Welcome my son, welcome to the machine...

Hello and Welcome to 20Cents.
This site actually came out of a lucid dream I was having when I was rather feverish with a terrible illness a couple of months ago. Believe it or not.

I'm a gamer. I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember.
Unlike a lot of older gamers of my age, I didn't start out with an Atari console sitting in my house, or a Magnavox, or even a Nintendo Entertainment System. In fact - my first computer I ever owned was when I was 18 years old.
No, my first experience with video gaming was down the road at my local Fish & Chip shop.
Arcade parlors existed, but I was too young to even know what they were, so this was the only way I could ever experience these glowing boxes of wonder.
Every Saturday when my mother would buy our dinner for that night, I'd get two twenty cent pieces. I guess you could say this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
The years passed, and the Fish & Chip shop remained.
The only changes were the owners and the titles of the games themselves.

Through primary school, through intermediate, all the way to early high school. It was a constant. Any troubles that would face a young boy were forgotten about when standing in front of the arcade cabinet.
And I remember all the games that had come and gone from that shop.
Galaga. Rock 'n Rope. Bomb Jack. Elevator Action. Time Pilot. Kiki Kai Kai. Galivan....
Names that to anyone else would raise an eyebrow, but to me they bring thoughts of plans, strategies, tricks, and routines.

Over the years, I finally managed to scrimp and save to purchase my very first home console. A Sega Master System.
Me and my brother would spend countless hours playing it.
A Master System turned into a Mega Drive and SNES. These turned into Mega CD's. And Sega 32X's. And Saturns. And Playstations.
It goes on.

So gaming has always been a big part of my life. With this site I hope for it to become a place not only where I, but others as well, can stop by to relive some of those moments.
To share information about gaming past. The gaming future.

Even now and then when I walk into a chip shop the smell of the oil is like a homecoming. Some kind of familiarity. A call that lures you to the machine.

The Fish & Chip shop is no longer. The building remains, but it now converted into a row of flats.
It's strange to think that people now live in the very same spot where us kids from the neighborhood gathered to meet one another, pockets filled with twenty cent coins...