Atari 400 and 800

Atari 400 and 800 were very powerful game-machines at their time (the 800 was also used for application software). The graphic-chip Antic developed by Jay Miner (who later designed the Amiga) is programmable and can use a different resolution for each screen-line. With clever use of the Antic, programs can show all 256 colours at once.
Basic was not included in the roms: You have to plug in a Basic-module. Without the module, the Atari works as a notepad!
With the introduction of the two Ataris a Basic-module (on a 8K-cartridge) and the legendary Star-Raiders (also 8K) were available. The second cartridge-port of the Atari 800 was only used by a few cartridges like the Basic-extension. The Atari 800 was more professional with its typewriter-style keyboard, the 48 KByte RAM and the monitor interface. It was also used in many universities.

On the Winter-CES 1979 Atari showed the 400 and 800 after one year of development.
The introduction in the U.S.A. was a big success for Atari. Many games and application software which were avaible for the Apple II were ported to the Atari. The greatest arcade-games were programmed for the Atari like Asteroids, Missile Command and Joust.
Today the old 8-bit Atari-computers have still got many friends. There are even some new developments like a turbo-card.
Internet-Pages:
Atari XL/XE
Mareks Atari 8 Bit pages (ABBUC).
Ivo van Poorten Atari 8 Bit pages.
Atari 8-bit FAQ by Michael Current
New Breed Software-Seite by Bill Kendrick
Atari XL/XE Homepage by Stefan Lausberg.
Newsgroup: comp.sys.atari.8bit
PVV Atari Archive
Atari 800 Atari 400

Computer: Atari 400 Atari 800
CPU/Clock speed:6502/1,92 MHz
Release year:1979
ROM:10 KByte
RAM (expandable)16 KByte48 KByte
Display:TVTV/RGB
Text display:40 *24
Graphics display320 * 192 (2 colours)
160 * 192 (4 colours)
Colours256 colours
Sound:4 channels mono
Keyboard:touchpadtypewriter
Interfaces: 4 Joystickports
TV
RGB (only Atari 800)
Cartridgeport
Operating systemAtari-OS
Back: