Amigasoft NZ

[OddbOd]

The first Micro-World store was further towards Mt Eden I can't remember exactly where, I wouldn't put money on it but he may have still been running Kiwiland at the time. I'm not sure when Zane Hemingway got involved but it was before they moved into the shop above Spaghetti Junction (Barty's Games? cheeky bastard). I'm not sure if you guys remember but a few years later they moved to a bigger store on the other side of Symonds St and changed the name to GameZone. He certainly had an "interesting" world view, this is from his Wild Wheels intro:

For the latest wares.write to Bad Barty/Reality....P.O. Box 120.....Silverdale.....Auckland!....Do not pay for your wares from pricks selling pirated software....Do not be.sucked into parting with your money...write to the importers direct.instead.

He's always been a cheeky monkey

As for AmigaSoft this 'toon from B13 sums up the situation pretty well:

Originally Posted by redblade

Thanks for uploading the catalogue I wanted a copy of their menu selector tool.

I swear I've seen that somewhere before, anybody know who actually wrote it?

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by OddbOd

I swear I've seen that somewhere before, anybody know who actually wrote it?

I'm interested in this too. I'm pretty sure I had at least two different floppies using the SAME menu.

[Codetapper]

Do you have any more of those B13's? I used to have one (Homicide/Psychad Design went to the same University as me and gave me a copy) but I don't know where it is, possibly at my parents house. It had some stuff about Sandman being busted in that issue. It'd be nostalgic to see some of those again.

Incidentally Simon Barton aka Bad Barty went on to found the online store Mighty Ape!

[brett71]

Originally Posted by OddbOd

The first Micro-World store was further towards Mt Eden I can't remember exactly where, I wouldn't put money on it but he may have still been running Kiwiland at the time. I'm not sure when Zane Hemingway got involved but it was before they moved into the shop above Spaghetti Junction (Barty's Games? cheeky bastard). I'm not sure if you guys remember but a few years later they moved to a bigger store on the other side of Symonds St and changed the name to GameZone. He certainly had an "interesting" world view, this is from his Wild Wheels intro:

He's always been a cheeky monkey

As for AmigaSoft this 'toon from B13 sums up the situation pretty well:




I swear I've seen that somewhere before, anybody know who actually wrote it?

I used that Menu program on a few disks that I put together of single-filed games back in the day... Was it Nico Francois that made it?? My memory isn't clear.

EDIT: CONFIRMED: http://aminet.net/package.php?packag...e/Selector.lha

[Mister Octopus]

I've never heard of Amigasoft-- I was five years old when we first got our Amiga 500 in 1989, but I just wanted to say... yay, NZ Amiga!

[Slayer]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Incidentally Simon Barton aka Bad Barty went on to found the online store Mighty Ape!

Yes, I was a member on his BBS back in the day too, I brought my first CD32/FMV from his first business

I've spent a small fortune at MA too over the last few years also infact I just placed an order for 2xT-Shirts and 3x360 games tonight...

Excellent Online Business, I buy all my games from here...

[copse]

What would us Amiga owners have done without Amigasoft and similar suppliers? I bought games in the store when they appealed and they had them available. I would have loved to have bought boxed copies of Dungeon Master, Bloodwyche, the AD&D gold box games and so forth. Just couldn't unless they were ordered from overseas, and who knew how to do that.

[Slayer]

The trouble was I was around 18 when the Amiga came out and had a job at the freezing works which paid quite well back in those days like $600 a week. Most of money went on hardware and calling overseas boards. I didn't rely on any NZ boards for any warez but in hindsight I should have stuck to my guns and only brought games, instead of thousands going to telecom and clear (one month I recall quite vividly was $700 to telecom and $1200 to clear - I was mad as a maggot) I could have had some real gems in my collection today... I wasn't like most people though, I pirated just for the thrill of having the latest revision or software around... I always brought the games and software I really wanted and actually played or used... it's just a shame I wasted so much money since I now have a very very small fraction of the stuff I brought in and even then I couldn't tell you if I was the original source or not...

I noticed getting all this stuff in was costing me an arm and a leg per month but the moment I asked the circle of guys I spread my stuff to for any assistance was the end of them getting anything off me again... people love stuff for nothing don't they...

Later I started ordering stuff from overseas shops... nothings really changed in the last 25 years LOL

[Slayer]

Hmm, I have boxed versions of all those games you mention... couldn't tell you where I got them... but in the early 2000s I was picking up auctions from all over the place since people where selling there Amiga collections left right and center... I'd get an A4000 for example with everything included for around $400... plenty of A2000 and A500 collections too... not so many A3000 ones though...

I do own 4 A3000s and 1 A3000T if I remember rightly though... in the archives somewhere

And look, we couldn't have derailed this thread more if I tried, Oops...

I do recall this place operating but I don't think I ever got anything from them, chances are, I already had what was on there current catalog...

[OddbOd]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Do you have any more of those B13's?

Yup, check the zone. The text ones are, strictly speaking, not originals as I retyped them from printouts back when I had plenty of time but little cash, these days work commitments keep me away from damn near everything.

Originally Posted by Codetapper

It had some stuff about Sandman being busted in that issue.

That one is included, Volume 3 Issue 3.

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Incidentally Simon Barton aka Bad Barty went on to found the online store Mighty Ape!

Maybe we were being unintentionally subtle but that's what XPD & I were getting at.

Originally Posted by Slayer

I wasn't like most people though, I pirated just for the thrill of having the latest revision or software around.

I've come across few people involved with the warez scene who did it for any other reason.

[Slayer]

Originally Posted by OddbOd

I've come across few people involved with the warez scene who did it for any other reason.

I was explaining why I was addicted to getting the latest revisions of things which was costing me a fortune through telephone bills, hardly what most people did I think... traders would probably blue box instead... I'm not saying most people didn't swap to get the latest it's just they'd swap with limitations... like I said earlier, I wish I'd stuck to my original plan and spent my money on originals, not vaporware releases...

And I went on to buy anything that I actually used, again, in general most people wouldn't have done this... sorry for the misunderstanding

When I finally stopped calling overseas boards, some of them were like $1 a min... they started introducing $10 for 2 hours to USA or the Neverlands etc... years too late for me

nevermind, I'm still paying through the teeth for the Amiga, someone has too

[redblade]

First I've heard of those Bulletin 13. Thanks for the upload .

It would be interesting to see how much those new zealand pirates made from their business. Some times they took Cheques, I wonder if they paid TAX???

[copse]

Originally Posted by redblade

First I've heard of those Bulletin 13. Thanks for the upload .

It would be interesting to see how much those new zealand pirates made from their business. Some times they took Cheques, I wonder if they paid TAX???

It's possible, but can only be conjecture. It's not unusual for different forms of prostitutes, whether selling people's bodies or other people's property, to pay the tax to avoid future problems with the IRD.

[OddbOd]

Originally Posted by redblade

First I've heard of those Bulletin 13. Thanks for the upload .

If memory serves me correctly (it doesn't BTW) I originally scanned these to send to you! I was also going to send them to Jason Scott at textfiles.com but got mad at him for never sending the DVDs I ordered, my fault I suppose, never to trust a PC guy

As for paying taxes, if it's good enough for growers & dealers I wouldn't be surprised.

Does anybody remember another guy that sold software and hardware out of a house in Kingsland, used to advertise in the T&E? holy shit it's still there, Abacus Computers aka Rosebud Video Games, if I remember correctly the guy wound up on the pointy end of a Holmes sting back in the day.

[redblade]

Thanks Oddbod. Abacus Computers, I have not heard of them, but there was a computer company which you could rent Amiga manuals and Computer games off, I forgot the name as it was 20 years ago when I managed to get some manuals.

I remember a Blitz disks and I sent codetapper a archive and it had a advert for a Goliaths Disks. I think there was also a Nigels software, but I will have to check on that when I go back to New Zealand next year.

I am pretty sure you get a smaller prison sentence if you pay taxes, but I don't want to find out.

[Codetapper]

My cousin got a bit of stuff of Abacus Computers. It was a one man band operated out of a house in Kingsland, and in the late 90s, was into selling the first lot of Modchips for the PSX. Before that, he was into all sorts of dodgy stuff but also fixed Amiga gear from memory.

Onto other matters, do any of the kiwis in here have any old disks with the Megapowers logo on it? (Slash/Megapowers lived in Pukekohe I believe). I can only think of their import of Lotus 1, and their text logo that displayed before the game loaded. I'm pretty sure they had no intro coder in their group so relied on dos games and "type megapowers" stuff in the startup-sequence. Does anybody have any of those disks?

[XPD]

Originally Posted by OddbOd

Does anybody remember another guy that sold software and hardware out of a house in Kingsland, used to advertise in the T&E? holy shit it's still there, Abacus Computers aka Rosebud Video Games, if I remember correctly the guy wound up on the pointy end of a Holmes sting back in the day.

Yup, I remember Abacus, they got into huge crap for selling "legit" software in plastic bags with photocopied manuals IIRC.

There was a BBS based in Chc that moved to Auckland, Abacab (think that was it) and some people thought they were one and the same, but they were nothing to do with one another.

[XPD]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Onto other matters, do any of the kiwis in here have any old disks with the Megapowers logo on it? (Slash/Megapowers lived in Pukekohe I believe). I can only think of their import of Lotus 1, and their text logo that displayed before the game loaded. I'm pretty sure they had no intro coder in their group so relied on dos games and "type megapowers" stuff in the startup-sequence. Does anybody have any of those disks?

I remember the ones you mean, but I dont have any physical disks anymore

Wish i had kept a copy of a disk I put together, was amazing how many programs you could squeeze onto an 880k disk thanks to Powerpacker and Imploder

[BaldMonk]

Ha. Great thread! I lurk on these boards from time to time, but I just had to reply to this!

Man, we had it rough in NZ when it came to games. In Christchurch there were very few places to buy decent releases. The main place, called "Commodore and Computers" or something, started out with mostly Amiga stuff, and then became PC PC PC. Last game I got here was The "Hero" Turtles Arcade game... That was a mistake.
But we did buy a lot of there, and from Dick Smith... And there was even a place to rent games from. Oliff's Computer Centre.

So, we used to warez it up. We stumbled across this dude named Brian(I think) who lived in the Shirley area. Had a huge set-up out in his shed/man cave with a few Amigas littered about. Drawers and drawers of blank disks, and sweet sweet prices. I think it was like $4 per disk if he supplied the disk, or $2 if you supplied your own. We'd almost always head to DEKA to stock up on blanks before visiting (by appointment of course).

When my A500 died, I decided I needed another one, and that came with LOADS of original games and even more pirated ones... Like seriously 3 or 4 black rubbish bags full.

Speaking of AmigaSoft... I signed up to them too... Or at least something similar. I never did get a working version of Scooby & Scrappy Doo. Haha.

[copse]

I remember Whitcoulls in the mall with the containers had an Amiga and Atari ST set up at some point. One of them had Dungeon Master running, and the other had this arcade adventure platform game where you had to get coloured keys to open the doors. Still remember how it felt to play Dungeon Master back then.. just don't get that experience from games any more.

The problem with the Amigasoft catalogue was that I had to pick games by name alone. It was quite hit and miss, but most were enjoyable. I wonder where they got them all from. A giant load of floppies shipped from overseas from some master pirate outfit?