Re: Apple II vs Atari 800

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Payton Byrd wrote:
> Atari wanted control over everything, which bit them in the ass.  At
> first they wanted to make cart games of all their coin-op games and
> use the coin-ops as free advertising.

Most machines that were designed with a "cartridge slot" were designed
on the "video game principle", and the manufacturers assumed that the
machines would be programmed by *them* not the users, and that software
would be an annuity for them.

Good riddance to them.

Now all we have to do is get rid of their spawn...  ;-)

Apple, in contrast, published *everything* needed to make software,
plug-in cards, and even more computers!  That was the right vision,
in the sense that it could "start a fire" and seed the computer
revolution.  (Note that it was Woz' vision, not Jobs', who rushed
to nail eveything shut as soon as he had the chance.)

-michael

NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."