I remember when I was about 8 years old my school took delivery of a couple of BBC Micro computers. At the time I remember thinking what a waste of everybody’s time these stupid computers were. All I had seen anyone do on them was make words scroll up and down the screen.

But then something magical happened. Something so wonderful that it completely changed my life forever.

During one wet and rainy day I found myself roaming the corridors of my school during my dinner break. The weather outside was not to my liking as it was dark and had a certain dampness to it. I was minding my own business aimless pacing the corridors when I noticed a strange glow coming from the computer room. Now, it wasn’t the glow that pricked my curiosity, no, it was the hushed voices that lived within the glow. Hushed voices infected by an unmistakable vibe of excitement and wonder.

And then I heard a peculiar noise. At first it just sounded like Morse code gone wild but every now and then a little electronic tune would break free from the manic Morse code and every time the music would play, the hushed crowd would erupt into excited laughter and then just as suddenly the Morse code would return and the crowd would lower their voices.

“Curiousor and Curiousor” I thought to myself, totally ripping off Lewis Carroll. I then entered the room from where all the glowing and hushed voices came from. There were about twenty kids all crowded around one of the BBC Micros and all of them, to a man, froze as soon as I entered the room.

The silence was deafening. It was as if everyone’s hearts had decided to take a time-out from beating at the exact same moment as everyone else’s

I looked at them.

And they looked back at me. All of them.

My first instinct was to run. High tail it the hell out of there. I had stumbled into something and whatever it was, it didn’t involve me.

At that exact moment, if you had asked me what it was that I had stumbled upon I would have confidently replied; Devil Worshippers. I was convinced. In those days everyone was at it, Devil Worshipping was all the rage in the papers and on the news so it made perfect sense to me that there were 8 year old Devil Worshippers in my school worshipping, um, well, the Devil during their dinner break.

Just as I was wondering why none of them were wearing any cloaks; one of the devil worshippers said something that stopped me from running…

“Griff. You scared the crap out of us. Either come in or get lost.”

I scared the crap out of them?

“What are you all doing in here?” I asked, my voice broken with fear.

“Playing Chuckie Egg” came one reply.

“What the deuce is a Chuckie Egg?” I asked.

“It’s a computer game old boy. You play a chicken.”

And that was all it took for my life to change. Those stupid computers suddenly didn’t seem so stupid after all. Sure the teachers still wowed themselves by making words go up and down the screen in Computer class and yeah, those classes were still the most boring lessons ever but every break time we would sneak into the Computer room, boot up Chuckie Egg and all gather around the computer, taking it in turns to control the yellow chicken and look out for the teachers.

Why I am I sharing this with you?

Click on the link and find out…

http://www.repton3.co.uk/chuckieegg.aspx

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