I’m Markus from Germany.
I started playing DOS games at christmas 1993 when my parents bought me my first 386 PC which I desperately needed for my homework (I promise, mom).
I was in 6th grade back then and we started learning about computers at school. So I only knew a bit Windows and how to start solitair. But I knew there is a whole world of gaming out there.
And when my cousin came around he showed me how to use “cd” to go into a directory called “games”. And there was a shareware version of “Commander Keen”. It was “Marooned on Mars” from the first trilogy. And despite of it’s shortcomings in comparison to the latter games in the series it still has a special place in my heart.
Later I became a programmer. So in the end buying a computer was a good investment in my future even if I can’t remember doing any homework on it.
I regularly listen to a german podcast called “Stay forever”. It is about retro gaming and I was searching for more on this topic. Especially about DOS gaming. And that is how I found your podcast
.