PeeCee Gamers ha! What a funny bunch eh. lol!

[Siggy]

In the early 90's I upgraded my computer to a 2000 with an 030 - 8m of ram (IIRC) and 60meg HD.
I got this for around 2,000 aus.
Comparitively this isn't terribly unreasonable compared to buying the latest PC and accessories at the time.
You couldn't even compare games at the time - platformers on the PC were jerky and chunky (Duke Nukem 1). In the 3d arena you had Flight Sim, which you could put up against F18A flight interceptor, which was getting dated even then, and compare them very favorably.

With Wolfenstein I watched people throw money hand over fist for 486 dx 100's, and again to upgrade when DOOM came out.
You think the fervor for OS4 is high -- nothing compared to the slavering masses upgrading their PC's to play DOOM.

Again later - the onslaught of upgrades to play QUAKE, and the quest for max screen rate for Duke Nukem 3D.

My belwilderment was that people had upgraded two to three times - spent many thousands of dollars - to essentially play the same game three times. It continues to this day.

My 2000 lasted me till 97-98 (when leaving the country also meant leaving the platform - and all things computer for a while). 2000 bucks well spent. Never broke down - never needed an upgrade - and it filled my every need.

The upgrade syndrome continues - I put together an edit suit for commecial quality video production. It has cost a pretty penny to put together, and yet when I'm asked the specs on it by gamers, I get:
"uR b0x3n SuX0Rz!!!!"
Apparently I'm not up to standard to play the latest FPS game in it's full glory....  We may have waited nearly a decade for a new OS, but these guys have been playing the same game for as long!

I don't get it.....

Siggy.

[Siggy]

Not so much a gaming story per se, and will probably date me... but it's amusing, and does show how even the humble 1000 was ahead of it's time.

When the Amiga had it's first showing at the Austrialian PC Show in Sydney I took the day off my work from my first job and went down... At the beginning of that day I didn't know what an Amiga was - and nor did many other people.
Thanks to the values instilled from my dear Mum, I had been made my first steps into the adult world with a savings account and a sound budget. I'd given myself the kingly sum of $20 to go to the show, have lunch, and see a movie (and still have some change).
I watched the 'boing ball' bounce in it's window, along with the 'lines' being drawn and the 'boxes' filling and was mesmerized.
I RAN (not walked - RAN) to the nearest bank and plundered my bank account. That day I pre-ordered my first Ami.
 On returning home I was asked if I had a good day I replied 'Yes' - I was asked 'did you spend all your money' - my best friend started busting up... I had to smack him upside the head to shut him up.

Set the clock forward a bit - Same city - same show.. several years and a stint of military service later. I see a demonstration of Windows (3.1?) going on.  Amoungst the 'oohs' and 'ahhhhs' of the crowd there is a single unimpressed ex-soldier sitting there... 'That ain't no big deal' He says.
'What?'
'That ain't no big deal - Does it multi task?'
Man clicks open Word and a clock - 'There, need any more proof?' (crowd nods it's approval)
'Did the clock stop when you clicked in word?'
'Ahm ahhh'
'Can you run word, unpack a disk, connect to a bbs, run a paint program, and assemble 300k of assem code at the same time?'
In a flurry of mouse clicks the demonstrator tries to open everything he possibly can, before being met with a 'general protection fault'
He then waves over to a few security guys who kindly ask the ex-soldier to leave.

I've had to use Win3.1 to 95 at work through differing jobs, I never had a problem with the x86 per se - but I never liked the Win interface.. it was never a joy to use.
Even now when I *have* to have Windows running at home, it's never that 'fun' experience that I used to look forward too. That machine is a tool, it's not 'my computer' nor will it ever be.

If programming assem on the Ami was like whittling (where you enjoy passing the time and then look on in wonderment afterwards at what you've created), then assem on the x86 is like masturbating with a cheesegrater.

Siggy

[Siggy]

@Desmon

What's more, formatting a floppy under Win2kPro these days still kills everything else.

There are a lot of things that do this.. it's amazing. One of the edit systems I use at work (when I can't get on the Avid) runs on WinNT (one day they will fess up and reveal that this in fact stands for 'nearly there').
When I digitize video the clock stops.

I work in News - which is time critical.. everytime I use that machine I'm getting burned thinking I have '5 more minutes' to get a story done.

I think the strength of the Amiga is not just pre-emptive multi tasking at the OS level -- it was doing it at the hardware level, and the OS was designed to take advantage of this.

The proof is there for anyone that used a WAITBLIT macro in assembly - where you stop your program and wait for the blitter to finish it's work.

I also believe things like this made the code smaller - a handfull of registered passed to blitter and it's happily processing your graphics while your program continues.
Same goes for copperlists - set and forget.

Note on the copper - I've yet to use any system that was so flexible in it's video formatting or the ability to smoothscroll so effortlessly (and with such a tiny impact on the hardware).

If they're out there - I've not programmed one. It was things like that where with but a tiny fraction of knowledge you could throw up something that was (compared to the competition of the day) incredible.

oh, and 68k assem was a thing of beauty and joy..

Ok - enough reminiscing - I'm firing up Devpac :-P

Siggy

[Siggy]

What version of WinNT?

Be more than happy to get back to you with that - I've sent an Email off to our IT staff for relevant details.
(This is a machine at my work - they'd know what's been done to it and what hasn't far better than I)

An Amiga with just chipram; i.e. this bus has to be shared with customs co-processors chips and CPU.

This should sound familiar to the modern PC.
 

Which was my point - That it was ahead of it's time.

- Note in my post I spoke of what the Amigas strengths were... I don't recall saying 'unlike modern PC's' in that post.

The only point I made on the PC side of things is that the clock stops when I'm digitizing video -- something that shouldn't happen be it an OS problem or a programming problem.
(I don't have this problem on my home system -- which is a PC that I built for the purpose - running XP -- Although I don't use the same editing software at home).

Siggy.

[Siggy]

You could press Windows key + Pause button (at same time) for obtaining WinNT's release version...

Have to have a look see later when that machine is available (I'm not afforded the luxury of having a dedicated edit bay - not yet anyways  ;-)

@KingTutt & Hammer
Component prices have dropped rapidly over the the past 10 years - and I find myself sometimes trying to recall the prices I bought things for -- what was heinously expensive today is tomorrows junk.
The 400 I have in my clunker was once in my brother in laws 'super game box'.

But if you ever think you're getting ripped off - consider these purchases (in Oz at the time too):

1982 - C64 - $300
1983 - 1541 drive $344.50 (I remember that one exactly)
1983 - 300 baud modem - $250
            Amber monitor $150
1984 - 300/1200 baud modem (auto answer) $350
1984 - Pet 1001 drive  (x2) $400 each
1985 - Pet HD 5mhz (canna remember model) $500
 
So even 'bargain hunting' I spent a couple of grand all
up on a C64 system (I ran a bbs on it - probably still listed in some old 64 mags somewhere)..

Feel better now?

Siggy