Hi! My name is Derek aka El Diablo.¢I am 20 years old and my favourite game¢is 'The Great American Cross Country¢Road Race'. My ambition in life is to¢knock John E. off all the Road Race¢scoreboards.¢ Anyway I got my first Atari for Xmas¢in 1983, it was a 600XL with mega 16k¢(Still it was better than my ZX81 I¢suppose). It had no tape recorder and¢it was five months before I managed to¢scrape together the cash to buy one.¢(Although in this time I did learn to¢program in BASIC, which was one good¢thing). And when I finally did get a¢tape recorder I found it quite hard to¢get hold of software. (Except Channel 8¢adventures but I could never quite get¢into them).¢ A few years passed, software became¢available and so our story continues...¢ I finally got hold of an 800XL with an¢incredible 64k!!! And so I tossed my¢600XL into some dark, dusty corner to¢keep my ZX81 company and I became¢hooked!¢ My software library began to grow¢steadily and it was about this time¢that I met John E. or at least found¢out that he was a fellow Atarian, as I¢had known him for sometime. We soon¢began to swap games and tips and this¢continued for several years, until John¢somehow got hold of a 1050 disk drive¢and I began to fall behind...¢ I began to lose interest then and for¢a long time didn't use my Atari at all.¢But then I bought a 130XE and all my¢enthusiasm returned, then finally after¢long years of searching I finally got¢hold of a 1050 myself (I bought it off¢John E. actually) and I have never¢looked back since.¢ LONG LIVE THE ATARI! EL DIALBO.¢*¢ED'S NOTE: Eh! This is not the 'Mega-¢Magazine'! No but I'd just like to tell¢Derek that he is slightly wrong there¢as I knew him when he had his 600XL,¢I will always remember Derek raving¢over how great 'Forbidden Forest' was¢and me having a good chuckle over it.¢Also Derek supplied me with many of the¢early 'Channel 8' adventures which I¢would play for hours when I had a¢cassette-based system. Ah! Nostalgia is¢such a great thing.¢
