Let's talk Apple IIe vs. Atari XE

[boatofcar]

Thoughts? They were both released at about the same time, but the Apple was a at least 5 times the price, if I can recall correctly. What made games on either better?

[Daft Punk]

personally I like the IIe . I use to play number munchers and oregon trail on them for hours.

Hell I still go to the kids section at the library to play number munchers plus on the old macs there. 8-)


I would buy one of them on ebay but it would cost 3 arms and some toes to ship it. :(

[Jibbajaba]

personally I like the IIe . I use to play number munchers and oregon trail on them for hours.

Hell I still go to the kids section at the library to play number munchers plus on the old macs there. 8-)


I would buy one of them on ebay but it would cost 3 arms and some toes to ship it. :(

Actually, I have an Apple //e that I am trying to unload. Has 2 disk ][ drives, too. Let's talk.

I have only played with an Apple, but it is my understanding that the Atari is more powerful and has better looking games. However, I would say that the Apple has a much better library of games. Remember that the Apple ][ was the birthplace of Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, etc. and had pretty good ports of popular arcade games from back then. I still play mine alot. I still really like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

The Apple was also cool because it was an "Open" system. I you were into low-level programming, the Apple had nothing to hide, and came with a set of manuals that would tell you whatever you wanted to know about the inner workings of the machine. Not the case with the Atari.

If I ever see a nice Atari home computer in the wild, I'm going to snag it. Until I do though, I'm quite happy with my 2 Apples; one //c+ and one ][+.

Chris

[Neil Koch]

I had an Apple and really liked it. My favorite games were Gemstone Warrior and Bard's Tale 1 and 3 (didn't really get into 2 for some reason). The sound wasn't as good as many games of the time (most games didn't even have in-game music) and the joysticks available for it were wimpy (I busted so many of them playing stuff like Epyx's Games series, those little metal sticks would break on me all the time).

I never really played with Ataris, people either had Commodores or Apples...

[boatofcar]

My first computer and game machine ever was an Atari 1200XL. I played the heck out of that thing.

In my new place, I'm only going to have one retro computer, and have narrowed it down between these two. Obviously the Atari has nostalgic appeal, but I'm willing to put an Apple IIe in there if it has enough potential. Anybody want to weigh in with experience with both?

[Flack]

My first computer and game machine ever was an Atari 1200XL. I played the heck out of that thing.

In my new place, I'm only going to have one retro computer, and have narrowed it down between these two. Obviously the Atari has nostalgic appeal, but I'm willing to put an Apple IIe in there if it has enough potential. Anybody want to weigh in with experience with both?

Sorry, I've never used an Atari computer either. I have an 800 in my room that I've never even hooked up. I'd definitely hook up the Apple, you can still find game lots for it fairly easily.

[Goblin]

I've always been partial to the Atari. In my house growing up we had a number of each. Our first computer was an atari 800, then we added an 800XL, and then a 130XE. On the apple side we had a II+ and a IIc. And then in school we only used apples.

For me the Atari always had truer, arcade style games. Most of what I had on the apple were educational games or inferior ports. I liked the cartridges of the atari, and had close to 40 before moving on. I also had boxes of disks, and did much of my early bbs work on the atari.

On both machines I played the original castle wolfenstein and beyond castle. It was always 2 guys, one controlling movement using half the keyboard, the other the gun. The atari was always hooked to a TV so the games were in color, the apple was hooked to a green monochrome monitor. Later we eventually upgraded to color but I was already an atari kid by that point. One thing I recall with the II+ was the joystick had to be installed internally. The connector at the end was a DIP style connector that plugged directly into the main board.

At this point in my collecting I want nothing to do with magnetic media. I recently aquired an XE game system and have slowly begun to re-acquire carts. I've revisited the apple through emulation, but for me its not the same.

[diskoboy]

Apple ][e, all the way.

Ultima
Alkalabeth
Spare Change
Hard Hat Mack
Stellar 7
Star Blazer
and the ever famous Oregon Trail.

Good times were had by all.

[dj898]

sexist looking in the bunch had to be IIc...
had one eons ago along with IIe...
never got around to get LCD monitor for IIc though...

wish I still have those... :(

[Muscelli]

was atari xe rare?

[boatofcar]

was atari xe rare?

No. The Atari XE was the last gasp of the dying 8 bit computer market. It featured a few computers, such as the 65XE and the 130XE and a standalone game system called creatively the XEGS. Any of these can be easily obtained on eBay.

[Griking]

I grew up on the Apple IIc and absolutely loved it. I do have to admit though that while the Apple II had a lot of things going for it sound was not one of them. In fact the sound was pretty bad compared to the C64 and Atari unless you had a sound board. I think it was called Mockingbird or Mockingboard, don't remember for sure.