The Atari 400, PERITEL Version (for SECAM countries)

NTSC/PAL/SECAM & PERITEL?

If you do not know what these acronyms refer to, please read the "NTSC/PAL/SECAM/PERITEL" article in the knowledge base first.

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 video output, I invite you to read the PERITEL Atari 800 article first. In this article describing the 400 model, I will not duplicate information found elsewhere on this site. The PERITEL Atari 400 is also a mod of a PAL Atari computer, with a daughterboard-card.

Remark: 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

The Atari 400 and The 400, side by side

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" instructions in BASIC to find out about the OS, Basic and NTSC/PAL 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]

Video signals output

Here is a summary of the video signals available on this particular model.
To be able to use one of these video signals to display an image, you obviously need to check that your TV or video monitor has an input for the specific video signal you intend to use. If it doesn't have it, the easiest thing to do is to use a modern video converter/upscaler to convert the video signal available to you to HDMI, for example.

Special thanks to Jerome Delsarte for all this information and his expertise on video signals.