Spectravideo CompuMate

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Atari 2600 Junior with CompuMate

The Spectravideo CompuMate SV-010 (translated: "Computer Companion") was an extension of the Atari 2600 game console and supplemented it to a rudimentary home computer . It was manufactured by Spectravideo and was first introduced in January 1983 in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show .

description

It consisted of a plug-in module with joystick cables and a cable-connected membrane keyboard that was reminiscent of the keyboard on the G7000 game console . The keyboard could be plugged together with the Atari and so the whole thing became a stable unit. This did not work with the Atari 2600 Junior because it had a smaller case. The plug-in module fit of Atari in the cartridge slot. Two cables with joystick plugs emerged from this module and had to be connected to the joystick ports. CompuMate had an interface for a cassette recorder to load and save programs and data.

With the Atari 2600, the home computer was equipped with a 6507 processor with a clock frequency of 1.18 MHz. In the plug-in module, about 1.75 kB of free working memory was available for programming and for the application data of the internal programs. The limited memory was enough for about 100 BASIC lines, which made serious programs impossible.

The 16 KB ROM was equipped with a rudimentary BASIC . It knew short commands that could be entered by pressing a key (basic tokens). The text mode was limited to 10 lines of 12 characters each. A drawing program and a music program were integrated. With the drawing program, the user could draw pictures with a resolution of 40 × 40 pixels and combine several pictures into an animation. The music program allowed melodies to be composed. To do this, the pitch and duration of each tone had to be entered in a list, which the system then processed sequentially.

In addition, some hardware expansions that could be connected to the Compumate should appear in October 1983 , such as micro disk , modem , memory expansions. However, out of concern to compete with the in-house home computers Atari 600 XL and Atari 800 XL , the additional hardware extensions were not published.

Miscellaneous

The CompuMate was offered in Germany by Quelle- Shipping under the house brand "Universum".

Atari itself offered the Atari 2600 Basic Programming module , which lagged far behind the CompuMate in terms of type and scope.

The CompuMate home computer extension is now a sought-after and expensive collector's item.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roger's Spectravideo page, Spectravideo timeline 1981-1988 . Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b Gamervision, CompuMate ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved January 4, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gamervision.com
  3. ↑ heimcomputer.de, Atari 2600 Heimcomputer (Compumate) . Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b c B. Jakubaschk, Atari VCS with Compumate module , 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  5. ↑ 8-bit nirvana, Spectravideo CompuMate . Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  6. ↑ RetroBude, Spectravideo CompuMate extension (SV-010) for Atari VCS . Retrieved January 4, 2013.
  7. ↑ http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2600/a3000.html The Atari "Graduate" Computer CX-3000
  8. ↑ http://www.atarimuseum.de/3000.htm Atari 3000 Graduate Computer
  9. ↑ [1] Atari 2600 home computer (Compumate). Retrieved March 15, 2014