English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Was the C64 good or bad for the games industry?

CCCP alert · 02 May 2024, 17:52

I would like to add though that console VCS creativity in game dev wasn't an issue while Nolan Bushnell's revolutionary management style was still in place. You were given a dev kit, a space to work and 6 months to do whatever you wanted.

Problem was the dev kit business, loads of awesome coders used nothing more than a micro and hand assembled code. bedroom coding and analogue synth music creation was a massive injection of creativity in the early days.

a stand alone cheap tape deck, which few had to spare for a kid's bedroom computer full time in reality, is far less reliable for loading than a dedicate fixed spec datasette etc. A Sony tape deck cost £30 more than a Boots/Smiths branded el cheapo rubbish too. The Atari XC and C= C2Ns loaded everything I bought, not once did I get a single load error from 200+ tapes. Atari and C= machines had cart slots and C= carts like Int Soccer were £9.99. Only other machine with cart slot was MSX. Boots did a C64 tape deck, it was £29,99 IIRC.

Worst of all if you got a green screen CPC bundle you couldn't hook it up to your TV and the TV modulator was very rare in shops.

If the BBC Micro had £100 lower RRP, sound not out of a case speaker and 8 more colours in palette would have been a great machine. It's the most well designed video RAM and CPU bus of the lot IMO. 2mhz well designed 6502 motherboard is fast

02 May 2024, 17:52	#136
CCCP alert Registered User Join Date: May 2023 Location: essex Posts: 472	I would like to add though that console VCS creativity in game dev wasn't an issue while Nolan Bushnell's revolutionary management style was still in place. You were given a dev kit, a space to work and 6 months to do whatever you wanted. Problem was the dev kit business, loads of awesome coders used nothing more than a micro and hand assembled code. bedroom coding and analogue synth music creation was a massive injection of creativity in the early days. a stand alone cheap tape deck, which few had to spare for a kid's bedroom computer full time in reality, is far less reliable for loading than a dedicate fixed spec datasette etc. A Sony tape deck cost £30 more than a Boots/Smiths branded el cheapo rubbish too. The Atari XC and C= C2Ns loaded everything I bought, not once did I get a single load error from 200+ tapes. Atari and C= machines had cart slots and C= carts like Int Soccer were £9.99. Only other machine with cart slot was MSX. Boots did a C64 tape deck, it was £29,99 IIRC. Worst of all if you got a green screen CPC bundle you couldn't hook it up to your TV and the TV modulator was very rare in shops. If the BBC Micro had £100 lower RRP, sound not out of a case speaker and 8 more colours in palette would have been a great machine. It's the most well designed video RAM and CPU bus of the lot IMO. 2mhz well designed 6502 motherboard is fast Last edited by CCCP alert; 02 May 2024 at 18:01.