Chris's Interests - Formula One

Formula One, or F1, or Grand Prix, has long been my favourite sport. I have watched it ever since I can remember, although to my shame, I have still never made it to an actual race! I would also be lying if I said I could remember much about Grand Prix races I saw as a kid, but I do remember watching the races as often as I could, and keeping track of the World Championship by writing the results in my notebook or even saving them onto tape on my Commodore 64!. Still, that hasn't stopped me from loving the sport since a very early age, and F1 has always had some sort of influence on my life, from getting me into driving games as a kid, to hogging my Sunday afternoons as an adult! But as a child of the 1970's, one of my most enduring memories of Formula One is not the races the drivers, the cars,  the teams or even the circuits - but the voice behind it all, Murray Walker!

Gilles Villeneuve, 1981

As a kid, I had a small (1/43) model of Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari, and  1/18 scale models of Ayrton Senna's 'Camel' sponsored Lotus and Michele Alboreto's Ferrari, as well as a Tyrrell of some description as well. In later years, I bought a few model F1 cars, including Schumacher's Ferrari and Hakkinen's McLaren. Some of my most enduring memories are not of individual races, but of drivers and their various cars... the Prost/Senna partnership at McLaren, Hakkinen and Coulthard's partnership, also at McLaren, and more recently, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's partnership (if you can call it that!) at McLaren and now also Hamilton and Button at, erm, McLaren. Come to think of it, I reckon that probably makes me a McLaren fan!

Ayrton Senna, 1985

Of course, it is difficult to say that any particular driver is or was my favourite. Unlike football or some other sports, F1 allows you to support many different people to some extent or other at the same time, and for a variety of reasons... drivers shift teams, teams come and go out of form etc., and there are always the legends of the past who's legacy will never be forgotten. Indeed, the sport itself has changed, not to mention the technological advances that make the cars so very different to those of the past, even if they do still bear an external resemblance... but with that in mind, it is hard to think of a driver who had more of an impact on the sport than Ayrton Senna, who is regularly cited as the greatest driver of all time - even by Michael Schumacher. Of all the races that live long in the memory, Imola 1994 is undoubtedly the most infamous, claiming the lives of both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. Senna carried an Austrian flag on board his car as a mark of respect for Ratzenberger, only to be killed himself during the race. Senna was the last F1 driver to be killed, however, showing how much safer the sport has become, no doubt partly as a result of this tragic weekend in 1994.

Lewis Hamilton, World Champion of 2008

Of recent times, there is one stand-out moment for me, which was Lewis Hamilton's title win in 2008. The last race of the season was held in Brazil, and Hamilton, who has missed out the world title by a single point in 2007, needed to finish atleast 5th if Felipe Massa won the race. Massa did indeed win, and Hamilton had fallen behind to 6th with just a couple of laps left. Amazingly, it started to rain and the driver infront of Hamilton, Timo Glock, was slowing down dramatically as he didn't have the right tyres on. Hamilton stayed calm and passed Glock on the final turn of the final lap to move up into the 5th position he needed to deny Massa the title, and become World Champion for the first time. I felt very sorry for Massa, as he could have (and possibly should have) claimed the title for himself, and infront of his home fans too, which would have been an amazing spectacle. Indeed, Massa's family thought he had won the title, and celebrated wildly before a sombre looking Ferrari mechanic told them that infact Hamilton would be champion, by virtue of the last second pass on the final turn. Still, Hamilton deserved it too - not least because he came so close in 2007, but also because he had come back stronger in 2008 and had performed well all year.

Nowadays, I enjoy watching the races as often as I can, and hope sometime in the near future to make it to a race or two, either Silverstone here in the UK, Spa in Belgium, Suzuka in Japan, or perhaps even Melbourne, Australia... I'm delighted to say that Sam enjoys watching F1 already, too!

A history in computer gaming - The Machines Pt. 3

The Playstation 2

After the success of the Playstation, I naturally wanted to upgrade to the Playstation 2 when it came out, but I restrained myself until after I had finished my Ph.D studies and bought one with my first pay cheque from my first post-doctoral job in 2002. The PS2 was also a DVD player, and it saw alot of use. The highlight of the PS2 for me was Gran Turismo 3, and subsequently GT4, as well as the (in)famous Grand Theft Auto games 'Vice City' and 'San Andreas'. Between these games, not much else got much of a look in.

The Playstation 3

It would be another 5 years until the release of the next generation consoles, and the advent of the Playstation 3, which would be the first (and only) console or computer that I bought on the day of release. Sporting wireless internet connectivity, Blu-ray technology, and a 60 GB hard disk drive, the PS3 was intended to be far more than merely a gaming device, and so it has transpired. I probably spend atleast 50% of my PS3 time watching Blu-ray films, and a fair amount of time using the PS3 player as a web browser, image storage device and music player. The rest of the time, however, is dedicated to playing games. Currently, my favourite title for the PS3 has been WipEout HD - a futuristic racing game from Studio Liverpool (funnily enough, the same people that made Formula One - the first PS1 game I played). Other titles include Motorstorm, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Grand Theft Auto IV and Final Fantasy XIII - all of these games have amazing graphics and promise many hours of playability, both online and offline.

The Xbox 360

Winter 2009, and there were a number of excellent deals on rival consoles to the PS3, and so I ended up getting an Xbox 360 as my birthday present from my family. Facing stiff competition for my time from the PS3, it was never likely to be the centre of attention, but it did have one distinct advantage, and that was the game Forza Motorsport 3. Forza is a Gran Turismo clone from Microsoft, but it is an excellent game in its own right. Given that the game came bundled with the console, it seemed like too good an offer to refuse. The offer was so good infact, that my sister bought one (complete with FM3!) as well! And that brings us to the end of the trip through my gaming machine history... almost....

Ghosts and Goblins (1985)

Final Fantasy XIII (2010)

.... I can't remember exactly when my parents first bought a Commodore 64 and gave it to me for my Xmas/birthday, but it must have been around 1983 or 1984. It is scarcely believable how much home gaming machines have changed in that 25 years or so period, coming from basic block graphics and programs  of around 100 Kb that you would load on a tape deck in about 5 minutes, to the amazing photorealism of today's games, with tens of GBs of data per disc. But despite the tremendous gulf in technology, even those basic C64 games from the early-mid 1980's are still fun to play today, and there are C64 emulators available for the PC that allow you to do just that. In some ways, some of the giant, time-consuming behemoths of games that exist nowadays are too clever for their own good - demanding that you commit 30 hours of your time just to get anywhere with the story (like Final Fantasy 13, pictured on the left). Still, if this is the difference 25 years can make, I can't wait to see what the future holds for computer gaming.

Gaming - Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo by Polyphony Digital

Gran Turismo is a driving simulator and racing game for the Sony Playstation. The series began in 1997, and the fifth full iteration of the game (GT5) is due for release later in 2010. Here's a little bit about my experience with the game over the last 13 years!

Gran Turismo for the Sony Playstation

I bought both GT and GT2 for the Playstation, and while I considered them better than the competition, I didn't play them much. It was only with the release of GT3 that I became a true fan of the game. After I had completed my studies in 2002, I bought a Playstation 2 and Gran Turismo 3. I completed the game, and then the long wait for GT4 started! That game wouldn't arrive until 2005. GT4 changed the way I played the game, since although the PS2 could not be played over the internet, it was possible to connect PS2's together in a network (a LAN) and race with other people, rather than having to race against the computer all the time. 

A GT4 LAN (I'm at the end here!)

In 2006, I attended my first GT4 LAN party, organised by members of the Gran Turismo forum, GTPlanet, where I was a regular member. LANs normally involved either one or two banks of 6 Playstation 2s being manually connected together, each one with a steering wheel and occasionally complete with a full driving rig. Racing against real people instead of artificial intelligence requires considerably more discipline and respect for the opposition... take a computer opponent out and nothing happens. Wreck the race of the guy sitting next to you at a LAN, and you might find yourself in trouble!

Photorealistic graphics in Gran Turismo 5

In 2008, the first taste of GT5 became available in the form of GT5: Prologue, which was the first Gran Turismo title for the Playstation 3. GT5: Prologue was also the first GT title to be playable online, and the first title to feature more than 6 cars on the track in any single race. GT5 is due for release in November 2010, and promises to be the most comprehensive and detailed driving simulator made to date. As well as all the features of previous GT games, such as an extensive collection of cars, tuning, and photomode, GT5 promises to feature many new aspects such as the ability to share video footage of races via YouTube, a full online mode, day/night transitions, damage modelling (a famous omission of the series so far!) and possibly also the ability to either create or modify tracks. Stay tuned for plenty of updates regarding my progress in GT5 in later posts!

A history in computer gaming - The Machines Pt. 2

The Atari ST home computer

After the Commodore 64 departed, our family got an Atari ST, with a whole new bunch of features - a built-in floppy disk drive, a mouse, a printer and a Windows-based operating system. Mum was able to use it as a fully fledged word processor and even started her own company, Swift Type. The ST was a powerful computer renowed for its processing power, and my cousin Richard (who also had an ST) began to learn programming on it, which would later lead to a career in computer programming. I, on the other hand, used it mostly for gaming! My top games were Super Hang-On, International Karate + and Leaderboard (a golf game).

The original Sony Playstation console

Once the Atari ST had out-lived its usefulness, it was sold to one of Carolyn's friends and the era of computer gaming for me came to an end. I went off to university and it would be about 7 years before I would own a computer of any description. 

Shortly after I finished university, I got a Sony Playstation gaming console for my birthday. At the time, I had been out of computer gaming for so long, it felt like a strange thing to get, but it would pave the way for most of my future gaming activity. My first game was Formula One, but the most memorable and enduring games were Gran Turismo and Gran Turismo 2, Final Fantasy VII and Crash Bandicoot. FFVII was the first computer game I ever completed, and Gran Turismo would later become the focus of my gaming activity!

Packard Bell PC

Only when I had completed my studies and started my Ph.D at Glasgow University did I feel the need to buy a PC - mostly because I needed it for my work (as a word processor and for data analysis), but also so I could access the internet at home for the first time. I chose a Packard Bell PC and my flatmate Jorge Chaumer and I set up internet access in our postgraduate student apartment in Glasgow. I didn't use it for games much, but Jorge and I used to play Microsoft Golf all the time. It was around this time I discovered Hoyle Board Games, Sim City 2000 and Lux (a Risk-like game for the PC).

A history in computer gaming - The Machines Pt. 1

Left: Dataman; Right: Cave Man

My first 'computer' was a Dataman, a handheld computer that let you play various number games either by yourself or with two players. After that, we got a Cave Man, which was the nearest thing to having an arcade machine in your home (at the time, anyway!). I used to love going to amusement arcades whenever we were on holiday, or when we went to somewhere like Portobello beach, where I would play 'Pole Position' and later, 'Out Run' - both driving games...

Commodore 64 complete with tape deck

Sometime in the early-mid 1980's, my parents got me a Commodore 64 computer for Christmas. My friends had a variety of different computers... Ross had a Commodore Vic 20, Stuart had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Ian had an Acorn Electron, and my cousins Richard and Grant had an Amstrad CPC464. The Commodore 64 used to load up games using an external tape deck. Some of the most memorable games were 'Ghosts and Goblins', 'Pitstop II', 'Olympic Skier', 'BC's Quest For Tires', 'Hungry Horace' and 'Jet Set Willy'. The Commodore 64 provided years of fun, but eventually it was replaced... but nowadays, it is possible to play these games using a C64 simulator on a PC!

Chris's Interests - Classic Games!

Me, playing Subbuteo on my Mum's dinner table.

Games have always played a big part of my life, and they still do. This picture, from about 1983-4, shows me playing Subbuteo on the dinner table! Other games that I used to play as a kid were Risk, Careers, Game of Life and the famous role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). When we moved to Winton Terrace in 1986, we had a double garage where I kept my snooker table, which used to double up as a gaming table. There, my friends Ross, Stuart, Ian, Lee, Paul and I used to play D&D... unfortunately, once we reached a certain age, it became difficult to play the game for long without laughing. One night, Ross's character found himself confronted by a donkey. He asked me, the Dungeon Master, if the donkey could speak the same language as him, so I checked the rule book... and it did! We both burst out laughing at the idea of a talking donkey (bearing in mind this was long before Shrek!) and the game finished... and to my memory, we never played it again. One of my favourite memories was a board game that my cousin Richard and I made ourselves called Tour De France, which we made by merging the real board games 'Grand Prix' and the war game 'La Belle Alliance' (a Napoleonic War simulation!).

Dungeons & Dragons - Basic Rules Players Manual. 

Nowadays, most of the games I play are on gaming consoles, such as Gran Turismo on the Playstation, Forza Motorsport on the Xbox, and Lux on the PC. I still play board games with some gaming friends, as well as playing poker with my old school friends from time to time!

Chris's Interests - Astronomy

Astronomy is a hobby of mine and the planet Saturn was the first planet I saw through my telescope. Ever since my Grandad gave me his monocular when I was a kid, I've been looking at the stars in the night sky, even if the Scottish weather sometimes makes it difficult. Soon after that, I got a book on Astronomy so I could begin to learn the names and locations of some stars, and eventually I was able to find my way around the night sky without having to look at the book! Nowadays, there are plenty of free pieces of software available on the internet or even on your mobile phone that shows you what the night sky looks like at any particular time. Ever since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, our view of the cosmos has changed forever. Sadly, it is not possible to get such a good view of the universe from a simple telescope based in your own back garden. Fortunately, with websites like NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day and Hubblesite.org, it is easy to find amazing pictures and keep up to date with all the new discoveries being made about our universe. But there is nothing like being able to look at the cosmos for yourself!

Chris's Interests - Climate Change

Climate change is a topic I am very interested in. Over the past few years, public interest in this topic has grown massively. But while there is alot of information available on the internet and in the scientific literature, much remains unknown about the way our planet's climate system works. As a result, many people remain skeptical that there is anything unusual going on, or that even if there is, that human activity is not playing a significant role in altering the Earth's climate. My opinion is that the evidence does point fairly conclusively to human activity playing a significant role in affecting the Earth's climate, but that we currently don't know enough about what the future effects might be. The graph shown above is an up to date measurement of global surface temperature, taken from NASA's climate change website. As well as this, other 'key indicators' are presented that show that climate change is indeed happening, although some uncertainty remains as to what the causes are, and what the effects might be.