As the forum community is growing bigger, we are seeing alot of new faces that need to be introduced to the old.
To bring us all together, as suggested by necropsy, we bring you the Introduce Yourself thread!
You can supply as much information about yourself as you like such as name, age, occupation and anything else you might like to add.
Name: Ben
Age: 22
Occupation: Student/Games Designer
I'm a big game/hardware fanatic and have been working in the Games Industry for the past 7 years, I am now studying a Computer Games Design Degree at Staffordshire University
I like everything artistic wise and have a strong passion for gaming (when I get the time) ;(
Name: James
Age: 29
Occupation: Senior Staff Nurse : Neuro intensive care
I love pc's upgrading and building. Haved been doing it for years. Also enjoy gaming on my pc, xbox 360 and PS3. and as you probably know i have just become a dad.
Name: Antonio
Age: 35
Occupation: Network Infrastructure Manager
Computer fanatic as Ben above and worked in the industry for 16 years. It has been mainly systems and networking but I have done a bit of everything. I like mainly strategy games but like to go for a major shootout in an FPS from time to time. Besides all that I am a massive pain in the "lower back" when I want to
Occupation : wholesale meat supplier/trying to get qualifications to get into networking.
Been hooked on computers and gaming since my dad got me a Commodore +4 when I was a kid. Im a big MMO geek but do love some good old fashion Pwnage in FPS from time to time.
Name: Gary Thwaites
Age: 24
Occupation: I.T Operator (I print things :/ )
Famous 5minutes: almost got on that Cyber Cafe program years ago as a Internet addict, spending on average 40hours a week online doing stuff and spending £1000 a quarter on phone bill (Dial Up) Only to be turned down and replaced by a 12hour a week addict?????
Computer Addict, Play what i can when i can.. Undefeated at Command and Conquer and Age of Empires just need a bigger room to put all my stuff as i have a rather large DVD collection also.
Into web design and have my own Dedicated server running anything from websites to online game chatbots for MMO game.
Name: Adrian
Age: 39
Occupation: Developer/IT Consultant (MS .NET Platform)
Been gaming since home Pong machines and the Space Invaders Arcade machines era. Have fond memories of Spectrums and Amigas. Love Flight Sims, First Person Shooters and RPGs - and almost anything by Nintendo
Used to build my own PC's, but was never brave enough to do my own Watercooled system. Decided to take the plunge with a Vadim earlier this year and placed my order in Feb. Despite a couple of glitches, very happy with it
Oh, and I'm a keen amateur photographer (Have a Canon 20d and 40d SLR and various lenses)
been gaming for a few years now when i get time i dont know to much about computer hardware though i try to teach myself by reading forums like this and online aticles i live in dublin ireland
OK I guess im the instigator here so I might as well go again
Name: Chris
Age: 24
Occupation: postgrad student
Read only if you want my life story through gaming:
I first got into computing at the age of 5, for Christmas Santa bestowed upon me an Amiga 500 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_500. Complete with 512kb of ram I played pretty much every game under the sun. My uncle had copied me over 250 games all on floppy disk (thems were the days!). Particular faves were original pang, better dead than alien, stunt car racer, the secret of monkey island, turrican (wow memories) & Rodland (OMG I cant believe it). For those of you who had an amiga then check out this site. http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/votes_list.php Memory lane or what!
In 1993 I got my first PC a 486DX-2 66mhz with some stupid amount of ram, think it was 8mb. It came with Rise of the Robots (i remember it being terrible!). I went through a real phase of adventure games, especially the lucasarts classics, all the monkey islands and of course day of the tentacle.
I then moved country (to lovely cyprus), here I betrayed the PC and went with a Sega Mega Drive, 16bits of goodness and played all the usual bologne on that.
I cant remember when exactly, think it may have been '96, I got a Pentium 200mhz MMX. This was the last PC I bought. This was my FPS phase where me and friends would regularly play Quake and then later, Quake 2 until our eyes bled!
I built my first PC about 9 years ago now and have build 3 for me since then (from scratch 3 but upgrading along the way) as well as a few for others.
I went on to study computer science at uni and pretty much hated it I Landed a career in IT support and pretty much hated it but worked in some great places including sys admin at the london stock exchange (wow, do they know their stuff there!).
However, I am now a postgrad student studying for my mba of all things as I realised all the things i ever really enjoyed about pcs and gaming were right in my own home!
Best games ever for me would have to be:
The monkey island series (1,2 &3 but not 4), grim fandango, day of the tentacle
Quake II (also anyone who played the action quake 2 mod for Q2 will remember how awesome that was)
Many of the old old arcade games, asteroids, space invaders (anything with a black background basically!!)
EDIT: Damn, I almost forgot all those countless hours in internet cafes tank crushing all my mates in Red Alert!!!!
More or less any racing game but really got into them with the need for speed series, I had things like test drive, lotus challenge and outrun on the Amiga though...
and thats me.
You might wonder why I have written such a huge post. Ill tell you why, Im meant to be working and will do anything to avoid it...
Name: Paul
Age 63 on 13th Dec
Occupation: 1st to last: Engineer at Mather and Platts, electrician, then student psychiatric nurse, moved to OZ where I finished my training in Sydney became RMN, after a long story moved to Melbourne where I worked bottling beer ( good job that ) then a Conductor on the Melbourne Trams, then another long story, then back home to the UK, where the hospital wouldnt reconise my Oz qualifications so did final year again, got British RMN, then went to do my SRN, a few months before my finals, Dad died, mother needed me to help with business. Mother retired and I took over business with market stalls and shops all over the north west. Got married, wife died in child birth Doctor told me to sell up and look after kids, my third child Nicola had a learning difficulty called fragile X syndrome ( google it ) and have spent the last 27 years looking after her, my nursing training came in handy, In those 27 years never been out and only can go to Blackpool for hols as Nicola can only settle there, now people who I have said the computer has saved my life might understand now. Actually feel very content and happy, no worries, financially okay, it's a good life, Thanks to Vadim.
Likes: Music especially Elvis, Johnny Cash, and a bit of opera especially Madame Butterfly. anything to do with aircraft, Oh yeh anything computers and gadgets.
Dislikes: Migraines, sarcasim, snobs, big mouths, war, Oasis, Manchester City FC.
Ambitions: Get the new Computer when ddr3 ram and new 2 x 4core cpu etc comes out. Find a wife who likes computers.
There is of course many other things in my life, but have wrote enough. Have fun fruim
Name: Antony
Age: 34
Occupation: I work as an IT trainer, training Blind and Partially sighted people how to use computers.
I actually wanted to go into nursing having spent most of my childhood in and out of various hospitals, but was advised against it by my doctors. So ended up following a career in computers, I've now got a great job that I really enjoy.
Name: Gilles (Do you see wha I did with my name there? I so clever, etc)
Age: 32, until the end of February.
Occupation: Currently working for CEX, for the main part, but also training/teaching martial arts, and small-time computer engineer. Previous work has included making lenses for spectacles, the usual array of bar work, and modelling. Of a sort.
I got into computers when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and my step-dad got the Sinclair ZX80. We progressed with the times and the technology, all the way up to the +2, and then stopped unexpectedly for a while. School and college I did computing, with an eye towards programming, did an NVQ which predominantly focused on VBA in Excel, which cured me forever of wanting to do programming, so I got into hardware instead. I read a lot, I am in the very slow, stop/start proccess of writing a book, and I am a free mason.
I am left-handed, male, and I only use one eye, so my hand-writing could only get worse if I became a doctor or a solicitor. I take myself FAR too seriously, although I feel this is justification for the amount of black I wear. I have 3 sisters, 2 brothers, 1 nephew and 5 nieces. I got to run around inside a dalek when I was a kid.
I love music of most varieties, but have a particular liking for Johnny Cash (with whom I share a birthday), various opera and classical. I have about 300 dvd's, because I love cinema. I am surprisingly practical, and seem to understand my mum's dog better than anyone else can. I am allergic to rats, which I only discovered after I got my third pet rat at uni.
I talk too much, and my hobbies include shouting and cardboard boxes.