Your first memory?

[Teho]

My first memory was seeing one running in a store. I don't remember what it was running any more, and don't remember the actual episode either. What I do remember is coming back later and trying out a game one it; Terrorpods. Didn't understand the game at all, but that didn't matter. I was too busy gawking at the graphics!

I bought one for my own money that I had saved up some time later.

[J T]

Terrorpods. Didn't understand the game at all, but that didn't matter. I was too busy gawking at the graphics!

I could never work it out either. The Tenstar pack version had heavily trimmed instructions so as to fit on the rear of the sleeve. I got the buggy thing to interact with the mines but could never actually trade anything, so instead I'd make those big missiles (with the cool aiming device) and blow them up, or launch them at the mothership - pointless as I knew that wasn't the way to destroy it, but it seemed like fun anyway.

Then I'd run out of fuel or materials and have to restart.

These days, being able to download any retro platform's games in a few seconds at zero cost makes the game easily discardable. A quick load and play, then within minutes of aquiring the game it might end up never being run again. If the same game had been purchased for £25 you would take the time to play it longer and try to get your moneys worth from it.

It is amazing how when something costs nothing you can so easily draw a conclusion about it within seconds, whereas paying for something makes you assess it in far more detail to understand why you purchased it.

Mmm, I have done a lot of the "quick play a ROM, then change to the next" loads. Probably missed out on some gems that way, but I have a lot of newer games to try first. I particularly do this with MAME, there is so much on there and a lot of it is dross I have to say. As I've said before, I was surprised (and kind of disheartened) when I found out how small Mega Drive/SNES cartridge data was. And some of those games were £50+ !!!!

[Stephen Coates]

Hmmmmmm. Not sure.

Probably in 1995/1996 which was not long after Peter moved in next door. As I have said before, he worked at a school and we used to borrow an amiga and a load of games during the summer holidays. I think the first one I used was an A500/+ but could have been a 600. I definately remember using an Amiga which was quite smaller than one of the others, and when we came to purchase one when the school decided to sell them, Peter recomened the 500 becuase it was more reliable than the smaller ones.

[Harrison]

Strange. The A600 is actually the most reliable Amiga every made. During its production less than 1% of A600s sold ever needing to be returned for repair or replacement during their warrantee.

It is quite strange to think you were first getting into the Amiga just as Commodore were going out of business. I little sad to think you missing the actual Amiga years.

[cicobuff]

Strange. The A600 is actually the most reliable Amiga every made. During its production less than 1% of A600s sold ever needing to be returned for repair or replacement during their warrantee.

Yep, same with the A1200 using Surface mount technology, the old A500/plus was better for self repair though because of not using this.

[Stephen Coates]

Socketed chips are best when it comes to replacing them. No fiddly soldering to do

When I said reliable, it might have been something to do with more games working on the A500+. I really can't remember.

[Harrison]

But the 500+ and 600 are identical as far as compatibility goes. Same chipset, kickstart etc...

[J T]

As long as you don't need that numpad for a flight sim

[Harrison]

True.

As I've said before, I was surprised (and kind of disheartened) when I found out how small Mega Drive/SNES cartridge data was. And some of those games were £50+ !!!!

The size of a game's data is never an indication of the
quality of the game. These days games have expanded to fill the huge media available to hold them and in turn have often been a victim of sloppy development. When a developer had to code for a very limited storage size the innovations were often far larger than anything seen these days.

[J T]

No, I know that the amount of data isn't indicative of the quality of the game, it was probably more the ease at which they could be downloaded in literally seconds in most cases. Partially due to the increasing speed of internet connections too, but I'm sure you see what I was getting at. It was certainly surprising when it dawned on me anyway.