ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2019
Entry 16th October 2019: Post 02: The Colossus Computer - Having fun.
The Colossus Computer - Having fun.
Once I got the Win95 machine set up just the way I wanted it I never
had any issue with the computer. It really was a case of appreciating
what she could and couldn't do. Let's put it like this, I never
ever felt restricted in what I could do and always enjoyed myself.
First up I discovered Thumbs which I use every single day right up
to the present day. It not only is a fantastic filing system but
the best image manipulation software by a long mile. It even saves
in Amiga file formats. It can read any, and I mean any file type.
I use it to resize and trim images before I move to the next process.
It is real magical for batch manipulating any number of files.
Next up I spent over £500 on Photoshop. It really wasn't worth mucking
about with the Lite version. You need all the layers. And what is
so wonderful about 5.5 which I still use, is it's a stand alone
version and I can place on any of my computers. So it moved from
one machine to the next and it is used endlessly.
And thirdly I cannot say enough about EJAY and particularly Dance
EJAY. If I ever feel low I just mix a new sampled bit of music.
It truly is a work of genius. I love this software to death and
it all started life on the Win95 machine.
Moving onto gaming. There were issues with gaming cus I had to set
the sound, video, joystick up through DOS as quite a separate process
to playing the games. It really was the only way to get them working
with the system. But after doing that the games played fine. Well
nearly all.
My first game was Civilisation which I knew very well anyway, but
on the PC and the bigger monitor it entered a whole new dimension.
This game is so addictive and I treasure every moment played. Next
up came Duke Nukem. I do have the original box somewhere which has
the T-shirt inside. I recall playing this game and forgetting to
switch on the light in the room and I would be sitting in the dark
not knowing what time of day it was. It was crazy fun and often
hilarious.
In the day Sierra made games that were based on real time video.
They were all horror based games and scared the shit out of me.
Sadly the concept was never really embraced by the industry. I
loved them.
All the usual suspects were acquired like SimCity, PGA and even
Settlers. Added to that classic new games like Age of Empires kept
me occupied for longer hours than I dare admit. However, gaming on
the PC came to an abrupt halt... it all came about cus of Lara Croft.
I had bought the game but could never get it to work. I could hear
the sound but could get no graphics out of the game. I got very
frustrated. So much so I went out and bought a PlayStation and life
would never be the same again. I kid you not I am sitting here
typing this and next to me is a very large flat screen monitor and
paused at the moment is my PS3 and Final Fantasy XIII-2 which I am
giving a run around the block. I love having the PC on and the PS3
cus I can read the old walk-throughs on the internet and even have
YouTube videos of difficult parts in the game whilst I still have
the PlayStation running. Nothing has changed from that date, except
the PC is a Win7 and the PS is a 3.
So there you go. I didn't mention the gazillion hours I was on the
internet surfing all kinds of things. It may have been Dial-Up in
those day, but for me I never really noticed much difference. It was
always fun, as it is today. You really never know when you are likely
to find another Olivia Paige... whoo er!!
The Colossus Computer - Having fun.
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