Getting an 800 Next Month...

[LynxVGL]

My 1st computer was an Atari 800 back in the mid 80's. I loved that machine. But it went the way of garage sales to upgrade to an 520ST. Man. Those were the days. Well, it looks like an Atari 800 is heading back way my next month. A friend of mine has an 800XL and a Yellow 800 in storage and casually asked if I wanted the original 800. In a second I said sure, but am a little lost in making sure my new (old) 800 will be good to go. So what are the basics about going over a vintage Atari 800 to make sure it's OK?

 

Should I pull the RAM Cards or make sure they are seated OK?

 

What's the easiest way to get the Monitor out feeding to a TV? Using RF out is OK, but not the best.

 

I left the Atari computing world before so many good games were out on carts, the XE carts are compatable, right? I NEED "Rescue on Fractalus" and "Ballblazer" almost as much as I need Star Raiders. Same drill on cleaning carts though, right?

 

I can't wait to get 4 joysticks and play M.U.L.E like it was supposed to be played too!

 

Thanks for the help.

[José Pereira]

There are people better than me to help you but if it's 48KBs Ram then those later carts for the XE Game System will only run with at least 64KBs, I think, so you should upgrade it or ask if he already did it.

Then because of so many and great games around you can buy a drive or better one of the P.C. to A8 cables to load anything from demos, programs to games.

Of course that you'll need joystick(s) but that you'll know;) or probably you already have.

Good luck and have fun.

Edited September 14, 2015 by José Pereira

[BillC]

My 1st computer was an Atari 800 back in the mid 80's. I loved that machine. But it went the way of garage sales to upgrade to an 520ST. Man. Those were the days. Well, it looks like an Atari 800 is heading back way my next month. A friend of mine has an 800XL and a Yellow 800 in storage and casually asked if I wanted the original 800. In a second I said sure, but am a little lost in making sure my new (old) 800 will be good to go. So what are the basics about going over a vintage Atari 800 to make sure it's OK?

 

Should I pull the RAM Cards or make sure they are seated OK?

 

What's the easiest way to get the Monitor out feeding to a TV? Using RF out is OK, but not the best.

 

I left the Atari computing world before so many good games were out on carts, the XE carts are compatable, right? I NEED "Rescue on Fractalus" and "Ballblazer" almost as much as I need Star Raiders. Same drill on cleaning carts though, right?

 

I can't wait to get 4 joysticks and play M.U.L.E like it was supposed to be played too!

 

Thanks for the help.

The 800 has a 5-pin DIN jack with audio/composite and Chroma/Luma(AKA s-video) signals.

 

8-bit Classics sells a video cable with composite video on 1 RCA plug, audio on 2 RCA plugs and s-video on a mini-DIN plug.

https://www.8bitclassics.com/Atari-800-XL-XE-5-Pin-DIN-S-Video-Cable.html

[Paul Westphal]

Take it completely apart, and Clean the shit out of everything.