Hey! I am John.
Thank you for stopping by and read more about, well, me!
I am not a teenager anymore but I am still young at heart and loved games all my life. This website will be dedicated to only strategy games, a small part of the gaming genre I enjoy, and those that I perceive to be the best of all time.
Any game I spent time on must be fun to play or else, what is the point? You can have the best graphics in the world, but if it does not offer a satisfying, fun and smooth game-play experience , it just isn’t worth the time.
Therefore I am not one of those that will say: ‘Naughts and Crosses (as example) is so outdated and the graphics is so bad. I will just not play it.’ Then you go camping, no power, no signal but you have plenty of dirt and sticks. You draw the Hash-sign on the ground and away you go. It is still fun – no matter the time period.
What Is My Story
I was born on 16 May 1975 in Paarl, South Africa. My childhood years was the dawn of arcade games in South Africa, anyway. I do not know about the other countries, but I guess it started earlier for them.
The first game I laid eyes on was on an arcade machine, it had Asteroids on. It looked far out and I wanted to try it badly. So I did. Oh, boy! It was so much fun that I spent all my money on it.
More and more exiting games came out: Green Beret, Legendary Wings, Exiting Hour, 1942, Outrun, Double Dragon, Mortal Kombat. Street Fighter, etc. I skipped sport practice to secretly go to the nearest place that had an arcade machine. It was about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) from our house but I did not care.
Needless to say I got many hidings for blowing my allowance on arcade games and caught lying as to my whereabouts. Not to mention being caught in the act a few times.
My parents really thought it was a waste of money (and perhaps it is) at a time they did not have much. So for me to waste money which could have gone to food instead, was difficult for them to witness. My father did eventually buy me a Commodore 64 with the condition that I stop spending all my money on the arcade machines.
It helped a bit – till a new arcade game came out! It was not considered of me, but I really got an adrenaline rush, going down to the shop and play arcade games with my friends. Perhaps the excitement was poured on a little by the forbidden aspect of it all.
I never grew out of games and when I finally landed my first computer, my collection of games started. I bought games and gaming magazines with the latest game patches, demo’s and more on. Not to mention tweaking tools for your computer. I simply loved it and mostly spent all my money on games and rent when I first started working as a computer technician.
I have calmed down a bit, but I still have a decent collection of games and always make sure that I have two decent computers connected up, ready for some good old LAN (Local Area Network) play. LAN is not playing over VPN’s like Hamanchi – it is still WAN (Wide Area Network), going over the Internet. Local Area Network game-play was the best invention ever and the best fun.
I remember going to LAN parties where we stayed up playing games for 72 hours straight! Crazy fun. It is more than just a playmate on the other side of the world: Your friend sits right next to you – sharing jokes, soda, sweets and strategies.
My first proper LAN game was Duke Nukem 3D. Hooking up two computers with a serial cable that I made myself. It only used 3 wires on a side and (if memory serves) you simply swapped wires on pin 7 and 2 (crossover cable) and presto. These days you can connect with a straight cable as the switching is done automatically. In the CISCO exams it is still important to use the proper cable to the proper device and auto switching is never assumed.
Sorry. I am getting side tracked there for a moment. Before long I will talking about computer components and creating your own games and apps. So let me stop there and get to the point:
So I love games, you get it. But:
What Is The Aim Of This Website?
To share and introduce you to epic strategy games I enjoyed and had good fun playing since the dawn of games in my life. Perhaps you can find the same joy and discover some titles you were not aware of.
I love challenging my friends and family to a game of skill but there is a line I draw with competitiveness: Partaking in competitions and practicing as a clan is when it becomes a chore for me and where the fun ends.
My hope for you is that you find the same fun I did in these games. Remember the point is to have fun first and foremost. This creates memories.
You are welcome to go to my contact page and drop me a message or a question.
Your friend,
John