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» The CPI inflation calculator has the Amiga 500 at over £1,700 in today’s money. You could buy a Switch, Xbox One Series X and PS5 and still have money to spare.
INFLATION NATION
Dear Retro Gamer, Whilst having a catch-up on your fantastic magazine, issue 231 to be specific, something dawned on me as I was reading Hot Topic. My cousin, whose dad had chosen an A500 as the family computer, was very much in the minority. Sevenyear-old me didn’t really register that I knew no one else who owned one. I’d spent hours playing Street Fighter II Turbo, all the Dizzy games and Speedball 2 to name but a few, with no idea about what a privilege it was.
It got me thinking about what our parents were spending on computers back then, inflation adjusted. Darran’s point about the A500 being a hideously expensive machine was bang on – £499 in 1988 in today’s money equates to £1,711 pounds (respect for my uncle instantly shot up!) I also realised that when my dad excitedly presented me with a brand-new Amstrad CPC 464 Plus with a colour monitor after picking me up from school one day, he had just spent the 1991 equivalent of £903. Now would I build my 12-year-old son a gaming PC for £1,700 or £903 these days just because I felt like it? Well, no, so maybe we didn’t have it that bad after all. Ed, Colchester