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Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?

Subject: Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
From: salfter@salfter.dyndns.org (Scott Alfter)
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 02:03:03 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm, comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.atari.8bit, comp.sys.sinclair, rec.games.video.classic
Organization: USS Voyager NCC-74656, Delta Quadrant
References: <cb0ed86a.0306262201.21691914@posting.google.com> <zJ9La.8890$Ei4.4060@nwrddc02.gnilink.net> <gcGdnTcGZLDio2CjXTWJhQ@comcast.com> <280620030317197960%macsvolume@yahoo.com>
Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.sys.cbm:59677 comp.sys.apple2:32226 comp.sys.atari.8bit:22013 comp.sys.sinclair:101877 rec.games.video.classic:59788

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In article <280620030317197960%macsvolume@yahoo.com>,
Max Volume  <macsvolume@yahoo.com> wrote:
>In article <gcGdnTcGZLDio2CjXTWJhQ@comcast.com>, Bill Garber
><willy46pa@comcast.net> wrote:
>> > >The C-64 couldn't touch the Coleco, because at the price they had only a
>> > >VERY poor DMP, and their infamous tape system.
>
>> DMP, I believe, is Dot Matrix Printer. ;-)
>
>Right, and the "poor DMP and infamous tape system" sounds like a knock
>on Coleco, not Commodore, except that the ADAM printer was a daisywheel
>or other form of impact printer, not a dot-matrix.  So how exactly do
>those two undesirable features mean the C-64 "couldn't touch" the ADAM?

Yes, the Adam used a daisy-wheel printer.  For cranking out documents in the
era before laser and inkjet printers (afforable ones, anyway), a daisy-wheel
printer would've delivered far superior print quality.  (Not everybody
wasted time with games and demos...some of us did real work with our
computers.)  Dot-matrix printers generally did only a usable job with text,
but had the advantage of being able to do graphics as well as text.

BTW, dot-matrix printers are also impact printers.  (If you want to be
pedantic, laser and inkket printers use smaller dots in a matrix to form
images and text, but "dot-matrix printer" typically refers to a heavy, noisy
beast that uses 9 or 24 small pins poking at a ribbon to put ink on paper.)

IIRC, the Adam also had some sort of high-speed tape drive, not merely a
cassette recorder with nonstandard connectors (what Commodore did to lock
you into paying extra for theirs).  A disk drive would've been better, but
it may have been a bit much to expect one in a computer system that cost
less than $1000.  That's one reason why Apple II and IBM PC systems often
started well over $1000 (over $2000 wasn't uncommon, and that's what you
continued to pay for a decent computer system through the mid-to-late-'90s). 
They were proof that you get what you pay for.

  _/_   Scott Alfter
 / v \  salfter@salfter.dyndns.org
(IIGS(  http://alfter.us            Top-posting!
 \_^_/  pkill -9 /bin/laden         >What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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Follow-Ups:
- Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
  - From: Exegete <millers@noneofyourbusiness.com>

References:
- World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
  - From: ppanks@juno.com (Paul Allen Panks)
- Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
  - From: "Sam Gillett" <samgillett@msn.com>
- Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
  - From: "Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net>
- Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?
  - From: Max Volume <macsvolume@yahoo.com>

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