Spectravideo CompuMate

[Zap!]

Anyone have this? For those who don't know, it's a keyboard attachment for the Atari 2600.

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/c ... pumat.html

[Darryl B.]

Heard of it back in the day, that was it.

Wow, amazed at the headphone ports and all. Not a big deal nowadays, but something like that for the 2600? That's pretty unheard of!

[Zap!]

I ordered one new in box from eBay. Will gladly post pics when received!

[Rob]

Anyone have this? For those who don't know, it's a keyboard attachment for the Atari 2600.

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/c ... pumat.html

I have the tape drive, but not the keyboard.

[Zap!]

Anyone have this? For those who don't know, it's a keyboard attachment for the Atari 2600.

http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/c ... pumat.html

I have the tape drive, but not the keyboard.

The Starpath Supercharger?

[Rob]

Yes, the Supercharger. The keyboard was from the same company wasn't it?

[Darryl B.]

No it wasn't, Spectravideo only came out with a few games, plus the add-on mentioned in this thread.

Starpath came out with the Supercharger and a dozen games for it only, no other type of add-on or anything. Good company, I've got a third of their library.

[Rob]

Ah, I gotcha. For some reason I always had Spectravideo and Starpath confused. Which one of them was originally called the Arcadia? Was that Starpath?

[Darryl B.]

Yeah Starpath was originally called Arcadia. But then some Arcadia game system was going to come out and I think they (the *other* Arcadia, who made the Supercharger and games) were threatened with a lawsuit if they didn't change their name, so then they had to.

[Zap!]

Yeah, the Spectravideo and Starpath are two different companies. Here's a picture of the CompuMate, courtesy of Roger's Spectravideo Page. I'll post my own pics when it arrives from Venezuela, unless Hugo Chavez tries to stop the deal.

[Darryl B.]

Would you be able to actually DO anything with that?

[Zap!]

Would you be able to actually DO anything with that?

You can write BASIC programs. Saving them, however, would be a problem. Still, this has "cool factor" written all over it.

[Darryl B.]

Yeah, no kidding.

Glad to hear it's not totally useless though, at least.

[Zap!]

The CompuMate arrived in the mail Wednesday from Venezuela, two weeks after I won the auction, which was faster than I thought it would take to get here. It is the NTSC version, new in box.

It was packed extremely well. At first I was fooled into thinking it was just packed with brown paper over the box. However, that box underneath was a Voodoo3 card box, where the CompuMate was hiding inside making it totally secure (not to mention even more retro!). Not sure if I'll use this much, but it has been something that I've wanted for many years.

Below are front and back pictures of the Compumate, as well as what it was packed in.

[Rob]

Lucky SOB... ;)

How much did that run you if you don't mind me asking?

[Zap!]

Lucky SOB... ;)

How much did that run you if you don't mind me asking?

$92 was the winning bid, and then $15 shipping. This thing is rare, but not as rare as once thought. A bunch apparently were found in a warehouse. They all seem to be coming from South America. A few years ago, this would fetch like $400. Now, $100 seems the going rate.

[Darryl B.]

Wow...I was gonna say, you actually got a steal on that But now it sounds like pretty much a right price.