[NTLK] C64 on app store?

[Michael Grossman]

On Tue, 21 Sep 2010, M. Horvat wrote:
> I'd like to know what made IBM "so evil" in the 1980s. (I'm not from the 
> USA, and I didn't even exist back then) Was Apple simply jealous of the 
> IBM PC's success after the failure of the Apple /// and Lisa?
>
> -Matej Horvat

I was a kid back then and it seemed incredibly evil and stupid that IBM's 
massive corporate clout dictated hardware and software standards, yet 
their software and hardware was the worst! There was a PC with a green 
screen in one of my classes that cost well over $1000 in 1985. The teacher 
couldn't figure out how to use it, and, once she'd gotten some boy whose 
dad had taught him about DOS to teach her, it was obvious to all that this 
white elephant couldn't hold a candle to C64 or even some of the crappier 
8-bit offerings like the Texas Instruments 99/4A. No graphics, pathetic 
speaker, expensive software, expensive hardware add ons... And it cost 
3-5X what the competition did!

It was obvious even to a 12-year-old that IBM PCs were definitely not 
ready for home users or the classroom.  The over-priced behemoth sat on a 
desk while a vibrant trade in pirated C64 games and apps developed 
underground amongst the students.  Kids would come to school with 
shoeboxes full of napkin-sized disks and swap games. Made me wish I had a 
C64 which was like $500. (I mentioned TI99/4A because I'd gotten one on 
sale for $50 as TI abandoned the home computer. This 8-bit had some 
serious hardware flaws and not much software, but hey it was $50 including 
the cassette recorder.)