Site History

August 1997
Sometime around here my site was born. I can't remember the exact date, but who cares? It was even more rubbish back then than it is now! Initially I made my pages in Microsoft Publisher 97, but the HTML files produced were huge. A typical short page was about 15k in size due to Publisher's love of tables. I later changed to using Claris Home Page and much the same page was then just 5k in size, minus pictures of course. Now I just tend to use Notepad as it's easier. At first the site was just a home for my awful little DOS programs, but now I have a number of pages and a growing emulator section.

March-22 1998
The workhorse was upgraded again this weekend and now boasts a whopping 96Mb RAM! A huge improvement from a poultry 80Mb, I'm sure anyone would agree... :-) The main reason for this upgrade was that I wanted to swap out for all EDO RAM, instead of a mixture of EDO and standard 72-pin SIMMs. The machine suffered from slight stalling in emulated games, particularly MagicEngine, which would pass after a second or two. This slow down only manifested itself occasionally and wasn't really a problem, but with the price of RAM being less per Mb than a loaf of bread (literally if you buy Warberton's/Hovis or similar!) I thought it was worth doing. It has in fact solved the problem as far as I can tell. I sold the two 8Mb SIMMs for only a tenner less than I paid for the two 16Mb SIMMs. I suppose what I am trying to say is that I have updated the info page with regard to my PC spec!

March-25 1998
Added three games to the C64 page: ATA, DJ Puff and Mayhem in Monsterland. This is all thanks to Geocities increasing their homesteader space allocations to 6Mb - thankyou Geocities! As if this wasn't good enough, the day before, Tripod had increased my space from 2Mb to 5Mb. I now have 11Mb of space... expect more games and emulators! I also have 15Mb with my ISP, but due to the non-permanent nature of this space, I don't wish to use it unless I have to.

March-26 1998
Added Bombjack to the C64 page and corrected several typos on the same page. Added some links and lots of waffle about various C64 emulators. The Spectrum page has too been graced with more waffle, including the technical spec. of the Spec. Also added some slightly more obvious links to the local games on my NES page... Hope Nintendo don't notice! Finally got round to actually uploading this history page. Contemplated doing an Amstrad CPC page, but didn't get round to it. I'm hoping to add pages for other formats when I have some time over Easter.

March-29 1998
Added some links to the Megadrive page and some accompanying notes. Finally produced and added an Amstrad CPC page with one game, Dizzy - Prince of the Yolkfolk, and links to the emulators. Might do a BBC Micro page next... I have also made some minor changes to the Info page. It was becoming a nuisance having to add the date of the last update to this page as well as the main page, so I have removed this from the bottom. This should save me some time (a couple of seconds anyway!).

April-06 1998
Added Turbo the Tortoise to the C64 page. Made some corrections and additions to the links on the Amstrad CPC page. Updated links on the Arcade page and added some screenshots of Black Tiger. Uploaded the Black Tiger single game emulator. Couldn't be bothered with a BBC Micro page, so did a Sega 8-bit page instead. Includes latest versions of Massage and System 8, plus the two ROM sets for System 8 - Wonderboy Deluxe and Pitfall 2. Made minor modifications to the SNES page and the info. page. Follow the link on the SNES page to the Snes9x home page as a new version is due out very soon.

April-14 1998
Updated SNES page - ZSnes V0.390 is now out! This new version is faster, has improved compatibility and better graphics support. There's a whole list of changes, fixes and additions. Bought a 15" monitor today, so the details of my PC have changed a bit... nothing interesting, sorry!

April-18 1998
Added a "For Sale" page. Accessible from my Tripod site. Bought a Canon BJC-250 printer the other day and so the "My PC" page has been updated again.

April-26 1998
Recently acquired a 4Mb Virge DX to better complement my 15" monitor. Not as fast in some respects at my old Cirrus Logic GD-5436 (2Mb), but is more compatible with DirectX and VESA 2.0. Does it use an IRQ though?! (My main complaint about supposedly fast GFX cards). The answer is probably no because it seems to share IRQ 12 with one of my sound cards. Sound and video both work simultaneously even though the BIOS and Win95 report IRQ12 for both devices. Got round to adding ZSnes V0.393 to the SNES page and added a useful utility called CTCM to the PC software page. This benchmarks your memory/cache/etc... and does it a lot more quickly than Cachechk.

June-06 1998
The site has seen a major overhaul, most changes of which will have been uploaded if you are reading this. I've ditched the appalling left hand frame on the main page and replaced it with a slicker frame along the top. I've removed the weighty animation from the home page, so download times should be greatly reduced. Added a useful utility called MCLK to the software page. This allows you to overclock your graphics card. Also added a utility I wrote for switching between VGA and text mode. Read the software page for an explanation. Added ZSNES V.400 to the SNES page. Geocities have increased the member space allocation to 11Mb! (As have Tripod - what a surprise!!)

June-07 1998
Added ICQ/E-mail Express contact facilities to the feedback page. You can now send me a World Wide Page! Added KGen98 (V0.3b) to the Megadrive page.

June-27 1998
Upgraded my hard disk last weekend, so updated the "My PC" page for completeness.

June-30 1998
Added an excellent utility called CPUIdle to the software page. This brilliant utility allows your CPU to run much cooler than it would under normal circumstances. It really works too - my system case used to be slightly warm to the touch on the side next to the motherboard, but now it is ice cool!

July-02 1998
Added Win95Ver to the software page. This determines which version of Windows 95 you are running and also recognises Windows 98 and NT. Added some waffle about anti-trust proceedings.

July-03 1998
Added a guide to producing good quality scans. Accessible from the main home page.

February-2 1999
A few changes, this being the first update in a long time. My PC has undergone a few changes; the PCI soundcard has gone to make way for a TV card and I have added a much needed Mitsumi CD-writer. I've also overclocked my CPU to 233MHz, thanks to an undocumented 3.5x multiplier!

April-11 1999
Updated the C64 page - there are now more files locally on my site, including games. Updated the Allegro page.

May-27 1999
Updated the Allegro page...

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