Who Are We?

Two secondary school friends who have now inexplicably found themselves in their mid-40s, squeezing in some gaming between family, work & general life.

James Hopes

James started gaming properly back in 1986 when he was given a Spectrum +3 by his parents for his birthday / Christmas present, along with a colour 14 inch monitor by his grandparents. Please note my parents’ fetching curtain and sofa combo!

Before that he’d had to rely on his friend, Lee’s, 48k Speccy with the fetching rubber keyboard! With the awesomeness of games such as The Great Escape, Combat School, Green Beret and The New Zealand Story he was quickly hooked. From there it was onto the Amiga A600, and then the CD32, with an Atari Lynx in between before getting his first PC and heading off to University, where gaming took a backseat to drinking, dancing, football and everything else that uni entails! Shown above is my super modern gaming chair from my parents’ house!

Jump on a few years and James and Giles decide to buy a house together as they couldn’t afford one on their own and gaming life starts again for a couple of years with evenings spent playing Pro Evo on tiny sofas whilst eating excessive amounts of Cheesy Doritos. Giles moved on up the career ladder and moved out in 2006, Sarah moved in and the rest is history! Since then gaming times were very few and far between with the exception of a bit of occasional family fun on Wii Sports, until Sarah got him an Xbox One S for his 40th birthday and then lockdown struck and James’ son, Joshua decided to give gaming a go given everyone was largely trapped in the house for a year.

Four years on and Joshua’s love of gaming has continued, which reignited James’ love of gaming. Now between them they have an Xbox Series X, a Playstation 5, a Nintendo Switch and a gaming PC and too many subscription services to ever work their way through! James also spent a couple of years buying and selling consoles and games on eBay so became a bit of an expert in everything before he got bored and stopped doing it. When Giles came up with the idea of co-hosting a gaming podcast in late 2023 James thought it sounded like a fun way of keeping in touch and expected to be a millionaire and global celebrity within the first year. He is still waiting on both counts…

Giles Nicholson

Giles’ gaming journey also stretches back to the mid 80s – and he has fond but disappointingly hazy memories of playing on Orics (1, then Atmos) and the Spectrum, along with some early PCs that his dad would bring back from work.

Things ramped up a gear once he got a Sega Megadrive (aka the Genesis) in the early 90s and he was a loyal Sega console warrior through to the sad death of the Dreamcast. Give him the chance and he’ll still bore on about how awesome and tragically overlooked that console was, so it’s best not to get him started.

Fast forwarding past the sociable houseshare years – dominated by games like Worms, ISS, GoldenEye, Mario Kart 64, NBA Jam & laterally Pro Evo – Giles remained into gaming and even dabbled with the idea of making it a career for a time. But despite dangling a toe in writing and then games testing, he realised it wasn’t to be.

Instead, he’s gone multiplatform (Xbox Series X, PS5, Switch and a ROG Ally) and these days you’ll find him leaning towards puzzlers and single player adventures or in couch co-op with his favourite player 2, Hannah. Plus, of course, podcasting about it all for you good people every first Friday of the month. Had to get the plug in somewhere right?