Hello from South Wales UK

[gkb]

Hello all.

I have already posted in the nostalgia and memories section, and I just noticed there is an introduce yourself forum - Doh!
Anyway, to introduce myself properly.

I'm Gavin, based in South Wales in the UK.
I have been reading this board for some time, and I have to say - Bravo!
This site is my number one site for all Amiga stuff.

To give my computing history, my first machine was an Atari 2600 (showing my age by saying that), which was OK - combat was a particular favourite of mine.

I then graduated to a ZX Spectrum. I had the +2, which was released after Sir Clive sold to Amstrad, so I avoided all the quality control problems of the earlier models; no fun with rubber keys wearing out or ram pack wobbles. I sold my Spectrum a few years ago during a pre house move declutter - and it still worked perfectly, despite spending years in the attic.

After the Spectrum came the Amiga 500. Talk about a step up!
I remember well the wow factor of the speedier loading times, a multitasking GUI, and of course all the games.
I learned to program in C on the Amiga - I wanted to code up all the flashy visual effects I had seen the demo scene people produce. I never quite got there - I found assembler too hard to master. I was 14 at the time!
The A500 is to this day my favourite ever computer. Nothing since has come close to having the fun factor the Amiga had.
I screwed up royally by selling it during my house move declutter - however when I got it down from the attic and tested it, the floppy drive did not work, some of the keys did not register being pressed, and the 512K ram expansion in the trapdoor was ruined as the clock battery built onto it had leaked and ruined the board.
I still got a buyer, despite listing all the faults on the eBay page.
At the time I sold it, Amigas were regarded as obsolete and were being sold at car boot sales for £20.
This was before retro gaming and the Amiga exploded in popularity – both things are massive now.
I really wish I had kept it - with all the companies producing spare parts and accelerator cards now, I could I have brought it back to health - and then some.
It is very pleasing for me too see the Amiga growing again - long may it continue.
I thought about getting a reconditioned A500 or A1200, but they sell for silly money now.

I get my games fix by using an old ASUS notebook with Linux/FS-UAE - this works well.
I especially like the save state feature FS-UAE offers - handy for rolling back when you screw up in games like Lemmings and Cannon Fodder.

My latest project is to master AROS.
I bought a laptop that they said had full hardware support - an Acer Aspire One ZG5.
I got it for £45 on eBay - I got lucky as it has not been used much, so it is in mint condition.
It is a cracking little notebook - and AROS does work with all the hardware, and it is fast and responsive.
AROS certainly feels like a modern Amiga - the small team working on it have done a great job.
It is great fun to use, buy sadly it is beta software; as it is fiddly to install, and lacks some key applications.
AROS does have massive potential - an open source AmigaOS clone that runs on x86 hardware is definitely the way forward in my mind.
I will be tracking this project with interest.

I have probably waffled on enough, so I will leave it there.

[chip]

Welcome to the forum !

[TCD]

Hallo gkb and welcome to EAB

[FOL]

Welcome gkb.


Where abouts. I'm in Barry, just outside Cardiff. Every knows Barry thought, due to Gavin and Stacey.

[Torti-the-Smurf]

Hello there

[gkb]

I hail from Pontypridd to be more specific with my location.

[CDTV1991]

Hello from Swansea!

[Coagulus]

I'm from Cwmbran but now live in Pontypridd too

[Photon]

My student exchange age 15 was in Wales, girls at school came onto me something fearful, the male students beat each other up at the tennis courts and the cows came over from the field when I practiced Kung-Fu.

Ah, memories. Was rural outside Welshpool so not really south Wales. Anyway welcome

[FOL]

Originally Posted by Photon

My student exchange age 15 was in Wales, girls at school came onto me something fearful, the male students beat each other up at the tennis courts and the cows came over from the field when I practiced Kung-Fu.

Ah, memories. Was rural outside Welshpool so not really south Wales. Anyway welcome

Tennis Courts, jesus must have been a fancy school.

[Mikeywikey]

Welcome from mid Wales!

[Photon]

Originally Posted by FOL

Tennis Courts, jesus must have been a fancy school.

3 of them I think, don't remember if it was Welshpool or Llanfair. Rackets may have been intended for Grand Slam but mostly just used for the slam.

Fancy, well I thought it quite messy Or 'managed chaos'. Swedish schools weren't strict really but at the same time we didn't have girls flashing skirts in class and guys basically going wild on breaks. One bloke went after a girl one time and I got in between. In the end I decided I think wisely one of her stolen shoes wasn't worth testing my Kung Fu. He was a big lad and technique can only go so far. She got her shoe back tho. I think there was a moment of realization.

They had a computer classroom full of Beebs! That was news to me. Never heard of. There was a nice 2D pool game coded by one of the students I remember?

Ooh I got a bargain ZX +2 with the built in tape recorder, couldn't resist even with limited funds. Pixeled and coded a steam train animated running down scrolling tracks in assembly. A couple years later traded for a second C64, but it was with me for a bit. I was 50/50 Z80/6502 then. Not bad

Speaking of student exchange... poor Paul, he loved it in sunny Sweden and speaking of tennis we played badminton but he got the flu or a bug mid summer and got homesick I think. So I (well fam) never got to show him all the planned stuff... he was good lad. He's the reason I was "defender of the shoe" really. He was a bystander to the affair and hold his breath I think. <3

It was my first adventure with first airplane flight, girls all over, found and chatted up the "all agreed upon best girl" of the school instantly, obviously I ogled here as I drew pixels and wrote code on grid paper paying no attention really to Teacher and very likely as a result no action

Another girl at the school offering to write and that's dumb and a big regret (never do this! I made this mistake twice!)

Then stupidly or maybe desperately broke my cherry on the ferry back home on an (admittedly sweet) girl. Turned out things can go both ways and she was quite happy to entertain me, then when letters followed quite happily shared my letters with her bloke-already back in England that she never in a minute, once in a moment mentioned...

Not saying you were a slut Claire Henderson but oh well I was just a toy boy, realized now, not then.

Just lots of memorable moments from Wales and I got my first heart in my throat being driven on the wrong side of the road (then again in London 5 years later). And I got to ride a steam train and saw canal boats and medieval um cross timber style buildings.

[aNdy/AL/COS]

Only just saw this thread! Welcome from Pontypool!

[twiggy]

Welcome!

What was your C experience like on the Amiga?

and have you tried IcAROS?