Reviewer: Jack Schofield

Magazine: Your Computer

Date: November 1983

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Jack Schofield puts the Atari 600Xl through its paces.

It is almost unheard of to get a new home micro for review and be able to write half the review on it. It was possible with the new Atari 600XL, thanks to its software compatibility with the previous 400 and 800 models. Most home-micro companies throw their existing users on the scrap-heap when they bring out a new machine. Atari has kept faith with its.

As well as using AtariWriter - a word processor on a ROM cartridge - I tried a number of Atari games including Donkey Kong, Defender, Qix and Caverns of Mars. The Thorn-EMI River Rescue cartridge was tried: it also fitted and worked. There must be some independent programs which use illegal entry points that will not run on the new micro, but I did not find any. Therefore when the 600XL's packaging claims over a thousand items of software are available for it, that is probably a conservative estimate.

What is more the 600XL also worked happily with Atari's existing range of peripherals including the 810 disc drive, 410 cassette recorder and joysticks.

But if the 600XL merely offered a reprise of the 400 and 800, Atari would not have bothered to launch their new line, which also includes the 8OOXL, and the 1400 and 1450 which are still to come.

There are numerous ways in which the 600XI. is a far better machine than the 400 which it replaces:

• The 600 has a real full-stroke typewriter keyboard, instead of a touch sensitive one.
• The design of the case is much smarter - with its clean lines, two-tone finish and gleaming function keys - than the oddly- shaped "technoflash" 400.
• A new edge connector/expansion bus has been introduced to allow a plug-in upgrade to 64K RAM. It also allows the addition of the expander box to provide other options such- a 128K ram-disc, hard disc, flat-screen TV interface, IBM PC add-on, IEEE-448 interface and a few other fancy gadgets.
• A composite video monitor output has been added alongside the PAL UHF output port on the back.
• A new Help key brings up a self test of the RAM, keyboard, four sound channels and graphics.
• A new 24K ROM includes the 10K operating system and the Basic which is now built in instead of being on a separate cartridge.
• The Basic has been further - apparently completely - debugged.
• The addition of four new graphics modes using the existing Antic custom chip and GTIA custom graphics chip.

In addition, the 600XL brings with it a new range of peripherals in the same two-tone black and grey style. These include the 1050 double-density disc drive with DOS3, 1010 dedicated cassette recorder - which now has two standard serial ports - Super Joysticks, Trak Ball, Touch Tablet, and three new printers.

One printer is the 1025 80-column dot- matrix; another is the 1020 four colour printer/plotter, which is like the Tandy/Oric/Sharp models. The third is a letter quality printer, the 1027. It may only do 20 characters per second, but it plugs straight into the 600XL, the print quality is outstanding, and it should cost only £299.

Peripherals to follow are a sophisticated light pen and an 80-column