Matt,
Great post. I have a couple of historical observations related to items you brought up.
I was a personal friend of a couple of computer store owners back when the C64 was big. When the C128 came out, the local market was pretty much saturated and they had no one to sell the C128 to. In those days people didn't see upgrading as something that was required or desirable. The sales people also hadn't started pushing 'upgrades' like the industry pushes today. Of the few C128's that were sold in the local stores, they were sold because they were backward compatible. In the end, the C128 failed in my local market because people were not buying any computer in sufficient quantity to justify staying with the CV line or any line of computers for that matter. My local market really went through an up and down market for a number of years around the time of the C128. I suspect other areas of the country did as well.
For me personally, I originally bought the ColecoVision console because it promised 2600 backward compatibility. I owned a 2600 and a huge 2600 library of games and when the CV came out I convinced myself I had to have it. The only way I could afford the CV was to sell the 2600 and a few games. Most people at that time snapped up any 2600 that was put up for sell not caring about the new 'CV' that was coming out. I sold my 2600, bought my CV and played 2600 games for a long time in addition to all the cool CV games that came out. As a matter of fact, I still have my original CV and 2600 adapter! :)
Matt,
Great post. I have a couple of historical observations related to items you brought up.
I was a personal friend of a couple of computer store owners back when the C64 was big. When the C128 came out, the local market was pretty much saturated and they had no one to sell the C128 to. In those days people didn't see upgrading as something that was required or desirable. The sales people also hadn't started pushing 'upgrades' like the industry pushes today. Of the few C128's that were sold in the local stores, they were sold because they were backward compatible. In the end, the C128 failed in my local market because people were not buying any computer in sufficient quantity to justify staying with the CV line or any line of computers for that matter. My local market really went through an up and down market for a number of years around the time of the C128. I suspect other areas of the country did as well.
For me personally, I originally bought the ColecoVision console because it promised 2600 backward compatibility. I owned a 2600 and a huge 2600 library of games and when the CV came out I convinced myself I had to have it. The only way I could afford the CV was to sell the 2600 and a few games. Most people at that time snapped up any 2600 that was put up for sell not caring about the new 'CV' that was coming out. I sold my 2600, bought my CV and played 2600 games for a long time in addition to all the cool CV games that came out. As a matter of fact, I still have my original CV and 2600 adapter! :)