Which System sold better?

بواسطة hamlet

Scribe (4106)

29-04-2021, 09:57

In my home country, this question does not arise; the C64 was clearly the dominant system for a long time. But what was the situation in the Netherlands? Was MSX more widespread?
Did the C64 also ruled in Belgium and France or was the CPC more in favour here?

بواسطة msd

Paragon (1515)

29-04-2021, 10:37

it was very widespread in NL. I think also mainly because Philips supported the MSX

بواسطة meits

Scribe (6542)

29-04-2021, 10:38

In my region MSX clearly won. There were so many. Just a few friends of mine had a C64.

بواسطة timbru

Rookie (31)

29-04-2021, 10:50

In my experience it was about 50-50. C128 never took off I believe, but the Amiga overtook MSX2 very quickly. Well.. I have no numbers substantiate this, but that's my memory of it.

بواسطة gdx

Enlighted (6210)

29-04-2021, 10:57

In France I think the CPC-64 and C64 were the most common until the arrival of 16/32bit machines. I don't know which of the two had the better score. Maybe the CPC.

بواسطة geijoenr

Champion (364)

29-04-2021, 11:02

In Spain I would say Spectrum was the most popular, based on the number of friends that had that machine, then maybe CPC-64 or MSX and finally C64. None of my friends had a C64.

بواسطة Micha

Expert (103)

29-04-2021, 12:55

On Marktplaats.nl there are approximately twice as many C64's for sale than MSX1 computers.
My "guestimate" would be that both systems (MSX1 and C64) sold in the Netherlands in the low 100.000's range; MSX more towards the low end (200.000 to 300.000) and C64 a bit higher; 300.000 to 400.000 pieces.
But all this is a guess based on some unverified googled quotes and articles...

بواسطة Manuel

Ascended (19462)

29-04-2021, 19:39

I think I have heard that about 400000 MSX computers were sold in the Netherlands of which more than half were MSX2.

بواسطة snake

Expert (71)

08-05-2021, 01:14

I don't have official data, so i can judge only by people i met; here in middle Italy C64 were the winner, but Msx 1 were popular as well, i met more people with Msx 1 than Spectrum and Cpc. You could easily find Sony and Philips machines on stores of domestic appliances and electronics.
Around 1990 people upgraded their systems, most purchased Amiga. There were only a few Msx 2 users, we often knew each other and organized floppy trade sessions at our homes, something like a family

بواسطة Wild_Penguin

Hero (644)

08-05-2021, 09:41

In Finland - based on my limited knowledge with friends etc. - C64 dominated the home computer market. I believe MSX was the second most common computer, and many (especially those more into gaming) at least knew the computer. There were a lot of (non-MSX) Spectravideo computers at a certain point, probably because some resellers advertised them a lot (as "nearly MSX-compatible!"). Those were not liked by kids back them - I recall feeling a bit sorry for anyone who had a (non-MSX) Spectravideo ;-). SVI-728 was by far the most common MSX model, but there were other common models, too (at least HX-10, FC-200, HB-75P...).

I knew ~4 friends/acquitances who had an MSX, but those households which didn't have one usually had a C64 (perhaps 3-5 times as common as MSX...), and/or some gaming console. It seemed like all household had one microcomputer and/or one gaming console (or several consoles from newer generations), but rarely more than one computer for the kids.

C128 never took of here, really, probably because it didn't have games specifically made for it (AFAIK!), and soon after Commodore Amiga started to appear, which was very common. MSX2 never took of here, and was mostly unheard of (I didn't even know it existed before the internet...).

Those "kids" old enough to have their own income of course bought their own computers. When I was old enough to buy my own computers, it was already the PC era.

But that is my experience as a kid in the 80s and beginning of 90s!

بواسطة Xan0ri

Master (177)

08-05-2021, 10:43

I have the exact same experiences and opinion as Wild_Penguin, to what comes to the stuff that happened in Finland. I had MSX (SVI-728) & many of my friends had C64 or Amiga, but some MSX'es too. I changed to Commodore for some time but was really more happy with MSX. In my opinion, it was easier to do more "computer things" with MSX than just load a game, which was the case with C64. Amiga was more of a rival because of the cool graphics and sound, though also that was all gaming as well. When I reached the age to be able to buy my own computer all had changed to PC era already, like Wild_Penguin.
When I loaded the new game (which name should not be mentioned) I actually thought this is Amiga comparable stuff on MSX.
So, In the end; MSX is nr.1!