The Atari 1020 was a four-color computer plotter sold by
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
for the Atari 8-bit family, Atari 8-bit home computers.
The 1020 was based on a plotter mechanism manufactured by ALPS. The same mechanism formed the basis of several other low-cost plotters produced around the same time, including the Commodore 1520, the Oric MCP40, the RadioShack, Tandy/Radio Shack CGP-115,
the Texas Instruments HX-1000 and the Mattel Aquarius 4615.
However, the 1020 connected via the Atari 8-bit's proprietary SIO interface,
[ANTIC VOL. 4, NO. 5 / SEPTEMBER 1985 / PAGE 42]
, "the 1020 daisy chains right into one of your disk drive ports" eliminating the need for an Atari 850, 850 serial/parallel interface module, but limiting its use to Atari 8-bit computers.
The 1020 was capable of 20-, 40- and 80-column text
and graphics using a friction-fed roll of paper approximately 11.5 cm (4.5 inches) in width. Graphics were generated using one of four coloured pens
[The Atari 1020 Color Printer Owners' Guide]
/ref> to draw lines, using a combination of the horizontally moving pen barrel and the vertically scrolling paper to create diagonal lines.
Control of the plotter was possible from Atari BASIC.[ANTIC VOL. 4, NO. 10 / FEBRUARY 1986 / PAGE 29]
References
{{reflist
External links
COMPUTE! ISSUE 36 / MAY 1983 / PAGE 20 - "The New Low-Cost Printer/Plotters"
Atari 8-bit family, 1020
Computer printers