Atari 8-bit Computers

The Atari 8-bit computers are a family of home computers made by Atari from 1979 to 1992. The first models, the Atari 400 and Atari 800, were released in November 1979, and the range continued with the 1200XL, the 600XL and 800XL, the XE series and the XE Game System console.

The machines were designed by the team behind the Atari 2600, and their custom chips made them some of the most capable home computers of their day. ANTIC is a display processor with its own instruction list, CTIA and later GTIA handle colour and sprites, and POKEY provides four channels of sound as well as keyboard and paddle input.

Software came on cartridges, cassettes and floppy disks. The library includes Star Raiders, M.U.L.E., Rescue on Fractalus!, Ballblazer and Alternate Reality, and many games that later became well known on other systems started on the Atari. The same hardware was also used in the Atari 5200 console.

Atari sold several million 8-bit computers, but they were overtaken by the Commodore 64 in North America. They stayed popular in parts of Europe, particularly Poland, where a demo and homebrew scene is still active.

Altirra is the most accurate Atari 8-bit emulator and the one to use on Windows. Atari800 is the best choice on other platforms and is also available as a libretro core.