Those were the days!

[Zyprexa]

I remember my first meeting with a personal computer. I think it was in 87-88 so i was about 7 or 8 years old, and the beauty was a C64. Man, did i love that computer.

A few of my friends also got it, and we were all hooked.

But there was one friend. We visited him one day, and he had a strange thing called an Amiga 500. And it literally blew us away.

Of course, being kids, we didn't want to be friends with him anymore, and started our own C64 "club". Of course excluding our Amiga owning friend. But the sight and experience of the Amiga was stirring something inside us all. And pretty quickly, one after another, we defected over to this newfound source of power.

It took quite a while for me to get an A500, but one day my brother and i managed to buy a used one from a friend of my brother. Needles to say, and please bear in mind i was still a selfish kid, my younger brother didn't get to enjoy it that much.

Then we all got wind that there was something new and wonderful, gleaming in our childish digital horizons. The Amiga 1200! This baby had it all! And suddenly the A500 didn't fill our needs.

There was Protracker, 3D rendering, Demos, BBS', CD-ROMs, accelerator cards, and seemingly endless possibilities! And, the almighty craving of a kid hooked on computer games, the AGA graphic. Bringing us graphics in games we had never dared to dream of before.

There was something magic about the A1200, something almost spiritual. It was so small, so powerful, and such a delight to use that it was impossible not to be mesmerized by it's electronic beauty.

I remember the best time was when i set up my own BBS, using something called MaxBBS i think, on a single 14.4 modem. My parents didn't approve much of me hogging the phone line at nights, to put it mildly. So i remember many a night having to strip wire with my teeth and twisting on some phone line plugs. And, with the stealth skills of a ninja, running the line from the basement to the kitchen where the phone line outlet was, so that people could dial in.

And, ah, the music! While others were listening and discussing the latest pop artists, we were collecting modules and listening to them with an almost religious attention. I mean, who would ever need more than four channels!? Come on!

And the endless debates in the school halls about the great Amiga VS PC controversy, i am sure you all remember those. The ugly dos/windows compared to the beauty and force of the Workbench!? Man, how we laughed at those poor schmoes

But as time went by, we started to get a little worried. The PC was beginning to steamroll the Amiga in power. (at least the power of the hardware we could afford). And as years went by our laughter started to silence, and we all slowly defected over to the enemy's side.

But there was something missing, the magic was not there. And the wonderful world that is found in and around the Amiga, never really let go in our hearts.

Sure, i can emulate an Amiga on my lightning fast PC, more powerful than any Amiga I've ever owned. But the great magical feeling; it's just not there on the PC, and it can't be emulated.

But as i said, the Amiga never really let go of our hearts, , and we could never bring ourselves to throw away or sell the Amigas. So nowadays we sit down in front of it, and marvel at the fun it can still bring us. And the memories that it triggers.

Ah, those were the days!

Hi there,
I can relate. I started out with an Amiga 1000. Eventually adding a ram expansion...8 megs. That was before I ever had a hard drive. I still have a couple of A1200's.
I kind of like the emulated Amiga for several reasons.
1.) An awful lot of the software that I have actually works better on it.
2.) The graphics are much better...Workbench in 32bit at 1440x900
3.) Unlimited hard drive space.
4.) Much better and faster web browsing. The latest Aweb isn't too bad.
5.) Having an Amiga laptop was something I'd always wanted.
6.) Having Directory Opus on the Amiga side of the PC helps to organize the pc without having to parnet to the real Amiga.
There are many more reasons also, but I'm kind of thinking that these might be the good old days.

I would still buy a new amiga if it came out though.

[Muzkat]

That was very poignant. Great post.

I never had an A1200 but I think now I want to buy one.

[blade002]

This post is almost enough to bring tears to my eyes because the feelings are so damn mutual in regards to the Amiga and yes especially the A1200.

A beautiful thread and post you have made here Zyprexa

[viddi]

"There was something magic about the A1200, something almost spiritual. It was so small, so powerful, and such a delight to use that it was impossible not to be mesmerized by it's electronic beauty."

Yes, that´s right. And its case design is absolutely gorgeous!
The A1200 is the best looking computer ever!

[alkis21]

All I can add to this fine topic -especially after reading reloader12's post- is that a real Amiga is better than an emulated one for the same reason sex is better than masturbation.

Sure, with masturbation you can imagine every woman you want, doing everything you want her to do, anyplace you want, without a condom. Plus, your imaginary friend will not give you STDs, she will not compare you to previous lovers, and she will not ask you to call her back.

Call me a weirdo, but I still prefer sex.

[viddi]

Well, ehm...alkis21...

that´s what I call an easy-to-understand-metaphor

[P-J]

Originally Posted by alkis21

Call me a weirdo, but I still prefer sex.

I'll call you a retard, how's that? You are a fuckin' weirdo though, what was THAT about?

Anyway-- I get nostalgic from time to time too but you wouldn't want to go back. Yeah, you shit your pants over new games and new hardware but you always looked at the grass on the other side and it was always greener.

Consider this : Nowadays, for the same price, you can buy a machine that back then would have been beyond your wildest dreams, yet it's not appreciated. You can run three or four emulators simultaneously and still play your favourite MP3s and browse the net at the same time. Back then you would have happily given your Amiga away for FREE for what we have now. Just don't forget that. If you don't believe you would, then you're lying to yourself.

[alkis21]

Originally Posted by P-J

I'll call you a retard, how's that? You are a fuckin' weirdo though, what was THAT about?

Is there a problem?

[Dizzy]

I'm with alkis on this one. Nothing beats the real "deal"

With real "deal" you got the look, the smell, the taste, the feeling etc (you got it all in one for the price of 1)

[alkis21]

Being with me or against me, or thinking I made a stupid joke, is everyone's right. But I resent being called a retard just because my opinion does not agree with everyone else's.

[P-J]

Originally Posted by alkis21

Being with me or against me, or thinking I made a stupid joke, is everyone's right. But I resent being called a retard just because my opinion does not agree with everyone else's.

You already posted above and I didn't take the bait. No need to repost. Just deal with it.

[alkis21]

Whatever mate. I've met my share of cowardly, anonymous, internet idiots; one more is not going to kill me. As far as I'm concerned, you're just a waste of bandwidth.

[P-J]

Originally Posted by alkis21

Whatever mate. I've met my share of cowardly, anonymous, internet idiots; one more is not going to kill me. As far as I'm concerned, you're just a waste of bandwidth.

I'm not your 'mate', I think that is clear. Why are you wasting your bandwidth? You make me laugh

(P.S. Your opinion is less than worthless to me, so seriously, don't waste your bandwidth!)

[Zyprexa]

Originally Posted by alkis21

[...]a real Amiga is better than an emulated one for the same reason sex is better than masturbation.[...]

Hehe! That's a great way to put it

[rsn8887]

Originally Posted by alkis21

All I can add to this fine topic -especially after reading reloader12's post- is that a real Amiga is better than an emulated one for the same reason sex is better than masturbation.

Sure, with masturbation you can imagine every woman you want, doing everything you want her to do, anyplace you want, without a condom. Plus, your imaginary friend will not give you STDs, she will not compare you to previous lovers, and she will not ask you to call her back.

Call me a weirdo, but I still prefer sex.

Lol, well put.

I also completely agree with Zyprexa's story. Well written!

Just like my own childhood.
It was like the computers and us were really growing up together, the computers were maturing together with us!

From the first games and understanding first commands like Load"*",8,1 or "Climb Ceiling" (Aztec Tomb) as a ~6 yr old and a long lasting c64 friendship...
...figuring out cpc at mom's home due to divorced parents...
...c64 disk drive...
...on to using first mouse/seeing high res gfx on parents' friend's Atari ST...
...mouse at home on C64 thanks to Final Cartridge 3,
...then Amiga the explosion of awesomeness, first toying with the workbench figuring out desktop/windows shell commands, startup-sequences etc. when tired of games...
...then Amiga1200 by this time the Amiga had matured quite well just as we had, and we were using it now to connect to BBS/run BBS and later dial up the internet, use all these tools and proggies to max out workbench, download TONS of stuff and games, especially from Aminet (amftp automatic aminet listing...), buy accelerators, program C++, databases, etc...

I have to say:
Thanks Amiga for making our childhoods, those most important times, so fascinating, and thanks for growing up together with us!

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by P-J

Back then you would have happily given your Amiga away for FREE for what we have now. Just don't forget that. If you don't believe you would, then you're lying to yourself.

I'd drop my PC for an old skool Amiga anyday.

The only thing I use my PC for is just surfing the web - could easily manage to do that on a real Amiga with not much fuss... might do it one day

Most of the hardware these days is cheap shoddy carp. Take the xbox360 red light warranty special which toasts itself As for games these days... all marketing and fancy graphics in a 3D perspective environment with 0% gameplay

Only amiga makes it possible

[Graham Humphrey]

I think you missed P-J's point

The point was, 15-20 years ago if you were offered what we have now instead of the Amiga (or whatever) you wouldn't have chosen the Amiga. None of us would, because what we've got now is techinically superior in every way.

At least I think that was what he was saying

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I think you missed P-J's point

The point was, 15-20 years ago if you were offered what we have now instead of the Amiga (or whatever) you wouldn't have chosen the Amiga. None of us would, because what we've got now is techinically superior in every way.

At least I think that was what he was saying

Even then I'd have the Amiga. Yes, the technology is far superior but it's dull. Nowadays we have Dual Core and Xeon. What carp names compared to Agnus, Paula, Denise & Gary

Yes, I'm mental but there you go

[Graham Humphrey]

I do agree with you about it being dull these days... there's no excitement in it anymore, by and large. It's just that if you got a glimpse of all this in 1987 say, no way would you have been remotely interested in the Amiga. I wouldn't have been, but then I was a year old so I wouldn't have been interested in very much at all