Further to the missive from Michael Foster, re: drinking and videogames (FG46). I totally agree with him. There's nothing better than going out and having a few beers, coming home with a pizza and kicking off with some good company and a good game. I'm 32, pushing 33, and I've been playing videogames ever since some of the classic Quiksilva games came out on the ZX81. I've been playing them ever since, apart from a short break when I discovered sex, work, marriage and a mortgage.

Now I have kids of my own and they're carrying on the great tradition with Game Boys, N64 and the ubiquitous PlayStation. I have a PC at a work with access to the Internet, and when I go home I now have a good excuse to buy games and sit and play them with the kids. Back in the Sinclair/Commodore era, you sat upstairs keying in Hex from listings in C&VG. Now it's socially acceptable to have a console sat under the living room TV. Everyone joins in now and it's more of a multiplayer social scene. With the Dreamcast and its promised Euronetleaguewotsit (eh?), the market for games is only going to grow.

Don't knock us 'oldies'; the reactions might be slow, but it's us who bought the games in the first place and helped push the industry along, and it's our kids and wallets that will push it along further.

All the best. So far, Future Gamer is a damn good read.

Andrew Davies

FG: We're no spring chickens either, Andrew. Gaming is for everyone. Can't wait for the 'Euronetleaguewotsit', whatever that is.