exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Well, I have been after an Atari 600XL for a very long time now, and was lucky enough to find this over Christmas that didn't break the bank.

The 600XL is kind of an important fork in the road for me. I had one, and it was my first Atari, but it was limited to 16K unless you had the unreliable and wobbly RAM pack (ZX81 all over again), but it nevertheless marked the point at which I went to Atari, because they were cheaper than the C64, Apple ][ and BBC B at the time.

That machine was replaced with an 800XL and later a 65XE (Which I still own to this day), however the smaller form factor of the 600XL has always appealed to me, so this machine is going to be the basis of a project to modernise it like I've done before with the help of an Ultimate 1MB, VBXL and PokeyMax. I will likely restore the 800XL to original condition, and use the U1MB, VBXL and Pokey Max to upgrade the 600XL.

The 600XL is so small and neat, that it would be a better fit for my retro space than either the 800XL or 65XE, and I can revert the 800XL back more easily then the 65XE due to some other issue the 65XE has with it's video circuit.

Obligatory pictures follow:


And the cat enjoyed the box too!!!

yay came with a cat! :excited:

exxos wrote: 10 Jan 2022 11:20 yay came with a cat! :excited:

Yeah, he was there, right under the packing peanuts :lol:

:dualthumbup:

stephen_usher wrote: 10 Jan 2022 11:55 :dualthumbup:

Definitely caught my mood 😁

Well this is new:


Placed in the keyboard socket, it looks like extra pull ups, though I have never seen anything like it in any A8 I've ever owned. Looks like extra pullup resistors for the KBD. The KBD was actually disconnected, so I think somebody has been in here before. I'd forgotten what a solid, heavy machine it is too.

Thing powers on, but I just get a burgundy screen and the self test doesn't work, so next is to open it up.

And wow, every single IC is socketed!! PCB looks like new, not even a rusty modulator!!

Lovely machine (and nice cat). It was also my first Atari machine and I still have it today.
The form factor is just perfect, although it might get a bit difficult to add too many upgrades. Have fun with this 600xl.

olivier.jan wrote: 10 Jan 2022 14:04 Lovely machine (and nice cat). It was also my first Atari machine and I still have it today.
The form factor is just perfect, although it might get a bit difficult to add too many upgrades. Have fun with this 600xl.

Thanks!!

It'll be my first A8 repair, all my others have worked just fine, so something new for me, but all good :)

Could just be sockets, but it might be ROM, so I have downloaded the service manual & schematics, and at least I have a working 800XL that should provide some references for things like CPU and other custom chip activity.

The cat says 'Hi' :)

Pretty common issues are the infamous MT RAM chips and the delay line. Mine had a dead RAm chip which caused it to go in storage in 84 until I found it in a bag and repaired it 2 years ago.