This is an extensive post from DC staff writer Steven Jones (AKA Count Stex) from his blog Stex Toys. It goes into exhausting detail, but I felt abridging it would not do justice to a life so geeky. So here in all it’s rubber-keyed glory is the gaming history of one man. -Alex

Born in 1974 I grew up during the kick off of the home computing era in the UK, starting out with every parents educational favourite the BBC Micro from Acorn Computers, having played briefly with my fathers work’s Tandy and my Uncles ZX80 & ZX81, so whilst my friends played about with their rubber keyboards and the like I was tapping away on a full blown keyboard, typing in game program code from each months Acorn magazine and seeing what I could change in the code to give me more lives, or better damage. This is where the computer bug bit me and my future career was probably set in place at the age of 8!

The BBC Micro eventually gave way to the Atari ST, during which time friends had moved away from computers in the main, relying on the more focused gaming potential of the NES/SNES and Master Systems/MegaDrives. However for me the computer based platform not only was an easier sell to the parents, but also allowed me to continue ‘playing’ with computing in general, programming, digitizing sound clips, and even creating games thanks to the likes of the Shoot ‘em up Construction Kit.

The Atari, with a memory upgrade at some point, saw me through until the birth of the PC era, which I can only assume we got in on early due to picking up issue 1 of PC Format, and ZERO (later to become PC Zone) the magazine that would stay with me until this very day. I entered the world of the BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) which precursored the dawn of the internet. There was no real online play, and only a couple of people could connect to any given site at a time, but I saw the potential even then and spent hundreds of pounds on phone bills for which my parents got rightfully miffed! I stayed with PCs and away from any console system what so ever for quite some time, all the way through University in fact (Computer Science of course) though I do recall getting into some retro gaming during my forth year when the PCs had reached the stage they could emulate the Atari and I could relive my formative years. Being a house hold of Computer Science students has it’s advantages. We had a separate dial up line for internet access, this was the age of ‘free’ dial up internet, which fed into my computer, then we had a household network so these years of my early twenties where the ones to open my eyes to what would become online play. Doom featured heavily, as did the excellent Descent 1 & 2 which with an MS sidewinder 3D joystick was one of the most involving gaming experiences I ever had.

Returning to the real word, and obtaining a job right off the bat whilst still living at home saw my disposable income rise to previously unimaginable levels, 19” CRTs and cutting edge CPUs and Graphics cards heralded a golden age for my PC gaming life. Strangely it was at this time of cutting edge PC gaming I first dipped a toe into the console waters. The game that sold console gaming to me is the acclaimed Golden Eye on the N64, which whilst still having inferior graphics and power provided that multiplayer experience I hadn’t been able to achieve since returning from university. And once the system was in my household, ok my parents household, the trickle of other titles started to flow.

This flow then increased when I moved into my own house with my Danish girlfriend who I had met online via ICQ in 1998. The N64 provided us with a gaming experience we could share, as the thought of maintaining two functional gaming PCs at the time was a bit of a stretch given I was the sole breed winner for a while as Linda built up confidence in her English, or perhaps that should be in understanding the local Liverpool dialect of scouse! The N64 eventually gave way to a GameCube where we adventured together through the lands of Hyrule and collected some Sunshines, sharing as much of the experiences as we could despite the solo gameplay of the day.

Something was coming though. Something which would see the consoles return to rarely used dust collectors languishing in the living room whilst upstairs, in the ‘office,  two gaming PCs would be humming away for hours on end, morning, evening, night. It was of course 2004. It was when gaming fun would turn into gaming addiction, carried on the shoulders of Elves and Orks. World of Warcraft was upon us, and the next two years would disappear in a questing, auctioning, levelling powerfest that would eventually see use using an entire weeks holiday to reach level caps. It was two years of fun, but it became all too consuming, end we eventually had to cut ourselves off completely, there was no ‘just a couple of hours’ with WoW, it was all or nothing, and in the sake of health and sanity we chose nothing. Still to this day, when we see a screen shot, or hear tell of Ironforge or the Ogrimar on the winds of twitter we get pangs of memories, dark fingers in our minds trying to return us to Aseroth.

Gaming probably took a slight back foot for a while after WoW, a PS2 entered the house with the lure of GTA and Pro Evo, however once a USB to PS2 Dual Shock converter was located the PC versions of these games took over and the PS2 was retired to a box in the office. Probably a surprise to many given the love the industry has of the PS2, but also testament to just how focused on the PC world I was, given the option the PC would always win. It was higher rez, it was more powerful, I could run things in the background whilst playing to allow text and chat with other PC users. There was community. How could these console things be so captivating when there was no human to human contact, and so few co-operative games a couple could play together in the way WoW and later City of Heroes would allow us to do. Eventually the Wii would arrive and we bought on the promise of new interactions and our old favourites returning, however it’s grip was short lived.

And so the console world was lost to me, I couldn’t justify paying out for a 360 or PS3 that had no chance of matching me PC based experiences. They just play games, often the same games, and how can they provide the same human links the PC does. Sure they have their online play, and yes they do seem to be getting an awful lot of co-op games, but really why would I pay to do what I already can? And that’s the way it would have stayed had my cousins 360 not of red ringed, and he went out and bought a replacement. I figured getting a 360 for the price of a repair job was ok, I might play the odd game online with my cousins who also had one….

The rest as they say is history, once you’ve experienced the connected up, immersive world of the modern day console (Wii you are not included in this due to your lack lustre online service) there is little turning back, 95% of the games installed on my PC now are RTS titles which I’ve yet to see implemented well without a mouse for control and the 360 had become the goto system to fire up, play and check what everyone else is playing. Hop in an online game, take down some waves of Horde, or fend of Zombies with a few mates. It’s take what the PC world can do, and condensed it into a single system that everyone is a part of, it’s friendly, it’s cooperative.. it’s family.

-Steven Jones