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Surprised the Atari 8-bit series was left out. It was arguably one of the first home computers designed with an appliance-like philosophy, rather than the typical open, hobbyist-oriented design of its time. Features like ROM cartridges, the Atari SIO serial bus (which even influenced the design of USB), multiple joystick ports that doubled as input for external switches or sensors, and support for smart peripherals like disk drives and drawing tablets set it apart.

I still have my Atari 800 — it was my first real step into learning 6502 machine language.



The Atari 800 came a bit later (1979), the 3 discussed all were introduced in 1977. 1979 was also when the TI-99/4 came out which eventually became popular when the price was dropped below cost.




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