Introduction

Welcome to AtariXL, and thanks for stopping by.

Atari computers have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories involve using the Atari 400 and Atari 800XL for both playing games and performing tasks like typing out stories or making banners. And as I think back through my formative years, Atari computers of various descriptions — 400, 800XL, 130XE, 520ST, 520STE (with RAM upgrade) — were always there by my side right up until the IBM compatible PC truly asserted its complete dominance over the home computer market.

I’m keen to preserve both those memories as well as a record of some of the things I enjoyed so much growing up. To that end, I managed to convince my parents to brave the perils of their loft and retrieve whatever they could so I could shamelessly indulge my nostalgia… that and immediately expand my already extensive collection of video games and consoles with some true relics of the early days of personal computing.

I was delighted they managed to bring as much stuff as they did — while the car was full of their holiday packing, too, no less — and there’s more to come. This is most certainly more than enough to get started with, though!

My intention with this site is to provide a combination of two main things: writeups of hardware, software and games for those who perhaps missed out on this era of computing, those who want to recapture their youth or those who are simply curious; and personal stories of my time growing up in an Atari household.

Since I already run another site called MoeGamer — you should check it out, it’s pretty cool, I think — I’m not going to make any bold promises about regularity of content or anything like that at this time, but I’m aiming for at least one piece a week on here for now, possibly more if I’m feeling particularly inspired.

I certainly have a lot of stuff to cover that I can’t wait to share with you all, so I hope you’ll enjoy taking this trip down memory lane with me. Perhaps it might even inspire you to start or build up your own collection! If you’re a fellow Atari enthusiast or would just like to know more about the things I write about, please feel free to get in touch or leave a comment.

For now, a warm welcome, and I look forward to sharing more Atari goodness with you very soon.

 

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