Atari 400 questions...

[Ze_ro]

Okay, I finally managed to find an Atari 400 at the thrift store, and it seems to be in pretty good shape except for two problems: 1) Some jerk snipped the RF cord, so I'll have to replace that (which shouldn't be a problem), and 2) Atari never seems to write the power requirements on the bottom of their stuff! I'm sure this question has been asked before, but what voltage/current should I be providing to this thing?

 

Two more quick questions: Since I haven't gotten the thing up and running yet, I have yet to experience the expected crappiness of the keyboard... I can't even tell how good/bad it is, do these keyboards break down easily? (I don't mean "does it suck?", I mean "will it get worse?"). Also, how common are tape/disk drives? Am I likely to find them around the thrift stores, or am I destined to scour eBay looking for accessories?

 

--Zero

[Pitfall Harry]

It's funny. I've had an Atari 400 for years, but I never even bothered to test it until I read your post. I hooked it up to the same power adapter that I use on my Atari 800, and it fired right up. That is, I used:

 

Atari Part No. C017945

Input: 120V 60Hz 50W

Output: 9VAC 31VA

 

As far as the keyboard goes, yeah I hate it. I can't stand using a membrane keyboard. That's why I never bothered to use the thing. But if all you use it for is to play disk or cartridge games (where your primary user interface is a joystick), it's not so much of a drawback.

 

I rarely see Atari 400/800 tape drives in the wild, and I see diskette drives even less often. If you don't want to wait 3 or 4 years looking for them in thrifts and fleas, then eBay is definitely the way to go. Or you might want to check out what they have in stock over at B & C Computer Visions.

 

Ben

[Callipygous]

Zero,

I have an extra disk and tape drive. They have not been tested, but will hook them up if you are interested. Send email and I'll try them out. Hesitate to set a price because I don't remember what kind of shape they are in.

[Callipygous]

oops clicked button twice. Apparently we can no longer delete posts?

 

[ 04-22-2002: Message edited by: Mario's Other Brother ]

[El Destructo]

Don't be hatin' that membrane keyboard, yo. I wrote Creepy Caverns, Parrot, and all the other pre-college stuff on it. I even played it like a musical instrument

 

It did finally wear out...a couple of letters "broke" and wouldn't register anymore. It took a lot punishment, though.

 

Seriously, don't knock it until you've tried it. I'm convinced that humans can adapt to almost any keyboard given enough practice.

You could also buy a broken / stripped / bare 400 on eBay that has a key caps upgrade. Swapping the 400's keyboard is trivial.