Hi all,

  This is kind of like an AA meeting where I stand up and confess my sins.  So here it goes, I blame my father really, he started it with a Dragon 32 in about 86 (tight wad – why not a speccy?? – or even the Dragon 64), it came with a cartridge called cave hunter – a pacman rip off, and a crap joystick.  Shortly afterwards Dragon went bust, so dad being a cyber geek bough a toshiba msx (why oh why not a commodore) this was just as crap, and though it piqued my interest I wasn't hooked.  Years passed, and I started work, saving up to buy a megadrive, and a megacd and a 32x – nintendo was for kids back then (oh how wrong).  I had a few games, but my mate called round with an Amiga, got rid of the megadrive moved onto an Amiga and a CD32 (because i wanted a CD drive).  As ever this was my kiss of death, and AMIGA went under.  But oh those late nights with the AMIGA, (destroyed my relationship) but the fun.

I bought a PC, and then went out and got shed loads of games, this was the time when PC gaming involved configuring soundcards and autoexec files along with EMS (or something like that). I really couldn't be arsed, so I moved onto consoles.  I picked up a dreamcast for about 99 quid with some games, this was the life, but again Sega stopped making consoles, so I went and bought an XBOX and a gamecube.  The gamecube had some great titles but HALO hooked me and my mate, and after working at college we'd play co-op until the wee hours turning up  feeling like shit the next day for work.  I was hooked by now, a PS2 followed, and I continued to upgrade my PC. 

Where am I now? I have a PC (steam account 517 games, 120 games from gog and a collection of about 300), a PS 3 about 30 games, XBOX 360 (100  + games), XBOX (100 + games), PS2 (50 games), Sega Saturn (50+ games), Sega megadrive, Sega dreamcast (50 + games), Wii, Gamecube, PSP, DS and GBA and iPad – got rid of the lynx recently N64 and 50+ games.  How many games completed? probably about 5 – gaming is an addiction.  XBOX 360 kept me sane during some hard times at work, and made me some good mates, though I am bobbins at multiplayer.  I know a bit about games, and dabble a lot, though rarely complete.  What am I playing now Bioshock on PC (lent out my 360 version – wally), eternal Sonata on 360 (shoot me now) and anything else that takes my fancy.  I just roll with it.

i stumbled upon the podcast some months ago, and though I tried others, the humour keeps me coming back to midlife gamer.  Its like having a bit of banter with mates down the pub!  Should really write a review.  Spent enough time watching time to get involved.Anyway a potted history, I hope to contribute.

Favourite biscuit – has to be a hob nob with dark chocolate, and a nice expresso from this posh coffe machine I bought Mrs A to keep her sweet.  At this stage I sit down and the next addict stands up.

Cheers Otto