Classic Computing "Truths" -- Add your own!

[Great Hierophant]

 

C64 boots in a few seconds. Some games are loaded and ready by the time I sit on the chair.

 

Plus C64 could do 16 colors on screen at once. PC? you'd need to sell your first born for a CGA adapter and it looks fugly because few games properly supported it for anything beside cyan and purple. Apple II? Also need separate adapter IIRC.

 

C64 has 3 sound channel that can do almost anything. PC? beep. Apple II? hmmm...

 

C64 can use existing Atari controller. PC? Need to buy controller and game card. Apple II? still need to buy game controller.

 

C64 came as portable system. Apple IIc is the closest and it uses separate monitor. IBM didn't make portable system until later (and one with color display a LOT later), the closest was Compaq which has mono only display

 

Upgrading C64 didn't require you to open the system, futz around with bazillion jumpers, plug it in the right slot, and hope you didn't mess up the jumper or fry something with static spark.

 

Ultima 6 was made available on C64. They skipped Apple II completely even though original Ultima started on Apple II. Ultima VI couldn't be run on older PC, you needed at minimum CGA display.

 

And to this day, no single computer model has sold as many as C64. There's been different number but 12.5 million is the lowest I've heard. Also no single computer model remained in production for as long as C64 (11 years). Most computer model are produced anywhere from a few months to a couple years these day.

 

For every positive there is a negative :

 

Most non-cartridge C64 games take minutes to load, whereas PC and Apple II games have far shorter load times.

 

Lots of early PC games supported colors other than cyan/magenta/white, and I have helped identify 109 of them that support composite color. Many others that did not use a mix of colors. Neither IBM CGA nor the Apple II require anything more than an RF modulator to connect to a TV, and nothing else to connect to a composite monitor. C64s require a special cable for composite.

 

The C64's sound abilities were vastly underused in North America.

 

Try playing Choplifter or Karateka with only one button.

 

The SX-64 was $995 at launch and could not do 80-column text, limiting its competitive potential

 

Expandability is a blessing and a curse, IBM systems were usually a once and done when it came to configuration, and hard drives were an easy add-on. Apple was built for hobbyists and hackers. And I have read the C64 is quite sensitive to static shock.

 

Ultima VI was an fugly, cut down version on the C64, demonstrating the wisdom of abandoning the 8-bit plaforms in the first place.

 

The Apple II line had a longer lifespan, 1977-1993, and PC compatibles have been sold for almost 35 years.

[0078265317]

My 1986, 16Mhz, 16 bit Macintosh can load its OS, Microsoft excel and start doing meaningful work many seconds faster than my 4.3Ghz 64 bit quad core can

I find that hard to believe.

[Osgeld]

I find that hard to believe.

 

I will film a race, cold boot 64 bit 4.3GHz AMD Quad Core vs 16 bit 8Mhz Macintosh SE with identical spreadsheets just to keep it fair

 

maybe this weekend if I get a chance

Edited January 9, 2016 by Osgeld

[Omega-TI]

 

Expandability is a blessing and a curse, IBM systems were usually a once and done when it came to configuration, and hard drives were an easy add-on.

 

Yeah it was a curse, HD's were easy, but try running multiple comports and printers BITD with the limited architecture. The IRQ & DMA settings would drive you nuts. If I tried to use my TNC and modem at the same time, I could kiss my mouse goodbye for the duration.

[Great Hierophant]

 

Yeah it was a curse, HD's were easy, but try running multiple comports and printers BITD with the limited architecture. The IRQ & DMA settings would drive you nuts. If I tried to use my TNC and modem at the same time, I could kiss my mouse goodbye for the duration.

 

Two COM ports were a bit limiting. Even though the PC architecture supported four COM addresses, each pair had to share an IRQ, making the usefulness of COM3 and COM4 less than spectacular. Fortunately you could find other options for mice (bus mice and PS/2 mice interfaces). There were three LPT addresses, but they could only share one or two IRQs at best. However, IRQs were not always vital to printer operation, since the adapter could disable their generation.