Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!ucdavis!egg-id!ui3!dickow From: dickow@ui3.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: Re: Whaddaya do with the damned thing? Message-ID: <60012@ui3.UUCP> Date: Fri, 9-Jan-87 04:26:22 EST Article-I.D.: ui3.60012 Posted: Fri Jan 9 04:26:22 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 10-Jan-87 22:42:29 EST References: <310@rlgvax.UUCP> Organization: MRC, University of Idaho Lines: 44 ... In response to the comments about a lame duck C64. You are right in some ways about the 64, but is it really fair to compare it to a PC? The former can be had for $99 after all, and I know people who sink $5000 into a PC to make it do things right. Also, let us not forget the days when people trampled each other to buy 64s at $695! It is a very fine 8 bit machine, fine for games and... Hey! there just might be some good stuff. For developement, the PROMAL developement system is incredibly elegant, and powerful. Beats Borland Pascal, incidentaly, on the PC, in speed benchmarks. Or Dr. T's MIDI software...nothing matches it. Both these came out first on the 64, too. I use my 64 to burn roms, run my synthesizers (beats the Amiga at that even, with my software). The bottom line---what does one HAVE to do with the machine? I still don't get why my Amiga has to load in a 90k file just to accomplish EXACTLY the same functions, at comparable speeds I might add, for certain kinds of things. While we're comparing, I own a IIe too. Love it just as much as my other two creatures. But it really still doesn't stack up to a 64. Really! I program at machine level on both machines, and there is not really any- thing in the Apple that makes it 4-500 dollars 'better'. Ridiculous. (Those slots are kinda cute though. ...Until I realized I had sunk a couple-a- hundred into cards, filling 4 slots,--just to make it do stuff BUILT IN to a 64. I almost laughed. A good friend of mine, who owns a PC, saw my Amiga's graphics and decided to look into some EGA cards and stuff. $600 bucks add on. Besides, he'd need to sink more dough into a fancier monitor. ...Might as well get an Amiga. They're selling on the coasts now for about that much, I hear. Still, I understand the feeling. Why not sell the 64 if it does not suit a purpose. Want to make a purpose, use it as a printer spooler. -A good project. Set up a bulletin board. Give it to the kids. Donate it to a school. Develope educational programs specifically for that machine. Challenge yourself to make it do what it is really capable of. (Don't program in BASIC). Finally, maybe I'm just a little sentimental, but I can see a purpose in owning and loving a... KIM 1 ... or something, (VIC20), just for the collector/historical/intrinsic value. The 64 is popular perhaps because it actually has a kind of ...personality. Because it is cheap now and is frankly not current state of the art. It once was (close). The PC or AMIGA is like a new car. The bicycle sits in the garage. But is it to be spurned entirely. Ever want to go bike riding? Bob Dickow (...egg-id!ui3!dickow) --The ideas expressed here are totally unoriginal--