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Wavemaker
Poland

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:04 am

Hi everyone, my name is Juan, I'm spanish and living in Poland.

In the eighties I used to own a MSX computer, so I got to play all those amazing early Konami games - some of the best games ever made for 8 bit systems.

My Amiga story started with a second hand A2000 which I got for Christmas in 1990. Around four years later I switched to an A4000/030, but I always missed the blue and orange and that rabbit icon (that's what brought me here to this forum!).

Long story short the A4000 died from battery leakage in 2003 and, like many, I had to accept defeat and move to the PC. Before that I had spent a few years in the demoscene under the name of Wavemaker, making a few perfectly avoidable tracks in OctaMED 5 (I always saved to MOD format tough, as MED is a taboo for the demoscene - too CPU hungry!). But the best part was making friends and attending parties, from Euskal Party in Spain to Satellite in Poland - long before I knew I would end up living in that country twenty years later.

With the PC my thirst for creating died, using UAE just felt wrong, and I completely forgot about the Amiga. Until last year I found this little funy SNES Mini gadget in MediaMarkt, and of course I had to buy it. And while playing through NES and SNES titles of my childhood, I started wondering if it would play also the games from my favorite system, the Amiga. But how would I play without a keyboard? I needed one. Or even better! A real Amiga! They're probably being sold for peanuts now, aren't they? Little knew my girlfriend where this would end when I bought a secondhand A500. I had looked down on the thingie back in the golden days, but now it looked so much more unique and special than he PC-like big box systems!

And with it came constantly ordering stuff. A monitor, a new mouse, a new PSU, one of those gorgeous Plexilaser cases. I spoiled my new baby and eventually bought this polish magazine (Komoda & Amiga Plus, or K&A Plus as I call it when I prefer to avoid the convoluted answer to the question of what the Komoda is about). Fortunately it had an english edition as well, and I loved it - it made me feel like reading magazines in my childhood, with all the colorful layouts and the smell of glossy paper.

And so, I started writing articles for them, got myself another Amiga, and a TheC64, and even a Nintendo Switch so I could play Donkey Konga. By then my girlfriend realized it was getting out of control, but instead of breaking up with me somehow she joined me playing - her favorites being LucasArts adventures and Millie & Molly on the C64.

Now, around a year later, I am the Chief Redactor for K&A Plus, and my goal (besides improving the magazine) is to get back to composing music and take part in a demoscene production again; also trying to get into DPaint in my brand new 1.3 system I installed in the A500.

Hope I didn't bore you a thanks for having such a nice forum (why does almost every other retro forum look like it was last updated in 2001? Leave the vintage software for the Amiga guys)

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User avatar
McTrinsic

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:56 am

That‘s an awesome story, thanks for sharing and most of all a warm WELCOME to a nice Amiga-forum.

I usually rant about pics from the retro-hardware that I’d like to see but you already did that ;) .

The Polish retro-scene was surprisingly vibrant and alive for me when for some reason I was looking at it. The guys who develop the new Warp accelerators are from Poland, aren’t they? The designers of the 30T also. Then there is 7-bit.

And of course there is retrohax.net . Everyone should have a look at his blog every once uns while. That guy does MAGIC when restoring old computers.

Do you plan on expanding your Amiga or retro-systems??
Last edited by McTrinsic on Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
JoeUser
Dallas, TX

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 7:46 am

Great story, thanks for sharing.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:24 am

Wonderful trip through your history - thank you so much for sharing, Wavemaker. We're honored to have you here. I, too, have a plexilaser case (extremely difficult to obtain here in the USA) but mine is for a C64 build of mine. They are a bit fragile, but so cool looking.

What is your kid doing to the A500 case there in the photo above? Did she help you put together the plexilaser build?

Fun trivia: one of my favorite synthwave musicians is from Sweden, and he goes by the name of Waveshaper. His music is very 80's nostalgia heavy, but modern and spacey. Recommended. =)

User avatar
JoeUser
Dallas, TX

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:02 pm

Man, I would love to have a plexi case for the A1000 (complete case, not just the back).

Makes me want to go buy some sheet stock and start cutting :)

User avatar
Wavemaker
Poland

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:52 pm

McTrinsic wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:56 am
That‘s an awesome story, thanks for sharing and most of all a warm WELCOME to a nice Amiga-forum.

I usually rant about pics from the retro-hardware that I’d like to see but you already did that ;) .

The Polish retro-scene was surprisingly vibrant and alive for me when for some reason I was looking at it. The guys who develop the new Warp accelerators are from Poland, aren’t they? The designers of the 30T also. Then there is 7-bit.

And of course there is retrohax.net . Everyone should have a look at his blog every once uns while. That guy does MAGIC when restoring old computers.

Do you plan on expanding your Amiga or retro-systems??
There's a big DIY culture in East Europe since most people had to repair their own stuff here until recently. So everyone here's like "why did you get such an expensive case when you can just get the stuff for a quarter of the price and do it yourself" and then I answer yeah? so why don't you do that :roll:

In Poland the Amiga was wildly popular in the mid-late 90s, because people could not afford to buy brand new systems and they were getting mostly those that westerners didn't want anymore, and at that time that meant often Amigas or even Commodore 64s. Quite a few polish people were still using Amigas as their main system into the 2000s. The second hand market is pretty busy and prices are still reasonable.

About expanding, I really want to get an MSX2, but they're non existant in Poland; and some day an accelerator for the 1200 so I can watch all those 030+ demos. Thinking of the future, I got an ACA500Plus (for which Plexilaser also has a case) and an ACA1221lc which I use on the A1200 but can also be connected to the ACA500 when I get a better one on the AGA machine.
intric8 wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:24 am
Wonderful trip through your history - thank you so much for sharing, Wavemaker. We're honored to have you here. I, too, have a plexilaser case (extremely difficult to obtain here in the USA) but mine is for a C64 build of mine. They are a bit fragile, but so cool looking.

What is your kid doing to the A500 case there in the photo above? Did she help you put together the plexilaser build?

Fun trivia: one of my favorite synthwave musicians is from Sweden, and he goes by the name of Waveshaper. His music is very 80's nostalgia heavy, but modern and spacey. Recommended. =)
They're fragile indeed I already broke one but it was totally my fault I just sat on the thing :lol: good thing you can order parts.

That's not my kid it's my girlfriend :lol: but she does look like a kid. Sometimes they ask her for id when buying alcohol. :lol: And she loves playing retro systems.

Checking out that Waveshaper, it's exactly the kind of stuff I dig. Thanks!
JoeUser wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:02 pm
Man, I would love to have a plexi case for the A1000 (complete case, not just the back).

Makes me want to go buy some sheet stock and start cutting :)
It's a pity but from the Amiga ones only the A500 is worth it. The rest are just boxes. Maybe it's practical but nowhere near the coolness factor of this.

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:55 pm

The plexilaser cases are very well designed. They are quite delicate, however, and not a "kids toy" anymore that can take a beating like the original cases. In fact one of my keyboard's stands/brackets cracked when I was putting it together originally. I had to buy another one and wait for weeks to ultimately finish that project. The plastic is very thin, and some of the ends have very little room for error. But it was worth the wait.

User avatar
Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:53 am

Cool story and welcome. Hah, my Wife would only join in if I was hauling my stuff to the dump! Count your blessings because that is cool and rare.





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