Do you regret ever getting rid of your Amiga?

[BozzerBigD]

Nope. By the time my college years were winding down so was Commodore. By late '93 it was clear Commodore was going to die. AGA was too little too late. Software was dwindling. Microsoft and Apple had won. I had a decked out 4000 (Emplant, Spectrum, 21" Sony Monitor) and I knew if I didn't sell it then it would depreciate with the demise of Commodore. So I sold it all and jumped into the Powerbook line (then into Windows 95).

I loved Commodore. I really did. My first computer was the C64, I upgrade to the C128 and then jumped into the Amiga line. I had the most fun with Commodore computers. They were so far ahead of their time and the users did some amazing things with them. Damn Commodore management.

By 1993 I had to look to my future and the Amiga seemed like a dead end. The world had voted and the Amiga lost. I remember seeing the Windows 95 betas (Chicago) in '93 and thinking it would take the world by storm.

I only regret Commodore management and marketing could not have leveraged the power of the Amiga.

-P

@Pentad

You were excited by the launch of Windows 95!!! I mean if you were used to Windows 3.1 then fair enough but you knew about the Amiga. I mean I don't remember PeeCees being at all useable until Windows 98 at least and they were still very ropey until XP IMHO.

[wiser3]

I had an A500 which i later sold to get an A1200.

I still feel the heartache from throwing out my working A1200 in 2002. My wife had nagged me for years to get rid of it. Not a day goes without me thinking and regretting getting rid of it, especially how i got rid of it. It wouldn't feel so bad if had i sold it and someone else was still able to enjoy it.

[tonyvdb]

@Pentad

You were excited by the launch of Windows 95!!! I mean if you were used to Windows 3.1 then fair enough but you knew about the Amiga. I mean I don't remember PeeCees being at all useable until Windows 98 at least and they were still very ropey until XP IMHO.

I Agree, Widows XP was barely better than my Amiga 4000. Windows still had not done a very good job with multitasking and sucked in the sound department and there were no real options for 3D rendering unitil XP came out.

[Pentad]

@Pentad

You were excited by the launch of Windows 95!!! I mean if you were used to Windows 3.1 then fair enough but you knew about the Amiga. I mean I don't remember PeeCees being at all useable until Windows 98 at least and they were still very ropey until XP IMHO.

Windows 95 was the engine of change that Microsoft both wanted and needed. It also sparked a huge movement in computers from the mid 90's on. I'm not saying that Windows 95 was perfect but it was that first step on a road map that you could see was going to bring some really exciting things.

As much as I love the Amiga and AmigaOS, Windows 95 and AmigaOS had much in common. Both of their GUIs ran on top of DOS. Both supported plug n play driver support though the Amiga did support it better. In fairness, the Amiga (like Mac) only had a few models to support so it is much easier on the OS. Microsoft had the much more difficult task of supporting IDIC when it came to hardware. Was it perfect? No. Admirable? Yes, I think so. Good enough? Yes, for most people.

Owning an Amiga did leap frog me in technology so I was aware of multitasking, plug n play, and many of the features that Windows 95 borrowed from other systems.  Of course, Windows 95 could blue screen at the drop of a hat due to a misbehaving application but so could AmigaOS. While Windows 95's software selection grew exponentially the Amiga's had been dwindling to a few applications and import games.

I guess the biggest attraction was Commodore and the Amiga were fading away and Microsoft was willing to put Windows 95 out there, support it, refine it, and continue to make it better. Which they did as you point out. Windows 95 (A/B/C) just got better, Nashville was in beta shortly after the Windows 95 release, which turned into 98, then 98se, 2000, which pinnacled into XP. Windows ME was the oddball. Terrible.

Along the way we got better CPUs, 3D video card add-ons which became the main video card. An amazing set of games, utilities, and a whole host of software for the Internet. Personally, I love FPS so Doom, Doom II, Quake, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life, Mech Warrior, and many more were experiences I will always treasure.

I really do love Commodore and the Amiga but I don't regret jumping ship. For me, Commodore and the Amiga defined the 80's. They just could not compete in the 90s.

To each his (or her) own though.  I have nothing but respect for the Amiga fans who have remained on the platform long after Commodore died.

-P

[BozzerBigD]

They just could not compete in the 90s.

They could and they did. More R&D from 1990 and a few better choices would have kept them in the race in Europe at least. I've never understood the American market for home computers to be honest. I mean you guys chose the NES over proper computers in the 80s and prefered the IBM PC compatibles to the Amiga and ST at home in the late 80s and early 90s?! Crazy to be honest. You call it leading the way I call it choosing products based on marketing, hype and following the crowd rather than choosing good products using your own research and to hell with the crowd. The Amiga line was misunderstood in the country that spawned it and was a great HOME COMPUTER for casual productive users, creatives and gamers.

[scuzzb494]

My goodness I would have been heartbroken losing any of my Amigas. When collecting computers I was always a little befuddles as to why some folk let go their computers. They often would say they only had room for one computer. Didn't make any sense to me. When I ever came across a real Amigan I did ask if they seriously wanted to let the kit go. I particularly recall one guy that sold his A3000T being somewhat heartbroken, but he still sold it to me all the same.

For me I've never parted with one Amiga let alone any other bit of kit. I still have my ZX81 in its original box.... plus everything else.

[LoadWB]

Umpteen millionth time: Windows 95 does NOT run on top of DOS.  It can be launched from DOS but once the bootstrap completes DOS is "elevated" into a virtual machine leaving the Win32 kernel at the helm.  That it can use DOS and 16-bit drivers is part of its driver framework.

[psxphill]

I got rid of an A1500 because getting hold of accelerators or hard disks for it was a nightmare, now there are expansions coming out again I half regret it but then again the fan was very noisy.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

but then again the fan was very noisy.

Well that's an $8 part common to any PC...  #Sigh

[Ral-Clan]

I don't really regret selling off my totally expanded A2000. I had so much stuff in there - an 040 card, 32MB RAM, a 16 bit audio card, a MEGA-chip, a flash-ROM card, a SUPRA-RAM expander, CD burner....and more that I don't remember. It was a beast of an A2000. I heavily used and loved this machine, but with all the expansions there were conflicts between hardware. It  required a lot of patches to activate the hardware, and these had to be carefully arranged in startup-sequence to avoid conflicts. It was kind of a giant (but fun) kludge. Sometimes it took a few reboots to get everything to start up and be recognized.

Eventually, I think, there was just too much loading the power supply and it became slightly unreliable. It was also very noisy with all the fans, etc. It sounded a bit like jet plane starting its engines.

After I sold most of it off, I started using UAE and was totally SHOCKED by how good it was. I could do all I had done with my expanded A2000 and more and it was SO FAST and compatible. It even looked exactly like a real Amiga on the monitor (especially when I was still using a CRT monitor with my PC).

Since I don't do a lot of gaming, but was a heavy productivity software user (graphics, music composing, etc), all the rendering and heavy CPU functions were now blazingly fast, bootup was quick, drive access was like lighting and I had access to almost unlimited RAM.  So I actually became way more productive with Amiga software after I switched to UAE.

I did keep the original A2000 (computer only), and set it up as a "bare bones" 68000CPU Amiga. I also keep a slightly pimped out A500 (only expanded with 8MB RAM, a hard drive, Mega-chip and HD floppy). These are in storage for when I get the desire (and space) to use real Amiga hardware.

One of the things I love about using these "bare bones" (almost factory default) 68000 Amigas is that I'm back to basics. Using the hardware that Commodore provided from the factory. Working with Paula, Agnes, etc. instead of bypassing all of the original hardware with RTG graphics cards and audio cards. My A2000, with all its expansions, was almost not an Amiga anymore. So much of its functions relied on third party hardware addons (audio, RTG, CPU, etc). When I use the "bare bones" Amigas, I'm back to using DPAINT in native HAM mode, or working with the native 16 colours, or tracking music on the native 8-bit PAULA audio, etc. It's more fun because it's retro. It's seeing what can be done with the original factory default hardware, rather than bypassing it all with third-party peripherals.

And, when I need to do serious, heavy production work on the Amiga (like Lightwave rendering, or ImageFX, etc) I'll use UAE.

Plus I think I predicted things well. I sold off all my A2000 peripherals when they were selling for a nice price. I reasoned that in a few years I would probably be able to replace them all with an all-in-one, cheaper, more reliable, modern device that would do all that they did and fit in a single Zorro slot. Since then, the VAMPIRE and other FPGA devices are coming along nicely, so I think I might have made the right choice for if and when I want to pull my A2000 out of storage and pimp it out like it was.

[curtis]

Yes.

I picked up a 3000T at a flea market for (brace yourselves) $50.  Took it home and it ran just like that.  Tinkered with it for a while but got tired of it and sold it for considerably more.

But still...

Also had an A500 with a Bodega Bay.  Same thing, got tired of it and sold it.

Yeah, I've pulled several real bonehead maneuvers in my lifetime.  Most of them involved women/wives, but it carried over into my computer collection!

[Iggy]

I regret selling ALL the older hardware I no longer have, not just the Amigas.

I miss the Data General terminal I used to have that had a built-in telephone, the M/PM multi-user system I obtained from a local drugstore franchise that supported multiple users in a C/PM like environment, ALL the older PCs, and all the 8/16/32 bit home systems I had.

[BozzerBigD]

@ral-clan

So a 1989 PC is not authentic if you upgrade CGA to VGA graphics? Would you feel the same way if Deluxe Paint had supported RTG modes. Picasso technology was just as 'Amiga' as anything Commodore produced. The same with Phase 5 and DCE products. Without sufficient graphics and sound upgrades from Commodore the Amiga needed third party products to progress. You speak like a demo scene coder who likes a common base spec which defines 'Amiga'. I don't agree at all. A 060 AGA/PIV equipped Amiga is a better and more fun Amiga than as slow standard 68000 Amiga with OCS = no brainer!

[mechy]

I was lucky and kept everything i had, only selling off some lesser systems to upgrade.I still have my C64 breadbox from 83' and the c128dcr. I started on a ti99/4a(still have it too!)
 For Amiga I started on a A2000 in 87' that was decked out with accelerator,scsi,cdrom. cdroms were crazy expensive for 1x speed then.
 Sold it off to move to a A3000 in 89' a fine full 32bit machine with zorro3,added A3640 040 card,16MB zip ram,a cd rom externally and i think a new 540MB hd..a little power house.

In 92' i got a deal on a A4000 from a friend and added a Warpengine 040/40,fastlane z3,AriadneII,larger drives,16MBram.A2386 bridgeboard,life was good.
Later expanded to a Cyberstorm PPC,large ultrawide scsi hd's which were speedy!,PicassoIV,ad516 sound card. I picked alot of the stuff up as people were dumping Amiga stuff for good prices. That system carried me for a long time having 1024x768 24
bit gfx was nice and i did everything on it,it was my daily machine.I did banking and credit card sites etc.
 Eventually all of that was put into a elbox mediator pro tower with pci slots,adding a voodoo3 in with the picasso IV, deneb USB,goldenGate 486 bridgeboard,100Mbit ethernet,Terratec 512I sound,Hauppaug TV card.
Its ran 24/7/365 since 92/ and was never down except for hardware additions,bad AT power supplies etc. i run the same 4000 today with a 256MB ssd on the ultrawide scsi via acard 7720U. its served me well and never missed a beat.

Over the years i got alot of amiga hw from dumspters,people tossing stuff,giving me broken motherboards,some bought from ebay etc etc. repaired tons of amiga stuff in 20 years and i have way too much these days,with a stack that still needs fixed/recapped.
among the stuff was several a4000t's,a3000t's,a3000's,2000's,2500,cd32,cdtv,a500's,1200's,600.

I have about 5- A500's and 2-A500+, 2 with vampires,1 with CSA derringer 030/50 with 128MB hack,one with dce 520/cd 8MB ram and 1gig ide hd, stock 500 with 1.3 and a alfadata ide side car 8Mb ram,and dual cf's on ide. 1 with a trumpcard 500,A500+ has vampire 2 and GVP Anet ethernet side car. 1-a500+ is stock with 68010 and 3.1. oh and a rev 5 board laying around needing fixed.
4 of these machines were repaired from dead/dumpster saves or boards given to me.

2-A600, One has a black vampire,64Gb cf card for hd,128MB ram,pcmcia ethernet,etc
second A600 needs recapped and a keyboard(anyone have a KBD??? i have a vampire waiting for it also when and if i ever get to it.one 600 was repaired from dead.

The A1200 is setup with a bliz 1260,64GB cf on the blizzard scsi, 256MB ram,pcmcia wired ethernet.
Another 1200 with a Blizzard 1240 IV,128MB ram,32gb ide cf for hd.pcmcia ethernet.
a 3rd 1200 stock but i have a DKB 030 card for it with scsi i havent put together yet.

A2000 with vampire and A2065, with the usual goodies.
A2500 with GVP 030 card and scsi hd's AmigaNET ethernet.

A3000 with A3640 and 16Mb ram,scsi hd,Amiganet ethernet.
A3000UX with original 3070 tape drive,030 machine with scsi card reader and acard 7720 scsi to ide bridge and a 32GB CF for hd. Dualboot os3.9 and Amiga Unix.

A3000t with the giant GVP 040 card with 16MB ram on MB,8MB ram in weird 80 PIN simms(yes, 80 pin) on gvp. its pretty quick at 040/33mhz

A4000's... phew.. some waiting to be repaired.
one 4000 has a Cybderstorm MKIII in it with 128MB,acard uwscsi to ide bridge with 32M cf card as a hard drive,fastlane z3 with 192Mb,dvd-rw,etc a general workhorse.

some stock a4000's repair as i go, sell off one or 2 each year.

A4000T with video toaster,tbcs,and flyer,project in the works setting it up still. Cybertorm ppc 060/66mhz-604e/200 with UW scsi hd's.
A4000T stock 040 machine
A4000T stock 040 machine
QuickPak A4000T with Quikpak 060 accelerator(one of the few that can take advantage of EDO ram).

Draco Vision in the Black Cube. 060 clocked to 66mhz,large scsi hd's.all the cards they came with in draco bus cards..

cdtv with scsi ,black kbd,mouse,floppy
cdtv stock with black kbd,mouse,floppy

stock cd32.

I knew i would regret selling anything, so while most people dumped their amigas in the 90's i tried to buy what i could afford, prices were super cheap,and things like a3000ux sold for trivial prices. i passed on so much cool hardware then due to lack of money. i only regret i could'nt save more Amiga HW from being thrown away.. why people dont simply give unwanted hardware away or sell it is beyond me,so much tossed in the dump.

[LoadWB]

@mechy: I bow to you, good sir.  Hey, have you been to the TI AtariAge forum: http://ti99.atariage.com

[mechy]

@mechy: I bow to you, good sir.  Hey, have you been to the TI AtariAge forum: http://ti99.atariage.com

No need to bow, its alot of mouths to feed lol
I do stop by the TI forum on occasion...