It's death by 1,000 cuts at Atari as the company clears the decks to make room for its new lines.

Dealers are still expecting XE and ST ranges to arrive in the UK from April onwards, but it looks as though the stock of XLs will be sold off first. The cuts are being applied to the 800XL, but Atari has its competitors in mind for the chop.

Depreciation seems to start work on the 800XL before it even crosses the counter. The machine's price was virtually halved by Christmas last year, and two packages due to be put together this month effectively bring it down again.

The price at the moment if £129. The first package will give you an 800XL, 1050 disk drive, Home Filing Manager and a disk-based aventure for £249.99. The second puts together the 800XL, a 1010 recorder, and Pole Position for £129.99.

The 1010 cassette recorder sells separately for £34, and the 1050 drive for £199. If dealers start to split these packages the 800XL should cost no more than £90.