Your first memory?

[Demon Cleaner]

First amiga I saw, was an amiga 1000 in a C64 magazine. They had some screenshots posted, and me and a friend, we were kinda paralyzed. At that time the price was a bit mor than 80.000 FrLUX, which is now 2000€ (1350£)

Then later, after going to school in another town, we saw the amiga 500 at a computer shop. It was running 10th frame, and again, we stood before it and were completely paralyzed. This graphics, so much finer than on our C64s.

The first game I saw running at a friend's amiga (finally someone got one), was of course Defender of the Crown ***paralyze mode ON*** and it looked just awesome.

[Puni/Void]

I've been thinking about this myself, and its not easy to remember it all. It's hard to dig down deep and retrieve such memories. I'll give it a try though.

My first memory with the Amiga must have been in the late 1980's. A friend of mine had gotten an Amiga 500 from his parents which came with the Summer Olympics 1988 game. He did also have a few other titles, and I remember him getting hold of Defender of the Crown. We played a few games on this machine and I remember thinking that I would like to own such a computer as well. Another friend, who lived next door, did also get an Amiga 500 around the same time and he got hold of many, many games. I was stunned by both music, graphics and gameplay. As with you guys, Defender of the Crown really made an impact. Awesome graphics, music and gameplay. Still, we played Summer Olympics 1988 all the time and it was great.

Sadly I was a kid without much money, so I had to help my parents with their business. They often sold second-hand stuff at a market in a city on Saturdays and I was allowed to come with them. I therefore picked a lot of berries for example, put those into green boxes, and sold them. That way I actually earned some money.

Anyway, after a quite a support from the parents and with my own cash in hand, I could finally make that purchase of the machine of my dreams. The Amiga 500. Quickly learned how to use X-Copy, started copying, and then playing. I was hooked.

[J T]

Hmmm, I remember when my Dad talked about getting an Amiga and I was very excited about it. but I cannot remember how I actually came to hear of the Amiga.

I was given it as a joint birthday/Christmas present and remember the excitement. All those boxes with games (Batman the movie pack and a 10-star games compilation) applications and suchlike, the excitement of a computer with disks. Even flicking through the manuals gave a real buzz of excitement at the potential of this fantastic machine we had sitting in front of us.

It was already set up in the living room when I got downstairs, I know for sure that my dad had been playing on it for a long time the night before. Many many years later he told me how at the time he thought it was the absolute business and incredibly modern.

He was utterly flabbergasted when I showed him winUAE running on a p4 and told him about the TOSEC sets.

[Demon Cleaner]

He was utterly flabbergasted when I showed him winUAE running on a p4 and told him about the TOSEC sets.

And what did he answer?

[J T]

Well, it was amazement at how easily the good old Amiga could be emulated (even the mighty A1200). I guess that he didn't realise just how much computers have grown more powerful. To someone with only a passing knowledge of computers -basic web browsing and word processing - emulation is something completely amazing.

As for the ADFs (and TOSEC sets), the first thing was surprise at how quick it was to download a game and play it. The second was slight dismay that these games we would pay 25 pounds for could be acquired with a swift click of the mouse.

[Harrison]

The second was slight dismay that these games we would pay 25 pounds for could be acquired with a swift click of the mouse.

That is probably the biggest thing for me regarding retro systems and emulation too. Everytime I play one of the games via emulation that I originally paid for on the original system I think of how much the games originally cost to buy.

And as we have all mentioned in the past, the price of a game was quite a motivational element in making you play it and get the most from it. 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.

[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+ !!!!

[Toasty667]

Ah yes the first memory. But of course in those days I was only a tea boy.

A mate had an Amiga 600, loved the graphics. Think he was playing a game called Doddle Bug? It was a platformer but I bet if that's not the title that doesnt narrow it down much! I'm not sure if it was totally due to this but I bought loads of issues of Amiga Power at least a year before I got one just due to being facinated with it. Cant remember if I saw his 600 first or got the magazines first (I've got a Goldfish memory). Then one birthday I got my A1200! Loved it. It came with Trolls, Pinball Dreams (I think) and a football game. Was blown away. I only had a small amount of games due to pocket money but still had loadsa fun. But I had amassed a great deal of cover disks by that point. Pitty not all were compatable but at least with the A1200 I got to play Gloom.