Hi, I’m static.
During the day I’m a 40+ years old IT Tech, and during the night I (would like to) play some video games. That becomes increasingly harder as is trying to juggle between loving family, tiredness, chores, and aging up. Hence the name of the blog, overage-gaming is fitting to my current situation – too old to game, too young to give up!
I’ve been gaming since a very little kid – father brought an Atari 2600 home one day and those rubbery joysticks became my hand extension on a whim! Playing games on that old cathode TV felt so magical.
A few years later in 1988, an IBM PC/Compatible Hyundai Super 16 TE personal computer with an Intel 8088 @ 10MHz, 640KB RAM, a 20MB HDD, and MS-DOS v3.3 where I spent most of my time in DOS on a green monitor. There my first games were Accolade’s Test Drive and Grand Prix Circuit, Double Dragon, and other titles. During those times, most of my free time revolved around video games – browsing my local Shops for new titles, looking at the boxes, and deciding which one I’d pester my mom or dad to bring home. Unfortunately, well-preserved copies of boxed games such as F-117A (and its enormous manual that included everything from fighter jet models and loadouts to thorough dogfighting techniques) and Wing Commander collection did not stand the test of time. I wish I’d kept most of my collection from back then for my bookcase.
During that time, I had access to an Amstrad 6128 where I could copy GW-Basic game code from magazines so I could play there too! With this, the love of computers in general solidified and the basics of programming were deeply ingrained in my brain.
Following those years, I stayed firmly in the PC camp, while envying my friends’ Amiga 500s where the graphics, sound, and gameplay were ahead of its time. I still remember fondly playing Kickoff, Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, Jaguar, and other games on that platform.
During my mid-20s, a bomb arrived – World of Warcraft. Up to that point, I wasn’t much of an RPG player (even though I tried Ultima a few times, I was too young to appreciate) but WoW took over my free time out of Uni studies by storm – spending as much as 18 hours playing some days (an unhealthy amount of time on any scale) to reach High Warlord (for the Horde!) PVP Rank 14 with my favorite class – a Warrior. Luckily for me and my health, this fad had worn off after I graduated, and even though I do log in a few times during the year (mainly after an expansion) I do not maintain a subscription throughout the year.
Lately, I have a variety of gaming platforms to play on – a i7-7700K GTX1060 PC, a PS5, and an XBOX One S but way less time to enjoy them fully, as I try to sneak in a few minutes or hours on a game between grown-up stuff. Also, my trusted and worn-out Nintendo GameBoy, Sega Game Gear, and Sony PSP are still alive and kicking, as well as a collection of old consoles stacked up in the basement.
In this blog, I will try to put words together about my thoughts on gaming-related subjects, do some game reviews in games that I enjoyed while tackling everyday grown-up life! – I may even document my attempts to introduce gaming to my children, looking back to the same way I got introduced to it by my father!
Hopefully, you will find something interesting to come back, and if you’re in the same age or situation, feel free to contact me – I’ll be more than happy to hear from you.
Cheers,
static