Upgrading an Atari 400?

[LoTonah]

Hey everyone,

 

I've heard a lot about various 600XL, 800XL, and XE upgrades (among others). It occurred to me that I haven't really heard of anyone doing much with the good ol' 400, except maybe upgrading the keyboard.

 

Anyone tried anything beyond that? S-Video? More RAM? Is it a unit that is so upgrade-unfriendly that no one bothers?

 

I'd love to know!

[+wood_jl]

More RAM isn't hard to do. That's about it, though. The keyboard used to be a popular upgrade, back when people had to use a 400 as their "main" computer. Nowdays, I wouldn't want one with out the McDonald's keyboard. It has characeter, looks the part (proper), and it is a unique display piece because of it. Frankly, the replacement keyboards were all pretty ugly, and who's going to do much typing on a 400 nowdays anyway? Plus, where would you find one?

 

There USED TO BE a video-out upgrade called "Xtravideo-1" (or something like that) in the early 1980s. Of course you'll never find that now. I have asked a couple times about a modern video upgrade, but nobody seems to care at all. They'll design video upgrades for everything else - consoles, and even the Atari 5200 console is very similar so you'd think if they were going to the trouble they'd tend to the poor 400. But alas, the 400 is relegated to be the unwanted bastard child of the Atari computer world and no video upgrade. I still love mine, however!!!

[mimo]

RAM: slotting an Atari 800 32k RAM board will be the easiest RAM upgrade you could do, if you want more than there are instructions to build your own 48k upgrade here

Or you could try Best Electronics or MyAtari.com and ask if they have any 48k upgrades left in stock, the 48k upgrade requires some traces to be cut on the main board

 

Keyboards: If you really must spoil the looks of the 400, myAtari.com have some aftermarket full keystroke keyboards for sale, and I have one missing the reset keycap that I took out to replace it with a proper membrane keyboard

 

Video: Apparently you can fit the 8bitdomain Atari 5200 s-video mod to the 400, but I have never tried it,http://www.8bitdomain.com/proddetail.php?prod=av24port&PHPSESSID=18cf64f5f9eb40f9f741719a0a46447c buy at your own risk, they are notoriously bad to deal with (no communication, waiting months for delivery etc etc etc)

you could also fit the VBXE2 video board, but I don't know how much functionality that would give more than an RGB video output.

There is also a video mod called little brother grows up floating round the net somewhere, I have never tried it, but as I understand it there was an errata printed in a later issue as the board does not work from the original instructions. http://www.atarimaga...tlebrother.html

 

another option is to try the 600xl upgrade being made by kjman and sold by video61, although it is supposed to work on all 8bit Ataris, I never got a reply to confirm its compatability with the 400 so did not buy http://www.atariage....age__hl__svideo

 

Personally I am planning to use an old longhorn engineer 5200 modboard, but the version I have is no longer available

 

I love all my 400s too

[Rybags]

There was/is a 1 meg upgrade for the 800, so it'd be likely to also work on the 400.

 

IMO, if you get a 400, best option is to keep it stock or at most do a monitor port, RAM and keyboard upgrade.

 

Then hit the auctions and grab an XL or XE and pay attention to building up that one.