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Ctrl Alt Del

One of the nice things about being a behind the curve is that every so often you discover something every one else has known about for ages and probably got tired of but is new for you.

So it was that I discovered Ctrl-Alt-Del yesterday and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours browsing through the archives of Tim Buckley's terrific web comic about a group of 20 something gamers and their not entirely successful dealings with reality.

The characters are crazy and likeable and very true to a gamers spirit. Perhaps the most famous episode (and the only one I remember seeing before) is where total gaming addict Ethan proposes to his girlfriend with the aid of a local gaming arcade. Reading through the archives reminded me of many of the games I played over the last few years and reminded me how quickly time moves in cyber space.

In one sense I am amazed that I actually like this comic at all. It is written by and written about twenty something year olds who grew up with Nintendo and Playstations. I am a family man in my forties with family and a job. I didn't start playing computer games seriously until I was in my 30's and the whole console revoltion passed me by. Perhaps it is just the good writing/sketching, perhaps it is a kind of gamer bond that defies age or perhaps it is just that there is a twenty year old geek hidden inside me who spends 16 hours a day gaming and is still afraid of girls - I don't know.

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