Leaving School for me was an easy thing to do. I wasn't what you'd call a model pupil, not in the 'Setting off Fire Alarms just for fun' or 'Smoking behind the Swimming Pool' kind of way. No for me it was the lessons bit I wasn't cut out for. So getting out of there in the summer of 1987 having totally stuffed up my O-Levels was a good thing for the rest of my life.

What it meant though was I couldn't do the Computer Studies Diploma I wanted to, so instead I was forced to take out a year to redo my English and Maths as part of a City & Guilds Information Technology Course. Luckily for me I wasn't the only one in this predicament and thus I began what was probably the easiest educational year I would ever have.

The thing about going to college was that for the first time in your life you were treated as an Adult. If you didn't want to attend class so be it, there was no silly Uniform, and more Free 'Study' Time that was really normal. And it's this free time I want to concentrate on here. My crew of friends for this journey were;

Me - Atari 130XE
Lee Sharp - Atari 800XL (and still my best mate now)
Lee Holland - Atari ST (soon to be replaced by a CBM64 and DiskDrive, Fool!!)
Yendis Lambert - Computer Unknown, but his forename is Sidney backwards
Tony Jewitt - Sinclair Spectrum (would later buy Lee Sharp's Atari Setup)

I can't remember the timetable for this year (it'll be at my parents house somewhere in my old wardrobe), but I'm pretty sure that out of the 5 Days we were at college a week, probably 2.5 of that was non-lectures. So there were 6 places we used to trawl between just to kill the time ;

College Cafeteria
SunSpot
Tomorrows World
Boots
WhSmiths
Dixons

Each of these places had 1 or both of the things we were interested in;Computers/Games and Music. So just to clear up any doubters we never looked at Make-Up in Boots or Washing Machines in Dixons. Okay.

So, brief highlight of each venue;

College Cafeteria
There was only 1 reason to go in here and it was the simple fact that there was Gauntlet machine in there. I distinctly remember 4 Player games of this between Lectures and the fact that crowds of other students would watch who-ever was playing for something to do. We never played for long, being poor students we couldn't afford the money for extended credits.

My mum used to give me a fiver a week purely for snacks at College, and for the first few months that Gaultlet Machine ate all of it. We only stopped going there because we started going to the second place on my loafers list.

SunSpot
This was the best Arcade in Hull Town Centre. Only people over the age of 16 were allowed in, and there was a large Security flunky stood at the door to stop those fakers from gaining entry. Fortunately the flash of either an NI Card or Student Bus/Train Pass was all that was required to enter this sanctum. Once inside there was a multitude of the latest games and Fruit Machines available.

I first played RoadBlasters in there, which was one of our Favs. Others included, Rampage, Kick & Run, Emprire Stikes Back, Chase HQ, Paperboy and I think Track and Field but I'm not sure. It was actually quite an up-market place, good lighting, large slightly tinted windows to the street outside and a clean carpet. It's not there now of course, probably been turned into a trendy bar or other.

Tomorrows World
Only the second computer shop in Hull town centre. The others name escapes me, which is a shame as I bought my first ever Dragon 32 game, Galaxians by Microdeal in there at the heady price of 8 of your English pounds. This place though was brand new. It opened within a few weeks of us starting college. To start with it was purely a computer shop, but within a year it had taken over the shop space on the corner and become a HiFi retail outlet as well.

We knew most of the guys that worked in there and they'd let us try out the latest Atari ST and Amiga games on our visits. 2 Amiga games stick in my mind, the first was F18 Interceptor, here was a Flight Sim that had external cameras and nice smooth 3d Filled Vector graphics and roaring sound. The other was PacMania. We'd seen it on the Atari ST and yes it was almost like the Arcade version, but the Amiga version was gorgeous, full screen (no borders !!), 60 Frames per Second, it was the Arcade Game !!!

Slight Subject Change
One lunchtime at college whilst wandering back to the building for a Lecture we were accosted in the street by a Policeman with a clipboard. He was after volunteers for the afternoons ID Parades. Blimey that'd be exciting we thought, and two reasons clinched it for us. Firstly we get paid 6quid each, and second, we had to be back to the Police station for 3.30, thus we get out of a lecture 30mins early, perfect.

Anyway I tell this tale for the simple reason that when I got out of the Police Station I went straight to Tomorrows World and bought Grand Prix Simulator and Warhawk for my Atari, so everyone's a winner.

Oh and just to point that during the ID Parade the Victim totally didn't spot the supposed criminal who was in the line-up with us College Students. He did look like a criminal though, you can just tell

AAAAAnyway..............

Boots and WhSmiths
Both WhSmiths and Boots were in the Prospect Shopping Centre, and was at the time the only covered shopping area in Hull. It's since been rather superseded by the huge Princes Quay Centre (or Prinny Quay to the locals) which was built after I left the area on an old ShipYard/Docks.

These days Boots doesn't do CDs, Videos, DVD or even Games Consoles but back then it was a Techno haven much like Dixons (but without the Washing Machines). This particular branch of Boots will always be a very special place for me as it was where my Dad bought our Dragon from in the winter on 1982. At the time they had an exclusive deal to sell the 'brand new' Welsh Computer and my Dad paid £199.99 for it. Oh plus the fact I once found a 5 pound note sitting on the floor and subsequently bought KikStart and One and his Droid using it. As a strange connection we used to load our Dragon 32 cassettes from a WhSmiths Tape Recorder, weird !!

So what we got from both these places was Computers to play with and Consoles too, as both the NES and Sega Master system were introduced during that college year. And of course Music and Videos as well. Plus in Smiths case magazines, Crash, C&VG etc. etc. could all be browsed whilst keeping out of the rain and cold.

Dixons
Everyone knows what Dixons offers, all the Hi-Tech gadgetry you can get under one banner. Our main reason for going there was to play on their heady range of IBM PC Compatible Clones that were on sale for really stupidly high prices. You see being at college meant for the first time we actually knew how to use these things. So messing around in MS-DOS was easy and therefore the ability to get software off these machines and onto our own floppy disks was too fun a challenge to miss.

PC games back then of course were bloody hopeless, but that wasn't the point, we simply did it because we could. Anyone who's played Babies, Digger (Mr. Do) & Pango (Pengo) can tell you these were 4 colour CGA disasters compared to games on the Amiga and Atari ST, but the fact we got all of them from PCs at Dixons still ranks as quite an achievement.

Those 5 1/4 disks are currently in a draw here at work and are still perfectly readable. Pity most of the games were designed for 4/8mhz CGA Graphics PCs and those don't run.

And there you have it, a daily tour of the places we called home whilst at college and some history of the 5th Biggest City in England, Hull. Looking back now it was the best time I ever had whilst in Education. What made it better was, I passed every single exam they threw my way with little difficulty. If that doesn't prove school was hopeless to me I don't know what will.

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