Hi,
>Well, seeing as I'm averaging a question a day I guess I should introduce
>myself....
Well, seeing as you started it.... :-)
My name is Peter and I'm 34. I've been programming computers since 1978 when I
learnt BASIC at school, within 6 months I'd graduated to programming in Z80
machine code on the school's RML 380Z (and I do mean machine code, not assembly
language since we didn't have an assembler for that machine until 1981 when we
upgraded the system to run CP/M).
In 1980 I got a Sinclair ZX80 which I hacked around on until 1982 when I bought
a ZX81 kit. The ZX81 was rather short lived as I bought an Atari 400 in early
'83 (I'd had enough of the shortcomings of the Sinclair machines) which I
expanded to a full system with a real keyboard, printers, disc drives etc.
Now THAT was a machine, I wrote a few games for it (just for myself) and lots
of device drivers etc for add ons I built for it, like printer interfaces,
EPROM burner etc. I even re-wrote the OS to add new features which I wanted....
In 1985 I got my first taste of commercial programming when I did a bit of work
for Novagen, doing the loader and loading screen for the Atari version of
"Mercenary". Then in '86 I got a full time job with a small software house here
in Birmingham writing games for the C64, and got my first taste of being
ripped-off!
After 6 months (as head of 6502 development, HAH!) I moved on and spent 12
months at Novagen working on the Atari ST version of "Backlash", after which
myself and a couple of friends tried to strike out on our own doing arcade
conversions for the ST and Amiga. Unfortunately we were a few years too early
with our efforts and I ended up at US Gold converting games to the 7800 (hence
my interest in the system).
In '89 I moved out of games and got a job writing operating systems for data
capture terminals and other doing embedded systems work. Sadly the company was
taken over and closed down a couple of years later so after a bash at doing
some more freelance work I gave in and went back to college where I got some
more qualifications in electronics and sounds engineering - before getting a
temporary job at the college as a systems support technician (which drove me up
the wall - bloody users!!).
I'm currently looking for another job, though with the current state of the
computer industry over here I always end up being either under or over
qualified for the jobs I'm applying for. :-(
TTFN - Pete.
--
Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer.
Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC)
peter.pachla@xxxxxxxxxx (primary account) | ICQ# 12560790
peter.pachla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
peter.pachla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | www.wintermute.free-online.co.uk
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