Ah the memories!! This was my first computer. My dad won it in a business promotion and brought it home in 1980 when I was 12. I had plenty of debates with my friends who had Apple ][s over which machine was superior. I used Atari Basic to create simple multicolor animations with sound effects that my Apple friends couldn't reproduce in Integer Basic. The best one I made was a flying saucer shooting a laser at the ground with a multicolor explosion. I spent hours typing in Microsoft Basic games from books realizing that I couldn't port most of them over anyway. We used our computers mostly for games, of course. Typing on that machine was ponderous because of the keyboard layout, as you noticed. You keep having to slow down and look where the Return key is. I used Atari Writer to write papers in high school ('82-'86) and printed them out on an Atari letter quality printer. I was pretty much the only kid in my class using a word processor at the time. The Atari OEM RAM expansion cards were originally encased in metal shielding and plastic cases. I ended up upgrading mine from 16K to 48K a few years later. When you packed in 48K of RAM into it there was absolutely no space left. Adrian, you mentioned that your expansion cards are loose and can be inserted backwards. The original cases prevent that from happening. Pics: atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2021_01/48k-set-atari-800-plug-16k-ram-cx853_1_6afa7bc5d2c7382d80edb22431317200.jpg.97180b8a2f26d3331956de50fa8588a9.jpg atariage.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2021_01/Atari_800_PAL_Atari_810_Atari_410_Boxed_09.jpg.fb3e243325a07e89b2655833782d0454.jpg After about five years of heavy use, my 800 would often freeze and display garbage characters across the screen. At the time, I assumed it was because it was overheating and destroying components. Once the crashes became too frequent to use the 800 anymore, I upgraded to a used Atari 800XL and kept using my old peripherals through my college years. We had a good run! Almost 10 years of 8-bit Atari!

The 800's case was designed to look like an electric typewriter. The thick metal shielding was required due to the strict FCC rules regarding RF modulators prior to 1981; thus, most other pre-1981 computers don't have a built-in modulator (Apple II, VIC-20, TI-99/4A, etc.). I believe that's also why the RF cable is permanently attached. In 1981 the FCC rules were relaxed and after then computers and video games could have a built-in modulator without needing such massive shielding, and the RF cable could then be removable. And Atari, Commodore, and TI all use the same pins on the video connector for composite video and audio, but the pins for luma and chroma (if present) are different on each system.

The RAM and ROM boards for the 800 were originally fully enclosed cartridges that fit snugly together.

I absolutely LOVE the 800. Had one as a teen and it's still one of the greatest computers of all time as far as I'm concerned.

That is absolute wizardry. I am astonished. Watching this makes me happy, but also makes me sad because I reluctantly threw my Atari 800 in a dumpster about 20 years ago, and it had pretty much the exact same symptom. Everything worked except the keyboard. The fact that you can get an S video signal out of it is amazing. My jaw is just on the floor. Thank you for uploading this. FYI, the ram that I had the boards were inside a plastic case, which had a label on top for which direction you put it in. It was very tidy.

The accepted sticker that says B & C is likely B & C Computer Visions which is still in business today selling new old stock Atari parts and products. The SIO ports creators went on to design USB if I recall. That SIO design was to overcome the FCC not allowing they computer to have exposed electronics, preventing any expansion slots. Shortly after the FCC allowed more radiation and lowered the amount of shielding. The shielding was probably a large cost of manufacturing the system. The creators of the Atari 800 went on to create the Amiga 1000 and custom chips. Under the shield is a CPU card with GTIA chips. Speaker is for the keyboard clicking sound. You could also leave the basic cart out and use the built in memo pad to test, reducing other potential issues.

For others facing similar problems and as an FYI for the “non-Atari folks” reading, most of the keyboard keys are read by the POKEY chips, but the function keys (SELECT, OPTION, START) are read by the GTIA chip. Keyboard issues are usually problems with the 4000-series keyboard mux chips, POKEY problems, or for some keyboard variants, issues with the keyboard membrane. And yes, POKEYs are getting more expensive every year as they were used in most of Atari’s arcade cabinets of the era as well as the A8 and 5200 systems. There are FPGA replacements but supply chain issues in the last couple years have really screwed things up there.

Watching this episode makes me wanting to rebuy the 800XL I had in 1985 and to admire its motherboard as I used to do.

my favorite videos are where Adrian opens up ancient hardware and shows us how it works

This machine kicked off my whole IT career. What a great trip down memory lane!

Adrian - just in case you are not aware of them - Best Electronics in San Jose was one of the premier Atari sales and repair agents. They purchased all of Atari's old stock when they went under. They have new/old stock of heaps of components. If you need Atari stuff, please check them out. They have brand new replacement components for lots of Atari equipment. I can see on their site they have stock of keyboards, motherboards, memory cards, diagnostic cartridges and field service manuals. They also have an amazing catalogue with heaps of additional information in it. I have no association with this company - I discovered them when looking for old Atari 2600 game controllers and found they had BRAND NEW STOCK available for purchase. Thanks again for an awesome video, Adrian. I enjoy watching you work :-) cheers!

As others have pointed out, originally the ROM and RAM boards supplied by Atari were enclosed in plastic cases that fit neatly together and prevented any movement. These caused overheating problems in extended use and Atari eventually started using bare boards. However, they did fit a slotted plastic spacer piece that was set down on top of the boards to provide lateral stability. I think you can get a replacement 3D printed version or perhaps find a hobbyist with a spare for you.

A cool feature is the tape drive. The system was able to connect one of the stereo tracks direct to the audio output, whilst the other track contained the data. This allowed tapes to play loading music, or pre-recorded speech. A really lovely idea that some programs used well. Particularly educational titles.

So happy to see the Atari 800 on the bench!! The A8 series is my first and favorite computer line! I highly *highly* recommend checking out some of the modern upgrades for it. An Incognito board for the 800 would be an excellent start. It adds a megabyte of RAM, and a CF slot for an 'internal' hard drive. If you get the one with FJC's firmware (or just flash the chip yourself with the firmware and save a bit of cash), it has a ton of additional goodness such as high speed SIO. The FujiNet is definitely the next thing I would recommend. It has replaced my need for SIO2PC, floppy emulation, and has an SD card slot for easy data transfers. Games and utilities are being made which use it. The FujiNet is not just a WiFi modem for the A8, it is able to offload things like SSL, and JSON parsing to the ESP32, which you can then use in Basic or your language of choice. There are apps right now which show the local weather from the Internet, or track the ISS, basic IRC chat, an Internet newsreader, etc. (There's a C64 FujiNet being worked on now, and the Apple ][ FN is almost fully functional. But ignore those for now! Atari!!)

as mentioned, the controller board and the ram boards were in cases, later on they were as you have there. As for the wobble, there was a couple of plastic clips that went across all the boards to hold the still.

I am glad to finally see somebody working on this machine, I still own 2 of them. I ran the Atari users group and I ran an Atari BBS called "The Electronics Shop BBS" in the 1980s on an ATR 8000 Z80 CPM module hooked into my Atari 800. and running shugart 720K double sided floppies which was cutting edge back then. I still have all the schematic diagrams, original drawings, manuals etc. I totally loved this machine and what it was capable of. BTW the constant beeping is a key board error.! probably a stuck key which will prevent any other keys functioning and you'll get the beeping. You're just scratching the surface of what was done with this machine We created mods such as page flipped RAM memory to expand beyond the 48K, ours had up to 256K, and later 1MB as well as built-in power supplies, the joystick ports allowed direct access to the A/D converters which meant anything was possible peripheral wise. It was myself and a group of other people who created many, many mods for this machine, far too many to name, I still have all of the original equipment, joysticks, add-ons, touch tablets, trackball, there was even a light pen. We even used 1 of these machines in college to demonstrate the capabilities of its data collection ports by hooking it up to jet engine data collection sensors. That switch you don't know about is a power interconnection switch that prevents the machine from being turned on when the lid is opened. there was an extended basic cartridge called basic XL from a 3rd party as well as many other cartridges, the metal cage is to prevent RF interference. the lid is missing 2 rotating lock tabs where you see the screw holes, you could connect EEPROM readers and burners and created many custom cartridges and operating systems as well as games. The machine was so versatile there's never been anything like it since. Those rams and modules you are looking at came much later and have been replaced from the originals which were in plastic cases. later dropped as a cost saving measure. It was those cases that caused cards the to fit snugly in the slots. That machine was serviced somewhere hence the stickers. I have quite a few of the original cartridges including Pac-Man, Battle Zone, Missile command. Etc. as well as a bunch of others. But, the cartridge that sold that machine was called "Star Raiders" it was the 1st pseudo-first-person space videogame, and was so far ahead of his time as to be ridiculous.

What a machine, 1979!, fantastic piece of 8-bit nostalgia....wow!

Think about the fact that most people today remember Commodore and NOT Atari for the home computers. I have owned, and might still if I can find them all. Everything from the 2600 all the way up to the 1040st. Loved all of them, and ran a dial-up BBS for years on my 800. I miss those days for sure and your video is a fantastic way to remember them. Please keep up the great videos and if you can do more on the Atari side of things that would be great. You got a sub from me.

Very impressive computer, considering it comes from the ‘70s. Reminded me why Atari used to be a giant.

I used to have a Atari 800, back when they were new. I loved it.

Very cool to see! The Atari 800 was my family's second computer, after a Timex Sinclair 1000 (and our third computer was a 128K Macintosh). We had the Indus GT floppy drive; if you ever spot one of those SNAP THEM UP because they are so cool with a smoked plastic door that opens like a DeLorean gullwing. Neat seeing inside, I never took ours apart.

Back in 1983 I used work at the UK retailer Silica Shop that sold these machines, and they were incredibly impressive, even after the release of the C64 in the UK, and especially compared to the Sinclair Spectrum. They were however extremely expensive, and most of the software had to be imported, and was also very expensive, so they had a limited impact on the UK market. There were some amazing games for the machine, and Synapse Software and the Lucasfilm Games were the standout for me, though most of these made it to the c64, but often the conversions weren't as good as the Atari originals. The disk drives were great, really quick, and the loading sound is iconic. The tape drives were awful, slow and unreliable, and I don't think there was any turbo software for them. The main reason they were unreliable is they were stereo and only one channel held data - the other could be used (rarely) for audio like music or voicovers. I got my first proper taste of computer art on the Atari Touch Tablet and AtariPainter on the Atari 800 at work. I borrowed a machine and tablet to create some sci-fi pictures that I used to demo to customers. The positive reaction to those was the spark that eventually led to me becoming a loading screen artist later on the C64, so the Atari 800, along with the ZX81 and C64 are the machines that kickstarted me into my career. BTW, the C64 was originally intended to have much faster hardware disk access, as there were dedicated high-speed data lines included in the design. However, in a cost-cutting measure Commodore decided to re-use the Vic20 case, which lead to some issues getting the C64 board to fit, so the mainboard manufacturer deleted the high-speed lines as they didn't think they were important! Once the mistake was discovered it was too late to do anything about it as loads of boards had already been manufactured, which meant C64 owners had to suffer from incredibly slow disk loading speeds, until coders worked out how to do turbo loading in software.

As a little kid this is the first computer I ever remember seeing and messing with. Memories!

Hi Adrian - for what it’s worth, my Atari 800 also had an unresponsive keyboard and the problem wasn’t with the keyboard itself at all. It turns out the wires in the motherboard connector were breaking because they’re folded at such a tight angle to fit in the case. There’s some play there so I pulled the cable, stripped back the wires a bit, and threaded them back in place. I will let you know that I just about lost my mind threading those tiny wires through those infinitesimally tiny holes but it fixed everything. I suspect this to particularly be an issue on machines that had a lot of work done on them because of the added stress on the cable when pulling everything apart to get to the guts. Also, jut as a note, my keyboard is one of the Hi-Tek ones.

That 800 is in mint condition appearance wise! I fell in love with programming on an Atari 400. I did not have the money to buy the 800. I was 17. The Atari helped launch my 40 year career in software development.

The cover opened turns off the machine so you can put a different cart in there safely. SIO was the basis for USB. Similar protocol. The slot cards originally came in cases....looking like huge cartridges. The big metal structure was FCC's insistence at that time. The 2600's original RF shield was also very beefy. Looking forward to the other Atari videos.

I was an Atari 800 kid. Loved this machine. I got lucky a few years ago and got a 65xe.

I had an Atarti 800 for Xmas 1982... still got he 410 cassette recorder in it's box somewhere in a cupboard, ain't been used since about 1985... amazing machine and games....

I'm looking forward to this later tonight! It'll be my treat after a hard day of working on the house. The Atari 400 was my first computer, and I think it's just as beautiful as the 800. These machines were ahead of their time with their capabilities.

The Atari 8-bits were far ahead of their time, just like the Amiga! Even the main designer was the same. But Atari didn't have the heart to push them with their games library, so as not to hurt their VCS 2600 sales. Only one blasting good game "Star Raiders" was released by them, and it's a true classic. Together with the high price this meant the Atari 8-bit line never really took off in a massive way.

Of all the retro computers I didn't own back in the day the two I wanted most were a Coleco ADAM and an original Atari 800. The former for it's delicious mad stupidity sprinkled with flashes of genius, and the latter because it's idiotically beautiful 'construction' wrapped around an excellent design. Happily I have an ADAM and it's absolutely wonderful, so much so I keep designing upgrades for it. Some day I hope to have an original 800. Adrian: In the unlikely event you ever read this comment thank you so much for your channel, I watch every episode. I absolutely recommend you get a working Coleco ADAM some day, fit a PSU inside it so you can store the monstrous printer, and enjoy the computer for the delightful combination of stupidity, madness, and genius, that it is. (Don't buy a broken ADAM, you'll not get it working such is the unfinished flakiness of the design!)

The 800 is my favorite computer model of all time, but I couldn't afford it back in the day and settled for a 400 with 16K. Atari did offer a 48K upgrade (pro installation only), so I got that, a third-party mechanical keyboard to replace the membrane, and a few other internal goodies. The result must have been a unique 400; I wish I still had it! Learned enough on that machine to set me up for a career in software (35 years and counting). Fulfilled a lifelong dream and bought a minty 800 on eBay last year 😁 I'm still amazed at the 800's construction. The 48K model is no less than 7 PCBs! I never knew until recently that the CPU and graphics chips were on a daughterboard. Apparently the 400 also had a hidden slot and used the same CPU/graphics card. But yeah, USB-style I/O, graphics/sound coprocessors, and S-Video in 1979? Impressive!

Indeed: your title says it all. One of the most beautiful machines ever designed.

I had one in 1980 as my first computer with maxed out memory, a floppy drive and a printer. I used it all through college until 1985. I tried to turn it on during the 90's but the capacitors had gone south.

Amazing how clean this machine is. Most of the time the outside of these 70-80 electronic machines is yellowed and coverted with all sorts of sticky stuff, while the inside is filled with dust and cobbwebs.

My first computer was an Atari 800. Got it early on and it came with 16K of RAM. All cartridges were sold separately. I had to wait for the BASIC cartridge and Star Raiders (great game) cartridge to come in. For the first few weeks all I had was Atari 'Memo Pad' which is what you get when you power it on with no cartridge installed. Great video. Thanks.

A thousand bucks is nothing to sneeze at today. Still a beautiful machine.

Thank you for finally getting around to a repair on one of your Atari computers! My first home computer was a TI99-4A, followed by an Atari 800 48K machine in 1982. It was a great learning experience and was far more capable for game programming than the Apple IIe. One of the best features of the Atari 8 bit computers was the display controller. It used a display list to identify the display mode for each vertical block of the display so you could combine high resolution monochrome graphics, color graphics, and text modes in the same display frame. This allowed for very easily customizing your display without having to rely on machine coding or interrupts to generate very complex (at the time) displays. If I'm remembering correctly the display list "language" even included a jump opcode. Great stuff. I think Atari was really light years ahead of anything else on the home computing market when it was released in 1979, and the run through 1992 really only ended there because Atari itself ended due to poor marketing. But the basic functionality for the display really never changed (much) during the entire run of 8-bit computers.

scan matrix keyboard, no buffering or the other many layers of abstraction found on modern computers.. love it. A truly rock hard system that a single person could understand the whole thing. (one of my first programs was rewriting the input command, I had a two-dimensional array of acceptable anticipated inputs for my program, and if someone pressed the wrong key so it didn't match my chosen input, it would just beep, no one could ever crash my programs!) no trapping no interrupts, to quote outer limits, I controlled the vertical the horizontal..... as a 10 year old , that gave me an incredible sense of control.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but the edge connector on the back of the main board was used for system testing in the factory.

I don't know why, but if I miss the "well HELLO everyone!" at the beginning of Adrian's videos due to autoplay silently skipping it on my phone before I open the full video.. I always rewind to hear it. I want to feel welcomed 😌

Thank you for bringing the start of many kids' tech career to life. Awesome.

25:02 - That die-cast chassis reminds of those on the 8-inch floppy drives!

First time ever I knew more about the computer in the video the Adrian does. Great video as always

The pinnacle of my 8-bit Atari life was cross-wiring joystick connectors and writing some machine code to send data out of one machine and read it on another. There was a software speech synth that blanked the screen when it was speaking and I had one machine deciding what to say and send the data to another, keeping the screen active on the first one. Lots of fun.

Look forward to Adrian's videos every Saturday. Part of my weekend unwind. Many thanks for the great content.

Those notches would be from the manufacturing process where boards were assembled by the panel to make better use of insertion and wave soldering equipment and then broken out into individual boards later in the process.

My very first computer, which I still own. Such a handsome machine.

Happy to see all the future Atari video projects on the desk. Great video!

I’m very glad that one of my favorite KZfaq folks finally did something on Atari 8bit. My first computer was an Atari 130xe, which we got because my cousins had an 800xl. Adrian, this video really made a dark and crappy weekend a bit better. Thanks man. I would send candy but honestly I think everyone has already got that covered! I hope that maybe you might consider doing some further videos on this platform!

I always wanted an atari 800... and yes, the most memorable thing to me was that massive metal frame that guides the cartridges into the machine. Made it seem like a "real" computer and less of a toy or game system!!

My first computer was a TI-99/4A (which I still boot up every day). When TI discontinued the machine in '83, and software availability dried up in my region (and customs/duty fees made catalog shopping too expensive) all of my friends had Atari systems, so I made the switch to Atari. Mine was the 800XL model, but I always loved the design of the original 800, and it remains the best video output to modern monitors. My TI has it beat in the 21st century with replacement VDP boards that have native VGA-out and several display enhancements/fixes, but the original 800 has no competition out-of-the-box. Thank you for a fun video that takes me back to a very different time. I paused to say thank you, but will now go back to see how you got the keyboard fixed.

I want to see a LOT more on the 8bit atari... sio programming, using the joystick ports for io, open source peripheral creation, most of all being able to interface to the cartridge slots!!!!!

Nice to see the best computer from 1979, it was a beast. In terms of graphics and sounds there was nothing at the same level. The pokey had 4 channels, it had 256 colours and besides the normal graphic modes, you could mix different graphic modes at once (Display Listing Interrupt).

Replaced those swollen, bloated caps in the power supply for starters. Also there are a few electrolytic ones on the main board. Good trick toggling the keyboard cable port directly.

This brings back so many memories. This was the first computer I ever used. Played a lot of Qbert on it. Looking forward to seeing you fix the keyboard and getting everything working again.

Had all of these new in the day, the atari 800 was my favorite.

The edge connector on the back of the PCB was for factory debugging I believe.

Thanks Adrian. Coming from the UK I was a Sinclair fanboy so its cool to see an Atari 800 being given your loving treatment. Another quality video. . x

My mother bought an Atari 800 when I was a baby, and when I got older it was my first computer at around age 4-5. I accidentally pulled it off the table once (yanked the joystick too hard) and the whole top popped off. Don't know if we didn't have the screws or they were just loose, but back in the expansion section we had the maxed out RAM and ROM boards but they were in actual cartridge housings rather than bare boards. I really miss that 800. I used to be so good at Galaxian as a kid. This computer is what set me on the road to becoming a programmer (which I've been doing professionally for the past 15 years now) when I found out that I could type in my second grade math problems into the BASIC prompt and it would spit out the answers for me.

They seem really well built. Looking forward to next video.

As you can see by my username, I'm an Atari partisan from way back. So it's good to see some Atari love on this channel! And if I might indulge my kid self by slandering the C64: I guess we haven't seen much Atari content here since they keep working instead of breaking down and needing Adrian's deft repairs. :P

Excellent video! I like your easy-going style and manner. A MUST-HAVE cartridge for the Atari 8-bit is 1979's Star Raiders. In 2007, Star Raiders was included in a list of the 10 most important video games of all time, as compiled by Stanford University's History of Science and Technology Collections. I played it myself when it first came out and was blown away. At the time I owned a TRS-80 model I, with its chunky monochrome graphics; so, color was nice, high-resolution graphics like this were nicer, and the implementation of the game was mind-blowing. I was particularly impressed by the roaring sound that the space cannons made.

This intro song is so good that I feel like learning music theory just to compose something like it.

Thanks for making these videos! Its really great to see inside these old systems (and to have an understanding of how they worked). I was though, very sad, to hear you describing an excellent build quality system as "overbuilt". What, for me, you're really highlighting is "modern companies are lazy cheapskates these days" and with that opinion I entirely agree (computer companies like to charge money and remove quality, its why retro collecting is so popular; For proof of my statement, just need to look at the history of the Genesis/MegaDrive system and the revisions getting worse and worse quality). I really wish the kind of quality you say is "overbuilt" persisted until today, the 1970's made the most amazing things! Kids got REAL presents, not rubbishy bits of plastic. Comparing my elder brothers toys to mine, his are all metal, hefty and could surive anything a kid might do playing with it, vs a few years on all plastic toys, all broken. Though we do get the luxury of KZfaq as a free quality service, so I guess we got some good stuff :).

Excellent overview and analysis so far.

this video gets a thumbs up just for featuring an Atari 800 cause *so few* people have done it! this is the computer architecture i grew up with, and i really mean architecture.. i had access to nearly every model of Atari 8-bit computer in my youth.

I've done two Atari 800 repairs in the past. I bought a used machine in the early 1990s. I worked with a guy that was into Atari 8bit that, just based on my description of the problem, reached over into a bin and handed me a CD4051 and told me how to go about diagnosing which of the two were bad. Fast forward into the 2010s and I bought an 800 cheap off Ebay, where the owner bought a new old stock keyboard to repair his machine and it still didn't work. Same exact problem, and this time I had a bin of repair parts I had saved. The other problem was a hack-job on the door lid switch. I just soldered a jumper.

That brings back memories. I had one of those that I used to play Archon on. (such a great game) Left it behind when I went to college, so I don't know what happened to it. Might be rusting away in my parents' basement.

Awesome my older brother had an Atari 8 bit. They were actually pretty good machines.

this is the first machine I used .... LOVED it !!!!

Yay !! Atari time finally .. thank you. I had all of the Atari line in my youth. I remember a mod on the 400/800 where you turned off the write enable lines to the upper memory where the cartridge data resided when plugged in . This way you could just load that section of memory from a file, flip the switch, and you could run the cartridge program without it being able to write over itself. It was a cheap form of cartridge copy protection they used back then.

Nice to see some Atari 8-bit content! The Mitsumi keyboards are relatively rare in the 800s, only used toward the end of production, probably late 1983. Most 800s had a keyboard made by Stackpole or Hi-Tek featuring individual switch contacts instead of a mylar.

This was the first computer we owned. We played video games on it. Later, I took it apart and wasn’t able to put it back together. It ended up in the trash can. I learned a lot looking up part numbers for chips and tracing pcb tracks. Now I’m an electrical engineer.

This is awesome. I inherited an Atari 800 with some keys not working, and hadn't known how to go about troubleshooting it. I eagerly await your keyboard repair video!!

Nice to see more Atari repairs on your channel Adrian.

This is the first computer I ever used. My Elementary school had Atari 800's in the library.

The original RAM and ROM boards were inside of their own individual cartridges as well when Atari first released the Atari 800. But when they were upgraded in the early 1980s the various Atari plants around the states and specific electronics stores would install new RAM and ROM boards without their cartridges.

Wow, I remember having one of these when I was a kid. That one looks really nice.

Absolutely LOVED this one AB! I used to sell these things as my first job during high school, and I never realised it has so much expand-ability or was made so well. I do know one little trick with cassette operation is that the machine can play audio from a cassette "inline" (ie turning the motor on and off) so for things like tutorials where the program code is already loaded off the cassette there can be programmed interaction playing voice off the tape.

Your knowledge and skills are amazing. Thanks for sharing!

I had the 1200XL and many memories of early computing are based on that system.

Premetto che ti seguo dall'Italia e voglio farti tantissimi complimenti oltre che per gli argomenti interessantissimi per il tuo modo di parlare che permette anche a me che sono negato con l'inglese di capire gran parte di quello che spieghi soprattutto a livello tecnico. Sei un mito. Grazie e continua cosi.

The 800 is no doubt the best of the early 8-bit micros. Atari was way ahead of its time with this beautiful machine.

The 850 interface for the 800/400/800XL was even more amazing. It had 4 serial ports and a parallel printer port. The fourth serial port supported 20ma teletype loops. Format the port for 45 baud, 5 bits with no parity and you could print with a Model 33 ASR teletype printer. The 800XL could boot from ram as well as rom. They even put out a legacy 800 operating system on disc because of complaints of old 800 software did not run on the XL. Improperly written machine language programs skipped using the vectors Atari specified and did JSR jumps straight to the memory. Unfortunately, many of those subroutines moved in the XL and programs would crash. Hold the System key on boot up from the disc drive and legacy 800 would load as the operating system. You could also write your own OS if you wanted to.

Enjoyed this video, Adrian. Looking forward to the next part. Never had or was interested in the Atari line (Commodore myself) but that is a well built machine. In Australia, we would say, "built like a brick dunny in the desert" @23:50 "but I'm just going to clean that dust right off." Cracked me up, just had a vision of Bob Ross painting show the way you said it. 😉

The Atari 800 is the last of the units I need for my collection. I wanted to collct all the computers I wanted as a kid. I lusted after the 800. I got a C64. Nice work. Wish me luck I have a 400 I'm bidding on in a local estate auction.

A friend of mine, when I was little, had an Atari 800. Even back then I thought the aesthetics were great.

Hi from the UK, my very first "computer" was an Atari 400 which I think I got from Maplins with a almost proper keyboard rather than the tactile board that was the norm. 400's only came with 1 socket; I think only one cartridge was issued using the right hand slot. Was fun times especially remember Star Raiders.

Adrian just in case you missed my other comment, to fix the keyboard remove the mylar very slowly with a hair drier and then just put it right back in place again. I needed someone's help to hold the PCB. Use a steam gift card or something like that to help separate the mylar from the PCB. Some of the white rubber stuff from the mylar will be very difficult to remove around the screw holes. You will tear a few but minimize the tearing and when you put the mylar back in place arrange the white rubber film as best you can. It should be fine. Be careful to not tear the white rubber around the key contacts areas. If you do just put the white rubber film back as best you can when reassembling. It may take 30-60 minutes to remove the mylar this way. Go slowly and carefully... It will probably fix the keyboard. They mylar has been sandwiched in there for 39 years and needs to breathe =) Fixed all keys on my Mitsumi 800 using this method. You are very fortunate to have that variant keyboard, if you can get it working. I'm guessing you can get it working using this method. The Mitsumi's have an excellent typing experience but know that the plungers can break if the 800 is poorly stored. They aren't fragile it's just that broken plungers might happen if, for example, a power supply brick is stored on the keyboard. Someone in UK did make replacement Mitumi 800 mylars (I have two) but they do not work. It was an expensive test run (over $2000 to have 100 made I think). I can send you one if you want but it doesn't work but maybe you can figure out why. This modern replacement mylar seems to depress all keys. It might need a rubber film like the original Mitsumi so that might be the problem. Applying a non-conductive film may fix it.

I learned Assembly Language on this machine. I remember drooling over ads for a floppy drive for this computer called the “Indus GT.” I remember coding “Display List Interrupts” to “cheat” and get more colors on the screen at once than were “allowed.”

24:58 It's built like a tank! They don't make them like they used to! 😂

I absolutely adore the Atari 8bit line. And that Pac Man version was probably the best home version for a long time. Especially compared to the 2600. There is heaps of awesome games on the platform too.

Lovely piece of debug well explained.

5:11 The IBM 5150 keyboard help to standardize the keyboards we use today. Back in 1979 everyone did it their way. 19:12 The FCC didn’t crack down on Apple because there was no RF modulation included with the Apple ][. Steve Jobs skirted the rules by having the retailers sell you that part. Everyone else was cautious and Atari went the heavy shielding route because they were the biggest target.

Super great video! I've had a few of those keyboards apart and they are a pain in the pendulum to fix. On the other hand, I really appreciated the explanation and observation of the circuitry. Nice testing and disassembly.

Originally the ram and rom cards came in CARTRIDGES that fit in the back. I guess later on they decided to save money and sell them without the carts... Mine had carts, so of course they couldn't wobble or be put in backwards. Also there was no screws to hold the top down, they must have put those there so you wouldn't do things like take the cards out and put them back in wrong, something the original carts prevented. Note, a friend of mine took one of my carts and hot glued and wire wrapped a bunch of chips on and made a 128k ram disk. I was doing game development on my machine and that sped up assembly time a lot. The language was assembly language using a SynAssembler cartridge. Atari made an assembler cart, but it assembled too slowly to be usable.

Memories of going over to my cousin's house and playing "Blue Max" (on a cartridge!) for hours...I discovered that bombing and/or attacking your own infrastructure caused "unpredictable" results 😂 They had an original Atari 800 just like this

This is the first time I've seen inside an Atari 800 as well. The design/engineering inside the Atari 800 was very clearly done by the same people that built the Atari 2600. Similar looking PCBs, Similar die cast RF sheild/housings, the exact same setup for the RF RCA cable, little hole in the die cast cover with an adjustment (color carrier frequency perhaps?).

Amazing to see how ahead of the competition this computer was even before the 80s. Built like a tank, easy to maintain and troubleshoot and graphically and sound wise very capable and competive for almost a decade. It is a shame that this line of computers and the console counterpart, the Atari 5200 never had more success. It easily beats any british micro, PCs untils the ega/adlib era doesn't even need to hide from the C64.