The Amiga will Never Die

Do you remember the Amiga?

If you do, you are most likely of my own generation growing up when the home computers first made their entry.

My first computer was the Spectravideo 318, yes the one with rubber keys and build in joystick. I bought it shortly after it came out in 1983, or maybe 1984, and it made me decide that computers was what I wanted to work with in the future.

But then came something else. I still remember when I read the first pieces of information about the Amiga. I couldn't wait to see it live.

Then in April 1986 I went to the Mikrodator Exhibiting in Stockholm and there it was. I couldn't take my eyes of the screen showing the kaleidoscope application, the boing ball demo. I had to shake my head listing to the Axel F (Beverly Hills Cop) pumping out.

It took, as it felt, hours to grasp that this was actually real. That a computer, back then, could present something so far ahead of everything else was almost impossible to understand.

That experience changed my life forever and not long after I started my first company importing and selling Amiga hardware and software.

The Amiga will Never Die

Despite the complete and total mismanagement of the Amiga by Commodore, which is even a schoolbook example of how not to run a company if I remember correct, and the numerous other companies that tried to revive it, the Amiga lives on.

For all of us that grew up with it, it will never die. That era of enthusiasm, brotherhood, platform wars (hello Atari) will never happen again.

It is something all of us that was part of it always will remember with a big smile. Whenever I meet old friends, or other people I came in contact through my company, a lot of the discussion will be down that memory lane.

Defender of the Crown

In its excellent Shadow of the 16-bit Beast: an Amiga gaming retrospective article, Jeremy Reimer at Ars Technica writes about how the Amiga forever changed the computer game industry. It is well worth a read.

One of the games he is mentioning is Defender of the Crown. The graphics and game play was simply amazing when it came out.

On thing the article leaves out is that you can actually play it online. Cinemaware, the original developer has published a Shockwave version of it that is as close to the Amiga version as you can get.

Link: Defender of the Crown

OK, that's enough of old memories for today. Back to reality...