All my computers that I have owned ever!
It is list time!
C16
First up is a very much a dark horse and for my still my favourite. The commodore 16 or C16 as it was called. Yup 16 k of ram and it was pretty much the wee bro of the C64. Built with a great case and white keys the games were on cassette tape and due to the system only being 16 k the games loaded very fast. Now you are talking 30 seconds or so but don’t let that fool you as the games were fantastic and fun.
C64
The big brother to the C16 but it did come out first and was the most powerful home computer when it did come out. 64k and 16 colours were a very strong characteristic. It was way better than the Spectrums and Amstrad machines. The machine was made from 1982 till 1994, something that may never be done in home computer/console market ever again. For one machine to last 14 years is amazing and that is the reason the machine still has programmers to this day. The machine had a cartridge version made to compeate with the consoles of the early 90s but it had a big design flaw, most cartridges did not fit and if the game had keyboard commands in the game you were rendered with an unusable cartridge or an unplayable game. Shame as the machine had more to offer.
Atari ST fm
A great computer and one of the first 1MB memory machines. The machine was a huge success in Germany as a technical drawing aid and the music industry used it as well due to the great midi connections the machine has. Again it is still being used today by music programmers due to it being so easy to use. Games were good but not great and compatibility was crap.
Atari Lynx
The first real 16bit console and it was full colour portable. The machine went head to head with Nintendo’s Gameboy and lost. The games were great, the console was great but the machine had niggles. Six batteries to power that lasted about 6 hours to the weeks the Gameboy had. Also the software companies were not backing it due to slow sales and little advertising. Such a real shame as I never played a duff game on it. I would even say the machine could out do many consoles now as the graphics were great as was the sound. Just a bit head of its time is the problem.
Amiga 600
I got this second hand due to missing having a computer to play with. It was a great machine smaller than the other Amiga computers by far and the first to have an internal HDD. It was great to play a game with no disc swapping. But the games were running out as piracy was taking its toll. Many game companies went to the PC or console market to make money and sadly the Amiga dies a death. But like the C64 people still do program for it. Windows and Apple both copied many features of the Workbench OS that was shipped with the machine and turned them into Windows and Mac OS.
SNES
The NES was a machine I looked at as a kids toy. A bit block with cartridges like a VHS tape for ease of use. Mario to me was no fun, jumping about some pipes collecting coins was just not what a teenager wants to play in games. The Snes was a big change for Nintendo and it paid off. Arcade games were converted to the system with such success one game made the machine so popular it has cemented Nintendo as one of the main console makers ever since. Street Fighter 2 was a teenager’s game and one that we never thought could be made to run on a home console that was so easily accessible to us. Follow that with Mario Kart, Super Probotector, Final Fight and many football games it was a fantastic machine that could even do PC games like Doom and Cannon Fodder so well the PC fans were respecting it. I still to this day play SF2, FF and others due to this console.
N64
For me this machine was a big letdown. With Promises of virtual reality style games it was never going to happen. The controller was nothing great, ok it was new but had nothing to do with VR or even good gaming. Goldeneye came along and launched the machine big time. Great game then a few more help it sell. But for me still a crap console with nothing new to offer. No wonder Sony done so well.
Cyrix 266Mhz PC
I now enter the PC market and start with a budget CPU. Don’t be confused I was a student and an electronic student so a computer was a must to design PCBs and stuff. Bonus is that you have a catalogue of 1000s of games. And at the same time the 3D graphics card is now taking real effect. Some of the games out were fantastic and pretty much helped staple the PC to the mainstream games market. Long gone were endless commands and set up to run a game. Just install and play.
Celeron 366Mhz PC
When I got this machine now you can sit back and see the PC evolve with games like Halflife breaking down the barriers and showing the game world where it is at. Also about now is when online gaming really took off. Quake 2, halflife and Unreal all going global with online play.
Pentium 2 800Mhz PC
First CD Writer
Athlon 2Ghz PC
First DVD Writer
Gameboy Advance
Just for a year the games world went crazy with Halflife doing so well on the PC and Sega dying. Sony took over and started selling a shed load. Nintendo had the advanced ready for over a year and choose to wait for its launch and it was a gamble that paid off. Great games and a great console I still play ten years later. My nephew plays Mario Kart to this day. It was a rehash of the first Gameboy, cheap, fun and easy to play.
Athlon 3GHz PC, AMD 2.2Ghz x2 PC, AMD 2.3Ghz x3 PC
And now
AMD 3.5Ghz x4 PC,
With the introduction for dual core CPU you now have computers that can be so powerful that you may never actually use its full potential. Most programs and games only use two cores of the processor so the 3rd and 4th processor is left unused. But in time this will change and the new games mixed with the graphics cards now will just floor everything else made. That is if the games makers want to. People who are scared to buy a computer in case it is too slow need not fear now as the machines made now will last for 4 years or more. A 4x CPU and 4GB Ram machine can cost about £350. Not much if you consider all the things a PC can do.
