The Story of the Atari 1200XL - Is It GOOD? Tech Retrospective

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Today on Tech Retrospective we continue our never-ending coverage of the Atari 8 bit line of retro computers. Up today is the Atari 1200XL, possibly the most polarizing of the Atari 8bit line. The Atari 400 and Atari 800 were moderate successes, but the Sweet-16 project led to the cray cool Atari 1000 and Atari 1000x. Which would have been great, except we never got them. No instead we got the 1200XL..... it's a mixed bag. But with competition from the TI99/4A and ESPECIALLY the Commodore 64, could it keep up?
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#atari #retrocomputer #Atari1200

[@KTPurdy]

in 1983 I used the 1200XL to write my college papers. And yes, the 1200XL had the best keyboard found anywhere.

[@JohnDoe-ec1mz]

Still is the most BEAUTIFUL design Atari had ever released. The 1200XL is stunningly gorgeous !!

[@xXTheoLinuxXx]

I agree, they should have kept that design for the 600 and 800XL

[@datacipher]

I love the 1200xl and Atari 5200 designs. Sleek, powerful, and beautiful looking.

[@joebrewer4529]

Natori should’ve been ahead of the curve in so many different ways. The visual aesthetic of Atari logo everything Lindsay self, some great hardware designs that they sadly didn’t capitalize on.

[@StarlancerAstro]

I still have my 1200xl from when I was 10, I can still remember when I actually learned what basic was and wrote my first programs. I now own a modded 600xl I use to mess with since it’s much smaller but the 1200xl is still a beautiful design and will never sell it.

[@fitzburg63]

I programmed it in assembly language, MAC65

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

I had a TI 99 4A, 16 K, color. Also had a cassette recorder, cable. Software(both, part of which I wrote in BASIC) and on tape/cartridges(pre-packaged, games). I got rid of it only because I didn't have a tv to hook it up to and couldn't afford the monitor. I miss the system, now. I want to buy one. But what cable do I need for a HDMI tv? Bi-directional cable? Help. Thanks.

[@ericmoralez390]

My dad bought a 1200XL in ‘83 at a radio shack. I still have it and is 100% operational and in very good condition. I never knew how rare it is, until I watched this video.

[@travistaylor3186]

As a kid I wanted an Atari computer but didn’t even know the 1200 XL was even a thing. Thankfully I waited a few years and ended up with an ST that I still own. Excellent video as usual.

[@FADE2GRY2048]

I also ended up with an ST; first a 520 and then a 1040. These replaced my 600XL system. Had I known that the Amiga was the real successor to 8-bit Atari design I would have bought one. We forget how difficult it was to stay informed back before the Internet.

[@originalfred66]

I got an Atari 1200XL when I was in high school and ended up using it all the way through college. I tried the Atari Word Processor, but it was not compatible. I thought it was strange that the Atari Word Processor was not compatible with an Atari computer. That turned out to be lucky because I switched to the far superior AtariWriter cartridge. I even had a spell check disk that worked pretty well considering the limited disk space. I also had VisiCalc and a lot of games. Some cartridges were difficult to insert because of the "tight" cartridge slot on the 1200XL. I think the biggest drawback to the 1200XL is that it did not have a built in BASIC. At the time, BASIC was pretty much required. ANALOG and Antic magazines had a lot of great software to use. Those were fun times to be learning what a computer could do.

[@RickNuthman]

My grandma worked at K-Mart and got me an 800xl for my 7th birthday for $100 with her discount in 1983. I remember opening the box and finding a full color catalog that had all the different models in it. I remember looking at the 1200xl thinking 'woah! That looks bad ass' It is crazy that it only sold for a few months, because they had it in the catalog that shipped with all the 800xl models. At school we had an old 800 in my classroom which I learned BASIC on. Back then I would have traded my 800xl for the 800 because... you know, the 80s. Bigger was better!

[@CarsandCats]

I had the same reaction when I bought my new 800XL but never saw a 1200XL in real life. Moved on to the XE and then ST later. 🚗🚙🐈🐈‍⬛

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Very interesting video... very nicely done! Nice clear narration too.

[@ShinGoukiSan]

We lived in San Fransisco when the 1200XL was test marketed and my Dad got us one. I so want to get one again.

[@tonybarnes2920]

I loved my 1200XL, I wish I still had it. I owe my 40+ game developer career to that machine. All of the other Atari8's, except the A800 always felt "cheaper" than my 1200. I never had any compatibility issues, because I knew to hold down the OPTION key while booting certain games. The option key hold would disable the built-in BASIC, thus removing whatever conflicting memory issues that came up. I can't remember anything not working on it and I had (have) 100's upon 100's of games and applications for it. I wish I had not left my 1200XL when I moved out on my own, but c'est la vie. My first games were made on my 1200XL and 1010 tape drive, sold to ANTIC, then I got a 1050, sold more games to ANTIC, then ended up working for them and have been in the business ever since. I owe a lot to the 1200XL.

[@slightlyevolved]

I have a 1200xl complete in box along with the matching floppy drive. I can't use some of it though as I have no SIO cable and one day I need to pick up a tape drive. So carts only. Actually, I need to pull it out sometime soon and check that the keyboard is still working.

[@FADE2GRY2048]

As an Atari 400 (with a keyboard upgrade) user since the start of 1981 I lusted over the 1200XL when I saw it in the magazines. By the time had the money to upgrade, the 600XL and 800XL were newly available and I got a 64kB upgraded 600XL. I finally got my 1200XL in 2013.

[@hodeyfu7617]

I grew up on the 800xl. Loved it. I recently got a great deal on a 65xe. Living the dream

[@Applecompuser]

My 800 from around 1982 still works. Was amazing at the time. Learned a lot. Even copyrighted a gamed programed in Basic which I had to buy separately. I had no idea assembly was also available. Not sure if I will ever pick it up again to program but wonder if others do.

[@mgabrysSF]

It had a great keyboard - probably the best in the 80s. When it was cleared out I got one for 150 USD after a 100 dollar rebate.

[@NewsmakersTech]

A great system at that price! That's less that what you'd probably have paid for an 800xl!

[@deckard5pegasus673]

Despite the bad press, this is probably Atari's best 8 bit computer. The incompatiblity issues can be fixed, if you're ok with a solder gun. Also the incompatibility is very minor. The video quality issue is also very minor and easy to fix with a soldering gun. Also the 1200XL can address the full 64K, unlike the original Atari 800 which can only address up to 48K. In fact there is modification to install 256K in the 1200XL(the same mod works with the 800XL). The Atari 800Xl and 600XL are really badly made compared to the 1200Xl which has much higher quality parts. Although the original Atari 400 and 800 also were high quality build. What's worse the Atari 65XE and 130XE are total junk in terms of build quality, and are even more badly made than the 800XL. Taking all this into consideration: that the XE line is horribly made, 800XL is also cheaply made, and the original Atari 800 maxs out at 48K, etc. it is easy to see the Atari 1200XL is in fact the best Atari 8 bit ever made.

[@markthackray3185]

They can't be that junk, they still work nearly 40 years on. Modern computers? Won't last anywhere near that.so are they junk? No!

[@bjbell52]

My first computer was an Atari 400. I was probably the only 400 owner at the time that had 16K in it. That was because I bought the demo model from Sears. I called Atari for a problem I thought I was having. They asked me to boot into Basic and use the command PRINT FRE(0): I did and when I said it was around 13,000 bytes they seemed to get angry and demanded to know where I bought it as well as telling me I had to ship it back to Atari for exchange for an 8K Atari 400. Of course I turned them down.

[@kevinkatz7027]

I had one of these.. Just got out of high school after learning on a TRS-80, plugged this into the T.V. and had hours of fun... great times.

[@JavisoGaming]

Great video! Thanks!

[@NewsmakersTech]

Glad you liked it!

[@adrianrobey7716]

Picked up mine for 5.00 with Frogger and a Gray controller. My second Atari system after the 5200 which I love as well.

[@haraldhimmel5687]

There is an "Atari 1090 XL expansion box remake" project in the works since quite a while btw. Schematics and gerbers do exist and prototypes have been assembled by now, which from what ive gathered seem to behave up to spec. For now there is a lack of daughter cards ofc but with all kinds of mods and an active community its an exciting time to be an 8 bit Atari nerd.

[@redleader7988]

That's great to know. Let's hope their work continues. It certainly looked to be a surprisingly mature prototype, appearing ready for production.

[@drewchaboo719]

Here going be a remake of the Atari 400 mini yayyy!

[@tjlazer71]

My first compter was the 800XL and 1050 Disk Drive! I got it the Christmas of 1984. I loved that computer! A neighbor a couple houses down from me had the 1200XL. I rem,ember being puzzled and jelous of it as I thought it looked amazing and the keyboard was great! I never knw the story about it and it's very short life unti decades later! I now own two of them as well as a few 800XL's, 600XL and 130XE!

[@x60hz]

Actually opened the door for me to learn programming extensively on this unit. Except for a serious bug in which when pressing enter after typing a line in Atari Basic, the system would lock up and hang. You just had to make sure you saved quite a bit. However if you didn't have the 1050 drive, that process was grueling and not dependable on the 1010 tape drive. Other than that, I loved my 1200XL!

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks great work

[@dzspdref]

Loved my 1200XL. Had two floppy drives, Okidata dot printer (used that film tape for ink), the 1050 cassette storage, and even the "shkrrrrkkkkr" modem for the phone. Learned the basics of Basic Programming, wrote a few of my own games (in basic no less), and used that knowledge to work on the TRS computers we had in high school, for programming in math class and making trigonometry graphs on it for class display and printing. Wish I still had my 1200XL, but alas lightning struck the neighbor garage about 50ft from where i had it set up, and the system got fried from a huge direct power surge.

[@matthewjames4268]

Still have ours. Brother let me have it. Hes 50 i'm 47. We played the hell outta that system. The disc drive brought us Questron. Was awesome.

[@jacobjones9071]

Gotta say, typing on it feels real good, it's most similar to the feel of the 800's keyboard. Which is a good thing

[@rickharris4339]

The 1200xl was a very nice design computer. I remember drooling over it every time I saw one at Sears. As far as I'm concerned, the only detriment was the lack of built-in Basic. The 800xl delivered that and at a lower price, which is what I saved up for and bought myself. But I still love the 1200xl and wish I had gotten one way back then.

[@MattWalshs]

Consider there is a 4-year gap between the 800 and the 1200XL...and 6 years till the XE. That is an eternity in the computer industry, especially back then. And yet, there were virtually no improvements in 8-bit line in all that time. The 8-bit quite frankly needed more power; its great architecture needed to continue to evolve to support, for instance, better sprite support. Instead Atari kept squeezing water out of that rock. I wonder if maybe they looked at the 2600 and wrongly assumed that computer architecture didn't matter and that clever programmers could overcome all obstacles.

[@MichaelRBrown-lh6kn]

Actually, do to the research by the folks behind the Atari Museum, there were several efforts at Atari for various updates. New chipsets etc, that never saw the light of day. Most disappointing is what happened to the planned AMY music/sound chip.

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

I do believe the 1400XL (and the 1450XLD with the built-in disk drive) could have saved Atari had it been released!

[@evcass69]

First computer I owned, bought new when I was perhaps 12? Had a little plotter, cassette and disk storage. Excited when DOS 3.0 came out.

[@ErraticPT]

But most people still used DOS 2.0 or the later (after 3.0) DOS 2.5 as compatability was an major issue with DOS 3.0. This was true especially with modded 1050 drives which allowed for higher capacity "true" double density formatted disks, normal unmodded 1050 could only format single or slightly bigger capacity "enhanced" disks.

[@evcass69]

@ErraticPT I vaguely remember 2.5 coming out later than 3.0. I did have the 1050 drive. I don't remember how I obtained 3.0... did they send it automatically with registration?

[@DeafMacBoi]

When I was kid all of my eyes were on beautiful Atari 1200XL and finally got one with bunch of hot game cartridges then I wanted to upgrade Atari 520ST but I could not afford it and not many stores selling one so I ended up with Commodore Amiga 500 and it was the best computer I ever had.

[@lorensims4846]

In 1980 I started looking seriously at getting one of the newly available home computers. A neighbor had a Commodore Pet, but that didn't appeal to me, mostly due to its lack of color. Likewise the TRS-80, Radio Shack's entry. The Apple ][ had color, but often through video artifacting which I didn't like. With the variety of cables and connectors sprawling out the back, the Apple always felt like a "kit" computer. The more I heard about the Atari the more I liked. It didn't look like something hobbled together. It had better sound and graphics than anything on the market at the time, and my interest was in computer graphics. I finally got my Atari 800 on closeout after the 1200XL was introduced. I learned everything I ever needed to know about computer science on that Atari. Later I bought a use Atari 400 because I had always thought it looked cute. I also found a used 1200XL which I bought as a novelty for a LOT less than you paid for yours! I really liked the styling, and I wanted to check out the new features. In the mid '80s, everyone was still using a TV for their display, so the unconnected chroma line for the monitor port wasn't even noticed. But they boosted the RF signal by 50% to provide a better display on TVs. This proved to be too much for some older TVs that couldn't handle the stronger signal without burning images into the screen. I never understood why a 6502 computer needed more than 48K, considering that it could only access 64K and 10K or more was tied up with OS addresses. My brother tried to tell me his Commodore 64 was better than my Atari 800, but he could never really explain why. I recently learned that I'll soon be able to recover ALL my Ataris and associated accessories and software that were taken by my brother-in-law when I moved to California 30 years ago. I can't wait to see what still works.

[@waltciii3]

Man! I had the 800 OG with a tape drive... but then I got a 1050 floppy in the XL aesthetic. Man! I had friends in 1986 with game ROMs on disk to share!!! Good times.

[@Gaming-Enthusiast]

Always wanted a 1200xl , I got a 130Xe in 1985 which I loved

[@jjmcwill2007]

back in the day I hacked the controller board from the XF551 floppy drive and a 3.5" floppy disk drive into my 1200XL, so that you could insert 3.5" floppy disks into the right hand side of the computer. Sometimes it took 2 cycles of the power switch for everything to work, but otherwise it was a great, compact system.

[@ErraticPT]

Had a 400 briefly (soon swapped for an 800 as my dad didn't like the keyboard), then a 130XE. Swapped (along with a crapload of pirated games on floppy) for a 520STM then an STE, both of which I still have. While I liked the ST series I much preferred the 8 bit ones for games especially.

[@RBLevin]

The nonstop background music kills this video.

[@ShamrockParticle]

It's generic and arguably needless, but beyond the music it is a solid presentation.

[@mkvalor]

The impact of the 1981-82 US recession cannot be overstated with regard to the market dynamics for home computers at that time. Even people who may have theoretically been loyal to a brand simply could not afford to stick with it if a competing product (the Commodore 64, in this case) offered similar or better value at a lower cost.

[@mjp29]

I had an Atari 800xl and then a Commodore 64. The Atari 800xl was far superior, especially it's disk operating system.

[@CarsandCats]

I agree. I had them both as well. The XL with SpartaDOS was SO much faster.

[@Popclone]

My first Computer the 1200xl, came without a Floppy Cable, had to guess the pins and make my own cable. Was also the computer on which I learned Poker, that is Strip Poker. Till then never have I known how to play Poker, but let me tell you Strip Poker did though me. A fun yet hard game to play on it was Conan.

[@delscoville]

A friend of mine had one. I was still using an Atari 800 and a VIC 20 at the times. Commodore 64 was out, but I had yet to get one.

[@delscoville]

BTW, the Commodore SX-64 keyboard suffers from failing membrane too, but luckily I was able to buy a replacement. SX-64 is my favorite 8-bit system by far.

[@ShamrockParticle]

Always adored the design of the 1200XL. Some people call it "b*stardized" due to the (very minor) compatibility issues, of which one is a simple hardware fix to re-enable a voltage lead, but they were strict adherent to the 800XL. The C64 was a mixed bag, but found its own charms and the SID sound chip was pretty cool. Done right, either computer's sound chip could do wonders. The 1200XL causing the uptick in 400 and 800 sales is unintentionally funny. Wish more was done with he function keys, but it was what it was.

[@ckatheman]

Was my first computer. I was 12. Had no issues with games using 800 emulator or FixXL.

[@selfaware3940]

13:13: A compaq flash card reader? thats a 1050 FDD ;)

[@cynandude]

The Atari 1200XL was my first computer but there were a couple games (can’t remember the names) that didn’t work 100%. But those games would play fine on my friend’s 800. So my friend convinced me to dump the 1200XL and get an 800 instead, which is what we ended up doing. Who knew it would have such collector value 🤣

[@Haterade888]

I have 3 1200xl computers. The mod community is alive and I am upgrading them. I can now take 1200xl 80s computers online with wifi!!!!!

[@bi30]

I remember waiting forever for the release of the 1450XLD (that never came.) I'd love to hear more about that "1090 Expansion Bay". That could have been interesting. And why did no one ever take advantage of the 800XL expansion slot?

[@michaelstoliker971]

People did take advantage of the 800xl expansion slot. Back in the day I had an MIO board which added a hard drive interface to the 8-bit along with a 256k ram expansion, a serial and a parallel port. There was even talk of an 80-column card which didn't appear by the time I got rid of my Atari equipment (dumb move!). I've since recollected my original 400, and one or two of many of the various 8-bit Atari computers. I've even managed to snap up a reproduction of the 1090XL expansion bay and 2 of the 3 cards available for it. I'm waiting for the CP/M card to be tested out.

[@NewsmakersTech]

The Atari 1200xl is a mixed bag. Are you a fan?

[@puppetsnob]

The 800 was a tank, and still the best device to play M.U.L.E. 4-player. I really wanted to get the 1450XLD and ended up settling for an Atari 600XL with a memory card sticking out of it on the back.

[@enantiodromia]

M.U.L.E rules!

[@Gxhbro]

I have a question, is the Atari 1200XL backwards compatible to the Atari 800?

[@furrball]

What's with that double "close bracket" key in the lower right corner? OOC...

[@JolliAllGenGamer]

The 1200XL is expensive these days you are right so I just got the XEGS instead recently.

[@southilgurl2003]

A friend of mine had an Atari 1200XL, and I just drooled over it, thinking it was absolutely beautiful. No idea of how good it was - just knew I wanted one. Sadly, that never came to be.

[@s3vR3x]

ugh all that dust and grime on the machines. Why not clean the machines before doing close up shots?

[@ShamrockParticle]

And the needless repetitive muzak drowning out the speaker. :( That said. It is easy to damage vintage computer cases. I'm working on cleaning an Atari 5200 chassis right now and it's slow going as damaging it would be worse. Ironic in a way, since once it's cleaned up I am adding composite video and power input modifications to get around that ill-designed switchbox.

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

I think that 1200XL is by far the best design (in term of looks) in not just 8bit era, but overall compact integrated computer. Too bad I dont have it in my collection.

[@jacobjones9071]

I feel the fact that the 1200 waa incompatible with a small amount of software was quite overblown.

[@ckatheman]

I had one when I was a kid - I used that 800 emulator program and XLfix, never had a problem.

[@stsr11]

I owned an Atari 400 and went on to by an ST 520STFM. Despite the innovative nature of the 400/800, I always thought Atari lacked ambition during the 8bit era. I know the Amiga was Atari's next flag-ship until they were sold-out, but their 8bit systems did not add much to the 400/800 and it's why I never bought one.

[@KrGsMrNKusinagi0]

are yall not making any new videos i miss these

[@MrSoopah]

The 600xl and 800xl *are* the 1000 and 1000x system. They not only have the same specs, they even have the Expansion Port. The 1090XL Expansion Box has the exact same port.

[@johneygd]

It’s actually funny how atari did first came out with their 1200XL as a cheaper alternative to compeat against the C64 but it actually had the opposite effect as it resulted in many consumers to buy the dropped down in priced atari 400 and atari 800 systems instead,so it had the average effect on atari,then atari not willing to give up,did came up with even lower cost versions of the atari 1200XL in the form of the atari 600XL and atari 800XL by cutting down the case slightly more and removing some function keys,and magically enough it worked well,probably because there might have be no atari 400 and atari 800 availible on the market anymore by that time i suppose, Trough i can imagine how many did hated the atari 400 because of it’s keyboard and as a result of this there were some cartride programs to allow users use an external keyboard on their atari 400 to get around that most hated keyboard,well i wouldn’t hate that keyboard aslong i could start up a game with it to play games trough a controller🤣

[@dintyshideaway9505]

I really enjoyed this video. It is so hard to quantify what was a success and what is a failure based on numbers alone. Clearly the Commodore 64 is the most successful, but the quality and workmanship was just not there. Atari was both relevant and so well built. The builds are so close. I would love to see that comparison.

[@sideburn]

Atari had better graphics. More colors, a disk operating system. Better / faster floppy drive. A chainable I/o interface. Overall better machine than the c64 in my opinion.

[@ArnStar]

@@sideburn But no SID chip.

[@sideburn]

@@ArnStar true, I have a commodore SX64 and use a tracker to make music with it. The SID is definitely awesome but the Atari POKEY is right up there with it. Commodore has a much better demo scene too but the problem is none of the good stuff works with NTSC it’s all PAL because they’re all in the UK.

[@a4000t]

@@sideburn the c64 dos/drive speed could be fixed with jiffydos roms,which was released since 1985 and sped the drive up alot and also have a excellent dos wedge with built in copying.1541's could also copy disks standalone.there were multiple hard drives available also as well as ramlink 16MB expansions and Cmd SuperCpu. my 1982 c64 still works today as does the drives,as does my c128 from 1986. i'd say that sufficient build quality.

[@sideburn]

@@a4000t right. I have jiffydos and a fastcart for my SX64.

[@buriedbits6027]

8:33 the 800XL also has the connection missing.

[@captainfuture2882]

Wow, I didn't know. So the Amiga Zorro bus design was the reincarnation of the planned Atari bus design.

[@Danny-bd1ch]

The 400/800 series was ahead of its time. It simply cost to much, and the C64 broke the back of Atari.

[@zachary_attackery]

I got a 1200XL in the mid 2000s at an Atari Swap Meet/video game convention. I got it for like 20 bucks because the guy selling it said the 1200XL sucks and is one of the least sought after computers. Now everyone in the vintage Atari computer groups acts like its the best model ever and they're selling for $300+ on ebay. I eventually sold mine for around $100 after I found an XEGS and all I cared about was playing games anyway. I don't understand why everyone went from hating it to thinking is the BEST 8 bit Atari computer

[@ItsEdSilha]

I have spent the last 35 years of my life in IT and it all started an Atari 1200 XL…

[@bad.sector]

Hey, thanks for the video, but I had to stop at its half, because I couldn't bare the ever-repeating background melody doing the very same every few seconds. Maybe you've changed that in your newer videos, but if not, I'd really recommend it.

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

I’ve literally never heard of this computer and the first one I ever owned was the Atari 800XL

[@lurkerrekrul]

I remember some magazine labeling the 1200XL as the computer that was incompatible with itself.

[@aaronbrowne7862]

Atari should have upgraded antic and gtia with the release of the 1200XL. A hi res multicolour mode and more sprites would have made a difference. Instead, they repackaged the Atari 800 right up until the XEGS.

[@musclesmouse]

I have an Atari '1200' and a few 1200XL. $200 for one with problems. prices are nuts.

[@chuckcobb2392]

This video is more about the computer history of Atari rather then about the 1200xl.

[@bobweiram6321]

It's amazing how Apple outpaced Commodore and Atari even though their machines were under powered in comparison. Apple was able to sell something way beyond mere hardware and software--they were selling dreams.

[@NewsmakersTech]

Hey! What classic computer should we cover next time?

[@AllGamingStarred]

Enterprise 128 and Windows 95 please

[@stephendouglas684]

Trs80 model II, Xenix systems

[@SmakoszPilat]

Posiadam takie Atari 1200XL 👍

[@Dan-in-Virginia]

I'd also like to see a 1400XL

[@richy69ify]

It amazes me how many youtubers dont clean the hardware they're zooming and panning around in fancy videos.

[@bradleymcavoy3432]

I was going to say the Aesthetics/Design was spot on and of course it wasn't a bad console just slightly above mediocre but it's to bad that they misjudged the market and it as slightly overpriced plus that it failed after 4 months on the market! 🙄 C64 was Iconic plus an established brand, that is very tough to compete with!

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

The Atari 400 keyboard was not unique, Sinclair and other computer makers also had membrain keyboards. Atari 400 was made for kids to play games, and the spill proof design of the 400 membrane keyboard was a selling point. Commodore benefitted from the regulation change of the FCC, no longer requiring a TANK design of metal casing to reduce RF noise.

[@mussersbowsboatsandscience6610]

I remember being annoyed we got the 400 instead of the 800.

[@RickNuthman]

Haha sorry dude. I hated those flat keyboards. I wouldn't even play with a 400 if I saw it in a classroom, and ran to any computer immediately.

[@mussersbowsboatsandscience6610]

@@RickNuthman LOL!

[@KillerBill1953]

By the time I could afford an Atari computer in the UK, where the dollar price translated directly into a pound price, I went for the Amiga 500 and never regretted it. Atari screwed up using single sided drives in early Atari ST models. On the plus side was built in midi if you were a musician. At the time I believe the pound was actually worth about 2 dollars so a $400 computer would cost us nearer $800 in pounds. Apple have always been far too expensive with too little software support compared to Windows PCs.

[@NipkowDisk]

The 1200XL certainly wound up to be a red-headed stepchild in the Atari 8-bit realm.

[@Daz555Daz]

1200 is probably a distraction that cost them the key '83 Christmas when the C64 killed them. If Atari had put everything into the 800XL and not bothered with the 600 and 1200 things might have been different.

[@waltciii3]

Did the 800 even exist without 48K? Did they even ship without the daughterboards? It's not like an IBM or Apple II which had real board slots to add capabilities to the system.

[@ErraticPT]

I do believe a very small number of 800 were released with less than 48K, however few made it to retail because the decision was made so near to the initial launch date. This I know because I used to know a guy who worked at one of the biggest UK retailers of Atari at the time and he said their was a lot of confusion near to launch as Atari kept cancelling orders one day only to be pestering the company for orders the next (this happened atleast 4 times according to my source).

[@Sinn0100]

I like the guy in the pink shirt dancing...it's just so random. ;) Wait...the Commodore 64 is the best selling computer in history? You mean microcomputer not computer in general right? There's no way it topped those damn EMachines from the 1990's because they were everywhere. I worked at Microplay when I was a teenager and while we dealt mostly in console sales, repair, and modification my store also built gaming PC's. I can't tell you how many people brought those hunks of junk into our store thinking we could do the impossible with them. We finally put up a sign on our front door that stated "No EMachines."

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

July 1984 Jack Tramiel purchased Atar from Warner Brothers, Cancelled the 1200XL Expansion, Cancelled the IBM-Compatable Atari hopes and dreams, and downgraded the Atari to the 600XL and 800XL. IF Atari had made the Expansion Bus integrated with 2 disk drives & IBM daughter card / EGA video card = Atari would have gone on to challenge the business machines at their own game. Jack wanted cheaper home computers on the spot... having come from Commodore's Mass Production of very cheap machines, dropping hardware prices, cheaper RAM - he saw no future for money losing ATARI going head-to-head against Big Blue I.B.M. The 1200XL was NOT a bad idea - it was a business direction abandoned based off of market pressures and economics. Great Keyboard, a very common request from people coming 'up' from the Atari 400. The Business Direction would be taken up again in the Atari ST and Amiga computer systems, with Amiga coming out on top in all it's graphics, sound, and video editing abilities.

[@Corsa15DT]

Why do you think Atari's 800 cost more to produce than the C64?

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

4:20 If you had tried to buy ATARI in the 1980s with the money you show, you would have been arrested for counterfiting... ;-)

[@ericinla65]

HAD A BRILLIANT FRIEND back in 1985. He wrote a new improved O.S. for it that allowed to add 10x the amount of memory. Burned it on new chip and plugged it in. Worked great. Especially with games. Still have it in my garage.

[@jameschamplin1742]

Allowed 10x memory? Via software? Maybe you wanna unpack that bad boy and image that ROM? ;) My dad who works for Nintendo would love to see that!

[@AtariPamMaria]

Clearly you are lying. This is impossible. So please, just stop.

[@redleader7988]

@@jameschamplin1742 Clearly he said it allowed him to ADD more memory. Sounds like he developed a memory expansion mod for the 1200XL with an OS hack to address it..

[@ericinla65]

@@redleader7988 Exactly

[@GreenAppelPie]

3:09 the computer is missing a 7 key.

[@ridiculous_gaming]

The cult classic Atari 8 bit's are actually the 400 & 800.

[@speedmachina]

Good video about the 1200XL, however that constantly repeating music throughout the entire video becomes grating.

[@pekkahorttanainen8812]

Only two joystick ports, no 4-player M.U.L.E. (at least right out of the gate, I know of Multijoy...)

[@GreenAppelPie]

9:50 more weird random footage

[@spottedtauren]

Nice video except for the endless music loop.

[@realcourte]

There is 2 very different Atari era in the 80ies. Warner bros and Tramiel. The Warner Bros era (8bit) was great at first but it bugged down at the end cuse of the famous 83 video game crash. WB was scared and almost left Atari in a void phase. They didn't do a good job at helping the marketing and many soft editors favored the C64 (one vs the many Atari Home Comp). Sales got down and down and it's here that Tramiel bought what was left of Atari (split in two. consoles, computers/arcade).

[@GreenAppelPie]

10:22 more weird random footage

[@briancox1124]

gorgous keyboard

[@GreenAppelPie]

4:43 that’s just weird footage