Description

Following the lackluster sales of the Atari 1200XL 8bit computer, Atari began work on a replacement series of computers. The idea was to include additional features that Atari hoped would spur greater sales and modernize the 8bit line. To that end Atari developed a 14xx series that at each step up included additional features, a base unit with builtin speech and modem capabilities to the high end unit with dual 5 1/4" floppy drives builtin. But computer time sped up and development delays forced cancelation of the 14xx series. Only a few pre-production pcbs and engineering units survived. Cut down versions with cheaper parts were finally released as the 600XL and 800XL.

Only build this board if you are serious about finishing it. There is no case at this time that fits this pcb and it is expensive to purchase parts for. I intend to redesign this version to fit a 1200XL case with more modern parts, no modem or RF out and hopefully additional features.

Description

After completing the 1450XL Replica board I realized that the 1450XL pcb was very close to the 1200XL in size. So much so that I decided to see what I could use from the 1450XL replica board in that format. As almost no one has a land line anymore and 300 baud speed is like watching paint dry, I chose to remove the modem feature. Also since there are no parallel drives or driver board to support that feature from the 1450XL I chose to also remove those parts. I also removed the RF modulator. That got the part count down enough to fit in the 1200XL pcb with some room to space. I added some additional features such as a Midi player and 800XL compatible PBI port, and hooks for the addin boards PokeyMax 2B/4, UGV II and Sophia. The PBI cutout should be the only mod you will need to do to the 1200XL case.

The 1250XL will fit a normal 1200XL case with the need to cut an opening for the PBI connector.

The 1250XL retains all the features of the 1450XL except for the builtin modem, PBI parallel drive connector and RF Modulator.

The 1250XL has builtin hookups for the following addin boards, PokeyMax 2B/4, U178 Midi Player, Sophia and UGV II.

The 1250XL has the ability to quickly be converted to PAL using the PALBurst board from @mytek, PAL OSC and PAL version ANTIC and GTIA chips. No soldering needed.

Description

This section is about the current only specific software for the unrealeased 14xxXL line of computers. It consists of a SALT cartridge to test various features of the 1400XL computers and a very basic terminal program that uses the speech chip to provide feedback on the progress of the communication attempt. The terminal cart will not work in a 1250XL/850XL original remix board. I have two basic versions of both to fit various styles of cartridge shells, currently a version of AtariGeezer's mod of a split 8K game cartridge and a replica of PixalPast 16K cart design. Currently both come in pcb forms for the AtariMax, AtariBrown and XESuper cartridge shells