Chatterbox Wednesday

Felice wanted me to do something German for my 2,000th post, but there's no way I can impose Ordnung on this forum, even if I wanted to. So I put the Brandenburg Gate instead. There you go, Felice.

Although I'm beginning to think that I should have brought some decent beer instead.

You already know that I was born on a small volcanic island off the German North Sea coast where my mother is still plotting world domination but is currently thwarted by a dodgy hip. I was born at a good time in the history of gaming: new technologies were becoming available, computer and console gaming became mainstream. It was a golden age, so naturally it all passed me by. When I was very young I once played Pacman at a friend's house. The Atari version. Later in school there was this one kid that had a Game & Watch. Just looking at it blew our minds, so we had to make do without minds from then on. We didn't mind. There was nowhere to nerd out anywhere.

Then I moved to the scenic town of Heidelberg to study archaeology. Why Heidelberg? Because I knew they had a university there; I had seen The Student Prince. Why archaeology? Because I thought it could be a reasonably exciting subject:



I got a student grant, and used it to feed myself (Miracoli pasta kits and Dr Oetker Mushroom pizzas), clothe myself, pay my rent and purchase a Gameboy. I played a lot of platformers featuring cartoon characters: Asterix, Garfield, Spirou & Fantasio (tough as nails, that one), Smurfs, Darkwing Duck. I even played Titus the Fox, and gawd, was it terrible. But I also played and . And then, eventually, I played two games that were quite different. They were and , and they changed how I thought of games.

Meanwhile, in my studies I was very taken in by one of my minor subjects, cuneiform studies, which I found very interesting. Not only because it was taught by the future Mr Tent Rooster. But Mr Tent Rooster helped. So when he got a job in the UK I followed a few years later. I had first learnt English in school, but to become more fluent I watched Teletubbies in the morning and Have I Got News For You in the evenings. It worked. I joined the Guardian in 2006 and eventually became an enthusiastic Chatterbox lurker.


The rest is history.