[Coco] more 1 bit madness

[Bill Loguidice]

The fact remains no one could have matched Commodore on the low end of the
market, and those that tried got into severe financial trouble (TI for
one). Commodore controlled most of their own supply chain, so they could
always outprice/outperform the competition on the most key components (and
it helped immensely that the base spec for the C-64 was always 64K
RAM--other computers varied from 8K - 48K for the most part up until the
mid-80s, when they too started to standardize on 64K). Atari's 8-bit
computers were world beaters upon their release in 1979, but they couldn't
get the price down until after the C-64 was already in control of the
market (and needing new models to do it). In retrospect, Tandy did what
they had to to remain competitive and maintain their niche in the low end
market, which is one reason it was able to last longer than most other
8-bit computers. The processor was an inspired choice, but it is a shame it
was paired with the relatively limited graphics and sound, among other
concessions to cost.

-Bill

===================================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director; Armchair Arcade,
Inc.<http://www.armchairarcade.com>
===================================================
Authored Books<http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Loguidice/e/B001U7W3YS/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_1>and
Film <http://www.armchairarcade.com/film>; About me and other ways to get
in touch <http://about.me/billloguidice>
===================================================


On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 11:31 PM, Richard E Crislip <rcrislip at neo.rr.com>wrote:

> Yeah... I did consider those points. At the same time it does make mine
> though, If Tandy could have added that functionality to that powerful
> processor, it would have been a killer machine and folks like you would
> have had a ball making it come alive <sigh>.
>
> On 01/21/2014 11:17 PM, Nick Marentes wrote:
>
>> Richard E Crislip <rcrislip at ...> writes:
>>
>>  Hi Steve,
>>>
>>> I knew cost was the reason. How did Commodore and Atari pull it off? If
>>> I remember correctly, they were all in the same price range. Or are my
>>> short stem cells showing again?
>>>
>>
>> But they didn't have an 80 x 24 column screen.
>>
>> Lower resolution graphics (No 640 x 200)
>>
>> No advanced interrupt handling.
>>
>> The ability to run a multi-tasking multi-user industry standard OS (Os-9).
>>
>> Slower floppy drive access.
>>
>> And only sported a cheap 6502 (not the powerful 6809).
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>