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I still have my 800. It was given to me sometime in the 80s when my cousin passed. It came with the BASIC cart, a tape drive, and a book called something like 1

I still have my 800. It was given to me sometime in the 80s when my cousin passed. It came with the BASIC cart, a tape drive, and a book called something like 101 BASIC GAMES that were just copies of source code. That machine started me on an obsessive path of learning languages and programming at ~10 years old that was all-consuming until I graduated high school. I hated the stupid membrane keyboard, but the lessons learned on that machine were invaluable to my curiosity.

billygoat 5y ago
Pretty much same story here -- few things affected the path of my life as much as that one device did. I cannot overstate its impact on my ability to get creative with limited resources, seek out and solve tough problems, and have pride in creating things for others.
- Random_Person 5y ago
  I remember really struggling to get the tape drive to work. Sans internet, it was quite a challenge to figure out how to get it going. That was quite likely the spark that made me want to learn anything and everything about hardware.
rbanffy 5y ago
I had a copy of that book. I loved the illustrations between the listings. Creative Computing and David H. Ahl were huge influences for me.
- Random_Person 5y ago
  I'll have to dig it out. I don't remember the illustrations. I remember working on a blackjack program forever. Debugging line by line. Finding my typos and getting it to work. That was one of my proudest moments.
  - UncleSlacky 5y ago
    There's an online version here: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/ https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/
    - Random_Person 5y ago
      Oh, I forgot all about those little drawings! Seeing this now brings back a flood of memories. Thanks!
criddell 5y ago
Didn't the 800 have a regular keyboard and the 400 had the membrane keyboard?
- Random_Person 5y ago
  Ah, you are right. My memory sucks. It's been in storage for many many years.

billygoat 5y ago

Pretty much same story here -- few things affected the path of my life as much as that one device did. I cannot overstate its impact on my ability to get creative with limited resources, seek out and solve tough problems, and have pride in creating things for others.

Random_Person 5y ago
I remember really struggling to get the tape drive to work. Sans internet, it was quite a challenge to figure out how to get it going. That was quite likely the spark that made me want to learn anything and everything about hardware.

rbanffy 5y ago

I had a copy of that book. I loved the illustrations between the listings. Creative Computing and David H. Ahl were huge influences for me.

Random_Person 5y ago
I'll have to dig it out. I don't remember the illustrations. I remember working on a blackjack program forever. Debugging line by line. Finding my typos and getting it to work. That was one of my proudest moments.
- UncleSlacky 5y ago
  There's an online version here: https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/ https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/
  - Random_Person 5y ago
    Oh, I forgot all about those little drawings! Seeing this now brings back a flood of memories. Thanks!

criddell 5y ago

Didn't the 800 have a regular keyboard and the 400 had the membrane keyboard?

Random_Person 5y ago
Ah, you are right. My memory sucks. It's been in storage for many many years.