My first computer was the one I built in 1999-ish. I really wanted one so that I could play games and use that internet thing to download music from that Napster thing I’d heard so much about. I had a really (REALLY) cheap girlfriend — it was practically a psychosis — and she was so insistent that I shop around rather than just impulse buy with my shiny new credit card that she was willing to search for deals for me. I relented and started looking around, discovering that it would be cheaper and better to build my own.

This was actually the turning point that sent me into crazy computer-geeky-land. I started talking to techs at computer shops, asking them endless questions, and really getting interested in the entire process of what worked best with what, and all of the different configurations I could play with. It was awesome!

Bear in mind, I had played with friends computers before (Tandy 1000 baby), and had already tried my hand at building a game or six in Hypercard on the Mac Classic/Plus/II or whatever one my jr. high computer lab had. I even remember playing with an Apple IIe and playing Loadrunner and DigDug and doing commands in BASIC. And there was the ColecoVision, SNES, and Pong consoles from my wee days… but my first real computer? That was the one I built myself.