››2600 Keyboards - The Unreleased Power.››  This file will talk about two out of four or five keyboards built for the Atari 2600 (Atari VCS).  One is of course from Atari, the other from Entex Eletronics.›  The Atari keyboard was designed to be an inexpensive alternative to buying a full fledged system such as Atari's own 8-bit computers.  The 2600 keyboard sports 53 keys of the raised rubber variety and positioned slightly closer together than your average typewriter layout.  The keyboard comes with 8K RAM standard, expandable to 32K.  A special line of games was to have been put out to take advantage of the larger memory.  Software would emphasize home management, education, and personal development.  Planned peripherals include disk drives, modems, a low cost printer and even possibly a form of wafer storage.  These devices would be plugged in the special expansion port found on the left side of the unit.  The keyboard would also allow a user to plug in a standard cassette recorder for program storage.›  The 2600 Keyboard fits snugly on top of the 2600 itself and plugs in through the cartridge port (where else?).  It would also feature a souped up version of MicroSoft BASIC, built-in of course, which would allow people who know BASIC already to be able to program the system right away.  The suggested retail price is set somewhere around $90.›››Enter Entex››  Entex's entry into the 2600 Keyboard family is called the Entex 2000 Piggy Back.  This keyboard sits in front of the 2600 and plugs into the 2600 via a wire connected to a cartridge-like interface which in turn slides into the 2600 cartridge port.  This keyboard is full sized and has 70 keys, including nine special function keys and four cursor keys.  The heart and soul of this machine is a Z-80A 8-bit MPU, with an 8K built-in BASIC that even holds the video and graphics display.  There are 128 characters available with a 32 x 16 display.›  The standard memory in this unit is a mere 3K, of which only 2K is available for programming because of a 1K graphics overhead.  To get around this major limitation Entex is offering optional 16K RAM carts, up to two could be plugged in, bringing the total amount of memory to a very generous 34K.›  A peripheral expansion box is planned to allow other devices to be used with the keyboard, through an RS-232C port on the box, which would also allow one piggyback to talk to another without a modem.  The box would also allow parallel I/O for possible use with a printer.  A cassette recorder can also be plugged in through the expansion box.  The expansion box and memory modules are expected to sell for about $69.95 each.  Even though the Entex has a great deal of potential as a game machine, Entex says "Let Atari do the games.  Piggyback is a learning computer - we'll create the educational programs".  LOGO is even being planned for release with the PiggyBack, along with a host of educational and personal skill improvement programs such as Speed Reading and Computer Typing.  The basic unexpanded unit will retail for under $129.›››  These two keyboards alone present a great deal of power for the serious 2600 user who would like to get into low-end computing.›››And now for the credits:››  The Atari 2600 Computer review was written by Mark Brownstein.›  The Entex 2000 Piggy Back review was written by Suzan D. Prince.››  The above is a condensed version of the two reviews which originally appeared in the June 1983 issue of Video Games Magazine, Vol. 1, number 9.››File by:Don Rogers››