New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

Nice looking Atari 400 for people to consider. I've already got one so I'll stay out of the running. Good for someone here to get hold of. Great little machine.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =690947275

Interesting. I've just finished filming mine for the next video re-do!

They have cultural and historical currency and are built like a tank!

These Atari's are essential for any collection, an absolute must have, and its still in the original box and all !!!

[bump]

closes tomorrow at 9.07 pm

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=690947275

I'm not gonna lie... I love the design of the keyboard on those things, just from an asthetic standpoint. How terrible are they to use?

Back in the day everyone hated them because everyone was used to C64s and Model Ms (or mechanical typewriters for that matter)... But these days most of us type on touchscreens or laptop chiclet keys all the time anyway. Bet it'd work out a bit differently if a manufacturer tried that style of kb now.

The Keyboard is terrible. But I am a keyboard snob. I refuse to use Apple's crap alloy keyboards - or even the junk from Microsoft and Logitech etc.
Even if I lowered my standards to well below the crap Apple keyboard that came with the Macs I own - the Atari 400 is much worse.

But hey! I *do* love the look of it. I fire mine up once a month for its "boottime" like all my retro gear gets. Its an enchanting bit of kit.

The winner of this auction will get a great piece of 8 bit tech for their collection.

xjas wrote:I'm not gonna lie... I love the design of the keyboard on those things, just from an asthetic standpoint. How terrible are they to use?

Back in the day everyone hated them because everyone was used to C64s and Model Ms (or mechanical typewriters for that matter)... But these days most of us type on touchscreens or laptop chiclet keys all the time anyway. Bet it'd work out a bit differently if a manufacturer tried that style of kb now.

mrad01 wrote:The Keyboard is terrible...

This is quite true but as I said in the video, it's horses for courses. It was designed as the cheaper, low end model, primarily to play games or maybe dabble around with BASIC. Something that the kids could maybe use too. If you wanted a good keyboard and a good general purpose Atari, the 800 model was available.

For those who haven't experienced these membrane keyboards, put a hard cover book on your lap, type on that, does it feel very responsive like your notebook ?

I see the Atari went for $128. These don't come up often and I thought it would go for a little more than that.

One thing I did wonder about though. I see the seller talked about a TV switch box being missing. This is strange as mine has a built in RF cable that plugs straight into the aerial socket? I'm wondering if it's an NTSC model?

I went to bid and my PC froze up, after I confirmed bid it took ages to go through then came up *Auction Closed*, its not the first time this has happened to me, im gonna have my tablet (with GSM network) on stand-by next time.

But to be honest as a rule I don't touch membrane computers, so i'm kinda happy I lost the battle (but not the war )

I don't usually touch computers unless they have a full travel keyboard & 5.25 inch FDD and that computer doesnt have either.

If I had won that aution I would have to start collecting ZX-81's

Never mind as a consolation prize I sniper-ed a real cool computer table (corner style) listed under the wrong section

And yeah I was puzzled by the switch box response ?

Hi Ronturner, turns out it wasn't in its original box, but in very good condition anyway...

It was in a box (postshop)

It was a very clean looking example