The Retro Collection - My lifes story!

This may bore some of you, especially with the negative side, but for others you may get that extra bit of nostalgia, so here goes. Through all these years of having to deal with Autism, OCD and the more recently diagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to a long childhood of bullying and other personal issues still taking it's toll on my mental state, there's one thing I've always kept strong to, which isn't just my family and normal gaming. My retro collection, the great Amiga 500 and of cause the Amiga 1200 oh and the even older Amstrad CPC. Through a very young age I was always fascinated by computers, I remember getting the green screen Amstrad CPC 464 and although not such a great programmer I loved buying all those cool games. Hearing that squealing tape, the wavy lines and finally after ever so many minutes, the game screen. Which was either Dizzy or Green Beret! Fast forward to this year and..

An Amstrad CPC 6128! Ok so it's not a 464 but this is the more capable device and easier to mod at a later stage, even got it very cheaply as well, I couldn't afford much. But at least with that I was able to start collecting one of my all time favourite game series from The Oliver Twins, DIZZY! Damn it was hard, rolling about from one screen to the next, figuring out what item solves what puzzle. Check out the original Dizzy Adventure, that's very old school.

From then on I wanted to go back to my Amiga roots, as it just didn't feel right not to have one, even though I stupidly chucked it in the bin and all the games. So while I was in town I purchased an Amiga 500, which again was very cheap, it wasn't in the best condition, it still isn't, but at least it works.

The next retro hardware I got through my birthday was an Amiga 1200 from Amibay, it was in perfect condition, very white, with a lovely 4GB CF HD. Which means I can use the operating system, Whdload games and still use the floppy, that's if I wanted to.

 ( £5 TV from Gumtree! )

But even though I had the Amiga 500 and 1200 it just wasn't enough, I needed more games. So due to the way Ebay works, you can get some stuff at very cheap prices, however some people *Amiga Heaven* for example will rip you off big time, plus they buy cheap and sell high which does affect the Amiga gaming market. So I had to look back at my childhood and think what games do I want, what really affected me in such a way I can say I remember that game, I remember spending day in and day out playing. I was a bit of a loner with my Amiga being a better friend than the bullies in life! So onwards to the latest collections.

Deuteros, Eye of the Beholder, It Came From The Desert, Populous II, The Settlers, Wings, all of these games were and still are a very strong part of my growing up. Hours, days lost to these games, all good memories. From colonizing the solar system in Deuteros, to flying through the skies in WW1. From long gone companies to ones still going such as Cinemaware. However I'll have to say no more soon, my credit card is hurting :p, but as my mum says, you only live once. I don't want to be at the edge of life, I want to say, there were great times in my gaming childhood. Well that's me nearly done, just to say one more system is left, which I didn't have much part in, but it's partly my brothers! The Megadrive II and MegaCD which remains hidden until he turns up again ;)

Hope you enjoyed my little story, but what's yours? What game defined your childhood? What game(s) do you remember the most? Do you still have any?

UPDATE - I have forgot to mention, that I did have an original DOS/WIN machine but that has long since gone. Oh the days of pressing the Turbo button on a 486! There were some great classics on that machine as well, especially with games such as Shannara or Lands of Lore II, good times indeed just not as good as the Amiga. Nostalgia, isn't it great!