Poll - is anyone a new Amiga user?

[Anding]

I would like to start a poll but I can't see how to do it on the site unfortunately.  I'm curious as to whether any amiga.org visitors were not owners of original amiga hardware (i.e up until A1200 and A4000).  Reason being - is there any good reason for new people to be interested in the "Amiga" these days, or is the only reason to perpetuate the concept of "Amiga" to do with some kind of individual sentimentality?

Questions would be:

Did you own or use an original Amiga machine (ie, 1000, 500, 600, 1200, 3000, 4000, etc., or variants)?
- YES
- NO

Sorry to say it but my guess is that most people who want to see the Amiga as a modern o/s actually just want a time machine to take themselves back to their youth!

Anding

-- Deliberately provocative only for the sake of discussion :-)

[quarkx]

YES, I am a new Amiga user. I just got into the Amiga within the last year. I got into the scene because I inherited a A1000, and A500 when a friend's father (who was a big Amiga fan) past away and knew I would love it, being the computer geek I am. I have been hooked ever since. I admit I am still learning the software end, but I am having too much fun with the hardware and have gotten a couple of A2000's since.

[tone007]

I hadn't touched an Amiga before November of last year when I got my first one, an A500+. Since then, I've acquired quite a few more.

I grew up with a C64 though, so the Commodore name has a bit of a ring to it for me.

I imagine anyone interested enough in computers but bored with the current stuff (and it is fairly boring) might be interested in playing with some old, interesting technology for fun.

[quarkx]

tone007 wrote:
I imagine anyone interested enough in computers but bored with the current stuff (and it is fairly boring) might be interested in playing with some old, interesting technology for fun.

Too true!
I came from a TRS 80 Color Computer background. Even though the CoCo is a fascinating platform, and has a Unix, multitasking OS (Microware's OS '09), there was only so far you could go with the MC6809 processor. Factor in the cost of a simple floppy drive expansion will cost well over $100 these days (the only real expensive piece of hardware). You find that it gets you only so far. If Tandy would have brought out a CoCo 4, and upgraded to a true 16 bit processor (MC68000) and put an internal 3.5 " floppy and put a full size keyboard with a nice GUI to OS09, what would you have gotten?- Oh wait! - A A500!!!! :lol:

[darksun9210]

nope, old user here sorry. ;-)
havn't been amiga free since 1988, went Vic20 to A500. what a jump! :-D

[Naton]

I am a new Amiga 'owner', as the only one I'd used previously belonged to my dad when I was very little. I don't remember much about it except for the games, and I bought an A500 recently purely for the sake of running some of them (Could have just used an emulator, but I like these things to be authentic ;-)). But as it turns out, once I got it I fell in love with the hardware instead! It's great fun pulling these old things apart, getting them looking like new, all the weird and wonderfull add-ons you can find.
So while not technically being new to the Amiga, I have come back to it for new reasons :-)

[r0jaws]

New user here too.

Bought a 1200 at a car boot sale out of curiosity about 4 years ago and have been playing ever since.

I've had most of the variants, 500's 500+'s, 600's and my trusty 1200's. I also own a 2000 now, which I have been tinkering away with quite happily over the last year.

I only have my favorite 1200 and the 2000 left though, I'm not into hoarding kit I don't need.

In fact, although I have had great fun restoring and improving it, I have been thinking of selling the 2000 on. It's fun, but I spend more time on my pimped 1200, and I'm sure someone else might enjoy it.

[Jambalah]

I touched my first computer playing "Forbidden forest"..
Clearly, it was a Commodore 64 and we were near 1981 if I remember well.
Then Amiga 500 in 1989 but I could buy it only in the 1990, when I started to work. Sorry guys...although I own a
couple of A3000, I think that's the REAL Amiga (aka: THE BEST!). Obviously, my judge is forced by good, old memories... Sigh....
Actually, I use Amiga 1200 (mod, mod mod...) and Amiga 500 (!!!) to play, play, play!!!! :lol:
The Amiga 3000s and the Amiga 4000 are going to pass their check up (problems...), the Amiga 600 is there (I think I will sell... dunno..), the A 1200 Power Tower is going to receive a Blizzard PPC (if things will go well...).
And last... I have a little idea.. I want to mod an Amiga 500.. How?!? I'll let you know when my project is complete ;-)
So, the answer is that I think to be a old Amiga user.... :lol:

[Gebrochen]

I would consider myself a new user o the scene, as I am learning as I go.

A1000was my farthers machine, and I always played games on it. If I had to use software for homework, it was he who set up printer, internet(via a supra modem) etc.

Then in my mid teens I totally stopped using it, and played games on windows.

However, I had always disliked windows OS, I only liked playing the games.

Then my farther passed away, and we had to clean out his factory, whereby I mentioned to mother, we can keep it for now,and throw it later.

In the end, I couldnt get rid of the A1000, as I started playing the games again, reminising the good times I had with many people on it.

Recently, I have been so fed up with other os's, all the eye candy, but less functionality, etc, that I was in the hope of one day buying a new amiga system.

Then the day came that I thought would not arrive soon enough, SAM440EP and Amiga OS4.1 for sale.

SO, now I am using it, turned off compositing 3d engine for my menus, and have had virtually no problems since.

So, I am like inbetween a new user and old. I never had anything inbetween for about ten years or more.

I read many here have had like countless other amiga machines inbetween before getting the new hardare and os4.1

Not the case for me, so I am often ringing an amiga club member here to get help on things.

I have since decided to learn all the shell codes, and have decided to try and Understand Arexxx.

Cheers. :-D

[adz]

n00bs :-P :lol:

[InTheSand]

ZX Spectrum 48K (1984), ZX Spectrum 128K (1986), Atari ST (1988), Amiga A500 (1989), empty bit in 1992-1993 and a brief return to 8-bitters (ZX81, Speccy again), Amiga 1200 (1994) which I still have, then further A1000, A1200s x several, A500s, A600, A3000 since then!!!

note: only what I've owned, not what I've used!

Definitely an oldster as far as Amigas go! And definitely the most interesting platform I own. Favourites are the A1000 and A1200.

 - Ali

[quarkx]

quarkx wrote:

Too true!
I came from a TRS 80 Color Computer background.

So Sorry, I forgot to mention, that over in the UK, the CoCo was rather non-existent. But they did have the Dragon, and that's basically the same computer as the CoCo. In all my CoCo collecting, I never did manage to hunt down an NTCS Dragon, even though there is or was a US retailer that still has NOS USA dragons for sale. Oh well.

[NovaCoder]

Yes I'm an new Amiga user.  Got my first Amiga (a new 1200 from AmigaKit) this year!

It's a steep learning curve but I'm having a lot of fun catching up on years of classic gaming  :-)

If I was rich I would also be buying a SAM but as I'm skint I won't be doing that for a while.

[amigakit]

@NovaCoder
Thanks :-) Hope you are having fun with your A1200

[redfox]

@Anding

Long time Amiga owner/user.
Purchased A2000HD almost 20 years ago.
Purchased MicroA1+OS4 almost 4 years ago.

Currently running OS 4.1 on the MicroA1. :-D
---
redfox