Comment Re:I'd wager a bet (Score 1) 1485
You are correct. The Atari 800XL was way ahead of the Commodore 64, and this is fact not opinion.
The Atari 800XL was capable of displaying near-VGA graphics! You could buy a handheld scanner and digitize photos. And it could take digital audio samples of music and sound and play them back. All before the year 1986.
The Commodore 64 couldn't do that. It was sort of a weakened, cheapened version of the Atari 8-bits, just so Commodore could sell more at a lower cost than Atari's computers in the early 1980s. Just look at the Commodore 64 commercials of the wet kid at the bus stop who didn't have his homework because he didn't have a computer. That prompted many parents to go out and buy C64's for their kids so they wouldn't be left behind.
Atari computers on the other hand touted advanced graphics and sound capabilities that the C64 couldn't do back in the early 1980s.
It took until about the mid-1990s for any IBM PC / Microsoft Windows capable PC with a 486 inside to equal / match the 1983 Atari 800XL's capabilities, and it was still about 5 to 10 times as expensive.
The Atari 800XL was capable of displaying near-VGA graphics! You could buy a handheld scanner and digitize photos. And it could take digital audio samples of music and sound and play them back. All before the year 1986.
The Commodore 64 couldn't do that. It was sort of a weakened, cheapened version of the Atari 8-bits, just so Commodore could sell more at a lower cost than Atari's computers in the early 1980s. Just look at the Commodore 64 commercials of the wet kid at the bus stop who didn't have his homework because he didn't have a computer. That prompted many parents to go out and buy C64's for their kids so they wouldn't be left behind.
Atari computers on the other hand touted advanced graphics and sound capabilities that the C64 couldn't do back in the early 1980s.
It took until about the mid-1990s for any IBM PC / Microsoft Windows capable PC with a 486 inside to equal / match the 1983 Atari 800XL's capabilities, and it was still about 5 to 10 times as expensive.
