I wrote this list in response to receiving a low score on an online Geekiness quiz. I should have simply noted the fact that I felt compelled to formulate a retort against a web page and left it at that.

Instead, I wrote this:

Early Childhood
1.My first game console was a Telstar Ranger (1977). It played Pong.
2.The first computer game I played was Colossal Cave.
3.I learned to program in BASIC when I was 8.
4.By the time I was 9 I had played D&D and read Lord of the Rings.
5.I read the entire MS-DOS manual.
6.I was able to take apart my Apple II+ and upgrade it.
7.I ported Dragon’s Lair to the Apple II+.
8.I sold my first computer game when I was 10.
9.Computer magazines often came with games and programs written in assembly language, printed in the back pages. I actually typed them all in and ran them successfully.
10.I wrote a first-person computer strategy game based on Robotech.
11.I built an X-Wing cockpit out of a refrigerator box and dangled a TIE fighter toy from it so that, via forced perspective, it looked like it was attacking from a distance.
12.I built a replica of the Hoth base complete with snow and bacta tank.
13.I built cardboard replicas of the weapons and equipment in the Player’s Manual.
14.I made a beholder out of a beach ball, construction paper and crayons.
15.I owned the first printing of Star Wars the comic book, issue 1.
16.I created movie poster recreations in crayon.
17.I memorized text adventure games so I could “run” them for my friends on the bus on the way home.
18.I invented my own role playing games.
19.I checked out every new choose your own adventure book from the library.
20.I wrote wargame rules for Crossbows & Catapults.
21.I made my own expansions for Talisman.
22.I meticulously converted the stats on the backs of all of the Transformers toys into the Marvel Universe RPG format.
23.I wrote a module for Star Frontiers and ran it at a game convention.
24.I owned a chemistry set.
25.At the mall, I wrote programs on the Commodore 64s that would interview potential buyers.
26.For my vocabulary homework, I wrote serialized sci fi adventures.
27.I made my own Empire Strikes Back radio drama. I did all the voices and sound effects.
28.I pirated Star Wars at a drive in with a cassette recorder.
29.I learned to play trombone by ear.

High School
30.I was the Sysop of an RPG BBS.
31.I had a 300 baud modem.
32.I played Trade Wars 2000.
33.I wrote, directed and performed in the school play my senior year of high school. I also wrote a song and arranged the choreography for it.
34.I saw Akira in the theater.

College
35.I used a war dialer to find the fastest internet connection.
36.I was the first person on my college campus to play Doom.
37.I collected demos from Future Crew and followed the demo scene.
38.I hacked the VAX machines on campus and installed adventure games.
39.I was dragged into the security office on campus for figuring out how to send an email to every student and faculty member simultaneously and they wanted to know how I did it.
40.My senior thesis was on interactive fiction. It involved running a massively multiplayer email RPG.
41.I answered calculus and physics problems in story form.
42.I used Photoshop when it only used grayscale.

Today
43.I attended Star Wars Celebration I as “Darth Nemesis,” a Sith lord of my own invention.
44.I still have my Empire Strikes Back lunch box.
45.I modded my Playstation.
46.I made magnetic Decepticon decals for my SUV.
47.I know how to create a DVD from scratch, complete with subtitles and menu.
48.I insist on widescreen DVDs.
49.I won a PS2 by creating a 100% faithful recreation of the Fighting Fantasy book “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain” as a module for Neverwinter Nights.
50.I own anime soundtracks.
51.I make my own geek t-shirts.
52.I can still rock the command line.
53.I design board games and people buy them.