Atari Touch Tablet

[BurningDoom]

http://www.gamegavel.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000492341

I'm sure a few of you have heard of this thing, but I never have. I just find it amazing that they've had this tech in gaming for like 30 years, yet it just recently becomes mainstream and popular with the Nintendo DS.

[fastbilly1]

If I am not mistaken it was just a tablet interface - ala a wacom tablet, and was only used for artistic software not games.

[dsheinem]

it just recently becomes mainstream and popular with the Nintendo DS.

Touch screen technology existed before this Atari computer peripheral and was popularized LONG before the DS. Palm probably was the first company to break into the general consumer and business markets with touch screen tech in the early-mid 90s (after less successful ventures by other companies such as Apple in the years prior). They did quite well for a period of time, and Palms were "the" tech gadget to have for quite a while...

[CRTGAMER]

Common art drawing tools of the day.

Koala Pad
Most of the 8 bit computers had a version of this.




Flexidraw Light Pen
Unique to the C64, I would love to get this working on the Mac just for the novelty. This one so sensitive, it will draw an "Air Brush" effect if held back from the screen a couple inches.

In all honesty, the Drawing Tablet or a Mouse is less tiresome to work with. That lightpen would get heavy trying to make a Geos Hi Res drawing.

[BEERS AND VIDEOS]

Ha - we had that Flexidraw back when I was a kid. Man, that brings back some memories... Thanks for posting!

[sneth]

You could draw with the Vectrex as well.