My, how time flies. It seems like just yesteryear that I played with Atari computers like it was the best thing since the integrated circuit chip. Since then I've used many other computers. There will still always be a special place in my heart for old supposedly obsolete computers however. Some may call this computer "not Scottish" (i.e. like the saying "If it's not Scottish, it's CRAP!") but I think it's just a beautiful machine full of innovation for it's time. AND IT STILL WORKS !!! It must be close to 30 years old.
I can boot it up.
It runs a BASIC programming language cartidge.
It plays, Defender, PacMan, and Centipede!!!
Here's how they installed memory in the good ol' days. They stuffed a bunch of chips into what looks like an Atari cartridge (for good reason - it's an Atari cartidge) then they plugged it into an Atari cartidge socket. What a great idea!!
I seem to have what they call a later Atari 800 computer. It has 48 kilobytes of RAM memory (yes, I said KILO bytes, not mega or giga, like any real computer today) plus I've never had this so-called 'heating issue' with it. That is, it's never overheated since I've owned it, no matter how long I leave it on, doing something productive. Like calculating long math equations with no end, even though I don't need to know the answer, like they teach in traditional math classes in school. There was some kind of overheating issue with the first Atari 800 computers. They fixed it by the time they pumped out 48 KByte machines.
I have a cartidge of the Defender game. This was one of my favorites when I was a young lad. It still plays on this old, but VINTAGE computer.
I tried to upload a video of this game running, but as usual, I'm having trouble uploading video to blogspot.com even though I can upload to anyone else with no trouble.
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