The VAR Guy met a bunch of other bloggers this weekend at a small convention in Dallas. While there, he somehow got locked in a fun debate with another attendee. The topic … Which system ruled the home PC market in the early 1980s: The Atari 800 or the Commodore 64?
Frankly, The VAR Guy preferred the Atari 800. First shipped in 1979, the $1,000 system sported a 1.8MHz processor and supported up to 48k of memory. Our resident blogger learned to program in BASIC, and wrote thousands of lines of bad code on that system. It has only taken him 30 years to transition from bad coder to bad blogger. Go figure.
Another blogger at the Wordcamp Dallas convention, J. David Curlee of RealcookN.TV, mentioned his love for the Atari 400 and 800. Then he threw in his affection for Commodore 64.
Ah yes, Commodore. The Apple of its time: A loyal following. Great graphics. Fun software. But The VAR Guy had shallow pockets in the 1980s (in fact, he still does) and couldn’t afford more than one PC. So he was an all-Atari shop.
ReakcookN’s Curlee, it seems, was a multi-platform CIO far before his time, supporting Atari 800s and Commodore 64s in his house decades before our kids discovered Guitar Hero.
Before he signs off, The VAR Guy has a confession: His garage is filled with full-size Atari arcade games, and there are still a few Atari 800s up in his attic. Oh, and let’s not even explore his office closet, which contains well-preserved systems like the Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 2600 and 5200, and Magnovox Odyssey 2.
But if you had to choose one system from the glorious 1980s, would it be Atari 800 or Commodore 64?
Tags: Atari 800 | classic video games | Commodore 64 | I love the 80s | RealcookN | retro video games
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I was an atari kid myself. I even had, played, nay enjoyed the infamous E.T. (the Raiders of the Lost Arc game was equally inane though). But as the number 2 system, I remember Colecovision even above Commodore. My best friend has Donkey Kong on Coleco it was surprisingly fantastic…at least that’s how I choose to remember it.
The real fun started once you hooked up the 810 disk drive to the Atari 800.
I preferred the commodore vic 20. And you forgot to mention the coleco ADAM, one of the greatest hype jobs and failures in the consumer entertainment/PC markets.
I gamed until my wrists hurt on my Commodore 64.
1) Insert disk
2) Load “*” ,8,1
3) fix lunch
4) GAME!
Went through a pile of joysticks.
Those were the days…
James, I seem to recall a similar command line for the Atari disk drive. Load c:”game” or something like that. Burned a lot of bucks on Atari software back then.
Donkey Kong on Coleco was pretty spectacular, thought Pitfall could have caused seizures. I have to admit though that I was an Atari kid. I even had, played, nay enjoyed the infamous E.T.
Michael: E.T. filled a lot of landfills in its time, as I recall. Didn’t atari smash thousands of those and send them to the garbage dumps? Definitely not green gaming.
Atari is as American as OS X pie. I lived and breathed Atari from the 400 through the STs. I always wanted a Falcon but could never afford it. I still use my 800XL on occasion.
Hey Matthew: I skipped the 400 because i wanted the 800’s true keyboard. 800XL was beyond my reach. I still have the 800… fantastic machine. Amazing how creative coders were able to squeeze so much quality into so little memory back in the 80s.
I think coders have gotten sloppy now that they have unlimited storage and RAM. But then again, I’m not a modern-day programmer so what do i know.
Definitely the Commodore 64. It even had a DISK DRIVE!!!! NO MORE TAPES: WHOOHOO!!!!!!!!!
Brandon: Surely you’re not suggesting that the Atari 800 didn’t have a disk drive. The VAR Guy still has his Atari disk drive — aptly named the Atari 810 — somewhere in his attic.