I don't understand why the Atari 8-bit computers weren't as successful as Apple and Commodore.

The 800, released in 1979 had way better graphics, sound, and general capabilities than anything else for years.

High price? Bad marketing?

I mean the Atari 800 is awesome.

I get S-Video out of it (with an adapter).

There is FOUR joystick ports.

It has SIO, which is essentially USB v0.1.

There's TWO cartridge slots.

Four-channel sound.

It's built like a tank, it survived my eBay seller's "we don't need no packing material" packing job without a scratch.

128 colors.

All in 1979.

@thomasfuchs Look how pretty and welll designed the case is. 😍

And great, colorful, sharp graphics.

And the ports are all on the side or front, so it's easy to plug in joysticks and stuff.

Someone really thought this design through. Very much appreciate this.

Definitely my favorite late 70s home computer design.

And the details, oh the details.

For example, see the CTRL key has it's label inverted? On the other keys, when you see the inverted labels you know what to press to get that function (like the cursor keys).

That is nice design.

@thomasfuchs And Atari BASIC. Non of that Microsoft crap. Among other things you could have named goto goals, so you can write much clearer code:

@thomasfuchs You have destroyed me.
I grew up coding Atari Basic but I never knew it had named GOTO goals.