27 Sep
2021
27 Sep
'21
1:14 p.m.
Liam Proven says:
I know that Sinclair computers were _so_ cheap that in
the USA they
were perceived as toys, not worthy of any serious consideration.
This was true in more wealthy countries outside the US, too. Sinclair never got anywhere
in Germany compared to Commodore, for example. The ZX81 and Spectrum (and clones) did have
a presence in Spain and South America.
*Because* they were so very expensive, what in the
home markets were
perceived as minor flaws -- such as the C64's awful BASIC -- were
deal-breakers.
You make it sound like the C64 failed in the UK/European market. For others' benefit,
the C64 had about as much market share as the Spectrum in the UK (with Amstrad a very
solid third place, especially considering its later start, and BBC Micro significantly
behind) and beat it in Germany, Finland, and elsewhere. The C64 isn't included in the
recent book _The Computers That Made Britain_ for no reason.
If you were going to spend as much as a new car on an
early home
computer,
If you're going to exaggerate for effect, don't exaggerate so much that your
meaning is lost.
then you wanted something well-rounded: decent
graphics, decent
sound, a decent BASIC, a usable keyboard, and maybe mass storage
that didn't cost as much as 2 extra cars.
Sheesh.
Therefore things like the C64 were not appealing:
terrible BASIC,
terribly slow disk drives which were _also_ terribly expensive.
Disk drives were so much a non-presence in the UK home computer market until the Amiga/ST
in 1985 that there is no point in mentioning them at all. (It's not like Spectrum
users were enjoying disk drives while Commodore users were using cassette, after all.)
We didn't choose things like the ZX-81 or ZX
Spectrum because they
were AWESOME AMAZEBALLS GREAT. We chose them because we could afford
them, and they had for their time a decent balance of features.
Correct. The schoolyard disputes between Spectrum and C64 owners were between kids whose
parents decided to pay a few tens of quid for the more capable Commodore, versus those who
paid a few tens of quid less for the less capable (but still quite functional) Spectrum.
The same schoolyard disputes existed in the US, whether between Commodore and Atari 8-bit
owners, 2600, ColecoVision, and IntelliVision owners, or slightly later between Nintendo
and Sega owners. They still exist today, between PlayStation and Xbox owners.
I didn't own all of them, but I've played with
every single one of
them. :-)
Most children who participated in those schoolyard disputes have long since moved on (if
only to other platform wars, like Emacs/Vi, Mac/Windows/Linux, etc.). You sound like
someone still embittered by C64 owners around you bragging about their superior
computers.