You've inspired me Mika.
It all started in the winter of 1995, or the summer in the northern Hemisphere. My family were going on a trip to America. I had been interested sick in cars, but rarely played games, because I was only in year 3 at the time.
And when my parents pulled out a Game Boy, one for me and one for my sister, I was in gaming nirvana, or so I thought.
The Game: Nigel Mansell's World Championship. The Trip: Sydney to LA, non stop, and back three weeks later, plus car and plane trips interstate.
I couldnt get off it, I was amazed. I played it for a long time, then it wore off eventually.
Then I recieved a laptop from school, compolsory from year 5. It was a Toshiba, with Pentium 100, 16 meg of ram, 700 meg hard drive, 11 inch screen. This was at the start of 1997, and it is when i bonded with computers. I remember playing the NFS 1, and GTA. I borrowed GP2 from a friend, and played it with like every aid on, so i could just hold down the accelerator. I thought I was a hoon.
I got a new laptop in 1999, P2 266, 32 Meg RAM, 4 Gig hard drive, 12 inch screen. I played NFS 2, lotsa other games. At the end of 2000, I convinced my parents to buy a desktop, because I wanted to become a real gamer.
I got GP3 for Chrissy that year, and played it to death, got involved here, after finally getting the Internet. I had had it at school, but I couldnt bypass firewalls. So I got dialup at home. My comp was OK, but I felt my gaming 'career' was going nowhere. So I got GPL, hated it, then loved it, then loved to hate it.
Then my computer blew up...............
That happened at the end of last year, so I got a beefy new system, which would run GP3 and GPL beautifuly.
Then I found F1 2001, and you know the rest...
I got involved in F1 at about 94, I remember Hill VS Schumacher '94 in Adelaide, then 95 when like no cars finished.
Then the circus came to Melbourne. I followed F1 just by race results, I would sometimes tape GPs, then watch them the following day, cause they are on late at night here in Oz.
GP3 made me love F1. I went to the GP last year, then watched all races live, followed closely. I have also gone this year, which was a hoot with all the high attrition rate, and Webber finishing 5th. There was so much atmosphere there, it was amazing.
I dont contribute to F1 discussion much, because the threads are so long and seem like debates, but I do follow F1 closely.
If you want my F1 opinions, talk to me personally because I could sh*t on to you for hours like LS, Alex, Ellis, Morbid, Vader etc, but I cant be stuffed here.
There.
Ozzy