The Atari 1200XL Fiasco

The Atari 1200XL was the third Atari 8-bit computer. Announced in late 1982 and available in early 1983, it was designed as a replacement for the Atari 800, which was becoming increasingly expensive to produce, and to serve as a better competitor to the upstart Commodore 64. The 800 had several motherboards and a heavy case with lots of metal shielding, both of which made it impractical for Atari to lower its price much without losing money. It made a lot of sense for Atari to have a more powerful computer with a simpler design. Originally, this computer was apparently going to be called the Atari 1000 (which is why all the XL peripherals start at 1000), but for some reason the name 1200XL was chosen. 1200 is 400 more than 800, so it does fit from a progression standpoint, and I suppose “XL” does make it sound better and fancier. Design The 1200XL came with 64K of RAM and a sleek new case that looked more modern. The 1200XL actually looked like something from the 1980s, unlike the ... Read full article.