1 of 15 Acorn Electron - Thrust/Repton
After my brother dropped a coin into the back of our Spectrum 48k, Dad took it back to Boots and returned with an Acorn Electron - more commonly known as the "poor man's beeb (BBC Micro)", though I refer to it as "the gamers' beeb".

You'd not imagine that such a computer would play host to a number of arcade conversions, would you? But it did, although their names were changed to protect the guilty. Thrust stands out as a fantastic conversion, and Repton was to Dig Dug then as Zuma is to Puzzloop now - a shameless rip-off.

I played a few games on the humble Acorn and even dabbled with programming in BASIC - the highlight of which was me getting my own sprite moving across the screen with keyboard control. And so, the adventure begins...

picture from system-cfg.com

2 of 15 SNES - F-Zero/Super Mario Kart
...but it took a while. I'm not sure why my interest in gaming lapsed for the seven or so years between the Acorn and what came next. I'm guessing family life and just being a kid playing-out on my BMX and watching rubbish Saturday morning TV?

Then I started at secondary school and made some new, more well-off friends. One of my best friends at school was a guy called Rakesh - stereotypically his Dad owned a corner shop. He invited me round to his one day to play on his brother's new Super Famicom. To be honest I can't remember if I even knew what it was, but I went along anyway.

He showed me Super Mario World, which at that particular time I was underwhelmed by. I wanted something more. He put on F-Zero - the title screen immediately intrigued me. He started the game and "ZWHOOM!" the camera descends onto the track from the sky and then the vista pans out - this was the future! I was sold in an instant. Luckily, the game played well, too. But I still wanted more, so I asked him if he had any other games? He said yes, and beckoned me to another room...

picture from neutronboy

3 of 15 Atari ST - Microprose Golf/Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker/Sensible Soccer/GFA Basic
...he introduced me to an altogether different type of machine - the Atari ST. It was the first time I'd seen a computer that took discs. He showed me a box of discs that all contained games of dubious origin - more than one per disk! He asked me what types of games I liked, but I didn't have a clue. He recommended a shoot-em-up called Xenon 2 so I agreed it was as good a choice as any! He put the disk in and switched the computer on and the drive clunked away for a few seconds, but the game didn't load. Instead it dropped back into the GEM Desktop.

He apologised for the game not working and said he'd have to run it manually. He reached onto the desk and I saw something move on the screen. I asked him to stop what he was doing and explain to me what he was doing. I was in awe that he could move something around on a desk and cause something seemingly unrelated to move around on screen! I was sold, again, in an instant. Dad got us an ST not long after, thanks to a world class spoilt-brat sulking marathon from my good self.

I was fascinated by the Atari GUI, and whilst I did play a number of games on the ST--my brother, father and I used to play Microprose Golf and Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker for hours on end, and it's where I spent about a man year of my life playing Sensible Soccer--half my time on it was spent doing serious computing tasks such as drawing, word processing, designing, programming, database creation, BBS systems and generally everything I still use computers for today. Those were the days.

picture from fscheff

4 of 15 PC - Doom (Shareware)
There's not much that can be said about this game that hasn't been said before. So I'll talk instead about the PC we played it on. I got rid of my ST and SNES--including my beloved Mario Kart--to be able to afford it, wooed by Visual Basic of all things. I'm mad, me. We got a built to order 486-SX33, or something, and it ran most things like a dog as it had no maths co-processor. But Doom ran so smoothly you'd have thought it was a movie. Long nights, hunched over the keyboard, nothing but the glare of the monitor to keep me from shitting my pants. Sounds like a cliche these days but it's testament to the game, that so many people have the same story to tell.

picture from nathangibbs

5 of 15 GBC - Mario Golf
After Microprose Golf, I wasn't sure how a computer version of golf could be more immersive - after all, at this point photo-realistic graphics were but a twinkle in PC owner's eye. So, the concept of Mario in a golf game seemed a bit bizarre. But then I read that you don't actually see Mario until you've finished the whole thing. I see what they did, there! This makes the game as far away from a sim as possible but also as close to a fully immersive golf game as can be. Fun, to a tee.

picture from waiwang_tw

6 of 15 PS1 - Wipeout/2097/3 (Internet FAQ)
I remember seeing Wipeout on a PS1 in GAME on Church Street in Liverpool (now Miss Selfridge, or something). They had some massive screen hooked up to it, and it blew my mind in much the same way that F-Zero had done four or so years before. It was another generation leap in terms of what games were about. I saved up my money and my parents were good enough to pay for half of the huge £299 price tag.

I played Wipeout until my eyes were sore, and I think I've developed an uncanny ability of not having to blink for seriously long periods of time. So, when the news broke of an improved and updated Wipeout 2097, with an even better soundtrack and refined gameplay, I couldn't wait. I remember buying it at lunch, then leaving Uni early to get home to play it. I don't think I did anything else that weekend, and I loved every minute of it. Bloody students!

I also wrote an FAQ for 2097 (with the help of some insider knowledge from a mate of mine called Neil who playtested at Psygnosis/Sony) for the blossoming www.gamefaqs.com site and many players referred to it as the best document about the game. Bizarrely enough, one fan even translated it into Spanish. This period also saw my first foray into console modding, when I successfully chipped my own PlayStation and was then roped in to do all my friends. PlayStation had introduced gaming to the masses, which I believe is most likely because of easy piracy.

picture from sameli

7 of 15 DC - Metropolis Street Racer/Ooga Booga/PSO
I moved to London after University, to work. Money was tight so I could only afford to buy dodgy games from the local market. I'm not sure where I lost interest in the PlayStation, but it was probably when the market was flooded with quantity rather than quality.

A couple of years after moving to London, I changed jobs and started earning more money. For the first time I could afford to buy myself gadgets! A new lad had started at work and was sat opposite me, his name was Morgan. He kept banging on about his Sega Dreamcast, how it was the best machine he'd ever played and all sorts of stuff like that. I'd seen some press about it, and read a few bits on Digitiser, but there weren't any games I was interested in on it.

But Morgan wore me down and I started reading up about forthcoming Dreamcast releases - which is when I saw Metropolis Street Racer. I've loved cars as much as the next boy-racer since I was young, and that follows through to my love of racing games. The thought of driving around real-life locations was too much to resist, so I ordered a chipped NTSC Dreamcast from an import games place in Kings Lynn called Madeira Games. And so my love affair with the greatest console ever made began. I love my Dreamcast.

picture from neutronboy

8 of 15 JAG - Tempest 2000
After the Dreamcast rejuvenated my love of gaming, I was hungry for more. Morgan, and our colleague Chi, had fanned the fire of gaming inside of me. I bought a NGPC, when they were on SimplyGames discount special, and an Atari Jaguar from Telegames after one year's ECTS. I think I ordered 8 for various people in the office! The main draw, on closer inspection, was a version of Tempest by well known game developer Jeff Minter.

There were also pretty decent versions of Sensible Soccer and Doom, and a whole lot of rubbish. I remember one night in particular, I rolled in drunk after pub closing, and thought I'd have a quick game of Tempest 2000. The next thing I know it was 3am. I'm actually not sure if I fell asleep or got into the zone, but I'd been playing the same game for all those hours. I also fondly remember the Jaguar for having the most uncomfortable controller ever. And because I still love the old Atari "Fuji" logo.

picture from fujipc

9 of 15 GBA - Kuru Kuru Kururin
Apart from the prospect of new versions of Mario Kart and F-Zero, Kuru Kuru Kururin was the reason I bought a GBA. I played it a hell of a lot, as it's fuel for my OCD: I wouldn't move on to the the next level until I had perfected the level I was already on. This makes the game last 100 times longer than it would do otherwise. I kind of like that, in my own weird way. I never finished KKK because Mario Kart came along and I finished that instead.

I eventually bought KKK's sequel from Japan and gave that the exact same treatment - right down to not completing it because something else caught my attention. However, having had my original GBA stolen (with a copy of super-rare Guru Logi Champ) the news of a back-lit GBA piqued my interest. With that rejuvenated GBA came a renewed interest in my GBA collection. Out came Kuru Kuru Kururin, and with a holiday to Corfu came a week long session on both games, culminating in me perfecting them both and unlocking their respective secret levels. True to form, I don't think I'll ever complete those levels. Maybe on the next beach holiday?

picture from baskinator

10 of 15 GC - Super Monkey Ball/Eternal Darkness/Super Monkey Ball 2
Super Monkey Ball is such a mad concept there could have only been one launch title I wanted for the GameCube. It proved to be a cracker and I lost days playing it until I realised, part way through the Advanced/Extreme levels, that I'd likely be doing them for the rest of my life. Thankfully my OCD isn't triggered by Monkey Ball, apart from maybe the time when my friend Dave and I took it upon ourselves to get a perfect 5 times landing on those tiny little yellow posts in Monkey Target. All that weekend we never managed it and then Dave had to get the train home

After he left, I kept on playing, got in the zone and about 30 minutes after he'd gone I managed it. The only way my score can be trumped is to get more bananas on each flight, it's a tricky balance between how many points or power-ups to go for. I didn't play Monkey Ball for a good year or two after that. Until, I think, one of my housemates commented on it and we broke it out one night and it was the sole lounge-room activity for the rest of the month.

We became too good at it, so progressed to the more difficult Super Monkey Ball 2. The housemate who had never used an analogue stick before even stayed up through the night so by the next day, he was almost as good with it as the rest of us were.

picture from syed

11 of 15 NUON - VLM (Virtual Light Machine)
Somebody managed to track down a NUON-based Samsung DVD player for me in Switzerland. I remember a particular session on the VLM--after a fellow fan let me know about the joystick options that even it's creator didn't even know about--where a whole afternoon disappeared to the sounds of Mum and Sigur Ros. I was living the life of Riley after being given gardening leave from a job I'd just quit. Each day I'd fire up the VLM and I'd see things in the patterns and colours that just shouldn't have been there. Every night my housemates would come home and find me in the same position on the sofa. Glory days.

picture from nuon

12 of 15 PS2 - Katamari Damacy
I'm a big advocate of platform agnosticism, and only ever buy a machine when there's a game worth owning it for. Of course, I do stray from that line sometimes and have bought a couple of machines at launch only to not have fun playing them. I didn't though buy a PS2 for years because none of the games interested me. They just looked like PS one games with better graphics, which thinking about it is exactly how the PS3 appears to me.

I carried on playing my GameCube and Dreamcast but I have to admit gaming had lost it's shine for me a little bit. Then came my holiday to Japan. I'd read about a lot of crazy Japanese games and I'd played a few in the past - one in particular really got me going. That was Katamari Damacy and it was top of the shopping list for me while I was in Japan. I bought the game and then as soon as I got home I bought a chipped PS2 to play it on. Worth every penny. I'm a big fan of games that do something new and this one did.

Weirdly enough, I bought the sequel but I've yet to play it. Don't ask me why. The other great thing about Katamari Damacy is that you can collect things in it, which appeals to the obsessive compulsive in me. I love games in which I can concentrate on details that others might not even appreciate. I'm the sort of guy who won't move move on to the next level of game until he gets the top rating of the current level. Thinking about it, I've not used my PS2 for much more than Katamari. Worth every penny, though.

picture from carela

13 of 15 SWC/PM - Tetris
While in Japan I also visited the fantastc videogame store "Super Potato" in Akihabara. I bought a WonderSwan and Gunpey: a great little game. On my return, this lead to a brief WonderSwan obsession where I collected almost every puzzle game on the system, bought a SwanCrystal and rekindled my obsession with Tetris.

A couple of years ago, I took the WSC and Tetris snowboarding with me. I played one time-attack mode obsessively until I got below one minute, and it was an absolute joy. I later read about the maximum score and quickest times achieved by Japanese gamers - they make my best time and score look like child's play. One day I expect I'll try to better my scores, but I doubt I'll ever be that good.

picture from kappuru

14 of 15 DS - Polarium/Ouendan/Mario Kart
News of the DS was as much of a shock to me as it was to the rest of the gaming world. Nintendo were shockingly moving away from their GameBoy heritage. I can't remember what my initial thoughts were about it, but it was seen by most to be a bit of risk!

It was only when I started seeing the games they had planned for it that I became a believer in the "new way". Testament to that is the fact that the majority of my game playing these days is on the DS, with my current home consoles hardly getting a look in. From puzzlers such as Polarium, through to mad Japanese classics such as Ouendan to the pure gaming genius that is Mario Kart DS.

I'd dabbled with online gaming before: Quake/Unreal, Phantasy Star Online and the odd PC game. But it was fraught with annoyances such as the mindless banter, lag and generally badly thought out ways of competing. With Mario Kart DS online gaming has never been so much fun for me.

picture from xtianyves

15 of 15 Wii - 30 years young
I'm actually writing this entry on the Wednesday before the UK Wii launch. I played a Wii demo pod for the first time yesterday, and I was grinning for the whole afternoon. My friend Chi recently told me that he doesn't play as many games as he used to; that he feels he's seen it all and done it all before. I turn 30 next week, and tend to feel the same way. Before the DS, I'd have agreed with him. Other than the DS, by and large, I still agree with him. I'm so excited at the prospect of more innovation in games, and if the Wii continues along the same route that the DS has forged then I'm pretty sure my next thirty years of gaming will as exciting as my first thirty.

picture from mtg