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The Golden Age of Basic

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Re: The Golden Age of Basic

#12
post #4

"... general purpose home computers were replaced in the late 1980s by game consoles for those interested only in entertainment, or by PCs and Macs for those looking for more serious applications. None of these replacements were easily programmable. And while cheap and easy ways to code would eventually become generally available again for children and teens, learning how to program would never regain the place in po…

In the late 1980's the Commodore 64 in the home was probably not being replaced by a Mac, but because of price by some version of the Apple II. This was the GOTO product for home and education into the early 1990's. In the late 1980's Apple was selling Mac SE's at close to $3000 list price and Mac II's at $5500 list. These were targeted at business customers with prices comparable to the bottom end 8088 IBM PS/2 and…

[deleted]

Re: The Golden Age of Basic

#13
post #4

"... general purpose home computers were replaced in the late 1980s by game consoles for those interested only in entertainment, or by PCs and Macs for those looking for more serious applications. None of these replacements were easily programmable. And while cheap and easy ways to code would eventually become generally available again for children and teens, learning how to program would never regain the place in po…

In the late 1980's the Commodore 64 in the home was probably not being replaced by a Mac, but because of price by some version of the Apple II. This was the GOTO product for home and education into the early 1990's. In the late 1980's Apple was selling Mac SE's at close to $3000 list price and Mac II's at $5500 list. These were targeted at business customers with prices comparable to the bottom end 8088 IBM PS/2 and…

I remember Apple IIs of the late 80s/early 90s being "not exactly cheap" either, in comparison to c64s.

Re: The Golden Age of Basic

#14
post #4

"... general purpose home computers were replaced in the late 1980s by game consoles for those interested only in entertainment, or by PCs and Macs for those looking for more serious applications. None of these replacements were easily programmable. And while cheap and easy ways to code would eventually become generally available again for children and teens, learning how to program would never regain the place in po…

In the late 1980's the Commodore 64 in the home was probably not being replaced by a Mac, but because of price by some version of the Apple II. This was the GOTO product for home and education into the early 1990's. In the late 1980's Apple was selling Mac SE's at close to $3000 list price and Mac II's at $5500 list. These were targeted at business customers with prices comparable to the bottom end 8088 IBM PS/2 and…

By that time the cheap Taiwanese PC clones were already more affordable than Apple 2s. My first computer was a "turbo xt", the likes of which were selling for less than $1000 by the mid/late 1980s:

http://books.google.de/books?id=Vi8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA30

http://books.google.de/books?id=Vy8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54

Don't remember seeing many macs, most other kids had PCs too by the end of the 80s (my parents bought one in '87). I understand the apple2 was more popular in America though due to Apple pushing very aggresively into the school market.

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