Ok time to put you 'kids' to shame.. you feel old huh Swiss?
Well let's see...
The first movie I ever saw of the Star Wars saga was The Empire Strikes Back. It was with my family, and we went and saw it at a Drive In (anyone remember those?) in our town. It was in 1980 and I had not long turned 7. The reason that I hadn't seen A New Hope by then was that when my mum and dad and two older sisters saw it, they were on holidays in Canberra and me and my twin brother were left with an aunt at the time as we were too young, only about 4 or 5 in 1977.
I can also remember seeing Gremlins and The Last StarFighter at that same Drive In.
While in High School, we got our first computer, a commodore 64, so that was around 1984, about 25 years ago. The first game we had with it was a cartridge game, Avengers, basically a similar game to Space Invaders. I spent many hours playing that one. We also had a tape drive initially for the loading of games and programs, so at times you would get the fun of putting a tape in, typing the command to load the game, pressing play on the tape drive and it playing through the whole tape without the game properly loading, which meant having to rewind the tape and having to start over. :mad2: When it worked properly, it would still take around 5 minutes to load a game. Eventually, our dad upgraded to a floppy disk drive, and things became a whole lot quicker, as well as the number of games that we had skyrocketed. And we got to play alot of the classics - International Karate, Pirates, The Last Ninja, Barbarian, After Burner, Cauldron and Cauldron 2, Defender of the Crown, Ghosts n' Goblins - and usually it didn't cost a cent. You would just go into school, take some blank floppy discs with you to give to a mate who would take them home and copy some games for you. Oh, and to get extra mileage out of your blank discs, you just double sided them, allowing you to use both sides of the disc. And the super technical way that you double sided a floppy disc? You took a hole punch, lined it up on the opposite side to where there was a hole on one side of the disc (which allowed you to write onto the floppy disc), and punched out a semi circle into the side of the disc. Viola, now you can write to both sides of the disc, double storage capacity of the disc.
I also went through my metal phase in high school (I think alot of us do), with my introduction being Aces High by Iron Maiden. This prompted me to buy Life After Death, and then I got Maiden's latest album that had only just come out at the time.. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and the year was 1988 when I was 15. Oh, as well, I got it on tape. CD's had yet to appear and whilst we did have a record player, I mostly got my music on tape, with the occasional vinyl.
I finished high school, year 12 HSC, in 1990, so almost 20 years ago now. After working part time for a couple of years (I deferred my university offer for a year, Economics, and never took it up), I moved out of my parents place in the country when I was 20 to move down to the city and to move in with some high school friends and study music business management part time. I found out just how hard it is to get into the music business, and eventually had to face the reality of making a living, but had alot of fun during those years, alot of good memories. I can remember Nevermind coming out in 1991, 18 years ago now, and the grunge explosion that followed. I have to admit to having a couple of flannel shirts in my wardrobe from that time, and going out with mates to alternative clubs (not much different to the clubs nowadays, except alot less of a violence problem and the music was so much better). I remember playing Castle Wolfenstein on my mate's PC, by this time in the early 1990's it was a 486. We can still remember walking past a computer store in a shopping centre and seeing Doom for the first time - the reaction being 'what the hell is that??! that is so awesome!'. The era of the first person shooter had begun. Three of us lived in a house that was a bit of a dump, but where alot of good times were had. Alot of parties, alot of the Metallica box set Binge n' Purge being played ad nausem, alot of bong stains on the carpet and alot of knowing looks from the clerks at the local 7/11 store when we would come in late at night and scoop up armfuls of chips and chocolate (munchies anyone?), and proceed to the counter and try to act straight
The first gig that I ever went to was in 1991 and was Motorhead at festival hall. Me and my mates wanted to get right up the front, so we got there about half an hour before the doors open. By the time we got in, the only place right up the front was on the right, right in front of their speakers. I still haven't gotten some hearing back from that night..
During those years I saw alot of bands, from Maiden for the first time on their Fear of the Dark tour (it would be another 17 years or so before they would return to our shores), to Def Leppard on their Adrenalize tour, to Metallica on their Black album tour, to the cranberries, to Pearl Jam, to faith no more, to NIN, to Hole, the Offspring, the smashing pumpkins, to silverchair (when they were still just kids). I still go and see as much music now as I did then, but my tastes have probably broadened a bit since then (with metal, particularly the symphonic version, having made a comeback).
So you are feeling old Swiss? Welcome to my world.. :tongue: Though I do have to say that I'm only 36 (37 next month), and I really don't feel it at all. And surprisingly, I somehow manage not to look it at all either. The people I work with in a call centre wouldn't believe me when I said I was 36, I had to get out my licence and show them my date of birth (1973 was when I was born in case you wondered) to prove it. They had me pegged for only being around 28, and then they wanted to know what my secret was. I just put it down to not really dressing nor acting my age, I certainly don't feel my age.
Anyways, cheers Swiss, you brought back alot of fond memories for me, alot of good times that have happened over the years :thumb:
but not by much.
