Author’s Note: This is a work in progress!

At the age of three, I was intrigued and fascinated with a cool device called the Atari ST -it was then called a computer, and I was happily banging away on the keyboard and joystick to the games, which came in 3.25″ floppies. Some of the games were fun (Bubble Bobble, Ikari Warriors, New Zealand Story), some confused me (Donald Duck’s Playground, Xenon) and others scared me (Mickey Mouse the Computer Game, Ghostbusters).

Then came the COMPRO 286 when I was five(or thereabouts). To me, it was worse than playing on the Atari ST – at least there were colours, compared to the 286 (imagine playing a chinese chess computer game in CGA), so I didn’t touch the 286 much. Well, at least I picked up DOS.

The 486 appeared in 1992, and there were more games that were available to me. The PC then underwent the Windows 3.1 revolution, and also the explosion of games left me astounded, such as Word Rescue, Gods, Magic Pockets and Cool Croc Twins. I switched between the PC and the Atari ST to whittle my time away.

1994 came with even more games such as Trog, The Incredible Machine, Home Alone, Worlds of Legend: Son of the Empire, Dune 2, EcoQuest 2, Battle Bugs, The Island of Dr Brain, Zool 2, Turbo Science, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, and my first venture into D&D pen and paper, as well as the scary Eye of the Beholder 3. Additionally, the CD-ROM revolution had just began, and many CD-ROM games emerged, such as MechWarrior 2, Battle Chess, The 7th Guest, Ultima Underworld and The Savage Empire (last 2 games were on a “compilation” CD that came with the “Multimedia CD-ROM” package for $1k which consisted of a CD-ROM drive and a few CD-ROM games). Educational CD-ROMs that came out during this time were also very well polished, such as Mario Is Missing. Also of note was an interesting “game” called Klik & Play, which my dad bought from overseas while on a business trip. I loved it for the fact that reading the very manual of Klik & Play actually inspires you to become a game developer.

In 1995, Windows 95 was released. I picked up Microsoft Word in 1995 in order to type out a composition that my English teacher asked me to re-write because it was a good piece, but messy due to my handwriting. I can remember that she was impressed with the nicely formatted, Times New Roman size 12, dot matrix printed A4 paper when I handed my work back to her. I learnt to type fast with Mario Teaches Typing. A primary school classmate introduced me to Chip’s Challenge, and yet another showed me Commander Keen. I was first exposed to the Macintosh in Primary 5 when my dad brought the family on a visit to his friend’s place, and playing SimCity 2000, SimTown and SimTower. Subsequently, I got hooked on SimLife, SimFarm and SimIsle. I was introduced to Comix Zone and Dune 2 by my cousin, and also tried my hand at Sango Fighter 2, where I realized I suck at fighting games, and thus swore not to play such “crap” ever (I have never touched any of the Street Fighter series for real). Command & Conquer was particularly memorable, as well as Warcraft 2.

In 1996, I tried out Tomb Raider and I failed miserably at it. Diablo was released as well, training my right hand in superb motor skills in left-clicking rapidly, which ultimately bored me because I didn’t understand the story. There wasn’t much games that I tried out, besides Command & Conquer: Red Alert and a short stint with Earthworm Jim, due to the PSLE.

I have been actively helping my secondary school in this aspect since I was in secondary two 10 years ago. Back then, knowing how to do a PowerPoint file with snazzy animations, and building webpages using Notepad is a very big deal for a 14-year old kid. Of course, I had more ambitious achievements that I had set for myself – I did a computer game for one of my English projects, and a music video as well when I was in secondary three. As you expect, my skills were put to use in Hong Kah Secondary for many occasions – the school’s open house, CCA recruitment videos, heritage drive and teacher’s day to name a few.