Atari 600 XL

The Atari 600XL was a home computer from those industry giants Atari that was released in 1983.

It was Atari's low end replacement for the now discontinued Atari 400 personal computer and also followed on from the likes of their Atari 2600 console.

This machine ended up being quite a popular choice (although was never a major player in the UK where the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 reigned supreme) and was a good 'all rounder'.

It was a great machine for learning programming and it there was also plenty of educational software available for it.

Gamers were also catered for with some truly excellent titles available to play on yet another home Atari machine.

So let's take a look at another fine 8-bit machine from the golden days of the 1980s...

Like many other machines that were manufatured in 1983 it came with an inbuilt 16KB of memory, it's own version of BASIC and it also had a 'PBI' Parallel Bus Interface on the rear of the unit to accommodate Parallel Bus expansion devices.

These devices included the Atari 1064 64K memory module and the Atari 1090XL Expansion System. You could upgrade these machine a lot if you wanted to.

The 600XL, just like the Atari 400 lacked a composite video output port.

Atari Home Computer Division engineers revealed that originally the Atari 600XL was going to have composite video, but it was cut from the final design to reduce costs which is a real shame.

A good range of games was released (with many coded by Atari developers, as you might imagine!) for the Atari machines, but developers soon began to favour the newer 800XL model over the 600XL.

The 800XL had more memory than the 600XL in the shape of a whopping 64KB.

Looking back machines with 16KB never really stood the test of time (look at what happened to the 16KB ZX Spectrum and the 16KB Oric 1), with many users upgrading them where possible or even buying a newer model.

The 600XL also looked slightly smaller in dimensions than the 800XL.

In fact, the 800XL was actually a very similar machine, it had more memory (64KB as we have established) and the all important composite video capability.

All peripherals were compatible with both machines, which is always a good way to go.

But then Atari usually did know what they were doing...

Some truly great games and arcade conversions were available for the Atari 600XL.

If you are thinking of picking up one of these machines or if you are lucky enough to already own one then please check out the following titles:

• Asteroids - you can't not play a version of this absolute arcade classic. If you think Asteroids, then you've gotta think Atari...
• Centipede - another good version of another true classic from the golden age of arcading...
• Donkey Kong - a very nice version of the classic arcade game
• Exploding Wall - a good and different version of the arcade classic Breakout
• Star Raiders - just how did they squeeze THIS into a 16K machine? Early 3D Gaming at it's best
• Star Wars - not as good as other 8-bit conversions but worth a play nonetheless for the nostalgia value

The machine was capable of producing decent graphics. It had an impressive range of 256 colours, and each of these colours was tweakable with 16 levels of 'intensity',

The XL machines were also capabal of producing good sound effects and multi-channel music. The sound effects generally managed to capture that 'arcade' sound which always enhanced the gaming experience a little bit.

These were always important factors where games developers were concerned.

There were plenty of games released on the machine that had that classic 'Atari feel' to them.

The BASIC that was built in to the machine was pretty good too, and compared well to other 8-bit machines of the era.

The 600XL had no major issues or problems and users could put together quick basic programs if they wanted to, making it a good machine for the budding programmer.

If only it had been blessed with more RAM...

The machine itself looked quite cool and was a real step up in design when compared to the likes of the old Atari 400.

The black case with the white top outline and silver function keys down the right hand side certainly made it a very modern looking unit.

The cartridge slot was nicely placed centrally above the keyboard and was unobtrusive to the user.

This machine and the more powerful 800XL became very popular choices as they pretty much ticked all the boxes for the home user.

Atari was once a major player in the hardware sector , and these machines go a long way in reminding us why...