ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2017 Entry 5th November 2017: Post: 1 My Atari X-HELL I just have no luck with the Atari. And not for the obvious reasons. The kit generally works fine and I can power computers and all the peripherals up and enjoy my limited experience of the platform. I will be honest and say that I have never tried very hard to collect the Atari. Being an Amiga guy I just never felt it was right to do so. The platform is the dark side to my light, even more so than Windows if I am honest. Setting that aside what is the issue? Well I have these Atari computers and for me a machine can only truly become a member of the family when I can save stuff. It's kinda a rule I have. Recently as you know I bought an Eprom for the Z88 cus I just have to be able to store data. And so to the Atari and in this case the 65 and 130XE... not the XL though the same still applies. With the Amstrad and the 3" drive I can CAT and save and format to disk from the machine. With the Einstein I need the CP/M but kinda the same cus I can still read the disk directory out of the can. The Spectrum+3 allows me to access the 3" disk drive as does your basic Commodore 64. BUT the annoying Atari and the 1050 does not. You need the DOS disk. And can I get one... No. Seems impossible. And so each time I switch the 130 on with the 1050 I get a scrolling Boot Error. I have games disks on floppy and they all work but I need to save. I have tried to join the Atari Forum but they just reject my email. I carefully fill in the application form and submit but it fails every time and rejects my email address. I do not know why. I have spent hours on the internet trying to work out how I can get Atari DOS2.0S or 2.5 but it involves emulators and the like. And so for now I just check the listings on Ebay. One day I guess. The point is that the drive is useless without the disk. Not technically an XL but certainly an Atari X-HELL nightmare The light is on but there is nobody in Have you seen the cables and power supplies you need for computer and disk drive Games disks work fine using the drive The Atari 130XE The 65XE is basically the same machine but with half the memory capacity The Atari 1050 5.25" drive The Atari 1010 Datassette Cartridges work.. just can't save to them SPECIFICATION The 65XE and 130XE actually stands for XL-Expanded. Announced in 1985 at and about the same time of the ST models to which they bare a resemblance. Aimed for mass market appeal. In production through till 1991. Was marketed as the 800XE in Germany. Kinda fun if you like the Atari. Neat and small

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Last updated 05/11/2017

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