{"id":252,"date":"2010-01-30T23:35:57","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T06:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=252"},"modified":"2010-01-30T23:44:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T06:44:21","slug":"i-want-my-amiga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"I want my Amiga!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I’m in the late stages of “Vegetation Day”.\u00a0 Today, I have been spending time with my Amiga computer emulator and the games I have for it.\u00a0 The emulator, WinUAE, is the most complicated emulator I have.\u00a0 It took me damn near forever to figure out just how to use it properly.<\/p>\n

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And you can’t really use it to its full potential unless you know a little bit about the hardware of the Amiga computer.\u00a0 I did read up on the Amiga a while ago.\u00a0 Both on Wikipedia<\/a> and on Ars Technica.\u00a0 The article on that latter site is a 7-part motherfucker, to use the precise term.<\/p>\n

Part 1<\/a>
\nPart 2<\/a>
\nPart 3<\/a>
\nPart 4<\/a>
\nPart 5<\/a>
\nPart 6<\/a>
\nPart 7<\/a><\/p>\n

And it’s a fascinating read.\u00a0 And it makes me want to buy an Amiga.<\/p>\n

But I’ll settle for the emulator.\u00a0 WinUAE’s full name is the Windows Unix Amiga Emulator.\u00a0 I think that’s fucking hilarious.\u00a0 It’s a Windows port of what started as software for Unix.\u00a0 I hear the Unix version is more stable than the Windows version… but the Win version works fine for me.\u00a0 Oddly enough, I’ve never bothered to try any emulator of any kind on my Linux machines.\u00a0 Windows handles them great and I know their ins and outs rather well, so I don’t need to switch.<\/p>\n

Here’s a curve ball.\u00a0 “Amiga” is Spanish for “female friend”.\u00a0 Take that as you will.<\/p>\n

I have noticed a pattern of computer makers naming their projects after women.\u00a0 The Apple Lisa.\u00a0 The Atari Stella, Pam, and others.\u00a0 There are more that I’ve heard of.\u00a0 Some of them are the actual names the product got and some are just code names while things were in development.<\/p>\n

What am I insinuating?\u00a0 That computer makers harbour desires to build women out of electronic parts?\u00a0 Perhaps.<\/p>\n

Moving right along…. I’ve always wanted to own an Amiga computer.\u00a0 Ever since the original model came out I’ve wanted one.\u00a0 Even now, when everything Amiga is thoroughly obsolete, I want to own whatever incarnation of it still exists.\u00a0 There’s a confused and messy history to the Amiga story, and at any given moment in its lifespan, it was either being mis-promoted by someone or sold off as a name by someone else.<\/p>\n

In the meantime it managed to become a niche product in video production.\u00a0 All I ever wanted it for was for playing games and maybe doing things with a printer later.\u00a0 I also wanted it just for the experience of having it and using it.\u00a0 I’m funny that way with computers.\u00a0 If I ever get really rich, I mean STUPID rich, I’m going to make sure my house serves as some sort of museum for old and obsolete computer hardware.<\/p>\n

A very interesting blog comes to mind.\u00a0 Byte Cellar<\/a> has all kinds of great posts about all kinds of great old computer hardware.\u00a0 It’s not updated very frequently, but as I see now, the latest post is about… you guessed it… Amiga!\u00a0 I will have to catch up on the posts I’ve missed since I checked in last.\u00a0 The site’s operator, Blake Patterson, has quite the collection of old computers and hardware.\u00a0 Pics of his actual cellar filled with these things are just awesome to behold.<\/p>\n

At least they are for a nerd like me.\u00a0 Thus, I can forgive him for being an Apple fanboy. :P<\/p>\n

I kid.\u00a0 I have fond memories of the old Apple ][ computers I used in elementary school.\u00a0 I have an emulator for that too.\u00a0 I also own a genuine Apple computer.\u00a0 It’s a vintage 1989 Mac IIci.\u00a0 I do believe it’s been a very long time since I used it for anything.\u00a0 But with it, I can claim to own a Mac.<\/p>\n

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While I’m rambling on seemingly at random, I will now list out some of the other computers and video game consoles that I have dearly wanted and drooled over in my lifetime:<\/p>\n