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Early 464 Review by David Tebbutt

Started by ComSoft6128, 13:49, 05 February 18

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ComSoft6128


asertus

Really biased in regard of the peripherals..   :laugh:

Bryce

Suprise, suprise, the BBC once again "prove" that the computer that they profit from is the best.

Ah, the good old days, where you could proudly sport a tanktop on TV without being a guest star on the big bang theory.

Bryce.

pelrun


"Finally, we give the BBC a bonus 20 points because it's the oldest machine in the lineup"  :picard2:

Vyper68

Yes 32K and a PCB the size of a small planet is progress compared to 64K and a well designed minimal PCB looses out. Tripe!  >:(
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

Bryce

Quote from: Vyper68 on 08:10, 06 February 18
Yes 32K and a PCB the size of a small planet is progress compared to 64K and a well designed minimal PCB looses out. Tripe!  >:(

You forgot to mention "and full of custom ASICs that will be impossible to replace in the near future" :)

Bryce.

chinnyhill10

Quote from: Bryce on 14:22, 05 February 18
Suprise, suprise, the BBC once again "prove" that the computer that they profit from is the best.



Except that show is Database produced by Thames Television. Nothing to do with the BBC.
--
ChinnyVision - Reviews Of Classic Games Using Original Hardware
chinnyhill10 - YouTube

Bryce

Then their sudden leaning towards the BBC computer is suprising.

Bryce.

tjohnson

The chap was a bbc fanbois clearly, the weighting was a bit skewed.

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Vyper68

Quote from: Bryce on 08:47, 07 February 18
Then their sudden leaning towards the BBC computer is suprising.

Bryce.

The massive jump in the score was when it came to add-ons and he gave it a daft score - he didn't mention the kit you needed to buy to get the BBC to do anything useful. Or how unreliable the QL's Microdrives were.
It did seem like there was a lot of product placement for that old computer magazine - was it "sponsored" by said rag?
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

ComSoft6128

He was the Editor of Personal Computer World.

Bryce

The biggest joke was that the amount of available hardware was judged by the amount of adverts in their magazine!! Instead of comparing the amounts in computer specific magazines.

Bryce.

Vyper68

Quote from: Bryce on 20:28, 07 February 18
The biggest joke was that the amount of available hardware was judged by the amount of adverts in their magazine!! Instead of comparing the amounts in computer specific magazines.

Bryce.

The inference being if you wanted a higher benchmark score for your product get more companies supplying add-ons for your product ( computer ) to advertise in that magazine.  ::)
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

Vyper68

I did quite like to news segment. Something dodgy going on with Prism's MD getting duffed up, the rumoured upgrade that would be the 664 ( it's only the same but it has a disk drive - meh! ) i could only dream of having a disk drive back then and here was something that had one built in - shut the front door!
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

||C|-|E||

Comparing the QL with the CPC and the BBC seems a bit out of place in my opinion... then, putting the BBC above the others just a bit crazy  :blank:

Gryzor

Those were stranger times. I did watch the video the other night, totally bonkers. I liked how they had a whole PANEL of experts on benchmarks :D


IIRC, they didn't even include the price into the argument, did they?

Skunkfish

Seems like a clear win for the CPC to me.

BBC - £399 but requires screen and storage device.
QL - £399 with built-in storage but requires screen.
CPC - £239/£349 with green/colour screen, built-in storage, monitor and software pack.

Absolute no brainer...
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

tjohnson

Quote from: Skunkfish on 17:01, 21 February 18
Seems like a clear win for the CPC to me.

BBC - £399 but requires screen and storage device.
QL - £399 with built-in storage but requires screen.
CPC - £239/£349 with green/colour screen, built-in storage, monitor and software pack.

Absolute no brainer...
Well we all know how it came out.  Ultimately the ql was a disaster,  the amstrad was a success in the home market,  the bbc was a success but less so in the home market and some world say ultimately went on to rule the roost with the arm chip.

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Skunkfish

And strange of them to ignore the two bestselling computers of the time; both the C64 and Speccy were available for under £200 by that point...
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

||C|-|E||

A bit unrelated to the video, but I always felt a bit sad for QL´s destiny. I mean, it got rushed, it was buggy, it had microdrives instead of floppies... but the machine had a lot of potential. Later, when everything was corrected the Atari ST and the Amiga were almost there  :picard:

ComSoft6128

I agree, the QL was missed opportunity. I used to go to the "All Format"  computer shows here in Glasgow and there usually was a stand for the QL, its software and peripherals. For the time it was an impressive machine.

Vyper68

Quote from: Skunkfish on 17:21, 21 February 18
And strange of them to ignore the two bestselling computers of the time; both the C64 and Speccy were available for under £200 by that point...

I think they were seen as "Toys" by the wooly jumper/beard brigade not serious computers where you could do serious computering  ;D
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

Vyper68

Quote from: ComSoft6128 on 01:33, 23 February 18
I agree, the QL was missed opportunity. I used to go to the "All Format"  computer shows here in Glasgow and there usually was a stand for the QL, its software and peripherals. For the time it was an impressive machine.

Yes it was a bit of a mess at launch and by the time Sinclair got their act together it was too late. It did have some good ideas but they were adamant about those daft microdrive tape drives.
Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

||C|-|E||

If it was not buggy and had a couple of floppy drives... the QL would have been a serious thing back in the days. In any case, the Amiga appeared in 1985 and that was basically it for the QL. OK, it was a much more expensive machine, but it was miles away from it (same about the price  :laugh: ). The Atari was also there in 1985... all in all, bad times for the QL. The only chance for it to be a success would have been to be completely polished and ready at launch.


Vyper68

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 17:47, 23 February 18
If it was not buggy and had a couple of floppy drives... the QL would have been a serious thing back in the days. In any case, the Amiga appeared in 1985 and that was basically it for the QL. OK, it was a much more expensive machine, but it was miles away from it (same about the price  :laugh: ). The Atari was also there in 1985... all in all, bad times for the QL. The only chance for it to be a success would have been to be completely polished and ready at launch.

I remember all the carry on when they finally shipped the QL a lot later than promised ( enough to start causing problems but not ZXVega+ levels of nonsense ). They sold it with part of the ROM in a dongle ( the guy who wrote the ROM said it was done for other reasons i thnk ). You are right though the Atari ST with GEM and Amiga with Workbench turned up with Mouse driven GUI. It made the QL look quite outdated. I also read that Sinclair were charged the same price for the 68008 as Atari/Commodore were charged for the 68000 because they could push for a better deal.

Paul Woakes - Genius & Programmer

Thank you for Mercenary Paul

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