Task: Join Atari Age
Needed: Web browser
Time: 5-10 mins
Introduction
As I have rediscovered my love for Atari home computers and video game systems I have found Atari Age to be a great place to participate in and learn from the community of enthusiasts and experts. The Atari Age website is named after the Atari Age magazine that was sent to members of the Atari Club from 1982-1984. This Wikipedia article provides some background on the magazine. Here is an archive of Atari Age magazines.
The website is mostly dedicated to Atari video games for the 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, and Jaguar. There is a wealth of information about games for each system including rarity guides, scans of labels and manuals, FAQs, and hardware. There are also homebrew games and hardware that you can purchase. I particularly like the forums that cover the game systems as well as 8-bit and 16-bit home computers. Relevant here are the forums that cover the Atari 400, 800, XL, and XE series of computers and programming. It is often the case that when I have a coding question or a question about some specific hardware or software I can find the answer on Atari Age. You can also post questions that you can’t find anywhere else or respond to posts from others.
Instructions
Navigate to the Atari Age forums website and create an account. You will need an account to be able to make posts or respond to posts on the forum. You will be asked to provide a handle and to provide a summary of your Atari interests. My handle is scitari and here is my profile. Atari Age keeps track of how many times you post and how many people visit your profile.
Comments
For the most part this is a really great community that is ready and willing to help you with your Atari hobby. There are some users who get annoyed if you don’t follow protocol or ask a question that has already been covered elsewhere. My advice is to have fun and don’t worry about the very few cranky folks.