Also the smoothness - locked at 50 frames per second, it was mesmerising. I came from the MSX computers, which usually had blocky character per character scrol

Also the smoothness - locked at 50 frames per second, it was mesmerising. I came from the MSX computers, which usually had blocky character per character scrolling, or slower animations. The PC games were usually even crappier then that. And the Amiga stereo sound, was also incredible if you happened to play a game on a stereo TV set. Most games didn't even bother to mix the sound properly (to slow CPU and/or too few channels, 2 for left, 2 for right) but that the sound had some kind of "depth" not present in mono speakers, also added to the subconscious feeling that this is different. (3D games - Wolfenstein & Doom - instantly switched the tables, it was obvious that the parrot was not merely pining but actually dead.)