Home Computer CV

quahappy · 06 April 2006, 17:23

We all started somewhere with computers... either to progam or play games, and much more....

So what was the first home computer you ever had? Did you have others too, before owning the beloved Amiga? What's the most nostalgic or worst thing you remember about them?

ZX81 >>>

My cousin had this setup in his bedroom and the first thing I remember is the infamous "loading noise"... then 3D Monster Maze flashed up on the screen and that was it, I wanted one!

The 16k ram I bought had to be fastened with elastic bands to stop it wobbling or it would crash!
Many a time I got frustrated entering programs from magazines only to find half of them didn't work.... hmmm... my first taste of "debug"!

And anyone here who can't say they didn't go into WHSmith and typing in:
10 print "Trigger woz here...."
20 Goto 10 ???!

Spectrum 48k and then the Speccy 128k >>>

DK Tronics Keyboard... My first attempt at taking a computer apart (and last!) just to connect the cable to the inside...
Lost count how many games I bought, but Trashman and Match of the Day still remains firm favourites.

Amiga 500>>>
Blown away by Defender of the Crown graphics and music......

CD32>>>
My dad bought it one christmas for me and i thought.... there's no way i'm forking out for the SX1 expansion kit (keyboard, etc) so I traded it in for...

Amiga 1200 (still own) >>>>
This is my fourth Amiga 1200... the 1st one blew up (well... overheated).. on the 2nd, disk drive went up the wall, 3rd - ports on back were faulty... nearly gave up on Amigas' completely!! Glad I didn't tho...... Opened up a new world for me as I delved deep into game-playing for hours, programming for months, and generally drawing pictures in DPant, and crap music modules in OctaMed!!

Well, theres my home computer CV, now I'd like to hear from all you guys...

09 April 2006, 05:11

Hmm... dunno the years but :

C64 :
This was the first computer I ever owned. First game i played on it was the football game cartridge thingy that came with it. It ruled!

Atari ST :
Bought for me as a Xmas prezzie, great machine. Well, it was until a mate of mine got one of them 'Amiga' things and showed me some demos...

Amiga A500 :
Ahh... the bee's-knee's!
Went to the show they used to hold at Earl's Court, took all my pennies with me (all the way from Glasgow) and got a good deal on an Amiga A500 pack. Travelled hours back home on the bus in the freezing cold (it was overnight

), got home at 2am had to get up for college at 9am but sod it, i had to try it.

Effin' thing didn't work!

Spent a most depressing day at college (half asleep). Got home well peeved off and phoned up the company. They didnt even argue with me and send a replacement up by courier the next day, straight swap. Sold it after many years of use for an AGA Amiga. Eventually selling that to buy a super fast 386 PC (biggest mistake i ever made!)

Few years ago I bought an Amiga A500 with extra RAM on eBay. Came with a nice big pile of disks too. Ahhh... bliss...

(Also have a SNES and Dreamcast too for that extra added nostalgia)

quahappy · 09 April 2006, 20:24

Makes ya wonder how much programmers could have squeezed out of the Amiga series (AGA) if it was still going now.... Grand Theft Auto?!

(As you mentioned home consoles.... I had just PSone then PS2 (still own). Every other bugger had SNES and Sega Megadrive and I sooo badly wanted to play Mario and Sonic back in them days. How I longed for Nintendo/Sega to licence versions for the Amiga!!

)

Mick_AKA · 09 April 2006, 22:06

Cant remember years for most but...

Atari 2600:
I have a pic of this fake wooden clad beauty somewhere on top of my old Sony TV which also had a gorgeous 70's style fake wood surround, ah those were the days.

Acorn Electron:
First proper computer I had, started me off on BASIC programming but just 6 months later I aquired...

BBC Micro B (Still own this machine):
This was the daddy, first computer I ever took apart, installed DFS roms and AMX Mouse controller rom chips all by my lonesome, dual 5.25 floppies and a big ass CUB monitor.

Commodore 64:
This was one of the old style Commodore 64s, it never replaced my BBC for basic programming so was essentially used as a games machine until after much begging one xmas I got...

Nintendo Entertainment System (still own):
No prizes for guessing what this was used for.

Commodore Amiga 500 (still own, not working):
I remember how jelous all my mates were when I got this, at school I was elevated to some sort of weird god status by all the lads there coz I had an Amiga

NeXT Station:
Ok this wasnt mine it was my step dads but I probarbly used it more than him anyway

Commodore Amiga 1200 (still own... well bits of it):
If my A500 elevated me to god status you can imagine what this baby did for my rep

I think I was also the first person in the town where I live to have anything on CD-ROM lol

Well i've only listed systems I had up to the 1200 from new and left out handhelds and PCs or else this list would be a ridiculous leangth

scarface · 17 April 2006, 01:46

guess my very first true home computer was the Oric-1

Macca · 17 April 2006, 09:25

God...

Well I originally started with a really old bat and ball machine and for the life of me I can't remember it's name (it'll come back to me later).

I then went on to a Spectrum 48k+ until it got stolen.

After that I went to a Commodore 64 at the time I only had a black and white TV but it rocked and when I got it in colour - wow!

Also had a Toshiba MSX / Amstrad but these weren't great - the MSX actually had one great game - Feud.

After that my mum got me a Amiga 600 as a present absolutely awed by it at the time. Unfortunately it broke.

Then I had my first console outtings - SNES / Megadrive which were okay but I longed to go back to a proper computer.

First PC came about here - DX4-100 with 16MB Ram and a huge 100MB HD with 1MB S3 Virge graphics card.

Amiga 1200 after that. And I still have one.

Atrari 520 STe after that (just for nostalgic) and still have this boxed behind me.

I think that's almost complete. Next project would be to get a proper arcade machine I think.

DamienD · 17 April 2006, 15:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macca

Next project would be to get a proper arcade machine I think.

That would be my dream also, one day maybe

Rick Dangerous · 17 April 2006, 16:46

my non-PC computerlist:

1. TI-99/4a (1982-today)
2. Commodore Plus4 (1985-1986)
3. Amiga 500 (1986-today)
4. Amiga 600HD, Amiga 2000, C64 (ca. 1999 - today)

Macca · 17 April 2006, 19:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by DamienD

That would be my dream also, one day maybe

Well theres one of two routes for me.

I was thinking about a proper cabinet connected to MAME or actually going down the route of a proper arcade machine the only down side is maintanence and game changing.

Hmm decisions, decisions...

DopPie · 17 April 2006, 20:20

C16 -> Learned basic on this. Hated the machine because all my friends had an C64 thus...
C64 -> The former was bought by my parants. This one was bought by myself working the enitre summer holiday picking tomatoes. Learned assembler on this machine.
C128D -> Unfortunately the C64 went bust but all 8 bitters were cheaply available 2nd hand so I got me this for a crate of beer (yes I did!)
A500 -> Got fed up with the 8 bit thing and looked further. (By this time a PC was sighted in the house)
A600 -> This was a gift from a teacher at collega. It was taken apart but after assembling the thing actually worked.
A1200 -> This setup was bought piece by piece in the last five years. It is the only setup still running.

The C128D, A600 and 1200 are still with me. The others are unfortunatly gone the way of the dodo.

DamienD · 18 April 2006, 14:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macca

Well theres one of two routes for me.

I was thinking about a proper cabinet connected to MAME or actually going down the route of a proper arcade machine the only down side is maintanence and game changing.

Hmm decisions, decisions...

Same 2 decisions that I face. I think a proper cabinet connected to MAME will probably win because of the cost / rarity / changing of real arcade boards

Mind you I've had my HotRodSE for the past 5 years now and this is pretty cool even though everything runs through the PC... http://www.hanaho.com/products/HotRo.../overview.html

Jope · 20 April 2006, 11:33

1985: C-64C (not II, though, mine had the 6581), learned Basic, played lots of games..
1989: Amiga 500 rev5 1.3 + A520.. The Batman Pack.. Played in the beginning, then I started to explore the machine.. Later expanded with 512kB slow, second drive, AR3, KS2.04 (no-one else in my neighbourhood had such a crap machine with 2.04 :-D). By 1991 I got a modem and was swept away by the online world.
1996: PC.. P120/16MB/1GB. Such a downgrade after being spoiled by the Amiga for so long.. I hated DOS and I still do. :-)
1998: A4000. I wanted one of these ever since they came out and finally I realised that dream when the machines were affordable. I retrieved it from the customs on the same day I completed my driving test and got my temporary license. I actually borrowed my driving instructor's car to retrieve the machine. :-D

Those were the most important machines in my computer evolution. After the PC I started accumulating lots of C-64s, Amigas, PCs, etc.. Interesting times, lots of tinkering around. I still have many of the CBM 8-bitters left, and at the height of my collection I even managed to squeeze most of them into the same picture:

(this is missing several C-128s and one SX-64 and three PETs that I also had at the time)
http://www.cbmgallery.com/pictures/00013.shtml

Later I started splitting the collection and now I don't have nearly as many.. Thank goodness.

I guess I ought to do a HW inventory at some point.. I don't know for sure what I still have. :-)

Total Eclipse · 20 April 2006, 14:20

Hmmm, this brings back some memories.

1) Texas Instruments TI 99/4A - No games with it, though eventially some bloke on a computer bookstall in an indoor market in my local town gave me a free book of type in games for it. I finally got a cartridge game for it (Chess, I think). Still got it in the loft at my parents house.

2) Atari 65XE - A friend of mine used to have a 800XL, so I bought loads of games from him, along with an 810 floppy drive (about the size of a shoe box

). Sitting in the left next to the TI

. Played with that for years until...

3) Atari ST - 1989 - Computer Shopper show at Alexandra Palace (I think), and unknown to me, my dad decides to order me an ST from Evesham Micro's stall (single sided floppy drive, but hey, it's better than the 65XE). When it becomes apparent that it won't be delivered in time for Christmas, he donates his 1040 ST to me (and buys himself a Mega ST in the meantime). Eventually I added a 40GB HDD, mono monitor and second floppy drive, all of which I still have (though again, in the loft at my parents house)

4) Amiga A500 - 1994 - Bought from a bloke at college as the ST software scene had all but disappeared. I modded the motherboard to convert the slow/fast RAM to chip (cocked it up first time, and ended up with a machine that reported that I had 256k of fast and 256k of chip

), and added an A590 drive with 2MB fast RAM. I put in a 70-ish MB SCSI drive that whistled like mad when it warmed up!!! Sold it all to pay for...

5) Amiga A1200 - 1996 - bought from the same bloke at college. I added an internal 420MB 3.5" hard drive and a couple of floppy drives, and eventually sold the lot a few years later, along with about 500 discs of software, to pay for the first of many PC's

6) Amiga A500+ and A1200 - 2001-ish - Donated to me by a friend who no longer wanted them. I've never even booted the A500+ up - it's been in my loft. The A1200 was a DOA (red screen on power up, I think), but the case is nice and clean, which is useful, because I then bought a working A1200 from ebay - works fine, but the case is nicotine yellow. When I have the time (and inclination), I'll transplant the boards over.

7) Amiga 1200 - 2002 - I started doing a bit of 68000 programming, using Devpac via WinUAE, and thought that while it's nice to see your stuff working in an emulator, it's be great to set it up on a real Amiga. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and he gave me an A1200 with a MBX1230 card (50MHz 68030) and a Golden Image floppy drive (the one with the cool LED track counter). I've since added a 2GB 2.5" hard drive and 16MB of fast RAM. I also got a Philips monitor with this.

Macca · 25 April 2006, 23:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by DamienD

Same 2 decisions that I face. I think a proper cabinet connected to MAME will probably win because of the cost / rarity / changing of real arcade boards

Mind you I've had my HotRodSE for the past 5 years now and this is pretty cool even though everything runs through the PC... http://www.hanaho.com/products/HotRo.../overview.html

Yeah theres also the arcade X or something like that.

Same sort of style. I do, however, on my cab want coin chutes - makes me save money then - lol

DamienD · 25 April 2006, 23:22

The X-Arcade is also quite cool: http://www.xgaming.com/two-player.shtml

It has the following advantages over the HotRodSE:

... Able to get adapters to plug into most console.
... The buttons are re-programmable.

The one bad thing I heard is that it's not as responsive as the "original" HotRodSE. This was a long time ago and they may have improved this since then

wanderer · 26 April 2006, 01:18

C16 My first, never actually worked.
C64 Classic, innumerous World Cup sessions with my 5-8 years old mates.
C128D A beauty. Used almost exclusively in C64 mode.

Amiga 500 Oh dear... A Kickstart 1.2 wonder, one of the first that made it here.
Amiga 1200 The slick one. First HD contact.
CD32 Too little, too late, but I had to get one.

... And am I the only one here who's been faithful to Commodore throughout the years?

scarface · 26 April 2006, 03:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderer

... And am I the only one here who's been faithful to Commodore throughout the years?

My first windows-pc (late 90's) was a commodore.. that kinda made the transition to the sheep world kinda easier..

Still got all my amiga's.. but never really got around buying a new monitor to actually use them again.

StarEye · 26 April 2006, 11:46

My first home computer (including consoles) was the C64 with a diskdrive. Had fun with it for about a year and got my first amiga (A500) as a confirmation gift. Including the 1084S monitor that I had to pay for myself with the money I got as confirmation gifts. Had money left to buy a couple of disks so that I could copy games off my friend who's already had an amiga for a while. Also got the 512k expansion ram so that I could run all the games I wanted.

In 1993 or 94 I was completely hooked up on getting an Amiga 1200, and begged my old man to help me out with it. He always turned me down, but one day I got home from school and it was standing on my desk in all its glory. That was a good day.

So, I eventually left the nest and got an apartment for myself. SWOS and Shadow Fighter were taking up most of the time with my friends, and eventually I got a Blizzard 1230-IV with 8mb ram. At that time we played the hell out of Xtreme Racing. Three players racing through an entire season each passing day.

Okay, years passed, modifications were done regularly to my Amiga 1200. During the years I decided many times to sell my Amiga. The PC was taking over and while I was still a huge fan of the amiga and the PC games generally didn't interest me, I still wanted a PC. But it got postponed, postponed and postponed. I brought my Amiga with me when I went to school in another part of my country. I was exposed to a lot of PCs at that time. Played through Curse of Monkey Island on the school's PC and had a few nights of pure Warcraft II/Duke Nukem 3D network sessions.

Eventually, Escape from Monkey Island was announced, and being the avid Monkey Island fan that I am, I just couldn't stay away from the PC anymore. Ironically, it was the worst game in the series, and I guess that was my punishment for slowly abandoning my Amiga.

Gradually, I realized how my passion for the Amiga would never die, and I decided to have both an Amiga and the PC. Today I'm a proud owner of a very modified (or souped up if you will) A1200 and a decent PC. I've decided there's no way I'll ever give up on the Amiga. Though today, I think I'd have trouble with losing the PC too, because there are a number of games I want to play over and over again, that I can't play on the Amiga or a MAC - even if I want one really really bad - if only for my curiousity.

...

Sorry for making you read this, but here's the short version:

1989/90: C64
1991: Amiga 500
1993/94 -> ??: Amiga 1200
1999 -> ??: PC

jasonver2.0 · 27 April 2006, 02:13

TI-994a Computer >> Had about 7 games for it on cartridge
Yamaha MSX Computer >> Played cassette games on that one
Amiga 500 >> Used that for a while

Amstrad PC640 >> PC's were a strange new world to me once! Even an old crappy one
Modern PC >> PC Games and WinUAE since the command-line versions

quahappy · 29 April 2006, 11:28

Amazing, the journey the computers all you guys used to have before the trusty Amiga... and like so many of you, still holding onto it now!

My cousin had the C64 and played nothing but football games on it. If I remember right, the "feel" of that keyboard persuaded me to buy the DK'Tronics keyboard for the Spectrum I had!

I learnt alot from the Amiga, especially using AmigaDOS, which helped a great deal when I started my first job as a Database Administrator back in 1985. Boy, were they a mess and the not-so-fond memories of backing up the master IBM PC every Friday onto those 5 and a half inch floppies are, thankfully, well gone!!

Thanks to all those who have taken the time to give there Computer CV's.
Keep 'em coming!!

06 April 2006, 17:23	#1
quahappy Born again WinUAE user Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: South Yorkshire, UK Age: 56 Posts: 1,667	Home Computer CV We all started somewhere with computers... either to progam or play games, and much more.... So what was the first home computer you ever had? Did you have others too, before owning the beloved Amiga? What's the most nostalgic or worst thing you remember about them? ZX81 >>> My cousin had this setup in his bedroom and the first thing I remember is the infamous "loading noise"... then 3D Monster Maze flashed up on the screen and that was it, I wanted one! The 16k ram I bought had to be fastened with elastic bands to stop it wobbling or it would crash! Many a time I got frustrated entering programs from magazines only to find half of them didn't work.... hmmm... my first taste of "debug"! And anyone here who can't say they didn't go into WHSmith and typing in: 10 print "Trigger woz here...." 20 Goto 10 ???! Spectrum 48k and then the Speccy 128k >>> DK Tronics Keyboard... My first attempt at taking a computer apart (and last!) just to connect the cable to the inside... Lost count how many games I bought, but Trashman and Match of the Day still remains firm favourites. Amiga 500>>> Blown away by Defender of the Crown graphics and music...... CD32>>> My dad bought it one christmas for me and i thought.... there's no way i'm forking out for the SX1 expansion kit (keyboard, etc) so I traded it in for... Amiga 1200 (still own) >>>> This is my fourth Amiga 1200... the 1st one blew up (well... overheated).. on the 2nd, disk drive went up the wall, 3rd - ports on back were faulty... nearly gave up on Amigas' completely!! Glad I didn't tho...... Opened up a new world for me as I delved deep into game-playing for hours, programming for months, and generally drawing pictures in DPant, and crap music modules in OctaMed!! Well, theres my home computer CV, now I'd like to hear from all you guys... Last edited by quahappy; 06 April 2006 at 22:17.

20 April 2006, 11:33	#12
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,900	1985: C-64C (not II, though, mine had the 6581), learned Basic, played lots of games.. 1989: Amiga 500 rev5 1.3 + A520.. The Batman Pack.. Played in the beginning, then I started to explore the machine.. Later expanded with 512kB slow, second drive, AR3, KS2.04 (no-one else in my neighbourhood had such a crap machine with 2.04 :-D). By 1991 I got a modem and was swept away by the online world. 1996: PC.. P120/16MB/1GB. Such a downgrade after being spoiled by the Amiga for so long.. I hated DOS and I still do. :-) 1998: A4000. I wanted one of these ever since they came out and finally I realised that dream when the machines were affordable. I retrieved it from the customs on the same day I completed my driving test and got my temporary license. I actually borrowed my driving instructor's car to retrieve the machine. :-D Those were the most important machines in my computer evolution. After the PC I started accumulating lots of C-64s, Amigas, PCs, etc.. Interesting times, lots of tinkering around. I still have many of the CBM 8-bitters left, and at the height of my collection I even managed to squeeze most of them into the same picture: (this is missing several C-128s and one SX-64 and three PETs that I also had at the time) http://www.cbmgallery.com/pictures/00013.shtml Later I started splitting the collection and now I don't have nearly as many.. Thank goodness. I guess I ought to do a HW inventory at some point.. I don't know for sure what I still have. :-) Last edited by Jope; 20 April 2006 at 11:38.

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09 April 2006, 05:11	#2
ronniet Posts: n/a	Hmm... dunno the years but : C64 : This was the first computer I ever owned. First game i played on it was the football game cartridge thingy that came with it. It ruled! Atari ST : Bought for me as a Xmas prezzie, great machine. Well, it was until a mate of mine got one of them 'Amiga' things and showed me some demos... Amiga A500 : Ahh... the bee's-knee's! Went to the show they used to hold at Earl's Court, took all my pennies with me (all the way from Glasgow) and got a good deal on an Amiga A500 pack. Travelled hours back home on the bus in the freezing cold (it was overnight ), got home at 2am had to get up for college at 9am but sod it, i had to try it. Effin' thing didn't work! Spent a most depressing day at college (half asleep). Got home well peeved off and phoned up the company. They didnt even argue with me and send a replacement up by courier the next day, straight swap. Sold it after many years of use for an AGA Amiga. Eventually selling that to buy a super fast 386 PC (biggest mistake i ever made!) Few years ago I bought an Amiga A500 with extra RAM on eBay. Came with a nice big pile of disks too. Ahhh... bliss... (Also have a SNES and Dreamcast too for that extra added nostalgia)

09 April 2006, 20:24	#3
quahappy Born again WinUAE user Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: South Yorkshire, UK Age: 56 Posts: 1,667	Makes ya wonder how much programmers could have squeezed out of the Amiga series (AGA) if it was still going now.... Grand Theft Auto?! (As you mentioned home consoles.... I had just PSone then PS2 (still own). Every other bugger had SNES and Sega Megadrive and I sooo badly wanted to play Mario and Sonic back in them days. How I longed for Nintendo/Sega to licence versions for the Amiga!! )

09 April 2006, 22:06	#4
Mick_AKA crusader of light Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Stone, Staffordshire. Posts: 1,151	Cant remember years for most but... Atari 2600: I have a pic of this fake wooden clad beauty somewhere on top of my old Sony TV which also had a gorgeous 70's style fake wood surround, ah those were the days. Acorn Electron: First proper computer I had, started me off on BASIC programming but just 6 months later I aquired... BBC Micro B (Still own this machine): This was the daddy, first computer I ever took apart, installed DFS roms and AMX Mouse controller rom chips all by my lonesome, dual 5.25 floppies and a big ass CUB monitor. Commodore 64: This was one of the old style Commodore 64s, it never replaced my BBC for basic programming so was essentially used as a games machine until after much begging one xmas I got... Nintendo Entertainment System (still own): No prizes for guessing what this was used for. Commodore Amiga 500 (still own, not working): I remember how jelous all my mates were when I got this, at school I was elevated to some sort of weird god status by all the lads there coz I had an Amiga NeXT Station: Ok this wasnt mine it was my step dads but I probarbly used it more than him anyway Commodore Amiga 1200 (still own... well bits of it): If my A500 elevated me to god status you can imagine what this baby did for my rep I think I was also the first person in the town where I live to have anything on CD-ROM lol Well i've only listed systems I had up to the 1200 from new and left out handhelds and PCs or else this list would be a ridiculous leangth

17 April 2006, 01:46	#5
scarface Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: crenshaw Posts: 18	guess my very first true home computer was the Oric-1

17 April 2006, 09:25	#6
Macca Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Gloucester Posts: 697	God... Well I originally started with a really old bat and ball machine and for the life of me I can't remember it's name (it'll come back to me later). I then went on to a Spectrum 48k+ until it got stolen. After that I went to a Commodore 64 at the time I only had a black and white TV but it rocked and when I got it in colour - wow! Also had a Toshiba MSX / Amstrad but these weren't great - the MSX actually had one great game - Feud. After that my mum got me a Amiga 600 as a present absolutely awed by it at the time. Unfortunately it broke. Then I had my first console outtings - SNES / Megadrive which were okay but I longed to go back to a proper computer. First PC came about here - DX4-100 with 16MB Ram and a huge 100MB HD with 1MB S3 Virge graphics card. Amiga 1200 after that. And I still have one. Atrari 520 STe after that (just for nostalgic) and still have this boxed behind me. I think that's almost complete. Next project would be to get a proper arcade machine I think.

17 April 2006, 16:46	#8
Rick Dangerous Registered Playmate Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: OZ Age: 54 Posts: 156	my non-PC computerlist: 1. TI-99/4a (1982-today) 2. Commodore Plus4 (1985-1986) 3. Amiga 500 (1986-today) 4. Amiga 600HD, Amiga 2000, C64 (ca. 1999 - today)

17 April 2006, 20:20	#10
DopPie Zone Friend Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Den Hoorn, NL Age: 45 Posts: 259	C16 -> Learned basic on this. Hated the machine because all my friends had an C64 thus... C64 -> The former was bought by my parants. This one was bought by myself working the enitre summer holiday picking tomatoes. Learned assembler on this machine. C128D -> Unfortunately the C64 went bust but all 8 bitters were cheaply available 2nd hand so I got me this for a crate of beer (yes I did!) A500 -> Got fed up with the 8 bit thing and looked further. (By this time a PC was sighted in the house) A600 -> This was a gift from a teacher at collega. It was taken apart but after assembling the thing actually worked. A1200 -> This setup was bought piece by piece in the last five years. It is the only setup still running. The C128D, A600 and 1200 are still with me. The others are unfortunatly gone the way of the dodo.

20 April 2006, 14:20	#13
Total Eclipse Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Atherstone / UK Age: 49 Posts: 172	Hmmm, this brings back some memories. 1) Texas Instruments TI 99/4A - No games with it, though eventially some bloke on a computer bookstall in an indoor market in my local town gave me a free book of type in games for it. I finally got a cartridge game for it (Chess, I think). Still got it in the loft at my parents house. 2) Atari 65XE - A friend of mine used to have a 800XL, so I bought loads of games from him, along with an 810 floppy drive (about the size of a shoe box ). Sitting in the left next to the TI . Played with that for years until... 3) Atari ST - 1989 - Computer Shopper show at Alexandra Palace (I think), and unknown to me, my dad decides to order me an ST from Evesham Micro's stall (single sided floppy drive, but hey, it's better than the 65XE). When it becomes apparent that it won't be delivered in time for Christmas, he donates his 1040 ST to me (and buys himself a Mega ST in the meantime). Eventually I added a 40GB HDD, mono monitor and second floppy drive, all of which I still have (though again, in the loft at my parents house) 4) Amiga A500 - 1994 - Bought from a bloke at college as the ST software scene had all but disappeared. I modded the motherboard to convert the slow/fast RAM to chip (cocked it up first time, and ended up with a machine that reported that I had 256k of fast and 256k of chip ), and added an A590 drive with 2MB fast RAM. I put in a 70-ish MB SCSI drive that whistled like mad when it warmed up!!! Sold it all to pay for... 5) Amiga A1200 - 1996 - bought from the same bloke at college. I added an internal 420MB 3.5" hard drive and a couple of floppy drives, and eventually sold the lot a few years later, along with about 500 discs of software, to pay for the first of many PC's 6) Amiga A500+ and A1200 - 2001-ish - Donated to me by a friend who no longer wanted them. I've never even booted the A500+ up - it's been in my loft. The A1200 was a DOA (red screen on power up, I think), but the case is nice and clean, which is useful, because I then bought a working A1200 from ebay - works fine, but the case is nicotine yellow. When I have the time (and inclination), I'll transplant the boards over. 7) Amiga 1200 - 2002 - I started doing a bit of 68000 programming, using Devpac via WinUAE, and thought that while it's nice to see your stuff working in an emulator, it's be great to set it up on a real Amiga. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and he gave me an A1200 with a MBX1230 card (50MHz 68030) and a Golden Image floppy drive (the one with the cool LED track counter). I've since added a 2GB 2.5" hard drive and 16MB of fast RAM. I also got a Philips monitor with this.

25 April 2006, 23:22	#15
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	The X-Arcade is also quite cool: http://www.xgaming.com/two-player.shtml It has the following advantages over the HotRodSE: ... Able to get adapters to plug into most console. ... The buttons are re-programmable. The one bad thing I heard is that it's not as responsive as the "original" HotRodSE. This was a long time ago and they may have improved this since then

26 April 2006, 01:18	#16
wanderer I want an A1000 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Athens Posts: 743	C16 My first, never actually worked. C64 Classic, innumerous World Cup sessions with my 5-8 years old mates. C128D A beauty. Used almost exclusively in C64 mode. Amiga 500 Oh dear... A Kickstart 1.2 wonder, one of the first that made it here. Amiga 1200 The slick one. First HD contact. CD32 Too little, too late, but I had to get one. ... And am I the only one here who's been faithful to Commodore throughout the years?

26 April 2006, 11:46	#18
StarEye Zone Friend Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Norway Age: 46 Posts: 987	My first home computer (including consoles) was the C64 with a diskdrive. Had fun with it for about a year and got my first amiga (A500) as a confirmation gift. Including the 1084S monitor that I had to pay for myself with the money I got as confirmation gifts. Had money left to buy a couple of disks so that I could copy games off my friend who's already had an amiga for a while. Also got the 512k expansion ram so that I could run all the games I wanted. In 1993 or 94 I was completely hooked up on getting an Amiga 1200, and begged my old man to help me out with it. He always turned me down, but one day I got home from school and it was standing on my desk in all its glory. That was a good day. So, I eventually left the nest and got an apartment for myself. SWOS and Shadow Fighter were taking up most of the time with my friends, and eventually I got a Blizzard 1230-IV with 8mb ram. At that time we played the hell out of Xtreme Racing. Three players racing through an entire season each passing day. Okay, years passed, modifications were done regularly to my Amiga 1200. During the years I decided many times to sell my Amiga. The PC was taking over and while I was still a huge fan of the amiga and the PC games generally didn't interest me, I still wanted a PC. But it got postponed, postponed and postponed. I brought my Amiga with me when I went to school in another part of my country. I was exposed to a lot of PCs at that time. Played through Curse of Monkey Island on the school's PC and had a few nights of pure Warcraft II/Duke Nukem 3D network sessions. Eventually, Escape from Monkey Island was announced, and being the avid Monkey Island fan that I am, I just couldn't stay away from the PC anymore. Ironically, it was the worst game in the series, and I guess that was my punishment for slowly abandoning my Amiga. Gradually, I realized how my passion for the Amiga would never die, and I decided to have both an Amiga and the PC. Today I'm a proud owner of a very modified (or souped up if you will) A1200 and a decent PC. I've decided there's no way I'll ever give up on the Amiga. Though today, I think I'd have trouble with losing the PC too, because there are a number of games I want to play over and over again, that I can't play on the Amiga or a MAC - even if I want one really really bad - if only for my curiousity. ... Sorry for making you read this, but here's the short version: 1989/90: C64 1991: Amiga 500 1993/94 -> ??: Amiga 1200 1999 -> ??: PC

27 April 2006, 02:13	#19
jasonver2.0 ABR Creator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Australia Age: 44 Posts: 179	TI-994a Computer >> Had about 7 games for it on cartridge Yamaha MSX Computer >> Played cassette games on that one Amiga 500 >> Used that for a while Amstrad PC640 >> PC's were a strange new world to me once! Even an old crappy one Modern PC >> PC Games and WinUAE since the command-line versions

29 April 2006, 11:28	#20
quahappy Born again WinUAE user Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: South Yorkshire, UK Age: 56 Posts: 1,667	Amazing, the journey the computers all you guys used to have before the trusty Amiga... and like so many of you, still holding onto it now! My cousin had the C64 and played nothing but football games on it. If I remember right, the "feel" of that keyboard persuaded me to buy the DK'Tronics keyboard for the Spectrum I had! I learnt alot from the Amiga, especially using AmigaDOS, which helped a great deal when I started my first job as a Database Administrator back in 1985. Boy, were they a mess and the not-so-fond memories of backing up the master IBM PC every Friday onto those 5 and a half inch floppies are, thankfully, well gone!! Thanks to all those who have taken the time to give there Computer CV's. Keep 'em coming!!

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