It's not fun any more

[tone007]

I'm sure you've probably explained this before (so feel free to just post a link to the post), but what got you into it in 2007?

I think I might've a long ways back, but a quick search doesn't find anything but a one liner from me on the subject.

Basically I started out on a C64 in the mid-80s like so many others, so the names Commodore (and Amiga, from screenshots on gameboxes) were names I saw early.  Eventually in the 90's I got into IT as a career (still doing it today, as well,) and a couple of years ago I was pretty bored with all things computer when I suddenly had the inspiration to check Craigslist for retro stuff.  First item I saw was an Amiga 500+, figured I'd seen enough screenshots of the games and would finally see an Amiga in person.  Messing around with the previously unknown to me hardware and OS kind of got me reinterested in computers in general, it was a good feeling, so I kept right on playing with Amigas (and plenty of other old machines, though Amiga seems to be the only one that stuck.)

[AmigaEd]

so I kept right on playing with Amigas (and plenty of other old machines, though Amiga seems to be the only one that stuck.)

No further explanation needed...

[Duce]

I've been a user since 1986. I just tossed most of my Amiga shit in the dumpster. Fuck it. I've spent more time performing repairs than anything else. Time to move on. Winuae.

Can't say I blame you, lol.  My first Amiga was a 16mhz A3000 the day they came out, it changed my world.  Went through 2 A4000's after that, including a very expanded PPC/060/CV one I sold in the late 90's, along with a few A2000's.

Few years ago, I got the bug back up my ass for some nostalgia.  Bought an A1200 off ebay a year or two back, invested in a PPC board, BVision.  Waste of time and money, for me.  When it did work, it didn't bring much nostalgia for me.  Bought a SAM after that, and not even getting much use out of it lately.  I was constantly screwing with that A1200 to figure out what the issue was.  Sold the parts off, the 1200 mobo is in the shed covered in dust.

Way I see it, there's 2 distinct camps of Amiga users.  The 'Click and clackers", the guys that get a groovy feeling off hunting and pecking on an all original Amiga.  Then there's guys like me, and I suspect you - that like to sit down and play a game, write a bit of code, run a BBS in my case - with reliability, small footprint, and relative silence under modern hardware with no dodgy patches or things, USB, CD, NIC support all in there from tits to tail.  I respect anyone who has fun with this old stuff, whether it is via old hardware or emulation.

WinUAE is great for guys like me, because it does exactly that  

Honestly, the most fun I've had in a long time is this old mini itx box I built that boots right into WB 3.1 off a stripped XP install.  Best of all, it's no bigger than a Mac mini, my G19 keyboard and G 9 mouse work on it.  The reason I like it is also the reason purists dislike WinUAE - this mini itx rig doesn't feel like an Amiga in the least, makes no clicking and clacking sounds or floppy clicks, etc.  Just a wee little box hooked to the back of my KVM that runs better than any amiga I could ever have bought.

Different strokes for different folks.  Respect the past while expecting the future.

[orb85750]

Personally, I like original hardware whenever it's an option -- even if it's much more work.  Think hard before you throw history away in the dumpster and opt for an imitation.  You may regret it later.

[Digiman]

All I can say is buying misdescribed 'untested' crap off ebay decades after manufacture and then having problems with it <> Amiga is pure shit.

I've never had Agnus/Denise/Paula fail on any of my OCS/ECS machines bought new and ditto for Lisa/Alice/Denise on my A1200 or A4000 I bought in the 90s. I have had many many graphics cards burn out just because a PC was left switched on for 2 days (just showing the desktop, not actually doing anything) though.

So really I never ever had  a problem with any of the machines I bought new, I have had dodgy machines bought off ebay second hand but that's not the machine's fault it is the fault of sellers being twats.

Always suspicious of people selling used computers or cars, they usually sell due to a fault that only they know about to get out of repair costs.

[Matt_H]

Think hard before you throw history away in the dumpster

At the very least, think of the environmental consequences. Better to send it to a new home than the landfill.

[whabang]

U mad?

Why toss stuff with collector's value in the dumpster instead of selling it?:angry:
Also, you're not alone. I sold all of my stuff over five years ago. UAE works just as well for the little interest I still have in the Amiga.

[Louis Dias]

My only Amiga was a CD32 I bought when they came out in the US.  Used it daily with an SX-1 expansion and was on the internet on it.  Then in '97, I learned how to throw together PC's and install Win95.

My CD32's bigfoot powersupply had a twitchy connector and the SX-1 connection was also delicate and caused frequent crashes and corrupted hard drives so switching to Win95, though dismaying, proved more 'reliable'.  My IT career was just taking off but I always keep an eye on the scene.  I was a registered user here back since 96 or 97 but somehow needed a new account in 2002 after possibly being inactive for a year or 2.

Natami is the only product I'm considering buying to get back in to the scene officially.  No rush though.

[koaftder]

I did toss a bunch of stuff in the trash but honestly almost all of it was broken to begin with and stuff I repaired. I got nice and drunk last night, much apolgies for my curse laden rambling on the forum. I'll slink off and nurse this hangover.

[Ral-Clan]

I've been a user since 1986. I just tossed most of my Amiga shit in the dumpster. Fuck it. I've spent more time performing repairs than anything else. Time to move on. Winuae.

I can totally relate.  In 2008 I finally jumped (reluctantly at first) to UAE after my A2000 finally experienced one too many technical problems and an HD controller card and attached drives were fried.  I had been through this many times before....but each time it became more and more of a drain to trace down hard to find and expensive parts on Ebay or from far-away dealers.  Harder to take when a similar (but more advanced) PC part could be had from the corner computer store instantly, or pulled from someone's garbage for free.

Believe me...I tried for more than a decade to keep the machine going and treated it like a baby....but it was the mix of being an isolated Amiga user in a small town with no local support and no easy source of spare parts (ever tried calling around looking for old SCSI drives or CD burners to your local computer store and heard a moment of silence at the other end as they tried to remember what SCSI meant?)

I love the Amiga, but the hardware wasn't reliable anymore...

I do think Amigas are pretty well-made machines, but my A2000 was expanded to the point that when I opened it up almost every square inch was crammed with a card or a cable going this way and that.  There were so many expansions hanging off of it that it seemed like a tightrope act to keep it going.

Maybe a more simple machine, like an unexpanded A500 (or with minimual expansions and hacks) would be easier to maintain.

Also, I dreaded opening the machine.  Even though I was super careful and kept the inside and outside spotless, it would seem that no matter how careful I was, every time I closed it up again there was always a problem.  The machine would greet me with a non-booting black screen until I could trace down the problem (usually something had become unseated).

By that point I had been waiting two years for the Natami to be released, hoping to keep my A2000 working until I could buy one.  No luck of course.  So I had no real choice but to migrate to UAE.  Not a bad choice considering it's been two more years and the Natami is still to be released.

So, I did switch to UAE and it's been really great. Not 100% perfect but very very VERY close....and it offers speed and expandability that I could never have imagined.  I am actually running MORE Amiga applications than I used to with my real Amiga because it is so easy to have many different configurations....i.e. a "classic" WB1.3 setup and an OS3.9 setup with RTG on the same machine.  Plus if the PC hardware UAE is running on ever fails I can just go buy a cheap used PC (or get one for free) and move my "virtual" Amiga's hardfile to it pretty instantly.  Voila - instantly up and running again - no more reliance on proprietary hardware.

Like you, I did get very frustrated with hardware failures on my real Amiga, so I can understand.  Fortunately I did not "bin" my hardware though.  I had meant to sell it to cover the cost of the PC I had to buy for WinUAE, but I haven't and now that it's been several years the memory of the frustration has worn off and maybe I'll set up a real hardware Amiga again if I get the space (just a minimal A500 system for tracker music and DPAINT and games).  Maybe...

[cv643d]

"Remember when computing was fun" lol just kidding...

It is important to remember to not dig a hole to deep if you are going to enroll yourself in this hobby.

On paper a maxed out A4000T with PPC and occupied Zorro slots incl PCI sounds like a great idea, most often that is not what a typical next millennia Amiga user needs. It will take a lot of space, use a lot of energy (110watt + ), and in some ways do the stuff you want to do with it worse than a basic A1200 with turbo/fast-mem.

I am happy with my A1200 060, suits me like a glove for what I need it for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P7aqoQGVhs

I got PCMCIA/CF-converter with FAT filesystem, can transfer files easy to the Amiga, no need for messy network. Indivision with HighGFX, no need for RTG boards and big box system, do you really want to spend a week perfectioning a PNG WB anyways?! is that fun? WB3.1 so you get total control of your setup and old school icons that looks good in either hires or hires laced. And most important, I get 100% perfect sound without screwing with WinUAE.

And finally the best thing with it, once I am tired of it, I can put it in a box in my closet until the next time I am ready to remember have fun again with a computer.

[Franko]

What are you guys doing to your miggies that cause them to break down so much

3 of my A1200s are the original Commodore ones bought brand new when they first came out and the other 4 are Escom/Amiga Technologies (I think) that I purchased about a decade ago and not one of them has ever developed a single fault...

The only stuff I've ever had that breaks down are monitors & printers, monitors are easily fixed but the printers tend to go in the bucket...

[Thorham]

You guys sure like Amigas, that for sure...

Anyway, my A1200 setup (Blizzard 1230 IV, 40 GB HD, 52x 32x 52x speed CD rewriter, RGB to VGA adapter, Coolermaster 460 Watt PSU and a PCMCIA network card) is as solid as a rock. I've only had to replace the mobo once in 15 years (was already second hand), which wasn't expensive (35 euros, including postage). You guys must be doing something wrong :lol:

I'll stick with the Amiga for as long as properly working A1200 mobos can be bought, or when some proper replacement becomes available (Minimig AGA with faster CPU, or Natami).

Of course it's not a nostalgia thing for me. I've had an Amiga ever since I got into it back in the day, and had one as my only computer up to 2005. Guess you're an Amiga freak or you're not

[Franko]

@ thorham

That's one of the weird things I don't quite get is why the Amiga is referred to in terms such as retro or nostalgia on the forums... :confused:

Until June of this year I'd never owned any other type of computer other than my Amigas and use them every day, so to me I can hardly call it retro or using it for nostalgia as it always has been my main computer...

[Ral-Clan]

@ thorham

That's one of the weird things I don't quite get is why the Amiga is referred to in terms such as retro or nostalgia on the forums... :confused:

Until June of this year I'd never owned any other type of computer other than my Amigas and use them every day, so to me I can hardly call it retro or using it for nostalgia as it always has been my main computer...

It's not a retro-hobby for me either.  My VIC-20 is my "nostalgia" computer.  The Amiga is still a productive computer for graphics and music.  Hence the need to have a reliable system - so that's why I am using UAE...I can get the music and graphics stuff done fast and reliably with Amiga software.

[fishy_fiz]

@Franko

I think the potential problems come more from a heavily expanded amiga. Simple accelerator, hdd and optical drive based systems (plus zorro cards if theyre available) are usually nice and reliable. Start adding "hack" based upgrades and things can start being a bit less friendly. Well, that's the general rule of thumb at least. I was a bit more lucky myself, but if friends experiences are anything to go by I was the exception. My grex1200 got pretty hot, but it was quite reliable.

Thinking about it though I did have trouble with my sx-1 module. It'd only detect when it felt like it, and the enable/disable switch did absolutely nothing (it'd still work when disabled, or not work when it was enabled, or vice versa, depending on its mood).

As for retro/not retro, I dont think that's particularly in the eye of the beholder, but rather dictated by the state of current technology. Even the absolute most expanded classic amiga is closer to a commodore64 in terms of spec than it is to anything rleased in the last 5 years. Nostalgia however is more a personal thing.