And I agree with Tone not being enthused about 8-bit Atari's. Having been re-acquainted with them quite recently, they do not have the lasting power that something like a C64 still has. Just couldn't get past the ugly/blocky primitive graphics and colors comparatively when you've got all these systems side by side today. Atari's other systems you can make allowances for and appreciate for what they are - but NOT the A8's IMO - blech.!
I'm surprised that the Atari 8 bit doesn't get more love here. 256 colours, hardware scrolling, 4 channel sound and the ability to mix screen modes and palettes on different scanlines was pretty cool for 1979 and in some respects superior to the C64 three years later (although the latter has much better sprite hardware). The design is very reminiscent of the Amiga with Pokey, Antic and GTIA having similar functions to Paula, Agnus and Denise. It even boots up in a Workbench 1.3 shade of blue. Eastern European coders have done some astonishing stuff with it. Yes, Atari flogged the original hardware for far too long, but so did Commodore with the Amiga.
