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Comment by GFlaneur | Hacker News Reader

The article completely omits any mention of the Atari 8-bit computers which used 6502. It skips from Atari VCS/2600 to C64.

Atari 400/800 GTIA & ANTIC were a massive improvement over the TIA in the VCS and came to market in 1979 more than 2 years before C64.

Atari 8-bit had better colour than the C64 (palette of 128). C64 had much better sprites, but Al Charpentier had the benefit of seeing what had been already been done by Atari.

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Yeah, it's a baffling omission that undermines the whole thing. The Atari 8-bits were pretty incredible, combining the 6502 with not only a way better graphics co-processor than the VCS, but also dedicated sound and I/O chips.

The Atari 800 had S-video output, in 1978! Come on, that's pretty forward-thinking. I still have my 800 and Commodore (JVC) 1702 monitor, a state-of-the-art combo in its day.

All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.

All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.

Four million units for the Ataris in the U.S. versus 5.7 million for the C-128 worldwide.

Seems pretty significant to me, especially compared with other 8-bit computers that people are always talking about on HN:

- BBC Micro: 1.5 million

- Sinclair ZX: 5 million

- Apple ][: 4 million

Sure, let's shoehorn in lots of random computers from overseas. BBCs only sold to schools and education but not to most parents as they were too expensive. ZX Spectrums were Z80 based which isn't a 6502 processor. Apple 2 is mentioned in the article.

I think the point is that they sold fairly well compared to other successful machines of that era. They probably also outsold a number of popular game consoles as well such as Atari's 7800.

Not to mention that the Ataris were way earlier, and were at one point regarded as the MOST popular computer worldwide. That's why the learning platform PLATO was released on the Atari first.

I don't think the historical importance has anything to do with sales numbers. The article mentions Commodore PET, of which only 200,000+ units were manufactured.

The Atari 400 was a much bigger technological achievement than the Commodore 8-bitters that were released later though. It deserves its place in history.

(it also was the predecessor of the greatest computer of all time: the Commodore Amiga ;P)

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