[flopsamjetsam]

Thank you for such a well-rounded reply. After my initial question I did read down through all the comments, and read a lot more about 6502 vs. 6800. It was a fascinating read.

I completely agree with your comment about "community matters". You could really see this in the demo scene for the C64 (as well as the games programming world).

My friend's older brother had a ZX Spectrum, which I lusted after (mostly for the games). I was still too young to really "get" assembly, and it was only really when I got to the end of high school that I got into it.

BBCs were very rare here in Aus, but I did pore over a magazine column that featured them. I vaguely remember the Tube being mentioned.