Atari 400/800

Summary

As the 2600 established itself among home consoles in the late 70s, Atari began planning its successor. Warner Communications had bought the company and appointed Ray Kassar as CEO. He redirected development towards the growing home computer market. The result was Atari’s first home computers: the Atari 400 and its bigger brother, the Atari 800. They were announced in the New York Times at the end of 1978, but component shortages delayed their release until 1979 in the USA and 1981 in Europe.

Alongside the MOS 6502A CPU, clocked at 1.7 MHz, the system contains three custom chips: ANTIC, POKEY and GTIA. These offload tasks such as graphics and sound from the CPU. The 400 and 800 differ in their additional features: the former has a membrane keyboard, while the latter has a typewriter-style keyboard and a second cartridge slot.

The equipment is sold about two million times together. In mid 1983 Atari stopped producing the Atari 400.