Beltalowda
Member
TL;DR Hi from Japan
Hi All,
like many folks here I have returned to the Amiga world after a long hiatus. I was first introduced to Commodore with both versions of the C64 in the late 80s in the UK, and then an Amiga 500 in 1990. I remember being in awe of the graphics at the time and being jealous of my friend who got one first. Of course at school there were frequent arguments on whether the Amiga or Atari ruled.
Software was expensive at the time so my dad took me to a local market from time to time to get some games to 'try out' before actually buying the boxed versions (I imagine a common experience here, not sure if I am allowed to say it??). If I remember I was allowed a boxed game every month or so. Started off with the A500 Screengems pack, and was hooked on Shadow of the Beast 2 and Nightbreeed, we usually picked up Amiga Format each month.
Of course we couldn't just leave it as a stock Amiga, and in time we picked up trapdoor memory, a printer, trackball, floppy drives and an Action Replay III,and my dad used it for word processing. We even built our own rom swapper on veroboard (stripboard), it wasn't pretty but worked. And I am ashamed to say it, we used a soldering iron to melt a hole in the top of the case for the switch.
Needless to say I have a lot of fond memories of our Amiga with my dad, and having been meaning to return to it was some time. Of course, our Amiga was given away in the late 90s, probably a common story, and last year I picked up up a couple of battered A500s for restoration, and was lucky to pickup an A1200 in lovely condition with upgrades, that seemed to have been used by a business only for CAD and stored away from UV the last 20 odd years.
What I am excited to see is such an active and vibrant Amiga community, with many enthusiasts and talented engineers creating upgrades for these classic machines. I enjoy working with electronics and have already manage a few repairs and upgrades. Recaps will be next, although I think a bit of SMT solder/desolder practice is needed before I attempt this on a A1200.
Now based in Tokyo, which didn't see the same Amiga enthusiasm at the time, although A500/2000 and CDTV machines do appear on local auction sites from time to time at inflated prices. I suspect there as some real gems hidden in lofts and attic spaces in Japan though, but how to find them...
This introduction turned out to be a bit longer than I planned, and I congratulate you if you made it to the bottom of this post. Hope to have some good discussions and some great trades in the future.
Hi All,
like many folks here I have returned to the Amiga world after a long hiatus. I was first introduced to Commodore with both versions of the C64 in the late 80s in the UK, and then an Amiga 500 in 1990. I remember being in awe of the graphics at the time and being jealous of my friend who got one first. Of course at school there were frequent arguments on whether the Amiga or Atari ruled.
Software was expensive at the time so my dad took me to a local market from time to time to get some games to 'try out' before actually buying the boxed versions (I imagine a common experience here, not sure if I am allowed to say it??). If I remember I was allowed a boxed game every month or so. Started off with the A500 Screengems pack, and was hooked on Shadow of the Beast 2 and Nightbreeed, we usually picked up Amiga Format each month.
Of course we couldn't just leave it as a stock Amiga, and in time we picked up trapdoor memory, a printer, trackball, floppy drives and an Action Replay III,and my dad used it for word processing. We even built our own rom swapper on veroboard (stripboard), it wasn't pretty but worked. And I am ashamed to say it, we used a soldering iron to melt a hole in the top of the case for the switch.
Needless to say I have a lot of fond memories of our Amiga with my dad, and having been meaning to return to it was some time. Of course, our Amiga was given away in the late 90s, probably a common story, and last year I picked up up a couple of battered A500s for restoration, and was lucky to pickup an A1200 in lovely condition with upgrades, that seemed to have been used by a business only for CAD and stored away from UV the last 20 odd years.
What I am excited to see is such an active and vibrant Amiga community, with many enthusiasts and talented engineers creating upgrades for these classic machines. I enjoy working with electronics and have already manage a few repairs and upgrades. Recaps will be next, although I think a bit of SMT solder/desolder practice is needed before I attempt this on a A1200.
Now based in Tokyo, which didn't see the same Amiga enthusiasm at the time, although A500/2000 and CDTV machines do appear on local auction sites from time to time at inflated prices. I suspect there as some real gems hidden in lofts and attic spaces in Japan though, but how to find them...
This introduction turned out to be a bit longer than I planned, and I congratulate you if you made it to the bottom of this post. Hope to have some good discussions and some great trades in the future.
