Design of the "Home Computer System" started at Atari as soon as the
Atari Video Computer System was released in late 1977. While designing the VCS in 1976, the engineering team from Atari Grass Valley Research Center (originally
Cyan Engineering) said the system would have a three-year lifespan before becoming obsolete. They started planning for a console that would be ready to replace it around 1979. The newer design has better speed, graphics, and sound. Work on the chips for the new system continued throughout 1978 and focused on a much-improved video coprocessor known as the
CTIA (the VCS version was the TIA). During the early development period, the home computer era began in earnest with the
TRS-80,
PET, and
Apple II—what
Byte magazine dubbed the "1977 Trinity".
Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to
Warner Communications for in 1976 to fund the launch of the VCS. In 1978, Warner hired
Ray Kassar as CEO of Atari. Kassar wanted the chipset used in a home computer to challenge Apple, so it needed character graphics, some form of expansion for
peripherals, and run the then-universal
BASIC programming language. The resulting system was far in advance of anything on the market.
Commodore was developing a video driver at the time, but
Chuck Peddle, lead designer of the
MOS Technology 6502 CPU used in the VCS and the new machines, saw the Atari work during a visit to Grass Valley. He realized the Commodore design would not be competitive but he was under a strict
non-disclosure agreement with Atari, and was unable to tell anyone at Commodore to give up on their own design. Peddle later commented that "the thing that Jay did, just kicked everybody's butt."
Development Management identified two
sweet spots for the new computers: a low-end version known internally as "Candy", and a higher-end machine known as "Colleen" (named after two Atari secretaries). Atari would market Colleen as a computer and Candy as a game machine or hybrid game console. Colleen includes user-accessible expansion slots for
RAM and
ROM, two 8 KB
ROM cartridge slots,
RF and
monitor output (including two pins for separate luma and chroma suitable for superior
S-Video output) and a full keyboard. Candy was initially designed as a game console, lacking a keyboard and input/output ports, although an external keyboard was planned for
joystick ports 3 and 4. At the time, plans called for both to have a separate audio port supporting
cassette tapes as a storage medium. A goal for the new systems was user-friendliness. One executive stated, "Does the end user care about the architecture of the machine? The answer is no. 'What will it do for me?' That's his major concern. ... why try to scare the consumer off by making it so he or she has to have a
double E or be a computer programmer to utilize the full capabilities of a personal computer?" For example, cartridges were expected to make the computers easier to use. To minimize handling of bare circuit boards or chips, as is common with other systems of that period, the computers were designed with enclosed modules for memory, ROM cartridges, with keyed connectors to prevent them being plugged into the wrong slot. The operating system boots automatically, loading drivers from devices on the serial bus (SIO). The
disk operating system for managing floppy storage was menu-driven. When no software is loaded, rather than leaving the user at a blank screen or machine language monitor, the OS goes to the "Memo Pad" which is a built-in full-screen editor without file storage support.
FCC issues Televisions of the time normally had only one input: the antenna connection. For devices like a computer, the video is generated and then sent to an
RF modulator to convert it to antenna-like output. The introduction of many game consoles during this era led to situations where poorly designed modulators generated so much signal as to cause interference with other nearby televisions, even in neighboring houses. In response to complaints, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced new testing standards which are extremely exacting and difficult to meet. To meet the FCC requirements, both new machines were built around cast aluminum shields forming a partial
Faraday cage, with the various components screwed onto this internal framework. This resulted in a sturdy computer, at the disadvantage of added manufacturing expense and complexity. the Atari 400 and Atari 800 were presented at the Winter
CES in January 1979 and shipped in November 1979. The computers eventually shipped with maxed-out RAM: 16k and 48k, respectively, using 16kx1 DRAMs. Both models have four joystick ports, permitting four simultaneous players, but only a few games (such as
M.U.L.E.) use them all. Paddle controllers are wired in pairs, and
Super Breakout supports eight players. The Atari 400, with a
membrane keyboard and single internal ROM slot, outsold the Atari 800 by a 2-to-1 margin.
Creative Computing mentioned the Atari machines in an April 1979 overview of the CES show. Calling Atari "the videogame people", it stated they came with "some fantastic educational, entertainment and home applications software". In an August 1979 interview Atari's Peter Rosenthal suggested that demand might be low until the 1980–81 time frame, when he predicted about one million home computers being sold. The April 1980 issue compared the machines with the
Commodore PET, focused mostly on the BASIC dialects.
Ted Nelson reviewed the computer in the magazine in June 1980, calling it "an extraordinary graphics box". Describing his and a friend's "shouting and cheering and clapping" during a demo of
Star Raiders, Nelson wrote that he was so impressed that "I've been in computer graphics for twenty years, and I lay awake night after night trying to understand how the Atari machine did what it did". He described the machine as "something else" but criticized the company for a lack of developer documentation. He concluded by stating "The Atari is like the human body – a terrific machine, but (a) they won't give you access to the documentation, and (b) I'd sure like to meet the guy that designed it".
Kilobaud Microcomputing wrote in September 1980 that the Atari 800 "looks deceptively like a video game machine, [but had] the strongest and tightest chassis I have seen since
Raquel Welch. It weighs about ten pounds ... The large amount of engineering and design in the physical part of the system is evident". The reviewer praised the documentation as "show[ing] the way manuals should be done", and the "excellent 'feel of the keyboard.
InfoWorld favorably reviewed the 800's performance, graphics, and ROM cartridges, but disliked the documentation and cautioned that the unusual right Shift key location might make the computer "unsuitable for serious word processing". There is an "Atari key" between the and shift, whereas a typical keyboard would extend the shift key into this area. Noting that the amount of software and hardware available for the computer "is no match for that of the Apple II or the TRS-80", the magazine concluded that the 800 "is an impressive machine that has not yet reached its full computing potential".
400/800 evolution In October–November 1981, Atari began shipping the 400 and 800 with the GTIA chip instead of the CTIA chip used since launch. Existing computers could be upgraded. GTIA adds three graphics modes with more colors, but at a low horizontal resolution (). Some later software relies on GTIA modes such as
Koronis Rift and
Space Lobsters. Circa 1982, the base memory in both models increased: from 8K to 16K for the Atari 400 and from 16K to 48K for the Atari 800.
Sweet/Liz project Though planning an extensive advertising campaign for 1980, Atari found difficult competition from Commodore, Apple, and Tandy. By mid-1981, it had reportedly lost $10 million on sales of $10–13 million from more than 50,000 computers. In 1982, Atari started the Sweet 8 (also called Liz NY) and Sweet 16 projects to create new machines that were easier to build and less costly to produce. Atari ordered a custom 6502 with logic to disable the clock signal, called HALT, which ANTIC uses to shut off the CPU to access the data/address bus. This "SALLY" CPU was incorporated into late-production 400 and 800 models, all XL/XE models, and the
Atari 5200 and
Atari 7800 consoles. Mirroring the 400/800, two systems were planned, the 1000 with 16 KB and the 1000X with 64 KB, each expandable via a
Parallel Bus Interface slot on the back of the machine.
1200XL The original Sweet 8/16 plans were dropped and only one machine using elements of the new design was released. Announced at a New York City press conference on December 13, 1982, the 1200XL was presented at the Winter
CES on January 6–9, 1983. It shipped in March 1983 with 64 KB of RAM, 2 joystick ports instead of 4, built-in self test, a redesigned keyboard (with four function keys and a HELP key), redesigned cable port layout, and a case designed by Regan Cheng. There is no PAL version of the 1200XL. the 1200XL was released at . This is $100 less than the announced price of the Atari 800 at its release in 1979,
John J. Anderson of
Creative Computing agreed. Bill Wilkinson, author of Atari BASIC, co-founder of
Optimized Systems Software, and columnist for
Compute!, criticized the computer's features and price. He wrote that the 1200XL was a "terrific bargain" if sold for less than $450, but that if it cost more than the 800, "buy an 800 quick!"
600XL and 800XL In May 1981, the Atari 800's price was , but by mid-1983, because of price wars in the industry, it was and the 400 was under , down from under in 1982. The 1200XL was a flop, and the earlier machines were too expensive to produce to be able to compete at the rapidly falling price points. A new lineup was announced at the 1983 Summer
Consumer Electronics Show, closely following the original Sweet concepts. The 600XL is essentially the Liz NY model and the spiritual successor of the 400, and the 800XL would replace both the 800 and 1200XL. The machines follow the styling of the 1200XL but are smaller from back to front, and the 600XL is more so. Atari had difficulty in transitioning manufacturing to Asia after closing its US factory in 1983. Originally intended to replace the 1200XL in mid-1983, the new models did not arrive until late that year. Although the 600XL/800XL were well positioned in terms of price and features, during the critical Christmas season they were available only in small numbers while the
Commodore 64 was widely available. After losing in the first nine months of the year, Atari that month announced that prices would rise in January, stating that it "has no intention of participating in these suicidal price wars." The 600XL and 800XL's prices in early 1984 were $50 higher than for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64.
ANALOG Computing, writing about the 600XL in January 1984, stated that "the Commodore 64 and
Tandy CoCo look like toys by comparison." The magazine approved of its not using the 1200XL's keyboard layout, and predicted that the XL's parallel bus "actually makes the 600
more expandable than a 400 or 800." While disapproving of the use of an operating system closer to the 1200XL's than the 400 and 800's, and the "inadequate and frankly disappointing" documentation,
ANALOG concluded that "our first impression ... is mixed but mostly optimistic." The magazine warned, however, that because of "Atari's sluggish marketing", unless existing customers persuaded others to buy the XL models, "we'll all end up marching to the beat of a drummer whose initials are IBM." By March 1984, all of Atari's computer models were produced in Hong Kong by the Atari-Wong joint venture.
Unreleased XL models The high-end 1400XL and 1450XLD were announced alongside the 600XL and 800XL. They were to add a built-in 300 baud
modem and a
voice synthesizer, and the 1450XLD a built-in
double-sided floppy disk drive in an enlarged case, with a slot for a second drive. Atari BASIC was to be built into the
ROM and the PBI at the back for external expansion. The 1400XL and the 1450XLD had their delivery dates pushed back, and in the end, the 1400XL was canceled outright, and the 1450XLD so delayed that it would never ship. Other prototypes which never reached market include the 1600XL, 1650XLD, and 1850XLD. The 1600XL was to have been a dual-processor model capable of running 6502 and 80186 code, and the 1650XLD is a similar machine in the 1450XLD case. These were canceled when
James J. Morgan became CEO and wanted Atari to return to its video game roots. The 1850XLD was to have been based on the Lorraine chipset which became the
Amiga.
Tramiel takeover, declining market Commodore founder
Jack Tramiel resigned in January 1984 and in July, he purchased the Atari consumer division from Warner for an extremely low price. No cash was required, and instead Warner had the right to purchase in long-term notes and warrants, and Tramiel had an option to buy up to in Warner stock. When Tramiel took over, the high-end XL models were canceled and the low-end XLs were redesigned into the XE series. Nearly all research, design, and prototype projects were canceled, including the
Amiga-based 1850XLD. Tramiel focused on developing the
68000-based
Atari ST computer line and recruiting former Commodore engineers to work on it. Atari sold about 700,000 computers in 1984 compared to Commodore's two million. As his new company prepared to ship the Atari ST in 1985, Tramiel stated that sales of Atari 8-bit computers were "very, very slow". They were never an important part of Atari's business compared to video games, and it is possible that the 8-bit line was never profitable for the company though almost 1.5 million computers had been sold by early 1986. By that year, the Atari software market was decreasing in size.
Antic magazine stated in May 1985 that it had received many letters complaining that software companies were ignoring the Atari market, and urged readers to contact the companies' leaders. "The Atari 800 computer has been in existence since 1979. Six years is a pretty long time for a computer to last. Unfortunately, its age is starting to show",
ANALOG Computing wrote in February 1986. The magazine stated that while its software library was comparable in size to that of other computers, "now—and even more so in the future—there is going to be less software being made for the Atari 8-bit computers", warning that 1985 only saw a "trickle" of major new titles and that 1986 "will be even leaner".
Computer Gaming World that month stated "games don't come out for the Atari first anymore". In April, the magazine published a survey of ten game publishers which found that they planned to release 19 Atari games in 1986, compared to 43 for Commodore 64, 48 for Apple II, 31 for IBM PC, 20 for Atari ST, and 24 for Amiga. Companies stated that one reason for not publishing for Atari was the unusually high amount of
software piracy on the computer, partly caused by the
Happy Drive. The magazine warned later that year, "Is this the end for Atari 800 games? It certainly looks like it might be from where I write".
XE series The 65XE and 130XE (XE stands for XL-Compatible Eight-bit) were announced in 1985 at the same time as the
Atari 520ST, and used the same
design language. The 65XE has 64 KB of RAM and is functionally equivalent to the 800XL but lacked the 50-pin
Parallel Bus Interface (PBI). The 130XE has 128 KB of memory, accessible through
bank switching. The additional 64K can also be used as a
RAM drive. The 130XE also includes the Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI), which is similar to the Parallel Bus Interface. It is physically smaller, has only 14 pins, and is located next to the standard 30-pin 400 and 800 compatible Cartridge Interface on the back of the machine. It provides only signals that existed solely on the PBI. Most PBI signals were duplicated with the signals on the Cartridge Interface. ECI peripherals were expected to plug into both the standard Cartridge Interface and the ECI to gain near-full PBI compatibility. Later revisions of the 65XE, which contained 130XE motherboards but only had 64 KB of RAM, feature the ECI. The 65XE was sold as the 800XE in
Germany and
Czechoslovakia to ride on the popularity of the 800XL in those markets. All 800XE units contain the ECI.
XE Game System The Atari XEGS (XE Game System) was launched in 1987. It is a repackaged 65XE computer marketed as a video game system. It boots to a built in edition of the 1981 Atari computer port of
Missile Command if no cartridge is inserted. If the optional keyboard is connected it will instead boot to a
BASIC interpreter as a standard 65XE does. It does not feature an ECI but is otherwise compatible with all hardware and accessories that will work with a 65XE computer. == Design ==