Post by David Murray on Feb 26, 2009 21:37:20 GMT -5
I'm sure this topic has been around for decades. But it is interesting to me since I now own an Apple IIe. I've had a IIgs for a while, but have no software for it and I am well aware it is superior to the C64 in nearly every way. But the IIe seems to be a different story.
What is interesting to me is, now that it is decades after the fact, I can look at both machines unbiased and see what each company did right, and wrong.
I think the Apple IIe definitely has some advantages over the C64. Particularly, the hi-res video mode, and the overall performance of the machine (especially disk access) It is also far more expandable than the C64.
But it amazes me when i look down at my IIe motherboard stamped 1985 (and knowing the made the IIe for years after that) how terrible the video quality is on the machine. It looks okay in text mode with the "color killer" enabled. But try to use any color and the text goes all fuzzy and rainbow like. Then I started doing some reading on how colors are actually determined on the screen and it is crazy. It appears more complex to code for than the C64's screen. I can see why Steve Wozniak designed it that way in the 1970's to save money. But you'd think after a few years they would have given it a real video chip.
Of course, we all know the C64 has much better sound, no reason to even go into that.
Then there is BASIC. I hate to say it, but Apple BASIC sucks compared to Commodore BASIC. granted, Apple at least has graphics commands, I can give them credit for that. But the screen editor is very un-userfriendly. You hit the delete key (positioned where backspace is on the C64) and what do you get? Rather than backing up, it puts some funny character on the screen. What is up with that? Editing lines in BASIC is also very painful. Oh.. and I tried to write a program and found there doesn't seem to be any way to change text colors in BASIC and the GET statement doesn't work like the Commodore version. It actually halts the program until a key is pressed. That makes it impossible to write a program in pure BASIC that does any kind of active routine while waiting on a keystroke.
Anyway, I can see why the Apple excelled at business and the C64 excelled at home users.
What is interesting to me is, now that it is decades after the fact, I can look at both machines unbiased and see what each company did right, and wrong.
I think the Apple IIe definitely has some advantages over the C64. Particularly, the hi-res video mode, and the overall performance of the machine (especially disk access) It is also far more expandable than the C64.
But it amazes me when i look down at my IIe motherboard stamped 1985 (and knowing the made the IIe for years after that) how terrible the video quality is on the machine. It looks okay in text mode with the "color killer" enabled. But try to use any color and the text goes all fuzzy and rainbow like. Then I started doing some reading on how colors are actually determined on the screen and it is crazy. It appears more complex to code for than the C64's screen. I can see why Steve Wozniak designed it that way in the 1970's to save money. But you'd think after a few years they would have given it a real video chip.
Of course, we all know the C64 has much better sound, no reason to even go into that.
Then there is BASIC. I hate to say it, but Apple BASIC sucks compared to Commodore BASIC. granted, Apple at least has graphics commands, I can give them credit for that. But the screen editor is very un-userfriendly. You hit the delete key (positioned where backspace is on the C64) and what do you get? Rather than backing up, it puts some funny character on the screen. What is up with that? Editing lines in BASIC is also very painful. Oh.. and I tried to write a program and found there doesn't seem to be any way to change text colors in BASIC and the GET statement doesn't work like the Commodore version. It actually halts the program until a key is pressed. That makes it impossible to write a program in pure BASIC that does any kind of active routine while waiting on a keystroke.
Anyway, I can see why the Apple excelled at business and the C64 excelled at home users.