Amiga 30, a personal tour with John McDermott

30 Years is a long time in anyone’s book….

What I didn’t expect was that 30 years on from when I first began to hear murmurings about a new Commodore Machine called the Amiga, that I would be attending a birthday party in Amsterdam with my 14 year old daughter to celebrate the machine and to wish it a very happy birthday - along with distinguished luminaries from its hay day! This is my review and thoughts from the event.

Joined by my good friend Mike Nurney, my daughter and I headed off in a taxi from our hotel to the Lighthouse venue - which was located in the North East of the town, in the modernised Docks area. Pleasantly surprised when we arrived to see that a marquee had been erected outside the event and that not too long a queue was gathering to pick up Lanyards and Guest passes.

The Amiga will always be remembered as long as we share it with our children. RJ Mical sharing a laugh with my daughter

The Venue location was very nice which I think the weather played a part in ensuring with it being mostly warm and sunny all day.

Picking up our guest passes - which included a full version of Cloanto’s Amiga Forever 14 (plus) package (a very nice bonus as I only have the 2012 version!) we wandered into the Marque to see what was going on.

The marquee was pretty much where like minded individuals had brought their kit to set up and show off. There were some “chip awards” on display for the various machines from back in the day but all in all - a decent display of kit. Petro Tyschtschenko was there showing off the Amiga Walker (when he eventually got it to start) also.

Heading into the event proper it was nice to see everyone wandering about, meeting new people and generally getting into the swing of things. First person we met was the absolute star of the day - RJ Mical. He was just walking about and talking to folk when we (Mike and I) accosted him and began chatting.

I can’t articulate well enough just how nice this guy is. Humble, funny, interested in everything and everyone around him and very accommodating - the whole day - even when sat outside signing stuff in the very hot sunshine for hours! Legend!

Also just wandering about and chatting to everyone and anyone was Dave Haynie, David Pleasance and many of the VIP’s.

Once the event started proper - everyone crowded around a small stage and stood through each talk (in-between popping to the bar for coffee’s and beers). This was a bit surprising as I had thought there would be seats as standing all day isn’t ideal, but in the end it was fine. I stood and listened to the folks I wanted to and wandered off and mingled with guests and took a stroll along the marina area (which my daughter enjoyed as there was a small market on at the end of the promenade and new clothes could be bought!) during less interesting speakers and topics (to me).

RJ Mical and Dave Haynie’s talks were the highlights for me followed by the awesome Jon Hare performing some if his best known game music from Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and so on.

The event organisers did a great job in engaging with everyone, running raffles and ensuring things ran smoothly.

For me - aside from the talks - actually wandering about, meeting up with my other friend and his wife (Steve and Sarah) as well as meeting old acquaintances (Firthy and Josi from Amibay) and new ones (Paul Kitching - who designed the official logo’s etc and spending time with Frank Geisler from Commodore Germany) and just soaking up the atmosphere of the day with these like minded individuals in a relaxed and beautiful location was the best thing. Again - as it seems to always be at “retro events” - it’s the social aspects I enjoy the most - and meeting and hanging out with hero’s from back in the day can’t be bad eh?