My Favourite Console - Commodore Amiga 600

I remember my very first games console as if it was only yesterday. In 1992 (was it really over 20 years ago?), my Dad came home with a box with a picture of an Amiga 600 and Lemmings on the front of it and I couldn't wait to get it set up. On this lens, I hope to take you down memory lane with me as I talk about the Amiga and some of my favourite games from it.

Photo of Amiga 600 courtesy of Alexander Jones - wikimedia commons

The Amiga 600 was released in 1992 as a follow up to the Amiga 500+. Nowadays, it just looks like an oversized keyboard, but back then this was a fairly decent computer. It came with 1MB of memory (compared to the 8GB in the PC I am writing this on now) and a Motorola processor which ran at just over 7 MHz (compared to a modern Intel I-5 which runs at 2.7 GHz). The 600 was designed for the lower end of the consumer market while the more powerful Amiga 3000 was aimed at the higher end.

Photo of Commodore Amiga 600 courtesy of Steve Gray - wikimedia commons

The Amiga 600 came with a mouse (see the picture) and a joystick (mainly for game operation). You could also buy a light pen to work your Amiga like a touch screen, although I never had one of these. The joystick that came with the computer was a fairly simple two-button variation and when I broke it (I yanked too hard on it when trying to complete a difficult jump in a game called 'Zool'), the replacement I bought was a much swankier and shapelier one.

Photo courtesy of Gürkan Sengün - wikimedia commons

With my Amiga, as well as the operating system and workbench, there were three games and the classic Deluxe Paint (EA). I loved Deluxe Paint. It was fairly similar to the paint program you get with Windows, which at the time seemed amazing. I was constantly drawing things, which I then couldn't do anything with as I didn't have a printer, but it was fun none the less. Deluxe Paint also came with some ready-drawn pictures that you could edit. The ones I remember were Tutankhamen's mask and a gorilla's face. Both of these regularly ended up with spectacles and moustaches drawn on them!

The three games included were Lemmings, The Simpsons and Captain Planet. I can't remember which game I played first, but I suspect it was Captain Planet as I was obsessed with the cartoon back then. All of the software came on floppy disks.

Photo courtesy of Blake Patterson - wikimedia commons

This was one of the games that was included with my Amiga and I played it a lot. You controlled Bart Simpson and has to thwart an alien mutant plan to take over the Earth. I remember this game being very difficult and I could never get past the second level.

I remember on the first level having to get rid of anything purple (I think the aliens needed purple things). This involved collecting spray paint and painting all the purple objects you could find.

Check out the entire game in the video below.

This was a great game that was included with the Amiga. You had to take control of the Planeteers one at a time and use their rings to solve each level. To start with you could do the fire or water levels and these needed to be completed to unlock further levels. I could only ever finish the fire level so the only level I ever unlocked was heart.

This was fun and watching the below video brought back great memories (especially the soundtrack).

An absolutely classic game. This one was my favourite of the three games included with the Amiga. The premise of the game was to save the Lemmings and guide them to the doorway on each level. To do this you must pick particular Lemmings and give them jobs to do to guide the rest. Any Lemming not currently doing a job just keeps walking aimlessly until they hit a wall (at which point they turn and walk in the opposite direction) or reach a drop, which being Lemmings they jump off.

Some of the jobs you could give Lemmings included making one into a blocker who would stop Lemmings from passing for a certain period of time. You could also turn a Lemming into a bomb if you needed to blast your way through a wall, or make a Lemming dig or bash their way through an obstacle.

There were many, many different levels and several sequels containing even more levels and special abilities.

Great fun.

In the 90s, my school was split between the Sega/Nintendo console people and the Commodore Amiga people. So which one were you?