One day me and my father drove 30 kms to buy the box. We talked with the guys about what we wanted ('16Hz, no, its to fast, 12 will do') and they sad it would be ready in three days. Then, we were very surprised and disappointed. They were surprised that we were surprised and finally said 'no biggie, we will set it up right now for you'. So we were back home with the box this evening.
At home we plugged it in only to discover that it was totally useless thingy blinking at us. This evening I learned why software was so, sooo important.
Only the next day I would get some floppies from friends and feed the beast.
Empty parking lot, 1985... Shoot!
If you like "making of" stories this one is pretty good too, it's been posted on HN before but is a great read.
http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/another_world.htm
He taped his friend jumping and climbing in a parking lot to model the animations after (and posted the video): http://jordanmechner.com/old-journals/1985/10/october-20-198...
I can definitely see the character performing all those actions from my own childhood memories..