All time 5 favourite computers. :D

[MD]

Not consoles, just home computers, so PC doesn't count (as there is no such thing as a standard PC). Just give a reason why it's on your list. Oh and not bitching or slagging machines off. ;P

Mine are...

1) Atari Falcon

Last of the proper home computers, was powerful with a decent 68030, DSP, decent sound chip, nice graphics resolutions and colour.
Although had a rubbish keyboard, little support and rubbish marketing. :/

2) Sinclair Spectrum +2

Yes it's Amstrad baby, but the +2 fixed some bugs of the Spectrum 128, gave it a proper keyboard and a tape deck and made it more realible. Had more classy games too.

3) Sinclair ZX81

Yes it looked like a wedge, yes it had 1K and yes it was a bastard to work with, but launched a generation into computing and even had success in America. What more could you want. Next to a row of As pretending to be Space Invaders?

4) Fujitsu FM Towns II

Not the Marty, but the proper computer. 80386 based with some nice 2D sprite hardware made this machine lot the business, especially with near arcade accurate conversions of games. It also had the coolest (sans Victor Wondermega) CD opening tray ever.

5) Commodore 128D

The computer itself failed miserablely, but it was 1Mhz more powerful and had some nicer features over the Commodore 64. Was an excellent machine to do developement on as you could run both the Z80 and 8502 processers at the same time.

[Super Stu]

Not consoles, just home computers, so PC doesn't count (as there is no such thing as a standard PC).

Oi, PCs used to be standardish. What about the Amstrad 1640? Gonna be tricky this, but I'll go with:

ZX Spectrum+
My first computer. Cousin had the original ZX for quite a while, even had it sent off to be upgraded to 48k (or was it a ram pack? can't remember, awfully long time ago). But then one christmas my little package of ownage turned up, complete with decent keyboard (comparatively), a reset switch and other such useful things. I sold it along with a myriad of things for ?80 to fund a launch pall Megadrive. One of the stupidest things I've ever done, in hindsight.

BBC Master
So naturally the geeks in primary school get put in charge of ferrying the computer trolley about from class to class, setting up the programs for them etc. Course, they all came with these amazing Microvitec colour monitors giving unsurpassed crisp visuals back then (imho). Then you had the utterly mad range of peripherals for the BBC.. christ, as a kid owning a Spectrum (with only an expansion interface and 2 sound ports to speak of), you had to observe a BBC with awe. I mean ffs, the back was littered with ports but just lift one of these things up and see the underneath.. more expansion ports and sockets than you could count.

But it's not the BBC B I'll nominate. One day, still in primary school, we went to a sports meeting at some other local school. So there I was shuttling about when out of the corner of my eye I sport a Master. WTF was that? A BBC B with cartridge slots?! For me as a kid back then, it was a jaw on the floor moment.

Amiga 500
My mam and dad never did anything by halves, so one christmas I was sat there with my Spectrum when suddenly a PC (the aforementioned Amstrad 1640) was dumped on my lap. Not literally. Clearly, this was a bit of a hike for a lad into his computing. 48k -> 640k. Tapes -> twin disk drives. But no, my cousin ditched his 48k rubber key Spectrum (upgraded to a ZX+ chasis and 128k memory.. you know the one, its the best looking spectum ever.. like a standard ZX+ but with a big 128k logo on it and a superb cooling/for show grill on the right) for an Amiga 500.

**** me I was jealous.

By chance we both bought Falcon by Spectrum Holobyte, which remains to this day my favourite flightsim, I just kinda grew up on it. So I gets home and fire it up.. oof. CGA. A bit harsh, but the game was still good. But see, then we got to my cousins house and played it on his Amiga. WTF, drums and guitars on the intro screen? WTF!? proper graphics and proper engine sounds and stuff.

Never ever will a computer have as much character as the Amiga. I wubs my PCs, but you gotta shell out the cashola and buy something out of the ordinary to get some character into them these days. The Amiga just exuded it.

Anyway, fond memories.

[Papercut]

All imho of course, the machines of which I have the fondest memories:

C64 (6581 SID)

- For being the best machine of it's time, spawning the best games mag of a generation in Zzap64!, and having a brilliant run of UK games. Also home to the best collection of games music.

Amiga 1000

- by comparison the Amiga 500 was crippled and ugly. Shame, as thats all I could afford. Given the time that this technology was released, it was an incredible achievement in video and audio hardware. Workbench/Amiga DOS was pretty nifty too.

Atari 800XL

- Best video hardware of it's time, also home to the best Atari arcade conversions in the early to mid eighties. Had the best range of peripherals too, all of which outclassed rivals.

Atari ST

- Never a huge fan, but I can't deny it was a good machine put out for a very good price. Shame the video hardware wasn't quite upto it. I liked TOS too, and the workstation versions were lovely. The impact it had is often overlooked; this is where 16 bit gaming really kicked off in the uk.

BBC Model B

- Ugly, overpriced crap. But a very good BASIC and LOGO, as well as some fine arcade game clones. I remember the rip offs of Donkey Kong and Scramble being especially good.

[charlaph]

Amstrad CPC 464 (Colour Screen)
The integrated tape deck made it for me, plus the nicely designed colour monitor, I even liked the feel of the keyboard. It was special.

Atari ST
I had an Atari ST when just about all my friends had Amigas, so I fought my corner. I still think it was an excellent machine, even though I never made music on it, which was probably it's greatest strength.

Commodore 64
I had the Amstrad, but secretly I coveted a C64. I just liked the design of it cos it was so curvy and nice, and the offical tape deck was dinky. I preferred the Amstrad for games (yeah, weird I know) but there was a lot right with the C64

ZX81
It started it all for me. The first thing I owned that I played games on. I still own a few of the tape games, I remember the 16k memory add-on, and playing text adventures on the ZX81, which was probably a real chore with the touch keyboard, but I just remember it as being fantastic at the time.

Acorn Achimedes
I only played one game on it (I never owned one) but it impressed the hell out of me, I just saw it as being phenomenally powerful and I really wanted one, but there was no way I could afford it as a teenager, then the Megadrive came along and changed my outlook.

[Ish]

BBC Master
So naturally the geeks in primary school get put in charge of ferrying the computer trolley about from class to class, setting up the programs for them etc. Course, they all came with these amazing Microvitec colour monitors giving unsurpassed crisp visuals back then (imho). Then you had the utterly mad range of peripherals for the BBC.. christ, as a kid owning a Spectrum (with only an expansion interface and 2 sound ports to speak of), you had to observe a BBC with awe. I mean ffs, the back was littered with ports but just lift one of these things up and see the underneath.. more expansion ports and sockets than you could count.

But it's not the BBC B I'll nominate. One day, still in primary school, we went to a sports meeting at some other local school. So there I was shuttling about when out of the corner of my eye I sport a Master. WTF was that? A BBC B with cartridge slots?! For me as a kid back then, it was a jaw on the floor moment.

Thanks Stu. Thats just saved me a load of typing

[Treble]

Not had a lot of experience with computers, so my ignorance should be funny, if nothing else

Sinclair ZX81

It was ace, because it was the first computer I ever played on. Wolfpack owned.

Atari 800

Got this off a friend of my mum's for nowt, with a tape deck included. Had just seen 'Explorers', and thought I was going to be able to use it to fly around in dustbins and ****.

Atari ST

had one for a short while. Buggy Boy was ace.

Spectrum 128k

Never had one, but I used to play on my mate's all the time. Target: Renegade. Nuff said.

Amiga 500

Got my Mum to buy me this on the old 'I'll use it for school. Honest.' bluff. Ironically, I used it all the way through college for word processing. Magic.

[Mayhem]

5. Atari 800 - damn fine spec machine, great games, sadly overshadowed by others when they came out. Dropzone is just the ****znaz on this computer.

4. MSX - an unusual choice? Possibly... you couldn't argue with the range and quality of software released for it though.

3. Spectrum 48k - pride does not stop me from nominating my main rival machine simply because there happened to be a lot of exclusive classic games for it. Another one for programmers to cut their teeth on.

2. Amiga - specifically the 500 but include them all. The next step up, sadly one I only got to play on not own, games were just too expensive. Kick Off, Damocles, Carrier Command, Shadow of the Beast... lots of fun to be had...

1. C64 - like you'd expect me to put anything else here The best selling computer of all time, the best computer of all time. Years ahead in terms of design, there's nothing it can't do and almost everyone was touched by it at some point in their lives. If only Commodore had made the disc drive cheaper in this country, the Spectrum might not have had the grip it did during the early years.

[Ginger Tosser]

ZX81 - As my friend at school remarked, keeps your hands warm on a cold day. Never really noticed cos, we used our central heating. Anyway, the gateway computer for many. O.K. it was basic, 2 colours, no sound crap keyboard and poor graphics, but still spend many an hour on it (until the RamPack broke).

Spectrum - I still have my original !, o.k. it doesn't work. I still remember the day, I came home from school for lunch, saw the speccy box in the bay window, never went back in the afternoon. Still the only computer i owned that the family and friends crowded round on the first night. It got better, i rushed out to buy a Microdrive and Interface 1, fast loading at long last !

Sinclair QL - Strange choice at the time for a 15 year old. I wanted a bigger computer than the spectrum to learn on. Never really got round to though. Still a smart looking machine, twin microdrives, nice keyboard and different graphics modes. It was the first 16Bit home computer (internally anyway, used a 68008 processer with a 8 bit bus). Got swapped for a Spectrum +3 when it broke, then took that back to currys and swapped it for a TV.

Atari ST - A giant leap in technology from the speccy, was it worth ?300. Of course it was, full colour graphics, decent sound (although not as good as the SID chip), disk drive and mouse. I learnt a lot from the ST, one day we'll meet again.

Amiga 500 - My mate brought his round the day he brought it. I did not sleep that night, playing interceptor ? i think. You know the combat sim, you could shoot down air force one with. Anyway i must have liked it cos within a few weeks i had one. Went mad with the Amiga, even brought the A590 HDD - a stunning 20MB !!

[Ginger Tosser]

ZX81 - As my friend at school remarked, keeps your hands warm on a cold day. Never really noticed cos, we used our central heating. Anyway, the gateway computer for many. O.K. it was basic, 2 colours, no sound crap keyboard and poor graphics, but still spend many an hour on it (until the RamPack broke).

Spectrum - I still have my original !, o.k. it doesn't work. I still remember the day, I came home from school for lunch, saw the speccy box in the bay window, never went back in the afternoon. Still the only computer i owned that the family and friends crowded round on the first night. It got better, i rushed out to buy a Microdrive and Interface 1, fast loading at long last !

Sinclair QL - Strange choice at the time for a 15 year old. I wanted a bigger computer than the spectrum to learn on. Never really got round to it though. Still a smart looking machine, twin microdrives, nice keyboard and different graphics modes. It was the first 16Bit home computer (internally anyway, used a 68008 processer with a 8 bit bus). Got swapped for a Spectrum +3 when it broke, then took that back to currys and swapped it for a TV.

Atari ST - A giant leap in technology from the speccy, was it worth ?300. Of course it was, full colour graphics, decent sound (although not as good as the SID chip), disk drive and mouse. I learnt a lot from the ST, one day we'll meet again.

Amiga 500 - My mate brought his round the day he brought it. I did not sleep that night, playing interceptor ? i think. You know the combat sim, you could shoot down air force one with. Anyway i must have liked it cos within a few weeks i had one. Went mad with the Amiga, even brought the A590 HDD - a stunning 20MB !!

[gamelife]

not gonna go into any detail but my top 5 are;

Amstard CPC 464 - my first computer, i had over 200 games!

commadore 64 - used to play on this at my mates house

Amiga 500

spectrum ZX - the small one with rubber keys

actually, i cant think of a 5th