Just after the Atari ST series, Atari decided to launch a series of PC compatible systems.
The PC-1 was the first model. It used the shell of the Atari Mega ST4 and its mouse. It held 512 KB of RAM, an optional 20 or 23 MB HDD, but didn't have ISA extension slot, to use a PC card, an expansion box was necessary.
However, the PC-1 had Parallel, serial and mouse ports built-in as well as an universal video interface allowing either colour CGA and EGA or Hercules monochrome monitors to be connected to the same video port.
The range of Atari PC compatible systems was also comprised of:
• The PC3, a 8088 8Mhz based system with 640 KB ram, CGA graphics and 20MB hard drive,
• The PC4, a 80286 16Mhz based system with a 60MB hard drive in which - optionally- a 3.5 1.44 Mb drive could be fitted (the front needed to be cut out and the metal casing sawed by the user). It also featured VGA graphics,
• The ABC, a 80386sx 16Mhz model with a 40MB hard disk and vga graphics. This one came with a 3.5 floppy built in,
• The PC5, a 20MHz 80386 PC featuring 60 MB hard disk and SVGA graphics with same 3.5 floppy disk option as with the PC4,
• the N386 laptop.
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Matt Lloyd adds:
I bought one of these when I attended college in 1988. The Ram was
expandable to 640K. However the selling point was it had an ST compatible
floppy/HD connector which meant that you could add ST floppy and hard drive
which were alledgedly cheaper than the PC equivalent. It also came with
the GEM operating sytem in an attempt to provide an ST like interface for
the PC.
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Atari PC late ''87 - EGA graphics and an amber monitor 5.25" 360k floppy Gem desktop and MSDOS 3.something. yeah, my first computer. Researched the chips needed for expansion to 640 k, tracked them down through a local electronic supplier and popped the hood. Got those in and looked at the pc speaker pins an ran those to a "mic" plug and into my boom box aux. Sure, it was pc speaker sound, but it had bass, and spread.
Found a dos util for RAMDisks and tweaked the performance by creating a RAMDisk, copying command.com to the RAMDisk and setting Comspec$c:$command.com
That batchfile grew, assimilated improvements and cli parameters to facilitate copying from one floppy to another through creating a RAMDisk to act as a buffer between prompted, batch language scripted disc swaps. Oh, and a assembly language snippet from an early PC mag that used DOS Debug to overwrite the partition table of the primary hdd with null. Evolved into a Swiss army kind of thing. Even used it at my first real pc job, building them for a lical whitebox manufacturer in 92, then running the service department
Thanks for the memories
Monday 23rd August 2021
The_WolfieOne (Canada )
Fernando Bautista, su "PC" (para no confundirla con la ST) de Atari puede valer diversas cantidades dependiendo del modelo (PC1, PC2, PC3, PC4 o PC5, sumados a una laptop). En Ebay encontré un modelo de "PC" vendiéndose a 999 dólares, lo cual serían 18.519,01 pesos mexicanos. El valor original de la "PC1" era de 499 dólares (9.250,23 pesos mexicanos), que ajustado para la inflación moderna serían 1048 dólares (19.427,35 pesos mexicanos)
Otra oferta en Ebay, vendida hace ya 4 años, era de la computadora, el disco duro y el monitor, y valía 152,50 dólares (2.826,98 pesos mexicanos)
Espero que haya podido ayudar! :D
Saturday 27th January 2018
Reden (Chile)
contact info: gagarinnet @ hotmail com
Monday 27th March 2017
Gagarin
NAME
PC
MANUFACTURER
Atari
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1987
END OF PRODUCTION
Unknown
BUILT IN GAMES
Unknown
CONTROLLERS
Full stroke keyboard
CPU
Intel 8086
BUTTONS
8 mHz
SWITCHES
Optional 8087 Math coprocessor
SCORE
512 KB
VRAM
Unknown
ROM
Unknown
TEXT MODES
40 x 25 / 80 x 25
GRAPHIC MODES
All CGA, EGA and Hercules resolutions
COLORS
16 among 64 in EGA mode, monochrom in Hercules mode
