#atari 600xl

Atari's new low-end computer featured on the cover of this issue. Inside, Brian Moriarty's look at it led off by mentioning it had been hard to find at the end of 1983, the 800XL had been even harder to find, and the 1400, 1450, and 1600XL projects were on "indefinite hold." On the other hand, it was at least somewhat improved from the now-infamous 1200 XL ("destined for a glass case in the Microcomputer Hall of Shame"), and its design, at least, made "the Commodore 64 and Tandy CoCo look like toys by comparison."

Atari600XL by Rene Achter

UK 1983

This education-focused issue was a little behind some other publications in terms of its news. One article reported on "The New Atari" at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show, mentioning the company was "down to under 1000 employees, from a high of over 7000 in 1982," but was promising the 1450XLD and Atari 7800. The piece also talked up "the Amiga PC", which "makes Apple's much-touted Macintosh look primitive," perhaps not knowing the people at Amiga had taken some money from Atari at a moment of crisis and were now planning to escape from the fix they were in...

With the 8-bit Atari family tree drawn out on its cover, this issue interviewed Atari's product manager of the XE line (who did say a bit about the ST as well). Lee H. Pappas' editorial insisted ANALOG was sticking with the earlier Ataris even as people complained about the "Paperweight" program and interpreted covers as having 8-bit Ataris "being hacked apart, dissolving, or shrinking into oblivion." An article discussed how to make the best use of computer paint programs, using the graphic adapted from Star Trek on the ST-log cover to show what could be done with palette changes.

USA 1984

USA 1984