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This is a list of home computers, sorted alphanumerically, which lists all relevant details of their video hardware. A home computer was the description of the second generation of desktop computers, entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. A decade later they were generally replaced by IBM PC compatible "PCs", although in actuality home computers are also members of the class known as personal computers. Examples of typical early home computers are the TRS-80, Atari 400/800, BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum, the MSX 1, the Amstrad CPC 464 and the Commodore 64. Examples of typical late home computers are MSX 2 systems, and the Amiga and Atari ST systems. Note: in cases of manufacturers who have made both home and personal computers, only machines fitting into the ''home'' computer category are listed. Systems in the personal computer category, except for Early Macintosh personal computers, are generally all based on the VGA standard, and use a video chip known as a Graphics processing unit. Although very early PCs used one of the much simpler (even compared to most home computer video hardware) video display controller cards, using standards such as the MDA, Hercules Graphics Card, CGA and EGA standard). Only after the introduction of the VGA standard could PCs really compete with the home computers of the same era, such as the Amiga and Atari ST, or even with the MSX-2. Also not listed are systems that are typically only gaming systems, like the Atari 2600 and the Bally Astrocade, even though these systems could sometimes be upgraded to resemble a home computer. ==The importance of having capable video hardware== Early home computers all had quite similar hardware, (and software) mostly using the 6502, the Z80, or in a few cases the 6809 microprocessor. They could have only as little as 1 KB of RAM or as much as 128K, and software wise, they could use a small 4K BASIC interpreter, or an extended 12K or more BASIC. So the basic systems were quite similar, except for one part of the system, the video display hardware. Some systems proved to be much more successful than others, and careful observers will see that the most successful systems had the most capable video hardware. The reason for that is that the success of the home computer was mostly determined by the kind of games you could play on it. If you wanted to run a nice video game on a home computer, all the other specifications of the system, such as the CPU, the kind of BASIC, even to a degree how much memory the system had (if had at least 32K or more) did not matter much. What mattered most was what kind of picture could be put on the screen, and how easy or hard it was for a programmer to get enough capabilities out of the video hardware to create the effects necessary for the game. A case in point is the Commodore 64. Its microprocessor lacked advanced math functions and was relatively slow. In addition, the built-in BASIC interpreter lacked any sort of graphics commands, as it was the same version that was developed for the older Commodore PET (a computer without any high resolution graphics capabilities at all). However, these drawbacks were of little consequence, because the C64 had the VIC-II chip. When accessed by machine language programs, the graphic capabilities of this chip made it practical to develop arcade-style games.〔(History of the C64 as gaming platform )〕 Additionally, specific machine language coding exploiting quirks of the VIC-II chip allowed for special tricks to draw even better pictures out of the VIC-II chip.〔(Some of the graphics capabilities of the 1982 VIC-II chip, designed at a time that other systems could only generate much more primitive graphics )〕 The comparatively large memory and the audio capabilities of the C64 also lent themselves well toward the production of desirable games. A negative example was the Aquarius by Mattel which had such incredibly limited video hardware (for the time period) that it was retracted from the market after only four months due to bad sales. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of home computers by video hardware」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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