Wiardgroup

1979 is the date Wikipedia has listed.

For what that is worth.

There were two versions, the 800 and the 800XL.

The 800 had plug in expansion boards (for like 16K of memory). The 800XL was pretty 
much and all in one unit with a whoping 64K of DRAM.

I put one in a suitcase in 198?, with battery power and a 5 inch 12 volt monitor. Kind of 
like a laptop.

People thought I was crazy, WHY would ANYONE want to carry arround a computer with 
them????? It just doesn't pay to be ahead of your time!!

It had Radio Text to speech chipset attached to the printer port. That is what I used it for, 
a fancy babble box for phonemes. Worked great as a stage repacement for tape loops 
(compared to the hassle of using 1/4" tape loops on stage).

That was slightly before the Mirage became affordable. I switched to a DSK model when I 
could afford it. The 800XL system still works and so does the Mirage.

--- In wiardgroup@yahoogroups.com, "the finger" <monkeyfinger@...> wrote:
>
> --- In wiardgroup@yahoogroups.com, "Grant Richter" <grichter@> wrote:
> >
> > You got to see this, he claims he did this in 1979.
> > 
> > And it hooks up to a computer... and the Atari 800 was released in 1979.
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> really?
> my Atari800's packaging declares it "the Official Computer of the 1984
> Summer Olympics"
> maybe the Atari400?   i dunno
> pretty cool module though
>