Every retro computing setup has a story. Here's mine, from the first time I sat in front of a screen to the machines I use today.
-When I started primary school in 1983, friends already had computers. A C64 with a Lego game at someone's place was the first time I saw a home computer in action. I didn't have one myself, but the seed was planted.
+When I started primary school in 1983, friends already had computers. One showed me everything a C64 could do, except the Lego game he kept promising to show me. That never happened, but I was hooked on computers anyway. Around the same time my father brought home an Epson HX-20, a tiny portable with a small screen and a built-in microcassette drive. That's where I wrote my very first BASIC programs.
In secondary school a friend had an Atari 520 with an external floppy drive, and we played games and swapped disks. For Christmas 1989 I got my own 1040STFM. A year later, Christmas 1990, came the Mega ST 4 with a MegaFile hard disk, the beginning of a much deeper relationship with the platform.
+In secondary school a friend named Matthias had an Atari, and a couple of classmates in the class also got Ataris over time. For Christmas 1989 I got my own 1040STFM. A year later, Christmas 1990, came the Mega ST 4 with a MegaFile hard disk, the beginning of a much deeper relationship with the platform. Early programming started with Omikron BASIC, then quickly moved to GFA BASIC, which became the main tool for writing software on the ST.
Friends had Amigas, and when Lemmings came out in February 1991 I wanted in. The Amiga arrived around April 1991, and with it came the first steps into creating my own software: the Esprit disk magazine in July 1991 and the BGC News disk magazine in October 1992.
+More and more classmates had Amigas, and I wanted one too. The Amiga arrived around April 1991, and while the Atari ST remained the programming machine, the Amiga became the creative hub: ProTracker for music, Deluxe Paint for graphics. The Esprit disk magazine started in July 1991, and the BGC News disk magazine followed in October 1992.
Christmas 1993 brought a Vobis Highscreen 486 DX2-66 in its distinctive Colani tower case. The PC opened the door to DOS games, and in 1994 the real creative phase began: DOSMENU, the SkyLine demo group, and the first modem connecting to the outside world.