› ›

Speccy's most popular countries?

jesus 666jesus 666
edited May 2008 in Sinclair Miscellaneous
I always wanted to know which countries had the most love for the Speccy (I'm petty like that) so I spent a while trying to get info, as far as i can tell the order went something like this for the 8-bit micros.

UK - 1. Spectrum 2. Commodore 64 3. Amstrad CPC
France - 1. Amstrad CPC 2. ? 3. ?
Italy - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. MSX
Spain - 1. Spectrum 2. Amstrad CPC 3. MSX
Germany - 1. Commodore 64 2. Atari XL 3. ?
Netherlands - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. MSX
Sweden - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. MSX
Portugal - 1. Spectrum 2. ? 3. ?
Denmark - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. Amstrad CPC
Poland - 1. Atari XL 2. Spectrum 3. Commodore 64
Norway - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. Amstrad CPC
Czechoslovakia - 1. Spectrum 2. Atari 800XL 3. Commodore 64
Slovenia - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. Amstrad CPC
Japan - 1. MSX 2. ? 3. ?
Korea - 1. MSX 2. ? 3. ?
U.S.A - 1. Commodore 64 2. Apple II 3. ? 4. ? 5. ? 6. ? 7. ? 8. ? 9. ? 10. probably Spectrum ;-)
Russia - 1. Spectrum 2. ? 3. ?

can anyone help me fill in any blanks that they can? also, if i have any of the orders wrong could people tell me this. thanks :smile:
Post edited by jesus 666 on
«1

Comments

  • ZnorXmanZnorXman
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »
    UK - 1. Spectrum
    Spain - 1. Spectrum
    Portugal - 1. Spectrum
    Russia - 1. Spectrum

    If the list is correct then I am definitely liking Spain, Portugal and Russia. And obviously the Speccy's Birthplace.
  • WombleWomble
    edited March 2008
    NZ had the speccy in decent numbers it seems, fairly easy to pick up second hand ones there. Across the Tasman in Australia the Speccy was virtually unheard of. Even a beat up 48K machine here will go for around 30-40 quid.
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    ZnorXman wrote: »
    If the list is correct then I am definitely liking Spain, Portugal and Russia. And obviously the Speccy's Birthplace.
    unfortunately I don't know how accurate this is, some of it is based solely on things I have been told by people from that particular country (and people can be unreliable a lot of the time) the reason I made this thread was to find corrobarating evidence as much as it was to fill in the blanks.
  • zxbrunozxbruno
    edited March 2008
    What time period are we talking about? I think that if it wasn't for Timex the Spectrum would never had become as popular as it did. Almost everyone I knew had a TC2048 and a Neptun 156 monitor. Some people had 48Ks but most had TC2048s. The Amstrad versions were also really popular over there (the +2 was my first computer). I can say without a doubt that the Speccy (and compatibles) was the most popular computer. I never saw a C64 or Amstrad in the shops, but there were Spectrums everywhere. :)
    When the Amiga came out, the Speccy started losing popularity. PCs were still expensive and looked ugly (Schneider EuroPCs, for example... and some of my friends had 486DX2s).
    But when the Pentium came out and graphic and sound abilities were increased (Adlib, Sound Blaster, VGA, SVGA), the Speccy went into oblivion.
    So, if you limit the question to the golden era, it was something like this:

    1-Spectrum (met dozens of people who had one), 2-C64 (met one person who had one), 3-Amstrad (met one person who had one), 4-Msx (met one person who had one)

    It was so popular that some newspapers had a column just for the program of the week, and some TV shows were done with the Speccy. One of them was a game competition (Enduro Racer or Super Hang on, can't remember now), and the other one was a guessing game thing. People would come to the show and see game screenshots, and they had a few seconds to guess the game! I wish I could see those again!
    Oh, and there was a TV show with game reviews. They did reviews of games for the Speccy and Amiga.

    Talk about a trip down memory lane...
  • cichlasomacichlasoma
    edited March 2008
    czechoslovakia - 1) speccy 2) atari 800xl 3) c64
    (could be biased, but i wouldn´t say so :-) )

    (EDIT: ok, czechia at least...)
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »

    Spain - 1. Spectrum 2. Amstrad 3. MSX

    He, he, he... C64 doesn't even appear in 2nd or 3rd place... :grin:

    Great country! :lol:
  • Dr BEEPDr BEEP
    edited March 2008
    Netherlands - 1. C=ENSORED64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited March 2008
    Dr BEEP wrote: »
    Netherlands - 1. C=ENSORED64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX

    Boo, Boo, Boo!!! ;-)
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    zxbruno wrote: »
    What time period are we talking about?
    I'm just talking about the general 8-bit micros that were released in the 80s
    Chichlosome wrote: »
    czechoslovakia - 1) speccy 2) atari 800xl 3) c64
    ok, I'll take your word for it and Edit/update the list, unless we get information to the contrary :smile:
    Dr BEEP wrote: »
    Netherlands - 1. C=ENSORED64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX
    thanks added to list

    I also found some info on the German Wikipedia, saying that the Atari 8 bit computer came second in that country.
  • beanzbeanz
    edited March 2008
    for the USA I would guess

    1. c64
    2. Apple II
    3. Radio Shack/Tandy TRS80
    4. Texas Instruments TI/99
    5. Atari 800/400
    6. Timex Sinclair 1000


    All guesses like I say.
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    for the USA I would guess

    1. c64
    2. Apple II
    3. Radio Shack/Tandy TRS80
    4. Texas Instruments TI/99
    5. Atari 800/400
    6. Timex Sinclair 1000


    All guesses like I say.
    which ones are you unsure about? if you could say with some confidence that, say the apple 2 came second and the radio shack 3rd then i'll just add those ones in.
  • beanzbeanz
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »
    which ones are you unsure about? if you could say with some confidence that, say the apple 2 came second and the radio shack 3rd then i'll just add those ones in.

    I would be 90% that apple II was next, The TI and Radioshack/tandy/atari could probably all swap places....I put them in the order I personally would think.

    Maybe Wiki would help.
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    I would be 90% that apple II was next, The TI and Radioshack/tandy/atari could probably all swap places....I put them in the order I personally would think.

    Maybe Wiki would help.
    The signs are pointing to Atari 400/800 being higher than TRS80, probably in 3rd place with TRS in 4th
  • RalfRalf
    edited March 2008
    Poland:

    1) Atari XL
    2) Zx Spectrum
    3) C64

    I'm sure not all of you know that Poland in early 90s became the biggest Atari XL power in the world :) When the rest of world switched to Amigas and PCs small Polish companies kept on publishing Atari Games.

    Spectrum was also very popular in Poland as many people owned it, but popularity didn't mean lots of software unfortunately.
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    Ralf wrote: »
    Poland:

    1) Atari XL
    2) Zx Spectrum
    3) C64

    I'm sure not all of you know that Poland in early 90s became the biggest Atari XL power in the world :) When the rest of world switched to Amigas and PCs small Polish companies kept on publishing Atari Games.

    Spectrum was also very popular in Poland as many people owned it, but popularity didn't mean lots of software unfortunately.
    Thanks, added to the list, my god you guys were still playing Atari's in the early 90s? :o
  • RalfRalf
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »
    Thanks, added to the list, my god you guys were still playing Atari's in the early 90s? :o

    Yes, if you don't believe look at Polish games for Atari XL and their dates of publication:

    http://www.atarimania.com/lst_soft.php?MENU=8&TYPE_CODE=G&Page=1&SOFT_LIB=&EDITEUR_ID=&DEVELOP_ID=&PRG_ID=&VERSION_ANNEE=&PAYS_ID=13&LICENCE_ID=&LANGAGE_ID=&SFAMILLE_ID=&VERSION_CART_RARITY=&VERSION_D7_RARITY=&VERSION_K7_RARITY=&Step=100&VISU=TABLE&btn_sauver=Search

    Back in those days I always argued with these Atari guys. They dared to claim that Atari XL with its 4 colours and blocky graphics was better than our beloved Spectrum.
    Then the PCs came and wiped all the 8-bit computers together.
  • Lord MuckLord Muck
    edited March 2008
    What about the Oric-1 and Oric Atmos?

    I think the Oric-1 was the best selling computer in France in 1983.
  • Jumping StackJumping Stack
    edited March 2008
    Wales

    1. Dragon 32
    2. BBC Wales
    3. Rarebit 8-bit
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited March 2008
    Lord Muck wrote: »
    What about the Oric-1 and Oric Atmos?

    I think the Oric-1 was the best selling computer in France in 1983.

    Ha ha yet more reasons to laugh at the french !
  • The PresidentThe President
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »
    can anyone help me fill in any blanks that they can? also, if i have any of the orders wrong could people tell me this. thanks :smile:

    For all the Scandinavian countries it would probably look like this:

    Norway - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    Sweden - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    Denmark - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    The President wrote: »
    For all the Scandinavian countries it would probably look like this:

    Norway - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    Sweden - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    Denmark - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    OK, will add to the list, the only info I could find personally was that the C64 was the highest selling "hemdatorer" in Sweden :).
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited March 2008
    Slovenia - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC 4. Atari 8-bit
  • carlssoncarlsson
    edited March 2008
    The President wrote: »
    Sweden - 1. C64 2. Spectrum 3. CPC
    Uh. I have never seen any evidence that the Amstrad CPC was sold at all in Sweden. On the other hand, the ill-fated MSX computers who are said to have been a flop everywhere except Japan, were the only 8-bit computer apart from C64 and ZX Spectrum to have a regular column in the national home computer magazines (I'm thinking about Svenska Hemdatornytt) until the early 1990's.

    So, my list for Sweden would be: 1. C64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX

    I can't speak for Norway or Denmark though.
  • giogio
    edited March 2008
    jesus 666 wrote: »
    Italy - 1. Commodore 64 2. Spectrum 3. ?
    I'd say the third should be MSX, even though the first two were way more common.
    Unfortunately, I can also confirm that the Commodore 64 was the most popular (needless to say, I've always been a proud Speccy owner :) )
  • jesus 666jesus 666
    edited March 2008
    gio wrote: »
    I'd say the third should be MSX, even though the first two were way more common.
    Unfortunately, I can also confirm that the Commodore 64 was the most popular (needless to say, I've always been a proud Speccy owner :) )

    cool, i'll add that
    carlsson wrote: »
    Uh. I have never seen any evidence that the Amstrad CPC was sold at all in Sweden. On the other hand, the ill-fated MSX computers who are said to have been a flop everywhere except Japan, were the only 8-bit computer apart from C64 and ZX Spectrum to have a regular column in the national home computer magazines (I'm thinking about Svenska Hemdatornytt) until the early 1990's.

    So, my list for Sweden would be: 1. C64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX

    I can't speak for Norway or Denmark though.

    are you from Sweden Carlson? either way it seems that the president was generalising based on his own country, so I'll change Sweden, leave Norway as it should hopefully be right and I'l leave Denmark for now.
  • The PresidentThe President
    edited March 2008
    carlsson wrote: »
    Uh. I have never seen any evidence that the Amstrad CPC was sold at all in Sweden. On the other hand, the ill-fated MSX computers who are said to have been a flop everywhere except Japan, were the only 8-bit computer apart from C64 and ZX Spectrum to have a regular column in the national home computer magazines (I'm thinking about Svenska Hemdatornytt) until the early 1990's.

    So, my list for Sweden would be: 1. C64 2. ZX Spectrum 3. MSX

    I can't speak for Norway or Denmark though.

    I was generalising based on the scandinavian magazines I read at the time. I know that MSXs were popular in Finland and The Netherlands, but from my experience CPCs were overall more popular in Scandinavia. It's been a long time since, so my memory might be "biased". But a google search for site:.se gives more hits for "amstrad computer" than for "msx computer",
  • JamesDJamesD
    edited March 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    for the USA I would guess

    1. c64
    2. Apple II
    3. Radio Shack/Tandy TRS80
    4. Texas Instruments TI/99
    5. Atari 800/400
    6. Timex Sinclair 1000


    All guesses like I say.

    That's actually pretty close.
    Atari should have sold more here but they didn't.

    The C64 was a juggernaut of cheap and game worthy. Best seller of all time but since those sales were woldwide I don't think it had quite the lead in the US that people seem to think.

    Apple had the schools, business and higher end home buyers. An Apple was as much a status symbol as a computer. It's expandability is what ended up making it sell so well for so long. Most of it's sales were in the US and it outsold the C64 dollar wise.

    TRS80... actually, Tandy had several totally different TRS-80 machines. The Model I/III/IV (closely related) which were popular with general hobbyists and business, the Model II which was strictly business and the Color Computer which was their top seller and sold in the millions. The CoCo was still outselling Tandy's PC line when it was discontinued and Tandy was one of the PC clone sales leaders at that time so that says a lot. If you grouped all TRS-80s together they probably came close to the Apple II sales numbers but separately the CoCo placed millions behind the Apple II. The CoCo was already cheap when the price war began so it had no trouble surviving and having local dealers really helped. The jump in capabilities the CoCo3 added also helped it maintain sales against competitors in later years.
    In spite of the CoCo's popularity, it's odd they didn't have a larger game market.

    The Ti/99 sold ok at first but when the price war took off they did really well thanks to their reputation. The only problem was, their machine wasn't designed for the price war and the C64 was. The machine would have continued to sell well if it hadn't been discontinued. I don't think they held on to 4th in the end in spite of selling better than Atari initially.

    Atari... poor Atari. Initial sales were pretty poor. Their own president once said they had the best computer but didn't know how to sell it.
    I think Atari fans would be surprised to find out the B/W TRS-80 models I/III/IV were outselling it for the first couple years. It was originally positioned against the Apple II price wise but without the business capabilities and being from "a game company" it received mixed reactions. At first it was viewed as a rather expensive game machine. Apple hit the school market too hard and consistently for Atari to get a solid foothold (MECC's support of the Apple didn't help) and when the price war started their machine was too expensive to build. The C64 and Ti had a jump on them before their cheaper Atari models came out. Sales picked up once the cheaper models were introduced but it wasn't long till Americans migrated to higher end machines. In Europe, the migration to higher end machines was slower so the cheaper Atari's continued to sell well and it's how they became the most popular machines in many countries. Worldwide sales of the Atari might have topped the CoCo but not in the US alone and definitely not all TRS-80s combined.
  • snigfarpsnigfarp
    edited March 2008
    JamesD wrote: »
    Apple had the schools, business and higher end home buyers. An Apple was as much a status symbol as a computer.

    Indeed. I first learned to program on an Apple IIe in a New Jersey school. They seem to have occupied the same "social" position as the BBC Micro did here. Though I'd rather have the BBC any day!
    JamesD wrote: »
    In spite of the CoCo's popularity, it's odd they didn't have a larger game market.

    I'm surprised it did as well as it did, having seen the quality of the graphics (not sure if this applies to the CoCo 3). It used the same graphics chip as the Acorn Atom. What was it, 4 colours at a resolution of 128x96? Like CGA, you could choose between one of two inadequate colour palettes. Or just stick to monochrome at 256x192. If you want to show off a Spectrum's graphical capabilities, sit it next to a CoCo or a Dragon 32!
  • JamesDJamesD
    edited March 2008
    btw, the TS1000 sold really well... for a year, then they couldn't give them away. The machine was too cheap, too flaky and there were too many dead ones. They had killed their reputation by the time the 2068 came out.
    If the 1500 had been their first model they might have faired better but the US customer wanted a cheaper TRS-80 or Apple... not a machine with a membrane keyboard, no power switch and hardly any built in RAM.
    Still, I don't think anyone else sold more machines to top them.

    Almost every membrane or chicklet keyboard machine introduced into the US flopped. Only the CoCo survived but as far as chicklet keyboards go it was one of the better ones. It was also upgraded within a couple years.
  • JamesDJamesD
    edited March 2008
    snigfarp wrote: »
    I'm surprised it did as well as it did, having seen the quality of the graphics (not sure if this applies to the CoCo 3). It used the same graphics chip as the Acorn Atom. What was it, 4 colours at a resolution of 128x96? Like CGA, you could choose between one of two inadequate colour palettes. Or just stick to monochrome at 256x192. If you want to show off a Spectrum's graphical capabilities, sit it next to a CoCo or a Dragon 32!
    NTSC color artifacting in the 256x192 mode helped a lot but that doesn't show up on PAL. That also explains why it sold well in North America and nowhere else. The machine was also half the price of an Atari 800 when I bought mine and the Atari 400 sucked. You can look at how it's games looked on NTSC here:
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/coco_game_list.html

    You will see some in the ugly color modes but most used the artifacts.
    Standard 6847 colors:
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/packmaze.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/ghostgobbler.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/galacticattack.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/monkeykong.html
    NTSC artifacts:
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/msmaze.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/pengon.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/galaxattax.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/donkeyking.html
    CoCo3:
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/pacman.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/rampage.html
    http://nitros9.lcurtisboyle.com/donkeykong.html

    BTW, you'll notice the CoCo3 was a totally different animal graphics wise. If introduced years sooner it could have given the Apple or C64 a run for it's money.
Sign In or Register to comment.