Tez, - Excellent on the acquisition of the Atari 400! Looks good, but maybe a tad yellowish. Perhaps the case is a candidate for the OXY bath, it's awesome just like it is though
I've never owed one, but always wanted one. Easy to get here in the U.S. as they are nowhere as near as popular as the Atari 800. The keyboard, or lack thereof, turns people off. But then, even though I'm a 'keyboard' person, I find
that particular keyboard desirable, just because it's different. To me the Atari 400 represents a transition in the evolution of computers. It wasn't so much Atari's way of making the machine cheaper, because the rest of it is built like a tank - even has 4 joy ports, it seems it was more or less a way of being different, so to speak.
That brings up a funny thought. I can't imagine trying to tell my wife I had bought this machine because
it represents, to me, a transition in the evolution of computers! In fact, like probably many VCF members, I've pretty much run out of reasons/excuses why I simply must add this or that vintage computer to my collection
This forum is like the embers that kindle the fire in us all to fully enjoy our hobby - - Oops! I'm getting 'out there' now - I'd better move along.
Anyway, getting back to the Atari 400. I use to see ads for them and all I knew was that I wanted one. I already owned a TRS-80 model 1, but even back then I wanted to have 'all' the different computers to play with. Besides Atari had color! Oh, we had an Atari 2600 and 20 carts I had bought for my two boys to play, but I was only into computers. Combining the computer world of BASIC programming along with color gaming seemed a neat way to go. Since I certainly couldn't afford more than one computer 'and accessories', back in the late 70's, early 80's, I had to content myself with buying just a book; this one -
I read this book and longed for an Atari - but kept using my TRS-80. What else could I do? The book, of course, is long gone, and I never bought any Atari computer on through the decades to follow. Now, here in the 2000's, I'm buying those old Atari machines. I have an Atari 600XL, an Atari 800XL, the 1050 disk drive and lots of books and magazines. I have original Atari 2600 joysticks and I even bought that book in the picture above, 'again'.
Nostalgia is a like a creeping vine, and I do get entangled