website/content/museum/atari-800.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari 800	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1979	6502	name company company_name specs tabs photos adverts hardware emulators links docs videos comments related oc_id source 800 /companies/atari Atari label value NAME 800 label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1979 label value END OF PRODUCTION 1982 label value KEYBOARD QWERTY full Stroke keyboard, 62 keys\ 4 function keys (Reset, Option, Select, Start) label value CPU 6502 label value SPEED 1.79 Mhz label value CO-PROCESSOR ANTIC (Scrolling, Sprites, Video), CTIA / GTIA (Color, Sprites, Collisions), POKEY (timers, sound, keyboard, serial I/O), PIA 6520 (I/O, including the 4 joystick ports) label value RAM 8 KB to 48 KB (with memory expansion boards) label value ROM 10 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES several graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192 label value COLORS 16 (each color can have 8 luminances) = 128 colors maximum in the lowest graphic mode (requiring display list interruption to have them simultaneously)\ and up to 256 colors in some specific modes for machines having the GTIA chip instead of the CTIA label value SOUND 4 voices, 3.5 octaves label value SIZE / WEIGHT 40.5 (W) x 33 (D) x 11 (H) cm / 4200 g label value I/O PORTS Monitor RGB output, RF TV video output, 2 cartridge slots, Atari Serial Input/Ouput (SIO) port, 4 controller jacks, 4 internal slots for memory modules label value OS 400/800 OS in ROM label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply label value PRICE $1000 (US, 1979), £300 (UK 1983) photos adverts hardware emulators links docs videos title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW null title subtitle text image MOTHERBOARD EXPLAINED The mother board is only populated with passive and input/output components. The 'active' daughter cards are inserted into the five slots. Notice the impressive number of resistances perfectly aligned. **(1)** 2 ROM cartridge slots. This is where the Basic language cartridge is inserted.\ **(2)** The 'main' card (Microprocessor and specialized components) is inserted here.\ **(3)** ROM card slot.\ **(4)** Each of these 3 connectors can receive a 16 Kb RAM card.\ **(5)** Switch cutting off the power supply when the cartridge lid is raised.\ **(6)** Composite video output connector (B&W monitor).\ **(7)** D.C. power regulation components.\ **(8)** T.V. channel selector.\ **(9)** Power supply input, provided by an external transformer.\ **(10)** On/Off switch.\ **(11)** Serial connector.\ **(12)** RGB video connector.\ **(13)** Keyboard 'OPTION' key.\ **(14)** Keyboard 'SELECT' key.\ **(15)** Keyboard 'START' key.\ **(16)** Power leds.\ **(17)** Keyboard 'SYSTEM RESET' key.\ **(18)** Keyboard connector.\ **(19)** Four joystick sockets.\ **(20** Loudspeaker.\ **(21)** PIA circuit (Peripheral Interface Adapter) which handles the 4 joysticks.\ **(22)** Specialized Component called ' POKEY', in charge of the keyboard, inputs/outputs, components synchronization and sound.\ **(23)** System clock circuit (frequency generator). null title subtitle text image DAUGHTERS CARDS These five daughter cards form the main part of the system. They are plugged into the five mother board connectors intended for this purpose **(1)** This specialized circuit called CTIA or GTIA handle colors, graphics layers and some inputs/outputs.\ **(2)** These ROM circuits can be replaced with others containing other languages or software.\ **(3)** The Atari 800 can receive up to 3 x 16 Kb memory boards.\ **(4)** Color adjustment potentiometer.\ **(5)** MOS 6502 microprocessor.\ **(6)** Two quartz hidden into this grey metal box, are used to synchronize the microprocessor and video.\ **(7)** Specialized circuit (there are 3 specialized circuits in the Atari 800) handling the graphic scrollings. null title subtitle text image DUST COVER null title subtitle text image PROMOTIONAL PICTURE null title subtitle text image AMERICAN ADVERT "Atari brings the computer age home" null title subtitle text image US ADVERT from Byte magazine (september 1980) null title subtitle text image AMERICAN ADVERT null title subtitle text image ADVERT Picture courtesy of [Steve Browning, www.sbrowning.com/vintage](http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage). null title subtitle text image ADVERT #2 Picture courtesy of [Steve Browning, www.sbrowning.com/vintage](http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage). null title subtitle text image ADVERT #3 Picture courtesy of [Steve Browning, www.sbrowning.com/vintage](http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage). null title subtitle text image ADVERT #4 Picture courtesy of [Steve Browning, www.sbrowning.com/vintage](http://www.sbrowning.com/vintage). null title subtitle text image US ADVERT #5 (1979) Advert said: Compare the built-in features of leading microcomputers with the Atari personal computers. And go ahead, compare apples and oranges. Their most expensive against our least expensive: the Atari 400... null title subtitle text image US ADVERT #6 (1980) null title subtitle text image US ADVERT #7 (1980) from Popular Science magazine 1980 null title subtitle text image GERMAN ADVERT More power for less money null 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. null 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 null 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... null 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!!! null title subtitle text image ATARI 830 ACOUSTIC COUPLER User had to place the handset of his phone into the "cups" on the modem.\ This type of modem wasn't very reliable as it picked up surround noise and randomly disconnect the communication session Features:\ - Up to 300 bits per second\ - Bell 103/113 modem compatible\ - requires Atari 850 Interface Module null title subtitle text image TOUCH TABLET The touch tablet was the best tool for drawing and painting. It shipped with the AtariArtist cartridge. null title subtitle text image ATARI 825 PRINTER The Atari 825 printer was a rebadged version of the 80-column Centronics 727 dot-matrix printer. As it was a parallel printer, it required the Atari 850 Interface. It was able to print all the Atari ASCII character set at 50 characters per second. null title url platform text Atari800 http://atari800.sourceforge.net/ MS DOS Atari 800, 800XL, 130XE and 5200 emulator for Unix, Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari TT/Falcon, SDL and WinCE 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 800 OWNER'S GUIDE http://www.trailingedge.com/atari8/ null [**ATARI 800 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 null [**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 800 in store demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgT8279DVGQ Length: 4 min 42 s 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 title url text Learning french on the Atari 800 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6cZPY5TXtA Length: 3 min 49 s title url text Atari 800 laptop (modern creation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID1KsnermXk Length: 36 s author date text Doug Taylor (United States) Sunday 27th November 2022 Thanks for the memories author date text Harvey (New Zealand) Tuesday 16th July 2013 Here is a work in progress of a game/demo which shows that the\ Atari 400/800 etc (48k) computers are still a wonderful computer system\ that can completely dazzle and charm people today,\ even though it may be 30 odd years later on... Here is the actual demo you can download and run: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/214476-gtiablast-wip-demo/ Here is a video of the game demo running... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$4FSpBW7iRa4$feature$c4-overview$list$UUuS_WWw8gMxmjZSvzbNCElQ author date text GameplayerSpecial Tuesday 20th November 2012 I made a Slideshow, of my Atari 800 with some cool details : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$Njte9HpjHUs author date text Michael Monday 19th November 2012 Just played MULE last night. I love my old Atari 800, it makes a great conversation piece for visitors. The more games you have the more memories you share. author date text Wally Thursday 11th October 2012 A great test of the sound system was M.U.L.E. God forbid you ever had the time to play it, but it had an epic sound track. The unfortunate NES version sound track is an Easter egg of SPORE. author date text jack (wesley chapel, fl) Thursday 30th December 2010 now this brings back memories, i remember my atari 400 which had a tape disk drive to install its programs. i remember playing logic games with it that didn''t have graphics but you would type in what you wanted to do and if you did it right you got to go on. what a blast author date text Adam Weisbrod Monday 27th September 2010 I have one of these and a long time ago my dad made a extra altair 88XX type box to just act like a ATARI\ 800 disk drive it had 2 5¼ disk drive units and a altari bus cage card cage and a power supply no screen no screen pcb and a specail cpm boot disk witch booted to cpm Atari emulation disk emulator file and then acted like a atari disk drive I have the connections still for the Atari SIO to disk box connections still on my atari800 but snipped it off when i got a 810 drive LAME I WISH I NEVER DID THAT BUT DID my dad probably threw the box away but it might still be in the basement if it is I will get it back and probably try to get it to work again! it was cool to have this wooden box that acted like two atari drives I could copy files on the Atari from drive 1 to drive 2 fast and could put the 810 on drive 3 and have 3 drives whopdtido anyway it was cool.\ I also have finnaly figured out how to use ultra copy and APE shareware to get all my ORIGINAL Atari basic files onto a CD rom! .. now I can use a laptop as my Atari DRive or use a emulation file as Atari or VS VERSA its cool now I only need a STELLADAPTOR..! $$9786$ have fun. author date text Robin Bithrey (UK) Wednesday 7th April 2010 Amazing to see such great information about this fantastic machine. After progressing from a lowly ZX-81, this was another world being entered in 1983, with colour graphics and an amazing 16k of memory. After buying upgrades to make it 48k and also a floppy disk drive (the original 810 5 1/4" drive), it truly made it an amazing bit of kit and the envy of my friends with their Vic 20''s and C64''s and a tape machine. Having said that though, early days, although fun, were also frustrating and time consuming. I remember waiting 20minutes for Apple Panic to load on cassette and nearly an hour for Jumbo Jet Pilot (which wasn''t worth the wait!!), which is why we bought the disk drive (for another £400!!). Mind you, the worst bit was developing what i can only describe as ''Atari Ankles'' after sitting on them for hours on end playing ''Miner 2049''er'' and Bounty Bob Strikes Back. I used to sell Computers back in the dim and distant past and no matter what came along, my benchmark was this Atari 800 - competing against BBC model B''s, Acorn Electrons and Amstrad CPC464''s etc...Carried on being an Atari fan, buying a 130xe and a 520STFM afterwards, before converting to the ''Dark Side'' and getting an Amiga A600 when Atari finally gave up being popular. My parents still own the Atari 800 and, believe it or not, we had it out the other night. I have an 8 year old son who was fascinated by this ageing technology, but had great pleasure in attempting to play Zaxxon, Pac-Man, Preppie, Mr Robot''s Robot Factory, Rescue at Fractalus (we have the ''pilot'' called Behind Jaggi Lines), Pole Position, Claim Jumper and all of the brilliant games that we still have a box-full of sitting in the cupboard. Best memory has to be my mother sitting playing Centipede one Sunday afternoon and getting over 10million points - must have been some bug in the game, as she managed to find a spot for the little character to sit and all she had to do was keep the fire button pressed to rack up the points, only giving me the joystick when she needed the loo.... The biggest surprise though? I actually managed to get my mother''s telly tuned in to find the Atari!! And here was I thinking modern technology would have simply passed it all by.... Great machine, great memories - bring ''em back and more to the point, bring back some healthy competition between computers that all ran different operating systems and different software.....whoops, we''ve got it - they''re called games consoles nowadays though! author date text Steve Melito (Troy, NY) Thursday 1st November 2007 Yesterday was the anniversary of the shutdown of the last Multics machine! Multics was the first operating system to use a hierarchical file system, and the first OS to use the now-standard practice of per-process stacks in the kernel. For a brief retrospective, check out this story on CR4: The Engineer's Place for News and Discussion. http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/3784/October-31-2000-The-Last-Multics-Machine And don't be shy about leaving a comment, especially if you've worked with Multics! author date text Kroah (France) Tuesday 31st January 2006 Hi,\ If you are a fan of MULE, have a look to my decompilation and reverse engineering page of this wonderful game. You'll find a lot of informations about the hidden rules used and secrets . http://bringerp.free.fr/RE/ author date text adamofevil (usa) Monday 17th January 2005 I am sure that a lot of you Atari users once had an Atari 8-Bit computer back in the day. Maybe you still do. You might remember a classic game called M.U.L.E. A game that you wish would have been ported over to the PC but never was. If you are a M.U.L.E. fan like I am, you probably used to have hordes of your friends over your house to play the best 4-man multi-player game ever written! After playing this game for hours upon hours, days upon days, years upon years, finally everyone grew up or grew apart and stopped getting together to play. If you are a M.U.L.E. fan like I am, you probably have done a bit of M.U.L.E. re-searching on the internet, in hopes for one day someone to create an internet capable version of this great classic. Well, I have some very good news for you. If you run Windows (98/XP) operating system, THE WAIT IS OVER!!! Thanks to the authors of the Atari800WinPlus (http://atariarea.histeria.pl/PLus/index_us.htm) and Kaillera (www.kaillera.com), you can now play the greatest multiplayer game ever made with 4 players OVER THE INTERNET! This is not a clone, it is the ORIGINAL M.U.L.E. un-modified! Same graphics, same sound, same game! The only difference is that it looks a lot better on your computer than it did on your TV back in the day! If this interests you, please hop on over to http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com where M.U.L.E. fans from around the world have been gathering and playing online! Some of our members include the authors of the most popular M.U.L.E. web sites such as World of Mule (http://www.worldofmule.net/index.htm) and Extreme MULEing (http://mule.eichberger.net/index.php) and M.U.L.E. Fans (http://www.100hosting.com/mule/). Even the creator of the recent M.U.L.E. clone game Space HoRSE (www.gilligames.com) has joined up with us! Ahh, the feeling of playing with 4 human players again is quite exhilirating! SO, what are you waiting for? Join us now!! http://atarimule.neotechgaming.com. See you there! Adam author date text Chuck (Odenton, MD) Friday 14th January 2005 I did my masters final in finance on my Atari 800 in 123. We were supposed to reconstruct the records from a burned out factory. I turned it in and got a "B"! I was at first livid, but the professor didn't know anything about the power of spreadsheets. I walked up and chatted with him, and told him, you don't understand, this is from a program, and I can operate the entire factory as CFO with this. The lights went on and I got an "A". I just found the old box! No power supply, no games, but I also found and remembered that I had modified it with a special chipset that allowed me to hack game code. The first game code I hacked was "Oils Well". In those days you could rent programs. I rented it, viewed the machine code (using this modification) viewed the assembly program, figured out what they were doing and broke the copy protection, and had my own copy. I was pretty proud. I can't even remember what the chipset is called. author date text Keith (Islandia) Sunday 27th June 2004 Here's my tribute:\ From this computer I learned the fundamentals of computers. Bits, bytes... On my own at 15yrs. I'm forever indebted to the Atari for having the right balance of high and low level home computing. BASIC one day, Assembly on another; just change the cartridge! Thank you Atari. author date text Thor Madsen (Chicago) Monday 15th March 2004 The Atari 800 was my first home computer - when I could finally afford it at the tail-end of its life. I created a pong game using the BASIC cart and then pulled the plug - nice! So, since my Mom sold it at a garage sale with the proverbial baseball cards, I am buying another one on eBay today - WITH the accessory tape recorder (program recorder)! So - to answer some parts questions below - Check out eBay. . . author date text Pete (Kentucky) Friday 13rd February 2004 i have an 800 that i picked up at a resale shop\ and it didn't come with any AC adapter.\ i had an AC laying around and when i pluged it into the 800,when i pressed the keys it would make some beeps though it gave off a overheating smell\ after about 1min.what do i do? ps.no monitor author date text Brian (Charlotte) Thursday 9th October 2003 I have an Atari 800 computer and an Amdek monitor. My question would be what cable would I use to connect the single cable coming out of the back of the Atari to the RCA type connection on the back of the Monitor I know how to hook it up to a TV with a box but not the two audio and Video plug-ins on the back of the monitor any info on what the part or cable is called or where I could source it would be greatly appreciated Thanks author date text Kieran (UK) Sunday 21st September 2003 My one uses a 9VAC at 3.4A unit. Hope that helps author date text Susan (St. Louis) Monday 8th September 2003 Does anyone know what kind of power supply this computer uses? author date text Gregory Carter (USA) Thursday 28th August 2003 Poke 559,0 Instant turbo boost. Came in quite handy when running my BBS at 480 Baud!\ Of course, ANTIC gets turned off if you do that, so you do not get a display.\ However, a Poke 559,38 turned the screen back on again, and well, your performance was reduced by a good 40%.\ Or you could do:\ LDA #0\ STA 559\ RTS WOW, been a while since I did that sort of thing! author date text Allen (New York) Wednesday 14th May 2003 What type of AC adapter is used for the atari 800... i author date text Bill Botzong (Earth) Thursday 27th June 2002 The 800 was an exciting machine--it could do things the other micros of the time could not, especially in the area of grpahics. But, in NONE of the ads was a single cable ever shown! They would show one or two external drives, a tape unit, monitor and cpu and not one cable. In fact, each component had its own power suppy and plug. When you got it all plugged in, you would have wires running everywhere!! I remember having two 800's for development purposes and having to have extension cords and power strips everywhere. author date text Marcos (Argentina) Sunday 9th June 2002 I have an Atari 800 XL, i did not see it in the museum. I can send to you pictures and information if you want.\ M@rcos author date text don (texas) Monday 6th May 2002 hi'i was wanting to know if a800s basic cartridge can still be found? /museum/atari-1200-xl /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-800xe 460 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230530201247/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=460 2023-05-30

The Atari 400 and 800 were the first home computers to use custom coprocessors and the first to use "sprites" and special video interruptions like display lists; features that would be implemented later on the Commodore 64, then on the Commodore Amiga (Atari 400/800 and Amiga were both designed by Jay Miner).

It offered high graphic resolution, lots of colors and great sound capabilities, more than other computers could do then! The two models had same characteristics, but the 800 had 48 KB of RAM (instead of 16 kb), two cartridge ports (only one for the 400) and a proper mechanical keyboard (a membrane keyboard for the 400).

In fact the very first Atari 800 Computers were shipped with 8 or 16 KB memory, expandable to 48 KB. After initial release, the 800 came standard with 48 KB memory.

Prior to production, the 800 was known inside Atari as code name "Colleen". It is rumored that Colleen and Candy (the 400 code name) were actually secretaries at Atari.