I remember a lot of computer rivalries when I was a child. One group of friends had consoles (Intellevision and Emerson-Arcadia) and we were continually fighting about who had the best video games. I eventually won because I had tons of tape games that I bought at the news kiosk for $7 (4 or more games) when they paid $70 for cartdrige games.
Later I learned Basic and went on fighting with another group of friends who had z80 based computers from Video Technology (Laser110, 210 and 310). They had a nice basic, but they were poor on graphics and sounds, so I won again with my envied 3k VIC-20.
When they switched for the more powerful Laser500 (64K+hires color) I switched for Amiga500, and wow, there was no compare to be done.
When I later switched for intel based PC, I was still fighting with another group of Amiga enthusiasts (me being the traitor) about who had the most powerful computer. We decided to solve the debate with a contest. Winner of the contest was the computer that was able to draw the classical mandelbrot set (the big "8") in the shortest time. My friends had written a C program in Lattice C for the Amiga, while I wrote mine in Microsoft Quick C for my 16Mhz 286. I had a twice faster CPU, but mine was 16 bit and with less registers. When I was informed that the Amiga program was faster than mine, I rewrote my C program in assembler in order to get more speed. But that wasn't enough, so I wrote a floating point library of my own which used less bits respect to the "float" data type and indeed that resulted in a faster (but less precise) draw of the mandelbrot set that the Amiga's one.
Ah, the good old times!
System Rivalries
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WOW Nippur you still alive...
happy to see you.
When i had a Vic all my friend had a C64
When i had the C64 all my friend had a Amiga500
When i had the Amiga500 all my friend had an Amiga1200
Now i've a PC, 3 Vic-20, 3 C64 and 3 Amiga1200 and all my friends have a PC only and dribble when they see my Commodore collection, Yeees!!!
happy to see you.
When i had a Vic all my friend had a C64
When i had the C64 all my friend had a Amiga500
When i had the Amiga500 all my friend had an Amiga1200
Now i've a PC, 3 Vic-20, 3 C64 and 3 Amiga1200 and all my friends have a PC only and dribble when they see my Commodore collection, Yeees!!!
Mega-Cart: the cartridge you plug in once and for all.
Oh yeah, back then when I was in 5th grade of grammar school (it's 1st grade in Britain). I used to have an Amiga 500 and two years later a 1200 and looked down on all the other kids with their x86 DOS/Windows PCs. But they did the same to me, and the arguments were quite funny... "What, you have no sound card in your Amiga? You like the beep-beep sound?" - They didn't know of the Amiga's on-board PAULA chip... Plus, they said my Amiga was only capable of displaying 16 colours where their PC could do 256. Again, they didn't know the Amiga was theoretically capable of displaying 4096 colours.
Earlier when I had my first computer, an Atari 130XE, the rivalries were not that bad, in the former GDR which had just been reunited, computers weren't common and the ones who had one, had many different models. There were x86s, Amigas, Ataris, C64s, Spectrums, but only about 3 or 4 people in my class with access to a computer (and I was the only one then who had his own).
The rivalries between envious people not having access to a computer were bigger that time, because I had my own and it was my main thing which I spent my free time with, I was disliked and called a nerd. The computer was just some machine who makes people dumb because you don't have to use your brains to solve a problem.
Back then I was quite angry on that, but nowadays I laugh about it.
PS: This was my first post. Gotta tell a little about myself later.
Earlier when I had my first computer, an Atari 130XE, the rivalries were not that bad, in the former GDR which had just been reunited, computers weren't common and the ones who had one, had many different models. There were x86s, Amigas, Ataris, C64s, Spectrums, but only about 3 or 4 people in my class with access to a computer (and I was the only one then who had his own).
The rivalries between envious people not having access to a computer were bigger that time, because I had my own and it was my main thing which I spent my free time with, I was disliked and called a nerd. The computer was just some machine who makes people dumb because you don't have to use your brains to solve a problem.
Back then I was quite angry on that, but nowadays I laugh about it.
PS: This was my first post. Gotta tell a little about myself later.
Oh yes! I forgot all about that one. Of course, getting the computer to solve those problems for you takes a lot of brains and imagination. Computers hardly make people stupid.The computer was just some machine who makes people dumb because you don't have to use your brains to solve a problem.
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Paul Lambert
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I started out at a little computer club at the local library. We had a TRS-80 Model I, Coco3 and a VIC20. I wasn't picky - they were all fun to use!
I ended up with a VIC at home because it was by far the cheapest, so that's where most of my nostalgia lies.
But I remember visiting a friend who had an ADAM computer - I'll bet he was the only one in 1000 miles who had one
But it was still pretty fascinating to play around with.
I ended up with a VIC at home because it was by far the cheapest, so that's where most of my nostalgia lies.
But I remember visiting a friend who had an ADAM computer - I'll bet he was the only one in 1000 miles who had one
But it was still pretty fascinating to play around with.
I am almost positive (have a strong memory) that the ADAM folks had a booth at one of the mid-1980s World of Commodore shows at the International Centre in Toronto.
It was the first time I saw an Adam, and when I saw all that it came with I was impressed at the time. I remember the demo kiosk and the guy using the word processor.
I think it must have been near the end of the Adam's life becuase they were selling them very cheaply.
It was the first time I saw an Adam, and when I saw all that it came with I was impressed at the time. I remember the demo kiosk and the guy using the word processor.
I think it must have been near the end of the Adam's life becuase they were selling them very cheaply.
Last edited by ral-clan on Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I've always been in the Commodore camp but I had a Colecovision and loved it (still do actually) so I was curious about the Adam. I was tempted to get one in 1986 when they were being blown out for $99 but I didn't have the room for it and I wasn't entirely sure what I would do with it.
In the end it will be as if nothing ever happened.
I agree, other than the technical faults (power-up spikes & magnetic fields that slowly deleted cassettes left in the drive) and the fact that the power supply was inside the printer, I've always thought the ADAM a cool computer.
It certainly came with a library of great games (Colecovision) right off the bat.
If it had been resleased a couple of years earlier, it might have given Commodore a run for its money.
Here are some statistics for the sales of different computer models from 1975-198x. Might provide some insight:
http://www.jeremyreimer.com/total_share.html
It certainly came with a library of great games (Colecovision) right off the bat.
If it had been resleased a couple of years earlier, it might have given Commodore a run for its money.
Here are some statistics for the sales of different computer models from 1975-198x. Might provide some insight:
http://www.jeremyreimer.com/total_share.html
upping this old post to add this nice story I found on the net. It's on the C64 but could apply to VIC-20 as well.
http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/fztsmo.html
http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/fztsmo.html
Great story, nippur72. The Commodorians were over-confident and under-prepared; the winner wasn't necessarily the best computer, but rather the best prepared team. The Commodore team could have easily loaded in TurboTape to accelerate tape loading times, along with one of many BASIC extensions that provided the C64 with a much more competitive and comprehensive BASIC. Of course, a computer is only as good as its programmer and/or the person who is using it, so in this instance, the Commodore 64 was clearly inferior. Given this series of "Tests," a properly prepared Vic 20 could be made to appear superior to the C64.