The Commodore Amiga

The Commodore Amiga is what did it for me – what really solidified my interest in computers.  It was amazing at the time – great graphics, fantastic sound, and it could multitask – all things that people take for granted today, but many people shunned at the time.

Why do you need color graphics on a computer?  Why do you need sound?  Why would someone want to run more than one program at the same time?  All features that typical PC clones lacked, and questions that PC users asked.  The Amiga was really ground breaking and forward thinking.

I saw my first Amiga at a computer store called Microlimits in Greenville, RI.  I remember taking a long (couple hours?) bicycle ride with a friend after school one day just to check the Amiga out for 20 minutes – I couldn’t stay longer because I needed to be back home to run my paper route.  I remember the short clips of digitized music that played from the computer speakers that seemed so amazing at the time – something  so taken for granted today.

I went on to own 3 different Amigas – the 1000, the 3000 and the 4000 before finally giving in and switching to PC clones because Commodore failed to stay ahead of the competition.  It was a sad day because I loved my Amiga computers – they were different, they had personality.