Mixed media narrative of travels through fifty years in tech, media and gaming. From vinyl to digital. From Pong to Starfield. From ZX80 to RTX4070. Buying it, learning it, making it, playing it, teaching it, selling it. All documented for the first time in this, my first foray into streaming and blogging.
Welcome one and all. As you may have realised by now I’m just starting out with game themed streaming and content creation, but I’ve been gaming for near on 50 years. Which makes me… old!
As you get older you start to think about winding down and retirement… wouldn’t it be great if you could play games all day and fiddle with tech? That’s my aim and you join me at the start of that late life journey. Fortunately our family business is all about buying all sorts of old stuff and shipping it all over the world so its a great excuse for me to shift slightly towards the stuff that interests me personally via this channel.
My first aim in the Spring / Summer of 2025 was to create a shed load of content and get to grips with creating mostly raw gameplay unedited streams. We achieved this in the form of 200 videos. My first major obstacle was and continues to be internet connection. Here in rural France I am relying on 5G which is intermittant at best and lame if the rest of the family are around. I’ve done a handful of 2-3 hour streams now where I have only realised at the end that they had failed. So you may find me streaming before anyone gets up at 0500 and you might find me streaming at 1700 if I have managed to chuck them out of the house for a while. They are doing the groundwork right outside for fibre though… Fingers crossed.
Now as we proceed into the Autumn / Winter of 2025 I am shifting to shorts created from all the long form content. I am enjoying the increased views, likes, follows, subscriptions, follows and interaction these bring. I have also created Instagram, Facebook and TikTok pages where I also post content daily but YouTube is the central hub.
Don’t be expecting outstanding gameplay, thats for all you youngsters. Remember I have a great excuse for slow reactions, poor comprehension of control interfaces and a generally slow approach to gaming as my mental faculties decline. Hey, it’s coming to you all! I do enjoy a bit of mickey taking and banter though so don’t be afraid to openly laugh with me and at me. I have a thick skin!
Don’t be expecting me to be playing stuff I don’t like. I don’t need to make any money from streaming, I don’t do it for subs, sponsorship or back handers (follows and subscriptions are greatly appreciated though!). I do it for my love of the games. I don’t watch other people stream. I don’t watch any sports (coincidently The tour De France is passing by our front door this morning – we are going out for the day and hiding somewhere quiet, while the whole of our region whips itself into an excited frenzy!). I find it hard to watch a movie. I don’t like watching anything really… I have to be interacting with things. I want to be a part of the narrative, rather than just a passive consumer. I know, I know, there is a lot to debate here. Let’s do it another time eh…!?
On the subject of editing I wrote in the spring of 2025:
“Oh… Editing. Yer, I don’t have the time to be doing much of that! I studied film and editing for a while until I got fed up with sitting around watching films and then talking about them for hours. Those lecturers chose the right subject… I know how long it takes to edit video. A two hour gameplay video is going to take another at least another two to four hours to edit on a good day. Nah, I’d rather be playing in my free time. That’s what you see here! My raw, unedited, personal, travels in the digital worlds. Maybe that will change, but for now, for me, its about the games.”
Things did change and editing is taking a lot of time at the moment. I have not played a single game in the last 28 days since starting posting shorts three times daily. This will change as I am starting to produce in advance. I have about two weeks worth of shorts ready to go. My controller sits patiently, just within reach gathering dust but I will hold you again soon buddy!
The youngest offspring has dropped in and out. I’m not forcing anything and she is growing up so fast and not wanting to play games with daddy so much. Although she is starting to study theatre now… Maybe we can pull her in to perform again! I’m pleased to promote my elder daughters constant gaming streams (Twitch: kishrx You Tube: kishrx. She has been streaming for a few years now and is a chunk of the inspiration for getting me started on this journey. I hope to include some of my other offspring at a later point in collaborations. Maybe even some of their own mini-thems. We have a big family!
Thanks for the interest.
Peaceful unlearning.
Gramepa
Links: https://linktr.ee/gramepa