I have the main unit.
type computer add-on
country USA
year 1983
os SV Microsoft Basic
ram 2 KB
rom 16 KB
keyboard 42 sensor touch
ports ear, mic
The Spectravideo CompuMate — Turning an Atari into a Computer
The Spectravideo CompuMate was one of the most unusual peripherals in home computing history — a keyboard and cartridge combination that plugged into an Atari 2600 game console to transform it into a basic home computer. Released in 1983, the CompuMate provided a small membrane keyboard, a BASIC interpreter in the cartridge, and 2 KB of RAM, giving Atari 2600 owners access to programming capability without purchasing a separate computer. It represented a creative solution to the challenge of extending the installed base of an existing product into a new use case.
Console-to-Computer Conversions
The CompuMate was part of a small category of products that attempted to bridge the gap between game consoles and home computers in the early 1980s. Atari itself had tried a similar approach with the Atari 2600 Basic Programming cartridge (1979), and other manufacturers produced keyboard attachments for the ColecoVision and Mattel Intellivision. These products recognised that millions of homes had game consoles whose owners might want computer capability but were reluctant to purchase a separate machine — a commercially reasonable assumption, even if the resulting products were inevitably compromised by the host hardware’s limitations.