The Atari 800 celebrated its 30th Anniversary last week, with PC World doing a nice spread here. The Atari 800 was my first computer. I was in my early teens and I pestered my father to buy me a home computer. Not just any computer would do. No, I wanted the most graphically gifted computer at that time, the Atari 800. The Apple II was too utilitarian for me. The others like the TRS-80, Vic-20, Sinclair ZX-81 and the rest were just junk. So after much pestering, my father gave in and bought me one. I was the only kid in the whole neighborhood with a home ‘puter.
Man I loved that computer! I learned BASIC on it, wrote some educational courseware to make some money, played games, logged on to the first BBS on it and even joined an Atari users club. Great times those!
The Atari 800 was the first computer that was designed and sold like a consumer electronics appliance. It was super easy to install and use, had foolproof sealed-box design, and was really built like an appliance. Whereas the Apple II had more of hobbyist computer design ethics.
The Atari 800 used a type of serial daisy chain-able bus called the SIO, something like the present day USB. I’m not sure if this is true, but apparently the gentlemen who was instrumental in designing the Atari SIO later joined Intel was part of the USB design team.The SIO allowed peripherals to be added simply by daisy chaining them, without having to open up the computer.
I still think Steve Jobs got his inspiration for the sealed box design of the first Mac from Atari!
