The Atari 8-bit computers were amazing hardware for their time. They featured 256 color graphics, an independent sprite overlay, 4-voice sound generator, and the venerable 6502 processor, probably THE processor to learn assembly on. Atari went on to make the ST, the Lynx, and Jaguar, and eventually died ignominiously due to consistently poor management over the course of years. But in my mind, they never again after the 8-bit achieved that perfect blend of technology, innovative engineering, and sheer fun they had with these computers.

     Besides being a remarkable machine in its own right, the Atari 8-bit existed at a time when the home computer industry was just becoming exactly that. Without the influx of the faceless Masses that pervade the web and provide the sucker index that allow make money schemes to work, computerdom was a very different world back then. There was simply an assumed minimum level of competence with a PC when you owned one; you were either a professional, a dedicated hobbyist, or crazy. At 13 I bought my first Atari computer with money I made from selling a TRS-80 program I wrote at 11. I guess I was one of the crazy ones.

     One of the great things about that time was the games. Because the hardware was pretty poor, relative to now, not a lot of time was spent trying to create lush graphics or CD quality sound. Instead, game designers knew that games had to be about play quality. And some really great ones were made; M.U.L.E., Archon, Alternate Reality , the Infocom stuff , etc. I played them all, eventually become so hooked that I made my advocation my vocation and got a job at a games company. I believe some of those 8-bit games stand fully against todays latest in terms of actual enjoyment.

     Enter emulation. Emulation is achieved by running a program in software on one computer that imitates the behavoir of hardware in another. In this case, David Firth put together an emulator that behaved like the hardware of the Atari 8-bit computers and 5200 game console. He got some help from Ron Fries, who did the Pokey (sound chip) code that just about everybody uses now. David's product was called simply Atari800. I ran across it one day, used it, and liked it. Unfortunately it was only available for Unix, the Amiga, and DOS - and the DOS version was a little limited. Fortunately I'm pretty conversant with Win32 and DirectX. Throw some bleary eyed nights in there, a lot of Coca-Cola (DRINK COKE PLAY AGAIN), and you have the formula for Atari800Win. It's David's emulator ported to Win32, with all kinds of DirectX bells and whistles.

But hey, enough reminiscing. Let's get down to business. You can download the emulator right here:

New version as of 09/16/97 and you can read about what's new here

Atari800Win version 1.4 (next version might be a while, need to talk to David Firth. If you want to help atari800win at this point, help David with the emulation layer. The Win32 stuff is trivial and under control.)

You will need ROMs. These are the original operating system of the Atari computer. I don't have them in the archive and I don't have them on my page here (technically, that would be illegal). However, if you go here I bet you can get the roms just by themselves. Likewise this appears to be a copy of the various Atari system disks. If anybody cross-links to these files they will be removed!

I will regularly post updates to this page, check it every week or so. Generally I will continue pounding on a project like this until I consider it perfect, but the pounding itself may take some time....you'll have to bear with me on that.

Here are some Atari 8-bit links to get you started (there is a wealth of Atari freeware games available):
David Firth's Atari800 page (the author of the original emulator)
The Atari 8-bit Resort a huge page with a lot of links
The Atari 8-bit Homepage informational dealing with the various hardware, etc.
Morbid Guy's Atari 8-bit Manual Archive help him out if you have a manual he doesn't.
The Atari 8-bit New User, Emulator FAQ by Bill Kendrick. READ THIS!
WinFrotz a Z-Machine (Infocom adventure) emulator for Win32

©1997 Rich "Twist" Lawrence rich@kesmai.com
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