While the Tandy/Radio Shack, Commodore, and Apple are generally credited with ushering in the home computer revolution, Atari was the first to bring arcade-like graphics and sound into the home.
Unlike Tandy, Commodore, and Apple, Atari was a video game developer, as was Coleco, whose Adam computer was another early entry in the home computer race. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney formed a company, Syzygy Engineering, to market Computer Space, the world's first coin-operated arcade game, later changing its name to Atari. The following year, they purchased the rights to Pong, releasing it in 1972.
The following year, Bushnell bought out Dabney, and Atari purchased Cyan Engineering, a group of engineers in Grass Valley, California. Four of the people from Cyan were instrumental in designing the Atari computer. Ron Milner and Steve Mayer developed the prototype for the VCS, originally named the Atari Video Computer System, which later became the Atari 2600, a home video game console. Joe Decuir debugged the VCS, creating a new prototype. Jay Miner was the lead chip designer, going on to later design the Commodore Amiga.
Separately, another early Atari employee, Steve Jobs, and a friend, Steve Wozniak, designed a home computer system using Atari parts. Wanting to concentrate on video games, Bushnell turned down the design. Of course, Jobs and Wozniak went on to form Apple that same year.
Needing capital to launch the VCS, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications. Bushnell remained chairman and chief executive officer but he was forced out by the end of 1978.
Atari launched the VCS in 1977, and the team from Cyan Engineering immediately went to work on its successor, believing that the VCS would be obsolete in three years. Headed by Milner, Mayer, and Decuir, the project resulted in what would become Atari's Color Television Interface Adapter chip, capable of generating two-dimensional, on-screen sprite animation in hardware, for faster performance.
At this point, there were no prepackaged computers on the market, although there were kits that could be assembled. This changed in 1977 when the TRS-80, the Commodore PET, the Apple II were introduced. Yet, these computers had limited graphics, sound, and memory, as well as software libraries.
Although Bushnell was still with the company, his influence had waned. Atari directed its engineering team to turn its planned upgrade to the VCS game console into a home computer. This meant adding programmable BASIC, a keyboard, character set, and support for a disk drive, printer, and other peripherals. Atari had not abandoned its focus on gaming; the design team wanted its new computer to be just as good at gaming as customers would expect from Atari while adding an actual computing experience.
The Atari OS was better designed than QDOS, which later became MS-DOS, and it supported richer graphics. Atari outsourced a BASIC for its new computer, with the stipulation that it fit into 8 KB. Atari hired a programmer by the name of Bill Gates but, as the project stalled for a year, Gates was replaced by Al Miller.
Atari officially formed a computer division in 1978, and the following year the company announced two 8-bit computers, the Atari 400 and the Atari 800, the names corresponding to the amount of memory, 4 KB and 8 KB RAM. However, by the time the machines were released, RAM prices had fallen, so both were released with 8 KB. Although both were computers, the 400 was designed to be a game machine, while the 800 was a full computer.
Despite an expensive advertising campaign, Atari lost $10 million on sales from more than 50,000 computers. In an attempt to recoup, the company began a project create an upgraded set of machines that were less costly to produce, which were incorporated into late-production 400/800 machines and subsequent XL/LE machines.
In 1983, the Atari 1200XL, the first of the XL series, was released. Not well-received, sales of the Atari 800 rose after the release of the 1200XL, as people sought to buy them before they were gone.
Newer XL machines included the 600XL and the 800XL, which were similar but smaller than the 1200XL. The 1400XL added a 300 baud modem and voice synthesizer, as well as a double-sided floppy disk drive, and a slot for a second drive. Atari BASIC was built into the ROM. Then came the 1600XL, 1650XLD, and the 1850XLD. The last of Atari's 8-bit line were the XE series, sold largely in Poland and Eastern Europe.
In 1985, Atari released the Atari ST, with a 16-bit bus and 32-bit processor core, marking the end of its 8-bit family. The 1040ST was the first computer to ship with a megabyte of RAM in the base configuration. The ST was superseded by the Atari STE, TT, MEGA STE, and Falcon computers.
In the early 1900s. Atari returned to its video gaming roots, launching the Atari Jaguar, a 64-bit video game console, which did not do well.
Recommended Resources
On his site, Steve Morrow provides programming tutorials, magazine information, game reviews, hardware information, contemporary community news, and other resources focused on the Atari 65xe computer. An overview of the 65xe is presented, along with a brief history of the Atari personal computer, its rear connectors, console keys, keyboard, and motherboard, including several photographs. Atari devices, tools, graphics, and BASIC and assembly programming are outlined.
https://www.atari65xe.com/
Focusing on the Atari line of 8-bit computers, the site offers a large collection of photos, digital documents, downloadable software, demos, source codes, utilities, galleries of photos, character sets, magazines, reference cards, emulators and other PC tools, and information on the VBXE project to extend the graphics of the Atari 800/XL/XE family of computers. A list of the author’s projects made for the Atari XL/XE series is featured, along with his collection of hardware.
http://gury.atari8.info/
Regularly updated, the site features a FAQ on the Atari VCS/2600, answering a host of questions that covers not only historical questions but maintains a focus on what is going on now, directing visitors to contemporary resources and handling queries about what people doing with their Ataris now. Subtopics include games, hardware, and technical questions. Also included are a game library and PDF files of Atari ads, articles, books, catalogs, and other documents.
http://www.ataricompendium.com/
An online Atari database, Atari Mania includes a collection of Atari memorabilia in digital form, including the Atari Arcade games, the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, Jaguar, 400XL, 800XE, and the Falcon ST/TT, as well as PDF versions of Atari magazines, and links to other Atari resources. The DB includes thousands of Atari games, utilities, demos, screenshots, advertisements, scans, and video. An Atari discussion forum is also available, powered by phpBB.
http://www.atarimania.com/
Formed in 1997 after a discussion of the accumulation of paperwork, memos, hardware data, engineering logs, software, and hardware that had become the history of all that was once Atari, and the result was this site. After the sale of Atari from Warner Communications, many of the archives of the company were literally discarded, so this is an attempt to gather as much as is still available in one place. Without a permanent location, the museum displays items at various events.
http://www.atarimuseum.com/
Atari PC is a resource site for the PCx series of IBM compatible personal computers built and sold by Atari, which include the PC1 8088, PC2 8088, PC3 8088, PC4 286, and PC5 386 computers, with an overview of each, photographs, documentation, disk images of floppy media, and photos of the motherboards, as well as parts and accessories. Its document archive includes bulletins, owner’s manuals, additions to the owner’s manuals, marketing, and sales material, and more.
http://www.ataripc.net/
Created by Jason H. Moore, a retro computer and gaming enthusiast, who had an Atari 2600 Video Computer System in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by an Atari 400, and an Atari 800 home computer, a list of the hardware he now owns is featured on the Atari Age site. This site features a collection of projects for the Atari 8-bit home computers and video game consoles, each giving the amount of time for the project, the requirements, instructions, and other comments.
http://atariprojects.org/
Powered by phpBB forum software, Atari-Forum was built around the Atari 16/32 computers and their clones. Recent topics are posted at the top of the forum, while topic areas include news and announcements, Atari demos, Atari gaming, Atari professionals, Atari music, and graphics, as well as its 32-bit Falcon and TT machines, FPGA-based clones, emulators, and tools. and other topics related to the 16/32 Atari machines. Registration is required for participation.
http://www.atari-forum.com/
The FireBee is a new Atari-compatible computer. Different to older Ataris and their clones, the FireBee is similar to the Atari Falcon, it will run most of the Atari software that would run on the Falcon. Yet, the FireBee is a modern computer that supports most of what might be expected of a modern computer, such as USB ports, Ethernet, DVI-I monitor connections, SD-card readers, and so on. The product is highlighted here and, when available, may be ordered through the site.
http://firebee.org/
Homesoft’s Disk Images Atari XL/XE
The Atari XL/XE sold largely in Poland and Eastern Europe. This site includes a collection of disk images of Atari games, available for download. Sorted alphabetically by name or by disk number. Additionally, site visitors may find the item they are looking for through a site search. Links to other Atari resources are also published to the site and may be sorted by name, the number of hits, or by the day it has been added to the site. A guestbook and contacts are included.
http://www.mushca.com/f/atari/
