loading
reading
writing
saving
searching
Atari 800 Complete System - 80+ Floppies, cartridges, more - tested - $675 (Belmont)
QR Code Link to This Post
One-owner, tested and (mostly) functional. Many many games included on floppy disks.
All plastics and enclosures are intact and have minimal yellowing or fading, although I've been told that they get brittle with age and are susceptible to damage when shipping - I will pack very carefully to minimize this risk.
What's included:
-- Atari 800 CPU + power adapter --
* 48K RAM installed. All keys tested and working, though the OPTION, SELECT, and START keys occasionally stick in the depressed position and need a gentle flick to spring back - endearing quirks, not dealbreakers.
* The aluminum RF shield in the cartridge bay has come loose (the adhesive gave up, which is fair after 40+ years), but it's present and included.
* Output is serial RF only, it always has been, connecting to the antenna/coax input of a TV as shown in the pictures.
* 5x cartridges: BASIC & PILOT (programming languages), Star Raiders, Centipede, and Miner2049'er (the undisputed favorite). These were the building blocks of my childhood and, as it turns out, a mediocre engineering career.
* RCA Female to F-Type male adapter: connects the RF serial output of the CPU module to the threaded antenna coax input on many modern TVs
* You'll also notice Dad's label maker artistry on the power adapters and the back of the unit. It's charming. Don't remove it.
-- Atari 810 5-1⁄4" Floppy Disk Drive + power adapter --
Full disclosure: this drive was working fine for hours when I started testing, as the video I've uploaded to the eBay listing will prove (too long to attach here). Then it started throwing a BOOT ERROR. I opened it up, cleaned the read head, checked the belt (looks fine), confirmed the stepper motor moves freely (it did), re-lubricated the rails, reseated all the socketed ICs, and reassembled. Still no joy. The motor spins, the mechanics look good, but something deeper is unhappy and I'm not the one to diagnose it further. This may be a simple fix for someone more experienced with drive repair, or it may be a parts unit. I honestly don't know. I'm pricing accordingly and being fully transparent.
Included with the drive:
* original manuals
* a factory-sealed Master Diskette II package
* one SIO cable and the warranty card.
* Also included: the original packaging and manuals for "The Chip" - a Mike Gustafson Archiver/Editor ROM mod for the 810.
-- Atari 850 Interface Module + power adapter + SIO cable --
This is the device that connected the SIO peripheral chain: the 810 drive, the 410 cassette player, and a printer via parallel cable. The printer is listed for sale in a separate listings (it's tested and working, but it's also heavy and may not appeal to all buyers - make an offer for both if interested). The 850 powers on with a solid red LED. I have not tested it functionally beyond that, but it looks to be in good physical condition. Comes with the operator's manual and a second SIO cable. For those of you interested, we chose not to purchase the Atari 830 modem out of fear that the machine would try to reach out to Professor Falken.
-- Atari 410 Program Recorder (Cassette Player) --
Powers on. Fast-forward spins. Reverse and play do not. Functionally, this unit should be considered non-working, but there's really little downside here: loading a program from cassette on an Atari 800 took somewhere between 25 and 45 minutes. My mother gave us 60 minutes of TV time after school. You do the math. This cassette player could have been broken since 1983 and none of us would have ever known because no rational kid was going to burn their entire afternoon waiting for Clowns and Balloons to load when there were perfectly good cartridges and diskettes sitting right there. It is included as a display piece, a conversation starter, and a monument to the particular suffering of early home computing that shaped a generation of disgruntled Gen X'ers. If you fix it, please don't tell me, I prefer the mystery.
-- Software: 80+ floppy disks across three binders + several cassettes --
Three 3-ring binders full of floppy disks, the ones with the plastic 'pages' with slots for 2x 5-1/4" floppies on each side and a small space for a label.
80+ 5-1/4" floppy disks with each one holding a staggering 90kbytes of memory, less than your last text message. Dad labeled everything, naturally, as many of the disk labels appear to have been printed at those swap meets, likely on an Atari 820 or 822 printer. Although you can see that the adhesive on some of the diskette labels is starting to give up, you can see what is there. I've loaded a number of these games myself, under the guise of "necessary testing," which I defended to my wife as very serious business. I was able to test at least 10 of the disks before the 810 drive gave up and all were working so I would expect the majority of the programs to be accessible, but as I was not able to personally test each one, you should be aware of the risk that some may not work before bidding.
Original/first-party titles in the lot include: Spyhunter, Realm of Impossibility, Zork III (with the invisible ink hints booklet, a genuine artifact), Clowns and Balloons (cassette, see above), Jawbreaker (also cassette), Caverns of Mars, Crypt of the Undead (YOU PRESSED THE RED BUTTON!!!), Shamus, Necromancer, Preppie, My First Alphabet, and others.
Also included are a number of additional floppy disks acquired at computer user group swap meets in the early 1980s. These are included as part of the lot at no additional value: contents and condition are unverified, and buyer takes them as found, as part of the history of the system.These 5-1⁄4” disks in good physical condition are useful blank media for anyone with a working drive, and that's exactly what I'd have done with them myself had the 810 not chosen last Sunday to have an existential crisis. Several AtariWriter and Proofreader disks are also included, along with an official Atari-branded binder that I was tempted to keep just for the branding. Yes, you read that right, you had to load a different program to proofread your document back in the day, and at the time we all thought that was the best thing since Saturday morning cartoons!
-- Additional items --
* A plastic travel disk carrying case and several partially crushed Elephant Memory floppy boxes.
* One of the two red floppy disk boxed contains blank disk labels and ~40 unused metallic write-protect stickers.
* Photocopied articles and programming guides from the computer user group days, printed on what I can only assume was a tractor-fed dot-matrix printer.
* Manuals for the Disk Operating System (DOS) and the Pilot programming language.
* Two custom gray dust covers, stitched to fit the CPU and the disk drive (a matching third cover for the printer is included with the printer listing) because back in the 1980’s you protected your $1000+ computer investment the same way you protected the good living room furniture.
-- Two joysticks --
The two joysticks in the pictures were both damaged in ways I remember vividly. Gen X settled disputes differently than subsequent generations. There were no participation trophies, there was just whoever got to the joystick first, and whatever came after. Gen X is fine. We’re all fine. I’ve chosen not to attempt repairs, as the memories are funnier this way. Replacement joysticks are available as new reproductions online for about $25. I used a functional joystick from a 2600 (recently sold locally at the MIT Swapfest) for the Preppie demo video.
-- A few important notes for buyers --
Local Boston area pickup is strongly preferred. I'm happy to ship, but please understand that safely packing and shipping a 40+ year old computer system with multiple peripherals is not trivial, and the cost will reflect actual postage for 2-3 boxes, no markup. Shipping limited to continental US only, no international shipping. Don't let a high shipping cost dissuade you, please message me for specifics. That said, if you can come get it, that's better for everyone, especially the hardware.
This is sold as-is, with no returns or refunds. I've done my best to show and describe everything accurately and honestly. I've tested what I can test, disclosed what I know, and flagged what I don't know. This is a 40+ year old electronic system and I cannot guarantee it will survive shipping or continued operation. Please buy with that understanding.
I want this to find the right home. If you have questions, want more photos, or want to know anything else about this system, please ask, I’ll answer promptly. This machine started something for me, and I'd like it to end up with someone who'll appreciate that. If you grew up in the 1980s, you likely already know what this is. You know the sound the floppy drive made. You know the specific satisfaction of a cartridge clicking in. You know what it felt like to type your first line of BASIC and watch the screen do something because you told it to. You also know the agony when something went wrong and you didn’t have the chance to save your files to disk. This is that machine. It’s a survivor and it's been waiting.