Amiga Retrocomputing
Sebastian Bergmann recollects his journey into the wonderful world of Amiga retrocomputing.
© 2025. All rights reserved.
Sebastian Bergmann recollects his journey into the wonderful world of Amiga retrocomputing.
© 2025. All rights reserved.
In 1990, at the age of twelve, I received my first computer: an Amiga 500. This marked the beginning of my journey into programming, starting with AmigaBASIC before advancing to more sophisticated BASIC dialects such as GFA BASIC, Blitz BASIC, and AMOS which were better suited for graphics and game development. My programming skills deepened in 1993 when I upgraded to an Amiga 1200, transitioning to languages like C and Assembly, which unlocked lower-level control and efficiency. I also learned my first scripting language: ARexx.
During this period, many of my friends were involved in the Amiga demoscene and warez communities, subcultures focused on pushing technical and artistic boundaries. Inspired by these circles, I developed custom extensions for bulletin board systems (BBS) like Amiexpress and FAME, which facilitated user interactions and file sharing. Some of these projects, such as dtr-fr10, dtr-l10, and dtr-ql, remain archived on Aminet, the world’s largest archive of Amiga-related software and files.
The Amiga 1200 served as my sole computer throughout high school, a testament to its versatility. I retired it in 1998 when I began studying computer science, but nostalgia drew me back in 2015, when I revived the machine to reconnect with its distinctive hardware and the creativity it fostered.
