More about me...and Computers

I am very much a child of the computer generation. I got my first computer as a Christmas present in 1982; I was 9 years old at the time and so, obviously, wanted it primarily to play games. I consider myself lucky to have been around in a time when the games machines were still computers rather than just consoles. I mean by that that the computer I received (a Commodore Vic-20) had a full keyboard and built in BASIC language so that it could be used for so much more than just playing games including learning how to program (unlike today's Playstations, Wii's and X-Boxes).

In fact at that age I couldn't afford to purchase new games very often but I came across magazines such as Computer and Video Games (C&VG) that included pages of game and application code created by the readers. With a bit of effort buying one magazine could provide the same excitement as buying three or four commercial games. I used to spend hours sat in front of the computer typing in the code (with one finger). Most of the time the games worked first time and were enjoyable but occasionally I'd get to the end of the listing only to find that the game wouldn't run due to a syntax error or that it didn't play properly due to a mistake in the code. Most boys my age would probably have given up at that point but I was the type of child to sit down and try to work out why it didn't work - could I find something in the listing that looked wrong or could I find a similar piece of code in another listing?

It was this sort of thing that gave me a background in programming although, just like photography, it's a hobby not my job. I have some small programs online for download that I will link to in future posts; some of them are not finished as I don't get as much time to devote to the pastime as I used to but they are still available if anybody is interested.

I've dabbled in several languages over the 26 years that I've owned and used computers including Commodore BASIC, AMOS, C, Visual Basic, Delphi and Biltz Basic (I suppose the latter three are the ones that I've been the most fluent with though).

My computers have included the Commodore Vic-20 mentioned above as well as a Commodore C-64, Amiga 500, Amiga 1200, several PCs and a couple of laptops. I have also experienced friends and relatives owning Sinclair Spectrums, BBC model Bs, Atari 800s, Amstrad 464s, Sega Megadrives, Nintendo DS's and Nintendo Wiis.

Shane