System Rivalries
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System Rivalries
Say, does anyone remember from his or her youth ( that is those who were teenagers or younger in the 80's) any rivalries at school depending on what computer you had?
Today, we can talk about all sorts of 8-bit systems and delight in them all, but back in school I was one of the few to have an Atari 800XL and that fact made me a laughing stock among all the C64 owners. I myself liked Commodore as well, but I always had to end up defending myself against charges that the C64 was "better" and that I personally sucked for having an Atari.
What was worse was the Commodore vs. Apple II rivalry going on in school which even broke down into fisticuffs in the lunch hall.
Virtually noone had an IBM at home back then. I knew only one boy who did and we all put that down to his father "owning a business".
During my life I have had Ataris, Commodores, Apples, PCs, and Texas Instruments, so I guess I would either have to be neutral or just punch absolutely everyone in the nose.
Does anyone else recognise this from the past?
Today, we can talk about all sorts of 8-bit systems and delight in them all, but back in school I was one of the few to have an Atari 800XL and that fact made me a laughing stock among all the C64 owners. I myself liked Commodore as well, but I always had to end up defending myself against charges that the C64 was "better" and that I personally sucked for having an Atari.
What was worse was the Commodore vs. Apple II rivalry going on in school which even broke down into fisticuffs in the lunch hall.
Virtually noone had an IBM at home back then. I knew only one boy who did and we all put that down to his father "owning a business".
During my life I have had Ataris, Commodores, Apples, PCs, and Texas Instruments, so I guess I would either have to be neutral or just punch absolutely everyone in the nose.
Does anyone else recognise this from the past?
Last edited by pitcalco on Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
There are only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't.
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
This is still going on even today And I don't mean the XBox360 vs. PS3 vs. Wii arguments, though that's happening too.
C-64 vs. Spectrum threads frequently occur on comp.sys.cbm, and in fact gave birth to the Minigame Competition that has produced quite a few good games for many systems. And there have been a number of C-64 vs. Atari 8-bit threads on both lemon64.com and atariage.com
I participate when I'm in the mood, especially if it's staying fairly technical rather than personal
Nowadays I own many different computers from many different companies, but I still have favourites.
C-64 vs. Spectrum threads frequently occur on comp.sys.cbm, and in fact gave birth to the Minigame Competition that has produced quite a few good games for many systems. And there have been a number of C-64 vs. Atari 8-bit threads on both lemon64.com and atariage.com
I participate when I'm in the mood, especially if it's staying fairly technical rather than personal
Nowadays I own many different computers from many different companies, but I still have favourites.
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- Vic 20 Hobbyist
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I just wanted to recruit others to getting the same system so we could swap games etc.... no dice though, I think I had the only Plus/4 in town.
Where did Commodore fit in in the US? There were always reports that Commodore did better abroad than in the USA.. certainly here, almost everyone who had a computer had a C64..
Where did Commodore fit in in the US? There were always reports that Commodore did better abroad than in the USA.. certainly here, almost everyone who had a computer had a C64..
3^4 is 81.0000001
> Did you ever, even as a child, look down at people with a different
> computer system than your own?
Actually when I was a child, there was no one who had a personal computer system (and neither did I).
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
> computer system than your own?
Actually when I was a child, there was no one who had a personal computer system (and neither did I).
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
[quote="RobertBe"]> Did you ever, even as a child, look down at people with a different
> computer system than your own?
Actually when I was a child, there was no one who had a personal computer system (and neither did I). :-
Showing your age there, aren't you Robert Be?
> computer system than your own?
Actually when I was a child, there was no one who had a personal computer system (and neither did I). :-
Showing your age there, aren't you Robert Be?
There are only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't.
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
When it comes to technical comparisons, I gladly got into discussions of the different systems. I prefered my Atari to the C64 or VIC for its graphics and the ease in programming them thanks to a much more verbose BASIC dialect.
However, I did recognise some things I would have liked to have been different in the Atari 800XL. I did not like that there was no synthesiser chip like the SID chip in Commodore. As for the BASIC, I did not like that it was necessary to DIM all variables before using them, even ones with only one element. I would have liked to have had DOS built into the disk drive as well.
These were clever arguments. But I never quite got the whole "you suck" thing about having a different computer and the moral condemnations of anyone with a different system. After all, it was our parents who bought the things in the first place.
However, I did recognise some things I would have liked to have been different in the Atari 800XL. I did not like that there was no synthesiser chip like the SID chip in Commodore. As for the BASIC, I did not like that it was necessary to DIM all variables before using them, even ones with only one element. I would have liked to have had DOS built into the disk drive as well.
These were clever arguments. But I never quite got the whole "you suck" thing about having a different computer and the moral condemnations of anyone with a different system. After all, it was our parents who bought the things in the first place.
There are only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't.
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
Paul Lambert
Berlin
Federal Republic of Germany
I don't know about the US. But here in Canada, Commodore ruled as computer of choice among elementary & secondary school students. A lot of this because Commodore was really tight with schools for providing computers for their education labs.Victragic wrote:I just wanted to recruit others to getting the same system so we could swap games etc.... no dice though, I think I had the only Plus/4 in town.
Where did Commodore fit in in the US? There were always reports that Commodore did better abroad than in the USA.. certainly here, almost everyone who had a computer had a C64..
I do remember bashing someone who owned a C128 after I got an Amiga 500. Also I did post to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy a few times.
I preferred bashing Atari ST's and PC's myself. In actual fact, I was always jealous at how much better the 520ST and 1040ST looked than my A500, as far as case styling went.ral-clan wrote:
I do remember bashing someone who owned a C128 after I got an Amiga 500. Also I did post to comp.sys.amiga.advocacy a few times.
Yeah... and proud of it!pitcalco wrote: Showing your age there, aren't you Robert Be?
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
Well, I posted news about it on the Homestead, commodor, acug0447, and auscbm mailing lists. Also posted it to http://cbm.videocam.net.au . Also posted it at the newsgroups, comp.sys.cbm, alt.c64, rec.games.video.classic, comp.sys.amiga.misc, and alt.folklore.computersJeff-20 wrote:I haven't really heard much about the new Commodore C=XX.
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug