#ATARI XE EMULATOR MAC PC#
#ATARI XE EMULATOR MAC PLUS#

I was 26 years oldВ with a full-time job, but those machines were beyond my means.

#ATARI XE EMULATOR MAC PC#

The Apple II was the most popularВ at the time, and the first IBM PC had just been introduced. It tookВ most of the availableВ memory just to do that.Д«ut IвЂ™d gotten a taste of what you could do with a computer and started looking for something better. Trying to see what I could do with it graphically, I wrote a program to display a bitmap-style lowercase вЂњaвЂќ using graphics characters and simple PRINT statements.

I did some tutorials to learn the basics of BASIC and typed in some demo programs, but quickly learned how limited this little machine was.

#ATARI XE EMULATOR MAC PLUS#

It only had 1K of memoryВ (1024 bytes), plus 4K of ROM (read-only memory) that containedВ the operating system and BASIC language interpreter. There were no moving parts, not even a power switch-just some connectors in the back to plug in the power supply, a standard cassette recorder, and a black and white TV. And it looked cheap.В The case was two sheets ofВ vacuum-formed white plastic held together with plastic rivets. It was much smaller than I expected, about 7 by 9В inches and a little over an inch thick, with a flat membrane keyboard. But when I saw an ad for the Sinclair ZX80, which sold for only $199 (plus $5 shipping), IвЂ™d found a less expensive way in. A basic Apple II setup cost over $2,000 (over $6,000 in 2020 dollars). I wasnвЂ™t all that interested until I read Ted NelsonвЂ™s self-published, Whole Earth Catalog-styleВ book Computer Lib/Dream Machines in 1980. In the late вЂ™70s, microcomputers like the Apple II and Commodore Pet were getting a lot of attention. AsВ IвЂ™ve been going through all this stuff, it occurred to me thatВ people might be interested toВ learn aboutВ what I was doing with my Atari back in the early вЂ™80sВ (and since then), and how I started usingВ computers in the first place.

IвЂ™ve been down an Atari rabbit hole lately, organizing and documenting my old Atari files and programs, which I originallyВ transferred to my Mac back in the вЂ™90s. In theВ early вЂ™80s,В before I had a Mac, and before I was making fonts, I was an Atari home computer user.

Atari xe emulator mac