About Me

Hello. My name is Marc and I bloody love the Atari ST and the games it plays host to. Here is a bit of info about me…

Who are you and where do you come from?

My name is Marc and I’m sometimes called Stickhead. I come from the West Midlands in the UK.

What do you do for work and fun?

I am a teacher, husband and dad, so I have a lot less free time than I would like, but I spend that free time playing video games, playing guitar, listening to music, reading, learning photography and exploring wildlife. Oh, and I run a YouTube channel and website about the Atari ST called The Joy of Sticks.

What are your favourite video games and systems?

I love the ST, but I also grew up with an Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Super Nintendo and a variety of Game Boys, so I have a soft spot for those. Here’s a brief overview of my the systems I’ve enjoyed over the years and my favourite game I enjoyed at the time for each:

• Acorn Electron: Chuckie Egg
• Amstrad CPC: Barry McGuigan’s Boxing
• Atari ST: IK+
• Super Nintendo: Super Mario World
• Megadrive: Streets of Rage 2
• Game Boy: Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
• PC: TIE Fighter
• Nintendo 64: Goldeneye
• Game Boy Advance: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
• Sega Saturn: Guardian Heroes
• Playstation: Pro Evolution Soccer 2
• Dreamcast: REZ

I’m sure I’m missing something important, but that’ll do for now.

What do you think is your most played game of all time?

It’s probably Championship Manager ‘93. I’ve played an embarrassing number of careers on that, taking teams like Barnet and Scarborough from lower league obscurity to European glory. Either that or an Elder Scroll. I pretty much did everything you could do in Morrowind and Oblivion without paying for DLC.

Who do you admire in the gaming space?

So many, but in particular Treasure. They have an incredible hit rate across their whole catalogue. Also, I named my son after Archer Maclean because he made my favourite game of all time: IK+. Ever since playing Out Run at the arcade, I’ve been obsessed with everything Yu Suzuki, and I’ll never tire of listening to Tim Follin’s music.

What about modern gaming?

I do have a gaming PC, an XBox Series X and a Switch 2, but I seem to be less and less interested in the mainstream, AAA titles in favour of the small, quirky, indie games full of heart. I’m also partial to an MMO and have played Guild Wars 2, ESO and World of Warcraft a fair bit.

What is your first gaming memory?

When I was about 4, my Mum took me with her to visit her friend. Her husband was a massive nerd who had recently bought a BBC Micro. He had a ridiculous collection of copied games (which we would later be the beneficiary of when we got our Acorn Electron) and had an amazing little Boulderdash style game called Repton running on one of his machines. He showed me the controls and I was away, digging through the earth with glee. Little did I know that digging the earth from under a rock would make it fall with a loud crunch from the Beeb’s internal speaker. The sound, combined with the visuals of the rock smashing to the ground just behind my reptilian avatar’s back made me jump a mile in shock. This visceral reaction stuck with me and I’ve been a massive fan of video games and their affecting nature ever since.

What are your earliest Atari ST Memories?

My mum’s best friend had two children, both older than me, and the oldest was having friends over (was it a birthday? Some other celebration? I can’t remember). He had recently upgraded from a Spectrum +3 to an Atari ST and a couple of the friends had brought their STs over too. To an Amstrad owning 10 year old, It was a room full of 16-bit wonder. I watched somebody playing Populous and Ghostbusters 2 and got to have a go at The Real Ghostbusters and Whirligig. The upgrade in colour, resolution and sound was like a gaming epiphany, But the icing on the cake was playing 3-player Super Sprint, with me hunched over the keyboard under the TV on keys. I’d played Super Sprint on the Amstrad and C64, but this was something else. From that moment on, I knew I had to have an ST of my own. That boy would go on to be my best friend and we would go on share a ton of joyful memories playing on our STs and other systems down the years. You can even watch a video on my YouTube channel of us talking about co-op games on the ST.

A little while after the aforementioned party, my uncle would get his Atari ST along with the excellent Power Pack. He lived with my Nan and Granddad, and as we were often visiting, I would sneak off to his room to play some ST, which he generously allowed me to use even when he wasn’t in. This is where my love of football games comes from as we would sink hours into whatever dubious copy of the latest footy game we could get our hands on.

How did you get your own ST, and why did you love it so much?

I can blame my best friend, my uncle (see above) and my lovely Mum for that. One Christmas, my Mum told me that she was going to upgrade my trusty Amstrad CPC for a much coveted Atari STFM. I begged Mum and Dad to allow me to have the manual early so that I could pore over its pages and prepare myself for Christmas Day. Dad was reticent to allow me as he thought I was going to use it to show off. I wasn’t. I genuinely just wanted to absorb every single mote of information about my beloved ST that I could. This early curiosity and thirst for knowledge would set me up for years and years of merry tinkering on the ST. On the big day, I was beside myself with joy, delving into what little software I had: ST Basic, Ranarama and a Goldenaxe demo that was on an ST Format coverdisk. After a while, my Mum came in and announced “They think it’s all over… it is now!” and dumped a Tesco carrier bag filled with individually wrapped ST disks on my lap. On each disk was a compilation menu of games and unwrapping the disks and discovering the games known and unknown on each disk remains one of my most cherished childhood memories. I’d gone from a single game and a couple of demos to a software library of hundreds. I couldn’t believe it.

Yes, but why STILL the ST?

Right? Even after I’d been given a Super Nintendo for Christmas, and later ‘upgraded’ to a Windows PC, my ST would still stay set up next to them on my desk. To this day, the ST is up and running alongside my gaming PC, XBox Series X and Switch 2. Even at the time, it wasn’t the best gaming system as the Amiga was in full swing by the time I got my ST, and both systems would soon be dwarfed by the PC and 16-bit games consoles.

I’ve developed a bit of a philosophy over the years; an approach… or way of life if you want to be grand. I believe that life is better when you look for the best in people, situations, and circumstances. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s incredibly challenging, but when I remember to do it, my well-being improves no end. I call it ‘finding joy’. Happiness is fleeting, and no-one can be happy 100% of the time. Chasing happiness is folly, but if you can find joy in the things that you do, the people you share your time with, and the circumstances you find yourself in, your life will be more fulfilling and well… more joyous. And that’s it. Quite simply: the ST brought me joy and still brings me joy so I continue to use it.