Even the base-model Amiga had almost double the CPU speed of the IBM (7 MHz vs. 5), four times the RAM (512 KB vs. 128 KB), and a full 32-bit processor (albeit with a 24-bit address space). The Amiga was also released four years later than the PCjr. That's an entire generation in personal computer hardware.

Regardless, I'm not sure where you picked up a sense of "parody" from the original article. I see an almost touching devotion to make something useful out of a dead, useless platform. It's ridiculous, silly, and probably a waste of time, but it made me smile anyway, and brought back memories of all the time I spend playing with my own PCjr in my parents' basement 20 years ago.