This week we get to meet another of the older chaps that hang around at TSA. R1MJAW was good enough to knuckle through horrendous Skype lag to give me this interview. Hopefully it’s not come out too disjointed!
[drop2]So, where do you old, who do you live, and how are you?
Ah, the old confusion method… Stuart Laidlaw, 39, from sunny (read: cold and grey) Cumbernauld, near Glasgow.
I see you’ve had extensive training in resisting interrogation… Would you like a cigarette? Now, tell me where you hid the plans to the Death Star!
A smoke would be nice…
I’m afraid my memory is not as good as it once was, I can’t remember where I left the plans.
Sorry, I got my galaxies mixed up. I meant to ask where your username came from?
I used to play Counter-Strike on PC a long time ago, I wanted something amusing that sounded vaguely sexually deviant… Rimjaw seemed to fit the bill nicely.
I also used it as my 360 gamertag, though that got sold shortly after getting my ps3.
Did the 360 take offence to you cheating on it, so to speak?
Nah, I just couldn’t be bothered playing it any more; luckily I knew someone who was looking to buy a cheap 360.
That’s fair enough. I feel that right now we should really travel back in time, and ask you how you first got into gaming?
Well, as I’m an old geezer I pretty much started at the beginning of everything. My parents had a Binatone black & white TV game.
Pong basically, although it had a tennis, football and squash game on it too. I would have been 4 or 5, I think.
Very old school! Where did you go from there?
From there, we got an Atari 2600 and I got hooked on Pitfall and Defender. After that it was a 48k ZX Spectrum, which I think is still up in the attic somewhere.
Anyway, after the spectrum, my computer/console history went something along these lines: Atari ST; NES; SNES; PS1; PS2; Gamecube; 360; Wii; PS3.
I still have a NES, Gamecube, Wii and obviously my PS3.
Do you like to get a bit of retro gaming on, occasionally, and dig these old consoles out of the attic to see if they still work?
Yeah, I love my retro gaming. I’ve not had the NES on for a while, but I play quite a few older games on the Virtual Console on Wii.
With the VC on Wii, and all the old Sega games being ported everywhere, retro gaming really has been picking up steam. What old games, if any, have you been enjoying lately?
Not much actually. There’s too many PS3 games to play. Now I think it’s about it though it’s time for another play through of Link to the Past and Super Metroid; two of my all time favourites.
Two outstanding games, I agree!
I’m glad, otherwise I’d have to hunt you down and mutilate you!
However, if you had to pick just one favourite game, and you do, what would it be?
Hmm, that’s tricky, but I’d probably go for Link to the Past. It’s such an awesome game!
Would I be right in assuming that the SNES is your all time favourite console?
Indeed you would! Quite closely followed by the PS2.
Right, now that we know your favourites, it’s time for me to ask something I always enjoy. What is the most embarrassing game you’ve played? Perhaps a guilty pleasure? With such a gaming history, I’m hoping for something truly rubbish!
I don’t know about guilty pleasure, but I do know the worst game I ever bought was a PS1 game called Criticom. It was shockingly bad, so much so that I took it back after one day and bought something else, although I can’t remember what.
I suppose a guilty pleasure, although I don’t really see it as such, is Space Channel 5 Pt. 2, which I recently bought on PSN. I did have it on PS2, and I quite like rhythm action games, and quirky Japanese nonsense, like Mad Maestro and Mr Mosquito.
Ha! I love Space Channel 5! Especially the kind of creepy appearance of Michael Jackson.
Indeed, he is very creepy looking in it.
One of the crazier games I can think of, definitely.
MadJunkBoy
ahhh, finally i got a face to that voice that i have been hearing in the meets=)
but i imagined ur face to be a little rounder and a bigger beard… but maybe that is just me… :P
would be nice to meet u R1M.
and nice to know more about ur gaming history… it’s really interesting to know how it was back in the 1800’s ;) :P
R1MJAW
Cheeky. :p
yogdog
That is a legendary beard.
R1MJAW
Oh, you haven’t seen anything. I used to have a massive ginger beard … probably a good eight or ten inches long.
yogdog
Awesome! My friends currently call me Beardy McBeard due to the one I have at the moment, but it has nothing on that!
R1MJAW
I’ll see if I can find the photo I have of me kilted up with my massive beard (I was going to a mates wedding, hence the kilt).
Beards are underrated, I’ve not been clean shaven for over twenty years.
yogdog
Yep, agreed, I quite like my beard, I think I look better with than without one.
R1MJAW
Here’s a link to that picture …
http://www.mygtastuff.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/beard.jpg
It did get a bit longer than that, but I oddly don’t have any photos of it.
AG2297
Wow. Now that’s a beard. Have you ever considered becoming a wizard?
yogdog
That’s AWESOME!
Deathbrin
Holy shit i should remember not to cross you
theberzerka
Proper man-beard!
tonyyeb
Some serious bearding going on there!
hunterstryfe
Nice article. Glad to see someone else who played Spectrum ZX. I owned the version with the built-in tape drive. Spent hours playing Thundercats, Transformers, Jet-Set Willy and Dizzy (Treasure Island I think)
R1MJAW
The spectrum was amazing. The games that stick in my mind are Wheelie, Atic Atac, Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy, the Dizzy games, Everyone’s a Wally, Sabrewulf, Sweevo’s World … I could go on and on.
Roynaldo
Stopped reading once Final Fantasy was damned….
Another person on my list. Mwuahahaha!
yogdog
I happen to be on that list as well… :)
KeRaSh
Haha, I was shaking my fist, screaming “Damn you, heretic!” when I read that part. :P
Manorhowze
It’s the old man from Scene 24!!
Good to meet you Rim, even if you insist on violently abusing me every time im out for a sunday drive in my mini.
R1MJAW
Nice Holy Grail reference mate, can’t beat a bit of Monty Python.
I can’t help it, it’s just too funny.
wonkey-willy
ha finally a face to the name
one thing in common your’e a relic like me mate..
us oldies should stick together and campaign to bring back chuckie egg in hd.
R1MJAW
Chuckie Egg HD would rock.
Rocket_345
Nice to meet you mate. Had a few thrashings off you in MS:A before i had to get rid and a few in the SARPBC meets
R1MJAW
We miss you at the MSA meets mate, it’s a pity you had to get rid of it.
KeRaSh
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past simply IS the most epic Zelda game that has ever graced this Universe. :D
Death_In_Flamez
Great article :) Been genuinely looking forward to your MTR and very grateful to know more about you :D
R1MJAW
Glad you enjoyed it captain.
TSBonyman
Hi Stuart, nice to meet a fellow ‘mature’ gamer ;)
I believe we also had one of those binatone pong games, the one where you had to twist the knob to control the bat? .. it was black and white but so was our tv at the time! :)
R1MJAW
That’s the very one. Yeah, we also had a binatone b&w tv to play it on.