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This was the era of 8 bit computers, and the 6502-based (actually 6510) C64 was the biggest selling model, so there's a lot of affection for those machines. (Ke
by fractallyte 3y ago
This was the era of 8 bit computers, and the 6502-based (actually 6510) C64 was the biggest selling model, so there's a lot of affection for those machines. (Keep in mind the huge competition with the Z80, used in competing computers like the Spectrum.)
The 6502 processor and its variants are well documented and easy to emulate, and there's a vast library of software.
The next generation of 16 bit computers were an order of magnitude more complex: the Amiga, in particular, had several co-processors, which makes emulation and hardware projects correspondingly more complex. (There's no point even mentioning the PC, which was a nondescript business box.)
In any case, there's a huge Amiga scene...
- rbanffy 3y ago> The 6502 processor and its variants are well documented and easy to emulate, and there's a vast library of software. And newer games developed for those platforms employing the tricks we have learned in decades after these machines were retired are quite impressive. Much like the 8088mph demo, people today do things these machines were never supposed to be able to do. The Plus4, BTW, would have been massively successful if it had back then the games it has today.
- fractallyte 3y agoI'm still dreaming of a 6502 (or Z80) smartphone, with 8 bit apps that hit the metal, and an OS that's actually 100% understandable (for a developer)...
- rbanffy 3y agoThe Apple II (running DOS 3.3) is the last computer I can claim I completely understood.