Stats On The Atari 400
- For sale between 1979 and 1982.
- Price started in the $500 range, but dropped to around $200 when it was slated for discontinuation.
- The CPU was a 1.8 MHZ 6502 developed by MOS Technology, also known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group.
- It came with an 8K base that could be expanded to 48K.
- The display had the following characteristics:
24 X 40 text
320 x 192 monochrome
160 x 96 with 128 colors
- Storage options for saving and loading consisted of a floppy drive or a cassette recorder.
Original Television Ad For The Atari 400
Top Things About The Atari 400
- Number one has to be the membrane keyboard and the simulated typing sound that came from the computer as you typed. In short, would be cool to see the membrane keyboard on some devices today.
- It hooked up to any old TV. When I first got it, I remember hooking it up to my old black and white TV.
- Storing your programs to a cassette recorder seems quaint at this moment in time.
- No Microsoft or heavy graphic interfaces.
- Just about anything you could imagine, could be done in 8K. Think about that. Most computers today are coming standard with 512MB of RAM.
- Great programming languags like Basic and Pilot.
- Super games like Pacman, Asteroids, Defender, Centipede, and Frogger. These games still stick in my mind.
- Connect up with the outside world through your 300 Baud Modem. Plenty fast enough for surfing the bulletin boards.
- Cool sounds could be created from the 4 independent 8-bit sound channels.
- In short, the Atari 400 was all about imagination. Even though it was slim on specs, great ideas and concepts could be hatched. It was truly a revolutionary machine for it's time.
Other Places To Look For Information On The Atari 400
- Obslete Technology Website - Atari 400 computer
- A page on the Obsolete Technology Website which gives a good deal of information about the Atari 400.
- Atari 8-bit family - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- A Wikipedia page about the complete Atari 8-bit family of computers.
More Videos On The Atari 400
More Pictures Of The Atari 400
Old factory authorized service sign.
Atari 400 membrane key board with soldered in attachment.
Major mod/hacks to an Atari 400.
Someone hard at work on the old Atari 400.
Pamphlet explaining how your can upgrade you Atari 400 to 48K.
Latest News About Atari
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Atari 400 Items On Ebay
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Tell Me About Your Atari Experiences
Would like to hear from other who owned an Atari 400. Tell me the best program you ever wrote!
zippidido wrote
cleaning out the garage atari 400 kinda miss the old mindless games up late at nite
Posted August 20, 2008
BPSSEKHON wrote
HI BP HERE I AM BASICALLY A COMPUTER USER AND I LOVE OLD COMPUTERS ALOT LIKE ATARI IBM AMSTRAD AND MORE
SO I JUST WAS LOOKING AT THIS WEBSITE FOUND SOME HIGHLY USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT ATARI 400/800
WHICH ARE GENERALLY OLD COMPUTERS BACK IN 1980.
ATARI WAS THE FIRST CONSOLE THAT WAS OUT AND PEOPLE BEGAN USING ATARI ONLY.
VCS VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM WAS THE FIRST ONE EVER AND THINGS THEN BEGAN TO IMPROVE THERE AFTER....
BP
Posted August 15, 2008
fefe wrote...
I never had an Atari 400, but I do like your lens. When I was a kid, we had a TI994a that we made little basic programs on, and typed in game programs from magazines. We found whatever we could get the computer to do pretty fascinating. :)
Posted November 25, 2006
