Does anyone remember Amiga?

wdhpr · 18. Dec 2009, 03:54 AM

My first computer was a Amiga 1200. This back in 1988. I installed a 80 mg hard drive, I also upgraded to 2 meg of ram plus a Fpu.

To install new software, often you would have to edit your lib file to make the OS find the correct files.

Great stuff. Had a great time with it, played a ton of games. Amiga finally went bankrupt and it almost fell into oblivion until Amiga forever started selling Amiga ROM's coupled with WinUAE. Total scam in my opinion but it was a trip down memory lane.

Cheers
Wdhpr

miskairal · 18. Dec 2009, 07:34 AM

My first pc was a 2nd hand Amiga500 in about 1989 I think. Cost a bomb. I upgraded it to 1MB of RAM. It had no hard drive and everything ran off floppies. I had heaps of games but could keep the kids and visitors entertained for ages getting it to "talk". The one thing I've tried repeatedly to get again was Battle Chess but with no luck

It died in about 1995/6 I think and I didn't get another computer until 2000. Again a 2nd hand one running win 3.1. It could barely do what my Amiga had. It was a sad day I took the Amiga to the dump however I was able to give a lot of the disks to some charity thing that were particularly after Amigas

MidnightCowboy · 18. Dec 2009, 09:38 AM

My first computer was called "Dad". It had a highly efficient security setup which was programmed to deny access to pretty much everything I wanted to do

Resource use was pretty heavy too but Luckily it used to sleep a lot at weekends so that gave me some freedom to get on with stuff with my mates

Sope · 18. Dec 2009, 12:19 PM

I had a Sinclair ZX81 in erm.....1981

Took ages typing in programs just to run some feeble animations and ultra basic games! Seem to remember I also tried loading a few from audio tape which was a bit hit or miss.

Even though it was exciting at first, it became a bit tedious and the novelty wore off.......after all, I was a teenager with better things to do!....."Should have stuck with it lad"

danjmilos · 18. Dec 2009, 12:25 PM

MC,
MOM was better cause she never slept.

Dan

deya · 18. Dec 2009, 02:03 PM

I still have one, a Commodore Amiga 500, like the one that miskairal had, upgraded to 1mb RAM and no hard drive. It's still in its (well worn) box with all the user manuals and there are a few boxes of games and programs with it, all on floppies and including Battle Chess if I'm not mistaken. What a great game that was, and one called Stunt Car Racer. I bought it for my son as a Christmas present, maybe 1989/90, to replace the one he had which was a Commodore 64.

I'm not sure if the Amiga still works, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to plead, blubber and whimper on it's behalf to prevent my wife from packing it off to a car boot sale or the dustbin, slightly embarrassing, but worth it because it's still here!

Maybe I'll try fire it up and see if it still runs, it might be worth it for one more game of Battle Chess. Ah, the memories

deya

18. Dec 2009, 04:12 PM

I have fond memories of the Amiga and also the BBC Micro. The game Elite for the BBC was a revolution in its day (1983 ish.) If you completed it (all from floppy), got a valid end code, and posted in it in, you received a badge in return

My first home 'computer' was a Tandy TRS 80 with 4kb RAM. Did you know, if you try hard, you can accurately reproduce a moon lander in that. My first program, sigh...

Sorry for the nostalgia, but it is nearly Christmas and I'm another year older in January

jim · 18. Dec 2009, 05:36 PM

I had a ZX81 too and you forgot to mention the MASSIVE hard drive. 40K

.
I actually wrote a horse racing program (in BASIC) for it and tried to sell it to a commercial company. They didn't want it but tried to nick my graphics to use themselves. I actually sold the puter for £100 in the end. Sounds good money but I then bought an Amiga for £600 so something went wrong somewhere. Oh the days when I was young and foolish (and comparatively rich).

wdhpr · 18. Dec 2009, 07:02 PM

As I recall there were some great games for the Amiga. Frontier also called Elite, The Eye of the Beholder series (also made for DOS which can still be played using dos box), Wing commander and Mech Warrior (very basic) just to name a few.

At the time Amiga was very expensive. The Amiga 4000 could cost upwards to $3,000 More if you wanted it with Video toaster. The Amiga 1200 like the Amiga 500 had the computer built into the keyboard. I had to use a 3" hard drive 80 meg at the time. There was also a slot for upgrading memory and for installing a fpu which also had a time clock.

Amiga was very clever for its time. It featured a type of windows called Tool Box which was point and click. Bundled software included a pretty good Word type program and a Real good paint program. There wasn't much of a internet at the time, however there were many file hosting sites at the time. At a 1,400 bit baud rate files had to be very small

Hours and hours of great fun. My wife had to pull the plug on me a couple of times but that was also OK

Cheers
Wdhpr

18. Dec 2009, 07:38 PM

From Sixth Form (aka High School) I remember the Commodore PET. It had a cassette tape drive that you could control from BASIC.

Little did I know at the time that simple device could 'prove all program unprovable.' If you want the 'very' boring details look up Church, Turing, et, al.

Warning: most of Turing's original stuff is in German Gothic script and difficult to read. You get a pat on the back if you can stop the two mistakes in Turing's original work pointed out by Church

If all else fails the answer is '42.'

Rik

18. Dec 2009, 03:54 AM	#1 (permalink)
wdhpr Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The north Coast Posts: 1,116	Does anyone remember Amiga? My first computer was a Amiga 1200. This back in 1988. I installed a 80 mg hard drive, I also upgraded to 2 meg of ram plus a Fpu. To install new software, often you would have to edit your lib file to make the OS find the correct files. Great stuff. Had a great time with it, played a ton of games. Amiga finally went bankrupt and it almost fell into oblivion until Amiga forever started selling Amiga ROM's coupled with WinUAE. Total scam in my opinion but it was a trip down memory lane. Cheers Wdhpr

18. Dec 2009, 09:38 AM	#3 (permalink)
MidnightCowboy Site Manager Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: South American Banana Republic, third bunch from the left Posts: 9,250	My first computer was called "Dad". It had a highly efficient security setup which was programmed to deny access to pretty much everything I wanted to do Resource use was pretty heavy too but Luckily it used to sleep a lot at weekends so that gave me some freedom to get on with stuff with my mates __________________ Knows nothing and cares even less

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18. Dec 2009, 07:34 AM	#2 (permalink)
miskairal Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Qld, Australia Posts: 129	My first pc was a 2nd hand Amiga500 in about 1989 I think. Cost a bomb. I upgraded it to 1MB of RAM. It had no hard drive and everything ran off floppies. I had heaps of games but could keep the kids and visitors entertained for ages getting it to "talk". The one thing I've tried repeatedly to get again was Battle Chess but with no luck It died in about 1995/6 I think and I didn't get another computer until 2000. Again a 2nd hand one running win 3.1. It could barely do what my Amiga had. It was a sad day I took the Amiga to the dump however I was able to give a lot of the disks to some charity thing that were particularly after Amigas

18. Dec 2009, 12:19 PM	#4 (permalink)
Sope Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Wales, UK Posts: 809	I had a Sinclair ZX81 in erm.....1981 Took ages typing in programs just to run some feeble animations and ultra basic games! Seem to remember I also tried loading a few from audio tape which was a bit hit or miss. Even though it was exciting at first, it became a bit tedious and the novelty wore off.......after all, I was a teenager with better things to do!....."Should have stuck with it lad"

18. Dec 2009, 12:25 PM	#5 (permalink)
danjmilos Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Steeler Nation Capitol Posts: 130	MC, MOM was better cause she never slept. Dan

18. Dec 2009, 02:03 PM	#6 (permalink)
deya Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: UK Posts: 528	I still have one, a Commodore Amiga 500, like the one that miskairal had, upgraded to 1mb RAM and no hard drive. It's still in its (well worn) box with all the user manuals and there are a few boxes of games and programs with it, all on floppies and including Battle Chess if I'm not mistaken. What a great game that was, and one called Stunt Car Racer. I bought it for my son as a Christmas present, maybe 1989/90, to replace the one he had which was a Commodore 64. I'm not sure if the Amiga still works, and I can't tell you how many times I've had to plead, blubber and whimper on it's behalf to prevent my wife from packing it off to a car boot sale or the dustbin, slightly embarrassing, but worth it because it's still here! Maybe I'll try fire it up and see if it still runs, it might be worth it for one more game of Battle Chess. Ah, the memories deya

18. Dec 2009, 04:12 PM	#7 (permalink)
rikmayell Guest Posts: n/a	I have fond memories of the Amiga and also the BBC Micro. The game Elite for the BBC was a revolution in its day (1983 ish.) If you completed it (all from floppy), got a valid end code, and posted in it in, you received a badge in return My first home 'computer' was a Tandy TRS 80 with 4kb RAM. Did you know, if you try hard, you can accurately reproduce a moon lander in that. My first program, sigh... Sorry for the nostalgia, but it is nearly Christmas and I'm another year older in January

18. Dec 2009, 05:36 PM	#8 (permalink)
jim Moderator Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: near Ashford Kent England Posts: 304	I had a ZX81 too and you forgot to mention the MASSIVE hard drive. 40K . I actually wrote a horse racing program (in BASIC) for it and tried to sell it to a commercial company. They didn't want it but tried to nick my graphics to use themselves. I actually sold the puter for £100 in the end. Sounds good money but I then bought an Amiga for £600 so something went wrong somewhere. Oh the days when I was young and foolish (and comparatively rich).

18. Dec 2009, 07:02 PM	#9 (permalink)
wdhpr Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The north Coast Posts: 1,116	As I recall there were some great games for the Amiga. Frontier also called Elite, The Eye of the Beholder series (also made for DOS which can still be played using dos box), Wing commander and Mech Warrior (very basic) just to name a few. At the time Amiga was very expensive. The Amiga 4000 could cost upwards to $3,000 More if you wanted it with Video toaster. The Amiga 1200 like the Amiga 500 had the computer built into the keyboard. I had to use a 3" hard drive 80 meg at the time. There was also a slot for upgrading memory and for installing a fpu which also had a time clock. Amiga was very clever for its time. It featured a type of windows called Tool Box which was point and click. Bundled software included a pretty good Word type program and a Real good paint program. There wasn't much of a internet at the time, however there were many file hosting sites at the time. At a 1,400 bit baud rate files had to be very small Hours and hours of great fun. My wife had to pull the plug on me a couple of times but that was also OK Cheers Wdhpr

18. Dec 2009, 07:38 PM	#10 (permalink)
rikmayell Guest Posts: n/a	From Sixth Form (aka High School) I remember the Commodore PET. It had a cassette tape drive that you could control from BASIC. Little did I know at the time that simple device could 'prove all program unprovable.' If you want the 'very' boring details look up Church, Turing, et, al. Warning: most of Turing's original stuff is in German Gothic script and difficult to read. You get a pat on the back if you can stop the two mistakes in Turing's original work pointed out by Church If all else fails the answer is '42.' Rik