Meet the Reader: R1MJAW

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!

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.