My family’s first real computer was an Amiga 500. I was 6 or 7 years old, and already had a healthy interest (or unhealthy obsession) in computers, at this time. I’m sure I was a big reason why my dad chose to get this device for the family, that Christmas. I remember my brother and I opening two gifts at the same time, and they were computer games… maybe Barbarian and The Faery Tale Adventure… but we didn’t have a computer! Anxious, we were led downstairs to a newly set up computer. I was a very happy boy. We later upgraded to an Amiga 2000 HD. That’s HD for Hard Drive. You know, something you can store stuff on, and leave it on the computer? No need for those troublesome floppy disks! Anyone else remember games coming with 12 disks? Online manuals were unheard of, so a meaty manual was usually included. Computer game (and application) boxes were heavy!
I’ve put countless hours into playing games like The Faery Tale Adventure, Barbarian, Shadow of the Beast, Sinbad, Archon, Deluxe Galaga, R3, Turrican II, and Warlords. I purchased super expensive European Amiga magazines and wondered why the Amiga didn’t catch on in North America. And I was endlessly doodling and creating simple animations in Deluxe Paint (2 and 4)…. So it’s understandable that I have a bit of a soft spot for all things Amiga. 🙂 There’s a very interesting article on the History of Amiga at Ars Technica. If you don’t want to read a lot, go to the last page of the third (and final) part: which I found the most interesting. Here’s an interesting quote describing the engineers bringing their prized prototype to a Consumer Electronics Show in 1984:
Amiga, Inc. didn’t have a lot of money left over for shipping its prototype to the show, and the engineers were understandably nervous about putting such a delicate device through the rigors of commercial package transport. Instead, RJ Mical and Dale Luck purchased an extra airline seat between the two of them and wrapped the fledgling Amiga in pillows for extra security. According to airline regulations, the extra “passenger” required a name on the ticket, so the Lorraine became “Joe Pillow,” and the engineers drew a happy face on the front pillowcase and added a tie! They even tried to get an extra meal for Joe, but the flight attendants refused to feed the already-stuffed passenger.
Also:
- One of my favourite pieces of Amiga shareware, R3, is now available for full download! Dual screen deathmatch with ships called The Fart! Good times.
- Apparently, UAE is a very good emulator and many things can be played on it. Even legally! I tried it on windows a while back, but I should give it a go on Linux.
- Lemon Amiga (links for most games above)
- Amiga Music (I LOVE Shadow of the Beast and Turrican II music!!)
best post ever here
more importantly.. who got ‘Fairy Tale Adventures’ ?
I can’t remember. But The Faery (sp corrected) Tale Adventure is so much different than the fairy tail, you’d be familiar with. 😉
Oh man! I used to play Archon on some venerable system when I was a kid. What an awesome game. And don’t even get me started on Warlords! fantastic! I used to play hot seat games with my friends that would take several days! Too bad that series (much like Masters of Magic) never continued into modern day systems…
Yup! All night Warlords marathons!! Hella fun. 😀
There’s actually more warlords games, but there was something magical about that first one. Despite it playing the movement sound effect each step your unit made and waiting for the sound to complete before moving the next step, it had a nice balance and all the different races had unique characteristics. They really screwed up the boating system in later games, making it much too easy to build a navy. In Warlords 1, some castles took around 20 turns to build a boat.
Anyway, the “Battlecry” spinoffs are likely nonsense (real time rather than turn-based), but you may be interested in the other (more recent) Warlords games.
Woah! Warlords DS is coming! :O I had no idea….
I’ve never played Masters of Magic, but it looks good….