CNET TV's Top 5 computers of the 1980's

RobertBe · Post by **RobertBe** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:58 am

CNET TV has posted a short video listing the Top 5 computers of the 1980's. The Commodore 64 wins out by being number 1! The Amiga computer comes in fifth place. To see the video, go to

http://cnettv.cnet.com/1980s-computers/ ... uselArea.1

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:14 am

That sure is US list, at Europe list would go something like this..

1. C64
2. Amiga
3. ZX Spectrum
4. Vic20
5. MSX

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:35 am

For those who can't wait to see the video clip, here is the list:

1. Commodore 64
2. TRS-80 Model I-IV
3. Apple II/II+/IIc etc
4. TI-99/4A
5. Amiga 1000/500/2000

I agree with Mikam, definitely an US centric list. I like how the host praises the expandability on the TI-99, although it took a horseload of extra hardware to expand it with pretty much anything beyond a 4K memory expansion. For a system with floppy drives, printer, speech synthesis, modem and everything else he mentions, you not only needed a big wallet but also a big desk to fit it all. Indeed a Commodore 1515/1525 and a 1541 take some space too, but nowhere near as many extra items to plug in.

Anyway, I think the TRS-80 series belongs to the 1970's. By the early 80's they had started to get old, and what Tandy sold were the Color Computer series, although totally incompatible as far as I know. Given that Texas Instruments after a few years of big losses and price cuts ceased production of the TI-99 in mid 1983, it just barely was a computer of the 1980's.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:34 am

I think the ZX81 would feature above the MSX.

Somehow I don't like thinking of 16 Bit machines like Amiga in the 80s - just me, don't remember it being affordable till '89 or '90.

C64, Speccy, Vic, Zx81, Dragon 32, BBC B would probably feature in UK.

Oric 1 and Atmos more in France though some following in UK too.

Strange Atari 400/800 didn't feature - probably less UK centric more US though there were a few about and later 65xe and 130xe seemed popular.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:24 am

I don't know about the UK, but in Sweden the Atari 8-bit computers were expensive as sin. At one point in time you could get one and a half C64 for the price of one Atari 800XL.

Edit: Err.. make that 1.8 C64's for the price of one Atari. That is you could get a C64 + 1541 for the price of the 800XL without peripherals.

Kweepa · Post by **Kweepa** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:22 am

Vic20-Ian wrote: C64, Speccy, Vic, Zx81, Dragon 32, BBC B would probably feature in UK.

I'd say the UK list would be (in order of release date):
Speccy
C64
Electron
Amstrad CPC
Amiga/ST
The VIC was big, but not for long enough to make the top 5.

[EDIT: I replaced the Beeb with it's stepchild the Electron, since it outsold the Beeb.]

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:44 am

I had an ST in the early nineties. It always played second fiddle to the Amiga. Apart from magazine disks and budget release software, games were quite hard to come by on the High Street.

The BBC was used in schools quite a lot in the UK, but not many people had them at home.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:24 pm

carlsson wrote:For a system with floppy drives, printer, speech synthesis, modem and everything else he mentions, you not only needed a big wallet but also a big desk to fit it all.

Not so much big as wide...

I love that picture.

Anyway, I think the TRS-80 series belongs to the 1970's. By the early 80's they had started to get old, and what Tandy sold were the Color Computer series, although totally incompatible as far as I know.

While the Z80-based TRS-80s and 6809E-based Color Computers were incompatible, Tandy/Radio Shack chose to market them all under the TRS-80 moniker which means models of the TRS-80 line were continuously available from 1977 to 1991. The majority of those years are in the 80's and the majority of the machines sold were sold in the 80's so I don't think it unreasonable to refer to the TRS-80 as a computer from the 80's. Granted, the models depicted in the video were all from the 70's so go figure.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:53 pm

Oh Boy.. they need a BIG table.. and lot space at right..

TI-99/4A is a nice machine, I would say it was lot ahead of its time. And now mostly thinking about speach, but also education programs for children.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 4:12 pm

In the video, only Z80-based TRS-80 models are used to illustrate his speech, but it doesn't mean he would distinguish a TRS-80 from a CoCo.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:45 pm

Did the Coleco Adam make it out of the states?

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:11 pm

The Coleco Adam (or ADAM if you're on Classic CMP) was available here in Canada.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:38 pm

Wow. I was not entirely sure the ADAM even got released, much less exported.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:16 pm

The box was enormous. You could smuggle a small child in it.

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Thu Jan 14, 2010 7:54 pm

Jeff-20 wrote:You could smuggle a small child in it.

What an odd thing to say.

It was huge and heavy too because of that printer with the system's power supply thing. I don't think that was a very good design. My embarrassing confession for the day is that I considered buying one when they came out because I was so into the Colecovision and I came really close to buying one on clearance after they were discontinued. There was suppose to be a way to expand a Colecovision into an Adam but I never saw such a device for sale anywhere. I wonder if it was ever released?