The Atari 800XL - Seven billion screws and in need of a good scrub!

[@Mrshoujo]

For a bit of customization, you can replace the red power on LED with another color 5V LED. It was a thing in the 90s to customize the Atari 8-bit that way. I put in a yellow LED on my 800XL. Haven't customized my 600XL yet. The horizontal bars on the Atari's video indicate possible bad filter caps on the power supply. If you have a serviceable brick, that's not a big problem. If it's solidly potted, oh boy. I suggest a modern replacement from The Brewing Academy. Just be sure to order according to your region.

[@TheRetroShack]

Thanks for the info - I've ordered a modern replacement psu :) :)

[@Mrshoujo]

@@TheRetroShack Also that 7805 regulator is going bad in that old supply. I ordered one of TBA's modern power supplies and I was blown away by how small it is and it doesn't get very warm. Quite unlike the brick for my 800XL which I have fixed more than once.

[@markthackray3185]

This I must try!!

[@gamedoutgamer]

Yes a modern PSU is important, if yours is not a serviceable variant. Personally I love the stock red LED. It's great. If you do change it, store the old LED inside the case if someone wants to restore it to stock, please.

[@markthackray3185]

@@gamedoutgamer Good suggestion. I have power supplies that can be unscrewed to open them, I've put some decent capacitors in to replace the old ones. I left the original regulator in there tho. May well open them up again and check on the thermal grease. I've got some mx4, so now youve inspired me to go for it!

[@goddessesstartrekonlinefle3061]

The "bit of a delay" is actually a startup sound pattern which (back in the day) I was told was an audio handshake sequence for the Atari modem (It sounds a bit like a cat purring).

[@CheshireNoir]

I have a hideously beaten up 800xl I picked up about 2 years ago and I love it! There are some amazing upgrades available for them too. Mine came with a 256k RAM hack integrated, although I'm contemplating unhacking it so I can fit an "Ultimate 1MB" upgrade instead. There's the AVG (Aka AVeraGe) cart, (I own one of these) which will emulate both the drive and cartridges. There's the Sophia DVI output, (Although I cheapened out and just applied the SVideo mod. Worth doing if you have an SVideo compatible screen handy) for rock solid video. There's the SIDE3 cartridge, which, when coupled with the Ultimate 1MB pretty much gives you the "ultimate" version of the Atari 800 family with LOADS of features. There are 80 column mods. There are new video mode mods. There are 8 joystick port mods. There are mods to add extra buttons to joysticks. The list just goes on and on. I'd go so far as to say the Atari 8 bit hardware hacking scene is far and away the most enthusiastic and creative, outpacing even that of my beloved Commodore 64.

[@TheRetroShack]

And now I want ALL of them! :) :) Thanks ;)

[@CheshireNoir]

@@TheRetroShack Well, turnabout is fair play, right? I have an ElkSD128 on it's way thanks to a certain video about expanding Acorn Electrons :-D

[@Mrshoujo]

Keep the 256K RAM upgrade. The 1MB can be added or disengaged without requiring modifications. That 256K is probably an ICD RAMbo XL.

[@ChristopherHailey]

My Atari 800 has a 1MB (!) addition that made it really pleasant to use since you could put the stuff on a floppy on a RAM disk, so loading the editor or assembler took second rather than minutes. The Atari 8 bits are the most fun to program IMHO

[@vcv6560]

I did one of those Rambo 256K upgrades back in '86, gave me a single-density ramdisk on D7 & D8. It was like magic. Glory days.

[@IanMaddock]

Was watching another resto vid a couple of weeks ago and it highlighted a decent way of soak cleaning the key caps - using denture tablets (eg Steradent) and it achieved some decent results without scrubbing.

[@TheRetroShack]

Thanks - I’ll give that a go on the next refurb :)

[@geezerdiamond]

Yeah, I saw Noel’s Retro Lab do that the other day; seemed to have good results 👍

[@lezanderson1236]

The Atari 800XL was the XBox of it's day....a Brilliant Games machine , with thousands of games !

[@TheRetroShack]

I've been addicted to Dropzone for the past week or so!

[@kevin34ct]

I'd love to see an original 1050 Floppy with the Happy Drive installed. That was one of the best mods to the floppy drive on the Atari 8-bit line.

[@TheRetroShack]

I’ll be looking at a turbo boost of some kind for this :)

[@nasty_niff]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5iYZGh3jZJsZrc

[@kevinrichey8994]

loved old atari 800 and the old crystalware games

[@MrJgsmith]

This is great. You deserve more viewers and subs. Good job.

[@TheRetroShack]

Wow, thank you!

[@UK_Cobra]

A nice computer that's cleaner than when it went on the last leg of the assembly line :) Nice work, looking forward to part 3.

[@TheRetroShack]

Coming soon!

[@knghtbrd]

I've got a 600XL that was pretty nicely modded by a local guy here-64K RAM, composite video, stereo POKEY… it's got a mechanical keyboard in there that I actually managed to break trying to straighten out the frame. Carefully repaired that (I wouldn't want another keyboard. Great little machine, though, one of my favorites that isn't an Apple II.

[@frankowalker4662]

Looks like new. Brilliant.

[@maltronik]

Can't wait for the upgrade and mods video for this one... a very entertaining video it is... and oh.. May the force be with you...

[@TheRetroShack]

Lol - always… :)

[@TzOk]

OPTION key during startup is for disabling the inbuilt BASIC, most games requires it (so OPTION+RESET also for loading images from SDriveMax, and you need to keep OPTION pressed for a little longer). It is worth to replace system ROM with a patched one for fast SIO routines, and add one extra wire to monitor port, to get S-Video.

[@billkendrick1]

Also, if you hold OPTION at boot-up with no drive attached, or type "BYE" from BASIC, you'll drop into the self-test mode, where you can test out all the keys. This was first introduced with the 1200XL, and hilariously, every subsequent Atari seemed to use the same self test, so the keyboard layout doesn't match, and includes the F1-F4 keys that only the 1200XL had. :-D Also note that BREAK can't be 'tested' from that screen (but you can test it easily enough from BASIC), and RESET will reboot from the Self Test.

[@Mrshoujo]

If you select All Tests from the self test menu, watch what the keyboard types out. The 1200XL has an Easter egg. Also you don't need a patched OS for faster disk access if using an SDrive Max. You hack the 1050 drive with a US Doubler ROM and 256 byte RAM chip stack and use SpartaDOS. What good are fast loading OS routines if they're incompatible and the storage device doesn't support the higher data rate?

[@TzOk]

@@billkendrick1 Instead of BYE you could also type DOS ;) and if you have DOS loaded in memory, you will go to... DOS instead of Self Test.

[@billkendrick1]

@@TzOk true! But self test (or some of the test suites people have written that you can boot into) is useful after a refurb, I imagine!

[@JTManuel]

My first PC!

[@TheRetroShack]

:) :)

[@brianv2871]

Ahh yes, the joy of that stupid cartridge slot. I was given an 800 XL and had to deal with that when cleaning it up. Mine also didn't come with a power supply, but luckily I had some DIN connectors and a USB cable to rig one up since this thing uses just 5v vs my other 800 which is 9v AC (like most of the atari accessories).

[@SergiuszRoszczyk]

Good thing about XL/XE is that you can power it from any Raspberry Pi adapter. I have a different keyboard on mine and all console keys are actually metal parts. I restored them by gentle horizontal scrubs using magic eraser to get them brushed look again.

[@tjf7101]

5:35. Just wow.

[@Gaming-Enthusiast]

Great video , loved the 800xl 👌👌👌

[@ukcroupier]

That metal tape worked well, will have to get some of that.

[@TheRetroShack]

Yes it’s really useful and very hard wearing too :)

[@joefish6091]

What about a dab of lubrication for the keyboard space bar key hinges. Some keyboard switches might have been manufactured with lubricat too. Sticktion is abrasive and makes for a lousy keyboard experience.

[@GORF_EMPIRE]

That looks smashing! Another fine job sir! Just replace the caps. You know you want to and the cost is neglegible considering it could potentially save the unit.

[@TheRetroShack]

Already have since filming this - couldn't resist in the end :)

[@FatNorthernBigot]

The metallic keys are top notch!

[@TheRetroShack]

Thanks very much!

[@wallacelang1374]

I still enjoy running my own Atari 800XL Computer System, but ever since I have advanced to using a Windows PC my Atari 800XL is being used as a video game console instead. I do however need to have my Atari 1050 Disk Drive cleaned and adjusted (if not fully repaired).

[@musclesmouse]

You should have added the Chroma signal to the Monitor port while you were in there.

[@kloakovalimonada]

I'm a C64 man myself but what a gorgeous machine

[@TheRetroShack]

Agreed!

[@RobA500]

Nice work it's looking great now. The disk access may seem fatter than the C64 just don't try tape it is painfully slow, I have Head over Heels and if I remember correctly it takes around half an hour to load. By comparison the 128k Spectrrum version took around 5 minutes.

[@TheRetroShack]

Well hopefully I'll be putting some games to test in the next episode :) :). Might just have an SDriveMax and Pi1541 head to head :)

[@markthackray3185]

18 minutes, same with red max.and feud! I use turbo charger XL. Load stage by stage then save each stage in turbo. Knocks a few minutes off at least and gives a fresh back up copy. That's without needing to upgrade. Even so it's still a bit of a wait haha

[@MatthewHarrold]

On my little island we knew of the Atari 2600, then the Atari 520ST ... I don't think a distributor existed in between. Cheers and here's $0.02

[@KorAllRBare]

🐨 Once those brushed Silver keys sticky tape fails, You may try obtaining some Acrylic Silver Paint "Paint for Plastic" and do a test run on an ice cream container by lightly spraying a coat and then after a minute or so give it a light brush with some brush that will provide the most desirable brushed effect. Long story short.. The trick is to allow the paint to dry just enough so that brushing it allows the brushed effect to remain set, I found two or more brushed coats worked best in my situation.. APU I dropped a 👉👍👈

[@TheRetroShack]

Thanks - I was originally going to do that (I have some of that filmed even) but then just wanted to give this method a try :) :)

[@troogroove9318]

Soak the keyboard caps in warm water with 2 or 3 denture cleaning tablets for around 20 mins and then rinse. They will look like new.

[@tharkthax3960]

Will try your suggestion, got a few xl machines I need to clean up. Thanks 😊

[@rbowman9]

My first computer!

[@TheRetroShack]

Hope this brought back happy memories :)

[@thegreatjonzini]

The power switch on the bottom of the 1050 drive wasn't switched on? Hopefully turning it on fixes it. 🍻

[@TheRetroShack]

If only it were that simple :) Doesn't work with the power on or off unfortunately - it's open on the bench right at this moment so hopefully the problem will at least be discovered soon :)

[@thegreatjonzini]

@@TheRetroShack 🤞

[@Colin_Ames]

Looks great. I hope the disk drive problem isn’t too serious, I guess we’ll find out in the next episode.

[@TheRetroShack]

Me too!!! :)

[@gamedoutgamer]

Looks like a mechanical issue. Maybe something jammed in the disk slot. More interested to know if it works once that issue is resolved. Probably works. They are very reliable drives but do fail sometimes. Probably the best all around disk drive for the platform and certainly the most ubiquitous.

[@vhm14u2c]

I used to have a 800xl. Not as many screws as a ampeg tape deck ;-) I won’t work on ampeg anything anymore after that tape deck.

[@LordmonkeyTRM]

Like if you live on the fancy tea towel ☺️

[@TheRetroShack]

You’d have to be very small.. oh, I see what you mean :)

[@tharkthax3960]

I don't live there but hilarious anyway 🤣

[@ianvallender7892]

You might want to consider picking up an S drive max for your atari 800xl it's a pretty good piece of kit for around £40.

[@TheRetroShack]

It’s actually shown in the video :) :)

[@talideon]

While the XL is built like a tank, it's nothing compared to the original 800!

[@emmettturner9452]

A picker was going through my storage unit last month after I was displaced by an EF-4 tornado. He knocked my Atari 800 off the shelf and I heard it shatter with the sound of keys going everywhere on the concrete. It’s still on the floor of that storage unit now since we had to go and I also don’t have a car to go check on it (same tornado crushed my car).

[@TheRetroShack]

I couldn’t believe just how much aluminium is in the original!

[@gamedoutgamer]

@@emmettturner9452 so sad to hear the 800 smashed. =( many of the chips should still work and will help other machines come back to life.

[@musclesmouse]

@@emmettturner9452 Keep that 800. The ANTIC chip is worth $50 just by itself. Remember parts are hard to come by now. It may just need a new case or can be a parts computer now.

[@emmettturner9452]

@@musclesmouse Thanks. I still have a boxed 800XL in great shape but my twin brother let the pickers get all my good stuff for it when I wasn’t there… like the all my boxed carts and even my Ultimate Atari 8bit flash cart… which I didn’t know until I saw them on the shelf at a local game store with my custom case. Now all I can do is look at the pretty box or type in some BASIC. The smashed original 800 was one of the early units with the RAM inside cartridge shells and a quick-release for the top vents/RAM cover.

[@cameronmaples5303]

Did you happen to find out what those horizontal lines were? My Atari 800xl is doing the same thing.

[@Blazs120gl]

Hi, you mentioned retr0briting the keycaps. Is there a good way to retr0brite grey/dark pieces? It worked superbly for me on the yellowed white plastics, but I'm left with uneven bright/dark spots on grey keycaps. I did it by appyling hair developer foam on the caps and I exposed them to sunlight in a plastic bag. How can dark pieces be retr0britened evenly?

[@michaelstoliker971]

Do you see those horizontal lines when viewing the screen directly or do they only appear when videoing the screen? It could be a sync problem with the video camera.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

A silly question: is the keyboard the right one for the xl? I looked a couple other videos and a few pictures online and they don't have the gap on the left exposing the PCB underneath.

[@TheRetroShack]

Hmmm not noticed that but now you’ve got me wondering! I’ll do a little research :)

[@michaelstoliker971]

@@TheRetroShack There are a few different keyboards for the 800XL series. You have the best version with the actual mechanical switches. The other type have metal backing plates with a folded mylar sheet for the contacts.

[@muttBunch]

Wow your cartridge slots look beautiful compared to mine. I have huge visible wear marks on mine to where the finish has rubbed off I’m assuming from using metal cased cartridges in the past :/

[@TheRetroShack]

Some wire wool should sort that out as they're metal parts :) :)

[@muttBunch]

@@TheRetroShack thank you. I’ll give that a whirl. Can’t wait to see the next one on the 1050 repair. I lost mine years back. Time to hunt for a replacement :) Your case and keys also turned out beautiful

[@kjrchannel1480]

If you ask me the 800xl had superior looking games. Boulderdash, Pacman, and the like looked like it was out of the arcade. Later renditions of Arcade games from Namco on other consoles looked like crap in comparison.

[@Octamed]

Huh, my pal 800xl has totally different key mech and the rf shield has little bolts and nuts.

[@markthackray3185]

The disk just needed a bit more pressure to be inserted.spring loaded. If it doesn't work and you can't fix it let me know.

[@TheRetroShack]

Unfortunately, that's not the case for this one (believe me, I tried ) it's on the bench now so will be up and working soon enough :)

[@markthackray3185]

@@TheRetroShack are you doing a video on repairing the 1050? Always enjoy watching others fix them up, I've learned a lot that way 🙂

[@TheRetroShack]

@@markthackray3185 Yep - the next episode in the series will be focused on the 1050 and the SDrive Max :)

[@markthackray3185]

@@TheRetroShack that's great, look forward to it. I've subscribed.

[@greatkingrat]

Your cleaning method is superior to other channels that I have seen….that just about always retrobrite.

[@robertlock5501]

Any Part 3 on the horizon?

[@ed731pdh]

My first golden rule, always photograph the keyboard layout first before you strip it down.

[@TheRetroShack]

Oh, don’t worry - I do that too :) :)

[@osgeld]

the atari is not putting anything out that will mess with a ham operator, It may effect video quality without the RF shield as your local ham operator is pushing out 1-10 watts of funky radio 2 doors down as they talk to someone half the globe away

[@TheRetroShack]

Thanks for the info :)

[@gamedoutgamer]

More importantly, the RF shield adds strength and rigidity to the case when handing it. I recommend keeping the shield as-is from the factory for this reason. It will handle a little sloppily without it.

[@markthackray3185]

If you don't replace the caps and wait for issues it will cost you more! I repair Atari peripherals often and more often than not caps are toast. Mostly on the 1010 and 1050. Great video - nice job!

[@TheRetroShack]

Already done :) Couldn’t help myself :)

[@markthackray3185]

Nice one. 😁

[@doodemog]

I remember playing 4 player dandy on the 800 with the four joystick ports

[@billkendrick1]

These days you can get a MultiJoy gadget that lets you connect 4 or 8 (or maybe even more?) joysticks to an XL. Games like M.U.L.E. and I think also Dandy have been hacked to support them. :)

[@TheRetroShack]

Now THAT must be a busy screen!

[@ridiculous_gaming]

The 800xl is a tough piece of kit, but the real tank is the original 400 & 800 models.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

I think doing the caps would have been worth while. They're 40 years old by now and known good ones are added protection for the OEM chips.

[@TheRetroShack]

Yeah, you’re probably right :) I’ll end up doing it anyway because my mind won’t rest knowing they’re not done :)

[@Xoferif]

Are the keycaps double-shots? I couldn't quite see the underside of any of them.

[@TheRetroShack]

Yes, they’re two part key caps :)

[@gamedoutgamer]

He has the mechanical keyboard variant here. They are much more desired than the other 800XL's.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

What about swapping out the MOS 6502 and replace it with a 100Mhz FPGA based 65F02

[@TheRetroShack]

Don’t tempt me man! I have a weak mind! :)

[@spokehedz]

The Atari always seemed to be fast, but we had a lot of software on tape which was, well, tape.

[@TheRetroShack]

I suppose I should really give tape a go, you know - for the experience :)

[@EC5ABG]

Muy buen trabajo.

[@TheRetroShack]

Many thanks!

[@AffidavidDonda]

haha, you lost the small screw between joystick ports, do not worry, back in the time it was a mark of virginity because no 800xl had this screw after a single pcb removal.

[@3dhYT]

👍👌

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

using the original psu is a risky thing to do!

[@TheRetroShack]

Actually theses are pretty reliable and don’t output mixed voltages so there is no multiple step-downs. I’ll probably swap it out anyway if only to get something I bit smaller - this one is huge! :) :)

[@billkendrick1]

There is definitely one model of XL PSU that you should NEVER use.

[@Storm_.]

Electrolyte dries out, no capacitor is designed to last 30+ years. So you definitely need to replace them. Bulging is nothing to do with whether a capacitor is bad!

[@TheRetroShack]

Yep, I couldn't resist and did it anyway :) :)

[@thepvporg]

They were built like tanks because the thing cost the same as the average persons wage for 5 or 6 months.

[@BER-UK]

Knight Lore clone?

[@BER-UK]

Knight Tyme even

[@TheSudsy]

Same company Ultimate I think. Knight Lore, Alien8, originally for the Spectrum. All isometric 3d screen swappers.

[@TheRetroShack]

Same engine as Knight Lore and by the same company :)

[@TheSudsy]

not as many screws as an A1200 keyboard . . . . . . and the A1200 are tiny eeny biddy little things...especially if you have sausage fingers

[@TheRetroShack]

I remember them well :) :)

[@gamedoutgamer]

Some 800's have the same type Mitsumi keyboard as the 1200XL and have the same screws and a similar mylar.

[@TheSudsy]

@@gamedoutgamer i should clarfiy Amiga A1200 but heyho :)