Well it's now November
2004 and it's nearly 18 years since I first entered the world of Atari
8-bit computing, I can't believe just where the time has gone!
I first started my
computing at junior school when I was 12 or 13 years old, some time
shortly after I was given a new Atari 8-bit computer as a birthday
present and things just progressed from there. A much fuller story of my
Atari life (still with a lot missing though) can be found on my new web
site, www.atari8bit.co.uk.
So what have I been
doing for the past 18 years? I guess when I left University with a
degree in Chemistry and starting working, my free time dwindled. It took
a couple more years for my Atari usage to fade to almost nothing. My
employment moved on from Lab Technician to Senior Quality Control
Analyst to Laboratory Manager and finally for the last 8 months,
Production Manager at a company called Ecolab - formerly Medical
Solutions, formerly Adams Healthcare, formerly DePuy Healthcare - in
Leeds. It was a turbulent 8 year odyssey of buyouts and promotions,
finally settling in the hands of a £50 billion dollar US company,
Ecolab. We actually manufacture infection control and contamination
control products and skin creams, used mainly in the NHS but also for
sale in Pharmacies.
As you can see my
career has been based on my formal education, computing was always a
hobby which generated a bit of cash during my years in education. My
other passion is cricket, spending all weekend in the summer months
playing cricket seriously reduces the time available for computing. A
couple of years ago I started importing Asian brand cricket bats and now
run a part time business selling cricket equipment on-line,
www.quantumcricket.co.uk,
as well as holding down my full time job, which unfortunately leaves
very little time for computing.
I still have all my
Atari 8-bit stuff - it is all set up and was all still working when I
last used it about 5 months ago. One rainy Saturday I booted up Mr DO!
and played that for an hour or so. Very recently I have started my own
Atari web site, which should hopefully grow over the next few months,
albeit very slowly as time is limited. I have also discovered there are
many fine sources of 8-bit material still out there, including emulators
to play your old games on a PC. I shall be exploring these over time.
The Atari 8-bit
machines took my life in a direction I never thought possible. Just like
everybody else my life has moved on but I still have a great fondness
for the old Atari 800XL and it will always occupy a small place in my
life for my continued enjoyment. It really pleases me that people are
still enjoying their Ataris.
Richard Gore, November 2004top
