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Unboxing a 1984 Atari Peripheral, 25 Years Later

Posted by timothy on from the depreciation-appreciation dept.

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."

120 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. ...no by RMH101 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...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?

    1. Re:...no by RaceProUK · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

      --
      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    2. Re:...no by Extremus · · Score: 2, Funny

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

    3. Re:...no by CRiMSON · · Score: 1

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

      --
      oogly boogly!
    4. Re:...no by interval1066 · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    5. Re:...no by hesiod · · Score: 1

      Sounds more Ferengi to me.

    6. Re:...no by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      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...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    7. Re:...no by RSKennan · · Score: 1

      Dude, you're posting in Slashdot.

  2. 14 pages... by fyleow · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    1. Re:14 pages... by jandrese · · Score: 4, Funny

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

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    2. Re:14 pages... by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    3. Re:14 pages... by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    4. Re:14 pages... by Guysmiley777 · · Score: 1

      Does that include the text of all the ads?

      --
      Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
    5. Re:14 pages... by A.+B3ttik · · Score: 1

      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.

    6. Re:14 pages... by amias · · Score: 1

      tagged with ohnoitstechnologizer

      --
      [site]
    7. Re:14 pages... by dufachi · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      -Kinsey
    8. Re:14 pages... by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      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.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    9. Re:14 pages... by SilverJets · · Score: 1

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

    10. Re:14 pages... by GarrettZilla · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Ecce potestas casei!
    11. Re:14 pages... by Daimanta · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  3. Annoying format. by martinw89 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Annoying format. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Annoying format. by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

      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!

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    3. Re:Annoying format. by gstone · · Score: 1

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

    4. Re:Annoying format. by Feanturi · · Score: 1

      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.

    5. Re:Annoying format. by antdude · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    6. Re:Annoying format. by Cowmonaut · · Score: 1

      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.

  4. Collector's Item by LateArthurDent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Collector's Item by PotatoFarmer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:Collector's Item by LateArthurDent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:Collector's Item by cthulu_mt · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
    4. Re:Collector's Item by TopShelf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    5. Re:Collector's Item by LateArthurDent · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    6. Re:Collector's Item by idontgno · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    7. Re:Collector's Item by berend+botje · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

    8. Re:Collector's Item by pla · · Score: 1

      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.

    9. Re:Collector's Item by LateArthurDent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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?

    10. Re:Collector's Item by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1
      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!
      ;^)

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    11. Re:Collector's Item by pleappleappleap · · Score: 1

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

    12. Re:Collector's Item by ZarathustraDK · · Score: 1

      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...

      --
      If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
    13. Re:Collector's Item by idontgno · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    14. Re:Collector's Item by idontgno · · Score: 1
      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."

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    15. Re:Collector's Item by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      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.

    16. Re:Collector's Item by macraig · · Score: 1, Troll

      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.

    17. Re:Collector's Item by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because it's a status symbol.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    18. Re:Collector's Item by ABCC · · Score: 2, Funny

      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

    19. Re:Collector's Item by pushing-robot · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

      Yes, but it also birthed it.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    20. Re:Collector's Item by Faylone · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

    21. Re:Collector's Item by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    22. Re:Collector's Item by Golddess · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
    23. Re:Collector's Item by LateArthurDent · · Score: 1

      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.

    24. Re:Collector's Item by dangitman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    25. Re:Collector's Item by ZosX · · Score: 1

      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. :)

      --
      zosxavius photography
    26. Re:Collector's Item by Meski · · Score: 1

      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

    27. Re:Collector's Item by OwnedByTwoCats · · Score: 1

      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.

    28. Re:Collector's Item by Golddess · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
    29. Re:Collector's Item by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    30. Re:Collector's Item by bjb · · Score: 1
      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)

      --
      Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
  5. Collector's value by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Collector's value by oldspewey · · Score: 1

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

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    2. Re:Collector's value by Ragzouken · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When do collectors finally open the box?

  6. Allow me to add something by Corpuscavernosa · · Score: 4, Funny

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

    --
    We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
    1. Re:Allow me to add something by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1

      That's Lunix, you insensitive clod!

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  7. Arcane Game by theredshoes · · Score: 1

    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."-

  8. It's been 24 years and the floppy still worked? by puddles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:It's been 24 years and the floppy still worked? by Peron · · Score: 1

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

  9. Diluted content, diluted adspace by dazedNconfuzed · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

    --
    Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
  10. ...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlantic by pushing-robot · · Score: 5, Funny

    That belongs in a museum!

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  11. Woah now. by The+Real+Nem · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  12. I loved mine! by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

    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. :-(

    1. Re:I loved mine! by theredshoes · · Score: 1

      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

    2. Re:I loved mine! by Nimey · · Score: 2, Interesting

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

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
    3. Re:I loved mine! by domatic · · Score: 1

      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.

    4. Re:I loved mine! by SCHecklerX · · Score: 1

      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.

    5. Re:I loved mine! by SwellJoe · · Score: 1

      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.

  13. The real crime is... by cayle+clark · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...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.

    1. Re:The real crime is... by Ragzouken · · Score: 1

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

    2. Re:The real crime is... by idontgno · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    3. Re:The real crime is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      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.

    4. Re:The real crime is... by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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 ./?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    5. Re:The real crime is... by SwellJoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

  14. One Paragraph Per Page by stoicio · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:One Paragraph Per Page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

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

    2. Re:One Paragraph Per Page by ildon · · Score: 1

      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.

    3. Re:One Paragraph Per Page by sponga · · Score: 1

      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.

    4. Re:One Paragraph Per Page by QuietYou · · Score: 1

      Better yet, stop linking to these crappy sites.

  15. Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have top men working on it now.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  16. Didn't they have a goofy name? by Gizzmonic · · Score: 2, Interesting

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

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
    1. Re:Didn't they have a goofy name? by fishbowl · · Score: 1

      >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.

      --
      -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
    2. Re:Didn't they have a goofy name? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:Didn't they have a goofy name? by krakelohm · · Score: 1

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

      --
      You are all a bunch of idots.
    4. Re:Didn't they have a goofy name? by krakelohm · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      You are all a bunch of idots.
    5. Re:Didn't they have a goofy name? by Cookie3 · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      present day... present time... hahahaha...
  17. Just curious by bbbaldie · · Score: 1

    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!

  18. Old Spice or Old "Old Spice" TM? by changos · · Score: 1

    I do not wish to smell either one.

  19. This is not worth mentioning! by erroneus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:This is not worth mentioning! by will_die · · Score: 1

      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.

    2. Re:This is not worth mentioning! by domatic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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

    3. Re:This is not worth mentioning! by Fred+Foobar · · Score: 1

      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!

      --
      It was a really good paper.
  20. easter egg by jsh1972 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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...

  21. Tablets in 1984? by silentquasar · · Score: 1

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

  22. Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant by skeeto · · Score: 2, Funny

    Who?

  23. Re:Here is your peice of herring by hesiod · · Score: 5, Funny

    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"?

  24. Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant by Themer · · Score: 4, Funny

    TOP... MEN.

  25. Re:Here is your peice of herring by linzeal · · Score: 1

    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?

    --
    An Education is the Font of All Liberty
  26. Profit? by slapout · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:Profit? by Shadyman · · Score: 1

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

      No, That's just AdBlock Plus.

    2. Re:Profit? by Barterer · · Score: 1

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

  27. Old tech only interests some... by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  28. Its been 24 years and the cartridge still worked? by itsdapead · · Score: 3, Funny

    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...

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  29. Don't mind the whining noise you hear by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Don't mind the whining noise you hear by Tempest_2084 · · Score: 1

      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...

    2. Re:Don't mind the whining noise you hear by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      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!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  30. Re: perception of geeks as clueless capitalists? by djp928 · · Score: 1

    Explain to me what an "objective" valuation is?

    --
    Making fun of dumb people since 2009
  31. Re:...Cut to a rain-soaked freighter in the Atlant by antdude · · Score: 1

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

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  32. Link to all images by gnu-sucks · · Score: 1

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

    Where XX = 0 to 13.

  33. links to photos without ads by Bevan+Collins · · Score: 1

    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

  34. Re:Here is your peice of herring by hesiod · · Score: 1

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

  35. You did what? by dangitman · · Score: 1

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

    Why leave in the first place?

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  36. Damnit! I just got one, too by Bill+Kendrick · · Score: 1

    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.)