Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!nsc!pyramid!apalmer
From: apalmer@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Albert "Earthquake" Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Old Atari Trivia
Message-ID: <158316@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Date: 6 Jun 91 00:32:51 GMT
Sender: daemon@pyramid.pyramid.com
Reply-To: apalmer@pyrtech.pyramid.com (Albert "Earthquake" Palmer)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 54

In article <2970002@hpsmo100.rose.hp.com> nicki@hpsmo100.rose.hp.com (Nick Ingegneri) writes:
>Here's a real old bit of ATARI trivia...  Does anyone remember the Atari 815
>dual disc drive?  It looked like a tall 810 and had two drives mounted 
>inside of the case.  They never shipped, but I saw some at an early 80's 
>CES show.  Rumor had it that some units had found their way into the hands
>of some users for testing.  If you found one now, it might be a real 
>conversation piece.
>
I own an Atari 815 disk drive.  It has 2 SSDD disk drives.  The format is
different from all double density drive that followed.  Atari had a special
version of thier DOS II (not DOS2.0) that worked with the drive.  They were
unable to manufacture a reliable product due to poor design.
>
>Another product that never made it was the Atari lightpen that was announced
>with the inital release of the Atari 400/800.  Atari's legal department 
>stopped them from ever shipping due to fear of lawsuits.  They weren't to
>keen on the idea of kids poking at the picture tube with a pointy wand.
>
The original light pen made it as far as the Atari company store.  I purchaced
one the first day they showed up in the store for a friend.  He had purchaced
my 1 week old 400 so I could buy a 800.  I took the light pen home that first
night and had a blast.  I gave the light pen to him the next day and he 
brought it back the next day with the 400.  The light pen would not work on
the 400, but it worked fine on my 800.  I had become friends with some
of the techs at the service dept when the 400 failed the first night with
a bad ctia.  I took the 400 out to Atari and watched as they worked on the
machine.  The problem turned out to be the trace for the light pin that went
to joystick port 1 on the 800 went to port 4 on the 400.  As it turned out,
no one at Atari had tested the light pen on anything but an 800.  In the 
manufacturing process, this function was tested.  Because every 400 failed
this test, they assumed the test was bad and ignored it.  Because all the
cases of light pens in the warehouse had docs that said to use port 1,  
they held up shipment.  To my knowledge, none of these light pens ever
shipped.  The light pen that came out a few years later was completely
redesigned.  
>
>The famous (or infamous) Atari 410 cassette recorder was produced in no less
>than three different versions.  All it really was was a conventional tape
>deck with the audio portion removed and some interface circuitry to tie it
>to the computer.  I saw at least three different versions, all with the
>410 model number.  The only think they had in common was that they were
>all beige.
>
>I remember the excitement I felt way back in late '79, (or was it early '80)
>when I bought my Atari 800 with 8k of ram, a 410 tape drive, and a Star
>Raiders cartridge.  As I recall it cost about $1100 back then.
>
I'm posting this from my TT.  I have 400s, 800s, 1200XLs, 800XLs, 1400XLs,
520STs and 1 1040ST.  I still remember that first night when after 3 hours
of Star Raiders, the 400 died.  I was up until 2am after I discovered the
problem was heat related.  By turning the system off for 30 minutes, I 
could play for 1 hour.

Al Palmer