I missed the first incognito board by a few weeks and am now tempted by the second round pre-order. As I can't seem to find an answer to the questions posed below I'd be grateful for any feedback.
To start, I don't use my Ataris regularly. They are mostly in basement storage and taken out rather infrequently. I mostly keet them for nostalgic reasons and to show my kids what computing was like when I was young (which I find doesn't interest them as much as I would have expected, but maybe that could change should they get more interested in the technical side of computing rather than viewing it as an entertainment appliance).
My 800 has no external modifications but is "pristine" internally as I added something like a SIO2PC devised by a German magazine to transer files when I "moved up" to an ST in the late 1980s. For lack of a SIO plug it is soldered to the motherboard (but can be hidden inside the case when not used.
While I find the Incognito board incredible and while it would kinda allow me to "vindicate" my 800 by allowing it to do the (few) things it could not match when the XLs arrived, it would be more of a "can do" thing than something improving my daily work, etc.
So I am torn between keeping a "pristine" 800 in all its early 1980s glory or giving it all the power available. The best solution would probably be to get another 800 and modify it but PAL 800s are so rare that they hardly ever show up on EBay, let alone thrift stores and while there are more on EBay US and NTSC wouldn't be such a problem giving modern TVs, shipping that heavy die-cast frame would set me back almost 100 USD (just missed a "steal" at an auction because of 2-300 USD shipping).
Any thoughts welcome.
To start, I don't use my Ataris regularly. They are mostly in basement storage and taken out rather infrequently. I mostly keet them for nostalgic reasons and to show my kids what computing was like when I was young (which I find doesn't interest them as much as I would have expected, but maybe that could change should they get more interested in the technical side of computing rather than viewing it as an entertainment appliance).
My 800 has no external modifications but is "pristine" internally as I added something like a SIO2PC devised by a German magazine to transer files when I "moved up" to an ST in the late 1980s. For lack of a SIO plug it is soldered to the motherboard (but can be hidden inside the case when not used.
While I find the Incognito board incredible and while it would kinda allow me to "vindicate" my 800 by allowing it to do the (few) things it could not match when the XLs arrived, it would be more of a "can do" thing than something improving my daily work, etc.
So I am torn between keeping a "pristine" 800 in all its early 1980s glory or giving it all the power available. The best solution would probably be to get another 800 and modify it but PAL 800s are so rare that they hardly ever show up on EBay, let alone thrift stores and while there are more on EBay US and NTSC wouldn't be such a problem giving modern TVs, shipping that heavy die-cast frame would set me back almost 100 USD (just missed a "steal" at an auction because of 2-300 USD shipping).
Any thoughts welcome.