Life Is But A Game, The Next Generation

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LIFE IS BUT A GAME, THE NEXT GENERATION

Well here I am again and ready to share with you the next part in my 'life' story. As you may remember, in my last article, my future in computing had just taken a turn for the worst. So what terrible event had I suffered? Turning up for my 'o' level computer studies exam on the wrong day and not getting the grades I needed to get into college. To say I was distraught would be an understatement, I was in tears!

But life can be a strange experience, and sometimes events happen that turn things around. With only the prospect of a year at sixth form, I was starting to get pretty fed-up. Then one day my Dad passed me the paper, he had found an article mentioning that a computer course at Norwich City College desperately needed students or it would be forced to close. It didn't sound like the course I had applied for, but my Dad persuaded (forced) me to call them. To my surprise I was asked to attend an informal 'chat' and it was with the tutor that was running the course I was originally hoping to attend. He seemed impressed with my attitude and I got on the course.

My year at College was great. I met some interesting people and found the course engrossing (except for the Maths section, I never was any good at that!!). It turned out that a couple of the people on my course, would visit Brainwave (as it was called before it became One Step Beyond). Over the following months I become one of the 'regulars' and become friendly with the manager. As well as spending some of our free periods at Brainwave, there was also the odd trip to The Bell Hotel (before it become the Weatherspoons pub). I can remember the Gauntlet machine and a Salamander (I think). There was also some sort of 'video' jukebox setup, playing rock videos. The college canteen had a couple of cabinets although I don't remember what they were (I think one of them was a vertical shoot-em-up).

Not many things remain from my college days. I still have my admission card, circa September 1985, and the books that were required for the course. Several of my friends stayed on for another year and one of them ended up working with me at Anglian. It turns out that I had made it onto the front of the college guide and there was a picture of me walking out of the gates. He did let me have a copy but I seem to have mislaid it. I really wanted to have an image of it in this article. Oh well.

Although college was great fun, with the arcade machines, cider, oh and the course itself, I really struggled at maths (which had an effect on my final exam result) and ended up without a job at the end of it. As I had spent so much time in Brainwave, I was given a job there. When I first got the call, I thought it was a wind-up, but I turned up and there began my time on the 'otherside' of the counter. As you can imagine, working in a computer store had certain perks. It was a case of a kid in a candy store. The Atari was soon traded in for a Commodore 64 and 1541 disk drive. For some reason I then ended up with a Sinclair QL but the microdrives were such a pain that it didn't last long.

It seems I was pretty good at retail, and I had a great time. It wasn't all fun and games though, I had the unenviable task of dealing with the faulty machines. I can remember the many hours tuning in the dreaded Commodore C2N tape drives. These little monsters were terrible for being unaligned and it wasn't uncommon for me to spend ages getting one tuned perfectly, only to have it back a couple of days later because it was wouldn't load again. The most embarrassing C64 problem I had was when I plugged in the power supply while the computer was switched on. Right in front of the customer the machine went 'pop', I made an excuse and got another one (rather red-faced). I always wondered if tuning in tape decks was Alan's way of getting his own back after my Dad had made a scene over my faulty Atari tape decks in the past.

The C64, unassuming beige never sounded so good, the C2N, the stuff of my tuning nightmares, and lastly Warhawk, made in Norwich.

During those early years, many regulars would frequent Brainwave, each with their own 'nickname'. Some would be named after the computers they owned, ST, Oric, Mr. IBM, I was XL, some where named on their appearance, Cell, Slim, and some were just strange.. Uncle Alien? It was almost a tradition for everybody to check out the latest games at lunch time. I still remember the first time we loaded up Elektra Glide on the Atari or saw the loading screen for Rescue On Fractalus... oh wow!!

But my time in retail was short-lived as I had still been looking for a job (Brainwave was just to tide me over). And so it came, an interview at the Norwich Brewery Company as a Systems Operator. Although it was only a one-year Youth Training Scheme placement, there was a chance of a full-time job at the end. And so with a little bit of sadness I left, but still worked there on Saturdays. I suppose looking back on it I had the best of both worlds, working for a brewery and a Saturday job selling home computers.

Working at the Brewery was interesting and quite challenging. The computer department was quite small (only four of us) and my tasks covered pretty much everything. From data input, to printing board reports, some programming, and running batch jobs, etc. Also while working there I was attending the Norwich Chamber Of Commerce, doing office skills... I really didn't like it. I remember the first day, I was in a class and I was the only male. We sat around desks with type-writers in front of us. I just didn't want to do it. Unfortunately I didn't have a choice and ended up passing the exam at the end (no secretary jokes please!!). The perks at working for the Brewery were worth it though. Each member of staff would get a 'token' every month. We could go down to a small room in the warehouse and get free beer, wine, or spirits. As I wasn't old enough when I started, I could only get soft drinks. It was only after the first six months and I was 18, that I could get the real stuff. 12 cans of Budweiser for free, nice.... The parties were good too, especially at Christmas, they were very Merry!!

Still working at One Step Beyond (as it was called then) meant I still kept up with gaming. The Amiga 500 was out and we had a demo machine in the store. The first time we put on Star Glider the shop almost came to a stand-still. The music and speech in the intro, then the amazing vector graphics. So I entered the 16-bit era with the Amiga 500 and the lovely tv-modulator that stuck out the back (I couldn't afford a nice Philips colour monitor, like we had in OSB). Then Barclay's were kind enough to give me my first credit card, I was able to buy pretty much every game that came out on the Amiga.. and get a Philips monitor to really appreciate the superb graphics on.

One Step Beyond as it was on Castle Meadow, the good old days, and Defender Of The Crown on the Amiga, playing the movies.

In the space of a couple of years, I had also owned an Atari 520ST, and dabbled in console gaming with the Sega Master System. I'm not going to cover One Step Beyond further as it is an article in it's own right, but working there meant that I was pretty much playing everything that came out. Although I never really got into PC gaming, I had got into the 16bit era with the Amiga and ST. I didn't have the Master System for very long before upgrading it to the Mega Drive. I was using the Amiga for more 'complex' games like Ports Of Call, Faery Tale Adventure, and Carrier Command. Over on the ST I was well into Colonial Conquest and Dungeon Master.

But for true arcade games, it had to be the Mega Drive. Sonic was absolutely amazing, the speed just took my breath away. Toejam and Earl was funky and fun. And the Thunderforce series where the best shootem-ups available. Golden Axe was pretty good too. Of course with all this great gaming hardware, I needed decent kit to get the best sound and vision to do it justice.

It was at this time that my time at Norwich Brewery came to an abrupt halt. The offices closed and moved to Manns Brewery at Northampton. I had been working on a new forecasting and ordering system, which they had wanted me to finish. I was taken up to Northampton and shown around. It was a good feeling but with no guarantee of a job at the end of the year, I didn't want to risk it. I got an interview at Anglian Windows (which I missed on the first attempt as I couldn't find the offices). But on the second attempt I got the job and so another chapter of my story was about to begin.

With the extra money I was earning, and still living at home, I had a fair amount of disposable income. So in came a decent tv, surround-sound amp, laser-disc player, and sofa (all in my bedroom). It was certainly an impressive entertainment centre (at the time) and both the Amiga and Mega Drive sounded great through the amp. I'm surprised my parents let me do it, there was more kit in my bedroom than the rest of the house!!

I came across the image on the left on an old photo cd. It's a good indication of how my bedroom looked in the early 90's. It was interesting to find I still had an Atari 800XL sitting under the TV, I guess I must have held on to it (although I don't see a disk drive or tape-deck). Underneath it (obscured by my brief-case.. oh dear) was my Pioneer laser-disc player. I remember the player having a two-sided option, meaning the head would move onto the other side of the disc (which took a while and was quite noisy). There are some discs to the left of the player (including the Special Edition Abyss - bought for £125!!). If you click on the image, to display the full image (be aware it's 140k), there are Amiga games on the bed and the little feline monster that my parents had. On the shelf is one of the surround speakers and a satellite (analogue) receiver. I think the amp is wedged between the tv stand and the bed.And yes, I was rather 'into' Marilyn Monroe. A true beauty taken from us before her time....

All good things come to an end and life moves on. As I entered the end of the 80's, I started to drift away from gaming. With the laser-disc player, music, and clubbing, I was finding 'better?' things to do then sit in my bedroom and play with my joystick. And so I started to drift away from my previous hobby. There were a few more machines I owned in this period, including a Snes, PC Engine, and a 3DO. I also had a rather silly credit blow-out with Lombard Tricity and bought the OSB ex-demo Amiga 2000. This was a great machine and had a PC bridge-board installed but it had cost me a lot of money (and my Dad went mad when I brought it home). But there was another growing threat that meant the end of gaming for me... and what was this terrible thing? Well you'll have to check my final article in 'Life Is But A Game'.

Article by Retro Kid, December 2006.

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