“And so it was I found myself in the Waterstones on Princes Street trying to read The Birthday Party in half an hour. Which I managed. But considering that a great deal of the atmosphere of the play is (apparently) in Pinter’s use of silence, my ultra fast version kind of lost a bit of the charm. I wondered, rushing back to the Royal Museum for 12 to save the princess meet my girlfriend – is what I’ve done perhaps some metaphor for man’s need to play games? To challenge himself? To set himself tasks and quests?”

Ah, we’ve come full circle, it would feel like, if my career hadn’t continued on extensively past this, my coverage of the second Edinburgh International Games Festival. Remarkable for the gratuitous section I’ve quoted part of, in which I read a Harold Pinter play. Definitely on the wanky side of new games journalism, that. I do like my conclusion of the entire article, though, and Mark Rein is a fun guy. This piece also features the first mention of my (then still quite new) girlfriend, but they only get more regular and detailed from this point on.

I’m sad, actually, that I haven’t been able to cover the re-branded Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival for the last two years. Edinburgh is fun during the festival (though I have both bad and good memories of it) and I hope I’ll be able to visit again sometime.