About me

I am Methuselah. According to Wikipedia, the name Methuselah "has become a general synonym for any living creature of great age". Therefore, I am Methuselah.

I began computer gaming back in the '70s, when Pong, then Space Invaders and, particularly, Defender graced the machines you would find in bars. I recall pumping all my spare change into those machines. Still, it was cheaper than spending my money on booze (although I did a fair bit of that also).

Then the first affordable home computers appeared. I purchased a Sinclair ZX81, and everything changed. I would spend five minutes listening to a game being loaded from a cassette tape (a similar sound to when you mistakenly ring a fax these days), only for it to fail after 4 minutes 59 seconds. It didn't matter. And as for the printer with aluminised paper well, that was the last word in high-tech. I was like a pig in muck. Games? Well, I recall a black and white flight simulator where, when you turned, the horizon was like a staircase diagonally across the screen. Brilliant. I also remember chess in 1k. Yes, you heard it correctly - chess in 1k of ram! It couldn't handle castling, but who cared? Then I bought the 16k rampack and plugged it into the back...

Next came the ZX Spectrum. Color! And a whole 48k of ram! The world of computer gaming was now my oyster. Anyone remember Codename MAT? I do. I particularly remember the alien spaceships that looked like hamburgers. I also remember the frenzied wait while Elite (previously only available on the BBC Micro) was ported to the Spectrum. I got it as soon as I was released, and I was in gaming heaven. I achieved Elite status, of course.

OK, fast forward to the world of PC games, and my real love became Flight Simulator, in the days of Bruce Artwick, before Micro$oft took over the franchise. Each new version brought a little more realism, from wire-frame to solid graphics, from a small area to the whole world, from blank scenery to real buildings and autogen. Heaven.

Meanwhile, 3D gaming took off. The first Doom, and Duke Nukem 3D. I especially loved Duke Nukem, and spent hours creating my own levels. Whatever happened to that level I made in a pyramid, floating in space? I could have sold that. Then there were the golf games. Not satisfied with beating par, I would design my own courses. I was Jack Nicklaus.

I was also Ayrton Senna. Who could forget the great Grand Prix games from Microprose?

Enough of the nostalgia. None of the games mentioned above would hack it with me now. Now, I expect photo-realism, and nothing less will do. And I get it. Whether in Far Cry 2 or Grand Theft Auto IV. Yes, I play these games, and I'm happy to admit it. OK, I may not have the reflexes of a teenage geek, but if I'm having fun, who cares? And you can have fun too, even if you're the wrong side of 40.

And that's where Ageing Gamer comes in. I will recount my computer gaming experiences both past and present, and hopefully you will be inspired to pick up the joystick/gamepad yourself, and shamelessly enjoy the world of computer gaming.