Unboxing a 1984 Atari Peripheral, 25 Years Later

Harry writes "When you come across a 1984 Atari Touch Tablet for sale cheap--in the original, unopened box--it would be a crime against computer history not to buy it, open it, install it, and use it, and to document the whole process with photos and commentary."

Comments

...no

[RMH101]

...it would be a crime not to put it on eBay untouched for some fool to pay through the nose for it.
Jesus, I mean, come on. This sort of story isn't helping with changing perception of geeks, is it?

Re:...no

[RaceProUK]

I always thought geeks loved to play with arcane tech, making this an ideal story.

Re:...no

[Extremus]

True! Haha! Sometimes I have the impression that some geeks want to do the same thing to their first girl.

Re:...no

[CRiMSON]

Then you thought wrong, Yay you managed to plug-in and use something from 1984.. Congrats... Errr?

Re:...no

[Anonymous Coward]

your heart must not be *truly* klingon.

Re:...no

[interval1066]

I probably would have considered the same thing. However I thought it was a marvelous article, lots of fun. I just loved the sample artwork on the touchpad's box. Simply awful. If that was the main selling point, that you could create junk like that, it should have died the death it did. However I thought the article itself was a lot of fun.

Re:...no

[hesiod]

Sounds more Ferengi to me.

Re:...no

[FatdogHaiku]

This sort of story isn't helping with changing perception of geeks, is it?

Should geeks really care about how people perceive them? If that were the case I would think we would be going out of our way to not be seen as geeks in the first place. When you are lucky enough to find something that is a delight, rejoice in it and screw what people think...

Re:...no

[RSKennan]

Dude, you're posting in Slashdot.

14 pages...

[fyleow]

14 pages for 14 535 x 383 resolution pictures. Ugh.

Re:14 pages...

[jandrese]

Don't forget that you also get an average of 30 words per page to go with the picture.

Re:14 pages...

[Amazing Quantum Man]

All but one comment on the site itself about the article were bitching about that. I, like many of the posters there, decided to forgo pages 2-14.

Re:14 pages...

[Bieeanda]

No kidding. It's not a weblog, it's an ad farm.

Re:14 pages...

[Guysmiley777]

Does that include the text of all the ads?

Re:14 pages...

[A. B3ttik]

On the first page, I just open up tabs of all of the other pages. By the time I'm done with page 2, all of the other pages have loaded and I can cycle through them just as quickly as I could through a slideshow.

Re:14 pages...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget that you also get an average of 30 words per page to go with the picture.

What a dickhead. I can't believe blogs are doing this

Re:14 pages...

[Genrou]

And all the pictures are of the type: "This is the front of the box", "This is the right side of the box", "This is the right side of the box, but you can also see the front of the box", "This is the front of the box, but you can also see the right of the box". I was really hoping that the last picture were of the Spanish Inquisition. But, alas, I was expecting it...

Re:14 pages...

[amias]

tagged with ohnoitstechnologizer

Re:14 pages...

[dufachi]

Lucky me I have adblock plus installed. No ads for me, but the low-res images are quite lame for someone who professes to be a real geek.

Re:14 pages...

[elrous0]

In their defense, the page is being hosted on a Commodore 64. Every time you click on to the next page, they have to swap out discs.

Re:14 pages...

[SilverJets]

I stopped at page 3. Oh a picture of the back of the box and 2 sentences. Wow journalism at its finest!

Re:14 pages...

[GarrettZilla]

Count your blessings. A page on the Atari 800 was only 256 bytes.

Re:14 pages...

[Daimanta]

True, they put adseeds in the ground in the beginning of autumn and harvest them late junuary. My great-great uncle had an adfarm and since he lived in a small village in the proximity of my aunt I used to pass his farm. Every winter I look and feel an inner sense of joy looking at huge tracts of fully-grown ads.

Atari touch tablet

[Anonymous Coward]

Big deal. Hardhack for x86 or GTFO.

Annoying format.

[martinw89]

I happen to RTFAs, but I can't stand the image-and-a-few-sentences-per-page format. Especially when each page has to load a bunch of pictures and javascript. I can stand it when these slideshows open up a new window with only the slideshow's content, but this is too annoying.

Re:Annoying format.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://blog.andreineculau.com/2008/06/repagination/

Now your problem is solved, as long as developers use increasing page numbers as their way to separate paged content.

Re:Annoying format.

[MyLongNickName]

Yeah. Exactly what I was looking for. An extension to Firefox that doesn't work with Firefox 3 and hasn't been actively worked on since 2006. Witness the power of open source!

Re:Annoying format.

[gstone]

Although it's not perfect, I use the repagination plugin for firefox to render articles like this one all on one page.

Re:Annoying format.

[shinier]

Yes, the power of open source being you can update it yourself! If it were closed, that'd really be that.

Re:Annoying format.

[Feanturi]

So the power of open source is to deny someone a life outside their parents' basement? We're talking regular users here, being given the "option" of learning to code and then spending all-nighters on said activity that has entirely nothing to do with their actual personally-chosen lifestyle. Yeah that's pretty compelling.

Re:Annoying format.

[antdude]

So do what I do since I hate slides too... Click on the each page number into tabs in background. Then, use ctrl-w to close each one when done. :)

Instead of annoying slides with ads, how about making subscription accounts that show all pictures in one page and no ads? I am sure some people would willing to pay for that.

Re:Annoying format.

[Cowmonaut]

Remember kids, Open Source is only potentially better than Closed Source. If you aren't a developer (or decent amateur programmer) a program that is Open Source and not on your platform or hasn't been worked on actively for a while is just as useless as an unsupported and outdated Closed Source application.

Collector's Item

[LateArthurDent]

I always thought geeks loved to play with arcane tech, making this an ideal story.

We do, but that's what used arcane tech is for. You see the huge deal about this being an unopened box? It's now no longer an unopened box, and he ruined a perfectly good collectible.

Re:Collector's Item

[PotatoFarmer]

Or maybe he's attempting to combat the idea that something should have greatly increased value just because nobody ever bothered to use it before.

Re:Collector's Item

[LateArthurDent]

Or maybe he's attempting to combat the idea that something should have greatly increased value just because nobody ever bothered to use it before.

Anyone trying to do that fails by definition. Things have value because people give it value, not through decision by committee.

Basically, even if you don't think it makes sense that "something should have greatly increased value just because nobody ever bothered to use it before" the fact that other people are actually willing to pay more because nobody ever bothered to use it before is enough reason for you not to use it. You can sell it to those people for the price they are willing to pay and maximize your profits. Any other decision is illogical.

Re:Collector's Item

[cthulu_mt]

Kind of like that girl selling her virginity for $3 mil. I think I'd rather have the Atari.

Re:Collector's Item

[TopShelf]

No, it is completely logical if the utility that you gain by enjoying the use of the item exceeds the utility you would have gotten from the money gained by auctioning it to the highest bidder.

Re:Collector's Item

[LateArthurDent]

No, it is completely logical if the utility that you gain by enjoying the use of the item exceeds the utility you would have gotten from the money gained by auctioning it to the highest bidder.

Not really. You can sell to the highest bidder, buy a cheaper used product, and still get all the enjoyment of using it AS well as getting a profit. Win-win.

If you're going to argue that there's a greater utility to opening the box and using the new product, then you are admitting that the unopened box is worth more.

Re:Collector's Item

[idontgno]

Hey, wait, are we talking about tulips?

You know, oddly enough, making teh bux isn't the most important thing in life. If I get my hands on a new-in-box peripheral for one of my older computers, screw resale. I'm opening the box, hooking it up, and using it. That's the real value.

Frankly, the entire "minty-mint" collection mania is pathological. The perceived sale value boils down to "how much can I fleece a clueless schlub for?". And that's illogical.

Re:Collector's Item

[berend botje]

Thinking like this (maximizing profit, despite having enough already) is what killed our economy.

Not really kidding either.

Just enjoy the things you have and don't be so obsessed with amassing ever more.

Re:Collector's Item

[pla]

No, it is completely logical if the utility that you gain by enjoying the use of the item exceeds the utility you would have gotten from the money gained by auctioning it to the highest bidder.

Except that the former doesn't depend on its unopenedness, while he could have sold it, and bought a dozen used ones just to play with via the latter.

Then again, how much money does this really involve? Probably not even in the hundreds of dollars, so the hassle of selling it and rebuying a used one probably outweighs just playing with the one he found.

Re:Collector's Item

[LateArthurDent]

Hey, wait, are we talking about tulips [wikipedia.org]?

Not exactly. It's not that there's a bubble that inflates the price of the unopened peripheral due to speculation. It's that the unopened box is always demonstrably worth more than the opened box. It's a limited supply thing. There are less unopened tablets then there are open ones. By opening up you are literally removing value.

You know, oddly enough, making teh bux isn't the most important thing in life. If I get my hands on a new-in-box peripheral for one of my older computers, screw resale. I'm opening the box, hooking it up, and using it. That's the real value.

Do you not see the flaw in your reasoning, though? If the real value to you is in the use of the tablet, then you wouldn't mind buying an used one that does the same thing. However, since other people value the mint condition device and are willing to pay you more for it then you are denying others of what they want and denying yourself the different in price between the mint condition product and the used product you want to hook up to your computer. If you sell it, both you and the buyer get more out of it.

Frankly, the entire "minty-mint" collection mania is pathological. The perceived sale value boils down to "how much can I fleece a clueless schlub for?". And that's illogical.

That's not true. It's not always a clueless schlub, sometimes you're selling it to the guy who doesn't want to resell it AND doesn't want to open it. The final collector. I collect some stuff that I never intend to resell, not for profit but because I want it. It has value to me, and who are you to tell me I shouldn't value it if I'm willing to pay for it?

Re:Collector's Item

[FatdogHaiku]

The mint condition thing is what separates collectors from people that save everything (i.e. severe OCD)... not that collectors don't get obsessive. As for the:

"how much can I fleece a clueless schlub for?"

How dare you denigrate the Congressional Credo!
;^)

Re:Collector's Item

[pleappleappleap]

Then why do people like buying new cars? Using a new device can be better than using a well-worn device.

Re:Collector's Item

[ZarathustraDK]

Or maybe he's attempting to combat the idea that something should have greatly increased value just because nobody ever bothered to use it before.

Damnit, I already unboxed the Zune-demo I got from work...

Re:Collector's Item

[idontgno]

This is clearly a clash of value systems. And, although my value are mostly utilitarian, that's not consistently so. My GP comment has a clue to the inconsistency: "older systems". Yup, I collect old personal computers and software. That's not rational from a pragmatic POV. But, OTOH, I actually use them. I wouldn't pay collector NIB NOS prices for, say, an Amiga 1000. (Pretend such a thing could legitimately be found. Besides, I still have mine from 1986.)

Again, if you or another collector gets a warm fuzzy feeling looking at your sealed 1977 Kenner Luke Skywalker figure, great. Me, I'd wanna play with the thing.

So, in the realm of serendipitous discoveries of neat old tech toys: If I find a nifty piece of retrotech that I can play with, at a price I consider reasonable solely on the "play" value, I'm buying. And using. If that destroys it from your perspective, so be it. I'm getting what I value out of it. If you want it, for whatever your reasons, you'd better find it first.

Re:Collector's Item

[idontgno]

I'd still much rather have this than this.. Because using a well-worn device of distinctive and legendary quality, class, and style can be better than a new device of derivative, trite, and unexciting quality.

Or to put it another way, "They just don't make 'em like that anymore."

Re:Collector's Item

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not true. It's not always a clueless schlub, sometimes you're selling it to the guy who doesn't want to resell it AND doesn't want to open it. The final collector.

Which is pathological. The accumulation of things you're never going to use or touch, is by definition pointless.

Re:Collector's Item

[macraig]

Frankly, the entire "minty-mint" collection mania is pathological. The perceived sale value boils down to "how much can I fleece a clueless schlub for?". And that's illogical.

That is what socialists call subjective valuation. It's a natural instinctive behavior for all mammals, and it's at the core of capitalism; capitalism wouldn't be what it is without it, concentration of wealth and all. Socialists identify it as a key ethical failing of all human economies, and set voluntary adoption of objective valuation of goods AND labor as a primary goal of a cooperative, rather than competitive, economic system. We haven't evolved to a point yet where a pure socialist economy is possible; Communism tried to use the government to create that economy through force, and that failed miserably. Our own (American) economy uses varying degrees of force and threat of force to impose socialistic controls and limits on our economy, with varying degrees of failure. It has to be collectively voluntary or it's hardly more ethical. We're not there yet.

Re:Collector's Item

[Hatta]

Because it's a status symbol.

Re:Collector's Item

[ABCC]

Alternatively you could unbox the thing, giggle as you imagine all the collector peens howl out in agony of the opened box, take a bunch of pics of the whole process and put them online so the same peens can ogle the illicitly treated item AND pay you more in ads than you'd ever get for the thing.... Let's face it, unboxing collectables is no different to rape porn

Re:Collector's Item

[Anonymous Coward]

so you derive pleasure from destroying value? you fail at economics

Re:Collector's Item

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe this phenomenon is known as "Scarcity Principle" (or, value, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity_value]).
At least it was explained in detail in the "Influence Book" (psychology of persuasion or whatever the full name was). The idea is that human psychology tends to place inordinate amount of extra value to things perceived as rare, because it is implied that rare must be good.

... and yes, it's probably good to fight this automated response, at least at individual level.

Re:Collector's Item

[pushing-robot]

Thinking like this (maximizing profit, despite having enough already) is what killed our economy.

Yes, but it also birthed it.

Re:Collector's Item

[Faylone]

When I eat an apple, I may destroy the apple, but it's totally worthless to me just staring at it.

Re:Collector's Item

[commodore64_love]

On the other hands, finding shiny-new apples is easy.

Finding a shiny-new Apple Touch Tablet will become impossible after the last one is unboxed. When something is common, sure go ahead and open it up, but if something is rare (like a never-opened C64 or IBM PC) you should try to preserve it in that state for future generations.

Re:Collector's Item

[Golddess]

Do you not see the flaw in your reasoning, though? If the real value to you is in the use of the tablet, then you wouldn't mind buying an used one that does the same thing. However, since other people value the mint condition device and are willing to pay you more for it then you are denying others of what they want and denying yourself the different in price between the mint condition product and the used product you want to hook up to your computer. If you sell it, both you and the buyer get more out of it.

Perhaps they also derived pleasure from the knowledge that there is one less of these out in the wild that would have otherwise sat on someone's shelf not doing anything.

I know for me, that pleasure was priceless when I bought an unopened copy of Sonic CD for the Sega CD off of eBay just a few years ago. The reaction of some random person on the internet when I told them that continues to give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Re:Collector's Item

[LateArthurDent]

I know for me, that pleasure was priceless when I bought an unopened copy of Sonic CD for the Sega CD off of eBay just a few years ago. The reaction of some random person on the internet when I told them that continues to give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Fair enough. That would be a very logical (even if strangely sadistic) choice. However, you should realize that by doing that you're not actually proving me wrong. On the contrary, you're arguing in my favor.

You could have bought a used and opened copy of Sonic CD for less money. Instead, you were willing to pay more for an unopened box in order to annoy random people on the internet and get a "warm, fuzzy feeling." By doing this, not only you acknowledge that the unopened box has more value to others (since they wouldn't get upset otherwise), but you acknowledge that it has more value to you

Of course, I suspect that you didn't actually get your unopened copy for that purpose (probably got a good deal, and it was rather cheap), and telling people about it was just a bonus. However, that bonus only exists because other people value it more. And the bonus you got from the purchase is one that you wouldn't have gotten from a used copy, so again, it had greater value to you.

Re:Collector's Item

[dangitman]

If you're going to argue that there's a greater utility to opening the box and using the new product, then you are admitting that the unopened box is worth more.

Well, if you read the article, the author clearly gained enjoyment from opening the box:

"It's incredibly satisfying to open up product packaging sealed some 25 years before. Like bubbles of atmospheric gas encased in Cretaceous amber, there's authentic 1984 Atari factory air trapped inside every box. They say that if you twist your nose just right during a full moon, you can even smell a hint of Nolan Bushnell's Old Spice."

It's also possible that the author made more money by writing and publishing his experience, than would have been gained by reselling.

Re:Collector's Item

[ZosX]

How could you pass up on the 1969 427 Stingray? They just don't make them like that anymore....

I did drive an 03 Corvette and I will say that they are very, very nice and pretty quick off the line nothing really beats a classic. Lots of parts still around for those early muscle cars and the best part is that you don't have to deal with fancy complicated parts breaking like electronic ignition, fuel injection, ABS, etc. You just need an air gun, a good set of sockets and some pretty deep pockets. :)

Re:Collector's Item

[Meski]

No, it is completely logical if the utility that you gain by enjoying the use of the item exceeds the utility you would have gotten from the money gained by auctioning it to the highest bidder.

Not really. You can sell to the highest bidder, buy a cheaper used product, and still get all the enjoyment of using it AS well as getting a profit. Win-win.

If you're going to argue that there's a greater utility to opening the box and using the new product, then you are admitting that the unopened box is worth more.

But by opening the box, you're increasing the value of all the remaining unopened boxes.

- Buy 5 x n unopened boxes of something rare that isn't being produced.
- Open 4 x n and drink them[1]
- Sell remaining box for more than the 5 boxes cost
- Profit!

[1] Grange Hermitage works for me. http://www.nicks.com.au/index.aspx?link_id=67.700

Re:Collector's Item

[OwnedByTwoCats]

What is the objective value of fresh water?

One value, and it has to be the same for a village on the edge of a desert as it is for survivors of a shipwreck in an overloaded lifeboat in the middle of Lake Superior.

Objective value is a destructive myth.

Re:Collector's Item

[Golddess]

You're right, I didn't buy it for that purpose, that was merely a bonus.

And just to clarify, no where was I trying to state that it did not have value. I was merely trying to point out how opening and using it could have a higher value to someone than if they sold it for a substantial profit, bought a used one for significantly less, and used that instead.

Re:Collector's Item

[Mr. Slippery]

It's that the unopened box is always demonstrably worth more than the opened box.

Always demonstrably? Please then, demonstrate that 1984 Atari Touch Tablets NRFB have a higher value than open-box units in the current market. Cite me some sale figures.

Re:Collector's Item

[macraig]

No, it's not a myth. You're trying to mis-frame the discussion. Water COULD have a differing objective value in different places or circumstances, depending upon the actual difficulty in obtaining it. Contrast that with bakeries in California during the Gold Rush, who were charging the miners $2 a loaf for bread not because that in any way represented what it cost them to make it, rather because it represented abuse of what the prospectors could pay.

You're trying to defend Darwinian supply and demand with a non sequitur; did you learn that trick in school? Why would you defend supply and demand, unless you are in fact a selfish creature who actually wants to preserve its right to abuse and disadvantage other people to its benefit?

Objective valuation is not a "myth", it's PREscriptive. Supply and demand is DEscriptive. One is a statement of how things are, the other a statement of how we would like them to be. Well, some of us decent folks, anyway, you excepted.

Re:Collector's Item

[bjb]

For someone else one day to say "to heck with it" and rip the packaging open.

Alternatively, you could leave it sealed forever until someone decides to do magnetic resonance imaging of the contents COMPLETELY wiping out the contents of the Atari DOS disk. (You insensitive clod)

I am so excite!

[qoncept]

But the software was pretty decent for 1984, and I considered myself proud to have known the Touch Tablet in its authentic Atari glory.

He forgot to mention how completely worthless it is now and was the day it was made.

Collector's value

[Anonymous Coward]

When you come across a 1984 Atari Touch Tablet for sale cheap--in the original, unopened box--it would be a crime against computer history not to buy it, open it, install it, and use it, and to document the whole process with photos and commentary.

Can you hear it? Thousands of collector's voices screaming in mutual anguish.

Re:Collector's value

[oldspewey]

Worst ... decision ... ever! [/comicbookguy]

Re:Collector's value

[Ragzouken]

When do collectors finally open the box?

Allow me to add something

[Corpuscavernosa]

"it would be a crime against computer history not to buy it, open it, install it, and use it" AND install Linux on it. :)

Re:Allow me to add something

[b1t r0t]

That's Lunix, you insensitive clod!

Arcane Game

[theredshoes]

Reading this I just thought about all of the hours I wasted when I was little playing Breakout. I didn't even remember that they sold something like this back in 1984. I remember the Amigas from junior high in the late 80's, I spent some time playing with the graphics tablet, this brings back some deep computer memories I completely forgot. I wasn't even into computers again until I was about 25.

I liked them in my childhood, then I went away for a long time, I barely used a computer except to type up a paper because I had to use them and I found my love again for them 1995, which lasted a good ten years or so or so and then it was ruined again around 2005. I am starting to love computers again now though. That is probably why I will never be a true "geek" or whatever you want to call it, I didn't stick with it consistently.

-"I am a computer's fair weather friend."-

It's been 24 years and the floppy still worked?

[puddles]

They sure don't make 'em like they used to. None of my 3.5" floppies would survive more than a couple of formats, and I'd be lucky to be able to read them on more than, what, 3 or 4 different machines.

Re:It's been 24 years and the floppy still worked?

[Peron]

The software wasn't on floppies. It was on cartridge.

Re:It's been 24 years and the floppy still worked?

[puddles]

Ah, going back and re-reading the actual text this time I realized it said the floppy was probably used to save images.

Diluted content, diluted adspace

[dazedNconfuzed]

Not only is the content distributed among 14 pages in bite-size pieces, but those pieces take up roughly 1/72nd of the page space allocated. Along with the much-lamented dilution of content across excessive pages, do advertisers realize that their paid-for links may be up to 10 page-downs below the article?

...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlantic

[pushing-robot]

That belongs in a museum!

Woah now.

[The Real Nem]

I'm using my 1984 Atari Touch Tablet you insensitive clod; one 535 x 383 resolution picture per page is a lot to ask for.

I loved mine!

[Quiet_Desperation]

The touch tablet led to me creating the first decent computer art I ever did as a kid. I even used it with a drawing program that I wrote in Atari BASIC. Wow. Feeling old now. I hate nostalgia stories like this. :-(

Re:I loved mine!

[theredshoes]

Me too. :) I am about the same age, it doesn't make me feel old, it makes me laugh. :) Hey I enjoyed all of the hours I spent playing around on the graphics tablet Amigas in the computer "cluster" at school. I don't know if you remember that, in PA in the eighties my junior high called a computer lab a computer cluster. We didn't say hey, I am going to the lab, we said we are going to the cluster.

Now that makes me feel old, they changed the terminology. And the fact that we had like maybe 15 Amigas and another 10 Apple computers probably just from memory for a junior high of 500 kids. It was not that big of a room. LOL

Re:I loved mine!

[Nimey]

Do you remember the KoalaPad? That's what I had on my Apple //c back then.

Re:I loved mine!

[domatic]

I believe these devices were compatible as there was a version of the KoalaPad for the A8 and the C-64 as well. I had a couple of KoalaPads secondhand. The input layer seemed prone to losing it's sensitivity and you had to just about bore a grove in it to get it to register.

Re:I loved mine!

[SCHecklerX]

Same memory came back to me, but it was with a TRS-80 coco and its touch tablet, which was really just a grid of buttons. Ahhh, memories.

Re:I loved mine!

[SwellJoe]

I just bought a Koala and a Commodore 64 on eBay this week. I've been feeling nostalgic of late, and started making chiptunes using VICE and GoatTracker (a SID composition tool for Linux and Windows), and got to thinking that I'd enjoy tinkering with the real thing. Saw the Koala going for like eight bucks on eBay and couldn't resist.

The real crime is...

[cayle clark]

...opening a sealed original package. Cut its value on the collectibles market by 50%, easy.

The Computer History Museum has one of these but it is not in original packaging. Original packaging, even when opened, greatly adds to the historic, research (and sale) value.

Re:The real crime is...

[Ragzouken]

What historic or research value does the box being unopened add in this case?

Re:The real crime is...

[idontgno]

None, of course, unless we're going to pretend there's some archaeology-grade research activity going on in computer museum collections. And even that analogy is faulty; I don't believe that Egyptologists even fantasize about finding 9th Dynasty new-old stock.

Naah, this is just collector angst. Apparently, they think a sealed box gathering dust has greater utility than, say, the actual utility of the artifact in question.

Re:The real crime is...

[Anonymous Coward]

It would allow scientists to observe and record the original birthing process of an Atari Touch Tablet. There are all sorts of cultural and physiological things we could learn about them, as they are a very rare species; even the much more common, superficially similar, unboxing process has had little rigorous scientific study done.

Re:The real crime is...

[Hatta]

Is this kind of thing really in demand by anyone though? I have a NIB Atari 5200 Trakball from 1983. That's earlier than the peripheral in this article. Am I sitting on a gem that deserves to be preserved for future generations? What is the privilege of taking care of this artifact worth? Anyone out there want to buy it and preserve it? Or should I open it up and get on the front page of ./?

Re:The real crime is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheesh, you guys are acting like he scribbled on the cover of a Guttenberg Bible. Or Action Comics #1. This thing is a collectible to some, but come on, it's not all that valuable. Maybe he could have sold it to a collector for $200, maybe a little more? He chose not to, and got an interesting story for his blog and a toy to play with. Good for him. Though I do wish he'd have put it all on one page.

Also, of what value is an unopened package? To anyone other than an obsessive hoarder I mean. I don't see how that adds greatly to the "research" value.

Re:The real crime is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...opening a sealed original package. Cut its value on the collectibles market by 50%, easy.

This guy not only has the tablet, but a working system to run it on. I'd say he IS the collectibles market.

Re:The real crime is...

[SwellJoe]

I've been shopping for old computer crap on eBay lately (for nostalgia rather than collectibility), and I suspect your 1983 NIB Atari 5200 trackball would bring ten, maybe fifteen bucks (but I haven't been shopping for Atari game gear, so I'm really guessing). If ten or fifteen bucks, and reclaiming the space it takes up in your house, is worth more than the trackball to you, you should sell it. Part of the fun of these old machines and things is that they are dramatically cheaper than when we were kids. We couldn't have every cool peripheral and game back then, because it would have been cost prohibitive. Today, with stuff going for tens of dollars, even things that were very expensive back then, we can pick up just about anything we like and satisfy those old lingering curiosities. And, then, when we get bored with it...pass it on to someone else at about the same low price.

Re:The real crime is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Naah, this is just collector angst. Apparently, they think a sealed box gathering dust has greater utility than, say, the actual utility of the artifact in question.

When the artifact in question has no more utility than the box (e.g. star wars figures) the point is moot.

One Paragraph Per Page

[stoicio]

There needs to be more warning that it's one of those paragraph per page
advertising sites. I looked at the first page and then came back to slashdot.

Re:One Paragraph Per Page

[Anonymous Coward]

There needs to be more warning
about posts that have forced
carriage returns for no reason
whatsoever.

Re:One Paragraph Per Page

[Anonymous Coward]

I have sent an email of complaint to technologizer.com about this.

Well, fifteen emails actually.
It takes quite a few when you only put a couple of lines in each one.

Re:One Paragraph Per Page

[ildon]

The warning was that it linked to technologizer.com. Every article I've seen on that site is just a string of lame pictures with even lamer (and often vapid or inaccurate) commentary. And usually the premise is actually interesting, making it even more disappointing when you actually follow the link.

Re:One Paragraph Per Page

[sponga]

Yah I went to the link and saw the page of ads, with one picture per page.

Than I came back to Slashdot and big picture ads in between the comments.

Ahhh, I can't get away from it.

Re:One Paragraph Per Page

[QuietYou]

Better yet, stop linking to these crappy sites.

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[HTH NE1]

We have top men working on it now.

Didn't they have a goofy name?

[Gizzmonic]

My computer teacher in the early 80's had a weird name for touch panels-something like Koala pad? Does anyone remember that?

Re:Didn't they have a goofy name?

[fishbowl]

>Koala pad? Does anyone remember that?

Sure. It was supposedly "low cost" but when we were working for $3.35/hr, nothing was low cost. Later, I got my hands on an X-Pad and a TRS-80 Color Computer - that was pretty neat. I wasn't until 2008 that I ever had another tablet, a Wacom Bamboo.

Re:Didn't they have a goofy name?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it was part of the Koala paint package. My father had it for the Atari 400. The hardware had a touch pad, two large buttons, and a stylus.

He taught me how to use it; explaining that drawing a line was like stretching a rubber band. Because of his analogy, i was always afraid to make the lines too long for fear they would snap.

Re:Didn't they have a goofy name?

[krakelohm]

Yes... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad/Painter

Re:Didn't they have a goofy name?

[krakelohm]

Sorry to reply to myself but I recall using Fantavision http://apple2.callapple.org/magazines/aar/fanvision.html with a Koala on the Apple II. Gotta love it.

Re:Didn't they have a goofy name?

[Cookie3]

Sounds like it was actually the name of a product back then, from 1984. Check out Wikipedia regarding it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad/Painter

I also remember hearing it called that.

Yeah but does it run Linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

I clicked the link hoping to see documentation of a project to get the tablet working on modern hardware and software.

Instead he just hooked it up to the device it was designed for, and took lots of pictures of the packaging.

I was also disappointed to read that he disposed of the warranty card. I would have been much more impressed if he'd filled it in and sent it off.

Boring.

Here is your peice of herring

[linzeal]

People if you want real breaking science and engineering news try Eureka Alerts, no forum but at least they don't pull shit like this every other week. For the sake of god there isn't even a printable version on 95% of the ad farming websites anymore because they know we would link to it. Who has time to click a page 14 times like a trained seal for a piece of tinned herring? Speaking of herring there is a technically inclined one that does not link to ad farms. Seriously, Slashdot editors if you read this, you know we are all using Adblock Plus, well at least I have ever since your animated banners showed up, do you really think we of all people would tolerate linking to a page like this? I honestly used to look forward to being able to click on your ads after reading the article because they were mostly unobtrusive, often fun and half the time relevant but I am physically incapable of reading something on a page that has animations without frustration and discomfort. I mean who can honestly absorb a significant amount of information that way? It is the Power Point presentation level of discourse, the executive summary level of detail and the blasé attitude from site administrators that their visitors would tolerate something they would not because it sells 1% more ad dollars for 10x the ads that sickens me to the point of loathing and disgust. Grrrr!

Re:Here is your peice of herring

[hesiod]

Who has time to click a page 14 times

Someone who has the time to read the first page of it, read comments about the page, and then spend five minutes constructing a complain explaining why he wouldn't click "next"?

Re:Here is your peice of herring

[linzeal]

I would like to think of my time spent toiling at the keyboard for those long difficult minutes as time spent genuinely reflecting on the state of the industry, you know like Martin Luther pondering his theses before nailing them to the church door. I mean church, tavern and brothel doors were 16th century forums. Too bad only the church postings were archived properly. God, is this going to be archived?

Re:Here is your peice of herring

[hesiod]

Fair enough. Posting is certainly more constructive than reading about quarter-century-old tech.

Just curious

[bbbaldie]

Was the point of this particular Slashdotting about the content of the article, or the outrage at the way in which it was presented? -- It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim! He's dead, Jim! He's dead, Jim!

It worked like 2 serial paddles...

[Anonymous Coward]

It worked like 2 serial paddles, one being the X and one the Y value. I had one of these when I was 10, and I tried to make a drum machine in Atari Basic with it. Since the Atari 800XL had 4-note polyphonic (pretty advanced for its time!), I tried to divide the touch tablet up into 4 quadrants for 4 different sounds.

The pitfall was that when you touched something in the (0,0) corner, then touched something in the (255, 255) range, it would drag between the values for a split second, so to make a drum machine practical, you had to delay the sound by x amount so it actually played the sound that you wanted, or live with the extra sounds it made, which didn't make it very practical!

I'm sure it was probably my lack of programming ability at fault (even though it was probably better then that it is now!).

AtariArtist rules! Thanks for the memories!

I'm going to go play Bruce Lee and Behind Jaggi Lines now...

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[Anonymous Coward]

That belongs in a museum!

You belong in a museum!

Old Spice or Old "Old Spice" TM?

[changos]

I do not wish to smell either one.

This is not worth mentioning!

[erroneus]

Show me a blog or article walking through a hack adapting the device for use under modern PC hardware and I'll look more closely. This is just "retro computing" and while it is a little interesting, it isn't THAT interesting. We get it. In the old days, we thought it was awesome and now it looks worse than pathetic.

Wire up a USB connector and write a driver to support it under Mac OSX, Linux and Windows.

Re:This is not worth mentioning!

[will_die]

Yea,
Here I was expecting to see something like that and I all got after all the clicks was some guy plugging an Atari peripheral into an Atari computer.
Make yourself famous record a video of yourself plugging a PS/2 mouse into a computer and using it with Vista.

Re:This is not worth mentioning!

[Anonymous Coward]

You fail at staying in character. A real jock would say something like "Fucking nerds always playing their old shit, fuck that I have Xbox 360 and I'll spill my Joose all over your shitty old Atari bullshit!"

Re:This is not worth mentioning!

[domatic]

Wire up a USB connector and write a driver to support it under Mac OSX, Linux and Windows.

It can be done. The Touch Tablet shows up as a pair of paddle controllers. The following device will therefore cause it to show up as two joystick axes:

http://www.atariage.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=267

Re:This is not worth mentioning!

[Fred Foobar]

Wire up a USB connector and write a driver to support it under Mac OSX, Linux and Windows.

While it's not for the Atari tablet (and also not USB), a couple of years ago I made an adapter for my Commodore KoalaPad to connect it to the PC joystick port: http://unixplumber.livejournal.com/14324.html

By the way, I wonder if there's a way to use a joystick as a core pointer in X... I guess it's Google time!

Worst Joke ever in TFA

[changos]

"and "K-line" was married to Britney Spears. Or was that K-Fed? "

easter egg

[jsh1972]

I remember finding my first easter egg on this... when you click on the atari logo in the upper left corner of the menu screen, it played the atari theme music. good times...

Tablets in 1984?

[silentquasar]

...and yet somehow the tablet I sign at the grocery store still butchers my signature. Yeesh.

Anonymous Coward.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it was a brand name.

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[skeeto]

Who?

Ad Hits

[Anonymous Coward]

Those pages are buried in ads. How many ad hits do you think that guy is getting paid for? /. is turning into a first rate tool for moving traffic to income earning sites.

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[Themer]

TOP... MEN.

re: perception of geeks as clueless capitalists?

[macraig]

This guy didn't pay through the nose for it, though, did he? I'm a geek, but I'm also a socialist: I would never have agreed to buy it if it was unfairly priced, no matter how much I wanted it. Sure, it takes some willpower, but it ain't that hard. If the "valuation" is clearly subjective and anything but objective, just vote with your dollar and walk away and wait for it to be offered for a fair price.

Looks like I'm not alone

[BattyMan]

in wearying of having to click through a dozen or more pages to read an article that would fit on one or (maybe) two. Surely these morons can tell that we're using AdBlock anyway! This guy was heavily flamed in his discussion comments, 95% of which bitch about how thin his content really is.

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, we have Dr. Who on the case.

Profit?

[slapout]

1. Buy old computer peripheral SIB (Still in box)
2. Document opening and usage
3. Place on website w/ ads and promote
4. Get Slashdotted so that works still appear but pictures (and ads!) don't
5.
6. Profit

Re:Profit?

[Shadyman]

4. Get Slashdotted so that works still appear but pictures (and ads!) don't

No, That's just AdBlock Plus.

Re:Profit?

[Barterer]

7. Carefully put the peripheral back in box (BIB)
8. Place SIB ad on Ebay
9. Profit again!

Old tech only interests some...

[sjbe]

I always thought geeks loved to play with arcane tech, making this an ideal story.

Some do. Some don't. I fall into the don't category. I guess I'm not very sentimental. I love learning about history of it and admire how clever some of the solutions were in the face of the limitations of the day. There are some wonderful lessons to be learned. But I'm also old enough to have used some pretty arcane tech (by IT standards anyway) and I remember it's limitations well. There are very good reasons we don't use it anymore.

Personally it's not the tech but the information that I worry about. Old formats that we have lost the ability to read. The hardware exists to communicate and facilitate information. We can create new hardware but we can't always create new information.

Its been 24 years and the cartridge still worked?

[itsdapead]

The software wasn't on floppies. It was on cartridge.

A true geek would have opened the cartridge to see if it contained UV EPROMs or proper ROMs. EPROMs still working after 24 years would be fairly impressive, too...

Hey, I'm grateful he did it, and put it up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like everybody here only bothers to post a complaint. I agree it's thin on content and long on ads. I wouldn't have bothered if I were still using my 9.8K baud modem for sure. But I'm old enough to remember those days. I have what I guess you'd call the next generation atari, a 520 ST and, last time I checked a couple of years ago, it still worked.

In short, I enjoyed visiting the site, so thanks.

Don't mind the whining noise you hear

[Opportunist]

That's the outcry of collectors all over the planet crying over the opening of a 25 year old box.

Real cruelty would have been to invite them for the grand opening. I would have paid to see a video of their reaction.

Re:Don't mind the whining noise you hear

[Tempest_2084]

Actually, not really. Boxed Atari Touch Tablets are pretty easy to get. Places like Best Electronics and B&C Computers bought pallets of left over hardware when Atari went under and still sell them today. I have a sealed Touch Tablet in my own personal collection and paid a grand total of $20 for it.

Now opening a sealed Atari 815, that would be another story...

Re:Don't mind the whining noise you hear

[Opportunist]

If I had one, you'd find the video of me opening it on YouTube by now.

I never really got the NRFB craze. Things are made to be used. They are put in boxes to shelter them from damage during transport. Could anyone tell me the reasoning behind buying something just to put it on a shelf (make that, something that has a practical use besides being put on a shelf)?

I'm pretty sure the NRFB loonies are the same that value virginity for the same odd reason. Nobody opened it before, I can be first. Happened to me all the time. I just recently opened a bag of chips. For the very first time. I feel so special. Maybe I should have kept it closed, because now that bag is open and less valuable. But guess what, for me the opened bag is more valuable than the closed one, because now I got chips!

Re: perception of geeks as clueless capitalists?

[djp928]

Explain to me what an "objective" valuation is?

Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant

[antdude]

Is Indy a pushing robot now? No wonder Indy 4 movie was awful. [grin]

Link to all images

[gnu-sucks]

Simply:
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_XX.jpg?w=535&h=361

Where XX = 0 to 13.

Re: perception of geeks as clueless capitalists?

[macraig]

Even though I reinvented the term entirely on my own, I understand that Marx and others used the same term themselves, so there should be tons of articulate references to it via Google. I might not do its description justice. The difference hinges on the emotional versus the rational, that much at least I can say.

NICE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

"you cant photorealistically graft female breasts onto an elephant"

That statement is better than anything Barak Obama is going to come up with these next 4 years for sure. Classic Funny!

Why the long faces?

[Anonymous Coward]

Having road tested this multi-click adfest I can definitely say it exceeded my expectation. In fact is perfect for Home/Office.

links to photos without ads

[Bevan Collins]

http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_01.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_02.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_03.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_04.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_05.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_06.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_07.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_08.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_09.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_10.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_11.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_12.jpg
http://technologizer.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/atari_tablet_13.jpg

OMG!! I had one of those

[own_3]

the worst part is I can remember actually having one of those for my atari and playing some horrible space game.

it's a crime to open it

[Anonymous Coward]

look at the value of any original item, with original packaging, unopened adds 100% to the value. I have an unopened U2 20GB iPod, just waiting until the band breaks up. :)

You did what?

[dangitman]

I looked at the first page and then came back to slashdot.

Why leave in the first place?

70's, 80's products designed to last 25 years

[Anonymous Coward]

after that they degrade into toxic who-knows-farking-what. Good luck, and baby powder!

Damnit! I just got one, too

[Bill Kendrick]

I just bought one of these from B&C ComputerVision. It was also new-in-box, and is a very cool little device. My 2yo son likes having me draw things (usually octopuses) on our big TV. No Wacom drivers or X11 config to mess with. Don't even need to wait for it to boot up. Just click the power switch and you're drawing about 2 seconds later. :) (My brother had a Koala Pad for his C=64, and I was jealous... it wasn't compatible with my Atari. I'd have had to convince my parents to buy me the Atari flavor.)