The Atari 8-bit computers were born in 1979 with the Atari 400 and 800, designed by the team that had just created the VCS console. Their architecture was well ahead of its time: instead of having the CPU do everything, Atari split the work between three custom chips — ANTIC to build the picture, GTIA to render it, POKEY for sound and I/O. That is what allowed these machines to hold their own graphically for nearly ten years.
The range then grew: the 600XL and 800XL in 1983, in a redesigned case and with BASIC built into ROM, then the 65XE and 130XE in 1985. The Atari 800XL was a major success in Europe, where it was for a long time the direct competitor of the Commodore 64.
These computers hosted games that shaped their genres: Star Raiders, one of the first 3D space simulators, M.U.L.E., Rescue on Fractalus! and Ballblazer from Lucasfilm Games, along with a demo scene that is still active today.
New in Recalbox 10.1: the Libretro Atari800 core moves to version 6.1.0.
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro atari800 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Libretro Atari800 is the only emulator for this system, and it is available on every board. It emulates the Atari 400/800 as well as the XL/XE range. Netplay is not available and RetroAchievements are not supported. CRT output is handled.
A pad is mandatory on this system: nearly every game is played with a joystick and a single fire button. A keyboard is recommended — it is used for BASIC, for the menus of some games and for disk-based software. A classic pad such as the 8BitDo Pro 3 does the job perfectly.
This system appears under the name Atari 8bits in the Recalbox interface.
These machines load their system from ROM: the four files below are all mandatory, as the emulator needs the ROM matching the machine it emulates for each game.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
atari800/ATARIOSA.ROM |
Atari 400/800 operating system, revision A (mandatory) | eb1f32f5d9f382db1bbfb8d7f9cb343a | Libretro Atari800 |
atari800/ATARIOSB.ROM |
Atari 400/800 operating system, revision B (mandatory) | a3e8d617c95d08031fe1b20d541434b2 | Libretro Atari800 |
atari800/ATARIXL.ROM |
XL/XE range operating system (mandatory) | 06daac977823773a3eea3422fd26a703 | Libretro Atari800 |
atari800/ATARIBAS.ROM |
Atari BASIC, required by the programs that use it (mandatory) | 0bac0c6a50104045d902df4503a4c30b | Libretro Atari800 |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/atari800/
├── ATARIOSA.ROM
├── ATARIOSB.ROM
├── ATARIXL.ROM
└── ATARIBAS.ROM
File names are in uppercase and must be respected exactly, extension included. A missing or badly named file results in a black screen or in a game that will not start.
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/atari800/
Supported extensions: .atr .atx .bin .car .cas .com .dcm .m3u .rom .xex .xfd .zip .7z
A few pointers about these formats:
.atr is the most common disk image; .xfd is its raw, header-less variant, and .dcm a compressed image;.atx preserves the physical protection of the original floppies: it is the format to prefer for protected commercial games;.cas is a cassette image;.car, .rom and .bin are cartridge images — .car carries a header telling the cartridge type, which makes it the most reliable format;.xex and .com are executables loaded directly, without going through a disk;.zip and .7z archives run without being extracted.For a game spread over several floppies, create an
.m3ufile listing the images in order, one per line, and launch that.m3u: disk swapping is then done from RetroArch's Disk menu.
Recalbox ships with three Atari 8-bit games: Crownland, Ridiculous Reality and Time Pilot. The full list of included games is on the Included games page.