exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

This just arrived courtesy of Prime:


Unboxing and Mini review later :)

rubber_jonnie wrote: 04 Apr 2024 15:17 This just arrived courtesy of Prime:


IMG20240404151143.jpg


Unboxing and Mini review later :)

:D

I never owned an 8-bit Atari so I don't have any nostalgia about them but I'm curious to see if this is a more powerful SoC than say the Amiga Mini which struggles to run even 16-bit emulation with high accuracy.

Lol, that was my first Atari computer. That membrane keyboard brings back some (bad) memories :lol:. Before that was the Timex Sinclair 1000 which was even worse! Never so glad to get a 130XE a few years later.

alexh wrote: 04 Apr 2024 19:50 I never owned an 8-bit Atari so I don't have any nostalgia about them but I'm curious to see if this is a more powerful SoC than say the Amiga Mini which struggles to run even 16-bit emulation with high accuracy.

Not had time to look tonight as I was out training, but reviews so far are good.

TheNameOfTheGame wrote: 04 Apr 2024 20:11 Lol, that was my first Atari computer. That membrane keyboard brings back some (bad) memories :lol:. Before that was the Timex Sinclair 1000 which was even worse! Never so glad to get a 130XE a few years later.

I have been trying to get an 800 but cost is too much and I can't find a decent priced 400 either. This will do for now, though I must admit to it being a bit of a drunken purchase (Long story, some sadness and too much bourbon...), but when I saw it reduced on Amazon I thought why not?

Hopefully I can play with it tomorrow, but by god does it look accurate!

:dizzy:

OK, I promised more pics and here we go!

First look into the box :)


What's in the box?


Aside from the 400 Mini and the CX Stick, you've got a USB power cable and an HDMI cable, all appropriately coloured in Atari beige :) Hopefully the ruler for scale (I was all out of bananas!) gives an idea of just how small it is, but I have to say it's very nicely made, at least externally, and really goes look great. They've even done their best to mimic the feel of the membrane keyboard :)

At the front you have 4 USB joystick ports that mimic the original machine.


And at the rear there is the power port (USB C), power switch, HDMI port and another USB port. I believe a USB keyboard can be used so it's possible to run BASIC. You can also put games on a USB stick and pop them in here. I'm not yet sure if the keyboard has to go into the rear port or will work at the front too, I'll get to that at some point.


The CX Stick is a very good analogue of the original, with a very similar look and feel, thought it has a few extra buttons:


These are used, along with a button ring (The orange ring around the stick has buttons at each point of the compass) to do specific tasks, such as mimic the Atari function buttons.

Once you've done the initial language an TV frequency setup, you get a typical carousel showing the available 25 games:


There are games I would rather see on there, but it's overall not a bad selection and includes a number of my favourites, and of course you can use the USB stick to add more.

It does however include one of the best 4 player games out there:


I remember going to Liverpool and seeing an 800 running M.U.L.E and being blown away by the graphics and sound.

So far I'm impressed, though I won't be getting rid of my ream machines anytime soon!!

If anyone have any questions about it, just shout!

What's under the cartridge cover?

PhilC wrote: 05 Apr 2024 16:55 What's under the cartridge cover?

What, the cartridge cover that doesn't open? :lol: