The counter-argument was, of course, perceived value. If a machine had a retail price of £399 and came with software 'worth' £100, then, to the consumer, it looked like a better buy. In reality, the manufacturer would only pay the software publisher something like £1 for every game that was included in these packs.

Although Commodore continued bundling software with the Amiga, they did take the dealers' complaints on board and resolved to bundle no more than four titles with their machines. The first example of this was 1989's 'Batman' pack - which was hugely successful - and then, 11 years ago this week, came the Amiga 'Flight of Fantasy' pack. The software included with it was EA's Deluxe Paint II, the newly released Rainbow Islands from Ocean, the not-yet released Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters from Domark, and the much-hyped and long-awaited F29 Retaliator, also from Ocean, all for £399. This went on to become the most successful Amiga pack yet.

Atari also went down the bundling route with their ST Power Pack. This contained an astonishing 23 top games, including the seminal Super Sprint, for £399. The games, in fact, were worth more than this on their own. Unfortunately for Atari, the dealers' warnings that giving the games away would have an adverse affect on software sales came true. With 23 games included, an ST owner would rarely return to the shop to buy additional games. Not for a long time, anyway. But Atari had never listened to their dealers in the same way that Commodore had. Nor had they ever taken them away on holiday.

The shopkeeper of 10 years ago, when asked which was the most suitable machine to buy, would therefore invariably recommend the Amiga: he would get more software sales and it would count towards his summer vacation. Not a difficult choice to make, really. Plus the Amiga was the better machine anyway, so it was a win-win situation for all. Except Atari.