"Command Control" 400

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

Warning: long story ahead.

 

 

I've always had a really soft spot for the Atari 400. For starters, it was my first Atari (and video game system, period). We later got an 800, but to me, it felt like less of a video game system, and more like a typewriter, probably because of its conventional keys, unlike the super cool space age membrane pad on the 400. Not to mention that "Right cartridge" that I had no use for, since being a little kid, all I wanted to do was play video games. LOL (Although now I wish I had learned and experienced more of what the 800 was actually capable of). So anyway, the 400 will always be my first love.

 

Since it didn't come with any joysticks, my thoughtful Dad wanted the best at the time, so instead of regular Atari sticks, he got us two Wico bats and a Wico trackball. I remember thinking I was so cool for having the real arcade stuff to play Pac-Man and Centipede with. I have also always loved the plastics used and the color schemes they were molded in, which made them look all high tech and space age in that beloved '80s fashion, and had often wished the 400 matched them. So eventually I learned how to use photoshop, and finally able to see how one would look in that style.

 

So now... I want to make it!!! I think for the most part it would be relatively easy, by either painting, or dying (anyone have experience with dying plastics?) the 400 casing black and red. Of course I'd also have to make the label, which I think wouldn't be too much of a problem. But I think the biggest hurdle would be making a custom membrane to match...

 

...which ultimately leads me to my questions for you guys...

 

Has anyone ever customized a 400? Is there a way to make custom colored membranes? If so, how? Are there pics of custom modded A400s?

 

 

Thanks, and I apologize in advance for my ramblings.

[+Stephen]

I can't offer any help, but just wanted to say that is a damn fine looking 400! Not sure about the membrane keyboard colors though, it looks a bit too Odyssey 2.

[ApolloBoy]

Wow, I never realized how good the 400 looks in black! Personally I'd have the 400 label in brushed aluminum so that it resembles the 5200 more.

[Bryan]

Best bet for the custom color is a plastic-compatible black satin paint. There are many places that will make the labels for you. Now, the keyboard is the kicker. It might be possible to de-laminate a 400 keyboard and put custom graphics into it, but it sure won't be easy.

 

Looks great, though. Those were awesome case designs.

[OldAtarian]

I have a 400 with 32k and another with 64k and a 800 style keyboard replacement.

[OldAtarian]

Wow, I never realized how good the 400 looks in black! Personally I'd have the 400 label in brushed aluminum so that it resembles the 5200 more.

 

The 5200 was actually a repackaged 400! You can easily get 5200 games to run on a 400/800 just by changing a few memory references as some of the locations were changed or used for different things in the 5200.

Edited September 25, 2010 by OldAtarian

[Bryan]

You can easily get 5200 games to run on a 400/800 just by changing a few memory references as some of the locations were changed or used for different things in the 5200.

 

Well, it's not quite that easy, but games were/are commonly converted between the two systems.

[ApolloBoy]

Wow, I never realized how good the 400 looks in black! Personally I'd have the 400 label in brushed aluminum so that it resembles the 5200 more.

 

The 5200 was actually a repackaged 400! You can easily get 5200 games to run on a 400/800 just by changing a few memory references as some of the locations were changed or used for different things in the 5200.

I've been aware of that for a long time now, I was just saying that it might look better with an aluminum label as opposed to the black one.

[svenski]

That black 400 looks awesome. I want five of them

[Animan]

Looks like a computer Alienware would make if they existed in the 80's.

 

Really cool!

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

I can't offer any help, but just wanted to say that is a damn fine looking 400! Not sure about the membrane keyboard colors though, it looks a bit too Odyssey 2.

Thanks! I didn't make the Odyssey 2 connection, but I see the resemblance now that you mention it. I think it looks cool though. Still the same 400 key pad, just in different colors.

 

 

Wow, I never realized how good the 400 looks in black! Personally I'd have the 400 label in brushed aluminum so that it resembles the 5200 more.

Yeah I agree, it does look like a completely different machine in black. I always thought the 400 looked sleek, it was mostly that beige color that gave it that bland (but still beloved) '70s equipment look. lol

 

It would look cool with the metal plate, but for this one the idea was that it was based off the design and color scheme of the Wico Command Control joysticks, and not so much Atari's black with metal plate style.

 

The metal plate mod on a 400 would definitely be awesome to match the 5200, 7800, and 2600JR though.

 

Best bet for the custom color is a plastic-compatible black satin paint. There are many places that will make the labels for you. Now, the keyboard is the kicker. It might be possible to de-laminate a 400 keyboard and put custom graphics into it, but it sure won't be easy.

 

Looks great, though. Those were awesome case designs.

Thanks, and I agree.

 

 

I have a 400 with 32k and another with 64k and a 800 style keyboard replacement.

Cool!

 

 

That black 400 looks awesome. I want five of them

Thanks and so do I!

[Divya16]

I can't offer any help, but just wanted to say that is a damn fine looking 400! Not sure about the membrane keyboard colors though, it looks a bit too Odyssey 2.

 

Especially with that glow. I think the computers' keyboards should look like typewriters since that's what they replace as well as other things. I have a Smith-Corona typewriter-- if there's a way to use that with an Atari 400 as a keyboard and not too much work, I may go for it.

[sloopy]

ok what i think would be killer for a KB, is you know how on the old Motorola razr phones how they have the brushed steel for keys with rubber between? we have that but with the raised part of the 400 keys be rubber, and each key touch sensitive...

 

sloopy.

[mimo]

That looks so cool, gives me an idea for a future project;)

[UNIXcoffee928]

 You could just use inexpensive red translucent Acetate, from an art store, to color the keys. You can easily get the template for each keycap by doing a "tombstone tracing"... 

 

- Just take a sheet of paper, lay it over the keyboard, then use the side of a #2 pencil to transfer the dimensions of the ridges for the keycaps. 

 

- Once done, blacken in the back of the paper with the pencil. 

 

- Next, put the paper on a piece of thin cardboard (cereal box) & use a ballpoint pen to trace around each of the keycap edges that you made in the first step. This precisely transfers the exact dimensions of all of the keys to the cardboard below (because you blackened in the back of the paper, and the pressure from the ballpoint transfers the image to what's below it).

 

- Now, a combination of X-Acto knife & fine cuticle scissors are used on the cardboard. This makes a durable stencil-like template that you can use over & over to mark any combination of colors of Acetate, by just using a Sharpie fine point to go around the holes, leaving a perfect & precise Atari 400 keyboard layout on the colored Acetate.

 

- Now just cut out the acetate with the cuticle scissors, and use a clear, removable adhesive to attach your new colored keycaps into the ridges on the 400's keyboard.

 

Be sure to align them perfectly, and also be sure to not allow any air bubbles, by sliding the side of your finger over the Acetate, after application.

 

You should end up with an awesome-looking, custom 400 keyboard, if you followed the directions.

 

 

 

Have fun!

[UNIXcoffee928]

PS, what technique did you use for the glowing perspective rays, in the background of the image? Looks great!

[doctorclu]

Hey love the photoshop! That will be a fine addition to my 400/800 hobby.

 

In the last few years I used a 800, but decided recently (when I got a LCD monitor that supports RF) to go with the Atari 400, which was my first Atari computer.

 

I still have my first 400. Someone mentioned the Smith Corona.. interesting, because I protect my 400 in a Smith Corona typewriter hardcase...

 

 

I treasure this because my dad worked to upgrade this computer. He is still living, but still treasure this all the same. Always appreciated how dad supported my hobby, and in truth I think he was glad I got a computer and not a Coleco Vision. So almost immediately he upgraded the 400 to 48K (in 1983) and found me a 850 interface and 1030 modem. My love for BBSing started then as I would keep the phone lines white hot writing messages to people on the Atari 400 membrane keyboard. Developed a great typing speed doing that.

 

In time my dad added a 1200/1400 XL keyboard we bought as a kit at Radio shack, and he put a lot of work into that.

 

In the 80's the keyboard was bolted to the top. In the 00's when I got back into the Atari hobby my dad and I worked together again on it, dremmelling the inside of the 400 so that the keyboard would fit in the case. It was then I added the "START", "OPTION" and so forth on the 1200 XL keyboard by using a defective 400 keyboard I picked up and cutting away the keys I needed and peeling them off like a sticker.

 

-------

 

Currently my other, and actively used Atari 400 for BBSing is in this picture:

 

 

Be it ever so humble there is nothing like your original computer. And after using the 400 keyboard throughout most of the 80's, I find I still have a quick typing speed on the little sucker.

 

Neat thing about the 400 is how the computer is SQUARE in footprint, rather than as a sideways rectangle. It's unique in that aspect aside from of course the obvious keyboard.

 

And it fit nicely in at least one type of Smith Corona travel case.

[+save2600]

I too will always have a soft spot for this 8-bitter. My first Atari computer too. It's design and colors though totally remind me of the POS cash registers (point of sale) at McDonald's growing up. The case still looks like a 70's era McDonald's building to me. lmao

 

BTW: your black conceptual 400 looks awesome!

 

 

 

[+wood_jl]

I too will always have a soft spot for this 8-bitter. My first Atari computer too. It's design and colors though totally remind me of the POS cash registers (point of sale) at McDonald's growing up. The case still looks like a 70's era McDonald's building to me. lmao

 

I still look for those cash registers and think the same thing, when I go to McDonald's - to this day. I'm always disappointed when I don't see them.

 

This was my first computer, too. I bought a boxed one off Ebay a couple of years ago. I have 48k to install one day, and if I get brave, the 8bitdomain 5200 A/V kit to install. I actually have 2 8-bit domain 5200 A/V kits; anyone wanna buy one?

[+wood_jl]

@ druclu

 

That has to be the most heavily-modified 400 I've ever seen. Perhaps the most heavily modified in existence. Very cool!

[doctorclu]

Got to thinking about it, and wondered which Smith Corona case I was using. Well I picked it up years ago, the typewriter was long gone, and it was a case belonging to my grandmother's boyfriend.

 

But thank to google image search, I think I found it...

 

 

1980's Smith Corona Deville Portable Typewriter 8169

 

 

Well not exactly that one, but getting REAL close.

 

[doctorclu]

@ druclu

 

That has to be the most heavily-modified 400 I've ever seen. Perhaps the most heavily modified in existence. Very cool!

 

I'll let dad know. Yeh saw a lot of action from like 1982 (played a lot of Star Raiders and other games we dug out of the Atari trash), and then the BBS days from 1983-1989 where it was replaced with a Mac Plus. Though the 90's it was taken to college to play games on and only reason it is not powered up now is because I have other 400s and 800s to give it a rest.

 

And someone mentioned an Atari 400 in a box. I found one such boxed 400.. but to me I like where it came from... BEST PRODUCTS (now defunct) where I got my first Atari 400. That was cool.

[atariksi]

Hey, I think I have a couple of typewriter cases around. I'm going to see if they allowing storing the Atari 400 or other model.