RichardLawler
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Growing Up Geek: Richard Lawler
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have our very own Senior HD Editor, Richard Lawler. This picture was taken in 1985 and despite the time that's passed, the excitement I felt holding that Atari joystick returns each and every time I plug in, boot up, or log on to find something new. Like so many other geeks of the era, the world of bootlegged videogames found on Verbatim 5.25-inch floppies were early training in the value of knowing my way around computers. At first, I just wanted to play The Last Starfighter or Stealth without needing one of my sisters to set it up for me. Later that lead to long sessions of editing .bat and .ini files to hear sound effects in Wolfenstein 3D, and eventually easier work setting up and fixing computers. Still, as great as using technology is, it's nothing without spirited discussions among like-minded individuals and after the schoolyard debates over 8-, 16- and 32-bit console wars ended (fortunately, Sega is out of the hardware game now or I would have to recuse myself from any news or reviews) I headed online to make myself heard.
