My parents went down the home computer route, and I ended up with an 800 XE.
It was beautiful. The detachable keyboard, the IBM-grey sleek housing, the pastel console buttons, and satisfying “chi-chuunnnggg” of the spring loaded power button.
I felt like I had the future under the palms of my hand.
It was, but as Atari was known for, was just a fancy new shell on eight year old hardware not too dissimilar to the 2600 or VCS or whatever your region calls it.
![[OC] Atari’s Black Beauty](https://lemmy.autism.place/pictrs/image/4daeb239-6bc8-4832-bee4-c26c83f75632.jpeg){kind=link}
My parents went down the home computer route, and I ended up with an 800 XE.
It was beautiful. The detachable keyboard, the IBM-grey sleek housing, the pastel console buttons, and satisfying “chi-chuunnnggg” of the spring loaded power button.
I felt like I had the future under the palms of my hand.
That is so cool. I’ve yet to collect one of those.
That’s much later though
It was, but as Atari was known for, was just a fancy new shell on eight year old hardware not too dissimilar to the 2600 or VCS or whatever your region calls it.
the 800xe was roughly equivalent to a commodore 64.