Ady's Computer, Console, Gaming and MMORPG History
Historical Timeline
1981 - Vic 20
1981 - Sinclair ZX81
1982 - Sinclair Spectrum
1982 - Commodore 64
1983 - Acorn Electron
During these early years when I was young, machines used to pass through our house quite rapidly as Dad used to buy and sell them via mail order. The machine I remember most is the Vic 20 as that was the first ever computer I saw running in my home with my brother in laws younger brother showing us how to load games. The game I remember playing for hours consisted of a plane flying across the screen from side to side moving a line down the screen each time and the aim was to drop bombs onto high-rise buildings, flattening them before you crashed into them. To this day I still can not remember nor find out its name (Looking at various sites I think it may have been called Bomber). When the Acorn Electron (cut down BBC micro) was released in 1983, Dad managed to get hold of one in time for Christmas (there was a major shortage in the UK) and it is this machine that took up most of my time for a good number of years between primary and secondary school.
1986 - Amstrad CPC 464
After becoming disillusioned with the Acorn during early secondary school, all my friends had C64's with their excellent gaming possibilities, I came home from a scout camp at the end of a weekend to find a second hand CPC 464 installed in my bedroom along with a huge pile of Amstrad magazines. It seems that my brother in law's brother Graeme had moved onto bigger and better things and Dad managed to pick up the Amstrad for a bargain price. I have good memories of this machine as a few friends also had Amstrads so the amount of game sharing that went on was a bit extreme.
1989 - Nintendo GameBoy (bought in Luxembourg before they were released in the UK)
1989 - Commodore Amiga 500
1991 - Sega Megadrive
1992 - Commodore Amiga 1200
1992 - Super Nintendo
During secondary school I became involved with the whole Amiga / Atari ST debate and I stuck by the Amiga fiercely. The disk drive on the 500 was a real boon and the internal hard disk on the 1200 was simply amazing at the time. I had never experienced a 'windows' style GUI before and I fell in love with the Amiga OS. Around this time I also had my fist part time jobs and a lot of money was handed over in the local games shops.
1993 - PC Compaq 286 Luggable Laptop (green screen)
1993 - PC Compaq 386 Luggable Laptop (orange plasma screen)
1994 - PC Compaq 486
1994 - PC - Generic Pentium
From the end of secondary school through my first year at college I gained access to PCs, first through the luggable laptops that my Dad obtained from his office when they were no longer needed and later through a Pentium P5 machine which was built to my specifications by a friend of the family after I convinced my parents to loan me the money. It was these machines that formed my love of computers, previously it had simply been a love for games and high scores (something which still continues today) but the real 'feel' for technology and computers was something new. No longer was I wanting to get my hands on the best gaming machine but I wanted to get my hands on the best technology and also to work with it!
1995 - Gained Internet connectivity
1995 - Laptop - Compaq
1995 - Sega Saturn
1995 - Sony Playstation
1997 - Registered www.ady.net
1997 - PC - Pentium 2
1998 - Nintendo 64
1998 - Nintendo Gameboy Colour
1998 - Laptop - Generic brand.
1998 - MMORPG - Ultima Online
1999 - PC - Pentium 3, self build.
1999 - Sega Dreamcast
1999 - Laptop - Generic gaming machine.
2000 - Sony Playstation 2
2000 - MMORPG - Everquest
2001 - Dell Inspiron Laptop
2001 - Nintendo GameBoy Advance
2002 - PC - AMD 3600, self build.
2002 - Microsoft Xbox
2002 - Nintendo GameCube
2003 - Dell Inspiron Laptop
2003 - MMORPG - Eve Online
2003 - Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP
The eight years since gaining Internet access were a hive of activity on the computer front, I went through so many new machines, gadgets and games it is pretty obvious that I was single with quite a high disposable income!
2004 - Apple Powerbook G4
2004 - Apple G5 desktop with 23" cinema display.
2004 - MMORPG - World of Warcraft
Towards the end of 2003 my attitude to home machines began to change, I had finished playing Everquest and had no other MMRPGs that I was really interested in. Working on Windows machines and keeping on top of Windows inherent security floors was getting me down, in the end after a bit of research I decided to buy a Apple Powerbook and explore this 'OSX' os which everyone was talking about. After a week with the Powerbook I was hooked and made immediate plans were made to buy an Apple desktop, replacing the self built AMD based gaming rig that I had sitting under my desk.
2005 - Sony Playstation 2 (silver small)
2005 - Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)
The start of 2006 brought a couple of new machines, first up I bought my wife a Nintendo DS which is quite a nice machine if you can get over the feeling of holding a brick in your hands. I also bought a new Xbox 360 (and 40" LCD TV to go with it!) and am now playing online again using Xbox Live.
2006 - Nintendo DS
2006 - Microsoft Xbox 360
2006 - Apple Macbook Pro, 2.16Ghz Core Duo
2006 - Full arcade cabinet runing a MAME Emulator
2006 - Nintendo DS Lite
2006 - Nintendo Wii
2007 - Apple MacPro
2007 - Apple MacBookPro, 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo
2007 - Sony PlayStation 3
Current Situation
Xbox Live gamer card
The Future
With a new desktop and laptop in the stable there is nothing really on the horizon apart from an Apple iPhone when they are released in Europe.
Games
During all of my time playing computers and consoles the games most fondly remembered (not necessarily the best) are: