Avete presente the iconic opening scene of Indiana Jones, in which our Indy has to steal the golden idol in Peru and makes the swap with the bag, triggering the inevitable collapse of the temple? Well, replace Harrison Ford with my beautiful bespectacled face and the golden idol with the Amiga, and only then will you understand what I would have been willing to do just to have an Amiga at home in my youth!
Correvano rombanti gli Anni
Nineties, 883 were blasting from boomboxes and in the arcades
the challenges on the Street
Fighter II cabinets and the race for the highest score on BombJack were wildly popular: I remember well the fabulous evenings of Più
Gusto chips and laughter at the home of the chosen one, Andrea, the only proud owner of the Amiga 500, the Commodore personal computer that made us all dream.
Qualche historical note: the Amiga series
of computers began in 1985 and
for nearly ten years, with its various increasingly powerful and
innovative models, it constituted together with Nintendo's NES
the only real alternative to the coin-op arcade
machines of arcades around the world, especially in Italy, where
the enthusiastic ferment for the home computer generated movements and inspired
aspiring video game programmers, such as the wonderful made-in
Italy fighting game Fightin’ Spirit, developed by
Dynamic Style and which I recommend you
check out.
If you talk to anyone who has ever owned an Amiga, the first thing they will tell you about this extraordinary machine is its audio power: with its integrated AmigaOS operating system, the heavy use of floppy disks for games and applications, and its distinctive chip capable of handling the sacred trinity of graphics-animation-sound with incredible performance, the Amiga knew how to give its titles a top-tier technical foundation!
PSSSTT Watch the episode of our friends at Games Collection about the best ranking of Amiga titles! It will be time well spent ;)
The galvanizing soundtrack
of titles like Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja
(an absolute masterpiece!) or the immersive music of The Chaos Engine still buzzes in the ears of everyone who
spent entire afternoons getting lost in the arms of their best
Amiga ever: beyond the horrendous pun, Jay Miner, creator of the Amiga project, made the dreams of
the gamers of the time come true by giving a commercially viable and competitive shape
to an idea that was both revolutionary and respectful of its predecessors.
Amiga succeeded in the happy and rare union
between video games and professional applications, combining the pleasure of gaming
with the work-oriented approach: this was because it was born primarily as a personal
computer, and although we all know that between the drafting of one accounting text
file and the next people would take a half-hour break to kick
the ball around by loading Kick Off by
Dino Dini, it was nice to be able to work and play with the Amiga, wasn't it?
Quando in 1994 the Amiga ended
its commercial existence, following the inevitable collapse of Commodore already
announced in the previous years with the partial failure of the Amiga CD32 console (a brave experiment,
but totally out of the market in a context where Sega Mega Drive and Super
Nintendo towered unbeatable), something unexpected happened,
melancholic and beautiful at the same time: the dream died, but the
myth was born.
With the advent of the internet, forums, and dedicated websites, what we would today define as fandom gathered to celebrate the glory of the Amiga, starting discussions and bringing back the titles that had made it famous: as if that were not enough, groups of nostalgic enthusiasts still today program and publish video games for the Amiga, from shooters to role-playing games, an eternal manifestation of affection for an unforgettable machine, destined to make our hearts beat of pixels forever.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
TGMGrading
Grade your titles
Inspection, sub-grades, seal and display case: every grade comes with the method behind it, written down in full.
