When I was young and "balls to the walls" 8-bit in the 1980's, I loved modifying my 400/800 and 1200XL. Memory upgrades, multiple OS, Ramdisks with LED read/write enhancements. It was fun tinkering and learning about electronics. We showed off our mods at user groups and tried to one up each other.
Now, fast forward 30 years, I've come to appreciate the genius, classic lines and timeless design of the Atari 400, 800 and 1200XL. I must admit, I don't have the love for the 600/800XL and absolutely none for the XE line. They just do nothing for me and feel "C-64 ized". Back in the day, I did love the 800XL since I had a 1meg ICD MIO and that was the one and only time I ever had a use for the PBI. I thought the ATR-8000 was a much better choice than anything that used a PBI (my opinion). I actually used it for CP/M and ran 1.2Mb drives as 77 track 8" floppies.
Today, I only own a stock 800 and an almost stock 1200XL. The 1200XL has the 5Vdc fix, ClearPic 2 and a dual OS (OSB & 1200XL Rev 11). It does what I need. The 99% solution is good enough. What's the song say; "there aren't many things a man can't fix with $700 and a 30-06". I understand the cool factor of the Incognito and such, but for me, the stage of nostalgia I'm in, It feels more like vandalism than improvement. The original Atari's, the 400/800 and yes, I include the 1200XL are just masterpieces of engineering and quality constructed to stand the test of time (save the 1200XL keyboard mylar). I can fix the keyboards, but I don't expect anything else to break. To me they are classic and amazing "as is". It's all about the fun and memories. If you aren't enjoying it, you're doing it wrong.
Now, fast forward 30 years, I've come to appreciate the genius, classic lines and timeless design of the Atari 400, 800 and 1200XL. I must admit, I don't have the love for the 600/800XL and absolutely none for the XE line. They just do nothing for me and feel "C-64 ized". Back in the day, I did love the 800XL since I had a 1meg ICD MIO and that was the one and only time I ever had a use for the PBI. I thought the ATR-8000 was a much better choice than anything that used a PBI (my opinion). I actually used it for CP/M and ran 1.2Mb drives as 77 track 8" floppies.
Today, I only own a stock 800 and an almost stock 1200XL. The 1200XL has the 5Vdc fix, ClearPic 2 and a dual OS (OSB & 1200XL Rev 11). It does what I need. The 99% solution is good enough. What's the song say; "there aren't many things a man can't fix with $700 and a 30-06". I understand the cool factor of the Incognito and such, but for me, the stage of nostalgia I'm in, It feels more like vandalism than improvement. The original Atari's, the 400/800 and yes, I include the 1200XL are just masterpieces of engineering and quality constructed to stand the test of time (save the 1200XL keyboard mylar). I can fix the keyboards, but I don't expect anything else to break. To me they are classic and amazing "as is". It's all about the fun and memories. If you aren't enjoying it, you're doing it wrong.