I fist got an Atari STFM 520 back in 1988 or 89 (it was the Discovery pack with 20 or so games) and I was completely blown away.  My previous computer was a Spectrum +2 128, so you can imagine how amazed I was by the Atari's power.

I used it all the way through secondary school (11-16), I had an awful program called First Word Plus that I used for word processing (ahem), and dozens of bought games, but by the mid 90's the commercial Atari scene had died - you couldn't buy software in the shops and ST Format was the only magazine left.

I had no access to compact menus, so was never introduced to the likes of Automation until years later.  Anyway, around 1994 I decided I needed a new machine for college so I bought an Amiga 1200 - which after the ST felt like another massive leap forward.  The ST went in the garage, and was later thrown away after I moved out.

The Amiga market dried up after a few more years, and in 1998/9 I got a PC and discovered PacifiST.  My love for the ST was rekindled and I started to recollect the games I used to have via the Automation disks, and later on D-Bug as well.  Then in 2007 (after many years of using STEem) I sold my PS2, had some money to spend and bought an STE, 4MB with TOS2.06 upgrade, external SCSI enclosure with 500MB HD and a zip drive!

The Atari was always my favourite computer, and it's great to have one permanently set up in my office and sharing the same monitor/LCD screen as my PC! :)