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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."

47 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.

  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 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.
  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 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
  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 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
    4. 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.

    5. 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.
    6. 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.

    7. 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?

    8. 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.
    9. Re:Collector's Item by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because it's a status symbol.

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    10. 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

    11. 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?
    12. 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.

    13. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

  7. 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?
  8. ...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?
  9. 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.

  10. 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 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.
    2. 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!
    3. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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?
  13. 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)
  14. 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 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

  15. 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...

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

    Who?

  17. 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"?

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

    TOP... MEN.

  19. 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
  20. Re:Collector's value by Ragzouken · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When do collectors finally open the box?

  21. 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
  22. 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.

  23. 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.