What did you own before the Amiga?

[Harrison]

What computer system did you own before you owned an Amiga?

If you owned more than one system before the Amiga then just select the last one you owned prior to the Amiga.

For me it was the Atari ST, and before that the Amstrad CPC.

[Demon Cleaner]

Don't need to mention it I think. I also had a Videopac G7000, but then again, that was no computer.

I was in the UK (Brentford) for a week during easter 1982 because of a soccer tournament, and was lodged in a family. Their youngest son had my age, and had a ZX Spectrum. We played, when not playing soccer on the field, Attic Attac all the time. That was the first time I played on a computer. One year later I got my C64.

[Submeg]

I was four. The Amiga was there before I was.

[Toasty667]

THE MACHINE GOD! ALL SHALL BOW TO THE C64 AND DESPAIR!:lolup:

[Submeg]

Lol so true.

[Merlin]

OK, in chronological order as best as I can remember....

Atari 2600
Atari 400XL - crappy membrane keys version
VIC-20 - my first "proper" computer
Spectrum 48K - rubber keys version - nicknamed Brain Damage because it crashed so often
Dragon 32 - crappity crap crap
C64 - shared with my Dad - behold Excalibur, all hail the C64 !!
Amiga 500+
Amiga 600 - the best machine I owned before getting into an IBM Model 30 PC...

Christ, I feel ancient now....BTW, I bought most of these myself by doing paper rounds, apart from the 500+ which my Dad got me for Xmas.

I guess that deep down my fondest memories are of Commodore machines.

Merlin

[Harrison]

You had an Atari 2600 too. :) I still have mine and it works perfectly. Great nostalgia trip every time I plug it in and use those sliding metal control switches.

[Submeg]

Nice collection you have used Merlin :thumbs:

[Teho]

I had several C64s before I bought the Amiga. Have some real fond memories with those. There were just so many great games made for it. Only bad thing is I never got a disk drive for any of them, always sat and used those damn tapes that took ages to load anything. But that was some of the system's charm I think. Loading for several minutes, just sitting and waiting and hoping the dreaded LOAD ERROR wouldn't appear once it was done!

[Harrison]

I have fond memories of using tapes with my Amstrad CPC464. And due to the tape deck being built into the system it was very reliable compared to all the other 8-bit systems I had used that friends owned. I cannot actually remember a tape not loading.

I did used to like the loading screens that built up as you waited for the game to load. And the mad multicoloured compression lines that would madly flicker on screen (similar techniques were used often in cracked game releases on the Amiga to squeeze a multi disk game onto a single disk) in time to the tape loading sounds. They warn people about flashing lights and effects in games and films these days? Those are nothing compared to tape loading screens. Anyone who had fits must have been on the ground dancing around for hours after one of those!

[Submeg]

So what was the purpose of the flashing colours?

[Harrison]

I don't know how it worked, but the compression routines were tied into the loading screen colours. Anyone else here know how it worked?

[AlexJ]

So what was the purpose of the flashing colours?

It's something to do with it writing to the video display register while it's 'decrunching'. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_software#.22Decrunching.22

[Stephen Coates]

Nothing.

I had borrowed the A500/600 from the school which i bought mine from eventually during the summer holidays for a couple of years previous, and I had also used someone's PowerBook 1400 and Atari ST, but only a couple of times, and of course various Macs and BBCs in school, but non I actually owned or had access to all the time.

[Puni/Void]

Before I got an Amiga 500, I had an SVI Spectravideo (MSX). The specs of the machine was pretty good compared to many systems of the day, but sadly there wasn't that many who owned them in Norway. Therefore it was hard to get hold of games. :( That fortunately changed when I got my Amiga.

[Harrison]

Wasn't the Spectravideo compatible with Coleco and MSX software?

[v85rawdeal]

Like Harrison, before I got my A500, my previous systems were an Atari ST and before that a CPC464 (Mind you I had them all set up as I never got rid of any)

Since then, I have upgraded to an A1200.

But I have also owned the following:

Sega Master System
Nintendo Gameboy Advance
Playstation 1
Playstation 2 x 4 (Sold one, traded one, still have two at the moment)
Nintendo Gamecube
XBox
Nintendo Wii
PSP x2
And a PC and Laptop (which I got because it was easier than using the PSP as my main internet system)

[Harrison]

WOW! exactly the same order of computers. Spooky. Well, except for the Atari 2600 which I owned before the others.

I still owned the CPC and ST for many years after purchasing my first Amiga and also had them all setup together on a huge purpose built computer desk that was built into the room and spanned the whole length of one wall on two levels (one for the computers and one for the monitors).

Over the years I've owned/own the following myself (in roughly the order of purchase):

Atari 2600
Amstrad CPC464 (sold to a guy I worked with)
Atari 520 STFM (sold on ebay after the internal PSU died - still got £50 for it ;))
Amiga A600
SNES
Gameboy B/W
Amiga A1200
CD32
Playstation 1
A4000/40 (bought from a friend at university)
A500plus (gift from a friend)
A500 1.3 (£1.60 on ebay, fully working :))
A500 1.2 (free from a visitor to classicamiga :D)
A1200 (gift from a friend)
Dreamcast
Playstation 2
GBA
N64 x3 (all purchased cheaply on ebay with a ton of games)
Gamecube
Xbox
PSP
PC (many over the years - currently have 5 working ones I use regularly + 2 laytops)

Is there more? I forget. I've listed most of these before on the old forum somewhere a few times.

[Demon Cleaner]

I've listed most of these before on the old forum somewhere a few times.It was on this forum. Here is the thread:

http://forum.classicamiga.com/showthread.php?t=226&highlight=computer+consoles

[TiredOfLife]

C64 for me.
On day 7 God said, sod this for a lark, I'm bored of all this resting.
And so he brought forth the C64.

[Submeg]

lol, nice.

[Harrison]

At the time I was very happy with the CPC464, but these days looking back on the history of computers and the 8-bit era I do kind of wish I had gone for a C64 instead of the CPC.

Not because of the hardware, but because the C64 was the first computer to start off much of the initial demo scene, and not owning one meant I missed that. Also there were many games the C64 enjoyed that were quite revolutionary and were not seen ported to other 8-bit formats. Although the other formats also enjoyed the majority of the most famous titles as well as their own.

The C64 did also have the superior SID sound, compared to the CPC's 3 channel yamaha chip (which the Spectrum and BBC Micro also shared), but the CPC did better in other areas.

When coded correctly the CPC's graphics were better than the C64s, but sadly this wasn't often apparent in games as many developers tended to just directly port Spectrum games to the CPC without improving the graphics at all, giving the impression that the CPCs graphics were not that different to a Spectrum but without the colour clash. The CPC CPU was also clocked at 4MHz compared to the C64's 1MHz.

The other area was loading times. The C64 suffered from really slow tape and disk loading speeds compared to any other format, and like the Spectrum tape loading wasn't that reliable. The CPC with it's built in tape or disk drive never failed to load a game of application unless the actual media was damaged.

[Demon Cleaner]

Do you really think that such a lame-o like god, even though he's not existing, would have come up with such a brilliant piece of hardware?

[Harrison]

Definitely not! The C64, and any gaming system for that matter, had to be conceived by the devil! Only he would know the meaning of fun! ;)

[J T]

We had a Speccy before the a500, but I don't really remember what model it was, I think it was a 48k though.....

During and since the A500 times we had
Nintendo Gameboys (the original monochrome bad boy)
Some crappy PCs including a sh1t 286, a slightly less sh!t 386, a good-at-the-time P133
Master System
N64
PS2
Gamecube
DS
Wii

[toomanymikes]

I had a Nes prior to the A500 - it was ace but started to turn black and white for about 5 mins when you switched it on now and again.
Over the years I have owned:
Spectrum 48k - rubber keys! (it melted - no lie)
Nes
Amiga 500
CD32
Atari ST -my wee bro's old comp
IBM 386
IBM 486
Playstation
IBM P90
Gameboy - a gf's sister gave me it for my playstation
Playstation 2 - why I gave her my playstation
Some crappy Pentium II which I spent more money than I like to think about upgrading for Uni work
Playstation 2 again - first one broke 2 days after the 1 year warranty :mad:
Gamecube
Sony VGN-A117S laptop - which I'm writing this on now
Nintendo Wii
Playstation 3
Amiga 600 - my gf's old computer from her childhood - its broke :(
Amiga 1200 w/HD and Kickstart 3.1 - due to arrive tomorrow!:D

[FOL]

For me it was a long list, but last thing before Amiga was (if i remember correctly) a SEGA Master System, or was it a GameGear, hell cant remember, lol.

[Bloodwych]

My path of computer and console gaming was as follows:

Computers

Vic20 -> Spectrum 48k -> Spectrum 128K -> Spectrum +2 -> Atari ST -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 500+ -> Amiga 1200HD -> AMD 586 PC -> various other forms of PC

Consoles

Megadrive -> SNES -> Playstation -> XBOX -> PSP

Consoles never interested me until I saw Ghouls N Ghosts, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi on the Megadrive. Then I had to have one due to the near perfect arcade conversions.

[StuKeith]

Computer wise I had an Spectrum +2, an Nes, and think a gameboy/gear

:eyebrow:

In total I have owned/still owned

Spectrum +2
BBC Micro B
Nes
Game Boy * 2
Game gear * 3
Snes
N64
Playstation
Playstation 2
Atari Lynx
Atari JAguar
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo Wii
xbox360
Acorn Electron
Atari 2600

Amigas

A500, A500+, A600, A600HD, A1200, A1200HD, A1500

Im sure I have had some others, that I cant remember what.

[Demon Cleaner]

We also have a nice poll/thread where you can post your acquisitions.

Poll here (http://forum.classicamiga.com/showthread.php?t=226&highlight=console+computers)

[rbelk]

My Computer/Game console history as best as I can remember.

--- video games ---------------------------
atari 2600
nes
atari lynx
snes
gba

--- computers -----------------------------
Z/80 S-100
atari 800
tandy coco 2
tandy coco 3
amiga 500
atari portfolio
amiga 3000

I started computing around 1978, yeah I'm an old fart...

[Buleste]

Atari 2600
Toshiba MSX
C64
Gameboy housebrick

[Zetr0]

In the dawn of time, many moons ago.... where men were REAL men, woment were REAL women and small furry creatures from alpha centari were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centari!

okay... some times douglas adams is funny... but before we got the Deep thought known as the Amiga ;) heres a little History.... Zetty style

before REAL computers we had a Binatone game console, this was an orange plastic nasty with two padles and no game expandability other than the 8 games built in....

then there was the Database thingy, which was a white monster with crontrols the size of analogue phone receivers of yawn... (had a great boxing game or so i remember)

then there was the Atari 2600 VCS... oh.... wow .... gaming heaven... pole position, defender, space invaders.... ahh.... tanks.... clearly gaming fun!

then there was darkenss.... not much happend... we moved home when i was about 9 and my father decided i would learn how to solder, so at 9 and half i built my first computer... a ZX80 Kit built monster... burnt myself a few times too!!
it had 1k of ram.... it was a GOD of a machine! after the follwing year with the addition of a 16k rampack / curra speach unit and kempston interface! ahhh such joy...

then got a Zx Spectrum 48k, rubber key bonanza, then a Commodore 64, i was the envy of my friends at skool for having BOTH systems!!! ahhh.... gamming was good and life was better :D

then i got for my 11th birthday a zx48k + drastic plastic keyboard..... then whe iw as about 12/13 i got an Atari ST which was soon repleced by an A500 .... ahh what a day.....

[Castelle]

The first computer I owned was the C64
then the C64C, then a PeeCee :sick: then an A1200 :thumbs:
At the same time a powerful Linux PC then a Mac, then its gets complicated after that because I owned loads of the things and is impossible to back track. :lol:

[my_lo]

I was 11 when i received my first computer, the almighty C64. I still remember the "poke 53280,1" and the first time i coded a space-invader-like in basic, it was awesome and i was so proud. There was a guy in my street who had found a way, via code, to write in the external cader, he had earned respect :lol:
Then i bought an Amiga 500 followed by an Amiga 1200 and finally the first pc of a long serie...

[rayzorblue]

I first broke my computer cherry on the old C64, the first game I played on it I think was Radar Rat Race (a cartridge) I could be wrong though. I loved my C64 with all my heart it sat at the end of my bed where I would lie and play it for hours on end. I love the memory's of Dad day when I used to let my Dad play on the C64 all day and just watch him and laugh, until he actually got so far on centipede (or millipede cant remember) that the game just crashed, brilliant. We got a disk drive for it and I had my beloved speedking joystick to play on it (Dad had an actual joystick from the cockpit of a plane that he converted into a playable joystick, he got it from my uncle who worked at ferranti). We did have an old orange pong machine before that (cant remember what it was actually called though) and then one day Dad brought home the Amiga 500 and the love for the C64 waned but never died. Since then I have had and still own many machines including the C64 and Amiga 500 I also have an N64, Dreamcast, PSone, Gamecube, Wii, DS, two PC's and several small old skool handheld games (game and watch etc). I have also owned an NES, Master System, Megadrive, SNES and a few PC's.

I forgot I had a gameboy too, that was a great christmas with tetris.

[woody.cool]

I owned two systems before I got my first Amiga (which was an A500+)

I owned an Amstrad CPC6128 but before that, I owned a machine not listed here, a Commodore C16

http://woody-cool.no-ip.biz/pics/c16.jpg

[Demon Cleaner]

The C16 looks really nice, but I never had one. I still have a C116 though. You can have a look here (http://forum.classicamiga.com/showthread.php?t=226&highlight=console+computer) what computers/consoles of us still own.

[Rossi]

Hello there

I lived in The Netherlands in the 80's.

Back then in 1986 i saw our first computer , it was a commodore 64 , my friends already had it for years already but we had to wait untill the prices where a bit friendlier.
Nowadays i have 10 commodore 64's and repaired a few , just to keep these machines for future.
If you play a game on that machine you apreciate it more.
These new computers with almost real images in games are not so interesting and i think it is dangerous for children , they're losing there real life experiance.

If you play a game on an Amiga you're seeing that it is not real so it stays a computergame for you.

Rossi

A2000 , 68030 , 1mb chip , 8 fast , vector scsi .
A2000's several setups
A1200 , 68030 ,2mb chip ,2 mb fast , 4,3 gig ext. hd , scsi expansion.
A1200 several setups , original , with hd .
A500's several setups
Commodore PC40III 286-12 ( still running )
Commodore PC 486-sx

[KatManDEW]

I started with a Timex-Sinclair TS1000. Then I got a TS2068, and eventually a Sinclair QL. The same year that I got my QL, I got an Amiga 1000.

[Harrison]

Ah, the US version of the Sinclair ZX81. Now that is an old computer for sure, and definitely not that powerful.

Of course, the ZX81 does still serve a purpose and is quite useful...

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/ZX81-doorstop.jpg

As a door stop! ;)

[coze]

my first computer was a Lazer 100. Which was a TSR 80 clone now I see :)
Then I got C64 and finally an A500.

[Shoonay]

Ami was my first system :)

[outlawal2]

Commodore Vic 20
Commodore 64
TRS-80
Commodore 128
Amiga 500
Amiga 2000

Then over to the PC world...
And more recently a few Macs...
And an Efika with Morph OS...

And back to an Amiga 2000!

[Phantom]

I started my computer journey in 1982 with an Atari 2600. The next year I upgraded(!) to an Atari 130XE. In 1985 I bought an Amstrad CPC 6128 for 5 years.

But as far I can see, I'm the only one here who has an Amstrad CPC machine before Amiga. :rolleyes:

Well, to say the truth, Amstrads where far more popular in Greece than Spectrums or C64.

[Harrison]

I had an Amstrad CPC464 with colour monitor as my first computer, so you are not alone. However, I then owned an Atari 520 STFM from 1987 to 1990 before finally buying my first Amiga, so it wasn't what I owned before the Amiga. ;)

[optiguy]

I had an Magnavox Odyssey 2, a C64, then the A1000

[1980-20..]

Magnavox?. Hmmmmm. Why does that sound familiar, oh i know check it outtttttt!!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWuapIF2Cdw&feature=related




:notworthy: Leonard Nimoy:nuts:

[Buleste]

The theme tune sounds as though it's from an 80's americanised manga and how come the rock was better acting than Leonard Nimoy with a gay porn star moustache?

[oldgit]

Hi Guys
Your poll only allows for a single choice, (radio buttons) as I owned a number of machines before I could afford an Amiga (loved the 1000, years ahead any of the competition, but out of my price range at the time.) The first machines I owned were home built from various chips around the old Z80 chip, on a single step or slow clock with lots of LED's so I could see what was going on, (I did build some expensive Americian kits for the local college, as I ran the first computer club in my town!) My first real one was the ZX80, again in kit form, (it was cheaper) which I upgraded to the ZX81 with the new ROM and keyboard overlay! I stayed with Sinclair for the Spectrum and the QL, then a few second-hand PC's, until the A500 arrived, first one I could afford, loved it; the graphics were better than anything I'd seen thus far! The A1200 was my all time favourite, the things you could do to that machine in a big box with lots of add-ons was mind- blowing and kept me amused for months! As I ran a computer shop at a large Sunday market for a few years, I aquired many Amiga models and parts which I used to repair the busted models for resale, learned lots (most of which I seem to have forgoten,) but I do remember the pleasure that the Amiga gave me! Modern machines just seem to wind me up, especially Windoze, I have a Linux box which gives some pleasure, but my USB radio link won't work on it, so I'm forced to use Windoze for the NET!
Sorry guys, this is turning into a life story, Love the forum by the way!

[Andrew1971]

My first was intellivision games console then amstrad cpc464 then a dragon 32 which i still have.
A500 had to sell no job:(. some pcs then now present machine A600

[Harrison]

Another CPC user. Nice to hear. What were your favourite games on the Amstrad?

[Andrew1971]

Favourite game on cpc464 was bosconian. think that how its spelt:) then fruit machine . no longer have the amstrad. On board modulator broke couldn't use on tv.
Still have two dragon 32's know anybody what's them:)

[morcar]

everything on that list apart from pc and mac and most likely other consoles and computers too.

[PO15KA]

Atari 65XE

[DonAmiga]

zx spectrum +2 which was my main system just before getting Amiga 500+

[beejack]

If I remember correctly
Commodore Vic 20
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k
Commodore 64
Acorn Electron
Sinclair ZX Spectrum plus
BBC Micro
Commodore Amiga A500+
Commodore Amiga A1200 + 80 meg HD

Then in 1999 a PC

[Harrison]

That was quite a range of 8bit systems you owned. Looks like every main stream system out there at the time. :o

[beejack]

I still have most of them. I gave the Amiga 500+ and a load of games to my nephew (big mistake!), the original spectrum died and I sold the electron.

All the commodores and the original spectrum were bought as new when they first came out, the rest were bought second hand. I even still have a working microdrive for the spectrum!

[ChrisUnionNJ]

My Order was
Vic-20
Apple][c
C64 traded 1500 comicbook all it had was C64 and 1 1541
128DCR
Afew years later sold all the commodore stuff to get
a A1000..

:coffee:

[rkauer]

NEZ8000 (ZX80 clone)
MSX (short lived)
AT 286
A500 (later with A590)
A1200 (later with various accelerators, ending in 040. Really don't remember the brand right now)
then I gave up and enter the pc world again in the great Amiga disbanding circa 98~99 <-this was the stupidest decision I ever made!

[Kin Hell]

Nothing. I just chose the best first time around. :Reverend:

[Eleas]

What did you own before the Amiga?

My heart.

On a more serious note, I must have been around seven when my parents bought an A2000. There really wasn't time to squeeze anything in, barring an old ABC80 that didn't seem to work. And once I got to play on the Amiga, well at the risk of sounding melodramatic, there was no overwhelming need to touch the competition.

[tolkien]

I had a 48k speccy! Good times. I also learned a few things with an amstrad cpc and a zx81.

[Storm]

The good old C64 started this adventure for me :)

[XLV2K]

the home micro i used before the amiga, was a spectrum 128K ( still got it, works but the usual problems with the keyboard and some keys not responding has affected it ) and before that, a schmid tvg 2000 , a games console.

[Harrison]

You can get new membranes for spectrum keyboards to fix that. Have a look on Amibay.com

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[Nosferax]

Before the Amiga I had a C64, an Atari 800XL and a Trs-80 Coco 2.
My first computer was a TRS-80 MC-10 with a 16k expansion. I learned Basic on it.

[Harrison]

Although we did have Tandy electrical stores in the UK, stocking everything an electronics enthusiast might need such as components, soldering etc through to radio controlled cars, walkmans and TVs, we never saw the Tandy computers in the UK (at least not AFAIK), so I've never seen one, but have played around a bit with TRS-80 emulation.

What would you recommend as the best games released for the system for someone new to it to try out?

[Nosferax]

Although we did have Tandy electrical stores in the UK, stocking everything an electronics enthusiast might need such as components, soldering etc through to radio controlled cars, walkmans and TVs, we never saw the Tandy computers in the UK (at least not AFAIK), so I've never seen one, but have played around a bit with TRS-80 emulation.

What would you recommend as the best games released for the system for someone new to it to try out?

I believe it was release in Europe as the Dragon 32.

It was sold as a more serious computer. There were the usual classics available like space invaders and PAC man clone, many on rom pack. You could also expand it to 64k and run OS9 on it, a unix like os. It also used those terrible analog joystick without self center that had to be constantly adjusted.

I mostly use mine for bbsing since it offered a 64x32 screen mode while my Atari and C64 were limited to 40 character per line.

[Harrison]

I really should have know that regarding the TRS-80 and Dragon 32, but the Dragon computers were not that great and didn't sell too well so I was never really that interested in them at the time.

Reading on Wikipedia it states that both systems were based on a Motorola data sheet design, so instead of being one based on the other, they were more both based on a common computer design. Bit of a shame it wasn't a better common design.

[jasontw]

Before the amiga i had a commodore 64

[crazybob]

Msx


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