My life’s game starts in 1982. Something marked me back then, like everything that followed couldn’t have gone any other way. I’m maybe six. I walk into my cousin’s place. Next to a black-and-white TV sits a black box. I ask, “What’s that?” Pride in his voice: “ZX Spectrum. Wanna see?” I don’t know what a “Spectrum” is yet, and I have no idea my world is about to change. The TV fills with squares. They’re not random - they form shapes, shift colors, move. My cousin holds a black stick in his hand; when he moves it, the pixels on the screen respond. On a brown table there’s a box with a title I sound out: P-I-T-F-A-L-L. “Pitfall,” he says. That night I can’t sleep. One thought is stuck in my head: how does this work? Who makes this? The next years I’m bouncing between friends’ apartments: Atari 800XL - Moon Patrol, River Raid, Boulder Dash. Atari 65XE - Bruce Lee, Zorro, Pole Position. I learn the taste of rivalry, the sting of defeat, and the joy of victory...
