Atari 130XE Computer - 8bit Vintage Computing - Box Read & Test - Retro - Video Game - Jack Tramiel

[@danestegman155]

Good video! TJ! The Atari 130Xe is the first Atari computer that I purchase new, back in the summer of 1985. I also bought the Atari 1050 disk drive along with it! I bought both items in Child World toy store. The fellow that sold me the Atari 130XE and the Atari 1050 disk drive happened to belong to an Atari computer club and gave me a bunch of disks to try on the Atari 130Xe and Atari 1050 disk drive! I had that computer for almost 35 years. I quit on me, I had a guy trying to get it fixed for me, but he passed away. I did buy another 130xe a few years ago, to replace my original one! Finally, I still write checks too!

[@MacSociety]

bummer you lost your original 130 but nice you replaced it.

[@AzraelSWFC2011]

Love the Atari aesthetic from this period, tied the whole line together. The Grey and angled lines, just glorious. :)

[@ShamrockParticle]

They also used cheaper and thinner plastic as well as lesser quality ram. :( The casing design was slick, if not the best looking of anything at the time and its held up very well.

[@PG-gs5vb]

Not sure if you noticed that but the machine on the front side of the box is not the production version but actually a prototype. It is a bit wider (note the wider areas beside the keyboard) and the Atari 130XE label is much shorter. The rear of the box shows the final version of the design. The picture of the prototype is also used on the front page of the user manual.

[@MacSociety]

Had no idea. Thanks for the heads up.

[@stephenelliott7071]

Aww I have such fond memories of my very first computer (the ZX Spectrum 48K). But my Atari 130XE with the 1050 Disc Drive was such a major step up technically. I have huge appreciation for both though.

[@mjp29]

I wanna smoke some of what TJ is smoking. I owned an Atari 8 bit (800XL) and a Commodore 8 bit (C64). The Atari, even though released 2.x years earlier held it's own. The Atari was a polished system that simply worked great. The Commodore felt like a rush job - was very buggy & the disk drive system, even with a fast load cartridge, was much slower. They both used the same processor chip, but the Atari's processor was clocked much faster.

[@domdom9273]

Ohhh the nostalgia. My first computer

[@johnwilliams7999]

Looks like a mini atari st. I seem to remember adverts for this when I was a kid.

[@retroguy4139]

My first computer was a Atari 65XE. Loved it. I had Star Raiders, Pac-Man, E.T., Pitstop 2, Realm of Impossibility, and Speed Ski (typed in from Antic magazine).

[@mrgrumboldt]

Ahh I love watching this old gamer play his grandpa computer games. :)

[@MacSociety]

one day... one day... you will have someone write to you saying the same thing. hahaha. age happens. lol

[@Ha.captain]

Wow 😯 🤩

[@Animebailey]

Hi TJ!❤ That do look like a great computer. I never own one though.😆 But I did play Jungle Hunt before, but it got lost when I moved to a new place years ago. I forgotten all about that game, but I'm still glad you showed it off a little. Hey, maybe you can do a longer game play of it in the future?😄

[@socialengineering2539]

One think u really miss is crt tube like pvm or sony trinitron for those kind of retro console and computer

[@MacSociety]

I have one. 27" RCA TV from 1980s. Look to my past videos as you will see it. ;-)

[@socialengineering2539]

Ah i miss that i will return to old video's Crt tv are good to day i just get my hand on amstrad cpc6128 with his original crt monitor i enjoy watching ur video's

[@keyboard_g]

Gotta reach around to plug in the XTC. It doesnt slip in easy.

[@ContractCAD]

Ooh. I have one sat right next to me (beautiful example 130xe in its box with matching xc12 recorder). Sadly it's dead with RAM failures but I have it queued up for repair 👍👍 I think it died very early in its life and got put away in near-mint condition.

[@socialengineering2539]

From morocco i have my atari 800xl one too

[@Wreckhead]

The cheque is in the mail, I promise! 😁

[@robertgrlic6505]

If you don't have any cartridges...can you simply power it and do some basic programming?

[@MacSociety]

Not sure. I think basic is built into these later models but have not explored that.

[@michaelstoliker971]

Why yes, yes you can!

[@themegaman91965]

Such colorful boxing that I grew up within the 1990s; shows the product right on the box with just the right amount of color on certain sections telling you "look at me, I'm a powehouse, you won't regret this purchase!". Had that nice rush of that with the Nintendo 64 in 2000, various computer games/software in the mid-to-late 1990's, and the very last in 2002 with the Nintendo Gamecube, then everything started to have rather bland packaging, with this minimalistic nonsense especially prevalent after 2006, with manuals shrieking down in size, box details left with much to be desired, and now manuals you get with any physical game is completely gone, with just the disc. Sad, honestly...

[@MacSociety]

Yeh, I myself like manuals. Happy my Speccy Next came with a large one.

[@TheAtomicCrusher]

An adults only Atari video, talking about reaching around, slipping in things easily, and butts... oh my goodness... 🤣

[@MatthewHill]

I still pay (almost) all my bills by check. Billpay just doesn't seem like real money to me. How many people still _carry_ a checkbook?

[@michaelstoliker971]

I don't carry, but I have one. I've got the plastic checkbook for when I'm on the town.

[@michaelstoliker971]

I had a 130 XE and used the expansion port with an adapter that allowed me to hook up an ICD MultiIO system so I could have an additional 256K and a 20Meg hard disk. Running SpartaDOS, I felt like I had an Atari equivalent of the IBM XT. If I had the larger ram MIO it would have been truly a 640K IBM XT. It only needed an expansion chassis and an accelerator card for the full experience. Too bad Trameil killed the 1090 expansion chassis when he took over Atari.

[@MacSociety]

Those expansion systems looked really cool!

[@michaelstoliker971]

@@MacSociety Have you seen the reproduction expansion cards that Brian Reifsnyder is working on on AtariAge? Very interesting to me. He even has a prototyping card.

[@MacSociety]

Nope, had no idea. I will try to search there for it. Thanks for the tip.

[@vitek7219]

Hey man how you're amiga one ?

[@MacSociety]

My X5K is doing well. thx.

[@godslayer1415]

That's 5 minutes of my life I will never get back.