How did you get started?

[Mendon]

Maybe this has been covered before but thought I would make a post and ask how you got started into using an Atari 8bit.

 

For me, it was when I walked into my local electronic's store in search of a new 2600 game and saw a group of people gathered around a TV screen. I walked over and was amazed at the game Star Raiders. I must have stood there for an hour watching and learning what this game was. I asked what system it was playing on and was introduced to Atari home computing for the first time.

 

I went back the next day and bought my first Atari 800 for around $500. Couldn't afford a disk drive (seemed like they were very close to $1,000) so I spent $100 or so for a 410 tape drive. Went home and played the hell out of Star Raiders and Jumpman on cassette. Got into my first RPG when I purchased Temple of Apshai.

 

From there I bought my first Antic magazine and of course had to try the type in programs. I learned some Basic just from doing so. I was a quick typist but did make errors and soon tired of listing the program on screen to see where my error was so I bought a 1020 Plotter/Printer (the little fella with the color pens) as it was all I could afford at the time. Not the best printer but at least it made comparing my typing and the type in programs much easier. Of course it would make me mad to find that I typed the program in correctly but it still wouldn't run. Then the next months issue of Antic would show up with the correction for last months program...GRRRRRRRRRRR!

 

I found a local user group shortly after purchasing my 800 and attended every monthly meeting. Got my first modem, the XM301, and went online at the glorious speed of 300baud. What an exciting new world this BBS'ing thing was. And since I lived in a small town, it was always a pleasure and a highlight to travel to the big city, Detroit, and walk into an honest to goodness REAL Atari store.

 

And they were big days when I upgraded to an 800XL, finally could afford a 1050 disk drive, bought an 850, and blazed across the phone lines at 2400baud on my new Supra.

 

I've never regretted any of my purchases, and I've enjoyed every Atari product I've owned.

 

Mendon

[atarianer2003]

My first Atari ever was not an 8-bit then a 16-bit computer: My 520 STM. I became it in 1995 from my father (there I was only 12 years old ). My first 8-bit-Atari (130 XE) I've buyed this year on eBay.de

 

Mike

[Bryan]

My dad got me an 800 and a 410 in 1981. A year later I got an Indus GT. I remember staying up all night with my friends playing Ultima II. I wish I'd learned then all the programming stuff I know now! Mainly I just copied stuff and played games. Later I got an 800XL and added a 1050. At one time I had a closet full of Atari stuff (when the prices fell) but today I just keep a couple 800XL's and an XEGS (it's my hacked up experiment machine).

 

-Bry

[Shawn Jefferson]

I bought an Atari 800XL when I was about 12, and my parents bought me a disk drive a couple of months later. Through the local Atari user group, I had my computer upgraded to 256k and a Happy (pirate version I think) put into the 1050. I've still got those two items, although the keyboard stopped working on the 800XL and I replaced it with another.

 

Since then I have been somewhat collecting the hardware. I have:

 

Atari 800

Atari 800XL (3)

Atari 1200XL (2, one in pieces)

Atari 65XE

Atari 130XE

 

1050 Disk drives (2, one Happy)

XF551 Disk drive

SIO2PC setup

1027 printer (never use it, sits in closet)

 

I work for a School District and I keep having dreams of finding a stash of old Atari computers in the basement of one of the schools. Is that healthy?

[tjlazah]

My first Computer was a 800XL. My Dad got it for me around 1984. A year later I spilled a few drops of coke on the keyboard and fried it! We took it to a Authorized Atari Repair place to get it fixed. A few months went by and they lost it so they gave us a Brand New 130XE free!!! Man those were the days! I remember drooling over those Kewl XF-551 drives that matched the XE series! A year later I got a 520ST system. Shortly after that I sold out and got a Amiga 1000 and stayed at the "dark side" for years! (Amiga did kick some serious tail back then!) Back in 1993 I got a 800XL and two 1050 drives to get back into Atari! And in 1999 I got a Mint in Box Atari 1040STf system on ebay! Now I am Atari hooked again! I got a 130XE and XF-551 recently and some others odd and ends... Also got a Falcon030 from eBay!

 

TjLaZah

[Bryan]

I bought an Atari 800XL when I was about 12, and my parents bought me a disk drive a couple of months later.  Through the local Atari user group, I had my computer upgraded to 256k and a Happy (pirate version I think) put into the 1050.  I've still got those two items, although the keyboard stopped working on the 800XL and I replaced it with another.

 

Did you know there's a block of text in the Happy ROM designed to taunt people hacking the device?

 

"THIS ROM PROGRAM COPYRIGHT © 1984 HAPPY COMPUTERS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED. (OPINION): IF YOU SPEND YOUR TIME TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW THIS PROGRAM WORKS THEN YOU HAVE REDUCED YOUR MENTAL CAPACITY TO BECOME A SLOW IDIOT! A $1.00 MICROPROCESSOR (CHARACTERIZED AS A SWIFT IDIOT) FIGURES OUT THIS PROGRAM IN JUST SECONDS....JUST SOMETHING TO CONSIDER AS THIS PROGRAM IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN ANY PREDECESSOR. IF YOU VIOLATE OUR COPYRIGHT BE PREPARED TO PAY THE FULL PENALTY PROVIDED BY LAW"

 

I thought it was cute when I found it.

 

-Bry

[+Sauron]

The 2600 is what got me started, but my first computer is what solidified my love for Atari. Ever since I saw a friend's C64, I had begged my parents for a computer, but they always told me no as they were too expensive. I had pretty much resigned myself to never owning a computer, but on Christmas day of 1985, my world changed forever. Upon opening my Christmas presents, my parents insisted that the big box sitting behind the Christmas tree be opened last, even though I wanted to tear the wrapping off in record time. When I finally opened it, I just sat there, dumbfounded that the one thing in the universe that I wanted the most was sitting right in front of me: an Atari 130XE! I wasted no time in opening the box and rushing it to my room to hook it up to my 9" B&W TV. Even though I had absolutely no software or storage devices for it, I never got bored with reading through the manual and the BASIC tutorial, and typing in the programs in the back. I then started to modify them, to see what I could get them to do, which I suppose is what got me started on my own programming. As I had no storage devices for the longest time, this meant that I would have to leave my computer on for days at a time until I finished trascribing my program to paper (yes, no printer either). Throughout the years I ended up getting software, and eventually a disk drive and printer from a real Atari store in San Antonio (Atariville!). I eventually moved on to the ST series, and traded in my 130XE. Looking back now, I really wish I still had all of my old equipment....

[Tempest]

I got a Atari 400 for Christmas 1983 and I never looked back. I never used it for any thing more than a game machine though, as I got an Apple IIe a few years later which I used for word processing and such.

 

Tempest

[Big Player]

I got my 800XL on Christmas in 1984 with an Indus GT disk drive, a monitor of some kind (Texas Peach? something like that) and a Gemini dot matrix printer.

 

I wrote every paper in high school using it. That was the only educational use it got, unless you count the small amount of programming I did on it.

 

I still have the XL, though it stopped working in 1992.

[Atari Smeghead]

Lessee how the ol' memory works...

 

Around 1981 or 82, I had a friend, John Spanburg, who had a really cool computer setup that I just drooled after. It was an Atari 800 with an 810 drive. I begged my parents to buy me the same thing, but alas, we couldn't afford the $1000+ price tag. So, I settled for an Atari 400 and a 410 cassette drive, along with BASIC. The whole package must've run around $450 or so, and I agreed to pay my Dad half of the money back. I, um, don't think I ever did, tho. Kids...

John used to tease me, with my membrane keyboard and my slow, temperamental cassette drive. He would taunt me by picking up his drive while it loaded a program. "Can't do this with yours, can ya?" So I showed him. I took a Coke and dumped it on his keyboard. "If you had a membrane keyboard, it would just run off!"

Of course, I'm lying. I think he used to say something to the effect of, "You have a keyboard that would survive an attack with peanut butter" or some such.

 

I loved that computer. Used to program it every day. I'd save up to buy the occasional game. I think Canyon Climber was the first game I bought. I also had Astrochase on cassette. I think my first cartridge was Protector II. Those were the days, tho. Man, if you spent a half hour loading a game via cassette, you played the HELL outta it! Sometimes, that machine would be on for days straight.

 

I eventually upgraded that 400 to 32k, then 48k. I also finally added a real keyboard at some point, long after I'd stopped hanging out with "Peanut Butter Boy."

 

Then, y'know... I went to the 800... 600xl, 800xl, 130xe...back to the 800 (always liked it best...upgraded it to 288k and ran a BBS on it for years) then to the 520ST, 1040ST...

Now, I have an 800 and an XEGS. The XEGS is smaller and can fit into the cubbyhole I have available, otherwise I'd still be using that 800 regularly.

 

Thanks for starting this topic. Memory lane can be fun!

[+Cafeman]

I already owned the 2600 and 5200. I was in high school , probably my Junior year about 1985 or so and my dad bought the 1200XL which was new. I used AtariWriter, my 1050 Disk Drive, and the typewriter-quality printer all thru college.

 

Also dabbled with Antic type-ins and some games like Fractalus, Spy vs Spy, ballblazer, river Raid, etc.

[IceCold]

It was the year 2003. I thought it'd be pretty neat to get an atari computer. Oesii sent me one. The end.

 

 

Sorry guys, I don't really have any cool stories to tell.

[Shannon]

I think I learned about the atari computers from some school teachers. There were three of them. My typing teacher (manual typewriters, oh the day)... my sisters science teacher and the school vice principal.

 

Anyways the typing teacher let me borrow a "learning atari basic" book and I was hooked. I wrote my first program "on paper" before ever even owning a computer.

 

There was a computer show at the dc armory, or was that the capitol center? Can't remember which, that my father took me too. I managed to talk him into getting me an atari 400 and a cassette drive (410?). I lied and told him I was getting it so I could learn computers when I really wanted to play the games.

 

Don't remember much about the games being displayed but I do remember a cool text only adventure by (sierra?) running on an apple computer. Regardless I got the 400 with missile command and a basic language cart.

 

So if I wanted to play games I pretty much had to type them in myself from compute!. So that is what I did. My first programming experiment was to modify a basic game "gold rush" so it was two player and could fit in 16k. I had to use this clever trick of swapping out the current players level by reading the characters straight from screen memory and copying them into the array as I copied them from the array onto the screen. Ok... so it seemed clever at the time.

 

Later on I was able to "acquire" atari software from (of all people) the principal of the school. His son owned an 800, and two 810's (one of them happied). Of course I was on cassette for a long time. I eventually installed a keyboard upgrade on my 400 but then ended up selling it a year later and upgrading to an 800xl. First game I ever actually bought was jumpman.

 

I musta programmed a fair amount of simplistic games, mostly based on board games I had, as well as a few utilities, and databases.

 

For some strange reason my parents didn't want me running my atari on their "color" tv so for years I was using black and white. Anyone else run into that problem? What was funny was I programmed several games having no clue what "color" the characters were. I just knew they looked good in B&W.

 

Anyways I think that about covers it. Over the years I got away from programming the machine. It always seemed that by the time I wrote a program to do something, someone else did it better. So I just turned into a diehard gamer who writes the occasional proggy.

[Mendon]

Thanks to EVERYONE who is posting. I am enjoying reading each and every one.

 

One thing that I don't think anyone has commented on: did any of you ever join Atari user groups?

 

Back in my hometown, we had a GREAT user group and had monthly meetings. These meetings would consist of the hearing the latest Atari news, member demonstrations, swap fests, Disks of the Month, game tournaments, and general discussions. I looked forward to the second Saturday of every month to see the projects that other members were working on, seeing all the new goodies people brought, and just "talkin Atari" with other people. At first the meetings were strictly 8bit but as more and more members purchased ST's, we had to have two meetings each month. So usually the 8bit people met from 9am to 11am and the ST people from 11am to 1pm; the funny part was I think the ST people came for the 8bit meetings and the 8bit always stayed for the ST part. After awhile it went back to just being an Atari meeting and wasn't divided up.

 

We had no real Atari store in my town but one of the group members opened a hole-in-the-wall storefront and tried to make a success of selling some new software and buying/selling used equipment & software. Our group supported his store, of course, and I would imagine kept him open on our business alone. But that didn't stop someone from announcing at almost every monthly meeting that "After the meeting, I'm going to Detroit and see what's shaking. If anyone wants to ride along, you're more than welcome". Going to Detroit meant going to two BIG Atari computer stores that sold nothing but Atari; aisle after aisle of nothing but equipment and software. I remember seeing my first ST and Portfolio by going on one of these "after the meeting" journey's.

 

Each year there would be a BIG Atari show in Windsor, Canada and our club would car pool there for the day. There would be vendors and clubs there from all over the U.S. and Canada, including Atari themselves, and it was always eagerly looked forward to. We would also take part in local computer shows and always had a great display with many systems up and running demo's and displays. We put on many Midi Maze tournaments at these local shows and they became extremely popular with the public and I'm sure sold quite a few ST's to those that took part in them.

 

Those were really some great days.

 

Mendon

[Trooper]

Well, for me it was when I was going to buy myself a new computer sometime around 1986 or 87. I had been looking through computer magazines for a very long time to see what seemed interesting and still would suit my wallet.

I thought about the C64 but since all my friends had that one and I thought of it as just a toy and an overall lame machine when you looked at what they were asking for it I kept looking and thinking.

Then one day! There it was in the magazine I'd just bought with my last money......................ATARI 130 XE - POWER WITHOUT THE PRICE!!!

 

From that moment I was sold on it, I wanted one so bad. Just think, 128Kb think of the stuff I could code with that machine (especially when my current one was a Sinclair ZX81, which I still have by the way, packing a massive 1Kb of RAM!!!

 

Well, I took all the money that was left on my savings account, went into town and bought it. I can still remember the feeling when I woke up the next morning, I was so sure it had all been a dream and that when I woke up there would just be the same old tired ZX81 standing on the desk.

On the other hand I can't begin to describe the feeling I got when o found out it WASN'T a dream.

 

Well, that's my bit of nostalgia, I was hooked on Atari from that moment on and now I own several Atari machines, not as many as the rest of you guys but a couple anyway.

 

Oh by the way, I bought one game that day too. It felt so cool to be able to buy games for my computer, I had never been able to get any ready made games for the ZX81, had to code them myself on that one =).

 

What game? The Last V8=) I thought it was so cool..........at least until I found another game at which time I discovered what utter crap the V8 was =)

 

Cheers!

 

Troop

[tyranthraxus]

What the heck is a Happy disk drive?

[Trooper]

One that gets to boot up Star Raiders?

 

/Troop

[Bryan]

What the heck is a Happy disk drive?

 

It's a board that goes in a 1050 and makes it faster and able to copy protected disks.

 

-Bry

[tyranthraxus]

What the heck is a Happy disk drive?

 

It's a board that goes in a 1050 and makes it faster and able to copy protected disks.

 

-Bry

 

How do you know if a drive has it? Any telltale signs to look for?

[Bryan]

What the heck is a Happy disk drive?

 

It's a board that goes in a 1050 and makes it faster and able to copy protected disks.

 

-Bry

 

How do you know if a drive has it? Any telltale signs to look for?

 

It loads stuff faster than a regular 1050. A stock 1050 reads 1 sector, then transmits it, then waits for the next sector to come around, reads it, transmits it, etc... This is due to the 128-byte (1 sector) buffer in the 1050. A Happy drive reads an entire track at a time and sends the sectors rapid-fire.

 

-Bry

[A2600]

Well one day surfing the net I saw atari home computers im like wow! Thats cool...

But I allredy had a 2600 and a 5200....

 

But Remembering that mymy B-Day was araound the corner I asked my dad for an 800 because its bulkness captured my eye so on October 30, 2002 my dad won me an E-bay Auction for a 800 (that was my 16th B-Day) and I have been sold on 8-Bits ever since NOW inm trying to get into Midi on the STS

 

Current Home Computers:

 

Atari 800

Atari 600XL (a gift from an AA member)

Atari 130XE (bought from Gunstar)

 

1040 STf (Thanks to Davidcalgary29)

520 STfm (Thanks to Davidcalgary29)

 

RANA 1000 DD (Thanks to Davidcalgary29)

 

So thats my story I may be 16 but im Atari in heart! and some NES too!

[Atari Smeghead]

Thanks to EVERYONE who is posting. I am enjoying reading each and every one.

 

One thing that I don't think anyone has commented on: did any of you ever join Atari user groups?  

 

Back in my hometown, we had a GREAT user group.

 

"After the meeting, I'm going to Detroit and see what's shaking. If anyone wants to ride along, you're more than welcome". Going to Detroit meant going to two BIG Atari computer stores that sold nothing but Atari; aisle after aisle of nothing but equipment and software.

 

Mendon,

I'd be curious to know where your hometown was, if you could drive to Detroit after a meeting.

 

Living in Lansing MI, I used to go to the monthly "CHAOS" meetings. The Capitol Hill Atari Owners Society. When I first started going, they could fill a huge hall with roughly 400 people. I was there at the bitter end, in 1995 or so, when it was only a couple of us in the basement of a bank.

 

But during CHAOS's heyday, we had the best group around. Our disk library was second to none, and they did great interactive demos of the disk of the month. In fact, I am still good friends with the two fellows who handled the bulk of the library, not to mention a couple of others from the day. In fact, wow... I can name at least five people I met because of the Atari club that I am still tight with today.

I first got into telecomunications because of the CHAOS yearly auction. Bought an Atari 835 modem for $52. I still have that modem, actually. It sits next to me on this very desktop. (I tried to run my first BBS with it. Heh. I built an auto-answer device that wasn't terribly stable.)

 

We did have at least one Atari store in Lansing, sometimes more. But Castle Communications on Michigan Ave was the place to buy as well as get repairs done. I had to have them..err.. complete the 288k upgrade to my Atari 800.

 

I ventured to Detroit a few times, but I was still pretty young, so I'd have to tag along with someone. My first viewing of the ST was at some big convention there.

 

Memories galore!

[Mendon]

Jackson is my hometown. Was a member of CACE for quite awhile there.

 

I attended several CHAOS meetings when they held them at MSU. Then when membership in CACE fell to only a couple of us, we would carpool to the CHAOS meetings that were held in the basement of a bank in East Lansing.

 

I don't remember any names of anyone I met there except I seem to recall that the president of the group was a gentleman called Leo?? I could be wrong.

 

And you are 100% correct in that the CHAOS library was fantastic. I remember not only buying the DOM's when I attended meetings but going thru the library and buying many, many disks. I seem to remember being told once that because of the respect that everyone had for the library, CHAOS was able to rent their library to other user groups who then copied it so that they would have library disks of their own.

 

User Groups were fun and I miss those days of monthly meetings.

 

Mendon

[Shannon]

Nope... I mostly perused local BBS's. Every once and a while I would go meet the sysop's of said BBS's. I only went to one computer show and it was well after the death of the 8-bit and into the death of the ST. But it was cool to see all atari stuff in one place.

[Atari Smeghead]

Jackson is my hometown. Was a member of CACE for quite awhile there.  

 

I attended several CHAOS meetings when they held them at MSU. Then when membership in CACE fell to only a couple of us, we would carpool to the CHAOS meetings that were held in the basement of a bank in East Lansing.  

 

I don't remember any names of anyone I met there except I seem to recall that the president of the group was a gentleman called Leo?? I could be wrong.

 

And you are 100% correct in that the CHAOS library was fantastic.  

 

User Groups were fun and I miss those days of monthly meetings.  

 

Mendon

 

What a small Atari world, eh?

 

So, we probably met at some point in time. I'm Randy, the little blonde guy.

Not only did I go to many meetings, (not all...it was kinda early on a Saturday and I was a bit of a partier in those days) but I was the Vice President, and later President of the Modem Support Group. We also met in that same bank basement, immediately following CHAOS.

 

So, you must've known Malcolm and Guy. Guy was the librarian who did all those cool interactive demos and Malcolm was at every meeting, including the last one. Big, friendly African-American fella. I see them both reguarly. As a matter of fact, I just hosted our 4th annual BBS Users Reunion Picnic where I got to see them once again, as well as a couple of other ex-CHAOSers.

 

Leo Sell was the Pres... We were talking about him the other day. Not sure what became of him.

 

Take care!