What has been your computer journey ?

[pandy71]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with ?

Privately it was Amiga (yes, my first private computer was Amiga 500 - don't getting into details but in my country computers was very expensive and considered luxurious as such only limited number of people can afford for home/personal computer - to illustrate - for ZX Spectrum 48k you need to pay equivalent of 9..12 months salary).

2. What brought you to your Amiga ?
Of course advanced hardware - this was most advanced hardware on market - i didn't like primitive computers without decent graphic - to be honest i didn't played too much even on Amiga - simply games was too primitive to hold my attention for long time - my first true gaming experience begins with PS3 - this is graphics level so i was able to immerse in synthetic game world for long time)

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder
to use as a daily driver ?

Well... PC but also had some ability to use briefly RS6000 IBM company i work for installed for our customers)

4. What do you use now ?

PC's (but own my first Amiga albeit heavily modified (rev 6 mobo replaced to rev 8, it is almost A500+ in A500 enclosure) - also has many other computers - ZX's Atari's, CBM, Mac etc
Currently i'm unable to use my PS3 due of broken pad (anyone can recommend decent original Sony pad replacement? - can be wired - PS4 pad do not work beside very basic functions)

5. Are there any OS's that you dont use ? Why ?

I was exposed to various OS's - had no ability to use SPARC on SUN and IRIS on SGI (lack of HW - deeply regret moment somewhere around first half of the 2000 when Sun and SGI machines can be bought on ebay for almost nothing)
Not use Mac OS despite being owner of few mac's (some Quadra's i have waiting as CPU donors for Amiga ) - to be honest Apple product are those i'm trying to avoid - from my perspective first Apple HW was too primitive (Macintosh for long time was like ZX81 with MC68000 instead Z80)...
Miss somehow that i was unable to buy and own NeXT machine (as such had no possibility to use NeXT Step OS)

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by gimbal

That is a contradictory statement given that joysticks existed before mice You only have to see one interview with Al Lowe to be reminded of the actual old school days.

That's not real old school, this is old school:-

In 1952, Alexander S. Douglas created OXO, a software program for the EDSAC computer, which simulates a game of tic-tac-toe. The EDSAC was one of the first stored-program computers, with memory that could be read from or written to, and filled an entire room; it included three 35×16 dot matrix cathode ray tubes to graphically display the state of the computer's memory....

The player entered input using a rotary telephone dial, selecting which of the nine squares on the board they wished to move next. Their move would appear on the screen, and then the computer's move would follow.

Literally old school,

The game was not available to the general public, and was only available to be played in the University of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory, by special permission, as the EDSAC could not be moved.

Computer mice have been around for a while too,

a mouse device named Rollkugelsteuerung (German for "rolling ball control") was shown in a sales brochure by the German company AEG-Telefunken as an optional input device for the SIG 100 vector graphics terminal...

developed by the company since 1966... had a ball (diameter 40 mm, weight 40 g) and two mechanical 4-bit rotational position transducers with Gray code-like states, allowing easy movement in any direction... Weighing 465 g, the device with a total height of about 7 cm came in a 12 cm diameter hemispherical injection-molded thermoplastic casing featuring one central push button.

[gimbal]

Fair enough but that did not bring them into people's homes until well later.

Point is that when you claim that using a keyboard + mouse is "old school", you're just saying that you grew up playing games on the PC in the late 80's/90's because for some reason joysticks and gamepads fell out of favour in that period. It might well be that very "consoles are for kids" reasoning.

It makes me sad that people limit themselves like this, using a controller is just so much better for your posture when gaming for extended periods. And to be honest... it makes a large portion of the games more fun to play.

[acidbottle]

Hazy memories but remember most of the important parts (80s and 90s)

1983 - Played chequered flag on a friends zx spectrum. hooked
1984 - ZX spectrum 48k for xmas
1985 - Atari 2600 - wanted to expand into world of consoles
1987 - Atari 800xl for xmas
1988 - Spectrum +3 for xmas
1990 - Amiga 500 for xmas (there is a theme here!)
1992 - A1200 purchased for erm .. college work
1993 - 1998 - Amiga upgrades and bought several computers from boot sales such as a cpc and c64.
1999 - Sony Playstation from cash converters
2000 - Built first pc - celeron and voodoo3 i think
2003 - 2020 - Many PC variations built, usually a gen or 2 behind current trends. PS2 and PS4 also. Got back into retro gaming around 2005, acquired many systems!
2021 - About to embark on Alder Lake ...

[Nobby_UK]

Started on the Atari 2600
Then got a Spectrum 48K +
Then an Amiga 500
Then a 500+
Then a 1200 (had it in a tower with a Mediator for a while)
Added an Apollo 040/25 + 32 meg
Then a second A500 (for Spares)
Then a CD32 and A600.
Was building my own PCs from about 1995/96 (>Win95/98/XP)
On Core i5-2500K + Nvidia GTX 760 (Win 7) now.

[roondar]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with ?
The first computer I used at home was a Sinclair ZX-81, followed by a Sinclair QL. The first computer I owned myself was a Commodore 64.

2. What brought you to your Amiga ?
I had seen an A1000 in a store once and knew I wanted an Amiga from that point forward. The many adverts/reviews/etc in Commodore magazines and store based demo's I saw (mainly on A500's and the odd A2000) after that only made me want one more.

Eventually I managed to save up for an A500 and that's how it all started. By now I have an A500, A600 and two A1200's (on of which is in a tower case).

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver ?
At first, I stuck to my A1200 (now in a tower) and upgraded it with CD-ROM drive, bigger HDD and a Blizzard 1230MK IV. Eventually, I got a Pentium MMX mostly for use while studying Computer Science and a Playstation for games. Until around 2000, I still regularly used my A1200 and was hoping for an Amiga revival. After that, I drifted more and more towards PC's and the new consoles (PS2, PS3, etc). Came back to the Amiga scene around 2014-2015 and have been enjoying it a lot

That said, I no longer seek/hope for a revival - low spec Amiga's (1MB A500, 2MB A1200 or at a stretch a 68030 based A1200, preferably with KS 1.3 or 3.1) are my 'true Amiga loves' these days.

4. What do you use now ?
Mostly my Windows 10 PC, with a fair bunch of retro devices thrown in - mainly my Commodore 64 reloaded, several Amiga's and some SNES/Mega Drive stuff as well.

Looking forward to the Mega 65 as well, always wanted a C65

5. Are there any OS's that you dont use ? Why ?
Generally, I will try any OS that seems like it has a future (or I've used in the past - i.e. Amiga OS), but for home use I've never really used Linux. Tried it a couple of times, never found a distro I really liked. And by now my Windows PC is capable enough for doing what I need, so I no longer really see the point in switching (that said, I have no fundamental or other problems with Linux, it's just not something I use at the moment).

[aeberbach]

The tic-tac-toe implemented with telephone relays is still operating at Melbourne’s Scienceworks as far as I know.

[aeberbach]

Originally Posted by Anubis

This actually is not true... Consoles usually offer much more for the same amount of

Never in the history of consoles has this been true, especially not now when consoles offer PC parts in a non-upgradeable, DRM-controlled and controller-restricted box.

[HEXWALKER]

Unfortunately, I'm from a post-commodore world, so I may not be able to answer some of these entirely correctly.

1. What systems/OS's did you start with?

I don't remember the specifics of the machine itself, but I started using a Windows 95 machine at the age of 3. The first machine I owned myself was a Windows 2000 machine at the age of 5. I wish I still had these machines, but my parents were insistent on getting rid of them when I upgraded.

2. What brought you to your Amiga?

Ever since I was a child, and I stumbled across a fangame, it led me down the 16-bit rabbit hole. I really became interested after getting the Sega Genesis collection for my PSP. I wanted to know more about this era of computing, which led me to learning about the Amiga when I was around 11. Fast forward to this year, a friend of mine gifted me a beat up A500 from ebay that I restored, and it no longer looks like a piece of cheese. I'm using it as I write this!!!

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver?

Hmmm, well. Given how I wasn't born yet, that Windows 95 machine??? And honestly its been difficult to go back to anything before Windows 98, with the Amiga and my Classic Macs being the exception.

4. What do you use now?

I use a lot of different machines, and my setup is always changing as a result. Currently as I write this, I'm sitting here with My A500 with Workbench 3.1.4, HP Pavilion a620n with Windows XP Professional, HP Pavilion 6740c with Windows ME, Mac Classic 2 with System 7.5.3, iMac G3 with Mac OS 9.2.2, and my Windows 10 machine. I am also currently working on repairing a machine for OS/2 use because I'm just that funny.

5. Are there any OS's that you don't use? Why?

Nah I'll pretty much try to use anything thrown at me. Computing as a whole is a flexible and ever changing thing that its always interesting to see how things work and what exactly what combos of hardware and software can do, thats one of the reasons I love it so much!

[Noob-tech-ninja]

Thanks for the replies, they have been really interesting and informative

I have added another quetion to the main list (as I forgot to add it, at the
time of writing) see below:

6. How do you use an Amiga now ?
Is it - Real hardware / software emulation / Raspberry Pi / FGPA / etc, etc,

[Korban]

Originally Posted by aeberbach

It's true - they are standardised with limited control systems, lack of upgradeability and poor performance for the price!

Limited controls?

Joypad/joystick/keyboard/mouse/motion controls...
Exactly what else was you wanting?

Poor performance for the price?

Find an rdna2 based machine using an 8core/16 thread zen2+ cpu with 16GB of faster system ram than is available to computers, case, power supply, 4k bluray drive and good quality controller for the price.
You won't come close, even 2nd hand.
I can only assume you was joking right?

[aeberbach]

So you get a bunch of stuff for a low price? If I compare fuel economy my car is way better than all that rubbish those silly billionaires drive... You can measurebate all you like but consoles will always be inferior.

I've done enough of this in 80s. Really, if you like your console, stick with it.

[Korban]

Now you're just making zero sense.
You suggested consoles are bad value, but when you're told no, and given specifics the goalposts change?
And when the components are improved versions of what is available for pc, but much cheaper monetary wise, somehow those improved components are rubbish ?

Yes, you can get more powerful hardware for pc, I have a 5950x and 3080 with 64GB and 3x1tb nvme.m2 drives in raid0, but that doesn't change the fact the new consoles are much, much better value by a factor of over 2.

And the fact you've been doing this since the 80s is moot when you're clueless the whole time.
Some of us have been doing it longer, and arent so blinded by bias to things that Stevie Wonder could see a mile away.
Like what you like, but if you're going to spew nonsense expect to have that nonsense pointed out.
It is the internet after all.

[aeberbach]

Not sure why you'd have that inferior computer though? Want to swap it for a PS5?

[jPV]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with ?


My good friend was an early adopter of computers in our town and I got familiar with Commodore's 8bit machines there, C16, C64, C128D... other friends started to get C64s or C128s too. At some point I finally got a C64 for myself too. Expanded it with a 1541 disk drive and dot matrix printer. I didn't see much other than Commodore computers in our neighbourhood, so the direction was pretty clear.




2. What brought you, to your Amiga ?


I was drooling at Amiga pictures and articles in computer magazines, and of course we went to play with an Amiga 500 (Say etc) in the local store when they got those. Pretty soon after that the friend of mine got his own A500 and it was a blast. Fell in love with some cool games and early demoscene productions. I just had to sell my C64 setup for a good price and got an A500 for myself too. I expanded it with an external floppy drive, half meg memory expansion, Action Replay mkII, and a color dot matrix printer.


The friend got later an A3000 and that was just so damn cool machine with a hard disk and everything. Mods loaded instantly on it etc I wasn't able to get that expensive setup, but when the A1200 was released, I got it as a compromise between the performance and price. As I had seen what Amiga was capable on the productivity side at my friend's place, I had to equip the A1200 with a memory expansion, FPU, and HD instantly.




3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver ?


I just expanded my A1200 more! I bought a Blizzard 1230-IV accelerator in mid 90s, a multisync monitor to get better resolutions, added a CD-ROM drive on the table, towered the machine with a Zorro2 bus board, bougth a CyberVision 64/3D graphics card, bougth a used Blizzard 1260 with a SCSI-kit, added CD-RW and DAT drives and moooore HDs, got a Delfina Lite sound card and Hydra's network card, swapped the original Zorro2 board to MediatorZIV and ZorroIV bus boards, got Voodoo3/USB/TV etc cards, bigger monitors, external SCSI tower to fit even mmmoore mass storage devices, and so on


At one point in 90s I got a PC with Win98 for studies etc, but I didn't use it much at all... I rather found ways to use my Amiga for the studies... Final Writer with some math equation expansion was enough for some lab exercises etc.


So, I just didn't give up and was using my A1200 setup as a daily driver until 2004. At that point it started to feel a bit limited indeed, but luckily I was offered to buy a second hand Pegasos machine for a fair price, so I stepped into the next generation Amiga world. Suddenly there was way more raw processing power to watch movies and stuff that I wasn't able to do with my 68k Amiga. The whole system was also much more stable on both software and hardware side. It was also compatible with the software I was using on my RTG/AHI setup.. I just copied my installed software from my monsterous A1200 setup to MorphOS and continued to use them in a way snappier and stable environment with more possibilities.




4. What do you use now ?


Never surrender! I'm still using MorphOS setups as my daily drivers. Pegasos changed to a Mac mini in 2009, and I'm actually still using it as my main setup, pretty good value per years


I also have Powerbook and IBooks with MorphOS for portability, and couple PowerMac G5 setups for the future when I start to need more CPU power, but I've still sticked with the 1.5GHz Mac mini so far... silent and compact.


Of course I haven't avoided to have some other setups during the years either, who wouldn't need some mainstream setups occasionally. Currently I have Windows and Linux PCs which I use for some tasks, but mainly remotely with the RDesktop or SSH from my MorphOS setup.




5. Are there any OS's that you dont use ? Why ?


Many, but mainly because you just can't test them all I've played around with many different operating systems and have had some freebie machines like PCs, Intel Macs, Sparc Stations, etc... I've played around with them all for fun, but it's just for education etc rather than real use.




6. How do you use an Amiga now ?
Is it - Real hardware / software emulation / Raspberry Pi / FGPA / etc, etc,


As said, my daily driver is still an Amiga compatible setup (MorphOS), so I use that pretty much for everything. And then I have real classic Amigas which I use mostly for gaming (Lemon/EAB compo, for example). And I take couple of my desktop A1200 setups to public events several times a year (although not lately for certain reasons).


I've never felt home with emulators and as I still have about ten 68k Amigas, haven't had need to buy FPGA machines either. I have had couple Raspberry Pis for servers and media boxes, but never tried to use any emulators on them.

[Gregory Hayes]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with?
A friend's Osbourne 1, 1982-3. Saw the possibility of word processing.
Coleco Adam, 1983 (briefly, tape drive kept breaking)
C64, 1983-1988. Did my doctoral dissertation on it.
Amiga, 1988-present. Various models, but the A3K was my favorite.

2. What brought you to your Amiga?
Demo in a store. Graphics blew me away.

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver?
PC, 1996-2004. Not an enjoyable experience. To me, it felt like an appliance, not a life-changing device. I kept a 1000 around for creative work and games.
Mac, 2004-present. Bought a Mac Mini for $499US and went on from there.
When I saw what the retro scene was doing a few years ago, I started using Amigas more. I now have two A4Ks, the 1000, and a CDTV.

4. What do you use now?
Macs for the ecosystem, writing, and general productivity.

5. Are there OSes you don't use? Why?
I'm pretty much OS agnostic.

6. How do you use an Amiga now?
Games, occasional art projects, light web browsing.

[phx]

Originally Posted by jPV

I also have Powerbook and IBooks with MorphOS for portability, and couple PowerMac G5 setups for the future when I start to need more CPU power

Hi jPV! I'm happy to read from somebody who has a similar story like me, and also didn't give up on Amiga about all these years! Nice!


1. What systems/OS's did you start with?
ViC-20 (VC-20 in Germany), April 1983. Then the C64 September 1984.

2. What brought you to your Amiga?
Computer magazines and seeing the A1000 at some friends. I bought the A1000 together with my brother in the first half of 1987. No day without Amigas since then!

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver?
I got a used SGI-Indy in the late 90s and later some (also used) PowerMacs and PowerBooks for MorphOS and NetBSD, but the Amiga is still sufficient for parts of my daily use. For example e-mail and development.
Around 1995 I wrote my thesis with PasTeX on the A3000. The final version could then easily be printed out on the SparcStations at University.

4. What do you use now?
MorphOS 1.4.4 on a Pegasos2 for email and (cross) development. A3000, A1200 and MiniMig for testing and playing old games. NetBSD for (cross) development and server purposes. A Windows7 PC for gaming and watching YouTube.

5. Are there OSes you don't use? Why?
I try to avoid all OSes which hurt your privacy by collecting data. This includes nearly all common operating systems, especially Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, ChromeOS. Of course, it is hard to avoid them completely. So I make sure to have no serious or private data at all on my gaming PC and my iPhone. Additionally my router (running NetBSD) blocks all known data collection IPs.

6. How do you use an Amiga now?
Playing old games. Testing my own developments.

[OldAmigan]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with?
Pong machine, which got an occasional outing. I would have been about 25 years old at the time. Then a friend loaned me a Commodore PET, which my wife banned me from using after a fortnight as she became an instant computer widow!
Followed that by a VIC-20 when they first came out but that got put away when I tired of the limited games. Various pals had Spectrums, C-64's, even a TRS-80. Never really bothered much with computers for a few years but then my son was desperate to get an Amiga, as all his mates had one, so he got a second-hand A-600 just before the A-1200 came out and my foster son got an A-500.

2. What brought you to your Amiga?
My son downgraded to PC a couple of years later and I ended up with the A-600, which I still have.

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver?
After the demise of Commodore, I gravitated to PC's, too, as that's what we used at work (Windows 3.1, then Windows 95 but I eventually bought an A-1200 from a workmate - I still have it, in a tower with a PCI board

4. What do you use now?
I have the A1200 with OS3.1.4.1, soon to have OS3.2, an A500 w/PiStorm, 2 x A600, another A1200 in process of being recapped and repaired, A CDTV into which I'm fitting a Pi/HDMI. I also have a Mac LCII, a G4 PowerMac, Mac Mini (for MorphOS), a 2007 Macbook and a 2008 iMac, plus an old Compaq Portable II and several PC's running, in the main, Linux (usually Mint).

5. Are there OSes you don't use? Why?
No, I'll use whatever fits my needs at the time, or which I want to test out - even Windows 10 if I really must!

6. How do you use an Amiga now?
Mainly messing about trying out some of the new developments such as PiStorm, etc.

[Stejjie]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with?
ZX Spectrum +2A (so from the Amstrad era); although my first real experiences with computers, and the ones that got me hooked, were on school BBC Micros and especially my friend's Commodore +4. Once I was bitten by the computer bug I was hooked, and couldn't wait till we got our own Speccy.

2. What brought you to your Amiga?
Seeing some friends playing with one, and also having access to my cousin's A500 for a week. It just seemed such a huge step up from our Speccy - much as I liked that machine - that I desperately wanted one. Eventually, by late 1992, I'd saved up enough paper round money and was the proud owner of an A600.

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder to use as a daily driver?
It was only about 18 months between me buying my A600 and Commodore going bust, so I tried to hang on to it as long as possible, including buying a hard drive, OS 3.1 and an 030 accelerator for it. My wife eventually made me give it up in about 2003, and I switched first to my father-in-law's old Win95 PC, and then a brand new Windows XP machine, which I really enjoyed (seriously: the first time I booted up XP I was amazed at it).

4. What do you use now?
My two main computers are a Windows 10 PC, which has been upgraded bit-by-bit over the years, and a 2020 MacBook Air M1. Amiga-wise, I have an A1200 with a Blizzard IV 030 16mb expansion, CF card etc., and an unexpanded A500, which doesn't get as much use as I'd like.

5. Are there OSes you don't use? Why?
Not intentionally - I did use ArchLinux as a daily driver for a while, but found it a real struggle to keep it up to date; I'd like to get back into Linux, though. I occasionally play with old/obscure ones, but only occasionally.

6. How do you use an Amiga now?
For games, bits of music-making with OctaMED SoundStudio and mucking about DPaint/PPaint. Keep telling myself I'm going to learn to code on it - maybe one day I will! I tend to use my real Amigas, especially the A1200s, but use WinUAE quite a lot, especially for transferring downloads, setting things up etc.

[Paul_s]

1. What systems/OS's did you start with ?

ZX Spectrum 16K
ZX Spectrum 48K
ZX Spectrum 128K +3
Sega Master System
Amiga 500
Amiga 1200

2. What brought you to your Amiga ?
Strangely it was the Atari ST (520 FM). One of my friends had one at the time in the early 1990s and had a dual boot Turrican 2 demo from a magazine. I was kind of awe struck by that.
Remember having many a conversation with my friend and he mentioned his uncle had an Amiga 500... so I ended up getting the A500 in 1991 at Christmas.

3. What did you use after Commodore went bust, and the Amiga became harder
to use as a daily driver ?

I used my A1200 all the way up to 1999 (still thinking it was the bees knees ).
As I started working around that time I was using PCs more and more so ended up buying one as I was more into online stuff and a stock A1200 was kind of a pain to use for that aspect.

I did purchase more Amiga gear later on such as the 500 (had about four or five), CD32 (i had five of them at one point), CDTV, 600, 2000 (two of these, I really liked the 2000), 4000.... but my interest waned somewhat and I sold them due to lack of use/space. I like to remember the good times but don't really get the enjoyment I did when I was younger (perhaps it's due to age/more frustration with certain games )

I guess I was trying to recapture that nostalgic time again but when you're 'out of time' in a way of being in a completely different decade then the magic kind of disappears. Plus, it wasn't 'my' original Amiga gear I was using... it was someone else's from the same time and it felt kind of foreign to me.

4. What do you use now ?

PC's (although I don't personally own any computer - supplied via work).

5. Are there any OS's that you dont use ? Why ?

I dabble in majority of the well known ones but I miss the simplicity of AmigaOS the most.