How much did a computer cost in the 80s if you wanted console

>>62320854
Ibm compadible pc were expensive
And the games did look a little better on pc.
The reason why the nes was so cheap was probably the I/O

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>>62320854

A ZX Spectrum/VIC20/C64 type home computer that plugs into a TV is what you'd normally be getting in the early 80s (the time when 5150 was new). They're closest to consoles as they were used for gaming at least 70% of the time.

IBM-PC compatibles were pretty bad for gaming up until around 1990 with poor sound capability and no graphics goodies like hardware sprites. What IBM-PC's excelled at weren't graphics/gaming, but processing power, storage space and display resolution (80 column characters). They became top gaming machines only after the platform started getting things like Adlib/Soundblaster cards, VGA display adapters, MMX extensions in the 90s.

>>62320854
I dunno about the 80s but i know by 1990 pcs were WAAAY ahead of consoles. 3d games on pc were mainstream by 1990. Just look at STUNTS FOR DOS (1990).

>>62320854
>How much did a computer cost in the 80s if you wanted console level graphics?
about $1000 for an Atari 800 in the early 80s, $600 for a C64 in the mid 80s, and $700 an Amiga 500 in the late 80s

>>62320854
The Amiga was the best thing in terms of graphics, easily beating out the NES, SMS, Genesis, and even giving the SNES a run for its money in some cases. In 1987, a base model Amiga 500 would have set you back about $700 sans monitor. That's over $1500 in today's dollars.

>>62321637

You can't really compare a 16bit 68000-based PC to the NES/SMS... SNES/Genesis would be a fair comparison, but even then it's so much better...

>>62321726
I know it's not an entirely fair comparison, but the point was to compare things that were available at the time. In the late 80s there really wasn't much "middle ground" in the computer market, i.e. nothing that was directly on par with the NES and SMS. Everything was either worse (IBM, C64, Atari 8-bit, B+W Mac, etc.) or better (Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh II, Apple IIGS.) So if you want to be "on par" with consoles, the only natural answer is to go better.