college application
...new hardware the computer still did not function right. At this point my mother cut her losses and purchased another computer. For a short period of time the packard bell computer sat idly and collected dust, but I then asked her whether or not i could try to fix it. She was fed up with the Packard bell tech support so she said that i could do whatever i wanted with the computer. At this point i had been using a 386sx for a while and had relatively good knowledge of computer components and how they worked and also knew how the windows driver system worked, how you could have a device installed properly physically, but yet it does not work logically. At first i bumbled around windows 95 reading the help bars and through a rigorous trial and error session lasting for a period of weeks, i finally suceeded in getting the hardware for the computer to work. there happened to be no physical problems with the hardware that was installed, but the software was installed incorrectly. The joy it brought me from suceeding in making something worked that held no value to anyone else made me feel incredible. I gained a skill that was valued. From there i was free to do what i wanted. I put games and programs and entertained myself for extended periods of time on the computer. I purchased RAM upgrades and graphiccs cards and turned the computer into a gaming machine. I realized that the more power a computer had, the better the hardware was, the more an artist or game creator could express themselves. I began to see the technical side of video games, how one person can convey an idea in ways no other can through a videogame. As videogames emerged from two dimensional sprites into large complex 3d worlds i felt as if i must jump on the bandwagon and not miss one secound of a story that could be told or a lesson that would be missed. I was still very young, so saving enough money to buy a new computer was out of the question. By scouring the internet i learned that a computer could be built by buying each component idividually and assembling them yourself. Needless to say i built my fisrt computer...