Personal Stuff
Ever since I was a kid, I loved playing video games... way back in the early eighties. Those were the days when games used to cost about 20 cents, and the games were ones like Defender, Space Invaders, Zaxxon, Pole Position, Monaco GP, Dragon's lair.... yes it's all coming back to me now....
My favourites were any driving game. Sega's early Monaco GP was my favourite. I used to play that for ages. I used to play Asteroids DeLuxe quite a lot too. That was quite an obscure game that was an upgrade to the original Asteroids. It only differed because you had a shield instead of Hyperspace (And when it wore out...look out!), and a big hexagon-shape spaceship that when shot, split up and the parts attacked you like a swarm of bees! I never used to play pinball much, although I have some interest in that now...
My first computer was the Sinclair ZX81. What an amazing piece of equipment that was back in 1980!! It was black and white, had a very primative version of basic, and had 1K memory, expandable to 16K. When you had 16K, it was considered a powerful machine. You loaded programs with an ordinary mono tape deck!!! My Dad bought the ZX81 hoping to use it for business purposes (Ha ha!! what a laugh now!), but I used it more often than he did. Eventually I was making small, but terrible little games written in basic, but I could never get the damn tape deck to load or save anything. Eventually I threw it out because I broke the touch panel keyboard!
For several years after, I was computerless until my Dad got a Commodore 64 for my birthday. At that time (early 1987). By then, having a Commodore 64 was like having a Playstation today. All the kids at school used to come to school, swap games, and talk about Impossible Mission or Maniac Mansion. I couldn't swap with those kids though, as I still had only a Datasette. I had trouble getting things to load on that too. I didn't realise that the head alignment was out, and that it was the main cause of load failures! My favourite game back then was Fairlight, followed by Lemans (Monaco GP revamped)Jumpman junior, Montezuma's Revenge, Slamball, Xevious, Terra Cresta, Dan Dare, Frostbyte, Uridium, Aliens (UK), and Big Trouble in Little China.
Eventually in 1989, I got a disk drive for my trusty, rusty, dusty, musty, and nearly busty 64. By then, the 1541-II drive had come out, and soon I was playing disk based games. The speed of that machine was amazing for me back then as even though it's deathly slow by today's standards, back then it was much better than waiting nearly half an hour for America's Cup to load!!! I was soon collecting a pile of new games for my machine.
Then one day, I did something silly (But strangely, many computer users did the same thing at least once!) I tried to reset the computer by connecting the ports on the user port!!! Of course, I messed up and my 64 was eventually blown so I had to pay quite a bit of money to get it repaired! Unfortunately, I had no idea where to get new reset switches. Eventually, some years later I bought a second-hand Freeze Machine that did the trick.
Another problem occured when my C64 power-pack blew out, forcing me to get a better, repairable version. Somehow, the plug for this repairable version somehow caused the power-cord to melt several years later. This resulted in sparks flying out of the power socket. I was lucky I managed to turn it off without electrocuting myself! Fortunately the repair was inexpensive. A new cord was in order.
Later on during my use of the 64, Things in the Commodore 64 world were beginning to die out. Stock was disappearing from shelves, and Commodore 64 games were finding their way into bargain bins. You couldn't buy new C64's anymore. Sega and Nintendo were more popular with their consoles, both 8-bit and 16-bit. The Amiga was starting to show some signs of an early death too. I kept using my 64 because I couldn't afford a new PC. Getting a console was silly, because I couldn't type in my essays with them for school. My 64's keyboard was starting to break. I used it so often to type in programs, essays, and other things. I thought that the 64 was gone for certain. I decided to buy a second hand C-128 to use so that I could at least type again. I sold the C128 some time after this.
Not long after this, I discovered the wonderful world of the internet. From this, I learnt about C64 emulation and I was wondering how to download games from it to boost my collection of 64 games. During this time the powerpack of my 1541-II finally broke. This left me with a whole pile of useless disks!! I quickly bought a second hand C-128D and another 1541 from a second hand shop. The C128D was a rubbish machine. You couldn't ever change its original device number by flicking a switch, because there were no switches! Plus the 1571 drive that was built in wasn't fully 1541 compatible. Nevertheless, it was better than nothing. My Freeze Machine did not like its new environment very much though....
By this time my old C64 was getting a paint job thanks to my sister who I allowed to paint on it. It was useless I thought. I even ripped the space bar off the old machine that served me well for over 8 years.... Then I learnt how to fix Commodore keyboards on the internet at my University. Soon I had managed to fix the old Commodore's keyboard!! I was rapt. It was a pity that it had a new paint job and a missing space bar.... I still have that machine to this day though....
Some time ago I got a CMD Hard Drive from a second hand shop. It was fairly expensive, but since 5.25" double density floppy disks were no longer available, it did the job. I considered getting a PC but then I thought about the software and what I could afford. The HD did the job though, although it had its limitations. For example, it only allowed for 254 partitions This became a problem because I had more than 254 disks! I had to file copy everything into the HD's Native mode subdirectories. This worked out though... After I made the HD Catalog program, things have become so much easier now. I am still collecting C64 stuff and while I'm a long way from finishing my project, I hope to someday (it seems to be taking forever).
Now, apart from creating a C64 games collection, I enjoy playing the Street Fighter games, pinball, as well as any shoot-em up in the arcades. I have two computers set up. A C128D, and a C64 (Which is plugged into the TV adapter of my Sega Game Gear) My Sega Game Gear is fun. I stacked up on game cartridges from Japan and Indonesia. I have about 85 games for it. It's a pity the text is so small on the Game Gear screen when plugged into the 64 though...
Anyway, that's enough about me... enjoy the rest of my site!!!