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Welcome , dear listener , to whatever

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this is currently untitled and

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, going by the codename , you never get those

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minutes back . I am here today to

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hang my head in shame and admit to being a

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veteran of one of the most pointless

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, futile and deeply embarrassing

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wars ever waged the

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console wars , or rather

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the my gaming machine is better than yours

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. Wars , as , lets face it , these battles

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were being waged too long before the birth of

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the console . For myself , I

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unknowingly enlisted when I was aged

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around 10 or 11 , I had just become the

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proud owner of a Spectrum Plus . Yep

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, the dream machine with the plastic keys

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were , once they were rubber Proper , cut in

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edge . David Thompson is not taking

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this beast down . Meanwhile , my

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best friend had acquired an Amstrad

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the Fool . Little

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did we know , but we were now fresh faced rookie

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troops in the battle for video game supremacy

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. Us speckey owners were , of course

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, the good guys in the conflict the hard sole

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walls and loose guy walkers facing

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off against the evil , darth Vader's Jabba

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the Huts and Alan Sugars . Rather

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than scrapping it out across the lush green

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landscape of the distant planet of Endor

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, which was totally made believe anyway

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, we were more inclined to engage in arguing in bedrooms

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and playgrounds up and down the country . It

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was pre-internet , so we went toe to toe

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like the true adolescent warriors . We were

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Now . My best mate lets

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call him Paul , because that was his name and

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myself were no strangers to a good old

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argument . It was what best buds did . Our

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topics were nicely wide ranging too . Loverpoolview

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man United was occasionally the feat , and

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I'll never , ever forget the subuteal

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riots of 85 where 7 players

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required immediate superglue attention . The

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floodlights went over and our mums got

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mightily upset . But even

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all that carnage paled into a significance

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, and side by side with the absolute aggression

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we'd reach when defending our gaming

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machine of choice , we felt

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time and time again Wood brothers

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since nursery , separated by who

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had the best version of Rambo , the video

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game , and it turns out neither

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of us did . It was , and still is

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, quite remarkable the amount of venom one

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can spit when defending a piece of plastic

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that has been elevated to Godlike status in

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its own eyes . I was guilty

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of it during my Spectrum days , and it continued

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into what became the console wars proper Mega

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Drive vs Super Nintendo , saturn

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vs PlayStation , and on and on . It

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went . Pity the poor guy who

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had the Atari Jaguar , a machine that

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managed to enter the fray virtually unarmed

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. Yet that same poor owner would have still

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tried their utmost to convince anyone who

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would listen that it was the pinnacle of gaming

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, probably until they believed it themselves

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. It was just what we did . This unwavering

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backing of one console above all others

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is something that still goes on today . I

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myself have finally moved away from

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it . I now embrace every gaming platform

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as an opportunity for further adventures in

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Pixeland . But I do sometimes

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wonder why I was so anti . Every other

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console by either I owned . After

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some thought and not peer

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reviewed research , I believe

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it boils down to fear . What a Spectrum

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and I guess a bit 20 before it that

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was my first home machine delivered was

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something that excited me . Video games

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moved from the traditional arcade into the

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cosy living room . This was a

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new dawn . As a kid , this was

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Christmas . Every day In the early

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days , the fights between friends regarding Spectrum

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and Commodore and Amstrad and even

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Dragon were

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no different from the arguments over football teams

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and superheroes . We all had

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our favourites and they were best , no matter

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what logical arguments came our way

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. But as I grew older , my viewpoint

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shifted and it was shaped by the untimely

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demise of various machines . I

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remember watching in awe . One distant morning

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at breakfast TV , the presenters were getting

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to grips with a golf game on a new machine

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called the 3DO . It

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looked incredible . That was the

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game . The machine looked a bit rubbish but

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I immediately wanted one . This had to

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be the future . And then 3DO

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died to death Even its adopters

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, lost in a stormy sea of terrible games

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with no paddles and no landing

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sites . Next , on much loved

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and always missed evening TV show Games

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Master Dominic Diamond unveiled

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the Aliens vs Predator game for Atari

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Jaguar . Yep , that Atari

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Jaguar machine . Again , it looked incredible

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and true to form . I wanted one . I

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was a kid . Then the Jaguar 2

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died to death , this time crushed

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under the weight of Sega , sony and its

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own incredibly poor games catalogue

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. I luckily avoided both machines

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, but given the chance , aka the funds

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, I would have snapped them up in a heartbeat

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, opening myself up later that a heartbreak

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of my console becoming redundant for the company

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and the cord being cut , leaving the Jaguar

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, the 3DO and all those who had invested

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heavily feeling a little bit ripped off . Then

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it finally happened to me . I invested

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in the Sega Dreamcast a great machine

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, fantastic games and a dazzlingly

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bright future , until a mere

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3 months after I picked up the machine , sega

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rang time on the console , declaring there would

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be no new games coming out for it . I

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was gutted , but it hammered home

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for the first time the reason Paul

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and myself would happily go to war for their console

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with choice as deep down we

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were terrified that it would flop and

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we'd be left on the gaming side lines with a machine

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that had lost its mojo , its audience and

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its gaming future . I fought my case

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for the Xbox against PlayStation owners long

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and fierce , purely because the

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thought of Microsoft pulling the plug early made

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my blood run cold . It now felt like

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a genuine possibility . I'd been there

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with the much misdreamcast and it was not

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a place I wanted to return . When video

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games play a big role in your life or

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when they have been a big part of your past

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, it's easy to worry about losing it . I

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think you understand that in myself now . To take

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my video games away as a kid would have hurt . To

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have the machine fail like the 3DO or

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the Jaguar or the Dreamcast For the

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players who invested so much time and love

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into the platform is a huge blow

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to take . And so , on the back of that

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fear , we march into the battlegrounds of the

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console wars without realising we're

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actually all on the same side , fighting

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for the same goal the side of video games

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themselves and their continued placing homes

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across the globe , because without them the

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world would be a much better place and

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we'd all have to watch Coronation Street . Oh and

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Pa . If you ever hear , this Rambo

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on the spectrum was infinitely better

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than it was on the Amstrad , even

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though it wasn't very good .