1980s

Playing games and making music via computers.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

While in high school in the early 1980s, I discovered the more advanced version of Dungeons & Dragons which I immediately upgraded to, purchasing all the necessary books that made it up (ie Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual), as well as a variety of the adventure modules. I can still remember the epic experiences my friends and I had playing the Against the Giants module in particular. At the same time, I started world building at an enormous scope, building entire worlds of my own with continents, flora, fauna, nations, politics, and more. I also loved creating new characters in my spare time, building entire back stories for them.

Sturgeon Composite High School

High school was both an enjoyable and frustrating time for myself. While most of my time I hung out with my friends, supporting each other from the peer pressure going on, I think there was a defining moment with them whereby I experienced my first “level up” within life. I remember at the time, always feeling like I was always there for them and what they were interested in, but most of them were not there for me and interested in what I was doing. Eventually I gained the courage and confidence to just go my own way alone which caused some of them to come seek me out and discover what I was doing, thus creating a more amicable relationship with each other afterwards.

In terms of classes, I don’t think there was any one subject I was interested in at the time, other than computers, which eventually got its own class due to its rising emergence in society. From what I remember, I believed we used Apple II computers which I learned more about coding and programming from.

University of Alberta

When I graduated from high school in late 1983, I was actually looking forward to learning more about computer programming. Talking with my oldest brother though, he recommended that I take computer engineering instead, as it was a bourgeoning field at the time. Trusting his judgement, I dived into it…and hit with a hard thud.

The problem I quickly experienced was that in the first year of engineering everyone takes the exact same foundational courses which meant I wasn’t taking anything related to computers whatsoever. Thus my grade point average fell off a cliff and before the end of the term, I just decided to quit, as it was apparent that this wasn’t the path I wanted to be on.

While it was a tough experience, it was also a good learning experience in life in that it taught me that everything will not always work out the way you expect it will and I also needed to take a more active role in choosing my own path in life.

Computer Career Institute

Later I decided to attend a computer career college and quickly found that my aptitude for computer programming was impressive, as I had a 93% average in my first year. Looking at my second year though, which involved learning systems analyst skills, I quickly realized again that I had made a decision on education that I really hadn’t fully thought out in advance. Not wanting to repeat my experiences in university, I didn’t pay for the second year of the course and dropped out.

Fortunately for me though, it was a good thing that I had did. Within a few months after I left, the college went bankrupt and closed it doors. Even though this experience didn’t fully work out as well, it made me realize I could trust my own intuition in making life decisions. Even more so, it proved that I obviously had the computing skills I needed, even though I didn’t have the degree to prove it.

Atari 520ST Personal Computer

My first big computer upgrade was in buying an Atari 520 ST in the mid 1980s.

MicroProse Silent Service

My first submarine simulator was a computer game called Silent Service. While MicroProse had a lot of great games at this time, Silent Service was an innovative game on another level, as it showed me just how amazing and immersive computer games could actually be. It did this by having real-time combat but by also using an accelerated time frame and larger Pacific Ocean map when patrolling and hunting for ships.

The level of game (not graphic) detail was so incredible though that you could even traverse your sub through the shallow lagoon of a nearby island to evade detection and capture by enemy destroyers. My older brother Dean, whose family I was living with at the time, was so addicted to the tactical and strategic aspects of the game that he would sometimes play it all through the night, as the game as a whole could take many hours to complete a full tour of duty.

Roland D-50 Synth & TR-707 Drum Machine

Feeling like my life wasn’t taking the direction I wanted it to go with computers, I became more and more fascinated with music, even wanting to learn how to compose my own. My mother, seeing this love of music in me just as there was a love of music in her, decided to buy me a synthesizer and drum machine, which probably ended up costing a couple of thousand dollars at the time.

Thanking her immensely for this amazing gift, I hooked up these devices to my existing Atari 520ST computer using MIDI software and dove into making music with a passion. Then later, when I moved in with my cousin and he learned how to play the guitar himself, we enjoyed jamming and experimenting with making music together. By now, I was realizing that making music, not just listening to it, could open up an even deeper expression of myself than I had ever felt before.

Vancouver, British Columbia

In April 1988, I moved from Alberta to British Columbia, joining some of my family members, like my sister and brother, who had already moved there and were living in a house together. It was an amazing change to experience, as not only was the weather incredible for soaking up the sun on the beach when I arrived (i.e. 26 degrees celsius in April!) but living with my sister and brother once again was a really cool bonding experience, almost like we had created our own little community together.