My Atari 8 bit Computer Collection! | Tara's Vintage Videogame Corner

Ever since I got my very first computer, an Atari 800XL in 1983 (or 1984) I've amassed a pretty large collection! Here's all the cool hardware I have from Atari's glory days!

[taraemory]

I think one thing i wanted to say in the video but didn't- is how the angles and trapezoids on the Atari 400 kinda resemble the snowspeeders in Empire Strikes Back. That whole computer looks like it could be in a 1980 star wars movie and not seem out of place

[Stanley_A._Hunt]

3:48 Paint! 😄
Anyway, we had a 130XE, 1050 disk drive, touch tablet, XM301 modem and 1027 printer.

[skipbreakfast]

I got an Atari 800 for xmas 1983. I still have it. It's in sad shape but whatever. I also have an 800xl and a 1050. Still have my Wico joysticks! Really envious of your collection!

[nelsoncabrera]

I bought so many of these at Goodwill in the 90s... and promptly chucked them in the trash because they rarely worked (they went for $5 or less back then). Wish I had kept some but I didn't have much space in my room as a teen. Nowadays everything gets meticulously and lovingly repacked into its original box, gets shrink wrapped and stored in the gadget closet in the hope they'll we worth something some day.

[djholcomb]

Thanks for sharing! It's a lot of fun seeing what others have in their collections.

[AndrewTubbiolo]

Christmas 1982 I got an Atari 400. I learned a lot on that computer.

[toqertv]

Ah this is cool. Subbed. I grew up in San Jose, about 5 miles south of Atari HQ Sunnyvale. I was born in 1973, so I got to see all of it. Atari was always kind of the hometown team and I always rooted for them during the console wars. Got to go to the first Chuck E Cheese's the year it opened. Had Atari's growing up, got rid of Atari's growing up. Got Atari's again during the 90's, got rid of Atari's again during the 90's. Recently picked up an 800, and I'm going to do some mods to it. The Incognito board which adds 1mb of RAM, a microSD hard disk, and Selectable OS's (Either original 800 or XL/XE) I'm also adding a mechanical keyboard, there's a guy that makes them. I got all the hardware, now it's just a matter of cleaning my room lol.

Super cool you managed to collect all this stuff. I made the mistake during the 90's of letting my wife convince me it was junk I needed to let go of.

[footguy]

I'm in my early 40s, so I remember playing Atari, but I never knew it had all those accessories.

[jcchaconjr]

I absolutely LOVE my Atari 800XL! I still have mine, along with my 1050 in their boxes. It’s crazy that even when kept in their boxes when not in use, the 800XL’s case has yellowed a bit. Of course, I got an S-drive about a year ago, which allowed me to copy over all my original floppies, except for the few games friends copied for me years ago because they had Happy drives. I think that someone still offers a Happy Drive mod for the 1050, so I definitely want to get that to completely digitize my floppy collection. It’s amazing that my disks still work after almost 40 years, but I can’t imagine how much longer they will. I really should think about buying any floppies that might still be available for purchase today, if at all.

Great collection!

[wimwiddershins]

Gotta love that 1970s design. The star wars aesthetic is right on.👍

[Screwfacecapone]

I'm jealous. My dad has the intellivision growing up, and my brother and I moved on to the NES.

[rottmanthan]

i want a atari 800 but ppl want to much for them. so im in no big rush, i will keep looking.

[tiacd]

Growing up the first computer that was in my family home was an Atari 800XL, we had Flight Simulator II, boulder Dash, Spy v Spy & Stockbroker. Dad also got the Light pen too, but i always remember my dad had all of the maps for FS II printed on A3/A2 paper. I always remember finding a copy of strip poker buried in the disk box too haha

[tony]

I loved my 800xl, besides the casual gaming, I used the word processor a lot to write stories and scripts. I had a koala drawing tablet which caused my girlfriend at the time to breakup with me as I spent more time drawing on my computer than spending time with her. LOL. I still have my 800xl, not sure what I am going to do with it, but I do want to keep it. I just do not have much room to set it up. I would like to mod it, to upgrade it and maybe get the side car 3, and connect to an HDMI monitor. Probably not this year though. Thanks for a fun video!

[lovemadeinjapan]

No XE's? I think those are cute, and the best looking models after the mighty granddaddy: the 800. I also love CRT's with my 8-bit machines, but I don't mind them being a tad newer, a mid nineties Trinitron with RGB SCART/S-video input....

[bitrocketstudios]

This is an awesome collection! Long Live Atari! The 800XL most likely arrived in January as the 600XL and 800XL just hopped off the boat about Dec 15th of 1983 and didn't make it to stores until Dec 23rd, giving the C64 a winning advantage as Atari had heavily marketed computers that didn't exist sending buyers to the stores to only find the C64. The c64 was/is a fantastic computer, but the 800XL should have been a decent competitor.

[jrherita]

Thanks Tara for sharing your Atari 8-bit collection!. Would be really cool to see you do a video of playing M.U.L.E. sometime :). Your other content looks cool too - I hope you ended up getting somewhere with your passion project.

[thevegedout]

Hello Tarable, hope all is well. great collection of PCs. That story about the 1970
car was a little steamy. Keep up the great work.

[nyyommm]

I was about 4 years old when I got a copy of E.T. It was my first recollection of video game rage. My mom promptly dropped the Atari off at goodwill.

[louisolachea]

Excellent video and a very impressive collection, Tara. You had mentioned that you did artwork on one of the computers. Do you anything on print to show us?