I am aware that many gamers' first steps into the vivid realm of videogaming had been granted by the Nintendo Entertainment System in all it's gray godliness. Thousands of gamers raised on the milk of Mario games and weening on Duck Hunt. However my journey did not follow such a stencil, because my story begins within the bowels and orifices of one 'green screen' Amstrad CPC computer.

Memories condone that at the time, I was relatively young. Perhaps not even attending school yet. However even at such a young age my imagination was a hungersome beast. Growing up in the suburbs London during the 90's lends memories of blissfull innoncence and toys - many toys in thousands of variations. I was the middle child then and still am, my elder brother preceding me by 3 years and my sister 2 years younger than myself. As infants, toys served the purpose of mediums of expression, stories could tie these toys to roles within a larger cause thus equaling entertainment value - the beast of my imagination would cut it's teeth on activities such as these these.

However as I grew older my imagination grew more ravenous and hungry. I do not specifically remember its first appearance I only remember it in passing, instances in which my father would set up that monstrous cathode ray tube displaying that distinctive green screen, the hulking mass of a keyboard with it's tape recorder addition in tow, a pair of chunky grey joysticks accompanying them. The Amstrad CPC - Colour Personal Computer. This boast of monochromaty was rendered obsolete however because my father purchased a cheaper machine with the GT65/66 black and white screen. Thus making it a Not Colour Personal Computer. However a paltry notion such as colour or lack of it rather - would not deter from the potential grandeur that this arbiter of digital entertainment promised.

A pale green screen with a flashing console line greeted you upon start up and the keyboard allowed near infinite lines of pixelated gibberish to flood the moniter.



A mighty horde of games and software accompanied the machine that my father purchased. These days my father is constantly at odds with me due to my unholy passion for video gaming when it was him who created the establishments for this infernal affair - the irony of it all is painful. Amongst this brood of computer games existed titles such as 'Harrer Attack' to my knowledge one of the more popular titles for the Amstrad. The premise of the game was rather simple, controlling a harrier plane - a soaring warrior of the skies - the player had to fly over a chunk of enemy land, armed to the teeth with all manner of missiles and bombs with the aim of neutralizing threats that linger beneath you in the form of turrets and bases as well as challenges from the skies in the form of enemy planes.

The concept was simple however the game was quirky far beyond monotony. For one, the ship that you lift off from in the beginning could also be destroyed, sure, it was great fun to watch, but upon your return to the ship you'd find nothing there because, quite obviously - destroyed it at the beginning. A simple action like this had a consequence within the game. Sure it wasn't Bioshock or anything, but it was strange and somewhat amazing for its time. On the non-colour display of our Amstrad computer all that could be distinguished where lighter green pixels from the depth of darker green that was the background. However, by narrowing down what there was to see, you cared more about the little bit of feedback that the monitor graced you with. Yes, that line IS a missile. That tiny cluster of pixels IS a bomb. That fuzzy explosion noise that burst forth from the speakers when your plane was destroyed was a creature torn from indescribable nightmares. I would much rather be shot right there in the head than to hear that noise.

At the time my infantile abilities could only utter simple controls, however I was simply content with watching my elder brother try his more experienced hand at piloting that barely distinguishable pixeline plane. I tended to be the back seat one in those days, I would watch, seemingly incapable but within my mind things began to formulate. Instances such as these would allow my imagination to feast and feast it did. Sometimes, my father, the true master of the game would have a turn in a very 'let me show you how it's done' way. I would like to say that he wasn't all that good at it but that would be distorting the truth. In fact, my father was highly proficient in the skills of gaming back in those days. Even up to the Sega Mega Drive years he was a master of the gaming arts. Unfortunately every console we got after that, he simply did not give a shit or a half about.

Many other obcure titles existed on the hardware. A character known as Roland - the equivalent of Mario or Sonic but for the Amstrad Computer - was depicted in a variety of games. Many of them had him on dastardly escapades throughout space and other frontiers. One of them, Roland on the Ropes depicted him raiding tombs or something to that effect. To a child of five years this was cripplingly frightening. I remember clearly the ghosts that resided within those caves gliding phantasmically, searching for something or someone to haunt. I think it's safe to say that my dreams served that purpose for some time. Another title featuring the character was Roland in the Caves. I still do not know in which mental mind state the people that created this game where in, all I know is that it was not one of any degree of sanity. The plot of the game was an enigma in itself, Roland appeared as what the manual described as 'a flea', however, it's resemblance to a swollen egg with eyes was more applicable.



Roland, or this flea replacement of his must escape from a series of caves whilst endeavouring not to get raped by A FUCKING PTERODACTYL! Seriously, you've got to miss the days when developers could stick extinct monstrosities into their games to increase their games awesome level sevenfold. It was a homing pterodactyl mind you, no matter what direction you went the fearsome beast would swoop down and snap you up the second time if not the first. The controls were the spawn of arcane madness. Whenever I even tried to play the game I was gambling with my sanity. To this day, I don't think anyone in this dimension or the neighbouring has even past the first stage of the game.

I also remember vividly a game in which the player is a rambo-esque character. It was very much like metal slug except more pixelated and less awesome. It's name does not cross my mind but all I can remember is that it was one of the more fast paced, adrenaline fueled experiences on the Amstrad CPC. I recall quite clearly how long we would have wait for the game to fully load up. We used to insert the tape before dinner time, go to eat dinner and hopefully come back to see the game loaded. These hour or so long loading times were necessary every time one wished to play the game. I think this should be considered the next time people are found complaining over a one time 20 minute installation found for some games these days.

My roots in the videogame world may have sprouted from PC gaming but these days I am strictly hardcore towards consoles. Later on I would turn to books to feed my desperate hunger for fiction but I would return to games almost instantaneously. When I was small and even now I have always been more of the reserved intellegent type compared to, for example, my elder brother who has always had a natural affinity to physical activity such as sports. Therefore I believe video gaming fitted me like a glove, it simply suited me. Gaming has always been a large part of my life as well as consuming a large chunk of my time as well whether I was aware of it or not. In the future I hope gaming blossoms into an even greater pass time and hope that it will always mean to me as much as it did at the start of this entire intoxicating affair.