Star Tours

Now I am going to wax nostalgic about Star Tours, who's final day was today.  I went to Disneyland yesterday and bid my fond farewell to the iconic ride.  Apparently I wasn't the only one.  Molly Lewis, a FABULOUS artist who I have recently discovered also went and had much to say.  Here was my reply to her touching post.

I took the same pilgrimage yesterday Molly. It is never easy to let go of the small threads of our youth that weave together to form the tapestry of joy and wonder we use as a warm blanket that sees us through the winter of our often cynical and banal “adult” lives. Bits and pieces of our past crumble away to make way for the future. It is hard for us to reconcile our treasured past with a future that simply cannot compare to the feelings we felt when the world was new and wonderful. Yet, I believe that it is wiser to think that it was our child like wonder and not the spectacle that filled us with those warm and wonderful feelings. The ride was simply a catalyst that inspired our reaction to these myths that fed our starving sense of wonder.

I am certain that there are many who thought as we do when Star Tours replaced the venerable Adventure Through Inner Space. I am certain that there is a generation that looks back on that ride with the same veneration we show Star Tours.

Think what we will of what our beloved Star Wars has become. Think what we will of our treasured memories being replaced with some noisy 3D monstrosity. I am fairly certain that there will be an entire generation of us who will experience a new ride and feel the same exhilaration we felt the first time we tried to take a trip to Endor’s moon. (I don’t know about you but I never made it with not so much as an apology letter from Star Tours or a free ticket to Bestine as compensation.)

Amiga turns 25.

In 1985 someone thought that a home computer should have:

The ability to multi task using a 16 bit processor.

Should focus on graphics and sound to create a true multimedia experience.

Independent processors that can handle video, audio and memory handling.

A computer should be useful to creative professionals as well as accountants.

All these things we take for granted now, but in 1985 this was a revolution.  A revolution called Amiga.

The funny thing about it is that the Amiga was often derided for being a "gaming" computer.  With all its graphics and sound capabilities it was a fantastic game platform.  Yet all of the things that made it a great gaming platform was really just foreshadowing for the future of home and business computing.

Commodore and Amiga even had Apple playing catch up.  The Apple IIgs came along in 1986 with many of the same capabilities.  This machine was in a lot of ways the precursor to the Mac.

So to you I raise my glass Amiga!  I loved you and you helped make me into the geek I am today.