Let Me Introduce Myself Part 3: A Proper PC Upbringing

 I can't believe as a guy who makes YouTube lets play videos for a hobby on PC gaming has managed to get away with waiting until his third blog entry to actually address his PC history to anyone still sticking around to read it! But please, before you go clicking off this I'd just like to say that this is the last introductory blog entry I shall be doing so you can rest confidently now knowing my cynical and slightly sarcastic views and opinions on the world of gaming together with life in general thrown in will commence in the coming entries forthwith. I mean, Logan Paul... what a bellend. AMIRIGHT? But before we start upsetting the legions of unquestioning automatons regarded as his "subscribers", (never has the word fan been so appropriate... it would take a fanatic to be able to defend and justify that prick's attitude and actions towards other people in my humble opinion) we better get on to the subject of my love for the personal computer and gaming upon said item.

Now although I started this blog series with the what's and wherefore's regarding the Commodore 64 I feel the need to create a single entry to detail my history with the open platform gaming machine which is currently going through a bit of a renaissance over the past few years. I could have pegged all this together in to one super-blog as I suppose technically the C64 and PC are one of the same, at least in essence. The one thing which has always bugged me is the fact machines of old were recalled as being "Home Computers" as opposed to all modern iterations which are referred to as "Personal Computers". Why? Is it a price thing? One could argue that today's PC's out of the box is more or less comparable to what you were paying for a Commodore or Spectrum back in the day so I guess it's more to do with the fact back in the 1980's one computer per household was enough whereas today you'd be lucky to find someone who doesn't have at least one piece of technology on their being at any one time if you take in to consideration how advanced a mobile phone is alone these days. But I digress...

I'd like to tell you that after my initial introduction to "home computing" via the C64 I was savvy enough to continue my interest with these modern contraptions all throughout my life but with taking half a decade out due to the convenience and speedy loading times of consoles when I finally did decide to re-introduce myself in to the multimedia extravaganza that had become "personal computing" I didn't have a fucking clue. I'd like to say that after doing intricate research on the matter I had enough understanding of the technology to know what to purchase and what I could expect to get out it for applications, (and games) but as a teenager that was never going to happen! So what amazing application or game charmed me enough to warrent me to try and convince my parents in to spending a sizeable amount of money on yet another games machine as far as they were concerned?  (I'd just like to say at this point that yes, I did play the "it'll be for homework!" card and thankfully they fell for that hook, line, sinker, rod and copy of the angling times.) Could it have been the interactive marvel that was Encarta 95 with those grainy videos and crackly sound bites? Was it the very business orientated and professional look of the desktop in Windows 95? I'm afraid not. I can honestly say in all seriousness it came down to a screensaver based on a Guinness advert.

In retrospect it does seem kind of pathetic to think that what has governed my social and professional life for over a quarter of a century all started with a screensaver for a popular brand of Irish stout, and to be honest it isn't even the best advert they have ever come up with. If you have clicked on the above link you've already seen that the advert itself is just a man doing a silly dance in order to kill some time while waiting for a pint of the black stuff to settle properly but for some reason as a screensaver I thought it was a interactive marvel. I mean, LOOK AT HIM!! He's dancing on my screen whenever I want him to! Well, as long as I don't touch the keyboard or mouse for a predetermined time frame anyway. Now before you start to think of me as being a complete imbecile you need to remember that this was at a time when the most sophisticated thing I'd seen on a computer before this was animation in a Commodore 64 game and this guy was grinding around on the screen JUST like he did on the TV. And I think that's why it struck a chord with me, it was the first time I had seen a computer be able to reproduce a picture like I had seen in another more acceptable and at the time vastly superior format. If I thought more of myself at the time I would say it was because it was at that exact moment that I realised the future potential of the PC and how one day it would rival television, radio and newspapers in it's everyday use as a multimedia platform... but it was only because of a man doing a silly dance for a pint on the screen in order to not have the desktop image burned in to it's surface.

So I got my first official PC! A 486 DX2-66 with 4 megabytes of RAM, a VERY basic sound/video card and a 250MB hard drive. (I think anyway, I'm not too sure on the HDD to be honest.) It wasn't the most up to date computer by any means at the time and I'm pretty sure the guy who built it, (called Mike who I ended up working for eventually) built it out of  "re-purposed" parts but I never had an issue with it from the day I got it until the day I upgraded the machine beyond the original components and case itself. It was at this point that any friends who had secretly been PC gamers came out of the woodwork recognising me as one of their own due to the pale complexion, bloodshot eyes and strong wrists... but that could be any teenage boy I guess. As I stated in my last blog entry the tribal mentality of console gamers ruled the playground, to the point where the very small clique of nerds who preferred a computer to a PlayStation for their boyhood jaunts of gaming would not even bother to defend their steely software platform for fear of being drowned out by a bunch of neanderthals not sophisticated enough to recognise the advanced power hidden away in those mini-towers. (PC Master race FTW!) But with a raise of the eyebrows and a nod of the head I was welcomed in to the coven that was the "I.T.ists". These guys, (and a single girl as we're all for gender equality in our forward thinking group who were desperate for any female attention at that age) opened my eyes to the many different genres unable to be properly showcased on a console. Point and click games, strategy and simulation games became my favourite types with Settlers 2 and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, (VGA version of course!) being two of the first and most loved games I played. Although FPS games can have diverse themes the base workings remain the same but with more story-intrinsic and broadly different mechanics the games I discovered no matter how old they were they still felt fresh.

This isn't the time or place to start listing my favourite games on the PC, (that will be in another blog entry when I can't think of anything better to write about!) there are a few games which really frame that time in my life, mainly due to the fact I was part of the "I.T.ists" at my high school. We essentially were the guys, (and girl) who looked after the network PCs, from standard laborious chores like cleaning them up, (inside and out) to having a go at rectifying any hardware or software issues that crept up from the pupils messing about on them during lessons with one very special Summer where we replaced all the machines throughout the school and helped configure them. Now, that might sound boring to anyone uninitiated in to the group but certain school responsibilities awarded certain perks, the main one being left alone for a couple of hours after school while the teachers finished up paperwork or prepared for tomorrows lessons which meant we had free reign on the schools computers in that time! As well as having a connection to the internet at a reasonable speed for the time, (ISDN as opposed to a 56.6k modem) the more important factor was having access to 30 computers all linked up together.

THAT'S RIGHT KIDS, WE HAD NETWORK GAMING SESSIONS!

In today's fibre optic landscape it's very easy to forget where the humble beginnings of the internet began. I'm not going to lecture you on how today's youngsters don't realise how easy they have it, I'd assume if you're reading this you too suffered the pain of a dial up modem with having to disconnect whenever another family member wanted to call someone while also putting your PC gaming mates on your friends and family list with your telephone service provider in order to get a discount for calling them so damn often because of playing 1v1 on Command and Conquer all the time but I'll say this; THE PAIN WAS REAL. So, having access to multiple computers on the same network for multiplayer sessions of Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom 2 and eventually the original Grand Theft Auto were a marvel and I have very fond memories for that time of my life. This was also a time where no real DRM existed which meant the sharing of 3.5" floppies and CD's with full games on them were common practice, and in the rare times where a game needed to have the CD in the drive in order to get the game working the school had a handy CD re-writer built in to the teacher's work computer and we were "trusted" with the password to it! Even back then it felt like what we were doing for those couple of hours at the end of every school day was something special, groundbreaking even, but I don't think any of us would imagine how much common interactivity there would be in gaming some 20 years later. From your standard PvP games to such simpler things such as having an online high score table to even being able to zap yourself in to someone else's single player experience just to fuck with them a bit. I'm looking at you, Dark Souls! For four years this was my life outside of the rigmorale of forced education and naturally these friendships I made through the PC gaming scene at school carried on outside of it too. Remember the guy I wrote about in my first blog about the Commodore 64? The kid who had a ZX Spectrum who amazed me with his little black box with rubber keys? Well he was in this group too and although I never acknowledged this at the time it would seem in retrospect I owe my love of computers and gaming in general to him... so thanks Pete.

When you're at school playing on those up to date computers everyone involved are on equal terms; everyone has the same specs, peripherals, screens etc. but towards the end of my school life my own computer started falling behind minimum specs for a respectable gaming rig. Games began to run slow or even not at all and seeing as this was a "family" computer and still very capable of performing the tasks asked by the other members of the household I noticed month after month the selection of games I could play were getting to the point of non-existence. At this point I have received a few upgrades from the 486 through birthdays and Christmas gifts - nothing significant enough to mention here, but with no way to finance any new parts for the big box in the corner myself, (I had a paper round where I delivered 300+ newspapers for just over £5 a week!) I had to turn to alternative methods of gaming. This was when I discovered the term abandonware. Abandonware in itself is a dirty word, supposedly any software not directly supported by the developer or publisher could be classed as "abandoned" and so open to free distribution and download. It seemed like a lot of developers were very open to their older games which haven't been freely available for a few years to be easily downloaded and played by people who wouldn't necessarily have played them in the first place, hell, maybe even have heard of them at all! But with the PC being such an open platform this was a very real possibility for anyone savvy enough to have a look on the old interwebs. Thankfully this was the beginning of the internet being a lot more widely recognised by the general populace as a viable way to project your passions to a wider audience and with a bit of digging around the wondrous treasures to be found under the heading of abandonware were mine for the discovering! Suddenly a whole world of older games which were uglier compared to their newer, better looking compadres but with no less gameplay to them had been sprung open to me and were there for me to poke and prod around with. There were games that I had heard of through conversations at school or games I remember hearing about from a few years before which I suddenly had access to and the only constraints to me playing them being the time I could afford to invest in them. This for myself was where my informal education to gaming came in to play and thankfully by having access to a potato of a machine I could now fill in the gaps from the 5 years I'd missed out on while hanging out with the cool console kids. But even better still was I could go beyond even that era, I could experience games from when I first had my Commodore and further back still. My catalogue had expanded so significantly and my choice was so varied now and all because I couldn't run the latest games my friends were playing... and I'm glad. Without this "ailment" I never would have uncovered old gems like The Oregon Trail, Jones in the Fast Lane, Street Rod, Lost Dutchman Mine, Sid Meier's Pirates and Rockstar! to name but a few and even today with every PC I build and/or upgrade I always make sure one of the first actions I do is to transfer my favourite games of yesteryear along with the latest version of DosBox on to the hard drive.

I guess while you're at school you don't really have a lot to worry about other than homework, keeping your grades at a respectable level with only doing the minimum effort needed in order to achieve this and wooing any females gracious enough to show you any interest in you so time can be a very cheap commodity. It's not until you leave education and enter the world of full time employment that you realise that time, your own time especially, is precious. And with every year onward with increasing responsibilities through work and family commitments the value of that hour here or that hour there you can squeeze in for yourself never seems to be enough to accomplish what you would like to do. Even at the age of 17 I started to figure this out rather quickly when I ended my college course early to go and work full time in PC installation and maintenance. Here I was, working 8am until 5pm building and installing computers around the UK for large and small companies on networks compared to my friends who were sleeping in until 10am and going to college/university for a few hours and then going out on the lash on a weeknight. A WEEKNIGHT I TELL YOU!! I've never been a big drinker and although these days I can sink a few back sensibly and be alright the next day this was not a possibility back then as I hadn't drawn that practical line in the sand yet. If I was drinking I was drinking to get drunk. Smashed. Shitfaced. There was no in-between! But as I was in full time employment on a apprentice's wage, (not a lot but I was earning more than my peers at the time) and the fact I chose not to go out in the week as management "frowned" on turning up drunk at work more than a couple of times in short duration I decided to invest my time and money in to my own PC at home. It would be silly not to really as I built them by day, (so I could throw bits in to it and have it all configured pretty quick) and I also had access to all the suppliers who could supply me with multiple components at trade prices! So although the items I decided to buy were still expensive at the time they should have been a hell of a lot more costly than what I payed for them so I splashed as much money at my little box as I could rationally afford! This meant budget gaming for myself - finding good abandonware titles and downloading free to play games - became a thing of the past as I could play whatever new title interested me as soon as it was published! And although since then I have had times when PC gaming hasn't been at the forefront of my social life, (thanks heady twenties!) I have always strived to have a semi-capable PC so I can at least keep up with the computer culture pack and know enough of what's going on at any one time to stay in the loop.

Although I don't work directly in the computer trade now, (still dealing with electrics though!) and the fact I now have a long term and very forgiving girlfriend (who allows me enough time to myself each week to do YouTube as a hobby) PC gaming for me right now is back at the forefront of any spare time I have and I'll relish this time as much as I can in the knowledge that realistically the next natural step for myself and my partner is marriage and children and at the bare minimum time will become even more of a constraint than it is already. My only hope is that my love of gaming, PC gaming in particular will rub off on my spawn and they too will grow up in as exciting a time for computing as I was lucky enough to grow up in. I'd like to think that Padge Jr will one day write a blog when he is my age now, (if writing still exists and Skynet doesn't just read your brainwaves directly) and be able to comment on how he/she had the most amazing childhood playing in the new VR suite they had mum and dad buy so they could do their homework better... or something along those lines anyway.

So that's it! The early years covered at a very basic level. I'd like to think that by my writing you're getting an idea on the kind of guy I am and hope what to expect in future blog entries. I've only really skipped over the basics and have many other stories to tell from both this era and beyond but I'm sure they'll be time for that in other blogs... and don't even get me started on talking about my time with World of Warcraft.

 Thanks once again for taking the time to read this and hopefully I'll see you next time!

Scott.


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