Atari is bringing back the 800XL, a home computer that first shipped in 1983.
The relaunch comes from a partnership with game publisher Plaion and follows Atari's recent pattern of reviving old hardware, including the 2600 console and Mattel's Intellivision. The new 800XL is described as a faithful recreation of the original all-in-one machine, right down to its mechanical keyboard. That keyboard lets users write their own programs in Atari BASIC, not just play games. It's up for preorder now at $219.99, with shipping expected in April 2027.
That's a long wait for a retro gadget, and it says something about how crowded this space has become. Nostalgia hardware now competes less on novelty and more on faithfulness to the original experience, and a working BASIC keyboard is a specific flex aimed at people who actually coded on these machines, not just played on them.
The 800XL was a successor to Atari's original 400 and 800 computers from 1979, so this isn't a reboot of Atari's first PC, just one of its better-remembered ones.