Let’s explore some fun facts about me, or simply my story related to the computers!
I was born in Italy, Torino, back in 1983. I grew up with PCs around me, moving the first steps on a Commodore 64 (to play videogames, of course!). I clearly remember going to the shop to buy the magazine with videogames, once a month. They were not even on floppy disks, but on tapes!
When I was in elementary school I got my first PC, powered by an Intel 486DX (33 Mhz clock speed). Here I started playing with MS-DOS, but my main usage was still videogames (Wolfenstein 3D, Test Drive 2).
After a year or so, we upgraded the PC into a 486DX2 (66 Mhz), which seemed so fast! I could play more games like Test Drive III or Doom / Doom 2 with a better frame rate. At that time, beside MS-DOS, I was also using Microsoft Windows 3.1 (later updates to 3.11). The PC would just boot into MS-DOS and, to start Windows, it was enough to run the “win” command. I enjoyed my time with Paint and Minesweeper.
Pentium introduction
After some years, the first Pentium came into the market. We upgraded then the entire PC with a Pentium 133 (133 Mhz) CPU. This was a game changer. Also, Windows 95 was released. I clearly remember asking my father that I did not want to have the PC booting directly into Windows, but I still wanted the MS-DOS. Of course, he did not do it (was it even possible?). Anyway, after some weeks I got used to Windows and stopped using MS-DOS for regular tasks.
With the Pentium 133 I started exploring the BIOS and some overclocking, upgrading also the hardware by myself (new CD readers, new HDDs, RAM increase, LED lights!). It was many years ago, therefore I don’t remember all the details, but I enjoyed learning the hardware.
Fun fact: I do remember that once, while changing the HDD without disconnecting the power, I destroyed it and lost everything.
After some time, we improved the graphic experience by buying a 3dfx Voodoo 1. It was such a great improvement, especially when I was playing my favourite game at that time, Carmageddon.
In the meantime, following my passion for PC and technology, I started studying computer science, where I moved my first steps into programming (Assembly, C++).
Switching to AMD
I don’t remember the PC I had after the Pentium 133, it probably was a Pentium II 400, but I am not sure. I do remember that after a while I finally made a big upgrade, switching for the first time to AMD, with an Athlon 2600. A new chapter of my gaming life started then with Unreal Tournament (if you played, you must know the name of the map on the screenshot below).
I played many hours online and I was even memeber of a team (Lone Wolves). It was during that time that we experienced a big improvement in the internet speed, at least in Italy (I switched from the 56K modem to a DSL, probably “only” 256Kbps).
Another videogame I played a lot was Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed. I spent hours driving the Porsche cars, tuning them with some tool (change rims, colors, etc.).
The list of videogames I playes is quite long, but the ones I remember the most are:
- Wolfenstein 3D
- Doom I and II
- Test Drive I, II, 3D
- Rally Trophy
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Serious Sam
- Gran Prix Legend
- Quake
- Hexen
- Netkar
Websites development
I developed in parallel a passion to create websites. I created my first website in 1999 (unfortunately, I don’t have it anymore), using Frontpage. Improving slowly, I finally started developing websites using a dynamic language, ASP, connected to a MYSQL database.
After some years, I succesfully switched to PHP and kept my passion to develop websites (for me and some friends). I tried few times to make it my main profession, but I was already doing 2 jobs in parallel and it was difficult to start, especially considering I already lived by myself and I could not afford to invest too much money. Probably I got lazy as now my webise was developed using WordPress!
In general I still like writing code, it is one of my hobbies. I don’t develop websites anymore, but I do play with some Python and Arduino, with some interest in Rust.