A 286 was much more powerful than a Commodore 64. Back in the 80s, why did you prefer a C64 for gaming?
It’s true, the typical DOS PC had a more powerful CPU and more storage than a C64. However, when it came to gaming, DOS PCs had a terrible flaw: graphics and sound.
The bulk of people running a DOS PC only had CGA graphics, which was only capable of displaying four colours at a time. That four colour palette didn’t show much in terms of detail.
Some lucky few had EGA graphics, which was capable of showing 16 colours at once – the same number of colours as a C64. However, even with this, the C64 proved superior simply because it had the better colour palette. EGA was harsh to look at; the C64 was much easier on the eyes.
And of course, there’s the matter of sound. The C64 had the famous SID chip which is still used today for chiptunes. It simply sounds fantastic – perhaps the best 8-bit machine for sound synthesis. The average DOS PC, on the other hand, didn’t even have a sound card. All we got was the occasional beep and boop. I’m not exaggerating when I say that even an Atari 2600 sounded better.
Still, it wasn’t entirely terrible for DOS. More storage meant better adventure gaming. And the raw CPU power often resulted in smoother wireframe and polygon rendering. However, at the time, most people played Sprite-based games – and the C64 simply did that better.
