Posted By
Spector
on 2002-12-28
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Well, Bacon, when I meant that the Spectrum held it's own, I meant in terms of quality of software, as you say it's true that the C64 sold more - the Spectrum was never released for NTSC countries for a start, so the huge North American market was never touched. The reason the Spectrum sold so well in those early days was down to quality of software, which certainly in the early days was superior to the C64's, and even some C64 programmers from the time admit that today. Everyone thought that Christmas 84 would be the C64's year in the UK, as CBM had reduced the price, and the software houses started releasing C64-only games. But it didn't happen, because all the kids had been playing Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf etc at their mates' houses, and wanted more, so they got a Spectrum, and the C64 never caught up (in terms of sales) in the UK. Perhaps we have a similar situation today with the PS2 and the X-BOX - one machine is technically inferior to the other, but had the head start and the games to make it more desireable. If you ask kids today which one they want, then it's PS2 every time.
As for the Plus/4, it seems to be a case of "if only". Maybe a hybrid of the two would have been perfect - the C64's sound and sprite capabilities, coupled with the Plus4's colour and excellent keyboard. Now that would have been something!
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