1988. A friend of mine, ex-C64 kid, bought an Amiga 500, with the A501 and a second disk drive. The whole thing cost him a pretty penny back then. I think the computer was 1200$, the expansion 250$ and the drive 150$. I was just starting high school, the NES was still going strong and the MegaDrive was just around the corner. I bugged my parents day and night for one until I got home one day and my dad had bought one, with Altered Beast which came with the system at the time. I said a quick "kthxdad" and disappeared in my room for the next month. I got to talk with my friend, and he was all "my computer can do better videogames than your Genesis". I was shocked, insulted, and shocked again. So I brought my Genesis at his place and showed him Altered Beast in all its 32 colors glory. Then he showed me Shadow of the Beast.....
...
F*CK!
So I came home and bugged my parents for an Amiga
We found a friend of a friend who had a friend of a friend whose son used to plow the snow from a cousin's friend of a friend who had a 1000 for sale. Expanded to 1mb, additional disk drive, 1200 bauds modem, color printer and about 200 disks.
We then set off to make videogames! We failed miserably...really miserably.
My friend wanted to sell his 500 at some point, he needed money for god knows what. So I sold my 1000 to my cousin, and bought the 500 with the money. I got it modified with a fatter agnus for PAL support and 1mb chip. I was finally able to see the HUD in Blood Money
Sold the 500 to a friend about 2 years later after discovering girls, alcohol and weed in high school.
Flash forward to 1995-6. A girlfriend introduced me to rave parties, piouu piouu piouuu 303 basslines and what not. I remember thinking "wtf!? I was doing that on the 500 in 91". So I phoned my friend, bought back my 500 and started making techno with the intention of getting rich and famous. I enjoyed a few years of semi-stardom in the local rave scene, too young and undisciplined to actually make it onto a real label and stuff.
Eventually got a 2500$ settlement in court for unlawful termination at a job. Bought a brand spankin' new state-o'-the-bleepin'-art Pentium 233 MMX and I was set to conquer the world. Sold my 500....again.
Then emulation became good enough so that I could play a couple of amiga games on my PC. That was in 2000 or 2001 I think. I knew I had to buy an mig again. Scanned the local ads for weeks until I found a 1200.
And ever since then I've been picking up old amigas here and there for the fun of it. Sometimes selling one cause I don't use it... but never again will I go Amiga-less! Right now I'm at 4, with 500, 600, 1000 and 1200.
There.. so now you know my whole life
