How old were you when you got your first Amiga?

[Harrison]

So how old were you when you got your first Amiga?

I was trying to remember this and I think I had just left secondary school as I saved up that summer to get one, so I must have been 16/17. Quite late owning my first Amiga, although I had been a fan and using them for years at friends houses and in a store where you could rent time on them (a bit like an internet cafe today).

Before that I has an :thumbsdown2: Atari ST :thumbsdown2: since I was about 14, and an Amstrad CPC before that from the age of about 8 or 9.

[Demon Cleaner]

Probably 17, don't know exactly. I got my C64 in 1983 and had it for some years, some years later I got the amiga. I surely had one when I was 18, because at that time I had a girlfriend, and she always liked to play Twintris on it, after playing with my stic...... :shhh:

[Toasty667]

When was the A1200 released? That may give me some idea lol:)

[Harrison]

The A1200 was released in 1992.

[Toasty667]

I'd say I was between 12-14 then. Too tough that one.:hmmm:

[Teho]

I was 15. 100% sure, the money I got for my birthday/Confirmation that year was the last I needed to afford one.

[Harrison]

I sadly remember such a year saving up for an Amiga for the whole year (aged 13) and reaching Xmas and my birthday. My parents could only afford to give my £50 towards it and at that time the A500 was still £399 and I only had £250 :( So the worst thing happened. I bought an Atari ST instead!

[Stephen Coates]

Probably about 7 or 8.

[v85rawdeal]

I bought my CPC when I was 16 (1986), Got the ST in 1988 And have worked out that I got the Amiga in 1990 (which means I was 19), which is a little sooner than I thought. Mind you, I was able to pay £50 a month rather than pay it all off in one lump sum.

[TiredOfLife]

Bought an A500Plus when I was 18.
Hadn't been working that long.
Dad couldn't understand why I was wasting my money on it.

[J T]

I think I was 10 or 11, it was during my 2nd or 3rd year at junior school.

[Blue Jedi]

The Amiga 600 was my first Amiga the Amiga 600 was relased in 1992 I am 28 now I got my Amiga 600 either in 1992 or 1993.

[Harrison]

So that would have made you about 13 or 14 at the time.

[Blue Jedi]

Thanks harrison for that my birthday is september the 10th 1978 so i must have been 13.

[Demon Cleaner]

Doing sarcastic remarks now?

[Blue Jedi]

I was not being sarcastic honest athough reading it back it does sound sarcasric, I was just being more exact because the Amiga 600 got released in 1992 and was not sure when in 1992 it was released and it got discontinued in 1993 was relased was it before my birthday or after because my age would be different.

[toomanymikes]

Thanks harrison for that my birthday is september the 10th 1978 so i must have been 13.

Your exactly one year older than me! I have a friend who was born on the 11th - never likely to forget that date...

[FOL]

Thanks harrison for that my birthday is september the 10th 1978 so i must have been 13.

he he, snap, we are same age, ;).

[toomanymikes]

anyone else born on september 10th? december 10th must be the date for gettin jiggy! ;)

[FOL]

anyone else born on september 10th? december 10th must be the date for gettin jiggy! ;)


I ment, same year, ;). I a little older, born on JULY 30th

[Zetr0]

As its my first post on the "New Classic Amiga"

A big hi from this Zetr0 guy :D

some may know of my post whoring exploits from the EAB, and the uber coolness from OLDSkool, but i don't want you thinking i am anything but special... I am just a regular Zetr0 :D

wow, its hard to think about it now.... i would of been 13/14 when i first saw and played on an AmigaA500 with 1MB Expansion playing Sword of Sodan i think it was now... man... so long ago... what a game... spanked anything i had seen in the arcades at the time!

it was about a year after that we got an Atari ST, then promptly an Amiga 500 (with said 1MB upgrade from my uncle).

Spanked gauntlet, Amour Gideon, SWIV, Super Cars... oh the list is endless...

my first REAL purchase of an Amiga (as in with my own cash no christmas and borthday prezzy money :)) was an A1200, when i was 17/18, i paid £325 at the time which was cheaper than the £425 asking price!!!!...

OMG what a computer.... my bro bought me a 40MB HDD for my birthday that year, i was in heaven!!!!!!

I had a coding partion of 5MB (doublespaced to 10MB), a 5 MB boot partion a, game and music partition... great it was!!!

in 1993, i bought a Gastiener 8MB Ram Card for £120, and enjoyed the full yummyness of Fast Ram and a 33mhz FPU :D

wow... anyway yes theres a trip down memory lane....

[Graham Humphrey]

Bah, just when I thought I was safe from Zetr0 ;) Welcome to the site man!

I got an A500+ when I was five in '91 and it's fair to say the Amiga made a bit of an impression on me ;)

[Zetr0]

@GH

damn they will just let any old frog-cat in here eh?

good to see ya floating around, and thanks for the welcome :)

Wow, if i had an A500+ at 5 years old..... i would of ruled the world by now!!!!

[mkw]

I was around 11-12 years old (I am now 29), and it was an A500. I still use it, and it runs as perfectly as it did the day when I got it. :)

(uh-uh, I hope I didn't jinx it now...)

[Harrison]

:lol: Saying things like that definitely seem to cause problems. ;)

A500's are pretty robust though, unless they are stored in the loft and exposed to changing temperature and moisture.

BTW, welcome to the forum. :thumbs:

[TiredOfLife]

I was around 11-12 years old (I am now 29), and it was an A500. I still use it, and it runs as perfectly as it did the day when I got it. :)

(uh-uh, I hope I didn't jinx it now...)

Hopefully, you won't regret making that comment.;)
Welcome to the forums.

[Puni/Void]

Welcome to the forum Mkw! Enjoy your stay! :) I'm sure your Amiga will be fine. ;)

[rayzorblue]

I was 11 years and 26 days old when my Dad took delivery of my Amiga, I still have the receipt for it and I just checked it lol, is that really sad or did I know at the time what a seminal moment getting the Amiga 500 would be.

[my_lo]

I've sold my C64 in order to buy an A500. It was thanks to my neighbour and i'll never thank him enough for it...

[Sharingan]

14 or 15. I remember begging my parents to buy one because, supposedly, I'd be able to use it for school work. In retrospect, I don't think I've ever used the Amiga for any school-related work at all :thumbs:

[Harrison]

He he! Oldest ploy in the book! I got my very first computer, an Amstrad CPC464, using that "method". I never used that for school work but it did teach me the basics of programming I suppose, and it did get me interested in more than just playing games. I did however used both my Atari ST and then Amigas for school, college, and some Uni work.

[woody.cool]

I got my A500Plus when I was 10, it was a christmas present - if I remember correctly, it was the Cartoon Classics pack with Lemmings, Captain Planet, Bart vs Space Mutants, Deluxe Paint III and Workbench 2.04

[vitalik]

Hi all,

I was 13, my first amiga was A600 (it was in 1993) - what a great experince!

Good luck!

[Anemos]

i think 22-23 i got my A1200,i sell it ,and after 18 years i buy 2 of them! with accelerators and more extras.. hehe
is the time to i thank the FOL guy for many helps !
:acclaim:

[xpect]

September 1988 - 17 years old.

Remember as good as today. Entered the store to buy an AtariST because of MIDI and left out with an A500. I just can't thank enough the sales person.
He pushed me to the A500 because it was more expensive, i know, but was the better option by far!

[Shoonay]

19th Novemeber of 1993 - 12 years old

[Tiago]

I never notice this topic.
It was in 25-10-1990 i think, i got my A500. 14 years old, it was my birthday present.

One week before a friend of my father show us the Atari ST with captain bood and i almost had a heart attack... it was set. i would have an Atari ST, but in my birthday my fathercame with the A500, THANK YOU DAD !!!!! it was the best present in my life!!!!

[Wots]

December 1990 - 14 years old :)

[Phantom]

My first computer (if you call it) was an Atari 2600 in 1982 (4 years old). My first Amiga, 24th March of 1991 (A500); 13 years old.:)

[Menace]

I think it was 1990 so i would be 19,seems like a very distant memory indeed... :(

[SamuraiCrow]

I was 19 and just starting college. The year was 1993. My first Amiga was an A1200HD40.

[Harrison]

I've always wanted to ask someone from the US how much advertising and exposure did the A1200 receive in the US? In the UK it was everywhere and advertised as much as the original A500, and was on display running in nearly all electrical stores. But I've always got the impression that other than the A500 the US market focused mostly on the big box Amigas (A1000, 2000, 3000, 4000) and not the later all in one keyboard models (A600, A1200). Was that true?

[Tiago]

I do know that in the US when the A500 came out, they did a publicity in magazines with a A500 in sepia tones... can you imagine, A500, revolution in multimedia.... sepia...??????

advertisement in Us was always worst, then Europe. Uk for example, Kit Spencer did a good job in promoting the PET in late 70s.

Did you know, he order a manual to the PET that didnt have one. Commodore in US, didn't have a manual, Chuck Peddle never got the time to produce one, so Kit Spencer order on e in UK to some hobbylist guy. when Jack Tramiel saw the month reports, he said "hey Kit, what a fxxx is this manual? Why are you spending money on this?"
Kit said, you didnt have one, i ask you one, no one send me a decent manual to the Pet, i could not sell it just with 5 pages basic setup manual, so i order one myself. Jack said...."ok"... next day, commodore US Called Kit Spencer and said.... Tramiel said you have a manual... can you send it to us?

[Harrison]

You have been reading your new Commdore book I see! ;) I've just got my copy this week and have just begun reading it. Very interesting stuff and far different, more revealing and insightful than anything else ever written about Commodore.

[SamuraiCrow]

I've always wanted to ask someone from the US how much advertising and exposure did the A1200 receive in the US? In the UK it was everywhere and advertised as much as the original A500, and was on display running in nearly all electrical stores. But I've always got the impression that other than the A500 the US market focused mostly on the big box Amigas (A1000, 2000, 3000, 4000) and not the later all in one keyboard models (A600, A1200). Was that true?

Commodore's advertisement of the Amiga always stunk in the US and especially in the later stages. There was nothing outside their own Commodore Magazine. The big-box Amigas only caught on because of the NewTek Video Toaster cards. They used an Amiga to replace television production equipment. Other than that, you were pretty much on your own.

If you had your Amiga hooked up to a TV you were doubly screwed because hardly any games were written expressly to run on NTSC scan rates and oftentimes would run about 16% faster than they were designed to run. You were stuck if you didn't have a 1084 monitor. Running games in PAL mode was the norm even here in the US. NTSC mode was pretty much a useless appendage for wedge-case Amigas, as was the RF modulator that was used to output to TVs. The RF modulator had lots of video interference from the hard drive.

[Harrison]

That's really interesting to know. Especially the bit about games not supporting NTSC that often. In the UK a lot of our games had a 100px black space at the bottom of the screen, with the excuse from the developers always being that the game was developed for the US NTSC market, when ported to PAL for the UK market the PAL image was obviously 100 pixels larger vertically, so without the time needed to remake the graphics for the higher res, they instead used the same ones and just squashed them up on the screen with the extra space left blank. This was the case for quite a percentage of games released, and I never got why they didn't just find a way that could stretch the original graphics to fit. Once I had a 1084 monitor I tended to run the Amiga in NTSC mode for those games so they filled the screen.

Also you mentioned games running too fast. By contract magazine game reviews in the UK used to make the excuse that a game felt slow because it was codes for the faster 60Hz US NTSC market, and after porting to the PAL 50Hz UK market it obviously slowed it down from 30FPS to 25FPS, or 60FPS to 30FPS. We always had that excuse with Beat em ups like Street Fighter. But from what you have said, the US market suffered from the opposite just as much. Just shows you can't believe everything you read! :)

[zada1989]

I was trying to remember this and I think I had just left secondary school as I saved up that summer to get one, so I must have been 16/17. Quite late owning my first Amiga, although I had been a fan and using them for years at friends houses and in a store where you could rent time on them (a bit like an internet cafe today). :thumbs:

[QuikGBR]

A500plus I was about 15:D

[SamuraiCrow]

That's really interesting to know. Especially the bit about games not supporting NTSC that often. In the UK a lot of our games had a 100px black space at the bottom of the screen, with the excuse from the developers always being that the game was developed for the US NTSC market, when ported to PAL for the UK market the PAL image was obviously 100 pixels larger vertically, so without the time needed to remake the graphics for the higher res, they instead used the same ones and just squashed them up on the screen with the extra space left blank. This was the case for quite a percentage of games released, and I never got why they didn't just find a way that could stretch the original graphics to fit. Once I had a 1084 monitor I tended to run the Amiga in NTSC mode for those games so they filled the screen.

Also you mentioned games running too fast. By contract magazine game reviews in the UK used to make the excuse that a game felt slow because it was codes for the faster 60Hz US NTSC market, and after porting to the PAL 50Hz UK market it obviously slowed it down from 30FPS to 25FPS, or 60FPS to 30FPS. We always had that excuse with Beat em ups like Street Fighter. But from what you have said, the US market suffered from the opposite just as much. Just shows you can't believe everything you read! :)
Commercial games would run on NTSC because of the underscanned video but I liked free software just as well. PAL emulation was required for most of that.

[Harrison]

@SamuraiCrow. Long time no see. Glad to see an old member returning.

[Cosmos Amiga]

Amiga 500 at 16 !

[MarisaG]

Amiga 1000 at 18