Ok I'm from the Netherlands. The C64 was the computer and Atari was a very distant number 2 (or even 3, after the MSX). At least in my circles :) It was much more difficult to get an idea of the whole community back then.

But the C64 was 600 guilders at the time and the Atari was 'dumped' on the market at one point for 200 so it was an easy choice :)

speaking of the atari st, sometime in the late 80s a mail-order atari st software/accessory retailer in the us (i think it was w. brown enterprises or something like that) used to distribute their catalog monthly or quarterly in newsprint had a throwback sinclair special one year at christmas. for $40, you could get an unassembled zx-81 kit where everything had to be soldered in place by hand.

as an enthusiastic eight year old, i was perhaps not as good at soldering as i would have liked. good thing i was lucky enough to have the st to start with.

100% this - Atari was quite popular in central europe.