Background on Jonnathon:

  My interest in computers began back when I was 11 years old. My mum took me and my two brothers to see a very good friend of hers. Her friend's son had a small home computer for his birthday a few months before. He showed it to me and I was hooked. That computer was a Sinclair ZX81, the first ever mass production home computer (closely followed by the Dragon 32 which is often wrongly thought of as the first!) After that first play with a computer I kept pestering my mum to get me one. Then about a year or so after that 'first contact' I finally got one, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K.

  After a few years with the ZX Spectrum 48K it broke down and I was left without a computer. I started getting withdraw symptoms (only kidding!) and at the same time the newest Sinclair computer came out, the ZX Spectrum 128K. I started hinting to my mum that that was the machine I wanted. As the computer I had was taking a long time in the repair shop she got me the 128K model with a thermal printer. Shortly afterwards my first computer came back and so I had two. Yippee!!!

  After leaving school at 16 I started a 2 year Youth Training Scheme (YTS) in business computing and basic electronics. This course included a bit of programming. I decided I wanted a better computer than the Spectrums I had so I chose to save up for an Atari STFM which at the time was the biggest selling 16-bit computer. It took just about a year to save up for the computer and I was glad when I finally got it. After about 4-5 years with the Atari STFM I changed over to the Atari STE with enhanced colour palette and sound system. I also bought a friend's broken Atari STFM and fixed it myself!

  Because I had the PC, a friend of the family who is a programmer asked me to do a few dialogs for a Windows 3.1 project he was working on. I agreed to do them for him. I did them so well and so fast that he asked me if I didn't mind doing a bit of the program code for him. I agreed again and so began my learning programming for Windows. I did so well that he employed me full time and I have been there ever since!

  The PC has been upgraded many times (even whilst I was still paying for it!!) The first upgrade was the sound card. I changed from the Sound Blaster 16 that came with the machine to a Gravis Ultrasound Max. Next came some more memory and then a processor change from the 486SX2-50 that it was to a 486DX4-100.I also changed the 2x speed CD-ROM to an 8x speed. Soon after that I grew frustrated that many games where increasingly made for the Pentium CPU so my next upgrade was a big one. I had to buy a new video card, motherboard and CPU. I had to get a case and keyboard too as the 486 was a PS/2 type of machine. I also boosted the memory again. Also out went the Gravis sound card and in went a Sound Blaster AWE 32 P'n'P. That new CPU was the P160. Soon after I did that major upgrade I increased the size of my monitor to 15", bought the Righteous 3D accelerator graphics card and added another CD-ROM drive, 12x speed. Soon after that again the monitor I used at work blew up, literally!! So my boss had to buy a new one. I suggested to him as a joke that he could order a 17" model for me at home and I bring in the 15" for work. He agreed much to my surprise!!
  Time went on and I found that games were supporting MMX so I decided I wanted to upgrade again to MMX. But my motherboard was bought just before the MMX 'explosion' and was incompatible. So as well as the MMX CPU I had to get a new motherboard. So, in went a P200MMX and also a new Matrox Millennium II graphics card. Now, I had two motherboards, a PS/2 case, a 14" monitor and a PS/2 keyboard sitting around doing nothing! I sold the 486 as an upgrade for someone. I.E. Their CD-ROM, Hard drive and floppy drive where put into my PS/2 486 and their 386 & case now sits in the office. I decided that I would do something with the rest of the parts I had so I bought a case, some memory, a floppy drive, hard drive, keyboard and mouse then using the P160 and my older graphics card (replaced by the Matrox card) plus the Gravis sound card and one of the two CD-ROM drives from the main machine I built a second computer. The 14" monitor could not handle this machine so I did another swap with my boss. I swapped it for his 17" monitor that was now not being used!! I am now waiting to replace the Gravis card again with a Sound Blaster 16 P'n'P as the Gravis card is not working 100% any longer. I am also waiting for two network cards to turn my two computers into a small network.

  Besides the PC's I have been making a collection of game consoles! I bought a Sony Playstation a couple of years ago. Then about a year after I bought another one! Two reasons for that, to try and stop the kids arguing over the machine and also to enable me and my mates to play two player Ridge Racer Revolution & Doom!! Well, the kids still argued over the machines. Instead of arguing which game each wanted to play on one machine they argue over one game!!! You just can't win with kids. But I try. About 4-5 months ago I bought a Nintendo 64 mainly for me to play things like Golden Eye and Shadows Of The Empire but the kids now argue over that machine!! My most recent acquisition is a special version of the Playstation called the Net Yaroze. I sold one of my other Playstations as I did not really need 3!! The Net Yaroze Playstation is for the hobbyist games programmer to create games for a Playstation. It is a cut down version of the full developer Playstation that software houses use to make commercial games on the Playstation. Unfortunately, the games made on the Net Yaroze can only be played by other Net Yaroze users. Except when the odd Net Yaroze game is good enough to be show cased on the official Playstation magazine cover CD!! That is how I learned of the Net Yaroze! I started getting the official magazine about a month before I got the Net Yaroze and on of the games featured on the CD was a simple game by a Net Yaroze member along with an advert on the CD about the Net Yaroze. So I started proceedings to get more details on the product. I decided to wait a month or so until I had the money for it (it's about 4 times the price of a normal Playstation!) I finally purchased it in February '98 after I was tempted by Sony with a special offer (£200 off the usual price!!) and I am now in the process of learning how to program it. If you want to take a look at the online information about the Net Yaroze in Europe then I have included a link in my Favourite Links page.

  There have been more upgrades since I last updated this page but I think I am starting to bore you on my computer upgrades. So, as of now I will no longer update this page to try and keep up with my PC!