
Atari 8 Bit Computers FAQ - indigodaddy
http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/book/Atari%25208-Bit%2520FAQ%2520(Letter).pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi199j9iNnZAhWFo1kKHeBMCWU4FBAWMAJ6BAgJEAE&usg=AOvVaw1Inygs7tPsD2IALT9J3zqh
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genpfault
Link dead, this seems to work:

[http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/book/Atar...](http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/book/Atari%208-Bit%20FAQ%20\(Letter\).pdf)

Document itself contains another mirror:

[http://www.atari800xl.eu/faq/atari-8bit-faq-us-letter-
format...](http://www.atari800xl.eu/faq/atari-8bit-faq-us-letter-format.pdf)

~~~
52-6F-62
The entire parent folder is a serious treasure trove of good programming
books:

[http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/book/](http://seriouscomputerist.atariverse.com/media/pdf/book/)

I spent probably $100 between C Programming and Elements of Programming w/
Kernighan. Had I only known they were in good shape here. ;) (I kid, I'm
actually a bit of a bibliophile so I prefer the hard copies anyway...)

But seriously. It's worth browsing!

~~~
KSS42
Thanks for the link. I actually have an original copy of "Machine Language for
Beginners".

I think I actually typed in the whole machine language code for the monitor.

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tyingq
Interesting this is popping up. I had an Atari 800 and loved it. Not sure,
though, why it's currently front page. Loved my C64 as well.

Anyone else that was hooked on the "Miner Twenty Four Niner"[1] game that was
popular on Atari 400/800? My non-techie wife even loved it.

Also loved "Full Metal Planet" on the Amiga platform.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miner_2049er](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miner_2049er)

~~~
protomyth
Still have the cartridge, Miner 2049er was something of an obsession for me
after Star Raiders and the Atari 8-bit Donkey Kong cartridge. 4 player
M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold were amazing.

Actually, playing Seven Cities of Gold on a reservation generated some
amusement.

~~~
sokoloff
MULE, Archon, Miner 2049er, Boulderdash, and one of the Ultimas [Ultima IV I
think] were my favorite computer games in my childhood.

There was a semi-realistic semi-3D RPG-style game that I really wanted to get
into but never could. This thread caused me to research it, only to find out
that it was Alternate Reality that another sub-thread is extolling. I think I
was too young and impatient perhaps, but I got so frustrated at dying and
having my bank investments go bust so often.

~~~
karmakaze
Archon, oh Archon. Friendships were almost lost from Archon.

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protomyth
It’s a true shame Jay Miner died in 1994. I really think someone would have
gone one past Amiga on the journey from the Atari 8-bit.

Learned to program on a Atari 400, and very glad their was an easy to get,
affordable, non-technical parent friendly option for those at the lower end of
the income scale.

~~~
tyingq
Oh, but the crap keyboard on the 400. I got a good deal on an 800, so wasn't
subjected to it. Good for you for powering through it though.

Edit: Lol on the downvote. It was a membrane keyboard that actually fought
touch type and encouraged hunt-and-peck. It truly sucked...a friend had one so
I'm commenting from real world experience. Consider that _" open source"_ at
the time meant retyping code from long passages in a printed magazine. A time
when the competition had at least decent keyboards. (C64/Coco/99-4a/Apple
ii/etc).

~~~
vidarh
Brian Bagnall's books on Commodore argues that one of the reasons the VIC-20
and later the C-64 got proper keyboards was a combination of a costly mistake
Commodore did on that front with one of their PET models that got slammed for
the poor keyboard, combined with Tramiel seeing it as a way of making the
VIC-20 look like a more expensive computer next to the Atari 400.

~~~
tyingq
Makes sense, in retrospect. My C64 keyboard was awesome. I took touch typing
in high school on old school typewriters, and the C64 keyboard seemed natural
and fast to me.

I had gotten a steal of a deal on it... basically another high school kid
bought one and didn't understand it, so I got a fire sale price on it.

My friends had inferior things like Timex Z81's or similar, so I was soaring
past them just on touch type ability.

And my middle school had a relationship with DEC, so we had decent VAX/VMS
11/780 backends with VT-200 terminals.

Truly most of any of my success was, _" right place at the right time"_,
versus any real mental advantage on my part. I'm truly grateful for
advantageous timing. It helped me more than any skill of my own.

~~~
digi_owl
Could have sworn that Commodore started out making typewriters, so they should
know how to do keyboards (and the value of them).

~~~
tyingq
It was calculators, not typewriters, but your point stands for the same
reasons.

~~~
digi_owl
> The company that would become Commodore Business Machines, Inc. was founded
> in 1954[3] in Toronto as the _Commodore Portable Typewriter Company_ by
> Polish immigrant and Auschwitz survivor Jack Tramiel.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_International)

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pjmlp
Since we are in Atari mood :), Atari Archives is a nice website for those that
miss the old Atari programming books.

[https://www.atariarchives.org/](https://www.atariarchives.org/)

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cmrdporcupine
There really is some amazing work done on the Atari 8-bits, still. Especially
in eastern Europe, where there's a very vibrant enthusiast community. Some
really great expanders (VBXE adds Amiga-quality hi-rez graphics, and there's
expanders that bring it up to 1MB graphics, high clock rates, etc.).

I was a Tramiel user back then -- VIC-20 then Atari ST. But as an adult have
gone back and played with the other lineage (Atari 8-bit and a bit of Amiga).
The A8s were great machines. In some ways a far better architecture than the
C64 -- the SIO expansion bus a precursor to USB, very novel powerful video
hardware, etc. And what's amazing is that the 400/800 came out quite a bit
before the C64 (albeit for far more money)

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rbanffy
The graphics capabilities of the 8-bit Ataris are quite mind blowing. Having
grown up on an Apple II, the whole idea of the graphics chip running through
not a bitmap, but a kind of "program" that caused pixels to appear on the
screen was extremely liberating.

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davidjhall
Had an Atari 400 back in the day that's been lost to time. Recently picked up
an Atari 800. Looking for an Assembly cartridge to pick up programming on it
again.

Finding a lot of interesting pdfs on 6502 processor specs that are out there :
Atarimania is great for these: [http://www.atarimania.com/documents-
atari-400-800-xl-xe-book...](http://www.atarimania.com/documents-
atari-400-800-xl-xe-books_1_8.html)

Played Star Raiders with my son -- that was awesome!

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VyseofArcadia
This is an amazing resource.

Anyone know of similar documents for other families of 8-bit computers? c64,
TI 99/4, TRS-80, Apple ][, ...

~~~
woofyman
>TI 99/4 That was a 16-bit machine

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timbit42
Parts of it were 16-bit, parts of it were 8-bit.

