Ah, the Playstation. Such a wonderful device for pleasure and time wasting, a bit like the iPhone!

First gaming experience was probably Donkey Kong LCD game in school, around 1986. Then I persuaded my parents to get a Commodore C64. Games played were: Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner, Tallaega, Raid over Moscow, Acrojet, Beach Head, Aquaplane, Frogger. Did we have any educational games for the C64 – No! Games came on magnetic compact cassettes and took up to 10 minutes to load, quite often with an error. You needed patience in those days to be a serious gamer.

I bought a Sega MegaDrive in my second year at university, around 1993. That might have been a mistake where my studies are concerned! We spent most time playing Madden ’92. This was my staple gaming device until I got a PlayStation, around 1998, much to my mother’s concern – apparently irons and washing equipment are what you should buy if you are moving into a house.

I remember hearing that Sony were going to make a console. It was about 1995, and I’d just been playing on the Sega Saturn (hired for the weekend from Blockbusters). My how I laughed at the thought of Sony creating a console with their experience of zero console by that time. Looking back now I think I was right to laugh but wrong to doubt Sony!

The main game played on the PS was Gran Turismo. Its graphics and playability were excellent. I played so much that I decided to make it harder by changing gear manually! Once you know the tracks, it’s best to control as much of the car as you can. My main memory is drifting a gold NSX around the High Speed Ring.

The PS2 was brilliant. I liked all the GT games and eventually got a network connection add-on and played Navy Seals on-line. The main problem was that the type of person who has the time to get good at this sort of on-line play is one who is 20 years younger than me so I didn’t play on-line often. I did get headphones and microphone with the game and found the whole experience a bit disturbing.

Timeline for decent entertainment setup:

• Aug 2006 – by 40″ HD ready Sony TV
• Nov 2006 subscribe to Sky+HD
• Aug 2007 bought PS3 60Gb bundle from airport to avoid tax
• Jan 2008 bought Sony STR-DG-910 for 7.1 sound
• Nov 2010 Finally got GT5
• Feb 2013 3D 47″ LG TV with 7.2 Amp

I waited years for Gran Turismo 5! I pre- ordered it in Sept 2007. It took until Nov 2010 for the dream to be realised.

PlayStation 4

I now have a PS4 [Dec 2013]. I have the camera installed and I got the following games as something to start the collection:

Madden 25, Angry Birds Star Wars

It might seem ridiculous that I have a $1 game for the PS4 but my intention is to use this to teach my youngsters how to control games and use the d-pad.