Rich Woods

It was the 1970's, I was a runny nosed eight year old boy who practically lived in a camouflage kagool. I'd just been to see Star Wars and I was determined to one day have my own R2D2. One day I was taken on a trip by my father from the depths of the midlands to the bright lights of London and a place called Tottenham Court Road.

The electronics shops in that area at that time were the nearest things to magic shops that have ever existed. Boxes of "ALU's", "EEPROM's" and "1K chips" lined the walls and massive capacitors loomed from counter tops. We moved from store to store before finally a purchase was made, a box of silicon chips, capacitors, resistors and empty circuit boards that could be assembled into a real working computer.

Months passed filled with the smell of solder as my father patiently connected regimented rows of components to circuit boards. One day a cable was connected to a black and white portable TV and a small flashing cursor appeared. That flashing cursor was full of promise, potential and magic. I knew I had to discover all the mysteries that lay within this magical device.

My name is Rich Woods, I design and program computer games for Android phones. I live in East Anglia with my beautiful wife Jennifer, two cats and two horses. I'm still trying to discover all the mysteries of computers, the rabbit hole was far larger than I ever imagined. Entire worlds lie within.