I also own a ton of 8 bitters, both the XL and XE lines.
I grew up with a 2600 (when I was 10) and always dreamt of the step up: the 800XL. I bought one when I was 12.
Moving to Amiga later on was a logical choice, I just moved along with Jay Miner's technology.
The ST could never compete, nor did I ever consider buying one, even back in the day I was still only using 8bit and pondering about my upgrade.
