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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 03:23:52 AM

Title: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 03:23:52 AM
Just thought id see.
Would be cool to speak to someone from that great long lost mag!
Was my fav miggy mag ever!  :-)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: odin on December 12, 2005, 08:55:17 AM
I think the former head-honcho is still around, Nick Veitch was it? Or was he an AF person?
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 09:03:26 AM
Nick Veitch was AF. It's funny how my mag reading changed as I got older. When I was younger and just playing games on my A500 I loved AP. I was too young to understand many of the jokes but I still enjoyed looking at the screenshots of all the cool new games and playing the coverdisk games  :-)

Then when AP died I moved on to AF for a while, which up until that point I only ever read when AP was out of stock at my local newsagent. I never really liked AF up to that point, but by the time AP died I had my A1200 and was starting to become more productive with my Amiga instead of just gaming. By this stage I appreciated the more "serious" reviews in AF.

The last Amiga mag I ever read, and the only one I ever subscribed to, was CU. This was overall my favourite Amiga mag ever. The magazine content was always great and the cover CDs were amazing. I built up quite a collection of magazines and CUCDs, all gone now unfortunately :-(

I liked the way CU called it a day while the mag was still great, unlike AP who held on to the bitter end. It was admirable of them to keep going as long as they could, but seeing the mag reduced to a stapled pamphlet was painful  :cry:

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: jmbattle on December 12, 2005, 11:00:35 AM
Yes, my reading habbits were rather similar.  I believe the first Amiga mag I read was AmigaPower after a family member brought one for me when I caught the flu.

From there, I progressed onto AmigaAction, although still enjoyed AmigaPower and occasionally AmigaFormat and TheOne.  At this point, the contents of the front coverdisk (and whether it came with one or two disks...) largely dictated my magazine buying habbits.

However, this eventually changed as I gradually became more interested in utilities and public domain (oh man, public domain!); for this CU-Amiga, Amiga Computing and AUI provided my staple miggy diet.

Gosh, to think of the hours I would spent sitting on the toilet reading Amiga magazines from cover to cover - those were the days!

James
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 11:07:02 AM
AUI never did it for me. It was almost as dull as Amiga Shopper :roll:

I too was often swayed by the content of the coverdisk. AP had some great ones in their day, as did AF and CU. Nothing will ever beat the feeling when you walk in to the newsagent and see a fantastic full game sellotaped to the front of AP  :-)

I just spent some time looking at auctions for old copies of CU on eBay. Almost brought a tear to my eye seeing the covers and floppies again.

Good times  :cry:

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Argus on December 12, 2005, 11:07:20 AM
Nick Veitch of Amiga Format fame is now the editor of (you guessed it)...Linux Format!  Check it out, it's the same kind of cheeky British humor that made those magazines so much fun.  Tony Horgan of CUAmiga/Amiga Format is still around (he recently posted some articles on his computer writing days).  Richard Drummond or CU/AF when last I heard lives in the Midwest and is working on LinuxUAE and AOS4 stuff.  Don't know whatever happened to Ben Vost (Nick's successor); but I suspect he's still around.  Simon Goodwin is also still around, afaik.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 11:14:16 AM
I like Linux Format. It does actually remind me very much of the Amiga mags in their hayday. It's nice to know some of the old crew are still involved in the Amiga.

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: nomore on December 12, 2005, 11:39:39 AM
This reminds me of how good the old Amiga community was. How many magazines do people read and they actually know the names/faces of the editors and writers.

I used to but CU and AF every issue. Ben Vost edited the 3D World magazine for a while after AF closed.

It's amazing how the magazine editors were sort of like celebrities... I don't know of many other places that would happen... apart from maybe people like Scott Kelby... and the new Podcasting crowd (Kevin Rose etc.)

Does anyone remember Amiga Pro magazine?... that was a really good techy mag... like AUI but it was a lot more interesting. I have 100's of Amiga mags in my attic...

...hmm maybe it's time to get them out.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 11:45:13 AM
Well, Im gonna have to have a look for those articles of Tony`s!  I may well have to look at Linux format too!

I still have all of my of CUCD`s and mags which i treasure to this day!  Still get a mag out now and then to help decide what to go hunting for on the net next!

If anyone wants some copies of CUCD`s pm me and would be glad to help sort something out!  Or if there is a lot of intrest, mabye could make a torrent of em.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 11:45:13 AM
Quote

nomore wrote:
This reminds me of how good the old Amiga community was. How many magazines do people read and they actually know the names/faces of the editors and writers.

I recognised the cheeky picture of Tony Horgan on cu-amiga.co.uk. I like that picture :evilgrin:

Quote

nomore wrote:
Does anyone remember Amiga Pro magazine?... that was a really good techy mag... like AUI but it was a lot more interesting.

I've never heard of it?

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 11:52:23 AM
@ Nomore

I think you hit the nail on the head there!  Indeed, the CU staff always wrote as if they were on your level and every mag had a feeling of `community` of sorts!

MicroMart in the UK is a PC mag i read these days and almost has a CU like feel to it with all there tutorials and stuff and even has a monthly Amiga section!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 11:52:35 AM
Quote

bilko9070 wrote:
If anyone wants some copies of CUCD`s pm me and would be glad to help sort something out!  Or if there is a lot of intrest, mabye could make a torrent of em.

I'm not sure that would be legal...

--
moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 11:56:03 AM
@ motorolin

The best features of the CUCD`s was all the readers contributions and scene games and demos etc so most of the content on them was in the public domain.

Im sure Tony would not mind!!

(http://www.cu-amiga.co.uk/images/team/tony.gif)

(http://www.davidickeforum.com/forum/images/smiles/bowdown.gif)(http://www.davidickeforum.com/forum/images/smiles/bowdown.gif)(http://www.davidickeforum.com/forum/images/smiles/bowdown.gif)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 11:58:11 AM
Fair enough. Just make sure you're not distributing copyrighted material, like CU's own content or commercial giveaways (which are still protected by copyright).

Plus, most of the PD content of the CUCDs is probably available on Aminet anyway.

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 12:08:00 PM
I have seen CUCD`s on ebay and ebid as well so you could keep an eye out if you want the real deal!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 12:14:15 PM
I was thinking of getting hold of some actually, but the only ones I could fine on eBay were floppies.

Ahhhhh, thumbing through a fresh mag looking at all the exciting new games and hardware while you wait for the coverdisk to boot up. Those were the days.

I vote we launch a new mag with 2 DD floppies sellotaped to the front in little  cellophane envelopes, and a box printed on the cover underneath the disks saying "No disks? Ask your newsagent"  :-)

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 12:15:34 PM
Quote

bilko9070 wrote:
Im sure Tony would not mind!!

(http://www.cu-amiga.co.uk/images/team/tony.gif)

That's the one. Very cheeky. He's cute :-P  :-)

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: jj on December 12, 2005, 12:54:18 PM
As far as I know ben vost moved to france to work for a 3d magazine.  I was lucky enough to meet him just before he did as he was giving away loads of free amiga stuff. Pretty cool guy, shared a beer and had a chat about the good old amiga days.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: on December 12, 2005, 02:11:00 PM
I know this is off-topic, but when I read the thread's subject, I could not help but utter an involuntary thought...

"CU_Amiga has a staff?"...  

(CU_Amiga the moron, not CU-Amiga, the magazine)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 02:13:34 PM
Maybe that's what the OP meant!  :lol:

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: chiark on December 12, 2005, 03:35:51 PM
I wasn't staff, but I used to write for them free-lance during my student days.  Those'd be the days when Dan Slingsby was in charge and, latterly, Andy Leaning.

I wrote a round-up of 3D renderers, reviews of accelerators and a couple of other bits.

I also wrote freelance for Amiga Computing, a magazine I'd enjoyed and respected for ages.  

As a student, being paid 10p a word was a fortune: 80 quid a page.  It seriously helped my student life, and coupled with the income from writing the driver for the tabby graphics tablet, and a part-time job at First Computer Centre, it kept me out of debt at university.

I guess I owe my debt-free start to life to the Amiga one way or another.  Wow!  :D

Cheers,
Nick.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 03:36:21 PM
CU_Amiga the moron??   :-?
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 03:46:16 PM
Quote

chiark wrote:
As a student, being paid 10p a word was a fortune

Did you write lots of articles with words like "of", "in" and "to" in them, to fit as many as possible in your column? And try to avoid works like "anthropomorphism" and "hypocondriac"?  :lol:

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 03:47:39 PM
Quote

bilko9070 wrote:
CU_Amiga the moron??   :-?

From what I gather he is a troll who has been banned from amiga.org. Don't worry, they're not deriding CU the mag :-)

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Zero on December 12, 2005, 03:55:10 PM
@JJ
I remember meeting Ben Vost once at a South West Amiga Users Group meeting, he was indeed a cool guy.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: chiark on December 12, 2005, 05:21:26 PM
Quote
Did you write lots of articles with words like "of", "in" and "to" in them,


Don't forget "a".  "a" is a classic word.

As an aside, CU Amiga never got used to me using "filenote" to provide captions for graphics.  Amiga Computing did...

Ahh, nostalgia.  

I shall try to resurrect the articles I wrote :D
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 05:38:14 PM
What name were you writing under (if you don't mind revealing your mild mannered alter ego :-) )

Would be interesting to see if I can remember the name!

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: chiark on December 12, 2005, 05:52:07 PM
"Nik Lines"...  No "C" made the name more cool, y'see.

I think I started in 1993 and finished in 1995.  A short but brilliant career, resulting from me sending things in from First Computer Centre to CU Amiga and them just saying, "look, can you write?"

Some of the stuff I wrote could have done with a bit more editing with reflection, but in my defence I was young and needed the money.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 06:08:25 PM
Hmmm no I don't remember the name, but I don't think I was reading CU then. I was a bit later on.

I always wanted to write for an Amiga mag. I was too young at the time though!

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: r6stu on December 12, 2005, 06:12:42 PM
CU was also my fav. At current I have almost 250 Amiga Mags,

including most CU Amiga issues (Every issues of the final year) over 200 cover floppies and 30 or so CU Amiga CDroms (Including the much metioned cd 6 with the virus included and the issue when they gave MAcOS7 and Mac Roms away  :roll: )

Lots of Amiga shopper and AUI and a few Amiga format.

If anyone requires any articales or info from any mag let me know and ill scan it in.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 06:17:28 PM
Quote

r6stu wrote:
If anyone requires any articales or info from any mag let me know and ill scan it in.

Yes please, can you scan that article by Nik Lines with 2187 instances of the word "a" please?  :-)

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: r6stu on December 12, 2005, 07:32:06 PM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Quote

r6stu wrote:
If anyone requires any articales or info from any mag let me know and ill scan it in.

Yes please, can you scan that article by Nik Lines with 2187 instances of the word "a" please?  :-)

--
moto



What Issue is it from?
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 08:42:25 PM
Sorry, should I have added tags to my previous post? :-P

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 12, 2005, 09:46:34 PM
Just out of intrest, where can i find this virus on CUCD6?  I have used that disk loads!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: AndrewKorn on December 12, 2005, 10:34:50 PM
It's good to see all our hard work is still remembered and appreciated after all this time. :)


Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Cyberus on December 12, 2005, 10:43:28 PM
Andrew Korn posted on here about a year ago, you might still be able to find the thread somewhere...

Very similar to this thread, with people reminiscing... :-)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: krize on December 12, 2005, 11:23:30 PM
The CU-Amiga was really great!! Cool to see you here Andrew :)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: itix on December 12, 2005, 11:38:44 PM
Andrew Korn? Hmmm....
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: bilko9070 on December 13, 2005, 12:56:24 AM
Well, thats a result!
Hello Andrew, glad to see you still into the Amiga scene!
Do you still speak to any of the other staff?

Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: jmbattle on December 13, 2005, 01:40:53 AM
As I became more techie and less of a gamer, I particularly liked reading the 'blue pages' in CU, especially the little introduction blurbs that the staff would write about their month.

Didn't AmigaPower do that also...gosh, and now I come to think of it, so did Zero - that was a great multi-format mag.

Cheers,
James
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: AmiGR on December 13, 2005, 01:52:46 AM
I actually think that my very English speaking habits (using british slang) is due to the fact that I'd been reading AF and CU WAY too much, while I was still learning the language. :-D
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: r6stu on December 13, 2005, 05:54:53 PM
Quote

bilko9070 wrote:
Just out of intrest, where can i find this virus on CUCD6?  I have used that disk loads!


They repressed it! Only a few 1000s or so made it with the production line.

I have two discs, one with, one without.

Unsure where the virus on it is!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Eclipse on December 13, 2005, 07:18:47 PM
Quote

jmbattle wrote:
As I became more techie and less of a gamer, I particularly liked reading the 'blue pages' in CU, especially the little introduction blurbs that the staff would write about their month.

Didn't AmigaPower do that also...gosh, and now I come to think of it, so did Zero - that was a great multi-format mag.

Cheers,
James

I too fondly remember the blue pages.There was an interview with someone (forget who) that predicted the PC would survive and become the dominant computer. And that was way back in the early 90's.
Amiga is still best of course.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: on December 13, 2005, 07:25:53 PM
Quote

Eclipse wrote:
I too fondly remember the blue pages.There was an interview with someone (forget who) that predicted the PC would survive and become the dominant computer. And that was way back in the early 90's.

It wasn't that big a stretch, because by the early 90's, EVERYONE, including Commodore, was making "IBM Compatible PC's" while you could only get an Amiga from Commodore...

Wayne

Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Argus on December 20, 2005, 11:44:15 AM
The best thing about CU and AF was that they inspired hope and kept the Amiga afloat.  Really, without them, I don't think the market would have lasted as long as it did.  Aside from the the re-introduction of Amigas by Escom, hardly anything the parent company(ies) ever did helped very much.  Just the opposite.  In the face of every parent company broken promise/misstep, there was always CU or AF to fall back to.  Here's to a job well done mates  :pint:
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: TonyDillon on April 19, 2007, 04:09:43 PM
Funny the stuff you find when doing random Googles...

Thanks for the kind words all.

Tony
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: amigakit on April 19, 2007, 04:19:34 PM
Welcome Tony
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Zero on April 19, 2007, 04:23:03 PM
Wow!

Welcome Tony  :-o
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: meega on April 19, 2007, 04:25:49 PM
Holy justifiable thread resurrection! Welcome.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: Agafaster on April 19, 2007, 05:02:41 PM
incredible isnt it !
I've just reciprocated that and googled you !

do you still have/use amigas/spectrums* ?




*for others, Tony did reviews for Sinclair User too...
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on April 19, 2007, 05:11:40 PM
Wow, hi Tony :-) Got a full copy of Putty Squad? :-P

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: TheMagicM on April 19, 2007, 06:12:30 PM
if they're still around they're a bunch of die-hards and crackpots!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: cpfuture on April 19, 2007, 06:59:22 PM
LOL! Very cool. CU Amiga was by far my favourite Amiga mag. I remember buying my first issue early in 1991, about a month or two before I got my first Amiga (an A500). I used to read it to death from cover to cover. The content was fantastic, the coverdisks were fabulous and it had that quirky humour only British magazines seem to have down so well. I remember grabbing each month's issue at the newsstand, and racing home on my bicycle as fast as I could where I would lock myself up in my room and read it immediately. It was pretty expensive here in the Netherlands (almost twice the UK price IIRC), but it was worth every guilder. All the coverdisk freebies and tutorials really did make me get the most out of my humble little Amiga and spark my interest in graphics, music and programming which I still have to this day. It was such a cool time. Looking at the mags and cover disks still manages to bring a nostalgic tear to my eye.  :-D

About a year ago I embarked on a frantic eBay bidding spree and managed to nearly compete the whole run including the cover disk floppies. Good times!
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: pixie on April 19, 2007, 07:55:55 PM
AndrewKorn and 'Beginner'... :roll: I'm a 'Technoid' :-P

Well CU was the best Amiga magazine ever and well worth the price, although it did cost the earth here in Portugal... around  10€ back in the days, I think the last number was for about 15€... healthy days they were... :-D
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: pixie on April 19, 2007, 07:58:18 PM
Quote

AmiGR wrote:
I actually think that my very English speaking habits (using british slang) is due to the fact that I'd been reading AF and CU WAY too much, while I was still learning the language. :-D

Funny you say that because it worked for me very much the same way...:-)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: jj on April 19, 2007, 08:25:00 PM
CU Amiga was the only Amiga mag I bought regularly.  I used to but the others now and again if I needed a fix and had read every word in CU amiga.  Was easily the best Amiga mag by a country mile.

To be fair AF was a good mag too and to be fair the only PC mag I read is PCF and it its of very much the same ilk.
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: TonyDillon on April 20, 2007, 10:20:53 AM
Bizarrely, every six months or so I get a yearning and go on a download trawl for emulators. Failing that, hit the car boot sales and buy it all over again.

I have to say, CU was the most fun place I ever worked. The team there was a real team, and I look back very fondly on the Kick Off tournaments that would run long into the night.

Happy days...

Tony
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: TonyDillon on April 20, 2007, 10:23:28 AM
Putty Squad! Man, how good THAT game was!

Tony
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on April 20, 2007, 10:27:11 AM
Did you ever get a full copy for review?

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: TonyDillon on April 20, 2007, 10:30:02 AM
To be honest, we rarely ever got full complete games for review. Remember, we were writing the reviews anything up to 8 weeks before the mag would hit the newsstand, and publishers wanted to be sure that reviews would hit slightly before actual game release. So we would get lots of gold releases, sometimes with minor little niggles.

I honestly couldn't say if I had a full version of Putty Squad, but I sure remember the game itself.

Tony
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on April 20, 2007, 10:43:54 AM
Quote
TonyDillon wrote:
To be honest, we rarely ever got full complete games for review .... we would get lots of gold releases, sometimes with minor little niggles. I honestly couldn't say if I had a full version of Putty Squad, but I sure remember the game itself.

I know a lot of Amiga users who paid for the game but never got it (myself included) would kill for a version, even one with minor niggles. If you ever find a copy please let us know :-)

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moto
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: McVenco on April 20, 2007, 10:58:57 AM
You can always try a SNES emulator and run that Putty Squad version on you Amiga. It's not the real thing, but it's close :-)
Title: Re: Do any staff from CU-Amiga browse these pages?
Post by: motorollin on April 20, 2007, 11:02:02 AM
I know but I want the Amiga version. The graphics and sound were better. Plus I paid for it  :-x

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moto