Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT strips 4311-4315 (20-25 July 2020)
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: Case on 22 Jul 2020, 12:07 ---
--- Quote from: Tova on 22 Jul 2020, 04:09 ---Ah, now I remember! I watched the documentary about that. Atari: Game Over. It was enjoyable.
--- End quote ---
Ummh - from what I remember of the time (which is just slightly after the videogame-industry crisis proper - got my C64 in '86, by which time the crisis was pretty much history), a lot of it was Jack Tramiel repeatedly being so far ahead of the curve he ended up out-competing himself (and a lot of other folk to boot). Pushed the C64 at Commodore, coined the nifty 'Home Computer' label for rigs that were basically the common ancestor of both the contemporary PC (Commodore C64/128, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and a few others, iirc) and almost pushed consoles of the market for half a decade - and just when his baby started taking off, he acquired Atari and the 2600 he'd just made forever obsolete?
Similar story with the Amiga/Atari ST competition in the latter half of the decade, I think I recall?
I have to admit I'm a bit peeved at accounts that appear to pretend that kids in the 80s and 90s only used consoles for gaming until the Intel-clone PCs entered peoples' living rooms. Far as I recall it, the 80s were very much the decade of the Home Computer.
--- End quote ---
Weren't console usually cheaper, though? It'd make them more common along with not having to know any programming.
Tova:
I don't recall whether the doco itself really pretended home computers didn't exist, but it's been awhile since I saw it. Obviously the trailer hyped up the possibility that this one guy destroyed an industry. I think in the documentary itself they end up admitting, 'hmmm, nahhh, not really,' but it makes for a catchy trailer, no?
I grew up with a C64 myself, just to clarify.
Consoles may have been cheaper - I don't recall. But home computers like the C64 were insanely popular because parents could reassure themselves that they were getting their kids something educational rather than just a toy. The marketing definitely pushed the educational angle.
One of my fondest memories as a kid was visiting the Powerhouse Museum where they had at the time a room full of C64s and BASIC programming classes. Those were the days.
Case:
--- Quote ---Consoles may have been cheaper - I don't recall. But home computers like the C64 were insanely popular because parents could reassure themselves that they were getting their kids something educational rather than just a toy. The marketing definitely pushed the educational angle
--- End quote ---
Yeah that was one part of the story, and for some kids, it even turned out to be true...
But another reason the 64 (and homecomputers in general) was so much more popular than the consoles was quite simply bootlegging - unlike consoles with their ROM cartridges, it came with adapter ports for rewritable storage media.Either a "datasette", or a 5.5 " Floppy disk drive. IIRC, it even had a serial port that supported acoustic couplers (the thingy's ppl used before modems).
So along with that 'toy' came the implicit possibility an entire ecosystem of fillicit hacking & trading acquiring tons of games more economically than your pocket would have allowed for.
Those crude toys turned into what we'd call platforms today - and they offered a lot of kids an accessible entry into coding, and some important early success experiences with something 'difficult' and intimidating.
Penquin47:
I miss my Commodore 64 so much. That thing taught my big brother to read, I swear.
Edited because new strip went up: I did NOT RECOGNIZE SVEN. I have no idea who that guy is, but I do not recognize him. If anything, when I first saw him, I thought it was Angus coming back to visit from New York.
Torlek:
--- Quote from: Penquin47 on 22 Jul 2020, 18:47 ---Edited because new strip went up: I did NOT RECOGNIZE SVEN. I have no idea who that guy is, but I do not recognize him. If anything, when I first saw him, I thought it was Angus coming back to visit from New York.
--- End quote ---
Without his glasses, longer hair and smug look, he's kinda generic QC male character #1746. Especially since I don't think we've seen him since the last art-style shift(?).
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