Re: Apple II vs Atari 800

[Thomas Richter <thor@math.tu-berlin.de>]

mmphosis wrote:

> Other than in coin-op video arcade games and a game consoles, I don't
> really remember Atari computers in 1980, maybe LATER in 1981/1982 they
> started showing up in stores, but Apple had the market by then.  The
> graphics and sound looked good in the demos and in the pre-packaged
> Atari arcade games.  But, could you type:
> ]HGR : HCOLOR = 5 : HPLOT 0,0 TO 279,159
> on an Atari and get a jagged orange line on the screen?

No, but you could type

graphics 7
color 1
plot 0,0
drawto 79,79

to get an orange line on the screen. (-:

> On the Atari, I think you had to write 6502 assembler which had to run
> within a limited amount of time to do hi-res graphics, am I wrong
> about this?

I afraid so. The c64 had no graphic support in its rather limited basic.
The ataris did, however, string variable support was an annoyance.

> In the 1980's, I wrote educational software for the Apple II and Icon
> computer.
>
> Why schools go with the hardware they choose?  I think that it's a
> government decision and the process changes.  I don't know.

It has rarely to do with the hardware capabilities of the systems. The 
decision makers rarely had a clue about the hardware in first place, and 
other factors are just more important (pricing, discount for education, 
long term support,...).

Greetings,
	Thomas