The Apple II – expensive but good for its time

The First computer I used, little did I realise this computer was far superior to that which I would own myself until at least 1985, but then at the cost a 48k Apple II was, that could be expected, Though I only saw this machine hooked upto a green screen, I remember its software being particularly good for the time, Apple invaders was an almost perfect clone of space invaders and there were many other intriguing software demos, I remember one with an interactive room, in which a person in a picture winked at you and various things like that, maybe it was an early hypercard demo ? but for the time it was an amazing machine.

the skinny re the Atari VCS 2600

This machine was the first to really crack home console gaming globally, and set the precedent which is still true with consoles today, that the machine maybe reasonably priced, but to afford to buy the number of games to really show the machine off, would cost you just as much money as the console again, I used to regularly visit a friend of mine who had the original atari heavy sixer VCS, and we had great fun playing the games, though I think he just invited me round to show off his prowess with the games he had mastered ;), I was amazed as to how many games his family seemed to buy for this machine as carts were not cheap. this machine most definitely had the feel of the arcade at home, and its the sounds of this machines games, that to me are most redolent of early gaming. The VCS hit peoples home well before the home micro computer revolution and had full colour gaming with juicy sounds going on, well before the much later 1k ZX81’s home computers B&W efforts. and all this with 128 bytes of memory and maybe a 1 or 2k game rom, incredible.