Call me Erik. I'm from Germany in Europe. I'm the administrator of the site Spacecraft Portal. I'm lucky that my work is also my hobby! (grin) Well, just some info about me. I remember that my first step on getting in touch with computers was done with the old Atari CX2600 console. As typical for my generation it was Asteroids and Space Invaders which I'd played. Well, the console wasn't just a computer like the ones used today. But it brought me to the idea of creating games and useful programs for different usage.
The next step was the Commodore C64 computer. I'm still smiling about the label "personal computer" which it has because it wasn't a PC but a nice computer with graphic and sound onboard. With the C64 I realized many of my ideas. At that time we had a big run of young people living in Germany for cheap computers (well, in the United States of America this was years before). It's unforgetable.
Then the next step was the Commodore C128. But personally I was disappointed with the performance of the C128. It really wasn't better than the older C64. Frankly I wanted more CPU power and memory for running simulations - so I started with the Amiga 500, and later the Amiga 2000. Well, because of it's open system I'd loved the A2000 - it was very flexible for its days. I used the A2000 for many years (just like the C64 before).
Caused by my education and experience I got my own first PC at the early nineties. A PC wasn't so much expensive just like one decade before. Well, the PC is still my workplace of today.
My most interest belongs to simulators, space and adventure games. Simulators have the highest priority. So I like to simulate with a PC planes, spacecrafts, ships, subs, cars and trucks. Well, also I'd played games like Elite, Starflight 1 and 2, Star Trek games, Starfleet Academy, and Star Wars games in the past, of course. I also like adventures because of solving problems, riddles and the main task with a good background story. One of the funniest adventures I'd played was Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbender (eighties!). I'll never forget it! The latest adventure I'd played was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 which have a high attitude of solving problems and having different solutions. Well, I also can recommend some interested people the new adventure Secret Files: Tunguska which bring some mostly forgotten things from the past (1908!) back to the present time... ;)
The most liked games I ever played are: VGA Planets 3.0, WinPlan 3.5 and Planets 4.0. I'm supporting these games because of hosting VGAP games as a private fan site. BTW thanks to Mr. Tim Wisseman who brought us this game since 1991 (as Version 1.0 and 2.0). I'm playing this game since the year 1993 and it is still funny today. In those early days I'd supported VGAP via an own bbs. But this was a too long story to tell it here.
Since September 2000 (and a small time of evaluating software before) I'm offering VGAP games via a hosting program named Planetsmaster's Host Control Center (or better known in the shortcut PHCc). The program has still some few bugs but it runs very reliable. I'm not sure if the creator Bernd Ruf would support it. I hope he will.
