Ask your questions about the atari 8-bit family

[Vkmies]

I want this to be a common thread where you can ask or anwser any questions about the atari 8-bit computers.


I want to start this thing with a question about the 130xe.
Im thinking of learning the atari basic and trying to do some music or animations, maybe even games with it.

I want to know how you put the possible media from your atari to a newer computer or how to overall save your media. Do you save the files on to a cassette or a floppy disc, or should i just try somehow connecting atari and for example a XP together?

[Wookie]

Well, I wouldn't use cassette, it's too darn slow and there's no random access. I use a 1050 drive, but if you want to use an old PC as a storage system, look into the SIO2PC cable and software available from many sources. Just google SIO2PC.

[AB Positive]

SIO2PC is a godsend. That plus the APE software means anything disk-wise is usable right on your A8. You can save to and from it easily. I highly HIGHLY recommend it for any A8 user.

However if you get to the point where you want to try games... well you may end up stuck with Assembly for your programming needs. On 8-bit computers BASIC just doesn't have the speed or power to pull off much. Fun starting point, but when you want to get serious look up machine language.


atariarchives.org is your friend.