Crappy C64 screen resolution

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by roondar

And before anyone starts: no, the C64 fans are not doing this to any greater degree than any other group.

I will take that cue: yes, they absolutely are This very thread is a case in point.

It's true of course that every tribe has its fanatical members, but I must admit that after spending nearly a decade perusing all the major microcomputer forums my observation is that on balance its the C64 peoples who are the most unyielding ones. My rough "ferocity ranking" would probably go something like this: C64-A8-CPC-MSX-ZX.

I guess it has to do with some psychology going along the lines of being a part of the most succesful group on one end and the biggest underdog (ZX) on the other, and things in between - or maybe not - but the fact remains. Yes, yes, I know, it's not really a fact but a ~subjective opinion~, but if we were about to reduce every discussion to this fairly tedious denominator then nothing could be ever said about anything.

Anyway, nearly every exchange I have ever seen which talks about some perceived C64 weak spot, goes along these lines:

-So, about these muddy colours, whats up with that?
-Ahh, you are so wrong, the C64 colour palette is supposed to be realistic, after all the world around us is full of shades of brown, red, and sickly green, isn't it?
-Not really...in fact the other microcom...
-Their colours are unrealistic AND garish! And anyway JUST LOOK AT THIS DEMO/GAME!
-Uhhh..nevermind then. But the BASIC - it's widely recognised as not the best one out there
-Nonsense, who would care about BASIC when you should only write in machine code?
-Well, it's called BASIC to ease people into programming...
-Yes, once you realize you need to be peeking and poking everything you will be reading code asap!
-Hmph. About the resolution, bit on the low side, no?
-Never happened and if it did nobody cared about it.
-But...
-Will you JUST LOOK AT THIS GAME/DEMO?
-Arrgh. 3D games? Isometric games? Slow floppies? Anything?
-C64 SOLD 20 MIL AND IS THE BEST MICRO EVER
/thread

And that's not even mentioning some really toxic and hateful stuff I've seen enraged C64 fans say. To reiterate; of course the same happens in every tribal group, the point here being it really does seem to affect the C64 one the most, with the bigger percentage of zealots vs open minded members, who would be willing to conceded at least some points and not treat everything as a popularity contest.

Sure, you can try to turn it around and accuse me of the very tribalism/zealotry itself but it'd really be a knee-jerk reaction. Admittedly, I am originally a Sinclair fan, but that's not really saying much since I wasn't a particularly religious one back then, and certainly I'm not one now. Having access to emus and real hardware in the last decade or so made me love all the old computers/consoles pretty much equally.

And there's also this:

Originally Posted by dreadnought

[...]
All in all, if there was only one machine I could take to a desert island, the heart would say "ZX Spectrum" but the brain "C64", and it would be a right choice.

[CCCP alert]

VIC II and GTIA/Antic combo is too complex for most fanboys to ever grasp I guess.