[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 3 of 2013: 18 or so Month Retrospective and Follow Up.

My it has been a damned while since I updated this little project, discounting this mini double update that finished here: http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2013/02/lets-play-party-like-its-1987-lets.html .

I am calling this update a basic "what have I done and where am I going?" post.  I will show off my entire collection as it currently stands, talk a little bit about my experiences, and what I will do next.

First off, my mostly alphabetized and organized games:

When I started my Summer 2012 game organization and photo thing (some of which has appeared on my blog, others still just as photos on Facebook) I tried to organize alphabetically and by type.  At this time these were my cartridge titles.  Centipede, Gateway to Apshai (one of the first action RPGs!), Miner 2049er, Pac Man (a good game.  How the computers could get this amazing title and the Atari 2600 got such an awful port is beyond me.  OH WAIT CORPORATE STUPIDITY.), the best version of River Raid, a good version of Up n Down (but C64 is better.  Prettier sprites and not the flicker.) for the loose cartridges.  For the boxed we have the action strategy classic Archon, the ok Gauntlet clone Dark Chambers which is MUCH prettier on the Atari 7800, an interesting turn based wargame in Eastern Front, a "Frig it, its cheap and I am getting other things from the seller" deal flight sim in Jumbo Jet Pilot, and the unfairly maligned Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle, a game I loved as a kid on the 2600.  I still think it is a fun bit of blasting.

And my loose disks.  Ghostbusters which is solid but not a patch on the C64 version (itself outshone by the Sega Master System), Operation Whirlwind which is another wargame, Pole Position which is a great port of a classic arcade game (and honestly more playable than most emulated collections of it today!), Rescue at Rigel which is another Apshai Engine RPG, 3 freeware titles thanks to a fine Texan from Atari Age sending me disk versions.  (Crownland which is technically amazing but is almost unplayable if you aren't on a PAL machine due to sprite flicker, His Dark Majesty which is a buggy but great wargame, and Yoomp! which is an absolutely BRILLIANT game.)  The Temple of Apshai Trilogy which is a vastly improved remake of the first 3 Apshai games (at least to 1986 standards), and the Microprose WW2 Submarine simulator Silent Service.

Combat Leader is one of the earliest Real Time Strategy titles, F-15 Strike Eagle was the first major Flight Simulator release from Microprose, Gemstone Warrior is an Action RPG that is buggy as sin, Jupiter Mission is a weird but innovative series of minigames (programmed in Basic because Avalon Hill were slackers) set up into a grand adventure over a buttload of disks, Ogre is an amazing rendition of the tabletop classic, Pinball Construction Set is the real founder of the Construction Set and video Pinball subgenres, and Pitstop II on the Commodore 64 is an amazing arcade racing game.  Sadly my SEALED COPY had somehow been stored in a way that rubbed and ruined the disk.  Poopy.

Panzer Jagd is another wargame as is VC. (I think we can guess the topic of each.)  Star Raiders is the amazing for its time first person space flight simulator.  Wargame Construction Set does what it says on the tin.  (It is just less pretty than the ST version, but still way more flexible than WCS 2 and 3 would be on DOS/Win 9x era PCs.)  And then the at the time 3 Cassette titles of which I got Fort Apocalypse to load ONCE because tape loading is pure hell.  I covered Fort Apocalypse as a pair of Youtube videos you might want to watch on my channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainRufus .  Zaxxon I never got to load at all.  Temple of Apshai is the original A8 bit version of this founding member of the electronic RPG family.  And it was the apparently rare single tape side loader.  And my annoying 1010 drive ate it.  RAAAGE.

Now for the games I got after this organization.  Now that my collection is getting to the point it no longer fits at all in the small plastic storage tub with lid.  (Even though the disk holder for the loose games sits on top.)

Again, forgive the non Atari 8 bit game pictures in the shots.  I try to save picture space and count this way.  Plus as I tend to get games piecemeal here and there I would have even longer gaps between pictures taken.

First off is Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!  Its a semi real time strategy game using the Apshai engine (again!) where you play as a giant monster getting to stomp around cities.

Great American Cross Country Road Race is an ok for its time racing game.  Mail Order Monsters I haven't gotten to try out yet but its a mixture of Archon, Pokemon, and the previous Crush, Crumble, and Chomp.  Telengard is another AVALON HILL ONLY PROGRAMS IN BASIC game, this time an RPG which is one of the earliest in the genre, another Roguelike styled game based on many of the early mainframe and PLATO type network RPGs folks in our Defense, Science, and University industries might have putzed around with on lunchbreaks.  (We would all never play videogames during work time, especially not with taxpayer dollars.  Nope.)

We see some Tandy Color Computer games that I have before owning the system (I learned my lesson from this Atari mayhem!) and then into the A8 yet again!  I haven't even loaded any of these up so I don't even know if they work.  I have too many projects both fun and essential, not to mention some days and times I just don't have the heart to do anything.  Depression is a BASTARD. :(  Eidolon is one of the first FPS titles as we might know them today, Jumpman is a classic puzzle platformer that was hugely popular in the early 80s, Curse of Ra is an Apshai Engine expansion that seems to have a pirated copy of actual Temple of Apshai meaning my ownership of the eaten tape copy now has some use due to the manual and stuff, and Battle of Chickamauga is another wargame.

And of course those games from my February Ebay shenanigans:  (And friends.  Those being Autoduel and International Karate.  Got em elsewhere.)

Auto Duel whose character disk sadly isn't working right (it is an action RPG based on Car Wars and was one of the first Commodore 64 games I wanted but never got.), Chicken which is a fun little Paddle type game in a lovely translucent red cartridge, Dig Dug the classic arcade game, Flight Simulator II which is the legendary simulator whose installments kept coming up as far as last year's Microsoft Flight, International Karate which is another damn tape game I can't get to bloody load (think a Karate Champ sort of fighting game), Ms Pac Man which continues the Atari computers getting good Pac Man ports, Summer Games which is that old classic sports series that isn't the wagglefest of Track n Field, and Super Huey which is a combat helicopter simulator that isn't half as good as Gunship which was what I got the Christmas I got my Commodore 64 instead of Auto Duel.

Here we have Racing Destruction Set which is the classic arcade racer/construction set that much like Pinball Construction Set would get later sequels from Electronic Arts in the Genesis/SNES days, Realm of Impossibility which is a neat action strategy adventure game, and Superman which is confusing and stupid.

Oh and a few more:

GORF on cartridge with now proper digital joystick controls instead of the gonzo 5200 analog play, and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein!  A game I have been hunting for a good year but it usually goes for 2-3 times what I am willing to pay.  Even though this is just a budget rerelease it will cover me nicely.

Where I am so far:

Well, for one thing I need more time/mental energy to not only try out the games to make sure they all work (so far only Autoduel and Pitstop II don't work and Autoduel may be my fault.  Power strip stuff when it was saving my character.  I just need a new Player disk!) but to properly learn and ENJOY the games.  Right now most of these titles I haven't played for more than 20-30 minutes each outside a few of them.

But that is an issue with my game and media collections as a whole.  I buy more than I make use of, which is probably one of the reasons I am so cheap with how much I am willing to pay.  And then add in storage space, self loathing for buying such silliness, and time to utilize it and its a big give and take situation.

Sure I could just go to one of the great sites full of Atari games and documentation and use like the excellent http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html emulator, but I prefer to be legal and legit as possible.

Even though some games I want like Bounty Bob Strikes Back, Wolfenstein 1 & 2, H.E.R.O., Ultima Series, and SSI RPG/Wargames all tend to go for more than I am willing to pay.  (Activision's Pastfinder is another case.  A case where I have basically decided I probably won't ever own it even though it looks cool.)

For me, 10-25 dollars is around my sweet spot for boxed and complete games.  I am very happy to go under that (obviously) if possible but some of the above even loose go for twice that!

I am trying to be a bit smarter and all.  Heck I am also collecting for the Tandy Color Computer 3, and Texas Intruments TI 99/4a and I won't buy either machine till I get the games I want for a good price.  Same with the MSX 2, Lynx, and Jaguar.  Once I get the games I want for the prices I am willing to pay I will investigate getting the machine.  Or just feeling like I can then emulate the games since I own the game and all.

(Of course I also have other retro electronic game collecting sub themes I do too.  Like Alien franchise, Batman, Castlevania, Hobby Game conversions, and Ultima.)

And yeah, I should probably get a solid state drive solution for the machine too.  http://www.lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=23 to use for when even the floppy drive decides to die or the magnetic disks fart out.  As is my cassette games almost never load period and I am always unsure if its the drive, the tapes, or BOTH.  

But it is all part of the fun and challenge.  Its not just about playing the games.  Its not just about amassing a good collection.  It isn't just about the history.  It is all of it plus the DO IT YOURSELF aspect of maintenance and the authenticity of playing on real hardware.

It is a serious love/hate relationship.

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part Extra: Ebay Fun Part 2

I am writing this here and there over the time as I have access to a proper typing computer (because try typing on a Kindle Fire screen.  To say nothing of an iPod Touch 2nd gen..) and results come up.

5:55 AM 1 Feb:   With 1 day and 13 hours left my bid on "Raid on Iran", the only hobby game on this little list got outbid.  My max bid: 12.50.

(Final Winning Bid: 33.00.  No way in hell would I pay this much for a mini game.  I like mini games such as this and it would be funny to make late 70s jokes or jokes at Iran in general (protip: Read or watch Perseopolis: The Story of a Childhood.  Its a great first hand account of someone who grew up in Iran during all this.) since they seem to be constantly lead by douchebags but no.  Not 33 dollars.  NOPE.)

4 PM 1 Feb: Broadsides.  Outbid by 50 cents about 5 hours before auction end.  My max bid: 10 bucks.  I love SSI but I know little about the game itself other than its you know, by SSI and is an Age of Sail game.  Money is tight and I was just giving it a shot.  I wanted it, but not super bad.  Oh well.

9 PM 1 Feb: Caverns of Mars.  Outbid by 50 cents with 3 minutes left in the auction.  My max bid: 10 bucks.  Another game I have heard decent things about but was mostly just bidding because it was there.  I don't feel bad again.  Its pretty common, though a sealed copy which I think is cartridge version would have been swell.

4 PM 1 Feb: Atlantis.  Outbid by 50 cents in the last 30 seconds of the auction.  My max bid: 8.50.  I love Imagic.  Next to Activision, they are the best early 80s game publisher.  And they had the best boxes and cartridges EVER.  Sadly many versions of Atlantis don't run on the XL/XE series of computers (I have the 130XE) so I didn't go big.  Plus Atlantis isn't my favorite Imagic game.  (Cosmic Ark or Riddle of the Sphinx are my top loves.)  I shrug.

430 PM 2 Feb: Lords of Conquest.  Outbid by 50 cents 7 hours before auction end.  My max bid: 8.50.  I have kind of wanted this game since I first saw it on a Commodore 64 in 1989 in my Vo Tech High School Electronics shop on one of the last days of the year.  Its sort of like Risk but better I think.  Also its an Electronic Arts game and 80s EA owned before they became evil.  What Activision and Imagic were to early 80s cartridge systems EA was to computer disk games.  I will survive.  Next time Gadget.

6 PM 2 Feb: Galaxian.  Outbid by 50 cents in the last 2 minutes of the auction.  My max bid: 5.50.  It was another "Well it's there" bid.  Galaga is MUCH better than Galaxian but if I could get the boxed cart cheap why not go for that heat? Also I have a couple retro collections with arcade Galaxian too.  I care not.


9 AM 3 Feb:  Popeye.  Outbid by 50 cents 12 hours before auction end.  My max bid: 7.50.  If Activision and Imagic are my early 80s cartridge Alpha and Beta, Parker Brothers is whatever the third place is in fancy talk.  And I kind of have wanted Popeye for years.  But not NEED IT NOOOOWS level of want.  Darnit.

9 AM 3 Feb: Q-Bert.  Outbid by 50 cents 13 hours before auction end.  My max bid: 5.50.  Another Parker Brothers game.  But really I should more want the Playstation Network version since it is you know, the arcade version.  Another one I was just giving a shot.  I also loved their version of it on the 2600 back in the day.  Like the Germans, Parker Brothers makes good stuff.

9 AM 3 Feb: Qix.  Outbid by 50 cents 13 hours before auction end.  My max bid: 6.00.  It was there.  I have the Taito collections with proper arcade version.  Also I am not a big Qix guy.  I've probably played more of the Gals' Panic nudie version of this game by Kaneko on ACTUAL ARCADE CABINETS IN PUBLIC than I have Qix in any form.  We had a lot of arcade games on the Naval Bases I was stationed in during the early 90s..  Next to Galaxian this is the game I care the least about losing on.


650 PM 3 Feb: Moon Patrol.  Outbid by 50 cents 3 and a half hours before auction end.  My max bid: 7.50.  This is a game I quite wanted but.. money be tight and its pretty common so I lowballed as I am wont to do.  Bugger.  :(

What have we seen with the losses?  Other people bidding low who might have wanted them more than me. Not a single item was bid on (besides me anyhow!) more than 48 hours before auction end, most in the last 12 hours.  Outside of two of the auctions no more than two people bid on them.  Myself and someone else.

The modern Ebay situation is one where people generally avoid bidding wars.  Not a ton of bid sniping.  A couple items I probably would have gone 1-7.50 more on had I more money but most of these were not my primary bids anyhow.  Just things I bid on since they were along with the things the seller had I really wanted.

Now to FRAWRESS VICTOLY:

Outside of Flight Simulator 2 which my bid of 3.50 won, all of these I got for the seller's starting price.

Realm of Impossibility and Racing Destruction Set were the reasons I bid on ANY of this and I got both for 5 and 4 dollars respectively, when sellers normally have them up for 30+ individually, and I have lost auctions for each in the 20 dollar range.  And again, they are EA titles from their golden age.  A nfity action puzzler I have always wanted to try, and a fun racing/construction set I played a bit on a friend's C64 as a kid.

Ms Pac Man I got for 6 dollars.  While I already have multiple arcade versions of the game and the remix Genesis cartridge, I REALLY like the Pac Man port on the A8 bit, moreso than the actual arcade game.  So.. why not try for the superior game?

Going back to Flight Simulator 2.  Yes there is a super common cartridge version.  But this is the disk version with the giant manuals and docs and all.  Even if I grab a cart loose later on I can now play it properly.  Or keep trying for Solo Flight which is my preferred flight sim where I cannot shoot down whoever it was Americans had to irrationally hate and fear in the 80s.

I got Dig Dug for 8.  I would MUCH rather play the "Arranged" remake of it on one of the Namco arcade collections but I do like me some Taizo Hori monster popping fun.  Will be nice just to see how they made it work on a 70s tech micro.

Chicken for 6.  Its a lovely transparent red cartridge.  And the game is named Chicken.  I can grab it strongly and say I am choking my Chicken.  For a dollar over the price of a Starbucks' latte I can make endless masturbation jokes.  Plus its a pretty cartridge.  And I just popped over to "Atarimania" to look at the game.  Its a joystick OR paddle game.  With a good score.  I look forward to LPing it and making wank jokes all the while.

Superman for 2.  Apparently its GOD AWFUL.  Like nearly Superman N64 bad.  But 2 bucks?  I spend more than that most weeks on candy from vending machines.

Summer Games for 2.  Yes I have cart versions.  But if EA is to computers what Activision is to early consoles then Epyx is Imagic.  And Epyx has bomb ass boxes to their games.

Super Huey for 6.  I played this a bit as a kid but not a lot.  I owned Gunship which is still the best helicopter combat sim.  But I love helicopter sims where I get to blow up helpless commies from the sky.

I did WELL.  For 2.50 more than a recently released Nintendo 3DS game I want (the newest Fire Emblem) I got 10 new games to play, all boxed and complete.  Not too shabby.  And I still have another bid or two with this seller active and might wait to see what wins and doesn't and get more awesome stuff.

See friends, there is a trick to Ebay:

BE CHEAP, BE PATIENT, KNOW OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MORE MONEY AND LESS SENSE THAN YOU DO.

You don't need any of this.  Its just stuff for fun.  Bills and important stuff comes first.  Know the value of your local currency.  Be willing to wait.  I have gotten things sometimes for HALF their normal going price just by being patient and willing to lose.

My "White Box" edition of 1974 Dungeons & Dragons?  Under 50 bucks.  Normally it runs 100 or more.  You can get deals if you are patient and accept the snipers or gougers who put things up for idiotic prices.

With this knowledge you too can have The Touch, Prism Power Might, Whatever the Hell Those Pastel Ponies Have, The Care Bear Stare, The Wu Tang Secret.

Now let's attack aggressively in.. not spending aggressively and laughing at idiots who pay more than we do for goofy crap we really don't need.

And if you are a seller thank the modern Ebay buyer for ruining your profit margins.

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part Extra: Ebay Fun

Yes its a little bonus update posty thing.  Which will have a sequel possibly.  Or I will just add it to this post next week.

The sad state of computer game collecting is this: most stores don't stock retro computer stuff, especially not pre Windows era in the US/Canada.  All the retro shops or garage sales or flea markets have tons and tons of console goodies but computer stuff is virtually nonexistent.

Thus its off to the great rat race that is online auction sites, the king of course being Ebay.  (Yes I know about Amazon sellers and whatnot but sometimes they are worse than any bidding war.)

As someone who has used the Bay since the days of 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 I have some experience with it, both as a buyer and seller.  It has become mostly a buyer's market, albeit one sellers can make a quick buck or do a little legit price fixing.  Or make a quicker buck by undercutting current going rates with a good Buy It Now price.

But buyers have basically destroyed the whole auction concept by and large.  See many people use bidding services for things without a BIN and will put in microbids during the last minutes of an auction destroying the bonus money a bidding war might cause and almost making it pointless to bid on anything before then.

The only day of an auction that matters is the last unless again, it has a BIN and nobody bid on the lower price to make a deal.  I have done this and in a few small cases made the seller extra scratch as some other knucklehead with more money than sense (something almost every collecting hobby has TONS of) bids well beyond that price.

But here is the background to this fun mini project:

I have a number of items on search.  Some of which usually go for much more than my cheap and semi logical (for a collector anyways.  I am only mildly idiotic to the "Full Dipstick" of most collectors.) self is willing to pay.

One of them came up from a seller who put up a whole gaggle of tasty Atari 8 bit and C64 games.  Inexpensive shipping per item (always a huge thing!  Remember: SHIPPING SHOULD BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WITH ANY ORDER OF ANYTHING.), which of course if I win multiples will get me quite the savings.  I bid on that item, and many of the others, mostly going super lowball bids over the starting price due to my desire for the items (come on.  Its just... STUFF.  I don't need it.  Its just for funsies!) and you know, being pretty broke.

We shall soon see what of these I win, for how much, and what the final bids in the final moments were:

Join me next week as we investigate this.  Wish me luck on around 50 total dollars including shipping of luck.  But not more than that otherwise I can't punch my credit card bill in the face as fast!

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Fort Apocalypse!

This is less of a proper review or Let's Play but it is a good 20 minutes of me showing the game in the first video and talking about mechanics, and in the second I actually complete it.

Its a hard but beatable game.  Honestly my biggest issue was getting my tape copy to load on my tape drive, but I may come back sometime and describe that particularly painful sequence of events.

There we go!  I am using the Altirra emulator as I get the best and most color accurate results on it compared to my actual 130xe on a composite monitor.

And its not a full review/overview of the game showing the box and manual and media, but here is the cover of the box alongside the 2 other programs I purchased alongside this one:

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 4: DOS 2.5 and RAM

This has been long coming as I have been lazy and playing Fallout New Vegas.  However work has been going on behind the scenes.

First up, is the 1050 Floppy Drive and DOS 2.5.

Sadly the place I get my emulated versions of does not have an image of DOS so its screenshots from the monitor.  Don't worry its pretty minor.

As we have seen in my intro comic here is our Atari 1050 5 1/4 enhanced density single sided floppy drive that also needs its own power plug.  There was a further revision of the 5 1/4 drive family but its much rarer even if its design is more in tune with my XE series computer.  You flip the power switch in the lower left hand corner on.  The activity light above it comes on and will go out in under 10 seconds.

You turn the drive on BEFORE you turn the computer on.  It is important.

We then are going to pop in Atari DOS.  In our case the best official option, DOS 2.5.  There are later versions and optional 3rd party versions and even drive mod kits you can get.  But we are going traditional.  As I may have mentioned you can using single or double density disks in the drive and you have to notch each side you want to write to, flipping the diskette over.  The seller had already made a backup copy of DOS 2.5 and we will use it, keeping the original from wear and tear.

Once we pop the disk in and it locks, we turn the little lever down and the activity light pops on for a moment, letting us know if the disk is in general ok and ready to be used.  Once it turns off, we can then switch on the computer and our disk autoboots if its an Atari formatted disk with an autobooting program of some kind.  Like a DOS.sys disk or a game.

As I have a 128K system (hence the name 130xe, its little brother being the 65xe) it sets me up a 64K RAM disk as I boot to speed up operations.  Which is handy for programming or making disk procedures a bit snappier.  A second disk drive is even more useful though.  But one of those will run me a good 50 bucks or so right now.  More than I am willing to pay when for about twice that I can have an SD Card solution which loads ultra fast and won't require increasingly old and fragile magnetic disks or put wear and tear on equally old disk drives with motors and ancient belts.

In way less than a minute DOS and the RAM Disk is ready to go and we are at our Basic prompt.  Typing the letters above brings us to the DOS menu.

And now we have our DOS prompt with all your options, most of which and the selections afterwards being really simple and self explanatory, with more info in the Drive/DOS book.  K and L are for hardcore programming bits.  A disk format takes about 2 minutes, and Duplicate Disk sadly shows that all my working floppy disk games have copy protection so I can't make nice working backups and am forced to use my live disks.  Which frightens me.   But remember this is the 2.5 DOS.  In 1984.  Its already more advanced than what the Commodore, Apple 2, or MSDOS machines had to work with.  Commands in a nice menu system all ready to go.

That's just quality.

My only issue is that instead of showing bytes or kilobytes of disk space it uses sectors.  And our enhanced density is 999 a side.  Its like Microsoft Points math but 21 years early!

As to other disk games?  In general they load pretty quick, from 30 seconds to around 2 or so though some titles have multi loads where one bit loads, reach a menu, something else has to load.  But its not so much the Atari's fault.  Most of the Atari software only needed 8K till like 82, 16-32K in 83, and 48K for the rest of the system's lifespan.  There were games and apps that needed more or less during these timeframes but in general developers always coded for the lowest machine because there were more of said machines sold.  Obviously more RAM equals faster loading (once the initial boot was complete anyhow.  Kind of.), more complex games, and better looking games.

Officially these are the number of titles using each level of RAM according to Mobygames and the 726 listed titles they have on record, 299 of which have their RAM requirements recorded:

8K   : 10
16K : 62
24K : 11
32K : 39
48K : 158
64K : 20

Its a pretty wild array, with 48K being the most popular, and 16K the second most.  The Atari machines had a variety of different RAM builds with 2 active machines for each of the 3 lines (well 3 in the final if you count the XEGS which had the same RAM as the 65XE) and some easier to install more than others.

But really if you want to play the most programs a 65XE, 130XE, or a XEGS will cover you with their 64, 128, and 64K of RAM.

The original 800 and 400 had 8K each (400 originally intended to have 4 but RAM came down in price) with the 800 having slots for more RAM and eventually being shipped with 48K by the end of that line's life.  The 400s eventually came with 16K options and Atari Service Centers could even bring them up to 48K as well.  (Though the 800 with its better keyboard and plug n play memory and monitor outputs was still the more expensive albeit more desirable choice.)

The XL series had 16K for the 600XL, 64K for the 800XL, and 64 for the 1200XL which was quickly phased out due to massive incompatibilities with older software.  (The X00s still had some incompatibilities but not as many and a Translator Disk could fix some of them.  The XEs have the same issue.  I may have run into 2 titles already that aren't listed as incompatible that are.  As is I can't buy GORF or Demon Attack until I foot up for an original X00 series machine.  I may have found a place to get one cheap though.  We will get to that when we can.)   What is kind of funny is the 600XL while missing some of the output and port options of the 800XL can actually have MORE RAM than its big brother.  A 64K memory expander was made for it that does not work with the 800.  So it can reach 80K while the 800XL cannot!  (There was a plan for memory packs for it and a box to hold multiple expansions that never came out.  Atari was BIG in the early 80s for coming up with cool kit that never made it out of prototype stages.)

We can sort of see why lower RAM amounts were used and even why 64K wasn't that common.  When most of your customer base has a lower spec machine you want to go for them so you get the widest possible base of people capable and willing to buy your product.

Heck, even the 810, and 1050 drives weren't all that common for a while, with users, especially those poor European folk settling for cassette drives.  (The 410 and 1010 being Atari's drives.  Most European computers till the 16 bit era used tapes as defaults and most of the software is available as such.  When it even was available on disk the price was usually 50% greater.  A 10 Pounds Sterling Commodore 64 game on tape was 15 pounds on disk.  Or going by the rough 1 Pound to 1.50 US Dollars we see a 15 dollar tape game or the same game on disk for 22.50, ignoring inflation.  Keep in mind floppy drives cost an insane amount, usually 2-3 times the cost of the machine and its easy to see why Europe just dealt with the 10-20 minutes most tape programs took to load and all the hassles tape brought with it.)

This is why so much software was available on cartridge, especially from Atari itself.  From a collector's standpoint this is pretty awesome though.  You could just buy the main machine and grab one of your Atari 2600 controllers, hook it to your TV, and still have plenty of games to play back in the day.  And now.  Plus given that cartridges are VERY durable and the worst even old ones need is a quick cleaning you have a machine that will be fun out of the box and less worry for the durability of all the moving parts in a floppy drive and the equally if not moreso fragile magnetic floppy disks that can be damaged in dozens of ways.

Hell, I have Amiga and DOS PC 3.5 disks that died merely being stored in my bedroom!

This is another reason I chose the Atari 8 bits over going back to the machine of my youth, the mighty Commodore 64.  There was TONS of cartridge games released and no need for worrying about all the PAL and probably incompatible with a US machine anyhow tape games, or hunting down a working 1541/1571 Floppy Drive to run American games.  The C64 didn't have nearly the amount of cartridge games.  And unlike the C64's Europe only Game System version, the XEGS actually got a strong software release catalog on cartridge for it.  (And was actually a full bore computer instead of the stripped down thing Commodore made.  And came out in the actual 8 bit era and didn't try competing with the Genesis and SNES.)

The Atari was mainly a US system and was THE gamer's computer from around 1980-1984.  Its' games and popularity was usually the winner in Electronic Games magazine reader polls month after month.

Now we have gone through the main hardware I have at the moment (don't worry I have more to get!), we can get into collecting and controllers!

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 3: Basic and System Self Test

Just a video this time, taken from the Altirra emulator.  I almost did a comic version but here I think the video and the few captions I added do a good enough job.  I like the fact the machine has a self test so you can check some basic things out yourself.  Provided its working enough to turn on mind you.

Next time a we do DOS 2.5!

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer! Part 2: Video Ouput Solutions

Well we are back with our second installment, this time with some options for video.  As I say in the comic installment, photos were taken of a 13" 80s monitor and a modern 32" HDTV.  Results are close to in person but not 100%.  But its the best I can do and it is really the only way to show the differences in output.

An emulator certainly wouldn't and I doubt a capture card would either.  Plus my modern computers and the Atari are at least 15' away and it would be unfeasible to run cables anyhow. 

(Remember this fact as it WILL come up in this project later on.  Certain hardware solutions elude me because of this.  I simply do not have the workspace to run the Atari next to the PC or the Mac unless I wanted one of my modern computers to go where the Atari is, which then means moving a screen to the floor any time I want to watch TV on a TV.  Or play modern consoles.  Its easy enough to move the monitor you will soon see but its small and wee.  Putting an imac on the floor not so much!)

Another couple options we could have tried:
(As both of these will become increasingly irrelevant over the next few years I am merely mentioning them for completeness sake though I may go back and try them out later for laughs.)

1: Video out through a DVD or VCR.  Best Electronics recommends this one.  Its adding yet another stupid thing to be powered on and plugged in.  I can't be bothered.  And my DVD player is my PS3 with all its HDMI goodness.

2: RF or S Video through an SDTV.  S Video and an SDTV would probably be ideal but my SDTV with S Video is halfway down a flight of stairs in a hall with no power source.  And it weighs a good 100 pounds or so as its a console type and 25".  My 19" SDTV only has RF and it is in an awkward place for anything outside of a Gamecube stacked on top of a DVD and a VHS player in some unholy Tower of Hanoi configuration.  (Its like the Lament Configuration but with Mario.  "I've-a got so much to show you-a!  Except for Earthbound!  We-a don't talk about that game.  Don't worry, we can play "Imagine Babiez!"

And to wash that image out with another one, here is a bit of extra info on our aged and yellowed keyboard:

I am working on a solution to the yellowing too.  It just depends on finding a UV Lamp, a lot of Hydrogen Peroxide, and a safe container to use both in.  Have you played with toxic liquids today?

[Let's Play] Party Like its 1987! Let's Experience the Atari Computer!

 

This is gonna be a multimedia, multiformat thing that goes beyond any mere Let's Play. 

ITS A LET'S EXPERIENCE.

A mixture of blog, images in the comic format I am genuinely GOOD (ish) at, and sometimes video from an emulator just to show things at their clearest.

Some games will get played to completion.  Others will merely be a couple quick minutes or a few comic pages in coverage.  My thoughts on these games and ponderings on both collecting and playing them will happen in a loose review style as unburdened by either nostalgia or modern gaming biases as I can manage.  ( I never grew up with this brand of computers so that helps make it fair.  I was a Commodore man.  Which was the best 8 bit computer to own.)

I am sharing this experience because its fun to talk and interact with folks and create something.  I may even learn tricks to improve my video or writing as we delve deeper and deeper.  I may end up spending entirely too much money (oh wait already happened).  I may end up turning a few of you into retro Atari gamers.

Let's get this going and I hope everyone enjoys my descent into 1980s computers!

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 24: Bend it Like Bauer.

Today I finish this project on time, on schedule with only a single week where I failed to keep it (not counting the hurricane week, which I caught up with, getting both installments out ASAP).

It is complete.  Yay me.  Boo game designers for slacking it.

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 23: Final Floor, Final Bore

Yeah I know this was supposed to be the last installment but its just too big of one so I am splitting it up into 2-3 parts.  Depends on how much effort I want to spend on my final thoughts on the game really.

[Let's Play] Fun in Mystara! Let's play Order of the Griffon Part 22: Penultimate Dungeon of Penultimateness