A computer lab in 1985 featuring Atari 800 systems alongside Apple II s. A snapshot from the early days of personal computing.
Posted by Front-Coconut-8196@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 22 comments
Duke_Zymurgy@reddit
I miss those days. That's when computers were magical things and not just an extension of my arm.
Sufficient-Radio-728@reddit
A small version of this at Cal Poly in the mid eighties..
nix206@reddit
Apple ][ was not that easy to program in basic (poke 33,33), the colors were horrible, and the sound was atrocious.
Atari 800 for the win. Basic was simple, colors and sound was amazing, and it just felt more approachable. Games were so much better… perhaps this was a concern for the education space.
redditshreadit@reddit
Apple had a few years head start over Atari.
sonicjesus@reddit
Apple has always had a reputation of being slightly behind, and slightly more expensive than anything else. They pumped schools full of them, but it didn't lead to loyal users.
Admirable-Dinner7792@reddit
Atari was lucky if they had even 1% of the educational computer market in the 1980's. It was totally dominated by Apple and Commodore. Not knocking Atari.... Historically Speaking, That's just the way it was. - Tony K. 😉
zSmileyDudez@reddit
Amazingly I went to a school for a year or two where they had Atari computers instead of Apple IIs. It was pretty cool to be able to use the same computers at school as the one I had at home (well mostly - I had a 400 at home and the school had 800s). But almost every other year of school I had was with the Apple II.
Admirable-Dinner7792@reddit
My school had Commodore 64 computers and I also had one at home. I used to trade games software with friends when I was in school... - Tony 😉
zSmileyDudez@reddit
Apple definitely did a better job of targeting the education market. It also helped that they weren’t associated with video games (well at least as far as the school knew…). The Atari name was unfortunately a liability for education. Another thing that didn’t help was that the Apple II line was built like tanks pretty much its entire history. The most delicate of the line up was probably the IIc and IIc+, but even those would hold up well. The Atari 400/800 were originally built like tanks but as time went on, Atari kept pushing towards cheaper/lighter machines that may have been perceived as being not suitable in the education space.
When Apple added 80 column to the IIe in 1983, they basically locked up the education market for the rest of the decade.
sarajevo81@reddit
Both were such terrible machines to use. Poor teenagers.
ellicottvilleny@reddit
Low budget lab, with televisions instead of color monitors.
RetinaJunkie@reddit
If thats low budget, our school had no budget cause they where getting TRS80s after I graduated
ellicottvilleny@reddit
what year? I went to one school that had ONE Apple II, it was "the school computer". The principal showed it to parents when they came on the first day to show how "up to date" the school was. ONE computer. Kids were of course not allowed to actually touch it.
RetinaJunkie@reddit
Grad '83. Of course we knew able Apple, Commodore, IBM and the others, but a computer lab was not in the budget for the Public School System in my area
ellicottvilleny@reddit
Kewl. Class of '89 here.
sonicjesus@reddit
That same year I was in school rocking the Atari 400, similar model but with keys like a microwave that were impossible to type on.
SnooCamera@reddit
In 1984, my first paid job was helping the public use the new Apple II computers that the library bought.
Admirable-Dinner7792@reddit
My public Library had a TRS-80 Model III. - Tony K. 😉
Admirable-Dinner7792@reddit
They must have gotten the Atari 800's cheap in order for a school to have them. Seeing as how the computers were already 6 years old here. This is the first time that I've ever seen a school use an Atari computer. Most schools in the U.S. and Canada used Apple II's or Commodore 64s... by 1983. Universities always used IBMs.....and that's how it was...in the 1980's.....By 1987, Every school (that cared) was already using IBMs.... - Tony K. 😉
Fragholio@reddit
This is modern-ish art.
Early_Macaroon_2407@reddit
I bet that room was about 95 C. I don't miss the vast amounts of waste heat thrown off by vintage equipment.
mburke6@reddit
When I was a freshman in 1980, the computer lab in my high school was about a dozen Radio Shack TRS-80 Model Is on a bench around the perimeter of the room with a single Model III sitting on the teacher's desk. The teacher had a cassette player that was connected to the data port on all the Model Is somehow. When he needed to have us install a program, we would type CLOAD and he would press play. Several minutes later, we would all have the program running on our computers. Computer class was only available to juniors and seniors at that time, so several of us would stay after school to get some computer time and the teacher was very accommodating.