Hello

[dr.mushroom]

Hey, everyone. I've never posted an introduction on a forum before, but  this time, I thought it might be fun, and perhaps a bit necessary. ; )  So here it goes.

I guess you could say I'm sort of a "Joe  Everyman." I was born in 1990. My first computer was a Packard Bell  running Windows 95, and up until a couple of years ago, I had never even  heard of Commodore or the Amiga. Moreover, until I began  learning about vintage computers, I never thought about things like DOS,  BASIC, operating systems, GUIs, or anything else that actually makes a computer.

So  how did I get here? Well, I've always had an interest in computers.  Growing up in the 90s, I can remember a time when computers were "cool."  Typically I remember seeing hip, skateboarding teenagers in dark rooms  with half-a-dozen monitors, furiously typing random lines and somehow  hacking mainframes or the like. It was always something that intrigued  me, but I never understood just exactly what the hell was going on. The  only thing my computer did was play solitaire. lol

Ultimately,  though, it was my love of video games that introduced me to Commodore,  Amiga, and vintage computers in general. Growing up, I had everything  from NES to PS2, but several years ago I started actively collecting  again, and it wasn't too long after surfing the net I stumbled upon the  Commodore 64. Something that apparently had quite a significant impact,  on the market and also people's lives, but I was totally unaware of.

About  a year later, I came across one in a thrift store and my journey into  this realm began. Since then, pretty much the way it's worked is: I come  across something I've read a little about, I buy it, and then I spend  days trying to figure it out. Currently, I have several different  machines, but it's the Amigas which seem to really peak my interest.

Basically  all of the above combined is why I'm here. I have quite a bit of  interest in the Amiga, but practically 0 experience with it, and I'm  hoping this is the place to learn. I've registered to a couple of other  sites, but the members there haven't been as helpful as I had hoped.

Most of my posts will be help-related. I apologize for any/all ignorance, and I thank you all, in advance.

[dr.mushroom]

Thanks for the welcome, lassie.

For consoles I have the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Master System, Genesis, PS1, and PS2. Plus a few variants and duplicates.

For computers I have the C64 (and 64C), A1000 (just got for free a couple of days ago!), A1200, and a TI-99 with no software. Plus a few random, more "modern" ('94 - '99) machines that I've picked up at yard sales and what-not for storage and experimenting with Linux.

[dr.mushroom]

This kind of warm welcome is exactly why I decided to invest my time in amiga.org. : )

Welcome dr.mushroom, I hope your experience with the Amiga will be great.
We will do our best to help you when you got questions

I see you have an A1200, tell us what you have for it and what you have done with it and what you expect from it

With  the exception of a keyboard replacement, the machine is stock. I bought  it with a good bit of software - about 50/50 games and productivity,  plus about an equal amount of blank floppies (awesome), and the boxed  "Desktop Dynamite" package.

Actually most of my time with the  A1200 has been spent just trying to find a proper display. I'm in the  US, and my machine is PAL (luckily I was able to come across this  locally, so I avoided the shipping cost). At the time, all I had was a  1702, and a pair of 1902As, and I made the mistake of not considering  the difference between digital and analog RGB, or the difference in  connectors. (I wasn't kidding when I said this is new to me. lol) So  because I didn't have an analog RGB monitor, I really couldn't get any  of the games to run.

I decided NOT to use eBay because shipping  was a pretty consistent $50, and I'm sorry.. but no thank you. My  alternative was to post a wanted ad for "Commodore 1084 or Similar," and  within about 6 weeks, someone offered me their entire A1000 setup,  "Free to a good home." This included, but was not limited to, a boxed  1080. So, now that I have a proper display, I can start experimenting.

I'm  not really sure what I plan to do to it in the future. I'd like to  get an accelerator, but just because I have a game that generates  landscapes, and it takes a while. lol Honestly, I'm not even sure what's  possible.

Really I expect to just have fun trying to understand  it. Being a curious type of person, I get a lot of satisfaction from  figuring things out - and learning something foreign is a great way to  understand what(ever) happens to be taken for granted.

And, of  course, I like the look on my friend's faces when they say they stayed up all night playing Xbox, and I say, "I stayed up all night  trying to learn command-line interface." ; )