ATARI7800fan Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 HI, I was wondering what are peoples opinion of the Atari 7800 vs there 8-bit computers. I currently have a Atari 7800 with 12 games plus about 40 2600 games.I also own two European controllers and a light gun plus two 2600 controllers and two paddle controllers. I do not own a separate 2600 along with the original american 7800 controllers. I have looking up systems and have always wondered if I should have gotten a 8-bit computer instead of the 7800, while the 7800 does have a new expansion module and some good homebrew games. I wonder if I should have gotten a computer before. The thing is I have never owned a classic computer, I grew up with consoles and just recently got into computer gaming, so I figured the 7800 would have been a better choice as it was a console and I currently do not own any 8-bit consoles besides it. Should I get a 8-bit computer and sell my 7800, have ran out of room currently have 9 systems including a TI-99/4A, at a possible loss or should I keep the 7800 and just wait a few years until I can get the space and money for the computer. Also which one would you guys recommend the XL series or the XE series. Thanks for your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarifever Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) I've had the same issue between the 8-bit and the 5200, and never could make up my mind. Now I'm actually shrinking my system collection, so it has become a non-issue. My advice is to just get a good emulator for the computers to give it a try. I mean, a decent emulator of a computer, running on a computer, should give you a pretty solid idea on if you want to start investing in the thing. It's a pretty apples to apples comparision between a computer emulated on a computer, and the original machine. Edited January 19, 2011 by Atarifever 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjb Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 It's simple, you're not limited to one or the other. You can have both! For that matter add a 5200 into the mix. I think you'll find quite a few people here own several different systems and often times multiples of the same system. I know it's not practical to own them all but I do highly recommend getting a 8-bit computer. tjb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I agree that there's nothing wrong with having them both/all. But if I had to choose between A8 and 7800, I would choose A8 hands down. Specifically an 800XL and an SIO2PC USB Edition from atarimax. All the gaming (and more) that you could ever need! (Though the XM and potential new games make the 7800 more appealing in the future too, bringing us back to the BOTH choice!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I have both and refuse to give up either! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 I've had the same issue between the 8-bit and the 5200, and never could make up my mind. Now I'm actually shrinking my system collection, so it has become a non-issue. My advice is to just get a good emulator for the computers to give it a try. I mean, a decent emulator of a computer, running on a computer, should give you a pretty solid idea on if you want to start investing in the thing. It's a pretty apples to apples comparision between a computer emulated on a computer, and the original machine. what emulators would you recommend getting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian63 Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 You gotta have both,box up something else for now and try an 800xl, there are 1000's of games, keep the 7800 too for all the new stuff! You can't go wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjb Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. I own one and am very pleased with it. I will say that it's not an 800XL but rather an upgraded 600XL with a "Atari XL" sticker over the 600XL name plate if that matters. The s-video quality is superb. I didn't think it was a bad price but others might say different. You might be able to get it cheaper if you get the machine and do the upgrade yourself. tjb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. I own one and am very pleased with it. I will say that it's not an 800XL but rather an upgraded 600XL with a "Atari XL" sticker over the 600XL name plate if that matters. The s-video quality is superb. I didn't think it was a bad price but others might say different. You might be able to get it cheaper if you get the machine and do the upgrade yourself. tjb Thanks for the response. I am not confident enough to do the upgrade myself, also how is it upgraded from the 600XL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_Falcon Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Atari 8-bit vs. 7800 is a really special decision... I grew up with Atari ST and 2600/7800 side-by-side. My first contact with Atari 8-bit computers was many years later. As I consider myself being a gamer I prefer the 7800 over the Atari 8-bit computers as the games usually look and play better than on the XL/XE (European two button joypads rock!). But computers are much better if you want to write something yourself and of course Pokey sound is very nice (Ghostbusters ). It's hard to decide. I am happy to have both Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I've had the same issue between the 8-bit and the 5200, and never could make up my mind. Now I'm actually shrinking my system collection, so it has become a non-issue. My advice is to just get a good emulator for the computers to give it a try. I mean, a decent emulator of a computer, running on a computer, should give you a pretty solid idea on if you want to start investing in the thing. It's a pretty apples to apples comparision between a computer emulated on a computer, and the original machine. what emulators would you recommend getting? for 8bit Atari computers I suggest this one. http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html I have both a 7800 and 8bit computers (well lots of them actually). I like the 7800, especially the quality home brew titles, but I have an Atari computer set up permanently and use it at least 3 times a week. There is such a vast range of games for the 8bit I would not be without it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. expensive. If you can live with composite video output a standard 800xl will suffice.If you do need s-video, you can just solder one wire on the 800xl to install the missing chroma signal Ask in the marketplace here, I am sure you could get a good deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. I own one and am very pleased with it. I will say that it's not an 800XL but rather an upgraded 600XL with a "Atari XL" sticker over the 600XL name plate if that matters. The s-video quality is superb. I didn't think it was a bad price but others might say different. You might be able to get it cheaper if you get the machine and do the upgrade yourself. tjb strange, the picture on there site is without doubt an 800xl. 600xl has 5 vent cutouts on either side, 800xl has 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Personally I'd aim to acquire an A8 and keep both when you do. The A8 scene is very active and has plenty of games, applications and PC dev tools. As for getting a machine, you can often get good deals on ebay or you can place an advert in the wanted section here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarifever Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I've had the same issue between the 8-bit and the 5200, and never could make up my mind. Now I'm actually shrinking my system collection, so it has become a non-issue. My advice is to just get a good emulator for the computers to give it a try. I mean, a decent emulator of a computer, running on a computer, should give you a pretty solid idea on if you want to start investing in the thing. It's a pretty apples to apples comparision between a computer emulated on a computer, and the original machine. what emulators would you recommend getting? for 8bit Atari computers I suggest this one. http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html I have both a 7800 and 8bit computers (well lots of them actually). I like the 7800, especially the quality home brew titles, but I have an Atari computer set up permanently and use it at least 3 times a week. There is such a vast range of games for the 8bit I would not be without it I'll bow to superior knowledge here. It's been years since I used an 8-bit emulator, and it is a somewhat confusing scene, so go with what he said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjb Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. I own one and am very pleased with it. I will say that it's not an 800XL but rather an upgraded 600XL with a "Atari XL" sticker over the 600XL name plate if that matters. The s-video quality is superb. I didn't think it was a bad price but others might say different. You might be able to get it cheaper if you get the machine and do the upgrade yourself. tjb strange, the picture on there site is without doubt an 800xl. 600xl has 5 vent cutouts on either side, 800xl has 9 Agreed. The picture is an 800XL but the machine I received was definitely a 600XL upgraded to 64K. I can't say as to whether or not you get a 600XL in all cases. I just know that's what I received. tjb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjb Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What is your opinion of the Atari 800XL package from Atari-sales for 74.95 with a s-video cable. I own one and am very pleased with it. I will say that it's not an 800XL but rather an upgraded 600XL with a "Atari XL" sticker over the 600XL name plate if that matters. The s-video quality is superb. I didn't think it was a bad price but others might say different. You might be able to get it cheaper if you get the machine and do the upgrade yourself. tjb Thanks for the response. I am not confident enough to do the upgrade myself, also how is it upgraded from the 600XL. I with you here. I'm not a hardware guy myself so I prefer to purchase systems that are already modded. The machine I purchased had a full 64K (instead of the stock 16K) and the composite/s-video mod. That's it. You can get it cheaper by simply upgrading an 800XL as mentioned previously. I just prefer not to mess with it. tjb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) This same discussion was posted here and I'm surprised at the replies there. I know this is the internet, but what the heck? I was expecting more than being talked at in reply to a post about the 7800 being choppy and slow (my reply pointed out examples of games that aren't slow or choppy). Maybe Ms. Pac-Man was a bad example, but it runs fast and smooth and plays well (and I also love the 800 version). Annoying how mentions of the updated Ms. Pac-Man in the Pac-Man Collection were completely ignored. Anyway, my 800 had a broken keyboard, so I was limited to what I could play, but now it's fixed and I started to get more stuff for it (got a bunch of 800 stuff for Christmas, including Pengo, a bunch of disk games, another 800XL, and a couple disk drives). I'm happy to finally be playing Star Raiders. Awesome game. I also picked up a similar game for Famicom, Star Luster. Edited January 23, 2011 by BrianC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DracIsBack Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 With all due respect, this seems like an attempt to provoke a cross-forum flame war. How about we all take a deep ole' breath and spend the afternoon playing fun games on our 7800s and A8's? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) With all due respect, this seems like an attempt to provoke a cross-forum flame war. How about we all take a deep ole' breath and spend the afternoon playing fun games on our 7800s and A8's? No, the whole reason I replied after my first post is becuase of false accusations and assumptions like this one (and I'm insulted it was mistook for flaming). I wanted someone to help me explain things, prove I wasn't invalid in my opinion, and stop the argument, but every time I replied someone just ignored half my post and failed to respect my opinion. Edited January 23, 2011 by BrianC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mirage Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 I respect your opinion, as everyone has their own opinion and their own reasons for it. I haven't replied to this before but wanted to say that the other guy (whoever that was) has some valid points too. His thoughts are similar to the way I feel about the 7800. I just generally get no enjoyment out of most of the games for similar reasons and the more technical reasons a couple others have pointed out. Do you want to completely invalidate other people's observations and opinions about the system? I have no interest in a detailed discussion about this, but it seems like there's room for some people to really like the 7800 and others to not like it so much. Moving on... P.S. And yes, I've played 7800 on real hardware. I've never used a 7800 emulator at all, as I have nearly complete 7800 NTSC CIB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 The thing is I have never owned a classic computer, I grew up with consoles and just recently got into computer gaming, so I figured the 7800 would have been a better choice as it was a console and I currently do not own any 8-bit consoles besides it. I hear this comment quite often. The thing is, the 8-bit computers can be used solely as a console, if one chooses. The 8-bits have a cartridge port and many good titles that can be run from it. There are also multicarts available. You can own the system and never have to deal with any other medium. Of course you'll miss a lot. Point is, I consider the 8-bits a computer/console. When I first got mine, I used nothing other than cartridges for about a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianC Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) Do you want to completely invalidate other people's observations and opinions about the system? NO!!!!!!! Why even ask this? The first person I replied to gave misleading information about the 7800s hardware capabilites while stating his post as fact and the second person tried to invalidate my opinion and patronize me (I may have been wrong on some things, but it is rude to "correct" in that manner. I should have left it alone, though). I have no problems with a difference of opinion. It's a lack of respect for different opinions I have a problem with. I have and love both systems. Both have great games available. Atari 800 has the best ports of DK and Jr., and other good stuff like Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, Pitstop, Star Raiders, Pac-Man, Final Legacy, and Pengo. I also plan to pick up stuff like Jumpman, Defender, Joust, Dig Dug, Dig Dug, Choplifter, Midnight Magic, Mario Bros., and some RPGs like Asphai. Edited January 23, 2011 by BrianC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARI7800fan Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 (edited) The thing is I have never owned a classic computer, I grew up with consoles and just recently got into computer gaming, so I figured the 7800 would have been a better choice as it was a console and I currently do not own any 8-bit consoles besides it. I hear this comment quite often. The thing is, the 8-bit computers can be used solely as a console, if one chooses. The 8-bits have a cartridge port and many good titles that can be run from it. There are also multicarts available. You can own the system and never have to deal with any other medium. Of course you'll miss a lot. Point is, I consider the 8-bits a computer/console. When I first got mine, I used nothing other than cartridges for about a year. I have heard that with a floppy drive, all you do is insert the floppy then turn on the system and it loads automatically like a cart, is that true? If so I would not mind floppy's. Currently have a TI-99/4A that I am selling because of the lack of games. Plus I can not seem to remember the load command half of the time. To used to MSDOS I guess. Edited January 23, 2011 by ATARI7800fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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