The Atari 800XL / Part 1 - Trash to Treasure - Computer History & Restorations

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● A new Trash to Treasure series is upon us, this time it's the Atari 800XL - A machine with a history that laid the foundation for many others that we loved, familiar names, and a battle for supremecy at the height of the 8bit micro wars.
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● Episode Links (Public edition)
1. Meet the Atari 800XL - • The Atari 800XL / Part...
2. 800XL Cosmetic Restoration - • Atari 800XL Restoratio...
3. Have you played Atari today? - WIP
Source Links:
The Computer Chronicles - Archive.org
Atari Commercial: • Atari 400 Home Compute...
C64 Commercial: / jesuszafra
Industrial Design Images: ericchamberlainifdm.wordpress.com
1200XL Footage - Atarimuseum.com
Prototype images: ClassicTech.Wordpress.com
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[@RMCRetro]

Exploring the Atari 8bit micros, and this 800XL in particular has been really enjoyable for me. I didn't know ANYONE who owned one here in the UK, and I rarely saw software for them...and do you know what, if I was given this instead of my Amstrad CPC464 I would have been very happy with it. Perhaps if the 400/800 were a bit more affordable in the early years they would have gained some more traction in the UK, it's hard to say really. Thank you as always for watching and if you enjoy what I do then head over to patreon.com/retromancave and become an Official Cave Dweller! Neil - RMC

[@therealfodder]

Got mine Xmas 1985 (my second machine after the Speccy) - complete with 1050 disk drive from Dixons. Finding games on disk was tough - had to beg my parents to take me to the Atari Centre in Birmingham! Otherwise I would have been stuck with a couple of text adventures and a graphics program that were bundled free! Cassette recorder came for my next birthday so I finally had access to pockey-money affordable Mastertronic and Firebird games!

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

You should talk to German and Polish software writers where Atari products have been and continue to be rather popular.

[@starfishphoenix7352]

Let me know if you want that break key, I have a non working (left in a wet garage) 800XL that you are welcome to for a few spare parts.

[@winstonsmith478]

I vote for full restoration.

[@memsom]

I had one of these. I think I have some cassette games and a cartridge of star raiders still. If they turn up I’ll message you somehow and maybe you have some use of them. The 65xe was exactly the same machine. My girlfriend gf at the time (1990ish) had one and we used to run my games on it.

[@PXAbstraction]

Me personally, I'd like to see a full restoration. I think any machine like this that's in full working order deserves to be brought back to its former glory and enjoyed as such. I get the value of a museum piece but with the fantastic work you put into restorations, I think this deserves it too.

[@nekononiaow]

"It's former glory" you say, but this ignores the fact that it's past was not so glorious since it lost a key and may have been used thusly for a long time. What is wrong with acknowledging that the machine and a rough past but survived nevertheless? I would not only go for a 3D printed key but I would moreover make it very obvious that it is not an original (because it will never be one).

[@janstraburg5282]

I'd definitely prefer a full restoration.

[@LGR]

Mmm, the tastiest of sausages.

[@mphelps7919]

Oh man I can actually audialise LGR saying that...with or without the Duke's overtones.

[@samueltoogood5703]

www.petersenshunting.com/editorial/the-lost-art-of-wild-game-sausage/272409 It’s a lost art, apparently.

[@bsvenss2]

Never seen an actual real LGR comment on KZbin before. 😳 This is BIG! 🤗😊

[@jr2904]

@@bsvenss2 he's one of us haha, I've seen him on 8bit guy's channel a bunch, sometimes other random channels

[@bsvenss2]

John Stroud I know. 🤗 I’ve followed his channel for years, but it is the first time I’ve seen a LGR comment on another channel. 😊

[@CommodoreFan64]

I'd love to see this machine restored to it's former glory with a matched key if possible.

[@PJBonoVox]

Agreed. Former glory ftw.

[@kellerkind6169]

same here

[@jerrylarch6556]

Former glory for sure

[@Wallygjs]

I would always want to return it to as new condition, so that it looks representative of what the original designers and manufacturers intended. I think leaving things damaged and worn doesn't give the machine the respect it deserves. If it was your own machine and only you were going to use it and the scars had special memories to you personally then great keep it as is. But if it;s on public display as an example of the genre then it should look its Sunday best!

[@gadi70]

The only patina i wouldn't change in my commodore, is the matt finish changed to shiny one under my wrists and fingers over the years.

[@winstonsmith478]

I'm glad more people are awakening to qualities of the Atari 8-bit computers designed by the late, great Jay Miner. I bought a 400 well before the C64 came along which copied the custom chip concept, modified it to expand memory, added a mechanical keyboard, and attached a thermal paper printer via the game ports. I designed a circuit I piggybacked onto a hacked, junked game cart and wrote an assembly language program which allowed me to dump cartridges to tape preceded on that tape by a loader routine. I never used it for piracy, I made it just to do it. Yes, seriously. This was made possible by EXCELLENT technical manuals sold at the time by Atari. I later bought an 800XL, did a bunch of mods to it and later moved on to a 1040ST. I wanted an Amiga, but the 1040ST system was cheaper than the 1000 and I'm frugal.

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@Winston Smith There's 2 books published in the 80s called "de re atari" & "mapping the atari" which talk a lot about the inner workings of the atari 8bit computers in detail & I think contain so information that was published in earlier computer magazines or programmers documentation. I plan to read 📚 😌 those 2 books at some stage.

[@jaycool428]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'd like to see it become a museum piece that shows its history with patina and battle scars. This would include the machine itself, the letter, all peripherals, software etc., each of which tells a part of the story of the original owner and their exemplary first steps into the dawn of the digital age. This may be my nostalgia speaking, as the 800XL was also my first computer, and I even had the same grey XE tape drive with it. I still love the design and think it's one of the most beautiful machines ever created, both inside and out. I think this particular one is in good shape overall, just as it is.

[@hamishthepolarbear614]

The finest 8-bit pre-built micro series. Also this was the model I had, the best 8-bit machine I ever owned (ZX Spectrum, Dragon 32, Oric Atmos, Atari 800XL). In so many ways the ST was a step back but eventually I got my favourite ever pre-build - Atari TT030, the best computer Atari ever made.

[@hamishthepolarbear614]

Regarding Miner 2049er and Manic Miner - Matthew Smith himself has admitted that the former was a huge "inspiration" for the latter.

[@Jimbaloidatron]

A step back indeed. I had an 800XL and so I was buying all the Atari magazines which started doing technical features on the new ST. When I got to thinking about a 16 bit upgrade, the ST just didn't excite me, going from custom chips to off the shelf parts, no sprites, no display list, seriously?! I don't think it takes a genius to work out what system I ended up buying! Never the less, you ultimately scored a TT, very nice!

[@Jimbaloidatron]

@referral madness I followed the custom chips, and so unknowingly at the time, I was following their designer, Jay Miner, to buying an Amiga 500. When I'd saved up enough money, I added a GVP SCSI HDD/ RAM upgrade that went on the side, then later still, got an A4000/30. I learned 'C' programming with the excellent free DICE compiler and IDE. I released a small utility to an Amiga Format cover disk which I've still got. I'm back programming 6502 on the 800XL now though!

[@Jimbaloidatron]

@referral madness You might even find that a good understanding of 6502 helps you move forward with the higher level languages, especially things like pointers in C! 😊

[@-Steven-]

I agree with most of the comments on here it should be a full restoration of the machine, return it to its former glory of when it was first purchased. Thanks for all your trash to treasure videos, i love watching things being restored.

[@richjback]

“We have a letter that tells us what he’s got up to with this computer”... “the story of this computer is filth”

[@markwalsham7115]

That is what 15 years + in a loft in a old cardboard box does for you - filth! You should have seen it before I sent it to Niel, that was utter filth!

[@MendicantMonkey]

@@markwalsham7115 Only 15 years for a machine that old would show at least some love for it. If only we all had room for our nostalgia pieces...

[@tamazonx]

I'd love to see a full restoration. If I still had my grandfather's TRS-80 Model 1, that's what I would want to do to it.

[@otopico]

I'd love it as a hybrid of museum piece and fully restored. Clean it up and future proof it, but no retro bright, and a functional, but obvious replacement break key. Nothing make me feel better than seeing these old machines being allowed to do the job they were intended to do. These machines were the seeds of our current technology age and should not only be remembers, but also used.

[@ricardobornman1698]

Give it the works, make it look like new. Reminds me of my 800XL when I just got it. These were awesome little machines.

[@farhanyousaf5616]

This was my first computer ever. I played games, and one day my dad asked if I was using it for programming, and my love for coding began with Atari BASIC. Still coding to this day! Unfortunately, my dad threw away my Atari, carts, cassettes, when we moved back to Canada from the Middle East.

[@nuanil]

I had an 800XL with a pair of 5 1/4 drives back in the day. Was a fantastic little machine.

[@hmbrz]

personally I think just cleaning it and repairing whatever prevents it from working normally is the way to go, it doesn't look to be in bad shape.

[@MrEverton2004]

Full resto for me. Plenty of old computers out there wearing their scars, nothing like seeing old 8-bit machines being restored to their former glory.

[@andyhayes2138]

We had an Atari 800xl when growing up. Miner 2049er was of our favourite games along with Monzumas Revenge, Bruce Lee & Mr Robot.

[@sunspot42]

The Atari 8-bits were easily the most sophisticated computers of the 8-bit era. Everything about them was incredibly well-designed and forward looking. Atari started work on them in '78 and released them in limited quantities in '79. The 800 in particular was built like a brick sh*thouse and had the best keyboard and best display of any 8-bit machines at the time of its release, including separate luma and chroma output years before things like S-VHS rolled along. With their built in display controller, 4-channel sound, game ports and sophisticated smart peripheral interface - sort of a proto-USB - they were literally about a decade ahead of the competition when they made their debut. Probably their only major drawback relative to their peers was their sluggish cassette interface, although they did have the unique ability to pass sound thru from the cassette to the TV or monitor's speaker, allowing them to run things like interactive language tutors off cassette. Unfortunately Warner Communications owned Atari by that point and had no idea what to do with the computers or how to best market them. Even though they demolished the Apple // series, sporting vastly superior graphics and sound and a faster-clocked 6502 CPU, they weren't able to displace their rivals over in Cupertino and eventually got sucked into the price war Commodore touched off first with their Vic (sort of a cut-down Atari 800) and later the Commodore 64, a decidedly less cut-down Atari 800 which sported many of the same features - player missile graphics (or sprites as Commodore called them), arguably superior sound, a faster tape drive (although a ludicrously sluggish disk drive), and more RAM standard. Unfortunately, Warner's Atari had done next to nothing to upgrade their 8-bit line until the 1200XL rolled out in December of '82, three years after the 800 had become widely available. While the 1200XL looked fantastic and sported the best keyboard any 8-bit computer ever shipped with bar none, it sported no really useful new features and actually omitted some functionality its predecessor the 800 possessed, like the separate chroma line in the video output. While its single board design was obviously much cheaper to produce than the 800's multi-board design, it shipped at a ridiculous $900 and immediately tanked in the marketplace. It simply couldn't compete with the Commodore 64, which had bowed at $600 in August of that year and began to rapidly plummet in price, dropping to $300 in 1983. The resulting price war forced Texas Instruments out of the market entirely by October of 1983 and left Atari hemorrhaging cash, in conjunction with the videogame crash. The 64-like 800XL was a decent cut-price design and had Atari been able to manufacture enough of them for the Christmas '83 shopping season they might have been able to stage a real comeback, but their switch to Taiwan from the US was plagued with issues and their market share collapsed even in the US as Commodore simply overwhelmed them. They never really recovered. Ironically, it didn't have to be this way. Had Warner's management not been incompetent, Atari would have already had a successor to the 400 and 800 on the market by '81, keeping them well-positioned against both Apple at the high end as well as cut rate challengers like Commodore. Believe it or not it's been said that IBM had also considered - circa 1979 - basing their own PC on the Atari 8-bits and actually met with Atari to discuss the possibility. History would have looked very different if the Atari 800 had become the basis for the IBM PC... retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/7135/the-almost-was-atari-ibm-pc

[@TheRetroChannel]

Looks like the majority want it looking like new. Judging by previous trash to treasure episodes, Neil is more than capable of this. No pressure mate

[@RMCRetro]

It's certainly looking that way. Time to break out the murder gloves

[@rlgrlg-oh6cc]

Nice that they used a bit of "Pictures at an Exhibition" for the sound test.

[@DarrenCoull]

Looking like new for sure. The cream and brown colour scheme tell us all about the era of this machine! :-) Great to see this getting some love - I had an 800XL, 1050 Disk Drive, 1010 Cassette and 1020 printer plotter - used to load a game from cassette during the 1hr lunchtime from school (I lived literally across the road!) and ate lunch while it loaded - if I was lucky, and it successfully loaded, then got about 10 minutes of game time before heading back to school!

[@cfriedel123]

The Atari 800XL was the first computer I owned as a kid (got it at 9) and I still have it and use it from time to time. It deserves a full restoration.

[@Salsadans123]

I still have the 600XL, the 800XL, the touch tablet, and the plotter. That last device was super fun to program. Facinating technology.

[@Sago7]

Right to my nostalgia. The 800XL was my first "computer". Days of writing some code and playing games on my black and white TV. Now I own one, with a cartridge with around 30 games and a joystick.

[@nicholasfarley5967]

This was our first family computer, we had tapes at first then Dad brought home a 1050 disk drive with more pirate games than we could ever need! It was rare in the UK but software was pretty easy to get, it was well supported for a while with £1.99 tapes from Mastertronic etc and we went to lots of 8-bit computer fares in aircraft hangers and country show grounds after the official Atari fair at Crystal Palace stopped. The cartridges were great, it has a fantastic version of Donkey Kong and Miner 2049 as show in the vid was great too. If you can get Star Raiders that is an absolute classic and Rescue on Fractulus and Ball-Blazer from Lucas Arts really showed off what it could do. Man, even that self test audio test sends shivers of nostalgia down my spine!

[@JDelwynn]

Full restoration, make it look like it was when it was first booted up!

[@dudstep]

Keep the patina for sure. It shows that it was well-loved and well-used.

[@drthmonkey42]

This was my first computer as a kid. I had dual aftermarket 5 1/4" floppy drives for mine, which at the time, made it feel like I was living in the future. Sadly, my parents moved out of my childhood home about 10 years ago, and I was not cognizant enough to realize I wanted my retro-computer collection. All the feels.

[@10p6]

Nice video. For those who do not know, the best game for the track ball is not missile command, but summer games :-)

[@plumeofsmoke2871]

First computer I ever owned. My late father fetched it home from work in a box with a job lot of games. It was pure heaven.

[@dunebasher1971]

Quick fact correction about CTIA/GTIA - CTIA was only fitted to the first 100,000 US-market 400/800 machines. It was never fitted to any PAL-market Atari 400/800s, which were all GTIA from the start. Even in the USA, 400/800s that still have a CTIA are rare. Once GTIA became available, Atari offered free upgrades for machines that were still under warranty, and out-of-warranty upgrades were less than $70. Since programmers started writing software that required GTIA, owners had a very definite incentive to upgrade.

[@sHuRuLuNi]

I loved my 800XL so much. It also looked so much better than the other computers of that time in my opinion.

[@fsddevelopment4513]

I really love the look of the 800XL. Very high end.

[@rogerboezio6715]

Brings back memories... Had one of these circa 1985, complete with the 1050XL disk drive. It was a huge step up from a ZX81 and a TI99/4A both of which we'd only had cassette storage for.

[@bundesautobahn7]

I used to have the Atari 130XE once (which is basically an 800XL in an Atari ST-like case but with more memory and slight upgrades), but we eventually got rid of it when I was a teenager and less appreciative of it. I hope I can have one again one day (along with a C64, a 286, etc.).

[@Chaostheory1971]

Hi Neil, I think that this machine deserves a full restoration bringing it back to its as new start in life.

[@k001daddy]

It deserves to be restored to its former glory. It still wears the scars on the inside.

[@DanNobles]

25:55 *retro-computer restoration expert blows into cartridge and it works perfectly*

[@RMCRetro]

Skills!

[@gamedoutgamer]

Niel, congratulations on your receiving an A8! They are awesome machines. Those retail tapes are beautiful and those are museum pieces, but please restore the computer. Light brighting in sunlight is more reliable and safer than peroxide (risky!). Watching the grimy and dusty motherboard get a good IPA brush cleaning to shine is cathartic so please let us enjoy that step. Again those tapes are beautiful and from what I've seen on ebay over the past few years, a more rare find. The 800XL is the best starter machine since it's the most common A8. The PAL 600XL's are great too since they have full video output, unlike NTSC 600XL's. Even though your power supply works, I do not recommend using it! Get a modern power supply for it please. That PSU will probably fail and damage the computer. Leaving it plugged in over the weekend was risky. To be honest I'm not sure how the UK 'ingot' PSU fairs as far as destroying machines. The US one does exactly that. There are about five keyboard variants for the 800XL's. Very sorry to be the bringer of bad news as yours is the worst of the bunch, the Mitsumi, with the very square keycaps and brown pcb. But it works so that's a win! See here atariage.com/forums/topic/105170-600800xl-keyboard-variants/ If you aren't planning on typing an entire book on it, you'll be fine. Please don't judge all 800XL's based on that very uncommon keyboard variant. The types 1 and 2 are the best. Type 4 'stackpole' keyboard is most common which I don't prefer. Also as was previously suggested, you can make or buy an SIO2PC-USB adapter and that will be far, far better than loading from tape. An AVG Cart is practically a must buy as it can emulate all carts and do much more. The SIDE3 cart is due soon and it might be even better still. You might also consider running a single wire to restore chroma to the video output. The 800XL's have arguably the worst (soft/blurry) composite video output of the entire line, but it varies from machine to machine. There is the 'super video 2.1' upgrade that mostly fixes the soft composite output, or you can get the modern UAV-D video upgrade that completely replaces the video circuitry and looks amazing. Even better is the sophia video upgrade that outputs DVI video! An upcoming Sophia release promises even more. You made one minor error in the video. The original 800 has proper chroma+luma (s-video) and composite. Also the CTIA is rare. Most Atari 400/800's also have the GTIA, which was planned from day 1 but wasn't quite ready for the initial release. GTIA shipped on all Atari 8bits from November 1981 and afterwards. You'd be selling yourself short if you didn't try at least thirty or forty of the top games for the platform. Miner2049 is a classic and loved by many but it's not a graphics and sound pusher. I have a spare type 4 SCCO Stackpole keyboard on a non-functioning 600XL I can send you. Still need to test the keyboard on a separate machine but it should work.

[@TheDanno210]

Neil - keep as-is! I love character on things. It shows it’s had a life, it’s lived, been used, but is still solid and useful. I’ll keep it clean but in this case I think it would be better to allow it to keep it’s war wounds as signs of a life long lived.

[@mr4kids.866]

Just came across your channel. I had the one of these as a kid. My Dad bought one including the tape deck and later the disk drive. Many hours sat typing in code to get the free games in PC magazines.

[@nicwilson6587]

Full Restoration back to.its formal glory with all its parts intact would be my vote, ready to fight another day :)

[@jubronaljoan]

Make the 800XL look as mint as possible Neil

[@MatthewHendersonn]

I kinda like the idea of making it something of a "museum piece", as you put it. There's too many full restorations out there, in my opinion.

I'd love to see the "museum piece" setup. Recently I managed to get back my own Amiga 500 I used in the early 90's and I decided to keep it untouched, to preserve all the traces of its history.

[@smartroadbiker]

I've done the same with my A1200 :D The case is yellowing, the keys are a slightly cream shade of white, but it is mine and it shows it has had a life :D

[@craigdianesmith]

The 800XL and VIC-20 were my fave 8-Bit Computers. I loved Kennedy Approach on the 800XL

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

I actually own both. Bought the VIC-20 at a HAMfest for $10 and included Omega Race.

[@angrydove4067]

Restore that computer! My first computer was a 600XL which was all I could afford and the 1010 tape unit, but after using that, when I got a C=64 system, floppy was like heaven, especially with the Super Snapshot 5 accelerating the drive.

[@fensoxx]

There was something wonderfully different about this video. It was a little more interactive maybe? A little less scripted? That you mentioned "I haven't tried this yet", etc.. I felt like I was there with you at the work bench troubleshooting. It was fantastic my favorite yet. I'm no director but whatever lightning in a bottle you caught on this episode I would love to feel more of. Thanks for that!

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Will, I am trying to incorporate more of this kind of thing into the videos after similar comments when I did it before. Glad to hear you liked it, expect more of me scratching my head and looking confused in future.

[@ShishakliAus]

+1 for restoration This vid is like a RMC greatest hits. Acrylic power supplies, crusty pins, Jay Miner, the whole shebang!

[@EXITMUSIC2011]

Hugely popular machine in the 80s. Atari World in Manchester City Centre had tons of great games. People still active making new games, remakes and hardware. My brother has new games and hardware coming out. He's already done Bomb Jack on Cartridge, Manic Minor, Jet set Willy, Saboteur and others. Also wrote SID chip emulator.

[@Lirio2u]

I love watching Neil diving into a box

[@RMCRetro]

Behave you

[@davidlewis1787]

Yes...naughty

[@davidlewis1787]

He did gently separate those flaps, to be fair

[@fredsmith1970]

@@davidlewis1787 LOL :-D

[@aka_izartist]

I feel like there would be a strong element of wabi-sabi were it to be cleaned up and shown warts an' all. There's a certain beauty to the "scars" as it were. I'd like to see that. Filling in the cracks with gold and keeping it as a reminder of it's own story would be brilliant I think.

[@svrsakura]

+1 for full restoration!! The History of the device is what makes it special, all the love and devotion previous owners showed it... and the frustration from playing Atari games...

[@markwalsham7115]

Neil, great to see you got my old 800XL running again, that diagnostic screen was a real step back in time for me! I personally would go for option 2, clean it up but not try and make it box fresh, as I spent many many hours using it and battle scars are great! Thank you!

[@jaycool428]

Agreed. Mark should have the final word on this question! 😉

[@mattsword41]

Museum piece - seems like was well used and well loved - don't scrub that away.

[@DavidWonn]

Decades ago, I picked up a few of these Atari 8-bit computers for dirt cheap as a package deal at a local store that mostly dealt with used video games. Two of them were 800XLs, though only one had all its keys intact. I don’t have a ton of software for it, but of what I do have, the games mostly remind me of their Atari 5200 counterparts. Thankfully I have several 3rd party Atari 2600 controllers, all compatible with 800XL for hours of fun times. Apart from the Commodore 64 and Apple ][e, the Atari 800XL is one of my favorite 8-bit computers overall.

[@DialM4Microcontrollr]

Leave it as a museum piece. My first 8-bit was a used Atari 800 purchased with an Indus GT drive and games for$400. I think it came with a cassette deck too

[@SchwachsinnProduzent]

Not sure whether or not a full restoration would be better, but I would like to see a 3D printed replacement key (maybe with 0.12 layer height? You could also use primer and sand it down to fill the layers more) So many machines get salvaged for parts, so getting new parts to repair old machines could in the long run preserve more machines. And I am a big fan of 3D printing :) For the rest: Cleaning and recapping to keep it in a working state for much longer. :)

[@MrJozza65]

800XL was my very first home computer, I remember looking at the 400/800 displayed in shop windows in Tottenham Court Road but couldn't afford them at the time. When the 800XL came out I was in a job, and was able to save my hard earned to buy one. I would like to see somewhere between full restoration and a clean up. I think the missing key would look good replaced, and the case cleaned up and possibly given the Retrobrite treatment. It's in pretty good nick, without cracks and holes in the case, but I think if it's to be a display piece it would look good brought back to as new condition. Seeing the system test again brings back memories of when my 800XL finally bit the dust, I ran the tests and they failed miserably, so that ended my time with this lovely machine as I couldn't get it repaired or replaced.

[@markwalker3484]

Tapes notwithstanding, the Atari Disk Drives were way faster than the Commodore equivalents.

[@little_fluffy_clouds]

We now definitely need an episode on repairing, restoring and refurbishing vintage Epson printers 😝

[@dapplebaumer]

Man I love theses Trash to Treasure episodes its been a pure joy since your first one. Would love to see a full restore but I think The 3d printed route and showing the so called scars sounds better.

[@needfortweed8734]

I am no expert when it comes to PCBs, but I have to say that to my very untrained eyes the layout of this PCB seems exceptionally clean and userfriendly...

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

He got an early socketed machine as far as the VLSI goes but the RAM is soldered down, so not very early.

[@needfortweed8734]

@@theannoyedmrfloyd3998 so it used to be more messy?

[@zedeighty]

I think I'm in the minority here, but I'd like to see a museum restoration.

[@therealdebater]

Yes, that was my initial thought. It has history, and we don't want to just erase that history.

[@heidirichter]

Me too. We may be a minority, but we exist. I personally think making it look like how it would have looked when new makes it less unique.

[@Mmmm_tea]

why not go half and half, 3d print a key but then give that key the works, sand it smooth, buffer it until it shines and paint/gloss it a close match

[@Spellfork]

I'm with you on this one since it has a history and a story behind it that is proven by the attached letter. I'd clean it very gently too just to leave scuffs and all plenty visible and frame that letter. There are enough other machines out there that can be fully restored and while those machines will look great they won't be as interesting. We have to not only preserve the machines but the history behind them or else the future will be just a bunch of pretty restorations of nostalgic but obsolete machines... and there's just so much more to it that this machine and letter serves as proof of!

[@mbee32k]

I agree. A museum restoration to full working order with normal patina!

[@aeiouxs]

Option 1 please Neil - full restore. If there's a geniunely deep and personal story behind this micro or its original owner that I missed in the video then Option 2 but otherwise it seems a little oversentimental. Great video and wow Miner 2049er has so many Chucky Egg similarities, not seen that before. Looking forward to the next installment, thanks again!

[@pauloninjinha]

My brother have one of those! Didn't knew about the diagnostic test! Looking forward for this series. Greetings from Brazil! Btw, 24:18 - Promenade by Mussorgsky.

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

That sound test just needs a few more bars played and then in 4 part harmony.

[@kev7345]

I think a full restoration is in order, those of us who grew up in England in the 80s probably spent most of our time in the company of the Commodore 64, Spectrum .. and if you had too much money a BBC micro .. as such on this side of the pond there were fewer of us who saw the Atari 800XL in the flesh ... apart from perhaps walking past it in a computer shop whilst browsing for the latest budget cassette game...

[@cdigames]

I own this same micro, but had to swap the power supply for a homemade one that does the job, and a DIY cable. But it's such a blast to tinker with, and the built in self-check is DEFINITELY a dream! I am in the camp of leaving it as is, get it looking nice and with a 3D printed key, but don't hide the fact that this was a used and *loved* machine. Any old 800XL can be restored to like-new, but no other ones will tell the same exact story as this one does.

[@MassimilianoManiscalco]

I think it deserves a full restoration.

[@RobGMun]

looking like new please

[@chrisl5097]

yes definitely a full restoration, please

[@ewanwickward8587]

I think we should go with a mis-matched key. The way I see it, each computer is unique and has it's own story to tell. This way you can represent that by giving it something different than all of the other 800's

[@pzterf]

Other channels I watch try and make old hardware look like new but I'd prefer to see this made functional without the full facelift. I like old machines simply because they're old.

[@igorperuchi2114]

Great! I'm a huge fan of the Atari 8 bit line of computers. Currently I have an Atari 600XL PAL (expanded to 64k RAM) and an Atari XEGS! They have an awesome library of games, and a huge homebrew scene, specially from Poland developers. I'd like a full restoration, but beware of the brown keys, Jan Beta had retrobrighted them and regretted the results!

[@Damaniel3]

As someone who owned a 65XE back in the day, I could hear the audio in my head the minute you popped up the self test menu. My personal preference would be toward full restoration and matched key.

[@Jimbaloidatron]

Doo doo doo dah de doo!

[@ehanneken]

The game you must play on an Atari 8-bit is Star Raiders. My other favorites included M.U.L.E. and Ultima IV, but those were of course available on other platforms..

[@sideburn]

Ballblazer

[@Carwyn.Morris]

I used to have one. spent hours with the book learning how to type out simple games and then record them onto to tape to play later. "lone Raider" was probably the one I played most.

[@angelic_slayer]

It played Mussorgsky ‘pictures at an exhibition’ when you tested the sound.

[@me0262]

18:45 What do you call a glitch in a video chip? The bug of a GTIA! ^_^ So glad you're finally seeing the light of Atari! ^_^ (Atari and Commodore living together, what's next? A Commodore youtuber making an Atari video! ^_^)

[@ridiculous_gaming]

It was a shame that Atari's prices knocked off so many fans in North America. I was the proud owner of an Atari 2600 in 1982 and was upgraded to an Atari 600xl in 1983. I was provided the option of a C64 with floppy drive, but since I was such a loyal fan I accepted the 600xl with a 1010 recorder instead. Back in the day, the price of those two offers were almost the same. Since that time I migrated to an 800xl with 1050 floppy drive, 130xe with Happy enhanced floppy drive, Atari 520STFM and within a few months I fell I was introduced to Amiga at a friends house. The Amiga 500 was my favorite machines for several years after that. Back in the day, I did not know who Jay Miner was, but it's ironic how I loyally stuck to his creations. A few sites also mention that the Amiga chipset was earlier expected to be an advancement of the Atari line in the form of a 1650XL computer. This was of course prior to 1984 when Jack Tramiel took control of Atari computers. It is also ironic that the big C64 price war that negatively wounded Atari 8 bit sales was actually intended to crush Texas Instruments and not Atari 8 bits.

[@markwalker3484]

the Amiga's forerunners were the Atari 8 bit line, whereas the forerunners of the ST were the 8 bit Commodore machines.

[@ryanfarmer4882]

Thanks for another great trip down memory lane, nostalgia at its finest. For me that machine deserves to be returned to its former glory.

[@shadowhound0]

It'd be a lot of fun too see what you can come up with for a 3D printed key! Be aware that in your last shot, the Ender 3 Pro has the filament spool mounted the opposite way. You always want the filament to be feeding left off the top of the printer, giving the filament a gentle curve going into the extruder, which will prevent snags and keep the filament path consistent. I've been upgrading my Ender 3 Pro (which I bought shortly after your video) and I'd be more than happy to show you what has been useful to me!

[@activemotionpictures]

I am also am interested in something like this.

[@brentgoeller8257]

If it were my Atari I had as a kid, I would want it restored as much as possible keeping it as original as possible. E.g. I would keep the original case, clean it, repair it, and retrobright it. But even if the repairs don't look perfect, I wouldn't replace it. My Tandy 1000 I had as a kid will never look new again, but aside from a battery, its all original. So I'm thrilled.

[@RonLaws]

Option 2! Making things look new again is rewarding, but if it is at the cost of sentimental history attached to the object then it's at a high cost. Clean it, keep it tanned, replace the key with a "prosthetic key" and frame the letter :) let the computer tell its story like an elder at a camp fire.

[@NostalgiaRetrogamer]

Full restoration! Great episode Neil!

[@Jimbaloidatron]

You don't need to rely on that old power supply, since it only needs 5V, you can lop off the cable and splice it with a USB cable to use a modern charger. Looks like you scored a mechanical keyboard, as thankfully a good proportion of the XLs were, so no membrane hassles like almost all of the later XEs, some XLs even have Alps switches. I bought my Atari 800XL in a Curry's sale for £129.99 with a 1050 floppy drive, this was an upgrade from a 48K spectrum with tapes. Quite possibly the best thing I ever did, since I was interested in programming and having the disk drive transformed that experience. After some 'Happy Computer' Turbo Basic, I quickly moved on to O.S.S. Action! and MAC/65 cartridges - which were absolutely superb. But even before all that, while not perfect, the built in BASIC had graphics, sound, joystick, and floating point which made for a far more complete experience than some other systems. Wiggling a joystick doesn't mess with the keyboard, and devices have sensible names, like P: for printer, D: for disk, S: for screen (there's even a hidden flood fill). I've recently come back to the Atari to try and finish what I started way back then. There are often misconceptions about what the Atari offered, especially here in the UK where tape loading was the norm, and the Atari experience for loading them is pretty atrocious, plus some dreadful game ports. Sorry for the long comment - I'm excited to finally see the 800XL on the channel! Thank you!

[@billramsay7351]

My best pal at school had an XL, it was a cracking little machine, and 2 player Goonies was just brilliant. It also had a kick ass conversion of Arkanoid. The only problem he ever had with it was the tape deck, it was so hypersensitive that breathing on it could cause whatever you were loading to stop.

[@havaska]

Definitely a full restoration

[@amerigocosta7452]

Take a look at the Atari 8-bit version of Space Harrier that was made in recent years. These machines are incredibly capable for being late 70's technology.

[@dunebasher1971]

It really says something that despite being designed in 1977-78, they were still powerful machines compared to almost all other 8-bit micros when the 16-bit era began in the mid-80s.

[@SlavomirG]

@@dunebasher1971 not really. The direct competitor C64 was superior both in graphics and audio department

[@Dr.D00p]

@@SlavomirG The 800's CPU was almost 80% faster! though.

[@Chordonblue]

@@SlavomirG Now THAT depends on what you valued most. If you liked ADSR-based wavetable audio, sprites and a fixed 16 colors, than the c64 was for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoyed color indirection (with 256 colors), a faster CPU, a floppy drive that was faster loading than a cassette, true bit-mapped screens of varying resolutions and the ability to mix those resolutions vertically, than the Atari made the grade. Comparisons of games can be difficult, as the effort in creating those games varies. For instance, I never saw Star Raiders on a c64, but they had Elite! The Lucasfilm games, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis Rift are simply superior on the Atari. Partially because of the greater efficiency and color capability of the graphics on the Atari, but also because both games were doing 3D calculations, calculations that were almost 80% faster on the Atari. I always thought that the c64 was a better machine for 'shooty' games like Paralax or Zybex. Also, games that relied heavily on sprites like Impossible Mission or International Karate were a better match on the c64. THAT SAID, one of the reasons the c64 got some great traction early on (besides the incredible price!), was because Commodore shared the entire memory map with every sale of their machine. Initially, Atari stupidly did their best to hide the internals of the machine without an understanding of how important 3rd party software was. This kind of thing outright killed the T.I. 99/4a, by the way. It wasn't until De Re Atari came out in 1982 that the complex internals of the Atari computers were finally exposed... And then the XL series of computers rendered a large number of games useless, as memory maps changed. Atari tried to blame independent programmers for not 'following the rules', but it was their lack of informing them what the 'rules' were in the first place. Again, Atari wasn't well with 3rd party software development, at least early on. For a lot of game companies, that was the last straw. In comparison, the c64 seemed more welcoming and easier to develop for with a common memory standard (all machines, from the 64 to the 128 had at least 64K) and a memory map clearly laid out for everyone to see. Meanwhile, the Atari's secrets slowly made the rounds. As on the c64, it was discovered that with a bit of trickery, you could display more than the standard palette of colors, emulate more voices of sound than the standard 4, and modify sprites on the fly to produce more of them. The true capabilities of the Atari are STILL a moving target. Look at Space Harrier, Hot and Cold Adventure, and Time Pilot as excellent amazing examples of what is possible. I should also mention that the development on Jay Miner's previous machine (the 2600), are also still nothing short of amazing. Check out the very recent Atari 2600 conversions of Donkey Kong, Star Castle, or Bosconian - simply brilliant!

[@RenzoLeon]

Stunning as always Neil !! Great video.

[@TheOmegastoopreme]

I got my 800xl in 1987,it was a trade up from the acorn electron I'd had for the past 4 years and I still had it right up to the mid 90s when it got given to a friend who still had a 130xe as I'd just got an amiga. I remember having a pair of disk drives (1050s) and a tapedeck (1010) all daisy chained up, along with a printer/plotter (1020)and a touch pad /pen accessory (cx77) . I used a 7800 controller for games. There were a few kids at my school with other atari micros, but I was the only one with multiple drives so you can imagine certain duplication tasks tended to happen round mine ;) not bad going for a 9 year old at the time lol. I vote tidy up but keep the scars. Perifractic did a major rebuild/refurb on one I think this should keep its patina with pride.

[@atarixle]

I love the Atari 800XL for much more than 30 years now, and all the time I use one. I own one since 1991. And I am using it day by day ... well year, sometimes I use emulators only, but I always have set up a real one somewhere in my home.

[@TzOk]

There were 2 versions of 800XL, the original one you have, and the 800XLF (this marking was only on the motherboard), which introduced a FREDDIE chip (like in 65XE) instead of the delay line and some TTL logic chips. From the outside, the only difference is a location of the color/hue potentiometer on the bottom of the case. In case you'd like to paint the case, the perfect match for the ivory part is RAL 1015. I couldn't successfully retrobright it - first I got a marble, and finally it came almost snow-white. I ended up painting it to ivory.

[@smartroadbiker]

I like the idea of leaving it as is. It has history and a life, with it being restored it ignores how it got to where it is today and the journey it had getting there. If it is restored it is just another restored "800XL"

[@a.garland5003]

Can’t thank you enough for this video, so many happy memories playing on the 800xl with my brother 👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻

[@namakudamono]

Goodness me, that half an hour just flew by! Thank you very much Neil. I’m very impressed at your natural ability to simply to talk to the camera, at length, and seemingly without a script. You’re becoming an excellent presenter. As for your question at the end, I could appreciate both directions, however this is a “Trash to Treasure” series, so I would say restore the micro to its former glory, complete with replacement key and full case retrobrite!

[@carledwards9477]

Make it a memory/museum item. All home micros have a history, and there should be some that retain the scars of their existence. The previous owner obviously enjoyed the machine - keep the memory alive.

[@MaxAngor]

I loved my 800XL so this really made me nostalgic. Subbed.