On May 3, 2015, at 8:18 AM, tony duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
However, with the Atari 400 and 800 and the Exidy
sorceror, the BASIC ROM module was, IIRC, included with the machine in the standard
configuration (i.e. if you bought an off-the-shelf boxed version of one of those, you got
a BASIC module). Is that really any different from having the ROMs fitted to the main PCB?
It is different because it?s essentially external software that has to be loaded into the
computer. If you start including BASIC on a cartridge because it came with the computer
then you would have to include computers that included BASIC on a cassette or disk that
shipped with the computer.
In many cases where the BASIC software was not on ROM it has been separated from the
computer long ago. The list should only include computers that can get into BASIC without
requiring any external software to be loaded.
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