Item — HN Reader

In 1977, the Apple II was the only personal computer in the world on which this sort of game—color, animation, sound—was possible. Not TRS-80, not Commodore PET.

Put another way, from 1977 to 1979 (when the Atari 8-bit appeared), the Apple II was the world's best video game machine.

2 comments

> Put another way, from 1977 to 1979 (when the Atari 8-bit appeared), the Apple II was the world's best video game machine.

I suppose if you restrict this to personal computers with keyboards, that's true. But the Atari VCS (2600) came out in 1977 and had better sound, and in some ways better graphics, than the Apple II.

2600's sprites and better-than-beeper sound aren't enough to make up for the Apple II's other advantages. Consider this homebrew version of Pac-Man for 2600 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPttWAND5ok>. Would you rather play that, or the Atarisoft version from 1983? <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYML_8zOBXk>

I do like the detail of the Apple II version better, but like I said the Atari 2600 did have some advantages, like a 128-colour palette that gives you a yellow Pacman.

One of my favourites from the era with a nice arctic sky (and great gameplay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1jGOu5No0

> better sound

Amazingly, the Atari 7800 has worse sound hardware than the 2600/5200! That's got to be up high on the list of Tramiel skinflinting.

Is the sound just worse on 7800 games, or does it affect 2600 compatibility?

I misspoke. The 7800's sound hardware is worse than the 5200's (which is the same as the Atari 8-bit), but is the same as the 2600. Still, having audio hardware (or, really, anything else) decrease in quality from the previous generation is not a virtue for the console or Atari.

I feel like "color" and "sound" should be in quotes, but point taken, ha ha.