Re: Apple II vs Atari 800

["micrologix1500@yahoo.com" <micrologix1500@yahoo.com>]

Funny this thread started, because I'm just now, 25-30 years later,
figuring something out about the Apple II.  I was a die-hard Atarian
throughout the 80s, and I figured that was a completely logical choice
because, well.. let's face it, Performance-wise, the Atari beats the
Apple hands-down.  In stock form, anyway.  But there's the rub.. with
all the expansion slots and room for cards in that cavernous shell and
with all the technical data that every Apple II shipped with, it
practically begs to be modified and expanded.  I just got my hands on
"The Apple II Resource Directory", summer 1981 edition.  Good god,
there was a lot of expansion cards available, way back in '81!  This
appeals to me.  Whatever  the limitations are of the base hardware,
can be overcome with a clever expansion card.

Now, as much as I love the Atari, you just can't do that with them.
Sure, the 800 has slots, but they're tiny and most of them are spoken-
for with RAM and ROM.  And they're damned hard to connect with the
outside world.  Yeah, the 800XL had an expansion slot, but I guess by
that point people weren't interested in making expansion cards.

you know what I want to know?  How does the apple interface to a
floppy drive with so little hardware?