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Capital "A"s and Rainbow Ticks (check-marks)
On Christmas Day 1990 my passion for computers was born. I was a wee seven year old, and under the tree was a rather large box, wrapped up in festive paper, with my name written on it.
I at once knew what it was. I don't recall whether my father announced that we were getting a computer, specifically an Amiga, or whether I had begged him for one, but I had foresight that under the tree, wrapped up in Christmas cheer and proof that my working-class parents had elevated themselves to the middle-class, was a brand new computer.
It was an Amiga 500 Screen Gems Pack, which also came with the Astra Pack, and I loved that beast. I loved it so much that I'd spend hours in my room playing the games that came with it, so much so that my mother would berate me for spending so much time inside.
My father enjoyed it too, often playing the more challenging simulator games such as F-19 Stealth Fighter, Megafortress: Flight of the Old Dog and Microprose Formula One Grand Prix. He had a subscription to Amiga Format, but sometimes bought CU Amiga. I'm sad to say that I didn't read the articles, but I was always excited to see what new game demos were on the cover disks.
Ten years later and I was still using my good old Amiga 500 along with a PC. When Iran away fromleft home at the age of 17 I took my Amiga with me to Sheffield, but when I moved back in with my parents, my Amiga stayed in Sheffield. I do miss it.
LAN Party 2001 - A500 on the floor
When I moved away from my parents I got myself an A1200, a machine I'd wanted ever since they were released, from eBay. I loved that machine too, but it oddly stopped loading from floppies and, in a moment of stupidity and anger at having too much stuff, threw it in a skip. I regret doing that a lot.
So, for the last few years I've been without an Amiga. That was until a couple of months ago when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
darac and dsw gave me two A1200s! Both of them had problems, but with the aid of another A1200 from eBay I was able to construct a fully working machine.
I love this A1200, do not intend to ever let it go. I've already put a hard drive inside of it and have also added this:
Yes, that's right, USB and PS/2 mouse ports along with the standard DE-9 joystick ports. I hope to see more interesting hardware upgrades like this. :D
In finishing it's quite obvious (to me, at least) that the Amiga had a huge impact on my life. I feel lucky to have experienced such an incredible line of machines.
I at once knew what it was. I don't recall whether my father announced that we were getting a computer, specifically an Amiga, or whether I had begged him for one, but I had foresight that under the tree, wrapped up in Christmas cheer and proof that my working-class parents had elevated themselves to the middle-class, was a brand new computer.
It was an Amiga 500 Screen Gems Pack, which also came with the Astra Pack, and I loved that beast. I loved it so much that I'd spend hours in my room playing the games that came with it, so much so that my mother would berate me for spending so much time inside.
My father enjoyed it too, often playing the more challenging simulator games such as F-19 Stealth Fighter, Megafortress: Flight of the Old Dog and Microprose Formula One Grand Prix. He had a subscription to Amiga Format, but sometimes bought CU Amiga. I'm sad to say that I didn't read the articles, but I was always excited to see what new game demos were on the cover disks.
Ten years later and I was still using my good old Amiga 500 along with a PC. When I
LAN Party 2001 - A500 on the floor
When I moved away from my parents I got myself an A1200, a machine I'd wanted ever since they were released, from eBay. I loved that machine too, but it oddly stopped loading from floppies and, in a moment of stupidity and anger at having too much stuff, threw it in a skip. I regret doing that a lot.
So, for the last few years I've been without an Amiga. That was until a couple of months ago when
darac and dsw gave me two A1200s! Both of them had problems, but with the aid of another A1200 from eBay I was able to construct a fully working machine. I love this A1200, do not intend to ever let it go. I've already put a hard drive inside of it and have also added this:
Yes, that's right, USB and PS/2 mouse ports along with the standard DE-9 joystick ports. I hope to see more interesting hardware upgrades like this. :D
In finishing it's quite obvious (to me, at least) that the Amiga had a huge impact on my life. I feel lucky to have experienced such an incredible line of machines.
no subject
Around 1990 or so I actually sold a new Amiga to a school friend. I (well, my dad) had somehow ended up with a trader account with Silica Shop, the friend wanted an Amiga, so I ordered one and (with parents' driving help) dropped it off at his house one day. He'd previously paid in instalments, which got us a lot of "wheeler-dealer" type comments as we counted £100+ in cash in the 6th-form common room. :)
I have never actually used an Amiga; my only experience, until university, was of 8- and 16-bit Ataris, and of BBC and Archimedes machines at school. A friend-of-a-friend had a Spectrum and I think I visited once and we all played games on it for an afternoon, but I never really got to use Spectrums (Spectra?) as such.
I was basically a strict Atari-only-ite until about 1996 when I bought my first PC during the first year of my PhD course. I played with Windows for a few days, then wiped it and put Slackware on it... which eventually morphed into Debian, which I still use today. For someone who's as much of a computerholic as I am, I've used a surprisingly limited range of models and OSes.