks one row of memory chips on the circuit board
A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich struc ...
.
Atari had difficulty in transitioning manufacturing to Asia after closing its US factory. Originally intended to replace the 1200XL in mid-1983, the new models did not arrive until late that year. Although the 600XL/800XL were well positioned in terms of price and features, during the critical Christmas season they were available only in small numbers while the Commodore 64 was widely available. Brian Moriarty stated in ''ANALOG Computing'' that Atari "fail dto keep up with Christmas orders for the 600 and 800XLs", reporting that as of late November 1983 the 800XL had not appeared in Massachusetts stores while 600XL "quantities are so limited that it's almost impossible to obtain".
Although the 800XL would ultimately be the most popular computer sold by Atari, the company was unable to defend its market share, and the ongoing race to the bottom
Race to the bottom is a socio-economic phrase to describe either government deregulation of the business environment or reduction in corporate tax rates, in order to attract or retain usually foreign economic activity in their jurisdictions. Whil ...
reduced Atari's profits. Prices continued to erode; by November 1983 one toy store chain sold the 800XL for , above the wholesale price. After losing in the first nine months of the year, Atari that month announced that prices would rise in January, stating that it "has no intention of participating in these suicidal price wars". The 600XL and 800XL's prices in early 1984 were $50 higher than for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64, and a rumor stated that the company planned to discontinue hardware and only sell software. Combined with the simultaneous effects of the video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
, Atari was soon losing millions of dollars a day. Its owner, Warner Communications
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
, became desperate to sell off the division.
Reception
''ANALOG Computing'', writing about the 600XL in January 1984, stated that "the Commodore 64 and Tandy CoCo look like toys by comparison." The magazine approved of its not using the 1200XL's keyboard layout, and predicted that the XL's parallel bus "actually makes the 600 ''more'' expandable than a 400 or 800". While disapproving of the use of an operating system closer to the 1200XL's than the 400 and 800's, and the "inadequate and frankly disappointing" documentation, ''ANALOG'' concluded that "our first impression ... is mixed but mostly optimistic". The magazine warned, however, that because of "Atari's sluggish marketing", unless existing customers persuaded others to buy the XL models, "we'll all end up marching to the beat of a drummer whose initials are IBM".
Unreleased XL models
The high-end 1400XL were announced alongside the 600XL and 800XL. They added a built-in 300 baud modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
and a voice synthesizer
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conve ...
, and the 1450XLD has a built-in double-sided floppy disk drive in an enlarged case, with a slot for a second drive. Atari BASIC is built into the ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
and the PBI at the back for external expansion.
The 1400XL and the 1450XLD had their delivery dates pushed back, and in the end, the 1400XL was canceled outright, and the 1450XLD so delayed that it would never ship. Other prototypes which never reached market include the 1600XL, 1650XLD, and 1850XLD. The 1600XL was to have been a dual-processor model capable of running 6502 and 80186 code, and the 1650XLD is a similar machine in the 1450XLD case. These were canceled when James J. Morgan
James J. Morgan (born 1942) is a former American executive who served as CEO of Atari from 1983 to 1984 and CEO of Philip Morris USA from 1994 to 1997.
James Morgan first joined Philip Morris in 1963 following his graduation from Princeton Univer ...
became CEO and wanted Atari to return to its video game roots. The 1850XLD was to have been based on the custom chipset in the Amiga Lorraine, which became the Commodore Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
.
Tramiel takeover, declining market
Commodore founder Jack Tramiel
Jack Tramiel ( ; born Idek Trzmiel; December 13, 1928 – April 8, 2012) was an American businessman and Holocaust survivor, best known for founding Commodore International. The Commodore PET, VIC-20 and Commodore 64 are some home comput ...
resigned in January 1984 and in July, he purchased the Atari consumer division from Warner for an extremely low price. When Tramiel took over, the high-end XL models were canceled and the low-end XLs were redesigned into the XE series. Nearly all research, design, and prototype projects were canceled, including the Amiga-based 1850XLD. Tramiel focused on developing the 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Secto ...
-based Atari ST computer line and recruiting former Commodore engineers to work on it.
Atari sold about 700,000 computers in 1984 compared to Commodore's two million. As his new company prepared to ship the Atari ST in 1985, Tramiel stated that sales of Atari 8-bit computers were "very, very slow". They were never an important part of Atari's business compared to video games, and it is possible that the 8-bit line was never profitable for the company though almost 1.5 million computers had been sold by early 1986.
By that year, the Atari software market was decreasing in size. ''Antic
Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...
'' magazine stated in May 1985 that it had received many letters complaining that software companies were ignoring the Atari market, and urged readers to contact the companies' leaders. "The Atari 800 computer has been in existence since 1979. Six years is a pretty long time for a computer to last. Unfortunately, its age is starting to show", '' ANALOG Computing'' wrote in February 1986. The magazine stated that while its software library was comparable in size to that of other computers, "now—and even more so in the future—there is going to be less software being made for the Atari 8-bit computers", warning that 1985 only saw a "trickle" of major new titles and that 1986 "will be even leaner".
'' Computer Gaming World'' that month stated "games don't come out for the Atari first anymore". In April, the magazine published a survey of ten game publishers which found that they planned to release 19 Atari games in 1986, compared to 43 for Commodore 64, 48 for Apple II, 31 for IBM PC, 20 for Atari ST, and 24 for Amiga. Companies stated that one reason for not publishing for Atari was the unusually high amount of software piracy on the computer, partly caused by the Happy Drive. The magazine warned later that year, "Is this the end for Atari 800 games? It certainly looks like it might be from where I write".[ In 1987, MicroProse confirmed that it would not release '' Gunship'' for the Atari 8-bits, stating that the market was too small.
]
XE series
The 65XE and 130XE (XE stands for XL-Compatible Eight-bit) were announced in 1985 at the same time as the initial models in the Atari ST series, and they visually resembled the ST. The 65XE has 64 KB of RAM and is functionally equivalent to the 800XL minus the PBI connection. The 130XE has 128 KB of memory, accessible through bank-selection. The 130XE was aimed to appeal at the mass market.
The 130XE added the Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI), which is almost compatible with the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI), but physically smaller, since it is located next to the standard 400/800-compatible Cartridge Interface. It provides only those signals that did not exist in the latter. ECI peripherals were expected to plug into both the standard Cartridge Interface and the ECI port. Later revisions of the 65XE contain the ECI port.
The 65XE was marketed as 800XE in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, to ride on the popularity of the 800XL in those markets. All 800XE units contain the ECI port.
XE Game System
The Atari XEGS (XE Game System) was launched in 1987. A repackaged 65XE with a removable keyboard, it boots to the 1981 port of ''Missile Command
''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Temp ...
'' instead of BASIC if the keyboard is disconnected.
End of support and legacy
At the beginning of 1992, Atari Corp. officially dropped all remaining support for the 8-bit family.
In 2006, Curt Vendel, who designed the Atari Flashback
The Atari Flashback series are a line of dedicated video game consoles designed, produced, published and marketed by AtGames under license from Atari SA. The Flashback consoles are "plug-and-play" versions of the Atari 2600 console. They contain ...
for Atari in 2004, claimed that Atari released the 8-bit chipset into the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
.
There is agreement in the community that Atari authorized the distribution of the Atari 800's ROM with the Xformer 2.5 emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...
, which makes the ROM legally available today as freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...
.
Design
The Atari machines consist of a 6502 as the main processor, a combination of ANTIC
Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...
and GTIA
Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit family of computers and in the Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA ch ...
chips to provide graphics, and the POKEY
POKEY, an acronym for Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit, is a digital I/O chip designed by Doug Neubauer at Atari, Inc. for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was first released with the Atari 400 and Atari 800 in 1979 and is included i ...
chip to handle sound and serial input/output. These support chips are controlled via a series of register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
s that can be user-controlled via memory load/store instructions running on the 6502. For example, the GTIA uses a series of registers to select colors for the screen; these colors can be changed by inserting the correct values into its registers, which are mapped into the address space that is visible to the 6502. Some of the coprocessors use data stored in RAM, such as ANTIC's display buffer and display list A display list (or ''display file'') is a series of graphics commands that define an output image. The image is created ( ''rendered'') by executing the commands to combine various primitives. This activity is most often performed by specialized di ...
, and GTIA's Player/Missile ( sprite) information.
The custom hardware features enable the computers to perform many functions directly in hardware, such as smooth background scrolling, that would need to be done in software in most other computers. Graphics and sound demos were part of Atari's earliest developer information and used as marketing materials with computers running in-store demos.[
]
ANTIC
ANTIC
Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...
is a microprocessor which processes a sequence of instructions known as a display list A display list (or ''display file'') is a series of graphics commands that define an output image. The image is created ( ''rendered'') by executing the commands to combine various primitives. This activity is most often performed by specialized di ...
. An instruction adds one row of the specified graphics mode to the display. Each mode varies based on whether it represents text or a bitmap, the resolution and number of colors, and its vertical height in scan line
A scan line (also scanline) is one line, or row, in a raster scanning pattern, such as a line of video on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display of a television set or computer monitor.
On CRT screens the horizontal scan lines are visually discernible ...
s. An instruction also indicates if it contains an interrupt, if fine scrolling is enabled, and optionally where to fetch the display data from memory.
Since each row can be specified individually, the programmer can create displays containing different text or bitmapped graphics modes on one screen, where the data can be fetched from arbitrary, non-sequential memory addresses.
ANTIC reads this display list and the display data using DMA (Direct Memory Access), then translates the result into a pixel data stream representing the playfield text and graphics. This stream then passes to GTIA
Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit family of computers and in the Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA ch ...
which applies the playfield colors and incorporates Player/Missile graphics ( sprites) for final output to a TV or composite monitor. Once the display list is set up, the display is generated without any CPU intervention.
There are 15 character and bitmap modes. In low-resolution modes, 2 or 4 colors per display line can be set. In high-resolution mode, one color can be set per line, but the luminance values of the foreground and background can be adjusted. High resolution bitmap mode (320x192 graphics) produces NTSC artifacts which are "tinted" depending on the color values; it was normally impossible to get color with this mode on PAL machines.
For text modes, the character set
Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using digital computers. The numerical values tha ...
data is pointed to by a register. It defaults to an address in ROM, but if pointed to RAM then a programmer can create custom characters. Depending on the text mode, this data can be on any 1K or 512 byte boundary. Additional registers flip all characters upside down and toggle inverse video.
CTIA/GTIA
The Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) is the graphics chip originally used in the Atari 400 and 800. It is the successor to the TIA
TIA or Tia may refer to:
Aviation
* Tampa International Airport, US, IATA code TPA
* Texas International Airlines, US, ICAO code
* Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza, Albania, IATA code
* Trans International Airlines, former U.S. airl ...
chip of the 1977 Atari VCS. According to Joe Decuir, George McLeod designed the CTIA in 1977. It was replaced with the Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) in later revisions of the 400 and 800 and all later 8-bit models. GTIA, also designed by McLeod, adds three new playfield graphics modes to ANTIC which enable more colors.
The CTIA/GTIA receives Playfield graphics information from ANTIC and applies colors to the pixels from a 128 or 256 color palette depending on the color interpretation mode in effect. CTIA/GTIA controls Player/Missile Graphics ( sprites) including collision detection between players, missiles, and the playfield; display priority for objects; and color/luminance control of all displayed objects. CTIA/GTIA outputs separate digital luminance and chroma signals, which are mixed to form an analog composite video signal.
CTIA/GTIA reads the joystick triggers and the console keys , , , and operating the keyboard speaker in the Atari 400/800. In later computer models the audio output for the keyboard speaker is mixed with the audio out for transmission to the TV/video monitor.
POKEY
POKEY
POKEY, an acronym for Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit, is a digital I/O chip designed by Doug Neubauer at Atari, Inc. for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was first released with the Atari 400 and Atari 800 in 1979 and is included i ...
is the third custom support chip, responsible for reading the keyboard, generating sound and serial communications (in conjunction with the PIA chip (Peripheral Interface Adapter
A Peripheral Interface Adapter (PIA) is a peripheral integrated circuit providing parallel I/O interfacing for microprocessor systems.
Description
Common PIAs include the Motorola MC6820 and MC6821, and the MOS Technology MCS6520, all of w ...
, 6520) commands and IRQs, plus controlling the 4 joystick movements on 400/800 and later RAM banks or ROM (OS/BASIC/Self-test) enables for XL/XE lines. It provides timers, a random number generator
Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance is generated. This means that the particular outc ...
for generating acoustic noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference aris ...
and random numbers, and maskable interrupt
In digital computers, an interrupt (sometimes referred to as a trap) is a request for the processor to ''interrupt'' currently executing code (when permitted), so that the event can be processed in a timely manner. If the request is accepted, ...
s. POKEY has four semi-independent audio channels, each with its own frequency, noise and volume control. Each 8-bit channel has its own audio control register which select the noise content and volume. For higher sound frequency resolution (quality), two of the audio channels can be combined for more accurate sound (frequency can be defined with 16-bit value instead of usual 8-bit). The name POKEY comes from the words "POtentiometer" and "KEYboard", which are two of the I/O devices that POKEY interfaces with (the potentiometer is the mechanism used by the paddle
A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened distal end (i.e. the ''blade''), used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered w ...
). The POKEY chip—and its dual- and quad-core versions—was used in many Atari coin-op arcade machines of the 1980s, including '' Centipede'' and ''Millipede
Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...
'', ''Missile Command
''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game '' Temp ...
'', ''Asteroids Deluxe
''Asteroids Deluxe'' is a vector graphic multidirectional shooter released in arcades in April 1981 by Atari Inc. as the sequel to ''Asteroids''. It was followed by ''Space Duel'' in 1982 and ''Blasteroids'' in 1987. Key changes in ''Asteroids D ...
'', ''Major Havoc
''Major Havoc'' (or ''The Adventures of Major Havoc'') is an arcade action game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. A vector-based upright arcade cabinet, ''Major Havoc'' consists of several smaller game experiences played in succession, including ...
'', and ''Return of the Jedi
''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...
''.
Models
*400 and 800 (1979) – original machines in beige cases. The 400 has a membrane keyboard
A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface. Very little, ...
. The 800 has full-travel keys, two cartridge ports, and monitor output. Both have expandable memory (up to 48 KB); the slots are easily accessible in the 800. Later PAL versions have the 6502C processor.
*1200XL (1983) – new aluminum and smoked plastic case. Includes 64 KB of RAM, two joystick ports, a Help key, and four function keys. Some older software was incompatible with the new OS.
*600XL and 800XL (1983) – the 600XL has 16 KB of memory and PAL versions have a monitor port The 800XL has 64 KB and monitor output. Both have built-in BASIC and a Parallel Bus Interface (PBI) expansion port. The last produced PAL units contain the Atari FREDDIE
FREDDIE is the name for a 40-pin large scale integrated circuit found in later model Atari 8-bit computers. It is a RAM address multiplexer, used for DRAM access. Atari created this chip to replace several other chips to cut costs and to enha ...
chip and Atari BASIC revision C.
*65XE and 130XE (1985) – the 130XE has 128 KB of bank-switched RAM and an Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI)
The Parallel Bus Interface, or PBI, is a 50-pin port found on some Atari 8-bit XL computers. It provides unbuffered, direct connection to the system bus lines (address, data, control), running at the same speed as the 6502 CPU. The 600XL and 800X ...
instead of a PBI. The first revisions of the 65XE have no ECI or PBI, while the later ones contain the ECI. The 65XE was relabelled as 800XE in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
an markets, and was mostly sold in East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
and Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
.
*XE Game System (1987) – a 65XE styled as a game console. The basic version of the system shipped without the detachable keyboard. With the keyboard it operates just like other Atari 8-bit computer models.
Production timeline
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:25
PlotArea = left:115 bottom:110 top:20 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat= mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1979 till:06/30/1992
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor= increment:1 start:1979
ScaleMinor= increment:2 start:1979
Colors =
id:400_Line value:green legend:400_&_800_Line
id:XE_Line value:blue legend:XE_Line
id:XL_Line value:orange legend:XL_Line
id:Lines value:black legend:Vertical_lines_are_Product_Announcements
id:XEGS value:lavender legend:XEGS
LineData =
at:01/05/1979 color:green layer:back
at:12/13/1982 color:orange layer:back
at:06/10/1983 color:orange layer:back
at:01/05/1985 color:blue layer:back
at:01/05/1987 color:lavender layer:back
at:01/01/1992 color:black layer:back
BarData =
bar:400 text:"400 & 800"
bar:5200 text:"5200"
bar:1200XL text:"1200XL"
bar:600XL text:"600XL"
bar:800XL text:"800XL"
bar:65XE text:"65XE"
bar:130XE text:"130XE"
bar:800XE text:"800XE"
bar:XEGS text:"XEGS"
PlotData =
width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:400 from:06/05/1979 till:05/01/1983 color:400_Line
bar:5200 from:11/01/1982 till:05/21/1984 color:400_Line
bar:1200XL from:03/01/1983 till:07/01/1983 color:XL_Line
bar:600XL from:07/01/1983 till:07/15/1984 color:XL_Line
bar:800XL from:07/01/1983 till:02/14/1985 color:XL_Line
bar:65XE from:05/05/1985 till:06/02/1991 color:XE_Line
bar:130XE from:01/05/1985 till:02/02/1991 color:XE_Line
bar:800XE from:05/05/1987 till:01/01/1992 color:XE_Line
bar:XEGS from:08/05/1987 till:02/14/1991 color:XEGS
width:3 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
''Production timeline dates retrieved from Atari 8-Bit Computers F.A.Q.'', ''and Chronology of Personal Computers''.
Prototypes and vaporware
*1400XL – similar to the 1200XL but with a PBI, FREDDIE chip, built-in modem and a Votrax
Votrax International, Inc. (originally the Vocal division of Federal Screw Works), or just Votrax, was a speech synthesis company located in the Detroit, Michigan area from 1971 to 1996. It began as a division of Federal Screw Works from 1971 to 19 ...
SC-01 speech synthesis chip. Cancelled.
*1450XLD – a 1400XL with built-in 5¼″ disk drive and expansion bay for a second 5¼″ disk drive. Code named ''Dynasty''. Made it to pre-production, but got abandoned by Tramiel.
*1600XL – codenamed ''Shakti'', this was dual-processor system with 6502 and 80186
The Intel 80186, also known as the iAPX 186, or just 186, is a microprocessor and microcontroller introduced in 1982. It was based on the Intel 8086 and, like it, had a 16-bit external data bus multiplexed with a 20-bit address bus. The 80188 ...
processors and two built-in 5¼″ floppy disk drives.
*1850XL - codenamed ''Mickey'', this was to use the "Lorraine" (aka " Amiga") custom graphics chips
*65XEM – 65XE with AMY sound synthesis chip. Cancelled.
*65XEP – "portable" 65XE with 3.5" disk drive, 5" green CRT and battery pack.
Peripherals
During the lifetime of the 8-bit series, Atari released a large number of peripherals including cassette tape drives, 5.25-inch floppy drives, printers, modems, a touch tablet, and an 80-column display module.
Atari's peripherals use the proprietary Atari SIO
The Serial Input/Output system, universally known as SIO, was a proprietary peripheral bus and related software protocol stacks used on the Atari 8-bit family to provide most input/output duties for those computers. Unlike most I/O systems of the ...
port, which allows them to be daisy chain
Daisy chain may refer to:
* Daisy chain, a garland created from daisy flowers
* Daisy chain (climbing), a type of strap
* Daisy chain (electrical engineering), a wiring scheme
* Daisy chain (fishing), a type of fishing lure
* Daisy chain (knot), ...
ed together. A primary goal of the Atari computer design was user-friendliness which was assisted by the SIO bus. Since only one kind of connector plug is used for all devices the Atari computer was easy for novice users to expand. Atari SIO devices use an early form of plug-n-play. Peripherals on the bus have their own IDs, and can deliver downloadable drivers to the Atari computer during the boot process. The additional electronics in these peripherals made them cost more than the equivalent "dumb" devices used by other systems of the era.
Software
Atari did not initially disclose technical information for its computers, except to software developers who agreed to keep it secret, possibly to increase its own software sales. Cartridge software was so rare at first that ''InfoWorld'' joked in 1980 that Atari owners might have considered turning the slot "into a fancy ashtray". The magazine advised them to "clear out those cobwebs" for Atari's '' Star Raiders'', which became the platform's killer app
In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program or software that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a video game ...
, akin to VisiCalc
VisiCalc (for "visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on 17 October 1979. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hob ...
for the Apple II in its ability to persuade customers to buy the computer.
Chris Crawford and others at Atari published detailed technical information in '' De Re Atari''. In 1982, Atari published both the ''Atari Home Computer System Hardware Manual'' and an annotated source listing of the operating system. These resources resulted in many books and articles about programming the computer's custom hardware.
Because of graphics superior to those of the Apple II and Atari's home-oriented marketing, games dominated its software library. A 1984 compendium of reviews used 198 pages for games compared to 167 for all others.
Built-in operating system
The Atari 8-bit computers come with an operating system built into the ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
. The Atari 400/800 has two versions:
*OS Rev. A – 10 KB ROM (3 chips) early machines
*OS Rev. B – 10 KB ROM (3 chips) most common
The XL/XE all have OS revisions, which created compatibility issues with certain software. Atari responded with the Translator Disk, a floppy disk which loads the older 400/800 Rev. 'B' or Rev. 'A' OS into the XL/XE computers.
*OS Rev. 10 – 16 KB ROM (2 chips) for 1200XL Rev A
*OS Rev. 11 – 16 KB ROM (2 chips) for 1200XL Rev B (bug fixes)
*OS Rev. 1 – 16 KB ROM for 600XL
*OS Rev. 2 – 16 KB ROM for 800XL
*OS Rev. 3 – 16 KB ROM for 800XE/130XE
*OS Rev. 4 – 32 KB ROM (16 KB OS + 8 KB BASIC + 8 KB Missile Command) for XEGS
The XL/XE models that followed the 1200XL also have the 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 ...
ROM built-in, which can be disabled at startup by holding down the silver OPTION
key. Originally this was revision B, which has some serious bugs. Later models have revision C.
Disk Operating System
The standard Atari OS only contained very low-level routines for accessing floppy disk drives. An extra layer, a disk operating system, was required to assist in organizing file system-level disk access. This was known as Atari DOS
Atari DOS is the disk operating system used with the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Operating system extensions loaded into memory were required in order for an Atari computer to manage files stored on a disk drive. These extensions to ...
, and like most home computer DOSes of the era, had to be booted from floppy disk at every power-on or reset. Atari DOS was entirely menu-driven.
*DOS 1.0
*DOS 2.0S – Improved over DOS 1.0; became the standard for the 810 disk drive.
*DOS 3.0 – Came with 1050 drive. Uses a different disk format which is incompatible with DOS 2.0, making it unpopular.
*DOS 2.5 – Replaced DOS 3.0 with later 1050s. Functionally identical to DOS 2.0S, but able to read and write enhanced density disks.
*DOS XE – Designed for the XF551 drive.
Third-party replacement DOSes were also available.
Playfield graphics
While the ANTIC
Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...
chip allows a variety of different Playfield modes and widths, the original Atari Operating System included with the Atari 800/400 computers provides easy access to a limited subset of these graphics modes. These are exposed to users through Atari BASIC via the "GRAPHICS" command, and to some other languages, via similar system calls. Oddly, the modes not directly supported by the original OS and BASIC are the modes most useful for games. The later version of the OS used in the Atari 8-bit XL/XE computers added support for most of these "missing" graphics modes.
ANTIC text modes support soft, redefineable character sets. ANTIC has four different methods of glyph rendering related to the text modes: Normal, Descenders, Single color character matrix, and Multiple colors per character matrix.
The ANTIC chip uses a Display List A display list (or ''display file'') is a series of graphics commands that define an output image. The image is created ( ''rendered'') by executing the commands to combine various primitives. This activity is most often performed by specialized di ...
and other settings to create these modes. Any graphics mode in the default CTIA/GTIA color interpretation can be freely mixed without CPU intervention by changing instructions in the Display List.
The actual ANTIC screen geometry is not fixed. The hardware can be directed to display a narrow Playfield (128 color clocks/256 hi-res pixels wide), the normal width Playfield (160 color clocks/320 hi-res pixels wide), and a wide, overscan Playfield (192 color clocks/384 hi-res pixels wide) by setting a register value. While the Operating System's default height for creating graphics modes is 192 scan lines ANTIC can display vertical overscan up to 240 TV scan lines tall by creating a custom Display List.
The Display List capabilities provide horizontal and vertical coarse scrolling requiring minimal CPU direction. Furthermore, the ANTIC hardware supports horizontal and vertical fine scrolling—shifting the display of screen data incrementally by single pixels (color clocks) horizontally and single scan lines vertically.
The video display system was designed with careful consideration of the NTSC video timing for color output. The system CPU clock and video hardware are synchronized to one-half the NTSC clock frequency. Consequently, the pixel output of all display modes is based on the size of the NTSC color clock which is the minimum size needed to guarantee correct and consistent color regardless of the pixel location on the screen. The fundamental accuracy of the pixel color output allows horizontal fine scrolling without color "strobing"—unsightly hue changes in pixels based on horizontal position caused when signal timing does not provide the TV/monitor hardware adequate time to reach the correct color.
Character modes
Map modes
GTIA modes
GTIA
Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit family of computers and in the Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA ch ...
modes are Antic Mode F displays with an alternate color interpretation option enabled via a GTIA
Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit family of computers and in the Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA ch ...
register. The full color expression of these GTIA
Color Television Interface Adaptor (CTIA) and its successor Graphic Television Interface Adaptor (GTIA) are custom chips used in the Atari 8-bit family of computers and in the Atari 5200 home video game console. In these systems, a CTIA or GTIA ch ...
modes can be engaged in Antic text modes 2 and 3, though these will also requires a custom character set to achieve practical use of the colors.
See also
* List of Atari 8-bit family emulators
Notes
References
Bibliography
The Atari 800 Personal Computer System
, by th
Atari Museum
, accessed November 13, 2008
*
*
*
External links
"A History of Gaming Platforms: Atari 8-bit Computers"
at Gamasutra
database of Atari 8-bit family games and other software
Atari Archives
text of Atari 8-bit family books
Atari SAP Music Archive
POKEY
POKEY, an acronym for Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit, is a digital I/O chip designed by Doug Neubauer at Atari, Inc. for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was first released with the Atari 400 and Atari 800 in 1979 and is included i ...
music and players
More K's. Less £’s
Britisch brochure for Atari 400 and 800.
{{Authority control
6502-based home computers
Home computers
Computer-related introductions in 1979