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Page 38 had the answer: a well appointed clone with 512K, floppy and hard drive was $449 on page 38. On page 109, you can get a 286 for $799.
by indymike 4y ago
Page 38 had the answer: a well appointed clone with 512K, floppy and hard drive was $449 on page 38. On page 109, you can get a 286 for $799.
- timbit42 4y agoThose sound cheap today but were very expensive in those 35 year old 1980's dollars. Businesses and the more well-to-do could afford them but the majority couldn't. This is the reason Jack Tramiel's Commodore 64 and Atari ST were targeted at, "the masses, not the classes".
- vidarh 4y agoI see no mention of a harddrive for the $449 system? And also, it's not really $449: "Must be purchased with MS DOS & G.W. BASIC Software for an additional $79.95". And that is excluding the monitor, which you can't avoid, whereas the C64 can be used with a TV. And a monochrome TTL monitor card (heavy phosphor to reduce flicker, at the cost of lag), so no colour. And of course no proper sound. To me, had I been forced to buy a computer based on page 38 alone, then unless I had specific software needs (e.g. Word Perfect or similar), I'd have opted for the Complete Commodore 64C System for $395.95, even though I'd have preferred to buy one without the monitor and used a colour TV instead (but the price in question is competitive w/packages without a monitor, so I'm guessing they were clearing out old stock given it's a tiny monochrome monitor). Had PC's stayed like that, the C64 would have kept doing just fine in the low end of the home market. Of course PC's didn't stay like that for very long at all.