The Atari 400, PERITEL Version (for SECAM countries)

The computer

The documents and hardware I own don't give me any clue about the official release date of this PERITEL Atari 400 computer in France, but I'll assume it was released alongside its sibling, the PERITEL Atari 800, in September 1982.

To read about the PERITEL adaptor and the resulting output, I invite you to visit the PERITEL Atari 800 page. I will not duplicate information on this page describing the 400 model: it is also a mod of a PAL Atari computer, with a different but equivalent daughterboard-card.

Note: the antenna cord was removed on this one but it is usually there and continues to work. See the family pictures (below) with the other ones, the antenna cable is still there.

Top

Right side

Right side (close-up)

Front joystick connectors

Left side

Rear, with PERITEL cable (NOT detachable)

Bottom, with trace of lost PERITEL PTL sticker

Computer #1, Bottom close-up, ATARI/322 engraved, 322 is manufacturing date in WWY format: Week 32 of (198)2 = Aug 1982.

Computer #1, Sticker close-up

Computer #2, Bottom close-up, ATARI/322 engraved, 322 is manufacturing date in WWY format: Week 32 of (198)2 = Aug 1982.

Computer #2, Sticker close-up

Computer #3, Bottom close-up, ATARI/432 engraved, 432 is manufacturing date in WWY format: Week 43 of (198)2 = Oct 1982.

Computer #3, Sticker close-up

Left-side ventilation grids with visible PERITEL adaptor card and fixation screw

3 computers

I am the happy owner of 3 of these machines too...

Three computers...

...easy to identify

Inside the machine

Overview #1

Overview #2

Location of PERITEL adaptor, with fixed cable

The PERITEL adaptor daughterboard-card

Overview, when positioned in the 400

Top view, no reference

Bottom view, ref. 001B

The RGB signal from this PERITEL adaptor

High quality RGB signal

PEEK identification

Using 'PEEK' commands in BASIC to find out about the OS, Basic and GTIA versions.

PEEKs to important addresses

For your information, the results are:
PEEK(53268) = 1 [PAL/SECAM]
PEEK(65528) = 214 [400/800 OS Rev. A/PAL, 1979-06 (common)]
PEEK(65527) = 255 [Not a XL/XE]
PEEK(43234) = 162 [Atari BASIC Rev. A, in external cartridge]