Atari800

Nice and Easy to use.

The Atari 8-bit computers where the best of their times (not only faster than the Apple and Commodore, also better looking). I learned the basics of computer lore in my sorely missed 800 XL, from assembly to Pascal and Forth. I spend many happy hours programming and gaming on than little machine. I though I had lost all that. The atari800 emulator gave me back everything. So far I have run most of my old software without a hitch. The games and demos (which normally task every piece of hardware) run perfectly, and the old interpreters and compilers (like TurboBasic) execute exactly like in the original machine. I gladly recommend this beautiful piece of software not only to the (thousands? millions? of) nostalgic, but also to anybody who wants to learn how a computer works from the inside. There are lots of websites offering not only the old software, but also the ample documentation which allows a rookie to learn the essentials of computing in a small, manageable and friendly machine. If I evet teach computer science again, I will certainly use the atari800 emulator and the old 8-bit software to help my students learn all the basics. Finally, no piece of software is ever perfect. There are small details in which the emulator does not work exactly like the original machine (and some of then perhaps are unavoidable on a time-sharing 64-bit system). The following cases are valid for the 2.1.0 x11 version: 1. The joystick is sometimes not recognized (and you have to reset the emulator; I have to do this sometimes when I am playing M.U.L.E., for example). 2. The color palette is not easily adjusted (you need an ACT file or you have to fool around with the command-line parameters). On my old SONY tv set, I could quickly change the hue, brightness and contrast by moving a control. 3. The emulation sometimes pauses for a brief time (around 1/10th of a second) and introduces an audible pause (specially on music). This might be related to the time-sharing LINUX system on my computer). 4. Sometimes, after a warm reset, the emulator loads the BASIC cartridge, even when the configuration indicates that the cartridge should not be loaded). 5. The peculiar "beep" during disk access is not reproduced correctly on the SERIOSOUND version (for nostalgics only). 6. There is no "startup directory" option on the configuration. This would allow you to start the emulator on a custom directory full of Atari software (currently, the RUN ATARI PROGRAM option on the menu starts looking on the current directory). These and other details are very small and do not affect the behaviour of the emulator in any way. I have tried several Atari emulators, and atari800 is, by far, the very best.