The XEGS and 7800 which came 1st in UK/EU

[carmel_andrews]

I ask this because i seem to remember acrticles in both Page 6 and Databases Atari users stating (and qouting from Atari officials themselves)that the UK/European launch of the 7800 would not follow the US launch of the 7800

 

Thsi was largely due to market data Atari had or commisioned which stated (and this was also quoted in the above artciles) that the UK market was still mostly 'tape driven' and that the wider european market was mainly disk based (like the US), Atari UK feels that UK markets (and wider euroean markets) would be better served with a 'taoe system' that can use disks at a later stage...Hence the XEGS

 

From what i remember, the main reasons that the UK market was 'tape driven' was thanks largely to the sinclair spectrum/c64 type systems, also because Atari f###ed up the 8bit in the UK and europe by stalling the UK/euro shipment of the proposed XF551 drive and prematurely stopping the manuf. of the 1050 (and well before the 1050's replacement was on the market), this literally drove the prices of a 2nd hand 1050's sky high (I actually saw a bog standard seconf hand 1050 advertised for sale for 10 GBP less then what could be bought brand new in a shop) and also drove up sales of Atari xc11/12 tape systems (which is why these tape drives were mostly manufactured for the UK market) and because Atari was dropping support for the 1050, it didn't go down too well with the software publishers, very few of which supported the A8 platform in the UK anyway) and didn't realy show any interest in the proposed XF551 as a new software/disk format, as it would have been incompatible with the 1050, also because of the fact that the 1050 base was that much established, the software houses in the UK found out the XF551's double density format was incompatible with the double density format of mod'd 1050's and visa versa, they just could't see the point in supporting a disk format which as incompat. with the older modd'd or unmodded drives and they certainly didn't want to have to do a double density version for the xf drive and the same for the 1050, the market (even Atari's own research) just didn't support having two different versions and therefore the software companies saw the XF drive as throwing good money after bad (so far as developing disk software for atari 8bit was concerned)

 

What you must also remember was that the UK software companies had only just started initial software development for the nes/sms games systems so cartridge based games devlopment was still very thin on the ground (even in europe) and Atari felt that releasing a 7800 type game system then would be unwise as Atari wasn't guaranteed or assured they get 3rd party software support as most of the devlopement money was going into developing nes/sms games cart's and software companies could'nt see how Atari fitted in with that equation even though the 7800 was 2600 compat. and that the 2600 was still available

 

From memory, the 'official' reason for the shipping/launch delay of the XF drive was due to ADOS/Dos XE wasn't quiet finished (bug testing etc), if you believe that you'll believe that cows jump over the moon (oh they do, do they)

 

Also I didn't see the XEGS till mid 1988, i did see an Atari demo of the 7800 (just it's innards in a glass/perspex enclosure and a video of some of it's games in the atari show near victoria station london either late 86/early 87

 

I remember that the 'initial' UK 7800 came with Nes/sms type joypads, later 7800's came with the standard cx40

[Jetboot Jack]

Certainly from Silica (the ONLY real atari hardware distributor in the UK) the XEGS pack (gun/keyboard/games) was available to buy before the 7800 systems were available.

 

All 7800's shipped with the pads, none with CX40's...

 

On a side note some UK XEGS came with black CX40's, some with grey ones.

 

sTeVE

[carmel_andrews]

Strange that, i definately remember seeing 7800's bundled with cx40's later in it's shelf life...even silica had them, unless Atari did 2 version, one with pads, one with cx40's

 

I heard rumours that Atari were going to bundle the new type 'pro line' joystick with the 2600jr (smaller 2600)

[Jetboot Jack]

Well unless you can reproduce an advert of packaging I think you are 100% mistaken, you can't even play the pack in game (asteroids deluxe) with a CX-40 - so why atari would do that?

 

sTeVE