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Apple II had primitive graphics and sound, but was incredibly successful.

Atari 800 featured powerful video processing with display lists and sprites, 4-channel audio, etc., but was much less successful.

As I understand it, Radio Shack did not encourage third-party software and support for its systems, not realizing that it was the key to success.

OS-9, originally a 6809 OS, seems to have survived for quite some time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-9



Yeah, once OS-9 came out we got some decent game ports too. That’s where I discovered Epyx Rogue! It was very late in the lifespan of the system though.

C64/128 was what I was thinking of more than anything re 8-bit competition, keeping in mind I’m talking mid-late 80s by this point. I do also remember Atari 800 (and later) doing considerably better than you imply. But you’re right, Apple captured the early-mid 80s gaming market nicely.




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