[geeks] 80s computers, was Re: [rescue] fwd: Linux Foundation Prepares For Microsoft's Legal Action

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 08:46:10PM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:
>> On a more concrete basis in a slightly earlier era, Apple IIs didn't
>> take off in the UK because they were roughly B#1500 ($2500 in 1990
>> prices) for a base configuration when the US price for a base
>> configuration was roughly $1500 (those prices were very rough). As a
>> consequence, the Apple II was hardly visible in the UK market where the
>> homegrown Acorn micros were all over the place.
>>
>> Whilst Commodore was a US company they figured out how to do reasonable
>> European prices.
> 
> They may also have been taxed to death. England had it's own computer
> industry and may have had large protective tariffs on computers.
> I'm not sure where the Amiga was actually made for the U.S. market,
> but I do know that some were made in the E.U. possibly Ireland.

A couple of the 80s adventure games made reference to the protective UK
computer market, including at least one by Infocom.

I also remember jokes about "chips that pass in the night" on a list about
Sinclair computers, but never knew what that was about.  I assumed it
was something uniquely UK.



-- 
shannon           | I wish life was not so short. Languages take such a time,
                  | and so do all the things one wants to know about.
                  |        -- J. R. R. Tolkien