by Alan Fernald

Created on: April 12, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I think I may have been the first video game addict.

At the age of 10, I was up in the morning at five, playing "Tank" on our Atari 2600. By 15, I was feeding barrel-loads of quarters into the games at the brand new video arcade at the mall.

Then at 19, I found a new world opening up to me in the form of "The Bard's Tale" on my Amiga. I was lost in a world of make believe, and looking for new and better ways to satiate my need for altered reality.

I own several gaming consoles, but they are now relegated to my children. They just cannot come near to the control, power and flexibility of modern computers that I need in the new and improved worlds that I find in the online gaming experience.

Text chat, voice chat, hotkeys galore. Everything is possible in the world of PC gaming.

But the best thing I have, is my laptop. Playing my games from the library, or Barne's & Nobles, or even in the local mall's parking lot while waiting for my wife, my games go with me. I don't have to worry, because where the internet is, there I can play.

Would I ever go back to a console again?

Only if they can let me take it with me.

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