Atari 400

Atari 400 and 800 were very powerful game-machines at their time (the 800 was also used for application software).

The graphic-chip Antic developed by Jay Miner (who later designed the Amiga) is programmable and can use a different resolution for each screen-line. With clever use of the Antic, programs can show all 256 colours at once. Basic was not included in the roms: You have to plug in a Basic-module. Without the module, the Atari works as a notepad!

With the introduction of the two Ataris a Basic-module (on a 8K-cartridge) and the legendary Star-Raiders (also 8K) were available. The second cartridge-port of the Atari 800 was only used by a few cartridges like the Basic-extension. The Atari 800 was more professional with its typewriter-style keyboard, the 48 KByte RAM and the monitor interface. It was also used in many universities.

On the Winter-CES 1979 Atari showed the 400 and 800 after one year of development. Both models did well in the game market due to their superior graphics. Besides many arcade ports, a lot of software was ported from the Apple II. Atari's main market was the USA and the Atari 800 was even used in some offices and schools. The four controller ports for joysticks and other devices were rarely used - the most prominent game was M.U.L.E. .

The old Atari computers are quite robust and they are still being used by some people. New developments, like a turbo and graphics card, are mostly targeted at the XL/XE models, however.

• Big Atari 8bit Home Page( English)
  
• Mareks Atari 8 Bit pages (ABBUC).( English)
  
• Atari 8-bit FAQ by Michael Current( English)
  
• Digital Antic Archive( English)
  
• XL File Search( English)
  
• AtariWorld( English)
  
• Atari XL/XE Homepage by Stefan Lausberg. ( English)
  
• Draco's Atari Download area( English)
  
• ABBUC( English)
  
• Newsgroup: comp.sys.atari.8bit
  
• PVV Atari Archive