The meaning of Amiga for me...
After using Vic20, C64, Apple IIe, 8086 and after owning Timex Sinclair 1000, Tandy Micro-Color Computer (MC-10), and Tandy Color Computer III, Tandy Model 102, the Amiga was in all of it's glory, spectacular when compared to the rest.
While in the Navy, back in 1986, a newly assigned sailor arrived on board the ship I was stationed on. We quickly found that we had common interests in astronomy, computers and electronics.
He kept telling me about how awesome his Amiga computer was compared to the Axis of Evil's offerings of the time. At that time, I had never even heard of an Amiga. I'm sure in the back of my mind I was thinking "better than Apple or IBM - No Way!" A week later he brought the A1000 on board the ship to "show it off". It was already booted up when I walked into the room where he had it set up. I didn't even get to sit down and he ran the "boing" demo...
WOW! In an instant my audio and visual sensory systems were completely overwhelmed, my knees began to weaken, my arms started shaking and tears of joy welled up in my eyes!
...and it didn't stop there! Next thing I knew, a click is made a CLI prompt appears and a moment of typing and Damn! That computer just said "Hello" to me.
The mouse, the highly engineered case with the garage for the keyboard, all of those wonderful, marvelous colors and rapidly moving graphics. I thought to myself... The Future is now! We will have a man on Mars within the decade! Where can I get an Amiga?
Then I found out how much one would cost and checked my wallet... bummer!
Then I found out that another sailor on the ship had an A1000 also and was looking for some quick cash! Deal done!
Now the proud owner of a very slightly used A1000, 1084, 1010 and a whole pile of software! Oh heck, who needs sleep anyway! Hours and hours I toiled away at the keyboard of my new electronic little friend. Soon other people came to see the two shipboard Amigas in action. Eventually the two A1000s were joined by an A2000, then an A2500. At one time there were five sailors with Amigas on a ship with a crew of 250.
I also remember many trips to Warner's in San Diego to see the latest Amigas, Accessories, software and etc. I also remember buying a lot of Fred Fish disks at a small shop in Chula Vista, CA. Unfortunately I can not remember the name right now.
I left the scene for quite a long time but kept my A1000 in dry storage. I now have a four A2000s, two A1000s, two A500s, two A1200s, one A600 and a CDTV.
I can honestly say that Jay Miner and his dream which became the Amiga, really changed my life. I have met many good friends and interesting people whom I probably would not otherwise have never met. I have learned things that I would not have learned. I'm sure that the knowledge I gained through the use of the Amiga gave me an edge in the job market. Now I can even pay some nostalgic games with my son (unfortunately he still doesn't recognize the superiority of the Amiga over the XBox. Perhaps with time.)
As for what the future holds...
It pains me to see the the sad dealings of A. Inc and all of the other posers. It further pains me to see the suffering that this has brought to the few, faithful, supportive Amigans left. I just want to let the loosers know that they can never take away all of my fond Amiga memories.
I also want to say thanks to the Jay's Carl's and Dave's of the world who have given so much in return for so little. It is extremely good to see that people like Jens, Oliver, Jerri and Dennis still pressing forward and turning their visions into reality like their predecessors.
Thank you!
AmigaEd
BTW... Gary B. if you every read this. Thanks for the boing! Demo!
