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 FarmerDave was indeed born on a farm just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1960, long before the era of commercially available videogames. The first videogames he played were the arcade games like Asteroids, Assault, Battlezone, and Space Invaders. After working on the farm, he would travel to a nearby mall where he would exchange $5 for a fistful of quarters and play the games until the arcade closed. When it closed, he would then drive to the local airport and play Tempest.
It was in FarmerDave’s early 20s that he was first truly exposed to
PCs. His mother worked for the municipality in which they lived, and
was given a computer to do work at home. It was the venerable IBM XT,
and was used to run accounting software. FarmerDave would help
maintain the computer, and when finished, play games with it.
Initially, many of the games available were edutainment titles, such as
Lemonade Stand, but PC gaming really opened up for FarmerDave with the
release of Zork. He spent nights playing quietly on the computer long
after everyone else had gone to bed.
After leaving the farm, FarmerDave went to college to earn a degree in
Agriculture. Sadly, upon completion, he found the only job he could get
was one selling fertilizer. So, he ventured back to school for
Electrical Engineering and then for Mechanical Engineering (Yes, he has
three degrees.) It was then that FarmerDave got a part-time job at a
used computer store – a decision that would alter his path in life.
This was an opportunity to not only began a career in computers, but
more importantly, fully immerse himself into the world of personal
computer gaming. This job gave FarmerDave a chance to sample every
conceivable platform available, including the Atari 800, Tandy,
Macintosh, and even Kaypro based CPM machines. He spent many hours
playing games like, Zork (of course), The Secret of Monkey Island, and
Star Fighter on systems such as the Commodore 64, the Atari 520 ST, and
the Apple II. FarmerDave was hooked.
FarmerDave currently works as an I.T. consultant, and still enjoys
gaming. Although he still spends a lot of time with the classics, like
Rogue and Zork, he now finds time for newer games and platforms (like
Star Wars: Battlefront on his Xbox). He also likes to spend a Saturday
night with a beer and a full size arcade game at one of the local pubs.
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