THE RANT: My dad didn't seem to believe in dedicated game consoles when I was a kid. He was thoroughly disappointed with the Colecovision and the Odyssey 2 (which he bought only because it had a keyboard,) so for gaming options when I was a teeny weeny kid I was stuck with he Atari 8-bit line of computers. Since I was only six, I didn't really care. I have very fond memories of Atari 800 versions of Caverns of Mars, Frogger, Defender, and Donkey Kong (which he assured me was better since it actually had all four screens, as opposed to the 3 screen NES version.) I didn't get an NES until I was 13, and only then did I discover all the cool shit I'd been missing all those years. So anyway, I saw this thing up for grabs on e-bay for like $9.99 and was like "What the hell, it'll be fun." For those of you who don't know the Atari XE is basically an Atari 800 repackaged into a new shell. Atari released this system to compete with the NES and Sega Master system in like 1987 or something, but all they ended up doing was trying to push dinosaur equipment on a public already jaded with the sloshy Atari brand name, not to mention they ended up competing with their own 7800. It has a built in Missile command game and is compatible with all Atari 400 and 800 software. You can also hook up a disk drive or any other accessory made for the Atari 8-bit computers. It also came with a light gun (which I didn't get) and uses standard 2600 controllers. This in itself poses the problem that the games limit you to one action button; although the thing has a whole keyboard very few games use it for more than pause, level select, etc. Most of the games are classic rehashes or clones. There's a few great gems like Shamus, Castlewolfienstien (2d,) Caverns of Mars (which I still can't beat to this day.) Most of the "XE" software tries to compete with NES and Master System games and fails horribly. Still, I guess I'm biased with sentimentality because playing this system brings back all the childhood memories for me.

THE GOOD: Software for this system is cheap as dirt. A lot of them can be found free in ROM form, and if you can get your hands on some compatible floppy disks you can copy them and play them on the original system. Has a pretty big game library (about 100 titles.) Also the system is expandable with all the crap that worked on the Atari 8-bit computers.

THE BAD: The system is really huge. As I have like 47 game systems crammed under my TV space is a big concern. Also, since all the 8-bit add-ons like disk drives, tape drives, etc. are so old now half the time they're worn out or otherwise not working. Any disks or tapes you may get may have long ago been rendered useless. The thing about carts is that the rom is burned in a chip, which should conceivably last forever. (I like the idea of someone firing up a 2600 Pac-Man cart in the year 3476 A.D.) Floppy disks or cassette tapes use magnetic storage that gets corrupted and fades after 20 years, so finding original software in floppy disk form can be hard.

THE UGLY: The system itself is ugly. Look how Ugly it is.

ATARI XE weirdness

Brazilian Atari XE AD

Brazil is a great source for retro gaming as consoles of the past are still sold today as cheaper alternatives to the latest 128-bit import systems.

ATARI XE LIGHT GUN

Very retro 80's light gun, like Buck Rogers meets Laser tag

Doom on the Atari XE?

No, sorry. It's a Hoax

All pics courtesy of Atariage.com

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