I have one of the original TI PCs, with an 8086. My father purchased it around 81-82. We did have a Commodore 64 as well, and indeed it was far more capable, convenient and user friendly.
I was about 14 at the time and had to save my own money to buy a computer. I bought a Timex, and then a Commodore 64. I often wished for the Texas Instruments, because it looked more like a grown up or professional computer, while the Commodore 64 seemed to emphasize games. In particular, I liked the Texas Instruments keyboard a lot better than the Commodore. What was your experience and perceptions? Did you like the Commodore more because it had better games?
First off I found the BASIC environment of the Commodore 64 much more enticing and then MS-DOS 2. It was my initial hacking environment.
Then, we did have a lot better software on the C64 such as logo and indeed many games, and all of the hardware capabilities were far superior such as the graphics and sound. The TI had an ASCII display only… I don’t even think it had CGA, which is far inferior to the Commodore and all the PC world had to offer for years. Even EGA was not as good as the Commodore (one year my friend got a PCjr for Christmas...). It wasn’t until the PS/2 came out that I was excited about having a PC.
