What IS Atari 800?
- Thread starter Mash
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abbibi
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SatanClaus
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Just look here:
http://oldcomputers.net/atari800.html
http://oldcomputers.net/atari800.html
ralp99
Active Member
sigh.
Prophet
God I'm old.
Don't get mad at Mash, he's just asking. And he's not that far off the mark really - 7800 was the next generation up so to speak. 
Atari 800 was a great personal computer in the early 80's. IMO it was better than anything else until the Amiga came along. =P
It had some very good graphics for the time - a palette of 256 colors and up to 16 color registers, plus hardware scrolling and sprites (before they were even called sprites - player/missile graphics was the term then). It also had a superb 4 voice sound chip.
It was my 1st computer, and in some ways, my all time favorite. So you can imagine how much I love this GP32 port.
If you didn't grow up using the Atari, you may not "get" it. But for those who did, like me, this emulator is godly.
Atari 800 was a great personal computer in the early 80's. IMO it was better than anything else until the Amiga came along. =P
It had some very good graphics for the time - a palette of 256 colors and up to 16 color registers, plus hardware scrolling and sprites (before they were even called sprites - player/missile graphics was the term then). It also had a superb 4 voice sound chip.
It was my 1st computer, and in some ways, my all time favorite. So you can imagine how much I love this GP32 port.
If you didn't grow up using the Atari, you may not "get" it. But for those who did, like me, this emulator is godly.
abbibi
Member
I was indeed kidding. But now I'm not, you bastards! :lol:
I was RAISED on the Atari 800 (my dad was a games programmer for it), so it always used to come as a suprise to me when people haven't heard of it. FYI, the Atari 5200 and 7800 were actually just modified versions of the 800, minus the keyboard of course.
Interestingly, even though the 5200 and 800 were practically the same, many games that came out for both systems tended to be better on the 5200. Why? I don't know. Probably to induce people into buying the 5200.
In case you are wondering, there is no difference between cartridge, disk, and tape versions of games that I know of. But very few games came out on all three formats. But with a little hacking, you could easily copy games between the formats. I've seen a lot of sales on ebay of people selling old cassettes holding multiple bootleg games.
For more info:
The Atari History Museum
Atari Back in Time
The Fuji Handheld Computer Project
I was RAISED on the Atari 800 (my dad was a games programmer for it), so it always used to come as a suprise to me when people haven't heard of it. FYI, the Atari 5200 and 7800 were actually just modified versions of the 800, minus the keyboard of course.
Interestingly, even though the 5200 and 800 were practically the same, many games that came out for both systems tended to be better on the 5200. Why? I don't know. Probably to induce people into buying the 5200.
In case you are wondering, there is no difference between cartridge, disk, and tape versions of games that I know of. But very few games came out on all three formats. But with a little hacking, you could easily copy games between the formats. I've seen a lot of sales on ebay of people selling old cassettes holding multiple bootleg games.
For more info:
The Atari History Museum
Atari Back in Time
The Fuji Handheld Computer Project
abbibi
Member
What are you talking about?! Frogger, Jumpman Jr, Star Raiders and Hitchhicker's Guide all the way!
Prophet
God I'm old.
FYI, the Atari 5200 and 7800 were actually just modified versions of the 800, minus the keyboard of course.
Not quite. The 5200 was indeed a keyboardless 800 for all intents and purposes, but the 7800 was a new beast altogether, with built-in 2600 compatiility. It got temporarily shelved when Jack Tramiel took over, which was a shame as it was very powerful hardware when they first designed it. Check the 7800 specs out, it was really impressive compared to the 800/5200 spec. But Jack the genius decided to make Atari a "serious" computer company, so the 7800 didn't get released until the NES came out and ol' Jack thought to use the obsolete (by that time) 7800 to make a few extra bucks. It failed.
Anyway, I'm still amazed at how good and fun Atari 800 games can be - they look ang play so good on the GP32! Seriously, just compare the C64 versions of games with the Atari versions - the Atari smokes them IMO with all the cool color effects, extra sound channel and DLI effects.
(watch the C64 fans come now and give me hell for that...
Not quite. The 5200 was indeed a keyboardless 800 for all intents and purposes, but the 7800 was a new beast altogether, with built-in 2600 compatiility. It got temporarily shelved when Jack Tramiel took over, which was a shame as it was very powerful hardware when they first designed it. Check the 7800 specs out, it was really impressive compared to the 800/5200 spec. But Jack the genius decided to make Atari a "serious" computer company, so the 7800 didn't get released until the NES came out and ol' Jack thought to use the obsolete (by that time) 7800 to make a few extra bucks. It failed.
Anyway, I'm still amazed at how good and fun Atari 800 games can be - they look ang play so good on the GP32! Seriously, just compare the C64 versions of games with the Atari versions - the Atari smokes them IMO with all the cool color effects, extra sound channel and DLI effects.
(watch the C64 fans come now and give me hell for that...
No chance here. I was raised on a C128 (read: C64), and was regularly bashing my 600 XL owning friend. Then some burglars stole my (at that time defunct, bad luck guysAnyway, I'm still amazed at how good and fun Atari 800 games can be - they look ang play so good on the GP32! Seriously, just compare the C64 versions of games with the Atari versions - the Atari smokes them IMO with all the cool color effects, extra sound channel and DLI effects.
(watch the C64 fans come now and give me hell for that...
) C128 and I was stuck with no computer till I got enough money to get an Amiga as more than worthy substitute. So in a weird twist I thought I should give it a try and bought the 600XL (+64K and tape recorder) from my friend and simply fell in love. Those wonderful colors, the ultra-intelligent hardware, the clean OS, the display list concept, everything. The 64 is totally bugged in comparision, actually the most exciting thing about the 64 was exploiting the bugs for some FX...
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phoda
Member
Actually this is my first contact with the system. The 2600 classics (such as Pitfall!, Pitfall! 2, Keystone Kapers, Hero) look better on the 800. The gameplay is the same, however. Pitfall! 2 is great and with the savestates implemented it got perfect.
abbibi
Member
The Maria graphics chip is the main difference in the 7800. I'm not saying it was a step backward or anything, in fact it would have been the most powerful system ever if it had come out when it was supposed to. I was just trying to point out the architectural similarites. Forgive me, Prophet!
A wierd thing is, a FEW of the games for the 2600 actually had better graphics than their 800 counterparts. Of course, this simply came down to the lazyness of the programmer assigned to porting the game, but interesting nonetheless. Pointless yes, but still interesting.
A wierd thing is, a FEW of the games for the 2600 actually had better graphics than their 800 counterparts. Of course, this simply came down to the lazyness of the programmer assigned to porting the game, but interesting nonetheless. Pointless yes, but still interesting.
Flip & Flop
Still Fresh
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- Mar 16, 2003
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if it runs them, check out Rescue on Fracs and Star Raiders.
and of course, Flip & Flop
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Prophet
God I'm old.
Yep, all 3 run fine. And they are very good games too.
In fact, they represent some of the most amazing design and graphics breakthrus for their time. Good stuff.
In fact, they represent some of the most amazing design and graphics breakthrus for their time. Good stuff.
abbibi
Member
It plays games for the Atari 5200 game system. It also plays programs for the Atari 8-bit computers. Those computers include: Atari 400; Atari 800; Atari 600XL; Atari 800XL; Atari 1200XL; Atari 65XE; Atari 130XE; Atari XEGS. The Atari 8-bit computers were the predecessors to the Atari ST computers. The Atari ST computers are emulated by CaSTaway on the GP32. Hope this answers your questions.
==EDIT==
I made a mistake in an earlier post. The question was: is there any difference between disk, cartridge and tape games. I said there wasn't. This is only partially true. The games play the same, but the information is slightly different. There tend to not be any difference between disk and carts, unless the cart uses more than one EPROM chip. Also, cartridge games tend to be smaller. Tape games are VERY different. To prevent data being lost as tapes age, the information on tapes is repeated (for instance, instead of 1010, it says 111000111000). So, tape games tend to take longer to load, even in emulators.
==EDIT==
I made a mistake in an earlier post. The question was: is there any difference between disk, cartridge and tape games. I said there wasn't. This is only partially true. The games play the same, but the information is slightly different. There tend to not be any difference between disk and carts, unless the cart uses more than one EPROM chip. Also, cartridge games tend to be smaller. Tape games are VERY different. To prevent data being lost as tapes age, the information on tapes is repeated (for instance, instead of 1010, it says 111000111000). So, tape games tend to take longer to load, even in emulators.
