Atari: 400/800

If you have lived through the 80’s era, then you know just how special Atari was to everyone. More than a gaming device, Atari was a pocket-friendly (not pocket sized) computer that had children and young adults go bonkers! For at least a couple of years, there was cupidity for Atari!

Atari 400 and 800 were released in the same year with totally different designs and similar specifications.

The Atari 400 had 8 Kb of RAM in its initial version and 16 KB in the later version. It had a 6502 CPU with 1.79 MHz of processing power. Atari had a cartridge port on its cover and 4 other ports inside its body. As far as the exterior is concerned, Atari was wedge-shaped with a plastic membrane keyboard. A benefit of this sort of keyboard was that keys could not be removed and swallowed by children. Furthermore, the keyboard could stand food spills since it was plastic.

The Atari 800 had up to 48 KB of RAM and the same 1.8 MHz CPU as Atari 400. Instead of one, Atari 800 had two cartridge ports. It also had 4 expansion slots just as Atari 400 did. Accessing these slots was much easier in Atari 800 as it had a pop-top. Atari 400 demanded quite a hectic job before its slots could be accessed as the whole body of it had to be taken a part. Both Atari 800 and 400 had 4 controller ports.

As far as data storage is concerned, a floppy disk drive as well as a cassette drive could be used.made use of. Cassette drives were preferred to disk drives because, comparatively, they were much cheaper.
Atari 400/800 could be connected to a TV via its RF TV output port. Atari 400 had the ability to could display up to 128 colors and Atari 800 went could go as far 256 colors to give its users an eye pleasing result.

Thanks to games such as Donkey Kong, the Atari still lives in the hearts of many people. Those who grew up using the Atari 400/800 know just how special this piece of early computing era is. Many people today are on a lookout for Atari as these have within them a lot of memories that people want to remember. Thanks to Atari’s durability, it still works as a perfect video game. Console collection hobbyists today just can’t wait to get their hand on the Atari! Own one? Lucky you!