Files
yann64andClaude Opus 5.5 b274874139 All machines linked to their forum thread (full comment import)
1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
2026-10-13 17:26:43 +02:00

17 KiB

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params
title categories types origins years cpus params
Atari 65 / 130 XE
Computers
Home Computer
U.S.A.
1985
MOS 6502C
name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts hardware connectors emulators links docs videos related oc_id source
65 / 130 XE /media/museum/photos/atari_130_xe.jpg /companies/atari Atari
label value
NAME 65 / 130 XE
label value
MANUFACTURER Atari
label value
TYPE Home Computer
label value
ORIGIN U.S.A.
label value
YEAR 1985
label value
BUILT IN LANGUAGE Atari Basic
label value
KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard, 57 keys, 5 function keys (Help, Start, Select, Option, Reset)\ ESC, TAB, CONTROL, SHIFT (x2), DELETE, BREAK, RETURN, CAPS, GRAPH MODE
label value
CPU MOS 6502C
label value
SPEED 1.79 MHz
label value
CO-PROCESSOR GTIA (video), POKEY (Sound, I/O), ANTIC (Video), FREDDY (memory)
label value
RAM 130-XE : 128 kb\ 65-XE : 64 kb
label value
ROM 24 kb
label value
TEXT MODES Five text modes, maximum : 40 x 24
label value
GRAPHIC MODES 11 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192
label value
COLORS 16 colors with 15 intensity level each
label value
SOUND 4 channels, 3.5 octaves
label value
I/O PORTS Composite video output, Cardridge port, Expansion port, SIO peripheral port (tape, disk, printer, modem), 2 x joystick connectors
label value
POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit (1A, 5v cc)
photos
adverts
hardware
connectors
emulators
links
docs
videos
41
title subtitle text image
65 XE MODEL The 65-XE is compatible with old peripherals of the Atari 600/800 XL machines: Atari 1010 Program Recorder and Atari 1050 5.25" floppy drive for example... /media/museum/photos/atari_65xe.jpg
title subtitle text image
65 XE #2 /media/museum/photos/atari_65xe_system_1.jpg
title subtitle text image
THE 65 XE GAME CONSOLE It has exactly the same characteristics as the 65-XE. A few peripherals were available: a light gun, tape recorder, floppy disk drive and keyboard. /media/museum/photos/atari_xe_game_system.jpg
title subtitle text image
INSIDE THE 130 XE EXPLAINED **The art of doing better and cheaper** The 130XE design reflects Jack Tramiel's basic concepts : reduce the manufacturing costs, offer powerful computers to the largest audience, and compete with the best established home computers brands like Commodore and Apple. The 130XE was the first Atari system to be manufactured in an entirely automated factory. **(1)** The ROM cartridge connector allows the 130XE to take advantage of the most significant games collection which has made the world-wide reputation of Atari.\ **(2)** This serial interface (SIO) allows to connect in chain a large part of the Atari peripherals : printers, cassette recorder and disk drive units.\ **(3)** Two joystick connectors using the Atari standard, of course.\ **(4)** PIA 6520 chipset in charge of inputs/outputs management (keyboard, interfaces, peripherals).\ **(5)** Sound circuit called POKEY, responsible for the good sound features of the 130XE.\ **(6)** As in every 8 bit Atari computers, the cpu is a 6502 microprocessor, here in a C-MOS low power consumption version.\ **(7)** The two graphic chpset, called ANTIC and GTIA.\ **(8)** The only new specialized chipset of 130XE, called FREDDY is in charge of memory management and 64 Kb blocks switching.\ **(9)** 128 Kb. RAM hold in 16 chips.\ **(10)** RF modulator (american standard). An additional external adaptor is necessary for european standards.\ **(11)** The length of the expansion connector is shorter compared to the previous Atari systems, there again for production cost reasons. /media/museum/photos/s_atari130xe_inside.jpg
title subtitle text image
BOX #1 /media/museum/photos/atari_130xe_box_s1.jpg
title subtitle text image
BOX #2 Special offer with Tape recorder and Joystick /media/museum/photos/atari_65xe_box_1.jpg
title subtitle text image
FRENCH ADVERT (JULY 1985) "128k=2000f\ Better know it before buying a 64k" /media/museum/pubs/atari_130xe_pub_128k-2000f.jpg
title subtitle text image
NEW-ZEALAND ADVERT (OCT. 1985) from Bits & Bytes magazine null
title subtitle text image
GERMAN ADVERT (AUGUST 1986) /media/museum/pubs/atari_130xe_german-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 subtitle text image
CARTRIDGE PORT **1** - S4\ **2** - A3\ **3** - A2\ **4** - A1\ **5** - A0\ **6** - D4\ **7** - D5\ **8** - D2\ **9** - D1\ **10** - D0\ **11** - D6\ **12** - S5\ **13** - +5v\ **14** - RD5\ **15** - CCTL **A** - RD4\ **B** - GND\ **C** - A4\ **D** - A5\ **E** - A6\ **F** - A7\ **H** - A8\ **J** - A9\ **K** - A12\ **L** - D3\ **M** - D7\ **N** - A11\ **P** - A10\ **R** - R/W\ **S** - B02 /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_db30.gif
title subtitle text image
JOYSTICK CONNECTOR **1** - Up\ **2** - Down\ **3** - Left\ **4** - Right\ **5** - Pot AY\ **6** - Button A\ **7** - +5v\ **8** - Ground\ **9** - Pot AX /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_joystick.gif
title subtitle text image
POWER CONNECTOR **1** - +5v\ **2** - Shield\ **3** - Ground\ **4** - +5v\ **5** - Ground\ **6** - +5v\ **7** - Ground /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_power_plug.gif
title subtitle text image
EXPANSION PORT **1** - S4\ **2** - A3\ **3** - A2\ **4** - A1\ **5** - A0\ **6** - D4\ **7** - D5\ **8** - D2\ **9** - D1\ **10** - D0\ **11** - D6\ **12** - S5\ **13** - +5v\ **14** - RD5\ **15** - CCTL **A** - RD4\ **B** - GND\ **C** - A4\ **D** - A5\ **E** - A6\ **F** - A7\ **H** - A8\ **J** - A9\ **K** - A12\ **L** - D3\ **M** - D7\ **N** - A11\ **P** - A10\ **R** - R/W\ **S** - B02 /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_expansion.gif
title subtitle text image
MONITOR CONNECTOR **1** - Lum.\ **2** - Ground\ **3** - Audio output\ **4** - Video\ **5** - Chrom. /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_monitor-plug.gif
title subtitle text image
PERIPHERAL (SERIAL) PORT **1** - Click input\ **2** - Clock output\ **3** - Data input\ **4** - Ground\ **5** - Data output\ **6** - Ground\ **7** - Order\ **8** - Remote control\ **9** - Exec.\ **10** - +5v / ready\ **11** - Audio input\ **12** - +12v\ **13** - Interrupt. /media/museum/connectors/atari_65-130xe_serial.gif
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 65 XE Arabic version http://www.savetz.com/vintagecomputers/arabic65xe/
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
Rhod's collection http://www.rhod.fr/pages/atari_65_arabic.html ATARI 65 with ARABIC Keyboard
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 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-1200-xl
/museum/atari-1400-xl
/museum/atari-1450-xld
/museum/atari-400
/museum/atari-600-800-xl
/museum/atari-65xep-65xem
/museum/atari-800
/museum/atari-800xe
21
url date
https://web.archive.org/web/20230530140631/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=21 2023-05-30

The Atari 130-XE was first shown at the Winter Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show in 1985 (with the Atari 130 ST), it has the same characteristics as the Atari 800 XL except its added memory (128 KB instead of 64 KB for the 800 XL).
The extended memory can be used as a RAM disk, or can be accessed by bank switching routines.

It was an attempt to extend the life of the old XL series, but Atari abandoned it pretty quickly to concentrate on promoting the ST series, which uses the same case style.

Several XE machines were also produced :
- the Atari 65-XE (which is exactly like the 800 XL, except for the rear parallel connector, which it doesn't have),
- the Atari XE Game Console (1987) which is a 65-XE with an optional detachable keyboard. It was Atari Corp.'s attempt to do what they felt the 5200 should have been.
- the 65-XEM (a computer with a special custom sound chip called "Amy"). Reports stated that the Amy chip sounded better than the Commodore 64's SID chip (!). This machine would never be released,
- the 65-XEP (Atari's answer to the Commodore SX-64, it would never be released either),
- and a modified 65XE was sold in Europe as the 800XE.

The Atari 65-XE and 130-XE will have a very short life due to the 16 bit home computer competition.


Jesse comments:
The XEGS differed from the 65XE in another way: It had the game Missile Command built in. If you held Select key down (maybe it was Start or Option) when turning on the machine, Missile Command would start.