Nerdfest 2010

Yesterday I went to Bletchley Park with Ant and Tiff for the 2010 Vintage Computer Festival, the most concentrated amount of nerd in one place I ever hope to experience. The Amiga fanbase, which has been in virtual exile since the collapse of Commodore in 1994 (comparisons with the Jewish Diaspora are justified), was out in force to celebrate the official launch of the first new Amiga system in 16 years.

Since we were an exclusively Amiga household for many years, I wandered about getting nostalgic over all the old machines on display, many of which I'd never seen before.

The Amiga 1000, where it all started in 1985!

Amiga 500 (1987), our first home computer

Amiga 2000 (1987)

Amiga 3000 (1990)

Amiga CDTV (1991), a CD-based home entertainment centre which was waaaaay ahead of its time and therefore failed

Amiga 600 (1992), the first computer Edmund bought

Amiga 1200 (1992), made of awesomeness

Amiga CD32 (1993), our first games console, not that it was any good

After the Amiga excitement we went into the Bletchley Park mansion, the ground floor of which had been turned into pure nerd heaven, each room filled with row upon row of every games computer and console known to man, from Binatone to PS3.

This guy looked like the happiest person on the planet

This A1200 happened to be running Deluxe Paint II, so I drew a picture

We also popped into the on-site National Museum of Computing and saw lots of computers which are now apparently museum pieces.

Left to right: Amstrad 1512 (Dad's first computer); Amstrad CPC464 (my friend Bob had one of these); Sinclair ZX81; Amiga 500

Ant & Tiff in front of a Harrier Jumpjet

After the museum we went back to the marquee to witness the launch of the Amiga X1000, the first new Amiga system in 16 years. It was a truly momentous event, although the sheer volume of overweight, balding geeks crowding around the X1000 display meant we couldn't see or hear anything.

Sixteen years I waited for this moment