Just wanted to introduce myself

[Andec]

Hi all,

As I await the imminent arrival of my A500, I thought that I would write a brief description of how I got into Amiga's and computing in general.

I started late. Very late. My first computer was a System-80 (TRS-80 clone) that I bought in 1993 (I was 22). At the time, I was a musician and wanted a very basic computer to help me store MIDI patterns for my drum machine. The System-80 turned out to be the wrong choice. However, when I bought the Sys-80 ($15.00), it came with a ton of Micro-80 magazines and some Programming in BASIC books. I ended up so addicted to typing in the games and saving them to cassette, that we needed to buy a second TV.

Incidently, one of the absolute best "graphical" adventure games that I ever played was written for the Sys-80. The game was called "Asylum".

By the time the Sys-80 died in early 1994, I had been "improving" the games having taught myself programming. About the same time, my wife and I moved and our new neighbour had a C64. My neighbour and I would scour the newspapers each week looking for people that wanted to offload their old C64 gear and we ended up with quite a collection of both hardware and software. At about this time, our neightbour across the road bought their 11 year old son and A500 (second hand of course - IIRC it cost about $20). The very first game that I saw was SWIV.

I had to get one.

I managed to pick up an A500 (512k) a couple of weeks later. I started collecting software for the A500 and upgraded the RAM to 1mb.

Enter Monkey Island 2. I can remember playing it for three days straight! My wife was always yelling at me to turn the computer off and come to bed (Awww hon, 5 mins more, pleeeeeese?). I spent more time in front of the A500 than anything else. If I wasn't playing with the miggy, I was thinking about the miggy (and occasionally my wife, hehe).

At the start of 1995, I started my training as an applications programmer. Sadly the A500 died about two months into the course and I was so busy getting my head around COBOL on a VAX/VMS system that I never even investigated what was wrong with it. I kept the A500 with the view to repair it. It never happened and somewhere along the line, it disappeared.
I eventually got a PC and went through the whole Doom I & Doom II thing. I don't know what it was, but the games felt "different". It just wasn't the same as playing games on the miggy.

For various reasons, not least of which is that I have 6 kids, I haven't until now been able to get my hands on another miggy. The catalyst for getting another one was reading the book "Underground" by Suelette Dreyfus (The story of The Realm hackers that were based in Melbourne here in Oz) and discovering WinUAE.

I had always wanted to write a game for the A500. But, at the time, I didn't have access to the proper tools and AmigaBASIC just didn't seem to cut it. It wasn't until 1996 that we "got the net" and before that I didn't have a modem so there was no calling BBS's. After writing a couple of homebrew PSX(1) games for the kids, I think I will give writing a game for the A500 a go.

My 3yr old son is now the biggest game player in the house. ATM, he is playing Van Helsing on the PS2. Hopefully we can spend a heap of time together playing on the Amiga.

Cheers
Andec

[Graham Humphrey]

Cool story... welcome to EAB. Remember to get your kids into the Amiga ASAP

Good luck with programming a game. It'll be interesting to see what you come up with.

[Steve]

Hi Andec. Welcome to the board. Man, you did start late. Getting an A500 in 1994. Someone should have told you about the A1200. lol.

Good luck with the game. I'm planning on writing an A1200 game in the near future. Hope you stick with it!

Get your son off the PS3 and onto WinUAE!

[Haakon]

6 kids! Crazzzzzy!

Welcome by the way :-)

[girv]

Hi Andec & welcome to EAB

I got started in computers in exactly the same way as you did by typing in and modifying games from magazines and books, then moving on to writing some (crappy!) ones of my own. Good luck with your games projects!

[Zetr0]

Hello there Andec

Welcome to the EAB, I am sure you will like it here, theres plenty of mischeif arround,

If you are into writing games, there is the AGF (Amiga Game Factory) have a read, perhaps take part in some community projects

If however you wanna have a look at building / designing your own hardware then lookie at the hardware forums theres plenty of buzz there of late...

If your interested in displaying awesome gamming prowesss then join up to the EAB / Lemon super league! ( EAB Games forums )

if you wanna..... okay okay... theres more than plenty to do... so go ahead put your feet up, make yourself comfy and releax.... your gonna enjoy yourself here

[Andec]

Thanks all for the warm welcomes.......

@Zetr0
Thanks. I am interested in building homebrew mods. Will definately check it out. I will look at the Games Factory, however with so many kids, it can be hard for me to commit to a community type project due to time constraints. I will try to help out when I can tho'

@Haakon
Yes, I am crazy. But we are planning our 7th for Jan next year! (it's all the wife's fault, honest)

@Steve
At the time, I didn't even know A1200 existed. It wasn't until after I bought my PC that I even saw one. At the time, I couldn't justify buying it.

@girv
Thanks for the welcome.

@Graham
The kids are getting WinUAE tuition even as I type.

[jmmijo]

Welcome to the forums

[Thalion]

Welcome to the community.

[Pyromania]

Welcome, great to have you on board.

[Andec]

Thanks for the welcome.

My A500 turned up this morning!
Am heading off to check battery for leakage etc.

Cheers
Andec

[killergorilla]

Hi mate,

WELCOME TO EAB.

I'm probably the nicest person on here so it's probably downhill from now, but stick around, some people may amuse ya

[T_hairy_bootson]

/me starts the downhill spiral...

Hi mate welcome aboard sounds like you have come to the right place.

[gizmomelb]

and another Aussie on here, we're slowly working on being the majority of users

[Minuous]

TRS-80 rules, I still play Asylum :-)

eg. see http://amigan.1emu.net/trs-80/

[oneshotdead]

Soon we will rule EAB!!! *maniacal laughter*

[Andec]

Thanks again one and all.

I am suprised at how many Aussies there are on EAB, to be honest.

I spent yesterday sitting in front of my Miggy sorting through 100+ disks with my 3 yr old son. We had a ball.

@Minuous
I wish I still had my '80. I can remember playing a lot of those games on your site.

Cheers
Andec

[Minuous]

Originally Posted by Andec

I wish I still had my '80. I can remember playing a lot of those games on your site.

There are some good emulators available, there is no need to suffer :-)

[Andec]

Originally Posted by Minuous

There are some good emulators available, there is no need to suffer :-)

Yeah, I know. But it is not quite the same. I guess I don't have much choice tho.

[WAKAMA]

Hi Andec. My first computer ever was an A500, but it's long gone by now. Any idea where I could find a replacement? I'd love to work directly on one again. Emmulators are great, but there's nothing like the real thing.