Why you NEED to take Amiga seriously

[dauber]

Just wanted to share this story...

 

In the summer of 2012 I had gotten laid off when the company I was working for decided to shut down our office. No big loss, as I hated that job with every fiber of my being. (True story: when we got the word from headquarters that they decided they no longer wanted to make money in Chicago, first thing I did was call my wife -- she's a teacher and is off during the summer -- and say, "Honey, would you like to take a road trip?" She knew that that meant that I had lost my job and ergo we had time to take a trip. Her response: "Well, the thing is...we just got back from a road trip! Where would we go this time? We need time to plan it out!")

 

Anyhoo...I was in grad school and working on a master's in software engineering. My wife had told me that at the point I'm at in my life with all the know-how and skills I've acquired, there was no reason I should not be able to land some kind of good-paying IT job. So I basically tried like hell to get some kind of IT job, focusing mainly on development.

 

Six months into my unemployment, I get a call from a recruiter who stumbled onto my LinkedIn account. I had some pretty wacky stuff on it, saying things like, "Look, people, I've been programming freelance for ten years. TEN YEARS. Yet none of you will interview me. WTF, people?" The recruiter told me that she had a lot of clients who would love someone with that kind of style. She asked me to send her an updated résumé. So I worked on it, and just for laughs added Amiga to my technical skills. I figured worst case scenario, hiring managers would get a good laugh; best case scenario, hiring managers would take it as an indication that I have the aptitude to learn new and/or unusual skills.

 

So I send my résumé to the recruiter. She calls me back a while later and told me of a few clients she wanted to send it to, including one company that "really prefers people who are super-super-senior" (which I most definitely was NOT; I was really kind of a noob), but she said it's worth at least trying. Well...she landed me a phone interview with that company. The next day, she calls me back and says they want to see me in person.

 

Why? Because the dev manager was "intrigued" by my Amiga experience!

 

So I go to the interview and meet with the dev manager, and then he has me meet with the development team and do a whiteboarding exercise. (That is, they give me a scenario, and they want me to write some code for it on a whiteboard so they can give me some feedback.)

 

As the dev manager was escorting me out after the interview, I asked him why he was "intrigued" by my Amiga experience. He laughed and said, "Quite simply, because I'm a child of the '80s!" And he told me he had fond memories of his Amiga 500.

 

So I meet with my niece and have lunch. While we're eating, I get a call from the recruiter, who tells me the company wanted me to start the next Monday. My exact words to her were, and I quote, "Holy s**t." heh. My first dev job. And the salary quoted was more money than I'd ever seen.

 

So....yeah...this, folks, is why the Amiga is important!

 

(And people laughed at me for being a die-hard Amigan for thirteen years.)

[MaximumRD]

Nice story thanks for sharing.   In my case you are preaching to the choir   I love Atari but I was a Commodore kid growing up and for me AMIGA was my platform of choice and so that is where my nostalgia and best early computing memories are. Whether playing games or dabbling in Deluxe Paint. The thing is dauber whatever system, console, platform brings you joy or nostalgia we love to hear about it. Despite the Atari name of the site we are all about retro times and experience and that means different things to different people and we are here to celebrate it all! Nobody here is going to laugh at you for being  Die Hard Amiga fan that I can promise you  In fact I had created THIS thread to kick off the Amiga section for stories just like yours! Keep it in mind if you continue to share your great Amiga stories and experiences (the thread could use the boost) 

 

http://forums.atari.io/index.php/topic/1451-amiga-memories/

[TeddyGermany]

In the 90ies i had worked with an Amiga 2000. A 030 processor was included, also 41 MB RAM, a graphiccard, two HDS and a CDROM. And yes i had used that machine for my academic studies and it does well. With the wordworth 5 text editor it was a pleasure to write.

There are also other reasons to take the Amiga seriously.

[RickR]

I've always wanted an Amiga -- knowing full well that it's the true successor to the Atari VCS/8-bit family.  But I haven't gotten one for a couple of reasons.  First, they are really expensive.  2nd, I have no idea which model or additional items are needed.  It can be a little intimidating, and the potential of spending a lot and getting the wrong thing is high.

 

You guys think you might be interested in throwing together a "beginner's guide" for buying an Amiga?  What model to buy, what accessories are best, etc for someone new to the system who just wants to try some of the better games?

[dauber]

Seriously, it depends on what exactly you want to do with the Amiga itself. If primarily gaming, then what games? Etc.

[MaximumRD]

The are expensive because people tend to hold on to them as they are getting rarer and harder to find as well they did not have the market penetration in USA / CANADA or outside the UK where they are much more common. 

 

If you simply would like to try some of the more popular AMIGA games you might consider an emulation package like Cloanto's AMIGA FOREVER, now before anyone starts with "BAH WHY PAY FOR EMULATION???" it is true one can get UAE emulator for free as well as "obtain" the kickstart ROM files (think of it as the required BIOS for AMIGA) and of course download various romsets of games etc, figure the configuration blah blah blah BUT THEN AGAIN if one knows nothing or very little of these things then one can do worse than buying an officially licensed ready to go plug n play package to experience various versions of the operating systems as well as different applications and of course a good sampling of games and demos. If that is of interest check out HERE :

https://www.amigaforever.com/ 

 

 

IF YOU ARE DEAD SET ON REAL HARDWARE well I would suggest the most common Amiga 500. This is the most basic model and compatible with many games THAT SAID it is not the most expandable thus you would be relying on original (or copied) games on Floppy Disk media which may not be the most reliable even if you DO track some down. An AMIGA 1200 was the next most popular machine and probably the most expandable with modern storage options, floppy disc emulators and other add-ons which would make the storage, handling and loading of games much more reliable and convenient.

 

Now I do not actually have real AMIGA hardware of any type having to resort to emulation myself for several years now but this is what I know from following the scene. Anyone else of course is welcome to add any suggestions or knowledge from their own personal experience. 

[RickR]

Excellent!! Thanks MaxRD.

[Keatah]

Back in the day, the 1990's I paid for a couple of emulator packages, mainly for the Atari 400/800 and VCS. Didn't really know a whole hella lot about them then. They tended to be better set-up and more inclusive with friendly documentation.

 

Thing is with payware emulators, every one of them I "supported" back then is now defunct. Their authors tend not to pass down the code and it either stagnates from lack of interest or some other outside uncontrollable circumstance. Whereas with freeware emulators the code is likely to change hands and development continues.

 

Once you decide to stick with emulation as your main choice, then it makes sense to get all the freeware packages. They're more versatile and more complex. And the rewards greater.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Keatah

[TeddyGermany]

I would suggest an Amiga 1200. Most of the programs work together with that model. And you several ways to modify the computer. There are new developed Turboboards and the possibility to put the mainboard in a tower case. With a cdrom you could also use the cd32-games.

[MaximumRD]

Back in the day, the 1990's I paid for a couple of emulator packages, mainly for the Atari 400/800 and VCS. Didn't really know a whole hella lot about them then. They tended to be better set-up and more inclusive with friendly documentation.

 

Thing is with payware emulators, every one of them I "supported" back then is now defunct. Their authors tend not to pass down the code and it either stagnates from lack of interest or some other outside uncontrollable circumstance. Whereas with freeware emulators the code is likely to change hands and development continues.

 

Once you decide to stick with emulation as your main choice, then it makes sense to get all the freeware packages. They're more versatile and more complex. And the rewards greater.

I get what you are saying and agree of course better to go the free route and "obtain" what is required THAT SAID THOUGH the Amiga Forever package is a great way to introduce oneself especially for those unsure or unfamiliar with emulation all legal as well (for those that care of such things). To be fair in this case Cloanto have been supporting and improving Amiga Forever since 1997 as well so that is a pretty fair track record.    The package is pretty tight, well supported and Cloanto have even helped me out personally as well it has a great GUI / INTERFACE and because of all this even someone like me who has a lot of experience with emulation I chose to support Cloanto. For every other platform I go the freeware route, it's just that good.  

[dauber]

I'm actually holding out for some kind of emulator that will let you run AmigaOS 4. Only complaint I have about OS4 is that it won't run Directory Opus Magellan.

[Keatah]

I haven't gotten deep enough into Amiga emulation to be running different OS'es, not yet. But the 3.4 WinUAE update mentions something about OS4 directory handling in the changelog. So perhaps it does indeed run it. Dunno.

[MaximumRD]

I'm actually holding out for some kind of emulator that will let you run AmigaOS 4. Only complaint I have about OS4 is that it won't run Directory Opus Magellan.

This may be of interest to you, I just stumbled across this just now. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vw-tkTG4Fk

 

 

Published on Jan 7, 2017

In this video Bill demonstrates how to install Amiga OS4.1 Final Edition on a Windows PC using Amiga Forever 2016 Premium Edition emulation and the instructions in Krzysztof Radzikowski's book "Amiga OS4.1 Emulation"

http://www.thegurumeditation.org

Purchase Amiga OS4.1 Emulation Book Here:

http://amiga.net.pl/index.php?lng=eng...

Amiga On The Lake Store

http://amigaonthelake.com

AMICast Podcast

http://amicast.ppa.pl

[Keatah]

On 12/30/2016 at 12:08 AM, MaximumRD said:

To be fair in this case Cloanto have been supporting and improving Amiga Forever since 1997

Yes. I see that they have 9.2.11.0 R2 out recently.

[DegasElite]

On 12/28/2016 at 6:22 AM, TeddyGermany said:

In the 90ies i had worked with an Amiga 2000. A 030 processor was included, also 41 MB RAM, a graphiccard, two HDS and a CDROM. And yes i had used that machine for my academic studies and it does well. With the wordworth 5 text editor it was a pleasure to write.

There are also other reasons to take the Amiga seriously.

I have an Amiga 2000 in storage. I had bought it from a thrift store here in the States for only about USD$7.50. Believe it or not, that's true! They obviously didn't know what they had, and I got it at that steal of a price. It should still work, too. I haven't used it in years and it has composite video in the back, which means it did something with TV at some point. It does not have a keyboard or a mouse, but I turned it on one time and it was working. It's a great addition to my collection. :O)

Edited February 8, 2022 by DegasElite