The Official Welcome Thread

[Johnny]

Guess I should do this (albeit a little late).
I've lurked on the forum for a while and decided to start posting basically

Anyway I'm a 21 (for a couple of days yet) year old huge gaming fan (especially imports) from Belfast with a special soft spot for Sega games/consoles and I've been playing since the C64.
Also into anime and manga big-time (any other fans round these parts?)

You all seem like a decent lot so here's to more posting!

[kyo_244]

Guess I should do this (albeit a little late).
I've lurked on the forum for a while and decided to start posting basically

Anyway I'm a 21 (for a couple of days yet) year old huge gaming fan (especially imports) from Belfast with a special soft spot for Sega games/consoles and I've been playing since the C64.
Also into anime and manga big-time (any other fans round these parts?)

You all seem like a decent lot so here's to more posting!

Welcome aboard big J! Name's Jonathan. Btw I'm dead into my anime and manga too! When I'm not hooked to my megadrive that is.. 8)

[Decider-VT]

Just made my first post in the setups thread so I suppose now is as good a time as any to introduce myself after months of lurking.

I'm 23, living in London with my wife and have been gaming since I first touched my cousin's Atari 2600 years ago. I was a bit of a Nintendo kid through and through after moving on from the Spectrum but I crumbled in the face of the mighty Dreamcast. I enjoy RPGs and quirky, offbeat games as well as the usual suspects.

About to work my way through a backlog of games after setting up the new Samsung LCD that this forum managed to convince me I needed! I'm currently trying to tell myself that I don't need a 360 yet, though we'll see how that goes. I've had a few import games here and there over the years, though I'm finally looking at an NTSC PS2 for my setup.

Other than gaming my primary interests are music, reading and travel.

[AdamJW]

I'm new here but have been hanging in the background for a while now. I'm known as 'Windy' on a few other forums but thought I would be better with a more formal name and thought it would be a decent community to join with a few more like minded people. I hope I'm proved right.

I'm a big turn based strategy, TRPG and RPG fan. Thats 'fan' in the correct sense of the word, really. My favourite games are the Super Robot Taisen series of TRPGs and the obvious classic fantasy TRPGs and SRPGs such as Ogre Battle, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem and Disgaea and many others.

I suppose I do like all things related to Super Robot Taisen including the Mecha animes from which they are taken. I don't go as far as collecting the models or anything but have been known to dabble in some artwork and anime cels surrounding SRW and one or two other animes, but I think collecting mecha figurines might seem a bit funny for a 34 year old bloke, but stranger things have happened. Thats about it for now I suppose.

[Akira]

welcome aboard

[charlesr]

Excellent. Someone older than me. Welcome

I got ID'd in Waitrose trying to buy Stella last weekend. How I laughed.

[Anpanman]

Been lurking and using the excellent review pages for about a year so thought it best to sign up and join you lot!

Am just over 40 ? yes I know I?m probably about twice as old as everyone here but no grandad remarks please!

Been playing games since the arcades first got Space Invaders and joined the home ?set? with a C64, from then going on to Amiga, SNES, PlayStation, DC, GC and currently Xbox and PSP.

I?m fortunate (or not depends on your point of view) to be married to a Japanese which means that roughly every couple of years we MUST visit Japan, it?s a real pain spending five weeks or so there and living for free courtesy of the in-laws but someone has to do it I suppose

Looking forward to catching some of you on Live!

[Emir]

Been lurking and using the excellent review pages for about a year so thought it best to sign up and join you lot!

Am just over 40 ? yes I know I?m probably about twice as old as everyone here but no grandad remarks please!

Been playing games since the arcades first got Space Invaders and joined the home ?set? with a C64, from then going on to Amiga, SNES, PlayStation, DC, GC and currently Xbox and PSP.

I?m fortunate (or not depends on your point of view) to be married to a Japanese which means that roughly every couple of years we MUST visit Japan, it?s a real pain spending five weeks or so there and living for free courtesy of the in-laws but someone has to do it I suppose


Looking forward to catching some of you on Live!

Hello. And welcome, Granddad.

[Jurassic]

Hi everyone, been noseying around these forums for a while now so thought it was about time I became a member. I.m 21 and have also been playing games since C64. Managed to work my way up through pretty much every console since and I'm currently collecting far too many games for my recently repurchased dreamcast. I'm studying a Computer Arts degree which is great fun, until I actually have to do some work...

[Spooky]

Hello to all! I guess it's about time I made an official as opposed to a lurking appearance in here once and for all.

So, where to begin... Well, I'm 33, living in London with my wife and have been a gaming and gadget fiend for many, many years... well, since my parents bought me my first computer... an Acorn Electron. (Let me know when you've stopped laughing..., look at least I could play Elite... that's my argument about being cheated out of a BBC Micro... I blame the parents. Before then it was loads and loads of battery eating handheld/tabletop games systems like, Astro Wars and Scramble and Puc-Monster... yes, Puc-Monster). I've been through many a computer, (my main love being the Amiga), and many a console. One of my absolute console loves was my PC-Engine Turbo Duo, which I had converted so the card slot accepted both Japanese and US HuCards by 'ACE' that used to exist in Carnaby Street. My affair with this love of my life ended suddenly when I made the mistake, (which I still regret to this day...), of part exchanging it for a brand new imported Japanese PlayStation. Yes, I was in awe of my little grey box of Sony tricks, the leap from Amiga/SNES/Megadrive seemed absolutely incredible, but soon after completing Tekken and Ridge Racer for the umpteenth time found myself hankering after the joys of Y's, Gate Of Thunder and the one title I should never have parted with, my pristine copy of Dracula X... (Let me know when you've stopped making me feel like a fool...)
Don't get me wrong, I love the original PlayStation, and still have many a game in the cupboard waiting to be played, but trying to figure out a way of sharing my life between my wife, quality TV series, anime, movies and numerous PS1 RPGs with game lives of 50+ hours each is a bit of a nightmare... I'm sure some of you out there can relate to that... Or is it just me...? Or is it the wife? Bugger... did I just type that? Oops... (SLAP)

Anyway...

My next major love was the Dreamcast... oh, how I adored thee. Shenmue... Shenmue II... how I miss thee... ChuChu Rocket... Samba De Amigo...

Then the GameCube... a relationship full of joyful memories...

A relationship that ended after many years when something appeared in my home that never interested me, never grabbed me in any way and said, 'you need me, you really do', until a title called ICO appeared. I then begrudgingly fell in love with the system and became, again, an RPG fiend...

And then that system had to share my love with another system I had no interest in... until I saw 'Beyond Good and Evil' and 'Project Gotham Racing 2' running on it... and also because a friend of mine was leaving with his wife for Japan forever and let me have the whole kit and kaboodle with 10 games/live kit/3 controllers/dvd kit for ?150... (a deal like that I couldn't refuse... though it was the first PAL console to ever appear in my household).

And now, the PS2 has left... as has the Cube and the Dreamcast, though the Super Famicom and N64 still reside, and now share their love with the newest addition to the family, the XBOX 360...

Aside from the whole love of gaming, I'm a huge fan of Anime, (cute stuff to the real sinister stuff...), Movies, (US/Korean/Japanese of any genre pretty much), Music... (There's only one word to describe my collection : eclectic, so everything from Classical to Metal, from Hardcore Techno of the 80's and 90's to J-Pop, and from Soundtracks to Kylie...), Reading, (Stephen King, James Herbert, Matthew Reilly, Richard Morgan, J.M. Straczynski, H.G. Wells, H.P. Lovecraft...) and Writing...

I've also written a couple, er... or three, reviews for one site out there that is still up but no longer active, and still continue to write various bits and pieces to this day...

This is the first forum I have ever decided to join and thought I'd finally post something in here, even if I am a scaredy cat, posting in the 'welcome' thread. It seems like there's a really good mix of decent intelligent people in here.

So, now that I have bored you all to tears, if you really are that one twisted forum member who for some strange reason felt a sadistic need to read this post all the way to the end, (if you think this is bad, you should see my reviews!), or more likely the one who just jumped to the bottom of the post, I shall bid you farewell.

By the way, do I win a prize for posting the longest self-introduction post ever? ;o) (Trust me, this ain't nothin compared to the reviews I wrote... but people still read them though... lot of masochists out there I reckon... like you... yes, you... the one still reading this damn post... weirdo... tsk...)

[Jusatsushi]

Too much coffee or some poor man's cocaine would be my guess, but welcome all the same. Sheesh, you sure like to write!

Stick around... we're nice

[Spooky]

Too much coffee or some poor man's cocaine would be my guess, but welcome all the same. Sheesh, you sure like to write!

Stick around... we're nice

Hmmm... don't know about the coffee, (though M&S single use filter thingies are the business...) or cocaine... (not my scene, but Sherbert tubes... now er're talking... hold on... even that sounds dubious...)... possibly it's all due to bombarding my brain with J-Pop whilst scoffing on Korean Onion Rings and Korean Cheesey Poofs helped down by copious amounts of Calpis.... Hmmm... Calpis....

Thanks for the welcome!

[charlesr]

It seems like there's a really good mix of decent intelligent people in here.

Clearly delusional. You'll fit in nicely.

Welcome.

[Spooky]

Clearly delusional. You'll fit in nicely.

Welcome.

Excellent. When do I get my straight-jacket?!

Or a part in LOST?

Again, thanks for the welcome!

[Hanley]

Howdy, just thought I'd say hello. I'm Hanley, from the chav-infested city of Manchester. Hobbies of mine bar gaming include writing, football, alcohol (lots of it) and women; typical bloke eh?

Just thought I'd introduce myself.