tletski@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (04/25/91)
I recently fell into possession of an Atari 400. I have ho knowledge of this machine. Could somebody fill me in with the details (kind of processor, support floppy, cartridges available) etc. Thanks, Paul Tletski Highland Hts., Ohio
Booby's Home <U25042@uicvm.uic.edu> (05/01/91)
In article <4356.2816bec5@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>, tletski@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com says: > >I recently fell into possession of an Atari 400. I have ho knowledge of this >machine. Could somebody fill me in with the details (kind of processor, >support floppy, cartridges available) etc. Paul, This is truly the first of firsts. First off, the ATARI 400 is 6502 based processor, with 16K (probably) built in. It has a "membrane" keyboard, which is someone's idea of a cruel joke. As far as the floppys go, you do need specific drives for ATARIs. Some of the ones I remember are Rana, Indus GTS, Percomm, ATARI's own 810 and 1050, and I'm sure that there are others. If you have the 850, the serial interface, you can hook up 3rd party drives, I think. Cartridges available are numerous, I'm sure, but probably hard to find. As far as what it's good for, well, I would probably use it for learning 6502 assembler. It's not fast, it's not nice, but it'll do the trick if that's what you're in to. Brought to you by the sick mind of Bob Jackiewicz, writer of wrongs, wronger of rights. BITNET: U25042@UICVM "Touch my monkey!" -Dieter InterNet: U25042@UICVM.UIC.EDU "Those people [who copycat movie murders] "Your Lupins or your life!" should not only be put in jail, but should -Python, M. also be sued for plagiarism!" -Stephen King
gdtltr@brahms.udel.edu (root@research.bdi.com (Systems Research Supervisor)) (05/01/91)
In article <91121.003533U25042@uicvm.uic.edu> U25042@uicvm.uic.edu (Booby's Home) writes: =>In article <4356.2816bec5@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com>, tletski@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com =>says: =>> =>>I recently fell into possession of an Atari 400. I have ho knowledge of this =>>machine. Could somebody fill me in with the details (kind of processor, =>>support floppy, cartridges available) etc. => =>Paul, => This is truly the first of firsts. First off, the ATARI 400 is =>6502 based processor, with 16K (probably) built in. It has a =>"membrane" keyboard, which is someone's idea of a cruel joke. I believe the keyboard's purpose is to be "Peanut Butter & Jelly-proof". It wouldn't be too bad for playing Star Raiders. => As far as the =>floppys go, you do need specific drives for ATARIs. Some of the ones I =>remember are Rana, Indus GTS, Percomm, ATARI's own 810 and 1050, and =>I'm sure that there are others. Like Atari's XF551 DSDD drive. However, there is little point in trying to run a DOS in 16K RAM. => If you have the 850, the serial =>interface, you can hook up 3rd party drives, I think. You can do it, but not with the 850. The 850 has (I believe) 3 (4?) serial ports and 1 parallel port. For third party drives, you probably want something like the ATR8000, which will run IBM-type drives, a printer, and possibly a serial device or two. In the upgraded version it will also run CP/M. => Cartridges =>available are numerous, I'm sure, but probably hard to find. => =>As far as what it's good for, well, I would probably use it for =>learning 6502 assembler. It's not fast, it's not nice, but it'll do =>the trick if that's what you're in to. => A reasonable conclusion. =>Brought to you by the sick mind of =>Bob Jackiewicz, writer of wrongs, wronger of rights. =>BITNET: U25042@UICVM "Touch my monkey!" -Dieter =>InterNet: U25042@UICVM.UIC.EDU => "Those people [who copycat movie murders] =>"Your Lupins or your life!" should not only be put in jail, but should => -Python, M. also be sued for plagiarism!" -Stephen King Gary Duzan Time Lord Third Regeneration -- gdtltr@brahms.udel.edu _o_ ---------------------- _o_ [|o o|] Two CPU's are better than one; N CPU's would be real nice. [|o o|] |_o_| Disclaimer: I AM Brain Dead Innovations, Inc. |_o_|
Tom_Klok@mindlink.bc.ca (Tom Klok) (05/01/91)
> daveg@prowler.clearpoint.com writes: > -=> On 1 May 91 16:28:53 GMT, achilles@unixland.uucp (David Holland) said: > > [...] > DH> The Atari 400 has a big brother, the Atari 800. This machine > DH> has a full travel keyboard (in place of the 400's membrane type), > DH> and came with 32KB memory as opposed to the 400's 16KB (someone > DH> please correct me if I'm wrong). > > You're wrong. :-) > > Both the Atari 400 and the Atari 800 shipped with 16K of RAM. In the beginning, both the 400 and 800 shipped with 8K of RAM. Later on it was 16K, and a while after that the 800 could be had with 32K or 48K from the factory. For a time there were a lot of articles in the magazines on how to hack an 8K RAM board into 16K by changing the RAM chips, a decoder and adding a few jumpers. Star Raiders runs in 8K of ROM and 8K of RAM. Impressive, isn't it? Tom a344@mindlink.bc.ca
daveg@prowler.clearpoint.com (Dave Goldblatt) (05/01/91)
-=> On 1 May 91 16:28:53 GMT, achilles@unixland.uucp (David Holland) said:
[...]
DH> O The Atari 400 has a BASIC interpreter available on pop-in
DH> cartridge. Short of assembler, I'm not sure what other languages
DH> are (or were) available.
Ummm... OSS had a number of languages, including an improved BASIC
(BASIC A+) and Action! (a cross between BASIC, Pascal, and 6502 which
compiled). Other languages available were FORTH (in both disk and
cartridge), Pascal, C, Modula-2, a micro-COBOL, and I think a FORTRAN
kicked around for a while..
DH> The Atari 400 has a big brother, the Atari 800. This machine
DH> has a full travel keyboard (in place of the 400's membrane type),
DH> and came with 32KB memory as opposed to the 400's 16KB (someone
DH> please correct me if I'm wrong).
You're wrong. :-)
Both the Atari 400 and the Atari 800 shipped with 16K of RAM.
You could easily expand the 800, though, because it had a number of
(damn! I can't remember how many -- four total, I think) slots which
the OS cartridge, memory cartidges (often 32K), and the occassional
80-column adapter could plug into. The 400 was more difficult, since
it involved prying open the case, and using bare boards.
DH> Peripherals are attached to these two machines in daisy chained
DH> fashion, sort of like SCSI devices (is this correct?). One
DH> device was plugged into the processor, the next was plugged into
DH> the first device, and so on.
Well, they were daisy-chained, but I wouldn't call 'em SCSI.. :-) You
could put up to four 810 drives on one computer (possible device IDs
on the drive), along with hanging off an 850 I/O interface, which
provided you with four serial ports and a Centronics parallel printer
port. There was also the (in)famous Atari 410 tape recorder/player.
DH> These two machines had some really fantastic video game software
DH> available. I do believe that the modern Atari home video game
DH> machines have their heritage in the 400 and 800.
Well, sort of, in that the Atari 65XE game machine was initially released
as an updated 64K version of the 800.. The 5200 used a (very) similar
chipset (as indicated by the fact I had a couple of games someone dumped
off a 5200 cartidge and ran on an 800). I can't remember what the 7800
had in it, although I would suspect it was similarly based.
They were good little machines, though -- right on the cutting edge
for a while....
-dg-
--
"Look, folks, you can't save everyone. | Dave Goldblatt [daveg@clearpoint.com]
Just try not to be living next to | Software Engineering (Subsystems)
them when they go off." | Clearpoint Research Corporation
- Dennis Miller | 35 Parkwood Dr., Hopkinton, MA 01748achilles@unixland.uucp (David Holland) (05/01/91)
**** FORWARDED MESSAGE **** From moonsweep!Blade!carl_gundel Wed May 1 91 10:34:17 Path: moonsweep!Blade!carl_gundel Date: 91Apr30 8:58 pm EST From: carl_gundel@Blade.mind.org Organization: Beantown 617/891-7338 Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit X-Citadel-Gateway: moonsweep.UUCP (Portcullis 0.5) Message-id: <91Apr308:58_pm@Blade.citadel> Subject: Re: What is an Atari 400?? The Atari 400 is an 8 bit machine based upon the 6502 microprocessor. This is the same processor as the Commodore 64 and the Apple ][ series computers. It was the first (as I remember it) personal computer with Sprite (or as Atari called them, Player/Missile) graphics, enabling it to move a graphic image(s) in front of or behind other images without them disrupting each other. The hardware took care of everything, and short of needing to learn how to program them, sprites did not require the programmer to develop any special software. O The Atari 400 has a BASIC interpreter available on pop-in cartridge. Short of assembler, I'm not sure what other languages are (or were) available. The Atari 400 has a big brother, the Atari 800. This machine has a full travel keyboard (in place of the 400's membrane type), and came with 32KB memory as opposed to the 400's 16KB (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Peripherals are attached to these two machines in daisy chained fashion, sort of like SCSI devices (is this correct?). One device was plugged into the processor, the next was plugged into the first device, and so on. These two machines had some really fantastic video game software available. I do believe that the modern Atari home video game machines have their heritage in the 400 and 800. As far as support goes for these machines, I'm not sure, but aren't some of Atari's more recent 8 bit PC's compatible (or almost?)
wolfram@cip-s02.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Wolfram Roesler) (05/22/91)
Pandora@kcbbs.gen.nz (Dawn Scotting) writes: >Don't forget that if his Atari 400 is only 16k then it will not have >enough memory to drive a disk drive. Sure it does. I am using a 400 with only 16 KB, a 1050 drive and DOS 2.5, and it works. However, after loading DOS there is not much space left for anything... :( CU Wolfram