About David Buhlman

It all started when my dad brought home an Apple IIc. He brought home a number of games like Frogger, and I was obsessed. Later when I got my Nintendo I was in love, no longer did I have to ask my dad to use his computer. Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and so many more. In 1990 came Final Fantasy! The strategy guide quickly became my most prized possession as I poured hours into beating it with different groups.

Quickly the Super Nintendo came along. More Mario games, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and more. Who could forget Final Fantasy 2 (IV) and Final Fantasy 3 (VI)? So many good games across so many genres. We had a lot of fun with all of them.

In the middle of the 90s my friend introduced me to a game his dad was playing on a 486 called X-COM: UFO Defense. It was so scary, and detailed, and in depth. And don’t forget brutally hard! I could never play enough of this game at my friends house. I needed to be able to play this at home.

With the help of my friend’s dad I purchased myself my first computer so I could play X-COM. This is where things begin to spiral out of control. Newer computer games needed newer computers so I built my second computer myself. Then my friend introduced me to Quake 2 and I learned you could play this game online with other people across the world!

We started to come together with our PCs to play together at LAN parties. Quickly I became the guy to setup and patch together the most grotesque networks you can imagine. At many LANs I ended up having more fun getting everyone’s computers connected with whatever we had than I did playing the games.

Then I started learning about all the other fun things computers could do. Email, Instant Messanger, ICQ were all such amazing ways to communicate with others. Not to mention websites, and Bulletin Boards, Internet Relay Chat, were bastions of tons of information that was now within our reach. I started making my own websites and Bulletin Boards to help my friends and I communicate about the video games were were playing. As time went on, Quake 2 started losing popularity, and our favorite servers started disappearing. So I dusted off that first computer of mine and installed Slackware. Then I built it up as a Quake 2 and Counter-Strike server.

I taught myself and learned as I go. Breaking things and then figuring out how to fix them has been a great educator for me. With all the incredible things we can use technology for how could you not want to learn about all of it?