I found this site after viewing some videos on the YouTube channel.
So, I thought I'd introduce myself..
Around the age of 13, I got my first computer as a Christmas present from my parents.
A C64, 1702 monitor and 1541 disk drive! I also got two games: Zork I and Archon.
I don't think I ever touched my Intellivision again. To me this is the real reason for "the crash".
When the Amiga was released, that was my dream computer.
In 1987, I finally had enough money to buy an Amiga!
The A500 had just come out, but I loved the design of the A1000, so I bought one of the last ones they had at my local dealer.. along with the 256k RAM expansion, a 1080 monitor and 1010 disk drive.
I frequented that Amiga dealer (and all the others in my area) so much that one day they asked if I wanted a job.
I worked as their "Amiga guy" until it went out of business around 1991.
During my time there, our local Commodore sales rep had funds to send one of us to AmiExpo in 1989, and of course, I was the logical choice. This was right after the big earthquake, so many of the vendors cancelled, but it was still a great experience and I got to meet a lot of Amiga-scene folks, including Jim Sachs.
After that, my focus changed to PC's and I spent a couple years as the 'master technician' at CompUSA.
In '97 I started working for a temp agency at Microsoft, and a year later, I was offered a full-time position.
20+ years later and I'm still at Microsoft.
I still have my beloved A1000 and every so often, I pull it out of the closet to get that 'real' experience that you just don't get with emulators. I gave my C64 to a relative, but I purchased a used C64C at one point and I just got a "TheC64" recently.
Personally, I've never really understood the "us vs. them" attitude. For me it's never been Amiga or Atari, NES or Sega, PC or Mac, etc. I love them ALL, and if time and money allowed it, I would own them ALL!
It is great to see that the Amiga community is still alive and active in keeping this special system alive.