6 Months in Business... & DDE (Thinks About) Weighing in on Console Vs PC!
Well, as of the 23rd of May DDE Gaming celebrated 6 months in business by giving away a very nice Corsair K63 Wireless Mechanical Gaming keyboard - congratulations Tom Palmer on your lucky win!
It's been a great 6 months - thank you to my 66 customers for entrusting me with your gaming (and office/Work From Home!) PC needs - it's been a real pleasure to meet you all and work with you on some fabulous projects!
And, in looking back at 6 months, I would also like to look back on some of my formative gaming experiences, and then, over the next few weeks, give you my thoughts on the age old debate of PC Vs Console (I know, I know, I'm feeling brave).
For me, gaming began on a Spectrum ZX in the late 1980s - I don't remember much if I'm honest, apart from screeching cassette tapes, huge pixels, and a complete lack of auto-save! I oddly remember a Yogi Bear platform game which gave me a savage beating whenever I played it, as well as Space Invaders, Double Dragon and Pac-Man. They were good times!
After that, my dad purchased a rather shiny Atari STe - and as I was getting older (this was probably the early to mid-90s now) I remember a bit more... I remember breaking an inordinate amount of joysticks, until my dad figured he could buy me a control pad and save money! I also remember spending summers playing Sensible Soccer, Premier Manager 2, Golden Axe, Space Harrier, The Secret of Monkey Island and more - the change from Spectrum to Atari was a revelation to me - more accurate graphics, better sound, and a wider variety of games - I still have a soft spot for those old Ataris!
It was around this time when a friend (whom I might have mentioned above...) got himself a SNES - this was my first real experience of a console - and I've got to say it really blew me away! Super Mario, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and Street Fighter 2. These were the games of my childhood, and I loved them, despite not being very good at them!
Next up, while I was still using my - now venerable - Atari STe, that same friend upgraded to a Nintendo 64, and once again, I was really stunned by it! It certainly made my once-cutting edge Atari feel almost prehistoric, with titles such as Turok, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart the N64 ushered in a bright and exciting new era.
Fortunately, a few months later, my dad upgraded us to a PC - now, I couldn't tell you much about this PC, apart from the fact it was beige (wasn't every 90s computer?), and could do 3D graphics like I'd just experienced on the N64, and having that at home was truly brilliant! I got lost in titles like Alpha Centauri, Fallout 1 & 2, Max Payne and too many others to name. I was firmly of the opinion that PC gaming was where it was at!
It was about this time that I'd starting playing roller hockey, and a good friend through the team had just picked up a new Sony PlayStation. To be honest, I wasn't really aware of the PS1 launching, and thought to myself: "What do they know about it, they make TVs!". Ah, hindsight is a wonderful thing eh? I was now rather enamored with console gaming again, from playing the first Resident Evil, corny acting and all, jumping at the (Spoiler Alert!!) dogs coming through the window in the hallway, to speeding round futuristic tracks in Ridge Racer and WipeOut, or even attempting (and failing) to guide Lara Croft to anything other than her death, the PS1 really was quite the machine...
And I'll leave it there, until my next post, where I talk about the last 20 or so years of my gaming life!