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Thread: Amiga, Happy 30th Birthday!

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    Thumbs up Amiga, Happy 30th Birthday!

    In July, the Amiga computer celebrated its 30th b-day. Have you ever owned an Amiga? Which one? What do you think of the platform? If you don't have one already, would you like to own one? Why or why not?

    Personally, I have never owned one. But I have heard THE LEGENDS. I have heard how beautiful it was, how revolutionary it was. How it was the true beginning of what many incorrectly associate with IBM compatibles. How expensive they could be. And how quickly the company fell from grace. It is truly made of the stuff of legends with its dramatic rise and fall.

    Here is a nice tribute... from Australia! http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s4326068.htm

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Happy to report my Amiga 500 is still running like a champ. Outside of my C64 and my Vic20 its hands down my favorite classic computer. My favorite games for the good ol' Amiga are:

    1. Pirates!
    2. The Chaos Engine
    3. Turrican
    4. Cannon Fodder
    5. Populous
    6. Mega lo Mania
    7. Powermonger
    8. Alien Breed
    9. Paradroid 90
    10. Lemmings & Eye of the Beholder are tied for tenth place

    Great topic for a truly great machine!!!

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    Strawberry (Level 2) AdamAnt316's Avatar
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    I've owned two Amigas thus far, an original 1000, and a 2000. In addition, I once borrowed an Amiga 3000 while in high school, and also got to play around with an Amiga 1200 (both of which had a genlock, a device which apparently took years to work with PCs). Really cool machines which were way ahead of their time. As a celebration, here is a sample of music from a demo I found on my A1000 several years back:

    Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    Personally, I have never owned one.
    Are you in the market for an Amiga? And if so which model are you looking for?
    Last edited by wizardofwor1975; 10-29-2015 at 01:49 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wizardofwor1975 View Post
    Are you in the market for an Amiga? And if so which model are you looking for?
    Sadly no. Right now I'm so poor I couldn't afford S&H on a floppy disk.

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    Sadly no. Right now I'm so poor I couldn't afford S&H on a floppy disk.
    I hear ya. I looked on Ebay yesterday just for shits and giggles and was totally shocked by the limited number of Amiga 500s for sale. It appears that the good ol' Amiga these days is in pretty short supply. If my memory serves me correctly the Amiga 500 was Commodore's all time best selling Amiga model. I really hope the Amiga doesn't end up becoming a niche collector's item but with the limited supply these days it may have already happened. However, I'm sure great deals on Amiga computers can still be found outside of Ebay and Amazon by a persistent collector. I really hope your finances pick up so you can take the plunge and get an Amiga. Personally I'd go with the Amiga 500. I absolutely love mine but hell you could hardly go wrong with any of the other Amiga models as well its just my personal preference. Probably because I grew up with the Amiga 500. Anyway, great topic.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) AdamAnt316's Avatar
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    There might still be some Amigas on the surplus market. My Amiga 2000 (which I got a couple of years ago) was formerly used for graphics at a TV station of some sort, given that it had a genlock card installed, and Scala software on the HD card (remember those?). Granted, most of them have probably been replaced by PCs at this point, but there might still be a few floating around which were used at public access TV stations or whatnot.

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AdamAnt316 View Post
    There might still be some Amigas on the surplus market. My Amiga 2000 (which I got a couple of years ago) was formerly used for graphics at a TV station of some sort, given that it had a genlock card installed, and Scala software on the HD card (remember those?). Granted, most of them have probably been replaced by PCs at this point, but there might still be a few floating around which were used at public access TV stations or whatnot.
    Congrats on picking up your Amiga 2000 from a TV station. Great find! I never knew TV stations used the Amiga for graphics. Can't say it really surprises me though. The good ol' Amiga is such a versatile machine. I wonder if the collectors market for the Amiga is a lot larger in Europe? Most of the games I see on Ebay for the Amiga in addition to being really pricey are from Europe. I wouldn't mind picking up another Amiga myself maybe an A1200 this time.
    Last edited by wizardofwor1975; 10-31-2015 at 01:24 AM.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) Niku-Sama's Avatar
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    This is a system I've always been interested in but never found one. Since it appears that my good will is going to stay carrying computer stuff now i might have a chance at nabbing one

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    Strawberry (Level 2) AdamAnt316's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wizardofwor1975 View Post
    Congrats on picking up your Amiga 2000 from a TV station. Great find! I never knew TV stations used the Amiga for graphics. Can't say it really surprises me though. The good ol' Amiga is such a versatile machine. I wonder if the collectors market for the Amiga is a lot larger in Europe? Most of the games I see on Ebay for the Amiga in addition to being really pricey are from Europe. I wouldn't mind picking up another Amiga myself maybe an A1200 this time.
    Yeah, I found it at the MIT Swapfest, being sold along with a whole bunch of other TV production equipment. Think I paid all of $10 or $20 for the thing, though it didn't have a keyboard, mouse, or any accessories with it other than what was installed inside the case. Had to buy a keyboard for it off of eBay, and borrowed the mouse from my Amiga 1000 to use with it. The Amiga lends itself really well to TV production work, particularly using a genlock and appropriate software such as Scala.

    I used an Amiga 1200 in high school as part of our "school news" broadcasts, utilizing Scala to trigger graphics to pop up on the screen, which would then be overlaid on top of the live video feed via the genlock. Many Amiga computers were used for this sort of purpose, as well as other general video graphics and production work using software like Video Toaster. The old "Prevue Guide" channel used Amigas to generate the on-screen channel listings well into the late '90s, long after Commodore had gone out-of-business.

    As for popularity, I do believe you're correct. The vast majority of Amigas sold in the US were probably bought for/by professionals, for the aforementioned video production work. In Europe, the Amiga was far more widespread among consumers, and was even turned into a video game system as the CD32. Commodore did try and sneak the Amiga hardware into the US consumer market by way of the earlier CDTV (which contained the guts of an A500), but it never caught on.

    Quote Originally Posted by Niku-Sama View Post
    This is a system I've always been interested in but never found one. Since it appears that my good will is going to stay carrying computer stuff now i might have a chance at nabbing one
    Good luck with the search. For some reason, not many Amiga computers made it to the consumer market, at least here in the US. The A1000 I own is the only Amiga I've come across which definitely was home-used, rather than as part of a video production setup. If you find one, it'll likely be an Amiga 500; be sure it has a power supply brick with it, and look around for other accessories or software which might go with it.
    -Adam
    Last edited by AdamAnt316; 10-31-2015 at 10:40 AM.

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    Kirby (Level 13) Tanooki's Avatar
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    I've had an interest over the years, but never dipped into it. There was so much that got cross ported to DOS or a console that I just didn't jump onto it since it wasn't really much of a blip in the US compared to Europe. I have to admit I've always been curious, but not enough to halfass it screwing around with some lame emulator and ROMS. I do wonder what really is compelling at times on there that didn't make it in some form to the DOS and console arenas that's really so amazing to justify the thing, quality and quantity.

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AdamAnt316 View Post
    Good luck with the search. For some reason, not many Amiga computers made it to the consumer market, at least here in the US. The A1000 I own is the only Amiga I've come across which definitely was home-used, rather than as part of a video production setup. If you find one, it'll likely be an Amiga 500; be sure it has a power supply brick with it, and look around for other accessories or software which might go with it.
    -Adam
    Good advice Adam. As for me, if I can't find an A1200 for a reasonable price I think I'll just get another A500. It would be nice to have a backup. However, finding a reasonably priced A1200 or a backup A500 looks like its going to be a real challenge. I really scored this year and got a C64C as a backup for a great price from a collector in Germany. I wanted another C64 just in case my original 64 dies on me and I can't fix it. Just wanted to play it safe.
    Last edited by wizardofwor1975; 11-01-2015 at 05:45 PM.

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    Apple (Level 5) Gamevet's Avatar
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    I've had my Amiga 500 (512k expansion) since 1989. I got it (boxed) from some guy that was selling it in the Dallas Morning News classifieds. The Dallas area had 3 dedicated Amiga stores and a place that rented Amiga games, along with console games.

    I made a couple of gameplay videos from my Amiga last year. I couldn't film it with my capture device, so I ended up using a camera.

    Gauntlet II: This is an excellent port of the arcade game.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRrrc6EQmh8

    N.Y. Warriors: This is an overhead run n' gun game that utilizes the memory expansion (1 meg total) for the Amiga 500.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v81xKfSvYag

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamevet View Post
    Gauntlet II: This is an excellent port of the arcade game.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRrrc6EQmh8
    Excellent Amiga port. Gauntlet II on the Amiga was pretty much a spot on conversion of the original arcade game. I wish EA back in the day had made an Amiga version of Demon Stalkers and its sequel Fire King. Many people think Demon Stalkers was the best Gauntlet style game on the C64.

    http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http...php%3FID%3D670

    http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http...php%3FID%3D917

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    I could never get my cracked copy of Demon Stalkers to work on my C-64. It was a well know Gauntlet clone, that's for sure.

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    Cherry (Level 1) wizardofwor1975's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamevet View Post
    I could never get my cracked copy of Demon Stalkers to work on my C-64. It was a well know Gauntlet clone, that's for sure.
    You really should pick one up on Ebay. If you like Gauntlet you'll probably love Demon Stalkers. Its by far one of the best two player co-op games on the 64. Man I wish EA would have made an Amiga version. I also saw Fire King floating around on Ebay recently too. Fire King was such terrific sequel to Demon Stalkers. BTW, I like your videos.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEMON-STALKE...YAAOSwNSxVGcyK

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    Thanks!

    My Amiga videos don't seem to get a whole lot of love from the Youtube community. They sure love the PC stuff running newer games on older hardware though.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gamevet View Post
    They sure love the PC stuff running newer games on older hardware though.
    Wait... shouldn't that be older games on newer hardware?

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    I got a Amiga CD32 Ntsc model, but I think I need to replace the power caps.

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