Re: The Apple ][ was cool!

[Jason <tmr@c64.org>]

Jeff Thomas:
> For pure gaming, the Commodore 64 rates at the top

Rubywand:
> Really, this is pure myth. For most hop and bop arcade style games,
> yes.

The *majority* of what is played on 8bit computers, then...

> Sprites, more colors, and better sound give C64 the edge. For
> just about every other sort of gaming, Apple II is far superior, and
> it isn't even very close.

Hmmm...  I'd have to disagree with you there.

> A major C64 weakness is that its best hires color mode gives only
> 160 x 200 resolution. This explains why C64 adventure game displays,
> while usually more colorful, look so blocky next to Apple II displays.

The C64 has two modes, but the average gamer *prefers* colour so the
160x200 had to be used to keep the players happy.  The 320x200 mode is
perfectly serviceable and can produce decent pictures but can only use
two colours per 8x8 cell with all 16 available on screen.  I believe
this is still better than the Apple II at a similar resolution...?

> Another C64 weakness is its slow, cumbersome DOS. Next to Apple II's
> DOS 3.3, it's an absolute dinosaur.

The C64's DOS is a hang-over from the old days of the PET I think and
yes, it's cumbersome.  Just out of interest, when was DOS 3.3 released
or is it standard with all machines?

> Playing adventures which require frequent disk accesses was a
> nightmare on the C64. Eventually, various DOS accelerators were
> developed; but, these can be a major pain to install and they do not
> work correctly with all software (most of which was copy protected).

Most of the later copy protections had their own reasonable turbo
loaders, it just took a little while to get it right.  This is fairly
understandable, it takes a little while to get down to the lowest level
and understand the disk system.  The Apple II had a head start,
remember?

> The C64 has inputs which could be used to connect analog joysticks;
> but, these are reserved for graphics tablets (like Koala).  Instead,
> you are stuck with using non-analog switcher sticks. As a result, the
> C64 user does not have nearly the control responsiveness and realism
> available to Apple II users playing many flight and combat
> simulations.

There were analogue sticks available (as well as paddles and a couple of
mice) but the majority of games just don't *suit* those control systems.
Most of the flight sim players I knew had analogue controllers for their
Breadbins.  Everybody else would be using a digital stick because they
were playing games that would be rendered uncontrollable with analogue.

> The C64 keyboard has a mushy toy-keyboard feel. If you are playing a
> game which requires lots of typing, you definitely want to be using an
> Apple II.

That's *very* much personal taste and, as someone who has spent some
fifteen years hammering text into a Breadbin (and a C128D) I can say
that I have always found the keyboard to be solid and responsive.  I
pretty much learnt to touch type at about 70WPM on my first C64.

> There are other possible comparisons. Basically, though, I've stuck to
> comparing game playing on the typical Apple II vs. game playing on the
> typical C64 given available software.

With the 8bits, people tended to make their decisions about which
machine they wanted from the games they saw on a friends machine or in a
shop.  Certainly, if the only factor was price the C64 should have
*totally* bombed in the UK against the Spectrum, but held it's own
reasonably well.  Similarly, the Amiga should have been toasted by the
Atari ST, the latter was the cheaper of the two.  But people saw what
they *wanted* and purchased accordingly.

The sheer volume of Breadbins shifted proves that, okay so *some* of
them may be based purely on the price (and that argument only really
applies to the States, in the UK and Europe the C64 was one of the more
expensive players) but what *percentage* of the overall sales were
biased just by that factor?  Not a big one [oo-er] I suspect. =-)
-- 
Jason  =-)
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