Atari 800XL power issue - Atari NEWBIE

[TychoBrahe4736]

(06-18-2024 02:32 PM)ctrclckws Wrote:  They were quite advanced for the time.

They sure were. I had the BASIC cartridge, but eventually (and I don't remember where - perhaps I typed the whole thing in and saved to my cassette) I was following along with a book on 6502 assembler and learning assembly. It was very empowering to just be able to understand that, thanks to the book. I also liked how easy the designers made it to access the hardware (peek and poke and accessing the blitter - all that stuff I barely remember). And of course, it played some great games compared to my Atari 2600 :-)

These are some of the books I can remember having:

- Your Atari Computer: A Guide to Atari 400/800 Computers
- Compute!s First Book of Atari
- Machine Language For Beginners by Richard Mansfield

That last one, I still have. I used to take that thing on vacations with me. I'm sure mom and dad thought I was nuts.

Okay, toning it down a little. I get excited and nostalgic thinking about how I used to love computers. And depressed that, though I use them at my job daily, they are no longer magic.