The 6502 was also in the right place at the right time in the wave of the great "homebrew computer club" era. There were so many DIY kits built around 6502 and

The 6502 was also in the right place at the right time in the wave of the great "homebrew computer club" era. There were so many DIY kits built around 6502 and 6502 clones. Some of the earliest mass produced (and mass consumed) "home computers" were all built around 6502 and 6502 clones. Not to mention how large a number of early game consoles were also built on those chips or their clones/offspring. At least a little of hobbyists writing assembly in 6502 comes from nostalgia for early Apple, early Nintendo, early Commodore, etc. Also, yeah as someone who's undergrad included a MOS 6502 "micro-controller" lab and Motorola 68k "microprocessor" lab courses, I can tell you from hands on experience that the 6502 really was in a fantastic place for writing clean, easy to debug assembly. That was a big time crunch factor in dealing with breadboarded machines where debugging the hardware was an equal or greater challenge. Given the choice between the two assembly languages I know which one I'd pick up again.