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09-14-2011, 10:15 AM | #1 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 11,379
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Back in the day, when almost all of my friends had the Atari 2600, my Dad brought home an Atari 400 and later an Atari 800. They were more like computers that you hook up to the TV for a monitor. It had a built in keyboard, and you could put in various cartridges with programs or games. What was cool about it was that the games were basically arcade quality. So, while my friends were playing the crappy 2600 version of Pac Man that was nothing like the arcade game, I was playing real arcade style Pac Man and other games at home. Needless to say my friends mostly came over to my house to play video games.
I would also plug in a BASIC program cartridge and write little programs and simple games. Later I got the tape player and I could load games via cassette tape. It was kind of sucky because you had to let the entire tape play in order to load the game on the computer. I remember starting it before dinner, so that when I was done eating it would be ready to play. Does anyone else remember these early computers? It was way better than the 2600 game system. Atari 400 computer Atari 800 computer |
09-14-2011, 05:38 PM | #2 |
Iron Grenadier
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 528
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Cool info, thanks. Those list prices were impressive--$550 for the 400 and $1k for the 800.
I remember the 2600 commercials in the mid-'80s (I think) touting its $50 price point. That might help to explain the difference in graphics... |
09-14-2011, 05:40 PM | #3 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: USA
Posts: 16,671
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Didn't John Titor use one of these to save the future?
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09-18-2011, 12:15 AM | #4 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 8,089
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Man, those look seriously old school. Our first PC was a Tandy 1000 from Radio Shack and the graphics were all green colors.
We also had Pong. LOL. Then we got an Atari 2600... and finally an Intellivision. God, I loved that Intellivision.
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09-18-2011, 09:38 AM | #5 |
I Brake For Asari!
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Thessia
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Hah, I believe it was an IBM....
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09-19-2011, 09:54 AM | #6 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 11,379
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All this time I hadn't realized how expensive they were especially considering it was the early 80s. I remember the IBMs and Apples being over a thousand and sometimes several thousands depending on the model. I think my dad saw it as an educational tool to get us to learn about computers. For the most part it worked. In addition to playing games I taught myself how to program in BASIC as a kid among other things. Those were really the good old days for me, because later on we fell on some tough times.
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10-17-2011, 02:35 PM | #7 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Manassas, Virginia
Posts: 1,008
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I had an Atari 800XL.
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