Newbie questions on 800XL

[corolla]

Hey everyone:

 

Great forum you have here on Atari! I've been away from Atari land for about 18 years. We had an 800XL growing up, but the disk drive went in 1988. Since then, my only Atari contact has been finding a near mint 7800 in 1998, complete with paperwork and dozens of 2600/7800 and 5200(!) games. So, for Christmas I received FB2 and plan to get back into the swing of things. A few questions:

 

*Is the 7800 8-bit and the 2600 is 4? What does the 7800 have that the 2600 doesn't?

*I'd like to get a new 1050 disk drive; any problems I should look for in used units?

*What are some good games for the 800XL?

*Why is it so hard to find Tapper?? Can I get it for my 800XL?

*Is there some sort of dumbed down internet, like the old Freenet, which I can surf with my 800XL and a modem? A text only message board of some kind, perhaps?

*I have a brochure outlining the 1400XL and 1450XL. I understand the latter never made it into production, but how hard is it to find a 1400XL? How much would it cost?

 

Thanks for your help!

[kevin242]

The 2600 is 8bit. The 7800 has more advanced graphics (to put it simply).

 

 

Some of my favorites Shamus, Blue Max, Krazy Shootout, Star Raiders, Zybex, Alley

Cat, Ms Pac Man, Jr Pac Man, Montezuma's Revenge, Miner 2049er, Defender, Joust,

Donkey Kong, DK jr, Fort Apocalypse, Protector II, Zone Ranger, there are just so

many... Im sure someone else will fill in the blanks.

 

Tapper is a rare game.

 

The easiest way to "surf" the net with an atari 8bit would be to use your pc as a

server and use the atari in terminal mode. I know this might seem like fun, but I

personally dont see the point.

 

Niether 1400xl or 1450xld ever made it out.

 

 

I hope this answered most of your quesitons.

 

 

 

Hey everyone:

 

Great forum you have here on Atari!  I've been away from Atari land for about 18 years.  We had an 800XL growing up, but the disk drive went in 1988.  Since then, my only Atari contact has been finding a near mint 7800 in 1998, complete with paperwork and dozens of 2600/7800 and 5200(!) games.  So, for Christmas I received FB2 and plan to get back into the swing of things.  A few questions:

 

*Is the 7800 8-bit and the 2600 is 4?  What does the 7800 have that the 2600 doesn't?

*I'd like to get a new 1050 disk drive; any problems I should look for in used units?

*What are some good games for the 800XL?

*Why is it so hard to find Tapper?? Can I get it for my 800XL?

*Is there some sort of dumbed down internet, like the old Freenet, which I can surf with my 800XL and a modem?  A text only message board of some kind, perhaps?

*I have a brochure outlining the 1400XL and 1450XL.  I understand the latter never made it into production, but how hard is it to find a 1400XL?  How much would it cost?

 

Thanks for your help!

993707[/snapback]

[Rybags]

http://vjetnam.hopto.org/

 

One of the most complete Atari 800 games archives.

 

Generally, the most downloaded games are the best ones.

 

For someone who's been out of things for a while, I'd recommend Dropzone, Defender, Alternate Reality (+ The Dungeon), Mule, 7 Cities of Gold, Spelunker.

 

I'd also heavily recommend building an APE (SIO2PC) cable. Fairly simple, just 1 chip and a dozen or so solder connections:

 

http://www.geocities.com/atarimods/index.html

 

New 1050 disk drive? About 20 years late there. What to look for? Probably things which don't show unless you open the drive.

 

R/W head, drive belt, stepper drive belt, excessive noise.

 

Edit: almost forgot. The write protect sensors have a habit of failing or developing problems, but should easily be fixed.

Edited January 5, 2006 by Rybags