On Sat, 10 Mar 2012, Brian wrote:
Always thought it was strange (and maybe it's just my perception), but the Apple II community seems very, very small in comparison to its other 8 and 16 bit counterparts, specifically in gaming.
When I first got into computers/gaming etc in the early 70s (I had Pong when it first came out), I think it was mostly name-brand associations. The Atari 2600 (or VCS as it was known then) was the defacto gaming system, later competing with Mattel's Intellivision, the Magnavox Odyssey and the Vic-20 (by Commodore) but winning the sales wars. As Atari and Commodore introduced their computer lines, the gaming fans seemed to follow.
The Apple II was promoted (locally anyway) by Apple to be a better educational tool and less as a game system - the II's 80 column display was superb - clean and very legible - next to the blotchy C64 and Atari displays. Schools embraced the II and students seemed to associate the II with education and the C64 and Atari with gaming. I think the sprites available in those systems, made programming games easier and with a lot more colours etc. The 8 bit Apple games seemed to be mostly blue and orange.
There are definitely Apple II gamers, myself being one, but I always seemed outnumbered by my friends, who were almost solidly C64 and, to a lesser extent, Atari.