4096 colors! In a world of IBM CGA graphics and monochrome Macintoshes, that sounded like the Promised Land! The sound capabilities (4 eight-bit digital synthesizers) didn't...uh... *sound* too shabby either...
I didn't hear much more about the Amiga (then, codenamed "Lorraine") until September 1995, when I saw a copy of "Amiga World" magazine. That first issue didn't have a lot to it, just a lot of artwork and promises of software (I'm still waiting for Turbo Pascal...:-)
The Amigas themselves weren't that common at first, but I did find a couple of computer stores where I could get a demo. I was pleasantly impressed with what I saw, even though some of the software seemed unstable. (One or two "Guru's" didn't dissuade me much).
Throughout 1986 and 1987, I was part of the "Santa Barbara Amiga Users Group". We met in a church on the Westside of Santa Barbara and swapped a few Fred Fish disks and the like.
I finally got the Amiga in June 1987. It was an Amiga 1000, with 512k of memory, a 1080 monitor, and an extra 1010 disk drive. Although I did some programming with the included BASIC (more on that in a moment), my primary activity was probably calling BBSs and downloading software (public domain only, please) from them. I had both the 1.1 and 1.2 versions of the operating system; 1.2 was *much* more stable!
I did some occasional programming in BASIC. The Microsoft Amiga BASIC was similar to their Macintosh BASIC, except it seemed to lack some of the control over the user interface that Mac BASIC had. (Strangely, both Mac and Amiga BASIC lacked certain graphic and sound commands (DRAW and PLAY) that earlier versions of Microsoft BASIC (Coco, IBM-PC) had). Most of the Amiga's graphics capability could be easily accessed from either BASIC commands or links to library functions (Direct access to the hardware through PEEK and POKE was also possible, but discouraged due to the Amiga's multitasking environment)
Due to limited funds, I mostly bought used software. I bought Sonix (the music program) from a fellow who lived over by the LAX Airport (and who ran a BBS that I frequented). I also joined the Los Angeles Amiga Users Group and got Fred Fish and other PD exchange disks there. (LAAUG used to meet in the Veterans Auditorium, Downtown Culver City. We used to meet in the biggest room there, but as membership dwindled, we found ourselves in smaller and smaller rooms. Also, near the end, the meetings became more and more Video Toaster oriented, and there was a $3-5 dollar charge to get in.)
I kept this machine more or less as is for the next seven years. I think my only major purchase was a Panasonic dot matrix printer in late 1988. Around 1992, I started investigating upgrade paths (not really wanting to move all the way up to, say, a 2000 or 3000 because of the cost). Also, around this time I started publishing newsletters, and needed to be able to easily print to a laser printer (or something that printed output that looked close enough to a laser printer. Dot-matrix just didn't cut it anymore).
At first we (I and someone else who had an Amiga) were to use Pagesetter and take the output to one of the few service bureaus in L.A. that supported the Amiga. But the software was unstable (kept crashing), a lot of "tweaking" was required to get the software to print properly at the service bureau, and the cost per hour was too high.
Meanwhile, most of my family had bought Mac Classics and Mac LC's, and I noticed that the Stylewriter printer did a pretty good job. So after considering various alternatives (including a new 2000 or 3000 with an Amax or Emplant emulator), I bought a Mac LC III in April 1993.
But I still kept the Amiga. I primarily used it to run Sonix, or read some of the many text files I had previously downloaded from BBS's and the Internet. I also used it as a packet radio terminal. The internal disk drive failed in late 1994, so I replaced it with the external drive (for about a year, I only had one disk drive, not too convenient. I eventually bought a used disk drive, along with some more used games and other software).
I still have the Amiga 1000, with a 1.5 internal memory expansion. Also in 1999, I bought a used 2000, with a hard drive. I plan to put a larger hard drive (or a ZIP Drive) in that machine and try to get all my old Amiga files in order. Someday...