ScuzzBlog: Diaries September 2022 Entry 24th September 2022: Post 1: The Amiga - What is it good for? The Amiga - What is it good for? The Amiga - What is it good for? Some say 'absolutely nothing'. They may be right. So why do people today acquire this archaic kit and pay it seems a sack load of money for it. Computers by nature have always been an advancing technology. Of all the creations of the modern world the computer is the one that has evolved faster, and continues to evolve at a rapid pace. And yet there is a vast army of computer users that spend their days idling away trying to squeeze every last bit of use out of these ancient beasts. Puzzling. I guess I am one of those guys and so why do I do it ? First up I collect, maintain and enjoy playing around with old computers but when using a computer for serious use I would never entertain an old computer. There isn't a thing I can do on the Amiga that I can't do quicker, better and more efficiently on a modern machine. I am not a retro gamer, I play modern games on modernish kit. My main interest in the computer is always about the next best thing and I continue to marvel at the advancements in computer technology. So why have all these old computers? My answer first is cus I can. I deliberately structured my life to give me play time in my later years. I have spent a lifetime collecting what I have with the aim eventually of literally spending all my time having fun. And that is where the truth lies... in the word fun. I worked very hard in my life, sometimes way too hard. But if life is an endurance race that grants you happy times having completed your chores, then the struggle was worth it. You don't get much in life from wasting your active years on doing nothing. I went at life in the same way as I attack anything, with confidence, determination and with a keen eye on what it was I was ultimately trying to achieve. What I have and what I do each day reflects all my hard efforts won, and trust me I won. There is no winning without trying. So what is fun in computer speak? Here are a few examples with the first none Amiga related, but hey. It would be stripping down a PCW9512 to the last screw and washer and rebuilding the floppy drive and making the thing work again. The joy I had that day seeing the boot screen and again after all these years reading through all my disks was simply glorious. It was finally after days and days and days of struggling, getting my A4000T up and running. The scream of 'YES I DID IT' must have been audible throughout the small village I live in. It would be the day I got the A1060 to work. I spent an age trying different disk configurations. The help I received from a guy in Germany was so rewarding. Neither of us had a working A1060 but together we sorted it out. It would be when with a great deal of help from the guys on the Amiga Samba Group I got my Amiga 1200 linked up to my PC network. May sound simple but it was a challenge even I thought was beyond me. It involved writing my own scripts to get the card online and then talking to Windows based PCs. Truly magical. It was climbing the ladder in St Helens to collect the Checkmate and then be gifted the entire contents of the attic , which was filled with Amiga kit. The most significant aspect of that day was knowing I had retrieved in whole, the contents of a real enthusiasts Amiga world. It was creating my own Workbench disks from scraps for the A500 and then customising it with its own ADF writer, disk manager and text editor. I had robbed so many cover disks in an attempt not to use Commodore official products, and the hunt for all the various files, tools and utilities was like being on a quest. And most important to this little reflection is the fact that after 29 years I am still able to switch on my beloved Amiga 1200 and watch as she boots into my Workbench. A Workbench that has spent all these years evolving into what she is today. None of what I discuss here has any value to the modern usage of the computer. None of what I do with any of my aged computers make using a modern computer any more efficient. Nothing that I do with old computers pushes the boundaries of technology any further forward. And nothing that I do can't be replicated by modern kit. So what is it good for ..... It makes me happy. Nothing makes me happier. I enjoy the world I have created and it is always fun. It really matters not one jot what you do to get your kicks, just as long as you enjoy yourself. So this is what I do and I am sure there those reading who have other more diverse interests. All I would say is that one day you may find yourself sitting in the lounge chair, holding your gold watch, having retired and find you have nothing to do. Well just think ahead to that day and maybe stuff a few beloved things into a cupboard so you will have something to play with in your senior childhood. And what ever it is you decide to take an interest in, you can be sure you will understand 'what it is good for'. To have and to hold in your hands means never having to say ... 'I use to have one of those'. The Amiga - What is it good for?

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Last updated 24th September 2022

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