+slx Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 I was unable to find any information on the end of 850 sales on the web. Was it available to the very end? That would seem strange as it would not have matched its flimsy 130XE contemporaries any more but as there was no heir apparent, dropping it would have meant cutting off Atari-made options for connectivity. Did Atari consider the 1030 enough or did they reply on third party manufactured interface options? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 I'm fairly sure it was still advertised in Compute! (as in those stores with stock listed in text) when the XEs were around. But Atari being as they were it's not out of the question they overestimated demand and had a big stockpile. I think it's one of the few if any high profile peripherals that didn't get an updated look - disregarding of course the rare early examples of the 850 in a metal case that if anything would look more at home next to an original bodied 2600 than the computer line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormtrooper of Death Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 I read on the internet or in some book about Atari, that after Tramiel Atari was sold off they found a storehouse in hawai or some other island that was filled to the roof with.... 850 interfaces (or some other kind of device for the Atari that is rather valuable in those and current times) .... yeah. Way to go Atari. Bad managment made these things happen in those days.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Impatient or over active click finger? 5 threads all the same? Slow down sir!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 There was only 2 at first, then the others appeared minutes later and the one with my reply was gone. I think it might be the forum playing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 I think from Atari's point of view, the purpose of the 850 was to allow the rebranding of standard printers and modems (namely, the 825 and 830). Once all Atari peripherals had SIO ports, there was no need to produce an XL version of the 850. Of course, there was since it opens up a whole world of 3rd party hardware. But I doubt Atari saw it that way. My guess is they were all made in the first few years of the 400/800 and never sold out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Of all the peripherals ... I appreciate the 850 most. What a very fine and fabulous I/O interface is that. I use it almost daily for printing and connecting to BBS's. It's pretty good, and stable. I have never enough Atari 850's in my stock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbking67 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Luckily ICD came out with the P:R: Connection and the Multi I/O to fill that gap. Personally I never saw a single 850 from '83 on. I'm sure they could be purchased, but they certainly were not stocked in my neck of the woods. /bbking67 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Impatient or over active click finger? 5 threads all the same? Slow down sir!! Sorry, posted from Tapatalk and got a message that my post hadn't worked. So I tried a couple of times with the same result before giving up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 Sorry, posted from Tapatalk and got a message that my post hadn't worked. So I tried a couple of times with the same result before giving up. I had issues with tapatalk too last days. One of my messages was cut off halfway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 (edited) I remember them being horrendously expensive until just before the Tramiels took over, then they suddenly went for very cheap at a specialized Atari dealer here. I bought one then. Still remember spending a night to get the old C.ITOH 8510 printer that my dad had brought home from work (it was obsolete there) running with it. After a couple of hours trying everything I finally gave up, put "the lid on it" and......there it went printing like nuts !!!! It was my first printer ever, what did I know that this one had a switch that took it off-line when the lid was removed ;) I have never seen any dot-matrix printer making as black prints as this C.ITOH did.....I couldn't print after 22.00 hrs. though.... I never used the RS-232 ports AFAIR and I sold it together with all the rest of my XL stuff (hey, the ST had all those ports built-in.......arrgghhh...) Edited February 23, 2014 by Level42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Never had one myself d/t the price and used an APEFace for printing as I didn't want those 5x7 pin printouts with squashed gs, js, etc. From time to time it wouldn't print unless I disconnected The SIO plug for a Moment. Today I regret giving my FX-80 away but back then the quietness of The BJ-200 was amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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