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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!kolstad
- From: kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (Joel Kolstad)
- Subject: Re: no news, just trash!
- Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
- Date: 13 Dec 92 18:28:09 CST
- Message-ID: <1992Dec13.182810.12785@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
- References: <1g9r9kINNkdc@mailgzrz.TU-Berlin.DE> <FoFoVB1w164w@jwt.UUCP>
- Lines: 33
-
- In article <FoFoVB1w164w@jwt.UUCP> bbs-artmoore@jwt.UUCP writes:
- >> But please answer this question:
- >> Why is the C64 after 10 years still a success ?
- >>
- >Well, when it was first made available, it was a technological wonder for
- >it's price range (Give C= a point for their own microchips). Nowadays,
- >it's refreshingly simple to program, and still has a sound chip that a PC
- >cant match (well, for $100 extra)...but the 64 is $149 brand-spanking
- >new!
-
- Yeah, except that these days an Amiga 500 with built in disk drive is $299
- -- The same price as a C-64 and a 1541. Intelligent disk drives cost
- $$$...
-
- I don't think Commodore sells many new 64's in this country. In places
- like East Germany, where 8 bit machines are still all the rage, I think
- they sell plenty.
-
- You're right about the programming simplicity -- making a hack robot or
- something on a C-64 is a lot easier than doing it on an Amiga, even though
- the result will be more limited on a C-64.
-
- >Eh, it'll be around for at least another 5 years...folks are finding more
- >and more with every passing day that the 64 can do as much as a $1000 PC,
- >just a little slower, and with a few disk swaps. Expandable to 24 megs,
- >bps rate of up to 38.4k...not bad for $149.
-
- Too bad you can't actually execute programs out of that 24 megs, but have
- to use it as a RAM disk. And that 38.4K serial cartridge just added $40 to
- the cost. (Although the unexpanded 64 can do 9600 baud RS-232 one way! :-)
- )
-
- ---Joel Kolstad
-