Sports
Over the last couple of years, sport has become an increasingly big part of my life, probably to counter the stress of being a father of two.
I play football — or soccer, if you will — with a bunch of other tired fathers from the neighbourhood. While my own dad was an excellent footballer (on the cusp of becoming a pro in the 1970s) I only started playing a couple of years ago. By now my mad skills include passing safely across short distances and scoring a goal once in a while.
Other sports I do are snowboarding, the occasional game of squash, and I have recently started to play field hockey, learned windsurfing and joined a diving club.
Computers
I developed a fascination with computers when I saw the games Zaxxon and Ghostbusters on a Commodore C64 at an older friend’s house. A year later my dad brought home my first own computer, bought on a whim at German supermarket chain Aldi: a Commodore C16. I used it to teach myself basic BASIC, to play games, of course, and — would you believe it? — to draw on it with a joystick.
Since then I love using computers creatively and I love playing video games. I pursued both of these passions with my second computer, this time bought from my own money. It was a Commodore Amiga 500. With this machine I was finally able to explore the world of computer generated 3D graphics. First with DBW Render which used scene descriptions in text files, then with GUI based Reflections, and finally with Imagine!.
Video Games
Playing computer and video games is my most enduring hobby next to photography. Until 1995 I played on the computers mentioned above and on PCs. Then I bought my first console, a Sony PlayStation, and have played mostly on consoles ever since. After the PlayStation came a Nintendo GameCube, a PlayStation 3, a Wii U and as the latest addition an Xbox Series S. I also love playing on handheld consoles like my GameBoy Advance, PS Vita, and Nintendo 3DS. Casual mobile games do nothing for me.
Here are a couple of older games that created lasting memories:
- Tom (C-16)
- R-Type (Amiga)
- Battlehawks 1942 (Amiga)
- Doom (PC)
- Ultima Underworld 2 (PC)
- LHX Attack Chopper (PC)
- Day of the Tentacle (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PS1)
- V-Rally 2 (PS1)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)
- Advance Wars (GBA)
- Metroid Prime (GameCube)
- Eternal Darkness (GameCube)
- Resident Evil 4 (GameCube)
- Portal 2 (PS3)
- Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
- Mass Effect 3 (PS3)
- Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
My face
This is what I look like when I have to go on holiday:
