PVB

Age: 40

Playing videogames since 1984

Skill level at videogames in 1984: Embarrassingly bad

Skill level at videogames today: See 1984

The Beginning. Sort of.

The first time I saw a computer of any kind was in 1980, at one of the last physics classes before I left secondary school. The teacher showed us his new ‘toy': a Sinclair ZX80. It looked like a posh calculator, but he explained that you could “Program it to create games and other things like that.” I wasn't convinced, and didn't think I'd ever own such an exotic machine.

The first videogames I ever played were in the amusement arcades on Margate seafront. It was 1980, and I'd just left school. My favourite game at that time was Asteroids . The bright, vectory goodness had me transfixed.

I remember seeing some kids nearby playing Defender, creating a wall of laser-death up and down the screen as they rescued the little people from the nasty aliens. I tried to play it, but usually lost all my lives in a very short time. Disheartened, I returned to the relative safety of the nearest Asteroids cabinet.

How I love thee…

By the time the next summer arrived, I'd managed to find employment, and so the usual trips to the seaside were few and far between, and I lost my love for all things gamey.

The Proper Beginning. Really.

Just before Easter 1984 I saw an advert in the local paper:

Easter Sale At Allders!
Dozens of bargains!
Including VIC-20 computers for just £10!
Sale starts 9am Good Friday!

Hmm, I thought. Maybe I could buy one of these computer things and see what all the fuss is about.

So I got up at 6:30am and made my way into town to Allders, arriving at just after 7am to find nearly fifty people already in a queue outside the store. I stuck around anyway, hoping they were interested in one of the other dozens of bargains!

Just before 9am , a couple of staff came out of the store, handing out coffees and teas to anyone in the queue. One of the staff then went from the front to the back of the queue, asking each person what they wanted in the sale, giving them a ticket with that item on, so if they wanted to they could come back later to pick up their reserved sale item.

When the man got to me, I said I was after a VIC-20.

“I'm sorry son, they're already reserved.”

I was heartbroken.

“However,” he said. “We do have some Commodore C16 computers in the sale. You could have one of them if you want?”

I accepted his ticket and went inside to buy it.

RTFM? Probably not.

On seeing the games available in the store, I thought I'd better buy at least one to play when I got the C16 home. I saw one called Voidrunner , which noted on the back of the cassette box that it used the whole palette of colours. Wow!, I thought. That must mean it's good!

When I got home, I noticed that inside the Voidrunner inlay card was a little form to fill in, if you wanted to receive a newsletter from the game's programmer. I filled it in and sent it off.

I played Voidrunner , not really getting very far in it, but realising that I was losing because of my own cack-handed failings, not due to some problem with the game design. I still liked playing it, and vowed to buy more games from this ‘Llamasoft' man.

The C16 didn't do that well, and the only other Llamasoft game I bought for it was Matrix . Within a year or so, I bought a Commodore 64, and dozens of games – including all of Llamasoft's.

I put a lot of time into my gaming then, playing in my bedroom for hours every evening and longer at weekends.

A bedroom. Possibly yesterday.

Looking back now, I realise I used gaming to blank out the memory of my time at school; a terrible Hell of endless trips to hospital for operations, many to do with the condition Gorlin's Syndrome (which included 6 months off school in 1978-79 to have a steel rod fused to my curved spine, and the wearing of a Milwaukee Brace for 6 months afterwards).

I was bullied a lot for looking ‘different', and had to spend hours at home after school, catching up with the schoolwork I'd missed when I was in hospital. So, as my mum said years later, I “never really had a proper childhood”. But playing videogames took me to other worlds where I could fight back, try to be the champion, be a leader to others, save good from evil, etc.

Rod inside, brace outside. Both not much fun.

After the C64, I moved on to an Atari ST, because Yak said in his newsletters that he was working on a game for that computer, and I wanted more of his unique gaming goodness.

Since then I have had other computers and consoles, many of which I bought to play Llamasoft games. I bought/played other games as well, but there weren't many that grabbed me like Yak's do.

A Yak, but not Mr Yak.

I've still not completely forgotten those bad school times, but I don't play games now to blank anything out.

I play them because they're FUN!

PVB, October 2004.

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