Retrogaming for me is an ingrained love of many different computers and consoles.
Over the course of the next few months I will attempt to lay bare my love for all the individual computers and consoles that have touched my video gaming life.
Let me start the story with the Commodore Amiga.....
My friend Craig had an A600 with 1mb of RAM, to me it was the pinnacle of computer sophistication and had all the best games in the world at that point in time!
I'd visit Craig's house on a regular basis and we'd play a whole host of great games ranging from Sensible Soccer to Alien Breed to Super Frog to Monkey Island 2....
The Amiga games catalogue was massive and diverse and there was literally something for everyone.
Craig was a member of Special Reserve at the time. For those that don't remember Special Reserve, they were a mail order computer games company who sold a whole host of games, systems and peripherals.
Craig would receive a monthly newsletter / catalogue with all the latest and upcoming releases. With Special Reserve you had to pay a membership fee and you were able to get a discount on your purchases as a Special Reserve VIP.
Each month Craig would get the latest titles on the Amiga and we'd play them until the early hours. I was so in awe of the Amiga it just seemed perfect in every way. The new style A600 was also a very sleek machine compared to it's big brother the A500 Plus.
I knew at this point that I NEEDED an Amiga in my life! It felt like the natural progression from my SNES.
I consider the Amiga as my first "grown up" computer as it felt like it could do everything!
I'd saved relentlessly to ensure that I had an Amiga and I spent the next 3 years of my life playing some of the finest video games that the computer games world had to offer.
The Amiga also introduced me to the wonderful world of Championship Manager '93.I remember buying my first printer for the sole reason of printing out data from Championship Manager screens to show my mates at school! Awesome times :)
The Amiga and I were a match made in heaven and when I think back to the games I played on that wonderful machine I find it hard to list my most memorable 5, but I will now attempt to give it a go and I will try to avoid the most obvious choices:
IT Came From The Desert
Playing this always felt like you were starring in a B movie from the 50's, the atmosphere and characters were spot on and I loved the mini game of trying to escape from hospital, loads of fun and really original for the time.
Walker
You’re a massive mech who gets to crush troops at your feet as you rampage through the cityscape. Does it get any more satisfying than that in a video game?!
Syndicate
Oh Syndicate! Just brilliant. The city felt alive as you controlled your agents to achieve the objectives at all costs……who remembers the MiniGun?
Nuclear War
Who do you want to be? Thatcher? Reagan? Gadaffi? Gandhi!!?? Choose your character and then go to WAR! A really simple game that caught my imagination at the age of 16.
Alien Breed
It had pulse racing gameplay and atmosphere and was made by Team 17, an absolutely brilliant top down shooter which saw you running from more Aliens than Sigourney Weaver!
Those are my favourites today but i'm sure if you asked me next week i'd give you a different list of computer games! The Amiga library of games is so vast it has the potential to give you a hundred amazing games!
Now it's over to YOU.......
What were your favourite Amiga memories and games?
Funnily enough I also had a friend called Craig from my primary school days that owned an A600 - I remember he had a ton of PD games and especially remember one simply called 'Car' where you could drive at ridiculous speeds :)
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