A Brief History of Game

Welcome to My Personal History with Video Games

One of my few passions in life is video games and I’d love to tell you my story of how I got in to them. There’s ‘a moral to the story’ at the end, as well as a roasting of one company…
My gaming journey all began at my grandad’s place (of all people!). I must have been about 6 years old at the time and on one cold wintery night, we were moving furniture in to his garage. I finished moving the heavy boxes and happened to bump in to a dusty old box.
It was like any other electronics box I had seen before. Nothing particularly special about it and yet my uncle had thrust it in to my hands. But why? It was from an ex of his who had returned back to her country and had forgot about this one. Surely it couldn’t be that important. For years, this box was lying in the garage and I was about to understand what this so-called GAME-BOY was.

Always Think of the Bigger Picture

My eyes opened up to a new type of fun that could be had in the world. In the palm of my hands was a grey box with entertainment like I never had seen before. And so, the first video-game I played was Tetris. The mathematical logic to the puzzler had me hooked from the start. I vividly recall thinking to myself: ‘How, at 6 years old am I only now being made aware of this revolutionary toy!?’ I made sure to take the clunky console back home along with as many AA batteries my pockets could fit. My passion for video games ignited that night.
Skip forward to the summer. I was in year 1 and school was coming to an end. Whenever I was out and about, the Game Boy was in my pocket. My mum had seen how glued I was to this Game Boy and told me about the release of the new console coming out, the Game Boy color. Nintendo was tying this in with the release of Pokemon games on the handheld too… My six year old mind-blown. With school coming to an end, the summer holidays approached. I dipped in to my life savings for the first time and my mum bought a Gameboy color and Pokemon Blue bundle with it. Now, that’s some way to celebrate!

Saving for the Bigger Picture

From the ages of about 6 to 12, you’d find me on some variant of Game Boy console. I always saved up my pocket money for the next Game Boy Color or Advance cartridge that caught my eye at car-boots. Each week, till the age of 17(!) I earned £3 pocket money. Which meant I would learn an important life lesson: to always be saving for the bigger picture. I also learned to have an open mind on what exactly that next big thing may be (this life lesson was learned on what video-games to buy mind you!). I ended up with a lot of random old games!

The Grey Box Affection

As I was leaving primary school, I also had adopted a PlayStation One. This, above anything else got me hooked in to everything gaming. It was at this age I was buying magazines and using our dial up connection for cheat codes on gaming websites. The sheer amount of games I would buy from the ages of 12 to 16 years old was quite astronomical.
That console too has a big place in my nostalgia filled heart. Once again, a grey box had come in to my life and a whole new world opened up. For years, the PlayStation 1 captured my imagination while the PlayStation 2 + 3 was nowhere to be seen. The games I bought would always be from second hand shops and I’d hop between different ones. Looking back, that is the strange reason I never completed Crash Bandicoot…

A Whole New World

I made the move to the Xbox 360 when I was the ripe old age of 17. It was a big change and a fantastic shared Christmas present with my brother. A couple of years would go by until we could convince our parents to use their credit card so we could go online. Those were the times.
Online gaming was a completely different world. Playing with friends after an exhaustive day of school and chatting about the antics of our play was insane. By this point, I was maturing as a player. No longer was I looking in second hand shops for games. Instead, it was the Argos buy two for £30 type deals. That limited the number of games I could buy so sought advice from mates for which were the best. Call of Duty topped that list.

Maturing as a Gamer

I’d seen friends play it before and I remember how confusing it was to an outsider like me. “Wait a sec, you have team-mates!? What happens if you kill them?” or “How did he kill me; I was behind this box!”. The fact bullets could go through materials was mind-blowing. I’d always thought it gets absorbed in to the box and nothing out the other side. At least, that’s what games like Quake, Doom and Timesplitters had taught me. For me, a new age of gaming had dawned. It would be days upon days invested in to Call of Duty until I had gone into employment and now the ‘next-gen’ was coming.
Gaming had shaped my life in a tremendous way. I would never have thought as a six year old, that one night at grandads would have such a profound affect on my life. My mathematical mind craved more and more games and I had always looked up to those that created them.
YouTube (which is in itself it’s own story) played a big part too. When I found Machinima, I would download all the gameplay videos I could from my aged laptop. That would soon then grow in to a love for certain players and games. I would endlesslywatch (and still do!) YouTubers playing games.

The Big Picture

Now matured as a player, I was quick to figure out how much I had missed because I was so invested in my PlayStation One. Skipping the majority of PS2 and the PS3 generations, a grey box had again swooned me. I made sure to schedule in the dates of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One announcement conferences. Thankfully, I wasn’t working those two evenings.
Straight after the announcements, the PlayStation 4 was pre-ordered. After all these years, my mantra of saving money for the things you want most had paid off.
Bear in mind, when the PlayStation 4 released, I was 21! I was mid-way through university but nothing could hold me back. I had been tracking the order for months and when I finally got that knock at the door, I was scrambling all over the stairs and cats that lay upon them. My family could only sit back and laugh.
And so, the next generation was in my hands. My own console.

It Finally Paid Off

There is a magic that I find in gaming and my journey through life is being influenced by it. I went through university to study computer science because that’s my passion. Projects like Aliencraft and That’s Your Best Bet started to further my skills. I enjoy taking risks.
My fascination for computers and gaming were a match made in heaven. It allowed me to stumble into Disney Interactive to work upon games there too. I still would love to work in the games industry and make a small mark upon it. I have personal projects, but I’d love to get to know what it’s like working as a team. Seeing how your baby performs, much like you see in The Indie Game Movie.

Take Risks. Some Will Work, Some Won’t. But You Will Always Learn Something.

Now, on to more recent matters. Skip forward to the other month, a friend recommended me to play a game. On special offer in the PlayStation store for one week only, 7 Days to Die. I had time to make my mind up if it would make the list of games to try out. Reading through reviews and gameplay videos on YouTube, it was a marmite type game. The open world survival genre is always a captivating one. I bought it.
Before I begin this next segment, I’d like to put a disclaimer in. Being someone who has the finger on the pulse of the industry, I know how damaging it can be to see bad reviews of ‘your baby’. Having made a game myself, I know how invested people get. Hours upon hours spent to make the slightest of tweak to the end-user experience.

7 Days to Die Game

I felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment when I opened the game. For the first time in a long while, I felt gutted I had made a leap of faith on a title I knew little about. The PlayStation 2 graphics that glared back at me on the PlayStation 4 were a blow to the stomach. Still, I sucked it up and carried on with the game itself. Games aren’t all about graphics.
Later that night with countless deaths to my name, I was as bewildered as I was when I had booted the game up. The interface was horrid, the AI was glitching out and the strength of the enemies was ludicrous. How could they expect a noob (new player) like me to take down a zombie that takes over 100 hits with a baseball bat? Dropped in the middle of it all, I hated it. Unintuitive, old fashioned and difficult; even on the easiest settings.
The last straw was when I changed my strategy. Instead of running around exploring what the game had to offer, I set up a base. I took over a desolate house, secured the doors and started to make it a home. While looking for guidance on YouTube, low and behold a bear breaks in to my house and ravages me! 7 Days to Die is the worst game I ever laid my hands upon.

Go and Make a Name for Yourself

7 Days to Die feels like a single person’s personal project. But yet, it had TellTale Games name attached to it.
Put it this way: It would not surprise me if this was a graduates project and using the company was his only way of getting out to the public. Seriously, I thought the game was that bad. Granted, the game is in Alpha stage, but I had to think to myself while playing it, how on earth has this got on to the PlayStation 4 Store? And yet, I wanted to experience the game for what it was. The years of gaming prior had taught me not to judge a book by its cover. The crappy graphics, ridiculous crafting mechanics and stupid balancing was something I had to swallow with a pinch of salt.
I’ve since grown to understand the game, but I still stand by my opinion that it shouldn’t be available for sale in its current state. The sheer number of bugs in 7 Days to Die made me feel that way. TellTale need to scrap the project and start from scratch.
Having made a game myself, to an extent I know what it takes. The amount of hard work and personal attachment to such a project goes without saying. What I don’t understand though is how a rather big name in gaming can put theirs to this.
Such is my anger of this product, that I called out in frustration “I can make a better game like this!”. And I believe it to be true. This my friends, is how I start the projects I do.
Don’t let others tarnish your passions. Instead, go out there and make a name for yourself.
So watch this space.
See you around,
A

An Update About My Book

Hey all, apologies for the site being down over the past few days. I’ve managed to rectify it’s issues and now I’m back to the blog. To spice things up a little, for a change this isn’t some wonderful wisdom. Instead, it’s a simple update. More particularly, about my book.

I’ve just received my second version of the book in the mail and boy you should have seen my face when the delivery man turned up! There’s a lot of change in this publication and I think it’s about time to give you guys a quick once over on the behind the scenes.
Let’s start with a bit of prologue. For the last few years, I’ve been keeping a diary on the daily antics of my life. The reason mainly comes down to the poor memory of mine. One day I’d like to look back and remember those forgotten times. As some of you may already know, I also went to summer camp… or affectionately known as Camp America. Thankfully, I kept up the diary and I’m now ready to reveal all.

There’s No Place Like Summer Camp Book is Coming Soon, Really Soon.

Coming later this year, There’s No Place Like Summer Camp will be released (19th September 2017). It’s the personal memories that I kept over the course of my first year of independent travel. You will get to meet some outlandish characters, crazy kids and quite surreal stories of what volunteering at summer camp is really like.

It’s taken a butt-load of work and there still is a whole load more still to do behind the scenes. Currently clocking in at over 120,000 words, which is easily the biggest amount of scripture I’ve ever wrote. Heck, it’s even bigger than my Automated Pac-Man program dissertation project which is really saying something.

So, allow me to break down what’s been going behind the scenes all this time.

A few special announcements about my book

The Title

So, I’ve finally settled on a title. This took a good few months of head-scratching to find one that perfectly sums up it’s contents. Like all good names, I finally stumbled on to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp and I absolutely love it.

Feel of the book

Since its first incarnation (which was used to test the waters), the whole feel for the book has changed and I do mean quite literally. The quality of paper has been much improved, along with a much silkier feeling cover. I’ve put every intention in making this book ideal for taking on your travels and boy does it feel high quality!

Content

The content has had a massive overhaul. There’s a lot more context to situations that occur in the story. There’s now background to the characters in There’s No Place Like Summer Camp along with the day to day life of how summer camp runs. As you’d expect, there are millions of spelling and grammatical fixes thrown in for good measure too. To top it off, the book has a few cool features that you don’t really see from many other authors these days. There’s photos, social media updates and daily ratings which all add up to one unique reading experience, much like summer camp is unique in itself. There’s some “other stuff” in there too, but I’m a fan of surprises so will keep you hanging on that one.

Availability and release date

I’ve nailed a release date, the 19th September 2017. The intention is to get the physical book perfected first and then eBook version will be worked upon once the rest is complete. As for availability, it will be available on Amazon on 19th September 2017. I’ll be working hard behind the scenes to also get it in Waterstones and other high street retailers too.

Cover

The covers have been totally re-imagined to better reflect the summer camp vibe. The whole design has been worked upon from the ground up to better leap off the shelves!

Blogging

There’s going to be a few blog posts in the coming months about Summer Camp and the books progress too. I’m super excited to continue to refine my first entry into the world of books and I’m happy to announce that any book updates will be posted here first.

 

There’s still a lot of work to go and this will be the best place to keep an eye on whats going on. It’s quite an exciting time and I want to nail the release.

 

I’ll see you in the next one,

A.

Without a Goal, You Can’t Score

As mentioned in my last blog post, this one was always going to be dedicated to my bucket list. It’s one that I started to make at the beginning of the year, shortly after this website was made. So far, I have come up with a staggering 52 things I’d love to experience before I die. In no particular order, I’m about to break them down to provide insight into the person behind the portfolio.

 

Andrew’s Bucket List (in no particular order)

1. Obviously, marry the love of my life – I’ve stated that these are in no particular order but this is definitely number one. Since day dot, I’ve had the desire to find the woman of dreams. There’s no shifting this one off top spot. I’m after the awe-inspiring, beautiful partner.
2. Visit North Pole – The North Pole is strangely a place I’d love to visit. Being part of an exclusive group of people to have visited and meeting Santa Clause himself is something I’d love to check off my bucket list.
3. Have a massive wedding, catching up with all the old friends of days gone – Tying in well with #1, I want to marry when the time is right. By that, I mean the wedding to top all weddings. I only ever want one wedding in my life and there will be no cautious spending here to make my declaration of that. I’d invite all the friends of days gone by, having catch-ups since the years we last met. Going all out for my princess and rekindling old friends.
4. Visit Australia – There’s much to life down under and I’d find it fascinating to visit the country. Just the wildlife alone, friends from summer camp and the threat of drop bears will be enough for me to make the 24 hour flight across the globe!
5. Own a house – It’s a simple one, but has to go on the list nonetheless. I want the flexibility of having my own pad and building my kingdom.
6. Have kids – Ideally two, one son and one daughter.
7. Take kids to Disneyland – I never went as a kid, but I’d love to make my kids dreams come true. Its a bucket list item I’m holding off of for now as I want that giddy feeling when I experience it with them.
8. Record a song, whether that be a cover version or custom – I’m not musical in any way, shape or form. I’d love to one day record a song and openly declare my love for my partner.
9. Learn to play an instrument – Tying in with the above, I’d love to learn an instrument. I never took music seriously at school, but I’d like to learn now.
10. Run a marathon – Always a competent runner, I’d like to run a marathon for charity. I did a 5km run many years ago so fancy my chances of one day testing my stamina to the extreme.
11. Write and release a book – Already being worked upon, I’d love to say that on my deathbed, I gave everything a go. This is one of those things. I’m super excited to have the chance of one day seeing my book in a bookstore.
12. Create a video game – I’m a gamer. I did Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) at university so I could learn how computer controlled players worked in games. While I have made a game already, see portfolio, I’d love to be able to make a game that I can distribute properly one day.
13. Visit the Amazon – Just for the weird kooky wildlife you get there. I’m sure you’d bump in to a couple of tribes too.
14. Ride a helicopter – A small, but essential one on the list. They all count!
15. Visit and gamble in Vegas – Stag do anyone? Ties in well with That’s Your Best Bet ventures too, but in all honesty I just want a crazy break there like the Hangover movies.
16. Visit Japan – A man of technology can’t help but admire Japan. It would be an alien world to a man of the west but I’d love to visit and bask in their culture.
17. Zipline – I’d find it cool one day to do so, but it’ll come eventually.
18. Hot air balloon – Always seemed like a fun way to get from A to B.
19. Snowboard – It’s something I’ve yet to do and everyone who comes back from it says its awesome. Would love to give it a shot and I bet i’ll be on my arse in minutes.
20. Ski – As above.
21. Zorbing – Bring out the inner child in you by rolling in a ball of air down a hill!
22. Visit Bletchley Park – Experiencing where modern computing came to be, particularly after studying the course excites me. I’m sure a lot of it will go over my head but there’s only one way to find out.
23. Be a best man – From one man to a fellow man, this is any mans dream.
24. Own an Arcade Shop – I’d love to own an arcade shop when I’m older. Perhaps as a retirement thing to do, own an amusements by the sea.
25. Visit Hollywood – All the glitz and glamor!
26. Make Lemonade – One of the games I played as a kid back in the late 90’s was lemonade tycoon. It was one of the early pillars that got me in to gaming and I’d love to set up a stall outside one day and try to flog some!
27. See a magic show (Penn and Teller style) – None of these small time kids entertainers, I want my mind, heart and soul to be blown.
28. With the kids.. Have an opposite day, dinner for breakfast etc. – Growing up, I’ve always been intrigued how this would go down! I’d love to give it a shot when the kids are bored one summer holiday!
29. Go karting – Strangely, I’ve not done petrol go-karting.
30. Write a open letter to unborn children for them to read when 18 (write when they’re in womb?) – Of course, this would be the pinnacle of an extraordinary present for them to open.
31. Watch a rocket launch – Seeing humanities effort to venture out of our world would be an awesome sight. That may mean going to Florida again!
32. Go to a drive in movie theatre – Like a scene from Grease.
33. Visit the pyramids – Visiting a different side of the world, soaking up the culture from olden times. Definitely would have to buy myself a commemorative Egyptian beetle/Scarab too.
34. Spa day – Destress with all sorts of cosmetic magic that goes on in there. Walk out, feeling and looking like a freshly born baby; because that’s attractive!
35. Ride a segway – Again, something different and fun while you futuristically move from A to B.
36. Make each of my kids a scrapbook – Memories and keepsakes are things I’ve always held dear. Having only gone through my own scrapbook recently (made when I was 10), I can only smile. I want them to experience that too while unforgettable memories are jotted down in an oldschool fashion.
37. Attend a world cup match, ideally England or the final – Any football fans dream really. I’ll be realistic though and state that England won’t get to a final in my lifetime!
38. Water jetpack – Not that I’d have any control or anything. I’d be like a loose hose going off in the garden, spraying the neighbours and the like.
39. Visit Niagara Falls – No place really like it and I know it’d be crammed full of tourists. Still, it’d be a sight to behold, admiring one of the 7 wonders of the world.
40. Do a tour of The Louvre – I’m all for conspiracy theories so kind of fell for the fiction of The Da Vinci Code. I’d still like to admire the artwork at this place just before I visit #41…
41. Go up Eiffel Tower – I presume these are next to each other? Well, Paris is a city of romance and I’d love to see this iconic structure in all its glory.
42. Grand Canyon – My love for America crops up once again in my bucket list. Where else can you visit some huge crack on earth? And don’t say my mum!
43. Work abroad – I guess you could count Camp America… But I’d like to visit some country, work there a few months/years while making new connections and memories.
44. Go on a cruise – It’d be so fun to have a holiday on the seas! All entertainment under one roof and then the excitement of visiting a new country on top!? Sign me up.
45. Visit a jail – A proper, fully functioning one. It’s a side of society that you really forget about in day to day life. I’d love to give it a visit, perhaps speak to a few inmates and see what obscenities are inside. Do they even do visits? I don’t know, but it would definitely be high on my bucket list.
46. Go to a WWF/WWE event – We all know its fake and staged. But the adrenalin and showbiz of it all would be such a laugh!
47. Read Anne Franks Diary – Not high on the list, but at some point in my life, I’d like to have read it.
48. Be on a TV show – These days any old Joe can get on TV. So eventually I’d like to aswell. So don’t be surprised when I’m on a gameshow one day trying to win some wonga!
49. Threesome – This wouldn’t be a bucket list without one.
50. Eventually visit all continents on the earth – Because why not?
51. Send something to space – With a GoPro and everything!
51. Run my own business – And last but not least. The dream.
Please note, there is no mention of skydiving here.
Till the next time,
A.
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