The 6502 is one CPU that I learned very thoroughly during the '70's and continued to use a good deal up into the mid-80's because of certain very convenient instructions that the CMOS version had that others didn't. Unfortunately, the only currently commercially available version of the 65C02 doesn't support the ONE really handy instruction, namely the indexed indirect unconditional jump.

The 6502 is still supported by a number of assemblers and at least one 'C' compiler, albeit one that's hobbled by its marriage to one of the many hardware platforms on which it was used. Why a compiler would be produced without a generic form, i.e. one that doesn't tie it to specific I/O features, I don't know, but that's what's out there. Since I never extensively used any of the video toys (except for the Apple versions, which, though I bought them for use in a specific project, I never learned to like, because they devoted too much of their character to "being a video toy," I've only used naked 6502's with a keyboard and a hardware display that interfaced through a single port, or a version that used a UART. That seems to have been adequate for everything I did with 6502 to keep body and soul together.

Vic-20's were widely used by one fellow in this area for various machine control applications. He bought them up for $5-10 and sold them complete with programming and application specific hardware for ~$10K or so. That explains why they were not very "available" around here. I wish I'd been that clever!

One local guy bought a Porsche and a few other ostantatious items with a Centronics printer adapter that attached to the GPIB that came on these devices.

If the Vic-20 and C-64, etc, still have life, I don't know about it around here.

RE