What's your favourite 8-bit computer other than the Spectrum or C64

[Pyromania]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

C128 ;-)

Edit: I still have my C128 from 1985.

Is it still working great?

[danboid]

Easily the Uzebox!

Its the fastest 8 bit console, the most hacker friendly, I think it looks better than any other console of any generation and being able to build it yourself massively increases your chances of fixing it yourself.

I would encourage you all to join me and fire up those soldering irons!

[Nobby_UK]

The Beeb, but too expensive.

[mr.spiv]

Originally Posted by danboid

Easily the Uzebox!

Of these "new" old 8-bitters mine is V6Z80P.. had few of them but it eventually had the same destiny as my BBC Model B.

[freehand]

I had spectrum and then c128 but later when moving onto the amiga there was 2 * Memotechs for sale in locale computer shop for no money they looked so nice and specs very good if I remember correctly.

I all ways wanted a Sam Coupe.

[Old_Bob]

Gotta be the BBC Model B. Surely the Rolls Royce of 8 bit machines, at least, for this part of the world. Although they were far too expensive for me to have my own one. I still have a soft spot for the CPC464 that I owned, back then. As well as my mate's old 800XL for playing Dropzone, Summer Games and Bounty Bob Strikes Back. Thank the gods, he a floppy drive for it, too!

Great days, indeed.

B

[utri007]

Eighties there was some Spectravideo models competing with Commodore.

SVI 328 mostly.

But Amstrad CPC and Atari line computers were also good. I have CPC64 and 128 computers and Atari 800XL.

There was also Salora (formely Nokia) selling VTech Laser computers branded to Salora. These wasn't good or big succes.

Commodore 264 series has a lots of games, but most of them are not worth of playing.

[gimbal]

I grew up with the MSX, my uncle had one and every time I got to play on it was a treat. I played on that before I had my own Miggy.

So naturally it holds a place in my heart forever.

[Avanze]

C64/Atari XE.

[NorthWay]

And just FYI I bought a Mega65. It looks dead gorgeous. Good replacement for a C= 65.
The CPC was too weak to drive a 16K framebuffer and should have had 128K baseline to prop up doublebuffering that much memory.
The BBC B was plain starved of memory with only 12K left after maxing out the screenmode (and befudlingly they chose to go for 8 colours with 4 bits per pixel - there was perhaps a "dim" bit in there?).
The machines using TI based gfx chips I'll just do a quick pass on (ok, the ColecoVision/ADAM is the exception for me, but that is as much a looks and stratospheric games software engineering effort. I feel they were the Jobs' Apple of its time).

[copse]

Originally Posted by TCD

Recently found a video about Alternate Reality: The City and was pretty surprised by the graphics on the Atari 400: [ Show youtube player ]
I've never really looked into the games on that machine, but I think I should

Nice recommendation.

Sometimes when I look at modern games that are great, it is pointed out that the game could have been done on retro hardware and would have killed. That perhaps the understanding of what games can be has evolved since to permit these new things to be conceived.

But looking at AR, I find myself thinking, maybe you can do more than what people think is possible if you don't know the limits and either no-one is telling you or you're not listening. Could I play these older games now without experiencing pain? No. But I can still look at them and admire the vision and achievement, even compared to what is made now.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by copse

But looking at AR, I find myself thinking, maybe you can do more than what people think is possible if you don't know the limits and either no-one is telling you or you're not listening.

Indeed Ron Gilbert had something interesting to say about that:

Maniac Mansion exists because Gary and I were too stupid to know it couldn't be done.

[Pyromania]

I vote ColecoVision Adam. I really enjoyed my ColecoVision and wanted the Adam add on but got the C64 instead since the Adam had to many issues and was hard to find. Great thread, many of the systems discussed here are ones I’ve never even heard of. Once the Amiga came out and I learned about it I was done with 8bit.

[Seiya]

as i reviews games on vintage platform i started to be interested in many alternative platforms and i found very nice ad interesting: TRS-80 CoCo, Sharp X1, Atari 8-Bit and also i enjoy so much with Atari ST.

[TommyTomorrow]

My first computer was Atari 800XL. Now I have Atari 65XE and my beloved A1200

[lmimmfn]

Originally Posted by Tigerskunk

I remember adoring the Enterprise in magazines back then, because it had a joystick instead of cursor buttons.

But I have never ever seen one in real life.
Also, not sure about the capabilities. On paper they look good, but I have never seen anything mind blowing made with them.

Its very capable, heres Renegade ported from the CPC with hardware scrolling added along with some other bells and whistles
[ Show youtube player ]

The changes were then back ported to the CPC, note the scrolling was changed to software scrolling(and doesnt have that what i consider awful psychedelic panel of the Enterprise- great to show loads of colours but too distracting):
[ Show youtube player ]

That guys channel that has the Enterprise Renegade abovealso has videos of some impressive demos along with more CPC conversions(WEC Le Mans - has extra sky colours, Chase HQ - doesnt seem to be different, R-Type from remastered CPC version etc.) - https://www.youtube.com/@SlashNetUA/videos

The author of CPC Gryzor(Contra outside Europe) said on Enterprise forums that he was going to port it to the Enterprise as he still has the source code but havnt seen any update in years, that would be amazing to see. He was also the programmer of Renegade, very talented.

[danboid]

Originally Posted by mr.spiv

Of these "new" old 8-bitters mine is V6Z80P.. had few of them but it eventually had the same destiny as my BBC Model B.

I'd not heard of the V6Z80P before. That's pretty cool. Was any 3rd party software or games ever released for it?


You know a platform has legs when clones are made of it. Of the modern retro platforms the Uzebox, Spectrum Next and Commander X16 all have clones available.

[Megalomaniac]

Some of those Enterprise videos make it look really impressive. A shame it didn't live long and prosper (sorry) but I can see why not, given the date and price (and the ease of just doing Spectrum ports to it, though unlike the Amstrad's scrolling issues it does seem to match or exceed the Spectrum in every area).

The Plus 4 has to be one of the most wronged systems, getting little more than C16 games, when you look at some of the unofficial ports made in recent years it seems capable of recreating C64 games respectably, and with a faster processor it would probably be better at 3D too.

Never really looked at the TRS-80 or Sharp X1 - sell them to me. What are the killer apps?

[Adropac2]

The Atari computer range. Their actual design cases were always beautiful to behold compared to my beloved but less elegant C64. And a very capable machine as well. I remember wanting an Atari computer more than anything in fact but looking back I made the right choice with the C64 I think

[mr.spiv]

Originally Posted by danboid

I'd not heard of the V6Z80P before. That's pretty cool. Was any 3rd party software or games ever released for it?

There were a bunch of demo scene stuff for it. Since the platform is a capable FPGA itself other emulator cores (including ZX Spectrum, of course) also appeared to it.