When it was released in 1983, the Atari 800XL was one of the sexiest machines out there. Not only was it less expensive than it’s predecessors, but was also more powerful with 64K RAM and built in BASIC language to get you started right away.
My buddy since childhood was one of the lucky few kids on our block to own one. I spent a lot of time over at his house, especially after he got one of these! (Convenient for me, since he lived across the street from me!) We couldn’t believe it’s graphics and sound capabilities and we’d spend hours typing in example programs from computing magazines from that time.
Over the years, this sought-after collectors item has suffered many common keyboard failures from oxidized mylar connections. Also, some later versions of the 800XL had cheaper power supplies that would fry your machine if they went bad! Fortunately, there are means to fix these back to 100% health, but it just adds to the cost of collecting these properly.
So now, I actually power this thing with a modern USB hub! It’s much more reliable and will preserve this awesome machine for many decades to come.