@arstechnica@mastodon.social membrane keyboard…pass

@arstechnica@mastodon.social
“A half-sized version of the distinctively styled Atari 400, emulating the whole 8-bit Atari range, including the 400/800, XL and XE series, and the 5200 home console.”
I guess that means it has 64k RAM not the 128k of the 130XE that is the best of the whole 8-bit :atari: range, imho. But probably a wise decision to avoid problems with early 400/800 games.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social My parents bought my brother and me one of those and it was terrible. 99% of that was because of the plastic membrane keyboard which was impossible to type on. If we’d had an 800, I wouldn’t have envied my fiends’ Vic-20s.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social Psygnosis presents: Shadow of the Keys

@arstechnica@mastodon.social Did not have Atari 400 membrane keyboard on my 2024 bingo card. Having personal flashbacks of sore fingers from bashing them on said machine back in HS. At least the control key is in the right place.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social If this thing “emulates the whole Atari 8-bit range”, why in the world did they choose to model it after the 400 instead of the 800XL which had a real keyboard? Maybe the 400 was more popular?

@arstechnica@mastodon.social The joystick is the only part that interests me. If you want to relive the experience of the Atari 8-bit, you already have the Altirra emulator.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social it is good to see this relatively low-profile PC get some retro love as it was a haven and, occasionally, the birthplace for some innovative games.

I only learned about the machine more recently, mainly due to it being the original system for Archer Maclean’s Defender-inspired masterpiece, Dropzone.

I’ve played a few of the games on the system on my MISTer and can see the appeal but I think a dedicated mini-console will only appeal to dedicated fans.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social plug here for #fujinet. My 800XL might not natively exhaust HDMI, but it does support MicroSD images and connect to WiFi.

@arstechnica@mastodon.social This product was designed, market tested, and lab grown to appeal to me and 75 other 50+ yr old nerds and all of us would rather have the xl or xe keyboard and styling.

Yikes.

But when you tech outlets are done with your writeups and get to the throwing your review units out stage, hit me up, I would love to repackage into a tribute to my beloved 800XL.