From the Forum Issue 90

[Chinnico]

I really didn't realise the difference untill quite late. Actually when I went through C64 to Amiga 500 in 1988, for me it was just another transition to a 'better system', just as the previous ones from Atari VCS to Coleco to C64 had been like. Then the italian edition of Zzap! (which at the time had become a completely italian magazine) was joined in the newsstand by it's 16-bit counterpart The Games Machine (yep, italian edition too - btw, the magazine still endures to this very day, even as a shadow of it's former self, despite all the efforts). Also Sega started its barrage of 16-bit themed ads for the Mega Drive (or Mega Djaive, as for the italian ad pronounciation!). So I started to think: "ehy! Cool! I've a 16-bit machine! So.. why do I want that conversion of R-Type on the PC-Engine soooooo badly???".

[Dizrythmia]

When Amstrad Action offered "Blue Brothers" on the covertape. I thought "something's not right, this game isn't all that old". That was the point I realised it was winding down.

[sscott]

Seeing Xenon on the Atari ST.

[ncf1]

When Zzap! started looking like a children's comic and there was nothing but reviews of re-releases and lots of in-fighting between the writers.. you knew that when Paul Glancey had had enough and jumped ship, the days of 8-bit were all but over.

[kiwimike]

As soon as the ST/Amiga era started, that was it from a commercial point of view IMO. The same happened in the console field...With a Master system or NES at home, once you saw the Mega Drive, SNES or PC engine games you just had the immediate urge to upgrade I found.

[paranoid marvin]

When there were more games being given away free on the covers of mags than there were new titles being reeased.

The pamphletisation of Crash was the first nail , but the rest followed quickly after that.

[paranoid marvin]

When there were more games being given away free on the covers of mags than there were new titles being released.

The pamphletisation of Crash was the first nail , but the rest followed quickly after that.

[webding]

When Zzap! started looking like a children's comic and there was nothing but reviews of re-releases and lots of in-fighting between the writers.. you knew that when Paul Glancey had had enough and jumped ship, the days of 8-bit were all but over.

I guess I started reading Zzap around this time, given that - even as a ten year old - I thought it was an utter bag of censored, and written really badly. But, like being drunk and desperate, I happily took whatever was on offer.

[webding]

That's right. An absolute bag of censored.

[Crunchy]

It never even crossed my mind that 8-bits had died. It just wasn't something I ever consciously thought about. I saw some games on my friend's Atari ST and the move from 8-bit to 16-bit came as naturally as breathing. There was no sadness, no sense of an era ending, no drawing a line under the previous generation of machines. I've never been one to hold on to a games machine long enough to realise I've been left behind as a new generation unfolds.

[fulgenzio]

The first time i saw Menace.

[FatTrucker]

The Amiga Batman pack.

The point that hit the shops signalled the death knell for 8 bit micro's IMO. The new generation was officially here and all the continuance of 8 bit coverage in mags achieved at that point was to illustrate just how bad they were compared to the state of the art. The writing was indelibly on the wall.

[Eric]

When did you realise the 8-bit computers had finally died? (from a commercial point of view, we know we're all still playing them).

While in the local "Computer Genius" which was situated upstairs in a jeans clothing store. While buying Crazy Cars II and 4x4 Off-Road Racing for Amstrad everyone else was huddled around an imported Japanese Megadrive running Revenge of Shinobi. A no contest really.

[SJ_Sathanas]

"F-Zero" - that is all.

[PanzerGeneral]

I knew their days were numbered when the ST and Amiga first appeared in the micro press, it never really hit me until about 1988 when I got my Amiga, and as much as I loved the Amiga - I couldn't help but feel that computers were now being developed with idiots in mind, I loved the fact that you had to actually type something in to make an 8bit do anything.