Hard to envision an alternate timeline where this happens, but there was a window of opportunity... the VisiCalc revolution made the Apple ][ a big success, but Apple was still a small time manufacturer that wouldn't be able to scale up production and reduce costs the way Commodore could.
But the PET lacked the graphics capabilities of the Apple ][, which is why VisiCalc was designed for the Apple. What if the PET had better graphics capabilities, to make it the better choice of VisiCalc platform?
The original PET was limited to 512 ROM characters. An alternative design could have combined 128 ROM characters with 128 RAM defined characters, allowing high resolution graphics.
If VisiCalc came out on the PET first, then it's possible Commodore could have built up a big enough lead before the IBM PC to establish it as the main business computer standard. Ideally, the VIC-20 is replaced with a PET compatible "color PET".
Isaac Kuo
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •Hard to envision an alternate timeline where this happens, but there was a window of opportunity... the VisiCalc revolution made the Apple ][ a big success, but Apple was still a small time manufacturer that wouldn't be able to scale up production and reduce costs the way Commodore could.
But the PET lacked the graphics capabilities of the Apple ][, which is why VisiCalc was designed for the Apple. What if the PET had better graphics capabilities, to make it the better choice of VisiCalc platform?
The original PET was limited to 512 ROM characters. An alternative design could have combined 128 ROM characters with 128 RAM defined characters, allowing high resolution graphics.
If VisiCalc came out on the PET first, then it's possible Commodore could have built up a big enough lead before the IBM PC to establish it as the main business computer standard. Ideally, the VIC-20 is replaced with a PET compatible "color PET".
Neil E. Hodges likes this.