Why did you buy your first Amiga?

[cooldude]

I was a mad C64 owner! THE best ever 8 bit computer. Had 100'
of disks all turboloaded (7 second load!)

One day I found out a guy at work had an A500.....I almost fell over when I saw it.
He had a whole filing cabinet full of games....and OS 1.3 was soooo cool.

Anyway I was a public servant in Australia, so I could afford to buy
one :^) Greatest 16 bit computer ever made!

I've since upgraded ->A500+ ->A1200 ->A1200 Tower.

I'm currently building an ATX Towered A1200 games only machine
for my home theatre system (Games are great on Widescreen!!!)
It will sit proudly next to the PS2.

BTW An A1200 motherboard DOES fit in an ATX Tower by about 10mm.

I wanted to have more colors to paint with and was overall intrigued by that machine. I really liked the C-64 (and still do) but it was time to move on. Also - painting with a Joystick got beaten by miles by painting with a mouse!!!
So I got a used Amiga 1000 in early 1987 and never looked back!

[alewis]

Because of the review in PCW in 1985

Started out on an ICL 2903 minimac, then a PET at school. Weekends meand a mate were helping out at a local company using PET/CBM (oh, the 8000 series, nice), DEC Rainbow, and c64. Was bought a Video Genie (TRS-80 clone) for home. Enlisted, and in 1985 got my own C64 and 1541. Then saw the Amiga 1000 review in August 85 Personal Computer World. Fell in love. C64 was replaced by a C128, but in 1987 I bought an A500, and then upgraded to a B2000 in 1989. Added a lot of hardware over the years; ICD FFV, 16MHz 68000, GVP 68030/SCSI card, Picasso II, GVP I/O card, 1mb chip card, KS switcher, Bridgeboard, PC modem and network card, internal SCA. In 1993 I got my hands on an A1200, and sometime between 1996 and 1998 I acquired an A4000, then WarpEngine 040 module, and Cyberstorm 64/3D. In 1999 I was given an A1200 in a tower, with a 68060 board.

18 months ago I started playing again, buying a Picasso IV and Cyberstorm PPC/060. Have yet to fit the later, or decide between the PIV and C64/3D.

Last February though, I decided to part with the B2000. Stuck it on ebay, an it *sold* within 25minutes. The buyer was in Australia... it cost 2x the buying price to ship it, but several weeks later I got email and photos of it installed.

Still have a vanilla A1200, c64/1541, CBM 3032 (with v4 roms), 8250 drives, TRS-80, Video Genie, A1200T, A4k, and a couple of towers. Oh, and a few Prometheus boards, and some A1200 expansion/tower boards, (if anyone is interested, drop me a line)

The Amiga was simply awsome for its time. Ogre was a favourite, as was rollerball(?), Marble Madness, Pinball Dreams/Fantasies, LCP, and the demos. Loved Portal too, but never finished it. Would love to see a HD installer for that, so I could resurrect UAE and play.

[DaZZaBoY]

I originally hit the Amiga when I straight swapped my Sega MD for a huge A500 bundle. Sooo glad I did and the rest as they say is history.

Oh.. i still have 2 A1200's in bits waiting for my big A1200T resurrection!

[alewis]

If you ever need a mediator PCI board... I have at least one spare.

Hey, whereabouts in Cumbria are you? I had a house in Kendal until last year.

[Smiley]

Got my A600 for crimbo. Best crimbo ever, played putty for a week.

[xalakibaniou]

I remember fighting with my elder brother for buying a pc or Amiga500 in the early 1991. Now i am greatfull to him for his wisdom! PC always sucked together with M$.

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by Smiley

Got my A600 for crimbo. Best crimbo ever, played putty for a week.

me too. i got a picture of me unwraping a big box to find a big yellow wild and wicked amiga 600 pack. like you i played putty non stop then moved onto F1 non stop.

who wants to see the picture? i was so cute NOT

[mrbob2]

Simply because if i left the shop without paying ib be breaking the law............

[DDNI]

yeah lets see it. My folks have mine though...

[Firthy2002]

Didn't buy it, was a special surprise gift. I didn't love it any less though.

[midway]

My first Amiga was and is a 2000. With an epson lq550 printer,and highscreen color stereo monitor. 4000 dm at that time 1989. Did you ever beat the strategic type of carrier command? It was one of my first original games with powermonger, my grandfather, god bless him, bought those for me. What a time that was! Sigh

[Tigerskunk]

I was into home computers from when I heard about them in late 1985.
First off the C64, off course.
I remember reading about the "mythical Amiga" and also the ST early on. Those graphics looked so amazing compared to what I was seeing on the 8 bitters at the time..
Then, in late 1986 there was a review of "Marble Madness" in Germanys biggest home computer mag "Happy Computer", that blew everyone away, me included.

And when Defender of the Crown appeared, it was clear to me that I wanted that machine so badly.

When the Amiga500 was announced, I begged my parents so hard that I got one in christmas 1987.

I was so proud and happy...

[Daedalus]

My trusty Atari 800XL had died, and the PCs that I had at school were really awful and clunky to use, as well as too expensive for me. My uncle had an ST and that was a little more interesting and in my price range, but a friend had just gotten an Amiga 1200 and there was basically no competition then for me, so I went and got one too.

[sparhawk]

My first Amiga was an A1000. Back then it came with KS1.1. I bought it because it was the hottest machine I could get and it was just affordable (cost me all the money I could raise ).
I was already a bit tired of my C64, upgraded to an 128D, but this didn't really give me something new. Most of the time I just used the C64 mode as there was no software for a 128 mode and I also had no information about it.

[CBMretrofan]

I started with the C64 when the Amiga was already out for a few years.
The buddy I visited to play computer games with, then switched over to Amiga 500.
I remember how stunned I was about the colours in Rainbow Island when at his place.
And playing Golden Axe many times in 2 player mode
Then I simply wanted that machine too !
It took a while for me to get my own Amiga 500. Already had some disks collected over time,
and I had the Amiga set up, then playing titles like Wings Of Fury, Pinball Dreams, Lemmings,
Speedball 2 and of course Golden Axe - great memories !!!

[Predseda]

Why I bought my first Amiga? Coz was awesome and still is.

[rcman]

Originally Posted by wanderer

I guess for most people the answer would be "the A500, to play those great games" but it should be interesting to also hear alternative stories you guys might have of the type "to finally shut my ST-owner mate's mouth" or "the arrival and technical superiority of the Amiga 1000 changed my life" etc. Of course, "to play X game" stories are always welcome.
For me it was the Commodore past which excluded every other option (C16, never got it to work, replaced by a C64 after a week, C128D), then a shocking preview photo of the A500 I used to gasp over, to be presented at the Cebit (tried to locate this photo on the net but had no success), and of course, the games, Defender Of The Crown namely. (too bad the 2nd disk had a read/write error, use DISKDOCTOR to correct it ).
Anyway, the entrance to the Amiga world is always a thing to remember.

At that time, the Amiga could play music and sound like I had never heard before. The graphics compared to anything out there were amazing! Way ahead of it's time.

The multi-tasking was amazing. I was in love and will always be
RC

[chip]

Because my friends own it !

And to play Pinball Fantasies of course

[grond]

A rich kid in my neighbourhood had a C=64 with 1541. I saved all my pocket money and eventually bought a C=16 with datasette for 149DM. Then the rich kid got an A500/1084S combo for his birthday. I couldn't believe the quality of the games. I kept saving and got a C=64 with datasette to replace my C=16. The rich kid sold his Amiga because he got bored of it and wanted a saxophone instead (to be honest, he became a professional saxophone and clarinet player so perhaps this decision of his made more sense than it seemed to me at the time). I thought he was totally nuts. I got bored with my C=64 and computers in general by around 1990. Still no Amiga. Eventually I saw an ad for an A600 for 299DM in summer of 1993. That was so cheap that I bought it to have something to do after having finished school that summer. That was the start of it all...