website/content/museum/atari-1200-xl.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari 1200 XL	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1982	MOS 6502C	name image logo company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts hardware emulators links docs videos related oc_id source 1200 XL /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_system_system_2.jpg /media/museum/logos/atari_1200xl_logo.gif /companies/atari Atari label value NAME 1200 XL label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1982 label value KEYBOARD Full stroke keyboard + function keys label value CPU MOS 6502C label value SPEED 1.79 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR GTIA (video output, sprites), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video, display lists) label value RAM 64 KB label value ROM 16 KB (the Basic is on a cardridge) label value TEXT MODES five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12 label value GRAPHIC MODES 12 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192 label value COLORS 16 colors with 16 intensities label value SOUND four channels, 3.5 octaves label value I/O PORTS Monitor (RGB) video output, RF TV output (to switchbox), Cartridge slot, Peripheral connector, 2 x Joystick connectors label value BUILT IN MEDIA None label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit label value PRICE $599.99 (USA, June 1983) photos adverts hardware emulators links docs videos 37 title subtitle text image 1200 XL /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_system_system_3.jpg title subtitle text image LEFT SIDE Power switch, ROM cartriges housing and 2 joysticks plugs. /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_leftside_1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_keyboard_1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR SIDE **(1)** Serial connector for peripherals\ **(2)** TV aerial plug\ **(3)** DIN plug for NTSC colour or monochrome monitor\ **(4)** TV chanel selector\ **(5)** Power plug. Power is supplied by an external 9V 3A transformer /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_rear_1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE The mainboard is normally covered with a metallic magnetic shield.\ All of the custom components was the same as the ones of the 400/800 models.\ **(1)** 16 KB OS ROMs\ **(2)** ANTIC custom chip\ **(3)** 6520 PIA chip\ **(4)** Custom version of the 6502 processor made by Rockwell for Atari\ **(5)** GTIA custom chip in charge, with the ANTIC chip, of the various video modes\ **(6)** POKEY sound generator custom chip. GTIA and POKEY were manufactured by Oki\ **(7)** 64 KB RAM chips. Here 8 Mostek 4564 /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_mainboard_1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD CLOSE-UP /media/museum/photos/atari_1200xl_mainboard_2.jpg title subtitle text image U.S. AD APRIL 1983 /media/museum/pubs/atari_1200xl_pub_1.jpg title subtitle text image INDUS GT 5''/14 disk-drive The Indus GT Double Density Drive is considered by many the best floppy drive available for the 8-bit Atari's with its digital readouts and smoke plexi cover. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_indus-gt_disk-drive_1.jpg title subtitle text image ASTRA 2001 FD UNIT Dual 5.25 Dual 5.25" FDD unit using single side, single or double density floppy drives /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_astra2001fd_1.jpg title subtitle text image PERCOM DISC DRIVE Advert March 1983 Advert said: The Percom Data AT-88 offers 88 Kbytes (formatted) in single-density, with plug-in ease of attachment to your Atari. The AT-88 has integral power supply, "no-patch" to Atari DOS and critical constant speed regulation.\ Take advantage of this low introductory price of $488... /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_percomad_1.jpg title subtitle text image CORVUS SYSTEMS HARD-DRIVE 10Mb hard-drive This is a 10Mb hard-drive. With up to 8 multiplexers with 8 ports each it's possible to connect up to 64 Atari 800's up to a single 10 or even 20 megabyte Atari system. Still in use Today at the Fordham Prepatory School in the Bronx, NY is a 64 Atari 800 computer network hooked up to a single Corvus Hard drive system ! The Corvus hard disk system also sported a unique and innovative back-up system called "The Corvus Mirror" which was a VCR interface system that allowed you to plug a standard Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) up to the Corvus Hard Drive System to save back-ups of the hard disk onto actual Video Tapes!!! /media/museum/hardware/atari_atari800_hd-corvus-systems_1.jpg title subtitle text image TOUCH TABLET The touch tablet was the best tool for drawing and painting. It shipped with the AtariArtist cartridge. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_touchtablet_s1.jpg title url platform text SIO2PC http://www.cswnet.com/~nkennedy/sio2pc.htm MS DOS PC emulates Atari Disk title url platform text Altirra http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html Windows Altirra, an 8-bit Atari computer emulator title url platform text Atari800Win http://www.concentric.net/~Twist/atari800win/ Windows title url platform text Atari800Win Plus http://a800win.atari-area.prv.pl/ Windows Atari 8 bit emulator for windows title url platform text WAHCE Home Page http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Node/4391/ Windows title url platform text XFormer http://www.emulators.com/xformer.htm Windows title url platform text Chris Lam's Website http://www.chrislam.co.uk/ Apple homepage for Horizon title url platform text The Atari 800 Emulator for the Mac http://www.serve.com/derekl/atari/atari_emu.html Apple title url platform text WACKE http://www.ctaz.com/~jlfenton/Wacke.html Apple title url platform text ACE http://www.csh.rit.edu/~shaggy/software.html Unix / Linux title url platform text Atari++ http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~thor/atari++/ Unix / Linux Unix based emulator of the Atari eight bit computers, namely the Atari 400 and 800, the Atari 400XL, 800XL and 130XE, and the Atari 5200 game console title url platform text Atari800 http://atari800.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform Atari800 is an Atari 800, 800XL, 130XE and 5200 emulator for Unix, Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari TT/Falcon, SDL and WinCE title url text 8-bit ATARI Assembly Language http://oort.com/turbots/asm.htm title url text Antic - The Atari Resource http://www.atarimagazines.com/ title url text APE - Atari Peripheral Emulator for DOS and Windows - Home Page http://www.nacs.net/~classics/ title url text Atari 2600-7800 FAQ http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dzubera/2600faq.html title url text Atari 8-Bit Computers Frequently Asked Questions http://www.chez.com/cmpi/paleo/8bits/atari/faq_atar.htm title url text Atari 8-bit computers: 400/800/XL/XE http://www.santellocco.com/ATARI/ dedicated website in italian title url text Atari 8-bit New User, Emulator Help FAQ - v2.1 http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/new_and_emu.html title url text Atari 8-bit SpartaDOS Project http://www.celebritybase.net/atari8/ title url text Atari Gaming Headquarters Main Page http://www.atarihq.com/ title url text Atari Magazines http://www.atarimagazines.com/ Contains the full text of all issues of ANTIC magazine and moste of the STart ones ! title url text Atari XL-XE Games And Demos Page http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~sgl/atari/ title url text ATARI.ORG http://www.atari.org/ Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! title url text ATARIARCHIVES.ORG http://www.atariarchives.org/ Wow! This site is preserving and archiving information about & software for Atari and other classic computers. Everything here is available with the permission of the copyright holders. title url text Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu/ Downloads, tools, news and more title url text Homepage Nyman Atari 8 bit http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2741/8bit.html title url text Ken's Atari 8-bit Page http://home.columbus.rr.com/ksiders/atari.htm title url text Mac-Atari Fusion http://www2.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/ Atari 8bit Resources for Mac Users title url text MacFalkner's XL Homepage http://members.aol.com/MacFalkner/atariindex.htm title url text Personal Atari Web Page http://rjespino.tripod.com/atari.html jpeg viewer for the Atari 8-bit and some other tools title url text Polish Atari Wikipedia http://atariki.krap.pl A lot of info about Atari (in polish) title url text Reminiscing 8-Bit Atari Games http://www.qlam.com/atari/atari.html title url text Satantronic Atari Crew, Atari XL-XE and Falcon 030 http://www.napri.sk/web/satantronic/ title url text The Atari 800 XE Laptop http://www.benheck.com/Games/Atari_800/Atari_800_laptop_1.htm This guy explain how he made a laptop Atari 800 ! title url text The Atari Historical Society http://www.atari-history.com/ The complete history of Atari Arcade and Home games and computers. Complete site with pictures, commercials (streaming), and full text articles. Amazing site ! title url text www.ataricave.com http://www.ataricave.com Atari 8-bit Games reviews, original manuals, music, maps and more! title url text XL Search - The Atari 8-bit File Archive Search Engine http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/xlsearch/ title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Programming on the Atari computers title url cover text ATARI 1200 XL OWNER'S GUIDE http://www.trailingedge.com/atari8/ /media/museum/docs/couvs/atari-1200xl_owner-guide.jpg [**ATARI 1200 XL OWNER'S GUIDE**](http://www.trailingedge.com/atari8/)written by Atari  compiled/archived by David Williams\  type of document : PDF\  source : [www.trailingedge.com](http://www.trailingedge.com/) title url cover text ATARI SYSTEM REFERENCE MANUAL http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarixe/index.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/doc_atarirefmanual.jpg [**ATARI SYSTEM REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarixe/index.htm)written by Bob DuHamel (1987)  compiled/archived by Ivo van Poorten\  type of document : PDF\  size : 160 KB\  source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** title url text Atari Home Computer laser disc - Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54mvCo1uq5A Length: 5 min 20 s title url text Atari Home Computer laser disc - Conclusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQDQWvwZ-2w Length: 1 min 30 s /museum/atari-1400-xl /museum/atari-1450-xld /museum/atari-400 /museum/atari-600-800-xl /museum/atari-65-130-xe /museum/atari-65xep-65xem /museum/atari-800 /museum/atari-800xe 16 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230606193750/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=16 2023-06-06

The Atari 1200 XL was the predecessor of the Atari 600/800 XL. It had much of the same characteristics, except the size of its ROM (16 KB instead of 24 KB) the BASIC Interpreter being supplied on a cartridge. Because the built-in Operating System was not designed very well, people are known to have swapped the OS ROM chip from their 800XL & put in the 1200 XL.

This machine was a flop in the marketplace and would be produced for only 4 months before being replaced with the 600 & 800 XL machines. This computer was not distributed in Europe.

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Curl Vendel says:
The Atari 1200 XLS was an original concept design of the 1200XL. This design was done by Regan Cheng and was an empty non-functional shell.

Martin Scott Goldberg says:
People found out really quick it wasn't compatible with most 400/800 software (a translator disk was later available), which is why Atari rushed to produce the 600 and 800 xl's and put them out that same year. What the 1200XL is known for though, is having the BEST keyboard of any Atari computer - including the ST/TT/Falcons.

Dante Stella specifies:
The Atari 1200XL did not suffer from widespread compatibility problems; a relatively small amount of software that (generally) did not precisely conform to 400/800 standards (primarily 3rd-party games) did not work.
The Translator disk was a relatively obscure product (I think it cost less than $5). A cool trick was to boot from the translator disk, press and hold reset, insert an incompatible cartridge and reboot (ok, it was 20 years ago - but I think I remember that right). I think it was from the 600XL and 800XL that Atari added built-in Atari Basic, an expansion bus and the DIN video connection. Atari also moved distribution from department stores and standalone computer shops to mass-marketers like K-Mart.

An anonymous visitor comments:
The only issue I ever had with my 1200XL, was that sometimes it would have both lights suddenly go on for no reason when Id start it up the first time. It would take several rounds of resets and on off switches before it would go back to normal.
The 1200xl was replaced because the 800xl was less expensive to produce (much worse keboard), and the 800xl also included a BUSS port which atari was then going to sell expansion devices for. That never actually happened, but a company called ICD did invent a plug in interface that allowed a hacker to connect SCSI hard drives up to it! There was also a printer interface that I have in my basement that claims to have hooked up to the 800xl buss, but I never managed to get it working. (Plus the same ICD interface adds printer support as well as the hard drive)

We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.